Today was the day. It felt like it had been a long day coming. He had been hearing so much about this tournament, but it was only today that he felt like it was actually real.

"Are you ready?" Freya asked him. They were taking a carriage to the stadium where the tournament would be held. He had already been over here to sign up, but if he thought it was busy then, it didn't compare to today.

There had to be hundreds of thousands of people all cramming together as they tried to enter the stadium gates. The stadium itself was absolutely massive. It made the Roman Coliseum look like a rundown backyard.

He could barely see the top of the stadium; it was that tall. Luckily for them, there was a designated spot for participants to arrive. So they didn't have to wait for very long.

"I'm not sure. I don't even know what the first stage will be. They have kept it a secret, and we won't know until they give an announcement," he said to her while still observing all of the people around them. He smiled when he saw a bunch of families laughing together in excitement.

"Have you practiced with your new skill enough?" She prodded him.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Not as much as I wanted to, but I haven't had all that much time either."

It didn't help that last night was also hectic. They had finally done the ritual that officially established him as Cain's disciple. It was shockingly simple. Freya took care of everything, and Julius could barely tell that anything had changed. The only thing that he had sensed was the new connection between him and Cain in his soul.

It was as if they had both transferred some of their own soul to each other and left a mark. It was actually similar to the mark that Savath left on him, only a lot more personal.

On another note, his new skill, [Spirit Fortification], was quite an interesting skill. It was very similar to what he had been expecting and what he had already done with his aura-woven mana in the first place.

He hadn't played around too much with the epic ranked skill, but he had been happy with what he had figured out so far. From what he could tell, it was a skill very similar to [Kinetic Energy Refinement] and some of his other enforcement skills.

It primarily functioned as a passive skill, providing a slight boost to his current manipulation techniques. The main difference he was able to sense was the sheer speed with which he created his constructs. Aura-woven mana took some time to piece together. It was why he often had bracelets of pre-made aura-woven mana, ready to be remolded to whatever he wished.

This helped him lower the time it took for him to respond to an attack, but it was still slower than his regular mana constructs. However, [Spirit Fortification] allowed him to almost halve the speed at which he created these constructs.

As long as he had already created the construct before, the skill helped him build a premade structure, and all he needed to do was feed it mana and aura. This structure basically wove the mana for him. The focus it took to do it manually was drastically decreased.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a massive boost in power since he had found a workaround by keeping the constructs deployed constantly. Nevertheless, he believed that once he leveled up the skill, he would find more uses for it.

So far, he hadn't gained any skill levels, but he also hadn't spent more than a couple of hours playing with it. He was hoping that the tournament would help him hone this ability a little more.

He had already discussed it with Aliyah. She had told him that the first stage was mainly to remove the weaker participants and that he shouldn't have to worry.

He hoped that she was right; he was hoping to take it easy for the first stage. Several people had told him that it would be a good idea to hide his level of power at least initially.

Not only would it create less of a target on his back, but he wouldn't be bombarded by annoying organizations, looking to recruit him or curry his favor.

Honestly, he wanted to do it because of that last part. He hated being harassed by spam callers.

He was also worried about the Conclave and Clan Genshen. He didn't forget about them, especially not when he had seen several people wearing Clan Genshen clothing at the event a couple of days ago.

He hadn't recognized them, but he had made note of their presence. It meant that at least some of their members had qualified for the tournament. It wasn't surprising since they were a powerful clan, and he reminded himself that he should be careful about creating too much of a commotion.

He also hadn't heard from Edwin, and neither had Derek or Lily. His old teacher hadn't reached out to them yet, and part of Julius was worried that something might have happened to him.

He shook his head, clearing the negative thoughts. He couldn't think about that at the moment; he had his own issues to worry about and had to trust that Edwin could take care of himself.

***

He found himself standing next to his friends as the crowd roared all around them. He thought he would have been better prepared after experiencing the tournament at Goldencrest, but this was on an entirely different level. Even with the sound-dampening effect from the barrier, the stadium still shook from their cries.

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It wasn't just him and his group either. There were well over a thousand people his age participating in the event. They were all gathered together in a huge group in the middle of the stadium, as the tournament organizers stood on a stage in front of them.

They were explaining the first stage of the tournament to them. From what he understood, it was quite an interesting concept. He had been expecting a stage where he would have to fight the participants.

However, that wasn't the case. Instead, they would be fighting as a group against some monsters. They would be organized into groups of a hundred people at a time and forced to defeat the monsters released.

The catch was that there was a point system in place. Each normal monster was given a reward of one point for defeating it. The requirement to pass on to the next stage was a hundred points. That meant he would need to defeat a hundred normal monsters to get to the second stage.

Thankfully, some monsters were worth more than one point. According to the organizers, the monsters worth only a single point were of the weakest variety. There would be more powerful monsters who would be worth five points, ten points, and even a single monster who would be worth a hundred points.

