Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

On the seating area of the Savannah beast guild, Brutus patted his son and smiled fiercely.

"Son, wouldn't you say the tournament is extremely boring if there is no challenge? This event is getting more and more fun".

Like father like son, Marcus too smiled fiercely and looked ready for a challenge. On the main stage, Cyrus who was the moderator for the event, noted the power levels of each girl. His gaze then landed on the last girl and his eyebrows arched for a minuscule of a second.

"Karina Lowell… you really did bring out a monster this time. It seems like the third prince can't just keep his eyes only on the sanguine empire" he thought internally.

Everyone's eyes landed on the last girl who was yet to take the assessment for the Perusal Mirror. As they patiently waited for her result, it was soon displayed in the mirror.

<strong>Name-</strong> Hallie May, <strong>Age-</strong> 22, <strong>Class-</strong> Blizzard Magus, <strong>level-</strong> 400, <strong>Potential-</strong> Very High.

At that moment, the entire crowd was stunned silent for a couple of seconds before a huge clamour erupted from every corner of the coliseum.

The King of Ellesmere, Henry Alaric Ellesmere got up from his seat and intensely observed the results written on the perusal mirror before sighing heavily. A 24 years old level 400 mage with a very rare class and a potential that outclassed all the other participants before her.

It would be not an exaggeration to say that she is one of the top class contenders for this tournament. A boy calmly seated beside him also looked at the results displayed on the perusal mirror, a hard to describe emotions flashed in his eyes.

The guild master of the Crimson demolition Guild and Assassin's guild looked at the girl, unable to keep their calm.

"Where did the girl come from, why was it that we never heard her name?" similar thoughts floated in their mind, their eyes inadvertently shifted to Karina. The woman must have done everything in her power to keep any information about the girl in tight check.

A very high potential, this was the first time someone was assessed like that by the perusal mirror. None of the participants from the top five guilds that came before her, were able to get such a score.

Simon who was calmly seated in his seat, was also a little surprised. Compared to the ones he had fought up until now, the people who came with the desire to win the tournament, were clearly in a different realm, even the aura they naturally released was much stronger.

Their age was young and their potential and high level made it so that the ceiling they could reach in the future was also higher.

After the Magician's guild, it was time for the guild that everybody had their eyes on, the Sea God's trident. Standing up to its name, three out of the seven participants it sent, had rare classes and high potential with age below 40 and levels above 390.

There was only a single person below age thirty amongst them. While the result may be better than the other top five guilds, compared to the girl from the magician's guild, it was a little lacklustre.

However, even then nobody dared to underestimate the guild which had produced the unprecedented genius Godwin during the last tournament. It must be said that the training and experience the guild provides for its members was truly exceptional. If one underestimated a participant from this guild, they were sure to have the rug pulled out from beneath their feet

"Savannah Beast guild, seven participants please come down"

After the Sea God's trident, it was time for the last of the remaining top five guilds to assess themselves.

"So the rumours were indeed true, he really is participating" such murmurs and cries rang out across the whole coliseum. All of the crowd had their eyes on the seven people descending onto the main stage or more exactly the person leading the group.

Since the guild master Brutus sarge did not bother to keep this a secret, the whole audience was aware that his son Marcus Sarge was also participating in this year's 'Battle of the Finest' tournament.

The participant that everyone had their eyes on, placed his hands on the mirror.

<strong>Name-</strong> Marcus Sarge, <strong>Age-</strong> 23, <strong>Class-  </strong> Beast Warmaster, <strong>Level-</strong> 402, <strong>Potential-</strong> Very High.

WOAHHH… the audience erupted in a huge clamour of awe, every lips had the words 'As expected of the son of the guild master of Beast Savannah guild'.

The crowd was no doubt surprised but even the guild masters of other various guilds and factions were too. The royal family and the delegates of the foreign nation had a shocked look in their eyes as they observed the young man whose aura seemed wild and rampant like that of a beast remove his hand from the mirror.

