Soon, a man entered the room. It was not the lazy man this time but a tall muscular man wearing black clothes. Everyone became silent after seeing him.

"The preliminaries are starting. Is any of you a participant in the first three matches?" After saying that, the man started looking around in the room.

Jacob quickly raised his hand. He had to fight in the first match.

"Nobody else?" The black clothed man nodded at Jacob after which he looked around again. He got no response in return.

"Follow me." The man said while looking toward Jacob.

Jacob quickly got up and followed the man outside. He followed him in the narrow passageways until they entered the arena.

It was quite lively. Jacob looked around and found out that the arena was currently divided into ten mini arenas by some fences. He was in a mini arena of his own. Another bald man was already standing there before they came. Just as he was led out into the arena by the black clothed man, other participants were also being led into their own mini arenas.

"Stand there. Your opponent will be here soon." The man pointed at a spot in front of Jacob and left after nodding at the baldy.

Jacob came to stand at the pointed spot and looked toward the seating area. Although the audience was not that much but the front rows were fully filled. He tried to spot his father among the audience but failed even after looking around for half a minute.

He did not get much more time than that before his opponent stepped into the field. He was a nervous looking young man carrying a short sword in his right hand. He wore a shady leather armor that was in a very bad condition. He watched Jacob warily as he came to stand on his spot in front of him.

"The match ends when one of you is injured heavily or forfeits. No cheating or intentional killing. Prepare yourselves when I say start." The bald judge told the contenders to ready themselves.

At that, Jacob calmly took out his longsword from the sheath and prepared for a life and death battle. He had waited for this moment to come for a long time. It was his first proper step towards the path of cultivation. It was time.

His opponent was already holding his weapon in his right hand. It seemed to Jacob that his opponent was sweating profusely. His opponent seemed to be worked up a bit. Jacob became much more vigilant.

"Start."

Nobody moved at that. Jacob found it best to keep standing in his position and wait for his opponent to attack. My longsword has greater reach than his weapon. It will be to my advantage if I keep standing here. Jacob thought inwardly as he swung his sword in a graceful way a few times and took a proper stance.

His actions seemed to have a great visual impact on the nervous young man as his nervousness increased and he stepped back. He was intimidated by the graceful display showed by the dangerous looking muscular man in front of him.

Both of them kept standing at their spots without moving for a few seconds. The bald judge was already starting to show an annoyed expression after seeing the inactivity in front of him.

"Why is he not attacking? A coward??" Jacob thought as he looked at the other Jacob standing in front of him. He also motioned his opponent to come with his free hand but did not get any response at that. He was thinking about launching an attack himself if the situation remained unchanged.

A few seconds later after seeing Jacob inviting him toward himself, the nervous participant finally bit the bullet and started to run toward him while raising his shortsword above his head.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!" He kept shouting as he ran toward Jacob.

Seeing that, Jacob quickly became alert. He waited for his opponent to get into the range of his sword before launching thunderous attacks. Although their mini arena was not that large, it still took the young man a few seconds to cross the distance between them.

Just as he was about to get in Jacob's striking range, Jacob quickly judged the situation and turned his body sideways in order to get the furthest reach with his weapon. He pointed his longsword towards the incoming enemy's throat. If the enemy did not stop in his tracks in time, he would impale his throat with his sword.

It all happened in a span of a few seconds. Jacob thought that the enemy would stop in time and start swinging his shortsword at him. After that, he would quickly outmaneuver his opponent with his far longer sword and end the match with his victory.

But all of his future plans were ruined. The enemy did follow the script that he had thought of in his mind. The shouting young man did not stop at all and kept running toward Jacob while waving his sword above his head. It was as if he was too eager to impale himself with a sword.

Jacob quickly became nervous. He was sure that the opponent would really impale himself if he did not retract his sword now. But he could not do that. If he did that, he would be struck by the enemy. It was either him or his enemy.

He did not get much time to think. The enemy was about to impale himself. He also caught movement in his peripheral vision. Soon, the tip of his sword penetrated the opponent's skin and Jacob felt resistance with his sword. But the resistance stopped as the opponent abruptly stopped.

The young man was currently being held by the bald judge.

