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As the crowd went wild at my victory, Alistair Arundel clambered up the broken part of the stage to me and reached out his hand. In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I accepted the handshake.

“Well played. To be honest, I thought I had this event in the bag from the start.” Alistar said to me as we shook hands.

“Oh? What of the Greycloak guy? He no threat to you?” I asked.

He just shrugged and replied, “Our families meet at gatherings from time to time, and I have seen what he is capable of. While his older family members are competent, his performance in comparison leaves much to be desired.”

Ouch, burn.

“Anyway, it is good to know there is some competition.” he said with a smile as he was ushered off the stage. And soon, I was once again standing and waiting for the king to come and present me with my trophy.

When the king came before me and asked me to rise, I once again saw the half-crazed look that sent a shiver down my spine, “We meet again, young Luke.”

All I could say in this formal situation was, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Though it would be a waste, if you do not fancy joining the army, you can always be a court mage.” The king said while wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

“I- I Will think about it, Your Majesty.” I replied as I bowed my head at his offer.

“Good enough!” the king boomed out as he grabbed the trophy short staff and presented it to me. “Congratulations on your second event win, I am looking forward to your other events.” he said with a barely controlled feral grin that I have come to know battle junkies display, it makes me wonder how we are not constantly at war with our aggressive neighboring country with this nutter in charge.

After the award ceremony, I was ushered back to my class’ section of seating, showed off my trophy, and spent the rest of the day watching my seniors throw magic at each other, after that, I retired early to prepare for the other magic events in the coming days.

***

Over the next few days, I took part in the other magic events, but did not manage to win any of them. Turns out, when it comes to non-combat oriented magic, all the borderline high-functioning autistic people reveal themselves and steamroll me in the other magic events.

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This means that I am left with two events, Battle Mage Trials and Monster Hunts. From what I heard, things will follow last year’s formula, a simulated labyrinth would be created and obstacles would be set up inside to test the trial taker’s strength, skill, knowledge, and magic, the only rule is that the trail taker is not allowed to break through the walls or fly above a certain height, but we will not need to worry about that due to barriers boxing the trail taker in.

As for the Monster Hunts, it will be a test of skill, but more importantly, endurance. From what I was told of this event in previous years, I will be facing off against harder and harder monsters until I am defeated and the safety mana shield deploys, or slay the final monster in this tournament, an Ogre.

And from what I have read, Ogres are no joke, they stand as tall as three to four grown men, are crazy strong, physically resilient, and often driven by primal urges, typically simple-minded with a brute force approach to combat.

They are known to operate in small family units. There are reported cases of Ogres being recruited by intelligent social monsters like goblinoids with the promise of food. Woe be the village or town that does not have stone walls when these huge fuckers come around, because Ogres can make short work of wood walls like a construction worker does with drywall, and if there are enough of them, even stone walls are not safe for long.

If I ever make it that far, my only saving grace is that it is stupid and slow, but that is for future me to worry about, now I had to concentrate on what they were going to throw at me in the Battle Mage Trials.

I was in the same hall the tournament staff always used to brief us on the event we were about to partake in, this time, the rules were a lot simpler, as I mentioned before, no jumping or bashing through walls that separate the different rooms of the simulated labyrinth, other than that, everything was on the table, that meant I could use my aura for the first time in this tournament. As for how a winner would be decided, it was best timing wins, but there were still prizes for second and third place.

This time, there was no drawing of lots, we just lined up to get a number, and the first one who registers first attempts the Battle Mage Trials first. So I just took my number and waited for my turn.

When my turn eventually came, I was led to the entrance of Pit and heard the cheering crowd when my name was announced, I could hear this crowd was more enthusiastic than usual, but it was to be expected for the person who won two of the Duel events, it seemed to improve my public perception greatly, even some of the kids who snubbed me due to my involvement of causing the shakedown of the capital started trying to make small talk with me, but I politely declined.

Now, I know that it was not politically savvy of me to do so, but I rather not associate with these young vipers who slither up to me because my name was on the ascend, the best I can do is be professionally polite to them, nothing more.

I was then ushered to the portcullis that kept me from the Pit and noticed the scene before me was very different. What used to be just open dirt, now was a stone floor and walls that were lit with sconces along its walls, which was totally unnecessary due to it being morning and there was no roof so the audiences could watch me.

When I stepped beyond the portcullis, the announcer asked, “Challenger, are you ready?!”

I gave a tug at my sheathed sword and tightened the grip on my spear before I gave the announcer a non.

“Then let the Battle Mage Trials, Begin!”