Jacob's next match was not as exciting and difficult as his previous match. The opponent was also a long sword wielder. They engaged into a match of skills with their weapons. Soon, Jacob outmatched the opponent with a feint and inflicted a large horizontal gash on the opponent's abdomen. Due to the light being worn by the opponent, the gash was not that deep so his guts did not spill out.

From then on, it was a downhill spiral for the injured adversary. His fighting capability decreased significantly and kept suffering from various kinds of injuries until he gave up. The fight didn't even last four minutes.

This time, Jacob did not wave toward his father. Neither did he his father waved his hands at him. He just smiled at him and stepped back into the corridor.

Soon, the fight round ended. It was quite short due to a short number of matches. In the end, only three of them remained out over sixty initial participants. In addition to himself, Jacob saw that the other two were the guy who had talked to him previously and the other girl. The girl which had half of his head covered was nowhere to be seen. He assumed that she had been eliminated.

In addition to happiness, he was also feeling a bit of relief. He had safely passed the preliminaries. Now, he was qualified for the main tournament. His first step toward his dreams was half complete.

"Hey. Congratulations for the victory." The silence was abruptly broken by the armed guy as he congratulated Jacob.

"Same to you." Jacob replied. The man in front of him had fresh injuries. His armour was also in a bad shape.

"You have no injuries. It will give you advantage tomorrow."

"I know." Jacob nodded toward him.

"Even then, you are no match for him."

"Annoying." Jacob replied before he decided to ignore him.

The man just chuckled at that and did not reply. The girl also stopped paying attention to their little conversation.

Soon, the lazy man entered the room.

"Congratulations to you all. You are qualified for the main matches tomorrow. Be sure to report before four in the afternoon. You can go homes now." He said as he looked at the participants in front of him.

Hearing this, they got up and headed for the exit.

"See you tomorrow." The armed man said to Jacob and did not wait for his reply before exiting the room.

Jacob followed suit and exited the coliseum after a minute or two. There was not much crowd outside now. There were only the relatives of the qualified participants and some onlookers.

After looking around for a bit, Jacob quickly found his father. An old man was standing in a crowd, looking at him while smiling warmly. He was radiating a strange presence. He could not be found easily if one looked through the crowd with a cursory glance.

But if one paid much more attention to him, staring into his silver eyes, he would find the rest of the world around him losing colours and fading out of existence, making the silver-eyed bearded old man the only thing present out there. If felt as if he was the absolute centre of everything.

For Jacob at least, his father was the centre of his entire life. After losing his mother at a tender age, the enigmatic smiling old man in front of him became his only support.

Jacob slowly walked toward him while smiling happily. He had done it. He had managed to qualify for the tournament while putting in use the training he got from the elder.

"Father, I have won. I am qualified for the tournament tomorrow." After a short hug, Jacob told his father his achievement excitedly.

"Congratulations, son. You fought well. I am proud of you." The elder said while patting his son's shoulders in praise.

Hearing his father's words of praise, Jacob felt warmth in his heart.

"Yeah. Did you see how I fought? My consecutive victories were only possible thanks to your training. I did not disappoint you, father. I am nothing without you." Jacob was sincere with his words. He seriously thought that he was nothing without the training of his father. All of his previous exercises were insignificant in front of the true training he did in the past few years. Without the weapons training, reaching the final round would have been a pipe dream.

"Son, although I was responsible for your training, don't take yourself lightly. There are many people in the world who waste many chances to become great just because they are not hard working enough. They are lazy and insincere to their life.

You on the other hand have the rare qualities of hard work and dedication. Only rare few are like you. So, don't depreciate yourself. It takes iron will to remain dedicated and hardworking." The elder held Jacob's shoulders with both of his hands as he gave him a small lesson over hard work and dedication.

"I just want to chase after my dreams and don't want to disappoint you. Otherwise, I won't be able to face myself. This is why I work hard. I want to value the opportunities you graced me with all these years. That's it." Jacob scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He was embarrassed due to getting praised in front of everyone. They were not alone.

