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On the beach,
Many commoners could be seen at the scene, as there were two hundred chairs laid out in two rows.
One seat was a hundred or so commoners, while the other row was made up of publicly known commoners of genius.
Carl wasn't among them as he remained lowkey, since that would make him avoid assassinations, thereby avoiding future questions how he wasn't killed by them.
The first round "Spot challenge" was when the hundred commoners challenged the other hundred to try to obtain at least one place in a prestigious school. -- other than the imperial academy of course.
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Only the top three of the genius commoners joined the academy, the remaining seven of the top ten joined the top ten academies of the empire. As for the rest, they also reached the top 20, 500, and so on.
The first round was about the hundred commoners challenging the genius ones, so to obtain their seats.
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'Who should I challenge? I'm getting attention once I obtain a spot in the top three seat at the genius commoners, so I have to challenge one... ' Carl inwardly thought as he inspected them.
He chose the twentieth amongst the genius commoners -- as it wasn't possible to directly challenge them.
The opponent's name was Waldo Friedrish, he was just a commoner that had worked hard to obtain his current strength, but that didn't matter to Carl.
The other commoners knew Carl's strength, but they were still shocked nonetheless as he directly challenged the twentieth.
The genius commoners sneered in disdain as they didn't think too much of him -- as they knew he would quickly be defeated like others.
Carl went to the arena with an expressionless face.
Waldo wasn't arrogant as he never underestimated an opponent, so he quickly used his best attack that would finish Carl swiftly.
Pa~
The air shook violently as an attack was aimed towards Carl.
Carl smiled while reaching out to the attack, and made an attack that easily suppressed the other attack -- as his strength was at the late stages of the minor knight realm, he wouldn't even be injured if he were to receive an attack that wasn't even in the apprentice realm.
Though he still needed to put an act, so while it seemed so easily suppressed in front of him, the others saw enough power that was able to defeat the first seat.
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Waldo frowned as he felt the strength of the attack, he started thinking of a solution, but he didn't think of one as the time was too dire -- so he ended up surrendering.
The judge made his way towards Waldo, and since he was at the middle stages of the apprentice realm, and the attack was barely at the apprentice realm, he'd nullified the attack with a wave of his hand.
The tournament went on, as the other commoners showed fear towards him, especially those who were higher than him, but he didn't pay much attention to it, as he kept challenging until he got the 2nd seat, and sat there waiting for the tournament to end, since this tournament was merely child's play to what he can actually fight.
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"His strength was able to kill an apprentice-level beast, he's obviously suppressing it in order to not attract much attention, but why?" Asked the little princess that was close to her mother with a puzzled tone.
"He doesn't want to be famous, he only seeks a backer in order to advance through knight realms. So he therefore deliberately suppressed his strength as to join the imperial academy, and not show too much power as to not be assassinated by others." The empress replied back to the princess in the same cold tone as before.
"So that means his entry to the imperial academy is guaranteed, right? That also means that I'm gonna study with him next year!"Said the princess excitedly in a low tone that only her mother could hear.
"He might be suppressing his strength even further, but whether that is the case or not is unknown.
And yes, if there's no external factor in this tournament that makes him unable to snatch any of the top three position, he'll study with you."The empress paused for a moment, before continuing on a serious tone:" But that doesn't mean that you'll be able to interact with him. He's a mere commoner but you're a princess of this empire, what do you think would happen if others were to see you?"
The little princess sighed helplessly as she knew what her mother said was right, but that didn't mean she would stop there...
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What Carl failed to think of was that although this world didn't have a heaven, there existed a will that subconsciously 'suppressed, or made the lives of those invaders in its world harder.
It wasn't due to the his race being the nefarious devil, as this world's level was too low to know about it, so it was just the same reaction that would come from a child if he were to feel some danger from a certain thing -- although it wouldn't logically attack in the normal case, it would rely on its instincts in the case of the world's will.
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So unbeknownst to Carl, the first and third spots weren't mere commoners, they were clan heirs that their clans used a specific method to nurture throughout the thousands of years of their history.
They sent them at the age of 2 into random orphans, and that would help them be tempered mentally and also physically, as they would 'coincidencially' find lucky encounters when they would be in the mines working, thus it made their cultivation higher.
The first spot was a girl that was 11 years old, that belonged to one of the middle-tier clans in the empire, as for the third it was a boy of similar age to Carl, who belonged to a top-tier clan.
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The problem was in neither of them, but a boy of a higher status -- a supreme-tier clan heir.
They could've waited for a year, as the boy was 12 and the age limit for entering the imperial academy was 13.
But there were some 'coincidential' circumstances that forced the heir's clan into action.
These circumstances were the concequences of Carl's actions when he previously killed the two children -- as there were 3 heir candidates for the clan.
The two were the known young masters in public, but in secret they were nurturing their clan heir in the orphanage.
Thus, this result was because the clan was pushed to the corner, having no other choice but to publicly announce the heir when he joins the imperials academy.
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They naturally wouldn't damage the other two clans heirs participating in the tournament, as even if they had a strong influence they wouldn't choose to offend a clan for such a trivial matter.
Thus, the only other option for them was to choose Carl as a stepping stone for their clan heir, and then announce the heir.