It was the morning of the next day, the day stage two of the Tournament would take place. It was exactly six in the morning, three hours before stage two would take place. Only fifty nations had survived, and among them, the American, French, and South Korean Guilds had all survived.

Since between tournaments was the chance for all the Adventurers still left participating to heal up and restore any wounds, Marcus had brought all ten members to the infirmary, telling them to sleep early so that they could get a good sleep, while being able to fully recover in the morning of the second stage.

All nine members, except for James, were in the infirmary, being treated for any and all injuries or aches, recovering from everything possible, so that they were refreshed and restored for the upcoming stage.

After another hour had gone by, and everyone was feeling better and more enlightened, Marcus ordered them to do some pre-tournament warm-up.

Everyone except for Marcus and Nova had gone to the basement, letting the two of them catch up on an important thing that Nova wanted to mention to Marcus.

They stayed behind, and Nova saw that no one was there, then revealed the core of the monster he had helped kill with his team yesterday. Marcus saw the core on live TV, and was surprised that a monster that weak was able to deliver such an impressive core.

Marcus tried to touch the core, but his hands zapped with lightning emitting from the core. "Interesting," he said, astonished. "Why is this happening. Cores like these shouldn't be soulbound type items, especially from monsters that weak, no offense."

"None taken," but Nova clearly looked annoyed, but it was a funny type of annoyed. "Anyway, this core had been acting like this since I stepped out of the portal. I tried to have Elesch touch it, but she got zapped like you. I don't know why, but I feel extremely connected to this specific core."

"The core hasn't fully bloomed yet, so trying to unravel its mysteries will be dangerous, even for someone like me. You can't techinally lose it anymore, so it's best that you let the core blossom and then try to open it, to see what it truly is."

"What do you mean? I thought cores are meant to be rank boosters, or something along those lines." Nova said, his voice low and confused.

"That is true, but there is another subset of cores that need to be fully awakened first for us to truly know what it contains. They are called the Mystery Cores, and simply put, they can either hold an entire baby creature inside of them, or they can hold something else. Or maybe you get very fucking unlucky and just get a boost in your rank."

"Interesting," Nova said, as Marcus and he followed the others and reached the basement.

After another hour of sparring and meditating, focusing on their Ability Chambers, James Mahe decided to show up an hour before the portal opened. This didn't sit right with Marcus or any of the other Adventurers, including Trevor, who was like his number one fan.

"Oh, look, who decided to finally show up?" Marcus said sarcastically, clapping.

"Whatever," James dismissed the case right away. "I don't need to spar with any of these losers anyway, I am the fucking President of the American Guild for godsakes."

"Yeah, you may be the president, but you are currently an Adventurer participating in the Tournament, which means that I, the Vice-President of the American Guild, Marcus, am your coach. Which means, student, you need to show up on time; otherwise, I'll replace you, and we all know that you love showing off in these big events, so shut the fuck up and get here on time. Got it?"

Marcus's cold tone and the deathly stare made James Mahe gulp in fear and anger. He knew even though he was the president, he wasn't stronger than Marcus, so trying to defy the man who was the true head and face of the guild wouldn't be a good move.

Another fifty minutes went by, and the ten Adventurers from the fifty nations that were still contending were in their guild lobbies, with a portal shining in front of them to take them to the second round of the tournament.

All the Adventurers entered through the portal, going into the spectator box, up above the battlefield, for the second stage. Nova and Elesch were talking as Adam and Trevor were getting advice from Zane and Michael. James stood in a corner just spectating everyone, planning his next moves on what he could do to get more popular, while seeming like he was winning the tournament single-handedly, carrying the rest of his guildmates as they "struggle."

Then the mechanical voice echoed through the spectator box, and to the rest of the world, explaining the objective of the second round: "Hello Adventurers, welcome to the second round of the Tournament! The name of this round is: "The Flag Hunt. There are Sacred Flags scattered across the battlefield, and there are about twenty flags on the battlefield. A guild must submit only one flag to the middle of the battlefield to get through to the next round. Each flag can empower the team differently. For example, a flag can wield the fire affinity, thus giving the team an added fire bonus. But be aware, you can only get through to the next stage if you submit your flag at the center of the battlefield, which means that even if you are holding a flag, other guilds have the chance to steal it and submit for themselves. And remember: only twenty guilds may advance."

The mechanical voice faded away, just as it had started to speak. All the guilds in the spectator box were silent, strategizing for the upcoming round, since they still had another five minutes left until they were thrown on the battlefield.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.