"You fool? Have you gone mad? Cannot you see in front of you? Are you so eager to die?" The judge was so angry that his face had turned red. He quickly separated him from the slightly penetrating sword and dragged him back toward his initial standing place.

Jacob had a weird expression on his face as he watched the slightly bleeding opponent being dragged back by the judge. He slowly lowered his sword the tip of which was red with blood.

What a fool? He was really eager to die. No training or any kind of experience. What is he even doing here? Jacob wondered as he was being led back to his room.

He had expected a serious battle but was disappointed. His first battle was too anticlimactic. He was not able to show any kind of skill at all. Although he had won the battle, he was not feeling any kind of joy.

But he thought a bit and cheered himself up after that. He was still hopeful for the upcoming battles. He thought that the unqualified would be disqualified soon with the progress of preliminary matches. Soon, he would fight a serious battle.

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Just as he entered the room, he attracted the gaze of everyone present there. He felt hundreds of eyes on him. He felt that they were very penetrating, it was as if they wanted to bore a hole into him.

Jacob ignored all that and started walking toward his seat. But his short walk was interrupted by something.

"Rich bastard." Hearing that, Jacob stopped in his steps and looked toward the boys to spot the person who had cursed him just now.

He quickly spotted the curser. It was a brown haired young man who was wearing a poor excuse of a leather armour. He was staring at Jacob with venomouse eyes. His weapon was also very low in quality. The sabre he was carrying was much better to be used in farming than in the tournament.

As for why Jacob was able to spot him in a matter of a few seconds. It was because he was not the only one looking at him. Many other people were also looking at him. Jacob gave him a deep gaze before continuing on his way toward his sitting place.

He decided to ignore the curser. It was not his fault that his father was reach and was willing to spend gold coins on his gear.

Just as he sat down, he was quickly surrounded by his fellow participants and they started questioning him about his match. They were very eager to get any bit of information about their upcoming matches. Even some girls could not help but come close in order to hear him out.

Jacob patiently gave the detail about his match to them. Upon hearing Jacob, most of them sneered as they made belittling comments about the nervous young man that was Jacob's opponent in his first match. Some of them also congratulated Jacob on his first victory. Jacob accepted all that with a thanks.

After that, they left him alone. He started waiting for his next match. As the time passed, the fellow participants in the room kept being called for their matches. The number of participants in the room also decreased with time. Jacob assumed that they were getting eliminated in their matches.

After enough time had passed, the lazy man entered the room and took of the list that was on the wall and replaced it with a new roster. After doing that, he turned toward them and said,

"Congratulations to you all for winning your first matches. But don't get overconfident. This is just the beginning. Four more matches to go."

His voice was lazy and bored as usual. He smirked a bit in the end before leaving the room.

This time, the young men were not that hasty. They slowly approached the roster to learn about their matches. Jacob also easily reached it and found his name. This time, his match was seventh. He returned to his seat while making a hopeful expression.

He started waiting for his match to come. This time, four persons were called out before him out of which only one returned.

The elimination rate is too high. It was really brutal. Jacob thought as he waited for his turn. It was about to come.

"Match seven, eight and nine?" The black clothed man entered the room and called out.

Jacob and another person stood up at that. After seeing that no one else was standing up, the man turned back and exited the room. They quickly followed him out.

This time, the opponent was already waiting for Jacob in the mini arena. He was in a good quality leather armor and was carrying a spear. The judge was also different this time.

At the judge's cue, the match started. Jacob again decided to remain on his position. Seeing that, his opponent did not hesitate and quickly approached Jacob with his spear.

A few seconds, Jacob was in his attack range. He quickly thrust his spear forward in order to pierce Jacob's body from a safe distance. The thrust was a bit clumsy so Jacob easily parried it. The opponent tried a few more times but Jacob easily parried them all.

This is getting boring. Jacob thought as he kept parrying his enemy's weak thrusts. His opponent was a bit thin and clearly lacking in physical strength. Otherwise, it would not have been that easy for Jacob to parry the spear thrusts.

Moreover, his enemy using the same move again and again. He was either lacking in spear training or was waiting to surprise attack Jacob.

