It’s the start of the third day of the tournament. The amount of spectators has clearly lessened but not to the extent that it was noticeable. Though a few of the representatives weren’t there in their usual chair as some perceive the tournament to be getting stale or that they have more important duties and will only return once the final eight has been chosen.

Lawrence certainly is getting bored. Those in the wooden chair aren’t any threat nor does the majority of those sitting in the silver chair. In the novel, the author immediately skipped a few days of the ranking matches in favor of detailing the fights between the final eight.

His next enemy is someone that was in the dregs of the silver chair as he made quick work of him, using both the attract to pull his enemy towards him before using the removal spell as the enemy floated a couple of inches and can’t do anything but witness Lawrence’s fist barreling towards the enemy’s chest. Lawrence didn’t use his full strength and just pushed the man off the stage with repulse upon getting hit by his fist.

The day finished with the three of them winning their fights in a convincing manner. There was nothing that was interesting or unexpected that happened during the fights, all of those sitting in the golden chairs won their fights meanwhile those in the wooden chairs and silver chairs shifted their ranks with each win or loss. Lawrence went to his room upon noticing that Catalinna was already gone once again. Luke only gave him a shrug when asked where she was.

In his room, Lawrence pulled the grimoire from his space ring and this is the enhancement spellbook. With a couple of bottles of mind-restoring potion and mind-strengthening potion by his side. Both of which can help Lawrence with the pain from opening the grimoire. He was about to open the grimoire only for the door in his room to smash open as he nearly winced. A glare appeared on his face only to soften upon seeing Catalinna walking in with her arms crossed and a disgruntled expression stuck on her face.

“Luke keeps bugging me on meeting up with you. What is it? What do you want to talk about?”

“Wait is that a grimoire?!” Catalinna pointed at the spell book in Lawrence’s hands as he laid it on the side of his bed.

“Yes..” Lawrence answered with a sigh

“You said that you weren’t gonna be reckless? What happened to that?! That will surely kill you, wait those potions…You’re actually thinking of opening it?! Are you an idiot?” Catalinna grabbed the potion and inspected it before glaring at Lawrence.

Lawrence can only smile as he can only shut his mouth about what happened yesterday. Catalinna shakes her head upon knowing what Lawrence is about to do.

“Forgive me, I’m an idiot. Anyway, about splitting up, you have to listen to me. I have a clone that is only a few stages weaker than me. Besides, I have this arm” Lawrence shows his right arm which is covered with a black material that is a primal sin before continuing “Don’t worry, I won’t die and I won’t be reckless. I just need to gather those items before returning here.” Lawrence gazed at Catalinna earnestly but Catalinna simply snorted with annoyance.

“Do you have a plan where you will be going? You know that we don’t have any sort of transportation that can bring us to places. Meaning we will be walking and running most of the time. Besides, I’m worried about the moon believers. They haven’t done anything recently. They must be waiting outside the kingdom walls before killing you…or us.” Catalinna replied honestly with a grim expression briefly before returning to her normal expression.

Lawrence also wondered what the silver moon cult has been doing. Except for their champion appearing in the cemetery, nothing else happened. Still, their threat is something that cannot be ignored. Though with the silver moon mark vanishing, Lawrence still doesn’t know if he’s still under the influence of the moon goddess or not.

“I see..but what else do you propose? With the speed we are advancing in cultivation, it would take a few months before we can even reach the peak of the three-star paragon.” Lawrence replied before suddenly going silent as he wondered whether their conversation is getting monitored or not but by the simple fact that the Sekai Empire can, they will probably do it.

“It’s inconvenient to talk about this here. Once the tournament ends, we will discuss this again” Lawrence sighed as Catalinna shrugged before grabbing the grimoire.

“I’ll be taking this. Don’t worry, I’m not stupid so I won’t use it. Just in case you ignore my warning” Catalinna stared directly at Lawrence who simply beamed with a smile. Catalinna scoffed before leaving as she closes the door.

Lawrence simply waited for a minute before grabbing the grimoire from his space ring. It’s the damaging spellbook as he drank the mind-straightening potion before sipping a few drops of the mind-restoring potion. He breathes in and out before opening the grimoire as a flash of bright red light encapsulated the room as about million-word information entered his mind in the split second upon opening the book. Blood splattered on the floor as Lawrence nearly fall into it. He gripped his head in pain as he grabbed the nearby mind-restoring potion and drank it immediately. It lessen the pain but it was still throbbing like someone his bashing his head continuously.

A minute later, the pain vanished as he drops to his bed with his eyes fixed on the ceiling. He massaged his temple as the information about the spell is slowly digested and understood. It was a more complicated spell than the protective gravity aura. Basically, it allows Lawrence to compress a small space in front of him with his control of gravity until it implodes and creates a miniature black hole. The black hole will rip through anything, from solid objects to a magical spell. It doesn’t get bigger and it moves fairly slowly. Still, its destruction capability was astonishing that if Lawrence hits an enemy, it can rip his enemy into shreds. It’s a sure-kill spell. Additionally, on higher mastery. Lawrence can directly touch it and grab it around so he can simply teleport near an enemy and slammed his palm with the black hole to his enemy.

Still, if Lawrence tries to create a black hole. It would take a minute at best and only a couple of inches wide. It would also suck a ton of mana just to create and it can be interrupted if Lawrence loses his concentration which would result in it blowing up in his face. He wanted to try it out only to realize that he is too tired to even get up. For now, he only closed his eyes to rest for a while.