Although, the crowd was less than the one in the morning, it was still significant. More than one person were paying attention to the unique father son duo. The father was a unique looking person while the son was the winner of five consecutive matches with barely any injuries. All of them have watched the matches, especially the matches of the final round. Even if the duo did nothing, they would still have grabbed attention.

So, Jacob decided to ignore the existence of their little audience and laid his heart bare in front of his father.

"Dear son, you are totally wrong on this one. Even if you had lost today, I would have never become disappointed from you upon such a minor thing. Even if you fail to achieve your dreams in the future, you will still be my son. To me, such things are not even worth mentioning. If you succeed, I will be naturally happy and proud. But if you fail, I will never become unhappy from you. Got it?" The elder shook his head slightly as he said it. His trademark smile was also gone. He looked into his son's eyes as he said his piece.

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Jacob quickly nodded at that. He was feeling a bit ashamed for expecting such things from his father. Everytime he trained or exercised, he had this tunnel vision thought of never disappointing his father. Not once had he stopped and thought calmly about the things that would truly disappoint his father. He was always judging his father with the lens of a normal father. That was a great mistake from his part. His father was anything but normal.

"Son, except a few things, I expect nothing from you. I want nothing from you except love, compassion, kindness and justice. Tell me, can you do this for me?"

"Yes. I will become the walking embodiment of love, compassion, kindness and justice. My love will always be overflowing. My heart will bleed compassion and kindness for the worthy. My each and every word will ooze with justice. I will never disappoint you, father." Jacob straightened and answered with full seriousness. After hearing his father's expectations from him, a lightening bolt thundered through his mind and many things clicked in his head.

Many memories came into his mind in which his father taught him many things. Just like now, his father had drilled many life lessons in him in the past few years. Although, his mother brought him up, he was only taught those values that were expected from a good child except a thing or two. He barely remembered a few lessons taught by his mother. The advanced things were taught by the elder.

The elder's words of love, compassion, kindness and justice seemed very simple. But there was a great background and meanings hidden behind them. Similarly, the profound words that Jacob uttered did not come out of nowhere.

He was taught to be loving, kind and compassionate not to everyone but the worthy. He was taught to be opposite to those who were hateful, cruel, unkind and unjust. He would be extremely cruel and unkind to them. As for justice, he would treat everyone with justice, no matter who they are. He would do justice without any doubt even if it were his family members that were being harmed.

"Promise me that you will never disappoint me in your life." The elder demanded a promise from his son.

"I promise on my life that I will always act on your teachings."

"Good. Now let us head back to the inn. You need some rest." The elder started smiling again as he motioned him to follow after him.

Jacob nodded at that and they started walking toward the inn. Soon, they reached it.

"Jacob. Welcome back. How was the preliminaries? Did you win?" Upon seeing the father son duo entering his inn, Gifford stood up and walked to them.

"I won, uncle. Although the elimination rate was too high."

"Nice. Congratulations on your victory. I expected this much from you." The chubby beamed with happiness.

"Thank you so much, uncle Gifford." Jacob thanked the innkeeper.

It was afternoon by now. He had a hearty lunch before the father and son retired to their room. He was both mentally and physically tired. He was more mentally tired than physically. He had a tough day. During the matches, he had to bear from too much pressure. This was his first step towards his dreams. If he had failed here, his future would have been affected severely. It was enough to change the circumstances.

Still, his first step was not complete. He still had to fight for the beast core. And he feared that the matches would not be that simple tomorrow. Three of his matches were too easy today. It was only the last competitors who gave him some challenge. Thankfully, he was not that hurt and could perform at his peak tomorrow.

Who is this Andrew? Is he related to the ruling clan? I should ask father. Since the end of the preliminaries, something kept troubling him. Although he was not that worried about the mysterious opponent he would face tomorrow, that annoying guy was too much confident in him.

