MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

“…I’ve got to say you’ve caught me off guard with that one.”

Feeling as if he’d just escaped death by a hair’s breadth, Neil widely let out a sigh of relief the moment his barrier successfully held up against all of the attacks Valyr threw at him.

Then again, even though he was unscathed and could continue their fight after that, the man decided to admit defeat to the young man, his reasoning visible to everyone in full view.

With the arbiter announcing that Valyr had successfully moved onto the next round, Neil took the opportunity to talk a bit more with the young man before leaving. “Mind if you come with me to the Tower of the Sages after this?”

“I promise in the name of the Grand Arcanist Alliance that I’ll make it more than worth your while.”

“…I’ve already told you my response earlier,” replied Valyr, letting out a slightly exasperated sigh. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“However…” Though, just as he was about to end their conversation there, another thought suddenly came to his mind. “I might change my mind if you sweeten the deal just a bit more.”

“…I’ll see what I can do.” Getting such an obvious hint from his words, Neil took that as his sign for the two of them to part ways, with Valyr directly making his way back to the waiting area in preparation for the next round.

“…Haah.”

By the time he got back to the waiting area, almost everyone that was already there either briefly glanced or stared at him, their gazes shifting between wariness and admiration.

Knowing that there was a chance of him causing trouble if he were to ask them to stop looking at him, Valyr decided to ignore their gazes for now, grabbing a couple of elixirs from the trays as usual to replenish both his stamina and energy.

Grabbing a light meal from the trays after that, the young man watched the remaining fights of the sixth round with an inquisitive gaze, taking note of the ones who won their fights through overwhelming strength.

‘I’ll probably run into them these next couple of rounds,’ thought Valyr to himself as he continued to watch, making a mental list of those still in the tournament that were already at Rank 3 or higher. Enjoy new adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

Briefly clenching his fists in a bid to reduce the nervousness he felt from such thoughts popping up, the young man was able to enjoy his meal and watch the sixth round from start to finish.

“…To those that have remained in this coliseum and watched this tournament from the very start, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

As the battle stages were being rearranged in preparation for the seventh round of the tournament, Clive took center stage as he grabbed the attention of the entire crowd.

“As for those who’ve only arrived at the coliseum just now, welcome to the tournament that shall crown the Nine Prodigies of Astella. We’re currently making preparations for the tournament’s seventh round.”

Taking a brief look at the afternoon sky, the young man softly let out a sigh of exhaustion as he continued to keep up an amicable smile.

“From our original number of 1,536 participants, the six rounds we’ve gone through so far have reduced that number down to 48 participants.”

“The seventh round shall reduce that number down to 24, and the round that comes after that will reduce that number even further to 12.”

“At that point, the final matches of the tournament shall begin, allowing us to find out once and for all who the Nine Prodigies of Astella would be!”

Seeing that he had talked for long enough for the rearrangement to be done, the smile on Clive’s face widened as his voice began to echo throughout the tournament once more.

“Now then! Let us kick off the seventh round of the tournament!”

With how many participants there were left in the tournament, there wasn’t much need to have multiple battles happen at the same time anymore.

With that, each battle took up the majority of the space available at the center of the coliseum, finally allowing the remaining participants to showcase some of the skills that they’ve been saving for such a moment.

Then again, only a small portion benefited from this change in stage size, with many of them having already used all of the skills that were available to them a couple of rounds ago.

Included among those who benefited from this change was none other than Valyr, whose performance during the seventh round only left the crowd at a further loss for words.

After all, who wouldn’t become speechless after seeing the young man unleash a far larger barrage on his opponent than the one he did during the sixth round?

With his opponent readily admitting defeat and the sight of the relentless barrage Valyr unleashed, everyone in the crowd had no doubt that Valyr had already become the most prominent person throughout the tournament.

Thanks to the tournament, not only did his reputation as a combatant rise to the peak, even the guild he founded had become an organization many people began to consider when it came to their requests.

Of course, even the members of the guild weren’t spared, with their reputation being boosted accordingly just through their connection with Valyr alone.

In the end, with Valyr’s opponent readily admitting defeat to him just as the arbiter signaled the start of the eighth round, the young man’s existence was finally cemented as a legend, with everyone agreeing on the fact that he was this tournament’s strongest dark horse.

“And thus, we’ve finally arrived at the ninth and final round,” said Clive to the audience as the 12 remaining participants stood behind him.

“As we’ve come to this point, you might think that it would be difficult for us to crown the nine prodigies. After all, there’s 12 of them and only 9 spots available.”

“Fortunately for us, the officials of the tournament have already decided on a method that would allow us to answer that question without any bias.”

“Now then, before this final round begins, let me go through that method in slight detail.”