A few days passed as the final eight participants stood up in the stadium. Gazing down at those who failed. Catalinna, either from luck or her tenacity didn’t lose a single round despite fighting against the beastman and JinMokusei. The beastman lost when he nearly died going against Catalinna in close combat. Knowing the beastman’s fighting style which is tiring out the enemy with his body art and breaking the bones of his enemy with his fist. Catalinna simply charged in, coated herself in pure white fire, and just started hammering the beastman. The beastman was caught off guard by the searing fire that burns his flesh only to meet a barrage of exploding punches from Catalinna. The beastman tried using his legacy but it was too late, he was already burnt with a few broken bones on his body from Catalinna’sqi-coated punches which creates a large explosion.

Catalinna was injured but beastman was about to die if he doesn’t surrender so the guardian grabbed him and drops him gently on the floor where the medical team was waiting. Even Catalinna was surprised by how long beastman was able to take her combo of coating herself with white flame and qi-infused fist.

Her next enemy was Jin who tried fighting her by using lightning generated from his spear art but it was useless as the lightning wasn’t as effective when use as a long-range attack since it merely was burned by the white flame exuding out of Catalinna. Jin immediately surrendered upon realizing that his spear art would still be useless if Catalinna’s white flame reaches him. He would be burned faster than the beastman who has a monstrous vitality.

Meanwhile, Luke reached the top 8 by defeating the half-elf water mage and a bunch of silver chair participants. He was luckier than Catalinna as he was able to win all of his matches simply by relying on his insane dodging ability and teleporting strikes against any mages he fought while using his impressive qi control by overwhelming anyone that dared to come close. He would multiply into three with each of his strikes also multiplying. No one can even last a second once he unleashes his barrage of dagger strikes.

As for Lawrence, he simply defeated some silver chair participants and a single golden chair participant who was in the top 10. It took him a few minutes to defeat James Meyers who was able to reach the golden chair despite losing in the first match. James was faster and has a quicker response against attacks which made hitting him much more difficult. Lawrence’s lighten spell barely catches up to the speed James can reach and with the lack of range attacks. James can easily run around and overtook Lawrence by surprise by slicing him with the dagger. Still, James was defeated when Lawrence used removal which removes any gravity in a certain radius. With James floating, he was as helpless as anyone before getting blasted by the gravity-infused punch from Lawrence.

The final eight consist of Cain, Delia Petrov, Osborn Forwill aka the son of heaven, Lazarus from the Sanguine Family, Azure who is an elemental, Catalinna, Luke, and finally Lawrence. The eight of them were invited to the stage as the announcer concluded the ranking match.

“These eight participants will be fighting to see who will be the best among all of them. You might think that you have seen it all but gods above no! Each of them will be chosen by a representative from different sections of our world. They will be given a week to show us what they have learned and achieved during the short time with their masters that chose them. Of course, this might come as a surprise but this is an idea that many of the representatives want to happen. This is so that they themselves can check how talented our participants are.” the announcer responded amidst the confusion on Lawrence and Catalinna’s faces.

This didn’t happen in the novel but Lawrence knows that this isn’t a great situation to be in. He has to hide a ton of secrets and added by the fact that he currently holds a relic and has the root of the Yggdrasil currently embedded in his neck.

Relic is something that isn’t common to anyone no matter how strong they are. So they might covet his relic as he noticed the glance from Luke as Lawrence nodded. Both of them planned on using their relics during the final match merely as a weapon since both relics are currently weak and currently have one ability which makes them the same as artifacts. From far away, those representatives won’t notice a difference but it would be a different situation once they come close to inspect it.

Suddenly, eight people from the VIPs emerged in front of the participants and they gazed at them quite heavily. Seemingly to be checking something. The elf representative Arryn arrived for Lawrence as he wasn’t really surprised. As for Catalinna, surprisingly the abbot of righteous representative seems to have chosen her. For Luke, it was someone that was hiding in a black cloak and hood with no markings or insignia anywhere. The longer Lawrence stares at the man, the more he forgets about something. Shrugging, Lawrence gazed at Arryn who looked at him with a small smile on her face.

“Now that the representatives have chosen who they will be teaching. This concludes the ranking match. For those who didn’t reach the top 8. There will always be next time and remember to never give up pursuing strength! That would be all, I hope that the spectators, representatives, and participants will have a safe journey, and may the gods guide your step!” the announcer bowed before leaving as the representatives followed the man as the participants has no idea what to do except follow them.

The spectators slowly left the coliseum, and the representative who didn’t choose anyone also left the building. The civilians who saw a week full of fighting and exciting match can’t help but gush and feel empowered by what they saw. Some were busy chattering about who they think will win while some were busy celebrating winning their bets. No matter what their standing in their life is, only one topic will reverberate all across the kingdom, and it’s that the tournament was an amazing show of talents and fighting styles. Commoners who didn’t have an ounce of understanding about fighters and mages started understanding how amazing and awe-inspiring they are. Instead of fear, they felt admiration and revered those young participants fighting and battling for a common goal.

While all of this is happening, Lawrence was promptly summoned into a garden full of plants and herbs growing in every inch of the land. The flowers have bright colors and emit a sweet aroma. While the herbs seem to be medicinal as each one has immense vitality, mana, and aura packed in every leaf and into the stem. Lawrence wondered around only for a female voice resonating behind Lawrence.

“Now that we are here. Out of their peering eyes. There’s a question that has been bugging me ever since I gave you those spell books. Why do you have the mark of the Yggdrasil?”