Chapter 293: His Heart Can’t Take Anymore

The day of the prelims had arrived. Julius had been practicing with all of his friends during this time. However, his main focus was on gaining a space concept and improving his mana constructs.

He had tried to get some advice from Stella about how she was able to learn her Concept. According to her, she had gotten lucky when she had been caught in a spatial trap inside of a rift.

She also told him that he shouldn’t expect to learn one the same way. Her family had tried to replicate the incident but had not had any luck in gaining a Space Concept.

That left him with the boring task of meditating and trying to gain some insights from his [Spatial Perception] skill. He also did his best to remember how Stella used her aura to fold space when she had transported them to Heston. It was fleeting and difficult, but it might have helped him, so he still tried.

The others explained the general structure of the tournament. Each student would have five fights in the prelims. After these five fights, the second stage would consist of seeded battles, with those with a better record in the first stage fighting against those with a lower record.

These fights were further broken down into four different brackets, Brackets A through D.

At this point, each person would fight a single elimination match. At the end of the second stage, the top four from each bracket would advance to the finals.

This seemed pretty fair to him. It rewarded those who did well in the first stage and did a good job of preventing all of the top seeds from eliminating each other during the second stage.

This meant that there were sixteen in total for the finals, and this was where the tournament got serious. Whoever was still standing after that would be crowned the winner.

However, just getting to the finals was a big deal because if you did, you would gain one of Goldencrest’s slots to the Inter-School Tournament no matter how well you did at the Intras.

While some of the rewards for the Goldencrest Tournament were supposedly nice, he was much more interested in the rewards for the Inter-School Tournament. He decided that he would be happy just to get a slot for the Inter-School Tournament.

His first match was also today. He didn’t know who he would be facing quite yet, but it would likely be a third or fourth year. He didn’t know of any other first or second-years who would be participating in the Tier 3 tournament.

Even Reinera, though she was Tier 3 now, wasn’t going to join. Apparently, that was another one of her family’s requirements for her to stay at Goldencrest.

Not that the girl needed it. Her family could likely get her whatever she required unless it were truly special or something specific like a Challenge Rift.

“Do you feel ready?” Lily asked him as they headed their way over to the venue.

“Yeah, just a bit overwhelmed,” he said to her before glancing over at the massive crowd of students heading toward the arena.

“You’re going to be fine. For people like you, these prelims are more of a warm-up. The real fights usually begin during the final round or at the end of the second stage when people are fighting for those last few spots.”

He nodded his head at her and continued to look at the rest of the students, who were all heading over to check who they would be fighting.

“Are you sure you don’t want to participate? It feels weird after you basically forced me to,” he said to her with a sigh.

He had learned that she wasn’t going to participate, so she had chosen to stay with him and guide him.

Although most of the upperclassmen were ‘pressured’ into at least giving the tournament a shot, Lily was an exception, and she had decided not to sign up.

He understood where she was coming from, too. Since the school used simulated combat bracelets, the unfortunate side effect was that it did not protect the student from certain mind magics that Lily was great at.

It was similar to how it didn’t let his healing skill work because he wasn’t technically taking any damage.

She could put a person’s mind in a blender if she wanted to. However, the bracelet’s protection enchantments had a tough time dictating when to intervene in mental attacks.

This also meant that she was forbidden from using any of her more… dangerous abilities during the fights. This is what happened last year, and it is why she was forced to concede many matches and not placed as well.

Everyone in their friend group and even many other students knew that Lily was one of the scariest people in the school; it was just that she couldn’t actually show off her skills in a tournament-style environment.

“I did it last year, and it honestly felt really constricting. I wasn’t able to use any of my actual skills. I was hoping that they would find a way to modify the bracelets this year, but to no avail,” she said sadly.

When they entered the facility, many things had already been set up: large banners displaying Goldencrest’s symbol and an even larger number of staff running around.

He followed Lily over to a booth where a bunch of students were in line. He and Lily stood behind these people and waited for their turn.

A number of students recognized Lily and whispered to each other when they didn’t think she was paying attention. A few also recognized Julius, but it didn’t seem like they particularly cared about him like they did for her.

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When it was finally their turn, a man beckoned them forward.

“Name?” The staff member asked Lily disinterestingly.

“Oh no, we are here for him,” Lily said while patting Julius’s back.

“Hm? Is that so?” The man looked up and examined Julius. “And what’s your name?”

“Julius Snow,” he said to the man who was already scanning his eyes down a list of paper.

“Oh, here you are,” the man said before pinching his brows together in confusion and looking at Julius. “You’re a first-year?”

“Hmhm.”

The man gave Julius and Lily another weird look before shrugging his shoulders. ” Your first fight will be Arena 3, Zone 5,” the man said to Julius while handing him a card. “Your fight will occur in about an hour at noon, and you will have to use this to enter your designated zone. It will be recorded as an official loss if you don’t show up before the match begins.”

“Does it say who I will be fighting?” He asked.

“It looks like you will be fighting some third-year named Feras,” the man informed him with a shrug.

“Thank you,” Julius said to him before turning away and leaving. However, he heard the man call out to him before he could get too far away.