After waiting a bit longer all the contestants seemed to have arrived.
They were all called up to a large platform that had many large circles painted into them, and everyone was given a box to draw lots from.
After the first person placed his hand into the box, he pulled out a unique gold ring with a designated number scribed into its surface.
After all the contestants drew their rings, they were sent over to a large row of stands that had a wooden doll sitting on a small pillar.
The doll was around the size of a child's toy, had a wooden texture, and looked humanoid in shape, underneath their the doll's feet was a small stand a matching number to the contestant's rings, along with a seat that one could take.
They were told to put their rings on and insert their Mana into the doll. When they did a copy of them appeared inside the arena grounds.
The golden rings connected them to the copies and allowed them to control it as if it were their own bodies. The arena was segmented into dozens of landscapes that were being projected in a large image over the stadium.
Some were mountainous, others were forested regions, another large ocean scenery with only a nearby beach, and they even had a scorching desert with an active fake volcano.
Fei Lei wondered why something so huge looked so small from outside the arena's perspective.
It took a few minutes for the hundred-plus people that had passed the exam to take up their positions, the arena was filled up ten contestants at a time, luckily Fei Lei's group of 3 were all in different sections.
Fei Lei looked around and saw that he was in the forest region, he then felt his body's condition. Relieved that everything felt real like real flesh and blood, Fei Lei proceeded to look over to see his real body sitting still in the stands, looking somewhat like a giant.
Fei Lei threw a few punches and frowned, the strange magical item transferred his Mana capacity and he could use spells with ease, but it didn't carry over the physical power that only his unique body granted.
He could still increase his physique through the boost spell, but the effects were far less effective than using it with his real body.
Fei Lei undid the connection and returned to his body, he then turned to one of the announcers and said, "Hey can I use my real body to fight?"
The announcer looked at him in shock before turning to the overseers of the event for confirmation. The announcer ran to a group of people sitting in an expensive-looking luxury box, and after chatting for a bit, one of the men inside gave the okay.
"He will allow it, please enter the arena in the forested region." The announcer called out.
He jumped down and ran over to his position with a grin on his face, may people gave him strange looks, and laughed at him, the Sheng brothers clicked their teeth and hoped that he would meet his end.
"Stupid Adept's gonna die." A random spectator shouted.
"Just because the bodies are fake doesn't mean the attacks are fake. What a moron!" Another spectator laughed.
"This is gonna be a fun show to watch." A Mage in the crowd said, hoping to see blood.
Fei Lei ignored them as stepped up to the forest region, the rest of the individual spaces had been filled with their fighters.
Most of them were between Tryos and Erudites, only the one known as Sheng Tai was Sorcerer.
When Fei Lei stepped up the platform, he felt like he had crossed some kind of barrier, and once again, he was a miniature-man looking out at a stadium of spectators.
"Weird! Is it Shrinking magic? No, it something in my gut tells me that's not how that feels. Did they use spatial compression to make this arena? But I thought that spatial magic is a lost art, why would they use it on an..." Fei Lei paused before having an epiphany, "Is it a magical item? That's it, this whole arena has to be a magical item!
Interrupting Fei Lei's train of thought, the announcer stood before everyone and explained the rules, "Everyone must fight until there is only one remaining in each territory. Only after one remains in each of the environments, will they disappear. The arena will then change shape for the ten surviving contestants to be awarded a dungeon entree pass."
The match quickly got underway as the second announcer shouted out, "Begin!"
Fei Lei disappeared like a blur and took off on to the paths between the forest trees.
Everyone was shocked by his speed and couldn't understand how a Non-Elemental Adept was able to move so fast. Most of them figured he was using a magic item of some sort.
Within a few minutes, he managed to find a group of 8 mages partnering up. It appeared that the two leaders of the groups were discussing terms.
"Look, if we team up, we can take out more opponents while preserving our mana." An Earth Mage said as he rubbed his fingers together like he was comparing mana to money.
"Alright, sounds like a solid plan, but who do we take down first?" The Water Mage replied.
"We should take out Hicka and Recka. Those two are the biggest threat in our block." The leader of the Earth Mages said while showing a contemplative pose.
"Right then, what's the plan?" The Water Mage followed up.
The crowd watched Fei Lei lean back on the nearby branch he was perched on, and with a single forward leap, Fei Lei landed in front of the group and said, "How about I take you all out? That way you don't have to worry about fighting anyone."
"Who the hell?" The Earth Mage leader didn't have time to finish his sentence when Fei Lei slammed his open palm into his chest.
The jaws of the spectator's dropped as they watched Fei Lei's open hand crush the Earth Mage's rib cage and heart.