Whoever defeated the boss monster would automatically proceed to the next stage. The problem with that was that there was only a single one of these monsters for each of the hundred participants. Meaning if you wanted to get the guaranteed advancement, you would have to fight the rest of the ninety-nine people in the group for that privilege.

Julius assumed that most people wouldn't go for the boss monster, because if they did and didn't kill anything, then they would be unable to gather the hundred points needed. People would need to figure out how to leverage their strengths and selectively choose which monsters to target first.

After all, there was a limited number of monsters. If all of them were defeated before you were able to get a hundred points, you would be eliminated. Fortunately, it was against the rules to attack another participant directly. However, there was nothing said about kill stealing. Something that Julius suspected many people were already planning to do.

It would be fascinating to see how things played out. Would someone who is really good at taking out a high number of weak monsters do better? Or would someone who challenged the five or ten-point monsters get to a hundred faster?

Would an assassin-style fighter steal most people's points? What kind of monsters would they be facing? There were a lot of unknowns, and Julius couldn't help but get a little excited as he heard more about this first stage.

He felt that familiar itch start to creep up again. He looked over at Edgar, Aubrey, and Derek with a grin on his face. They saw his reaction, and he could have sworn he saw Derek sigh.

It didn't matter, though. Julius dutifully listened to the rest of the explanation. He didn't want to miss something important by accident. While he didn't care too much about winning the entire thing, he was very interested in getting to the second stage. He wanted to see this secret realm with his own two eyes.

As he was fantasizing about what he might find there, he sensed someone's senses locked onto him. It was very minor, and if he hadn't been keeping an eye out for people who might do this, he might have missed it. But he didn't.

He didn't acknowledge this person, but he extended his spatial senses toward the direction he felt the probe from.

He frowned when he wasn't able to figure out where the probe was. He was able to calculate the general area, but he couldn't pinpoint the exact location. Whoever had sent out that probe must have some powerful skill that prevented Julius from sensing them. There was no trail for him to follow.

Luckily, Julius had other tools at his disposal. He scanned the immediate area with his eyes, trying to see if he spotted anyone who stood out. Each person here was a powerful Tier 3, but he immediately spotted three individuals who stood out due to their calm demeanor.

The first person he took notice of had an outright powerful feeling. It was a large, young man who was wearing a black tank top. His aura was unrestrained, and its oppressive nature pressured the people around him. It was so powerful that most of the people had moved several steps back to avoid being bombarded by this aura.

He was undoubtedly a physical fighter and someone whom Julius believed was among the top tournament participants. However, he was almost certain that this wasn't the person who had sent that probe toward him.

The other two were much more likely candidates. This was because these people had some extremely well-controlled auras. One of them wore a black cloak, obscuring their face. But he could tell that they were either a girl or a smaller guy. Unlike the tank top guy, this person completely shrouded their aura. He wasn't able to gauge their strength or abilities. If he were sensing them purely by aura senses, he would never have thought someone was there.

The other person was a girl, and a really cute one at that. She had shortish brown hair that lay just over her shoulders and a pixie face that looked very innocent. They shrouded their auras much like Julius did. They purposefully made it appear like a normal Tier 3. The only problem was that this made her stand out even more amongst all of the talented Tier 3s around them.

Julius had adjusted his aura to mimic Edgar's, knowing that he would be around people who were stronger than your average Tier 3. She didn't do that. Maybe she didn't think about doing that, but it caught Julius's attention. Honestly, Julius might have done the same thing if Freya hadn't advised him to adjust his aura before the tournament.

"Are you okay?" Aubrey asked him, noticing that he was looking off in the crowd.

"Yeah, I just sensed someone was analyzing me," he responded quietly while placing a barrier up to prevent people from overhearing them. It wasn't as good as Lily's, but he had learned some things, and while not as subtle, would make sure people didn't hear what they talked about. Plus, it wasn't that suspicious. Several other groups had done similar things.

"Do you know who?" She asked back.

"No, but I think it is one of those three." He discreetly pointed them out to her.

Derek must have overheard him and Aubrey. "Oh, that big guy's name is Isaac Draven. If I recall correctly, he won Ironheart Academy's Tournament. I also heard he almost killed half of his opponents. The school was forced to have a Tier 4 healer on hand at all times. My father said he is definitely one person to look out for and might be a good counter to my skillset."

"What about the other two?"

"I can't see one of their faces, so I am not sure. But that other girl is Casey Vale. She is a commoner, but she is also one of the people my father warned me about. Apparently, she has a few skills and abilities with interesting origins. She has gained the attention of many organizations and Houses who want to figure out if she has a master who taught her or if she learned them on her own."

"What kind of skills?"

"A couple of soul-related skills, from what I understood. I didn't ask too much about her, but if you want, you should ask my father. He would be able to tell you more," Derek said to him.

Julius nodded. He might have to take him up on that offer. Because while she didn't outright feel dangerous, there was something in Julius's gut that was telling him that he should be wary of her. He would make sure to keep a close eye on her in the future.

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