Jacob decided to end it quickly and not give his enemy much time to contemplate his mistakes. At the next thrust, he parried the spear with so much force that the enemy almost lost his balance.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Jacob stepped forward and grabbed the spear with his left hand. After that, he pulled the spear toward him with full power. The opponent fell face down at the sudden tug. Jacob quickly put the tip of his sword on the opponent's back neck.

"Don't you know that strength is required to wield a spear properly. You should also concentrate on your training. It is very lacking." Jacob tried to give some pointers to the defeated opponent. The opponent remained silent as he lied face down on the ground. Jacob shrugged after seeing his behaviour. He was just showing goodwill to a fellow young man.

Witnessing that, the judge declared Jacob victorious. After defeating the enemy, Jacob looked toward the seating area to spot his father for the third time. He had tried again after his first match but had failed again.

After concentrating his vision on the audience for a few seconds, he succeeded this time. He spotted his father sitting at the second row on his left. Jacob became happy at that and started waving toward his father excitedly. The elder also waved back.

Jacob could not see his expression clearly due to distance but he assumed that his father was smiling at him right now. He kept waving for a few seconds before stepping back into the narrow passageway with a smile.

He returned to his room. This time, nobody disturbed him. Everyone there was nervous for their next battles and nobody had enough energy to speak to others. The person who had cursed Jacob previously was nowhere to be seen. Seeing that, a smile came on Jacob's face.

After that, another period of waiting came for Jacob. He was not much nervous now. He had already fought two battles. Although they were too lacking, they were still proper battles. He had already performed in front of a large audience for twice and had won both the times. His stage fright was totally gone by now.

What remained behind was excitement. He was aware that his next matches would be true matches. His opponents would be weak no longer.

Soon, the lazy man came and replaced the roster with a new one. He did not say anything this time and quickly left the room. He seemed to be in a hurry.

Jacob got up and walked toward the list. The room felt empty by now. Not even one third of the initial participants remained. All of them were fighters with training of various degrees.

Jacob found his name in the eleventh match this time. "Looks like the wait will be much longer this time." Thinking that, Jacob returned to his seat.

Soon, Jacob's turn came. As soon as he entered the arena, he was stunned. This time, his opponent belonged to the opposite gender. The girl in front of him was in tight clothes and we're dual wielding sabres.

Jacob forced himself to stare into her eyes and not let his eyes wander below her neck. There was a great chance he would get distracted if he did that and that would result in a defeat.

As the match started, Jacob again decided to stand his ground and see what the dual wielding opponent would do.

The girl broke into a run toward him and accelerated quickly. Just as she was about to reach him, she jumped high and rolled a couple of times in the air just like a cartwheel. After that, she brought the two sabres down on Jacob like an overhead chop.

Jacob made a prompt decision and decided to block the attack with his sword. It was too late to dodge. He supported his longsword with his two hands and raised it. His stance was as if he was putting it on a high shelf.

Tinggggggg

Woah. Just as the weapons collided, Jacob's knees nearly buckled and he almost fell on his knees. The force behind the overhead chop was too high. Even Jacob's arms began aching slightly. The girl in front of him was too fierce and too agile.

Ha. As soon the momentum behind the attack broke, Jacob rose with a roar and waved away her sabres. He then stepped forward and punched the jaw of the disoriented girl with his left hand. He had put all of his force behind that punch and did not hold anything back.

With a crack, the girl stepped back a few times before falling. After that, she no longer moved.

Jacob looked at his slightly bruised knuckles and then at the unmoving fallen girl in front of him. Not even a twitch could be detected from her.

What the? Is she dead? Did I just kill someone? Am I disqualified now? Damn. Jacob was truly panicking this time. He feared that he had killed his opponent just now with his full powered punch. As a result, he would be disqualified from the match.

With a panicked expression, he watched the judge sit beside her and start checking her vitals. She was bleeding from her ears, mouth and nose. The judge checked her pulse and breathing. After a few seconds, he looked up toward Jacob and said,

"No need to worry kiddo, she is not dead. Just unconscious. Rest assured. Even if she was dead, it would have been purely accidental. You would not have been disqualified due to that." After that, he waved toward someone and the unconscious girl was carried away on a stretcher.