He was one year older than the girl from the magician's guild but his level was more than her and he was similarly assessed by the perusal mirror to have very high potential.

Karina's crescent eyebrows arched a little, she had long heard that Brutus's child was a genius and had a talent that was greater than his father; however, even she didn't expect him to have a very high potential not to mention breach level 400.

It must be mentioned that each hundred level was a barrier that was as difficult as ascending a mountain. The difficulty increases the higher the level one reaches. Innumerous geniuses who think they are better than the others, get stuck in such barrier for years or even decades unable to proceed even a little.

For someone to breach that barrier at such a young age, they could only be considered as the top tier talent, a genius amongst geniuses. However, one cannot just simply attain such a level, from this result it could be seen how much effort Marcus and the guild behind him had put throughout the years.

Cyrus on the main stage smiled wryly, he thought that the greatest challenge for the royal family would come from the side of Sanguine Empire and the other foreign nations never did he think that the top five guilds would produce more monsters like Godwin, making it more difficult for the third prince.

"There is no way of telling which way the tournament might go this time".

The remaining participants were assessed with medium with only one high potential. However, it was hard for that person to gain attention after Marcus's extraordinary result.

"As everybody knows, this year's Battle of the Finest tournament is different from the ones held before. Participating in this tournament would not only be the guilds from our kingdom, but also the delegates from our surrounding nations.  We believe that this event will foster better relationship and cooperation between our nations and also lead to continuing peace".

Cyrus spoke what he was told to say to make the audience see the participation of other nations favourably.

'Sigh, I feel for his majesty. Politics is indeed complex' he thought internally.

"With that, I request the Kingdom of Blackthorn's four participants to come down to assess themselves and draw lots".

"Hehe, it seems it's finally our turn" a man with a long black hair tied into a ponytail, walked down to the stage along with three other people wearing an insignia of a black tree on their clothes.

<strong>Name-</strong> Ivan Mavis Blackthorn, <strong>Age-</strong> 47, <strong>Class-</strong> Battle Knight, <strong>Level-</strong> 400, <strong>potential-</strong> High.

A few perceptive people in the audience, immediately narrowed their eyes when they saw the surname Blackthorn displayed alongside his name. that was the name that the royal family of the Kingdom of Blackthorn carried.

A foreign prince participating in the tournament, how could it go unnoticed by all of them? But since the person himself had kept his identity quiet from the moment he came to their capital city Ellesmere, they did not disclose his identity and simply kept quiet.

Cyrus glanced at the audience stands where the royal family was seated. Seeing the king nod his head, then only did he proceed with the other participants.

The results of Ivan from the kingdom of blackthorn was astonishing, but not as shocking as the results of Hallie May and Marcus Sarge from the top five guilds. Aside from Ivan, the results of the other participants from the kingdom of blackthorn didn't seem all that dazzling.

Although it might appear so to the normal masses, observant ones could see that the levels of all the participants from the kingdom of blackthorn on average was higher than any other individual faction.

"Kingdom of Ingolf's sole participant, please come down…"

After the kingdom of Blackthorn, it was the Kingdom of Ingolf's turn to send their participants. Hearing that they only sent one participant, the crowd became slack-jawed. Many speculations flew around as to why the kingdom of Ingolf only sent one person to participate in the tournament.

'Are they so confident of their victory that they only sent a single person?' even the guild master of the top five guilds were having such thoughts.

There was no need to beat around the bush, all those words said by Cyrus about how the tournament would help increase cooperation and friendly ties with the surrounding nations was all bullshit.

The only reason the other nations wanted to participate in this years tournament was solely because of the dazzling rewards presented by the headquarters of the Adventurer's association.

That being said, if their goal was to win the rewards through the tournament, why would they send only one participant… unless they have absolute faith that he would win.

Lazing in the seating area reserved for their kingdom, Oman gave a wide smile.