"Father. Do you know about someone known as Andrew Ursus? A person back in the preliminaries told me that I would not be able to win tomorrow and lose from this Andrew." Jacob was lying bare chested on his bed. He turned toward his father as he asked his question.

"You will win tomorrow. As for the Andrew Ursus, he is the grandson of the current Ursus king. Although he is a difficult opponent for you, you can still beat him if you utilize all of your training." There was a certainty in his voice as the elder answered his son's questions.

Hearing the elder's response, Jacob felt a bit of relief. His father's words were always infallible. He would win tomorrow. But there was a condition attached. He had to work hard and try his best to grasp the victory. Otherwise, it was a great possibility, he would be defeated.

"There is another thing that I noticed today. More guys were being eliminated than the girls. I thought hard for the reason behind it but could not arrive on any conclusion."

"You noticed correctly. In such tournaments, the elimination rate of the girls is much less than the boys. There is a reason for that. Parents send their sons in these tournaments even if there is a little chance for success.

They don't care much about their defeat and think of it as a life lesson for their sons. But for the girls, the opposite is the case. Parents send their daughters only if they are properly trained and will be able to hold own during the fights. So, during the tournaments, there are more trained and experienced girls than the guys." The elder patiently explained the reasons before the elimination phenomenon.

"Wow. There was a reason I could not arrive on this conclusion." Jacob was thinking that he did not have much exposure to the parents-children relations except that in the clan.

"Another thing. Such thing will be eliminated in the sects because only the qualified will be chosen to become a part of it. Ok. That's it. Now rest. You have a long day tomorrow."

Jacob nodded at that and closed his eyes. He indeed had an important day tomorrow. Although, there were still a few hours to go till it was night, he would try to rest as much as he can in the upcoming hours.

A few minutes, he fell asleep. A few hours later, he was aroused from his sleep by his father in order to have his dinner. After having dinner, he went to sleep again.

The next day, he woke up very early. It was barely five in the morning. Even then, he had slept plenty. He then started waiting for the tournament to start. But not even half an hour had passed before he started getting fidgety. Due to nothing to do, he had all the time to think.

So, he started thinking too much. Several scenarios started coming in his mind in which he would be defeated despite his father's reassurances yesterday. It was not that he was doubting his father. He was simply doubting his own performance during the tournament. He felt that a familiar sensation started creeping up on his mind. It was nervousness.

Man. I cannot sit still. I need to do something. Jacob decided to distract himself from the depressing thoughts and pass time more positively. So, he looked toward his father who was staring blankly at the ceiling.

"Father. I am going out for training to pass time. I cannot sit still without anything."

"Very well. Go then. I also have something to do in the meantime." The elder gave him an understanding nod.

"Leave it here." Jacob quickly got up and wore his shirt. After that, he was about to wear the chainmail armour on his shirt before he was stopped by his father. He did what he was told to do without any question. He then picked up his longsword.

After saying farewell to his father, he went down and had a simple breakfast. He then headed for the City Park.

He soon reached it. Due to how much early it was, there was not much pedestrians on the streets. So, it did not take much time for Jacob to reach his destination.

He quickly found his spot and started exercising. After the warmup, he picked up his sword and started waving around with air tearing sounds. All of his moves were akin to a dance, his swings fluid and graceful.

Time passed and people started appearing in the park.

"Hey. It is the sword uncle." A childish shout attracted Jacob's attention and he turned his head toward it.

He saw a couple of children running toward him. One of them was holding a short wooden stick in his hands. They stopped a few meters away from him and greeted him.

"Hello, uncle."

"Hello." Jacob reciprocated the greeting as a helpless smile came on his face. He stopped paying attention to them and continued with his training.

Soon, a small audience gathered around him.

"Uncle, look. I am also learning how to use a sword."

The boy who was holding a stick was flailing it around while trying to imitate Jacob.

Jacob stopped and gave him a thumbs up while shaking his head helplessly. He then continued with his training.