The Earth Mage flew back and coughed up a mouth full of blood before his body shattered like petrified wood. He then returned to the competitor's stand with a look of complete disbelief as he said, "How?"
During the confusion of losing a teammate, Fei Lei kicked out the Water Mage Leader's feet as he punched at his head.
The rest of the crowd's eyes widened as the Water Mage's head was knocked clear off his neck.
"Attack! Attack!" One of the Mages shouted as they released their spells.
Fei Lei then watched as the mages unleashed their mana, chunks of earth and water bullets flying at him from every angle.
The spectators were anticipating Fei Lei getting wrecked. However, the exact opposite happened instead. The one's viewing the spectacle, all observed as Fei Lei closed his eyes, and dodged every attack while marching towards his next target.
He started to take out opponents left and right, powerful blades of Earth Spires, and Water Bullets shot at him as he moved throughout the contestants' personal space while using them as shields to keep them from casting level 3 spells and up.
The crowd was thrown into chaos as they saw Fei Lei dispatch two Erudites with a single swing of his hands, cutting them in half at the waist.
With a flying kick, Fei Lei decapitated another water mage, and as he was falling to the ground, he followed up his flying kick with a spinning back kick that cut through the upper half of an Earth Mage's skull.
Fei Lei landed between the last two mages and stretched out his hands as if he were pushing something heavy and slammed his open palms into the stomachs of the remaining mages.
A shockwave of telekinetic energy caused their stomach sacks to explode as they died painfully.
The eight Mages that he slaughtered had their dolls cracked and were forced out of the arena as they began shouting at the tops of their lungs with foul words
"Son of a bitch! Ref! He was cheating, he's obviously using equipment to boost his physical strength. Isn't there some rule about using equipment that relies on high-tier Mana Cores being illegal?" The Earth Leader complained.
"Yeah! There's no way he was using a Mana Core equal to his level! He's cheating, disqualify him!" The Water Leader followed.
"Silence!" The announcer shouted.
The second announcer then said, "The contestant, Fei Lei, hasn't used a single magical item since his audition, and the sword he used was being operated by his own Mana, Fei Lei will continue to participate."
The crowd gasped in shock as Fei Lei was proven innocent.
"Who the hell is this kid?" A contestant that had been defeated in another arena said with a tone of skepticism.
"Hmm, I wonder what his Sigil is?" Another Mage in the crowd pondered.
"He's got to be cheating somehow!" The Water Mage bellowed.
An explosion went off over in Yan Mei's direction, she got lucky and ended up in a fire-zone.
The intense heat not only amplified her power but also helped her maintain a steady level of Mana.
At the very start of the match, all of the contestants in her zone unanimously decided to group up against Yan Mei; since they were up against a Royal, they knew she would be the hardest to handle, and that she should be taken out before the rest of the match could continue.
However, their plan turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes they ever made. The moment the group of 10 mages charged her she activated her Scorching Step Spell, escaped from their combined attack, and burnt them to a crisp with a few dozen flaming arrows.
The people unlucky enough to get put in the same environmental zone with Hina and the Sorcerer Sheng Tai, simply forfeited.
Yan Mei's whip tore through everyone that she came across, and with her Boost spell, she was able to cover more ground than any other Erudite.
Sheng Lu flew everywhere on a red cloud and created a sphere of water over his opponent's mouths to drown them.
The Elemental Equip user actually had something that looked similar to a gun, it looked like a four-shot oversized revolver, that was actually more of a gun-shaped stick with some metal pipes in it.
The man also wielded a large squarish greatsword that had vent-like protrusions lined along the spine of the sword, every time he swung a burst of fire would speed up his swing and create a trail of fire and gore in his wake.
Every time someone shot magic at him, the man with the Four Elements Roots raised his pistol and pulled the trigger.
A bolt of Mana exploded with the elemental magic of his choosing, he then used the switch on the back of the revolver to rotate the barrel's position over to a different elemental-type and continued to counter the spells of his enemies with their proper weaknesses.
The aqua blue-haired boy with Wind-Fire Roots simply tagged his opponents with his sigil and snapped his fingers causing massive explosions. As the smoke cleared only he remained.
The combat continued until there were only 9 people remaining.
Fei Lei noticed that this match was fairly simple, none of the strongest people met in the same zone, so he figured that it had something to do with the group of people who organized this whole event.
The final 9 people were, Yan Mei, Hina, The Four Element's Root Mage, Eriks, The Dual Element user, Hachi, Sheng Lu, Sheng Tai, a man who chose to enter under the pseudonym Grey Mage, a girl from the Holy Light Sect, and another girl from the Great Gale School.
Yan Mei looked around and said, "Where's Fei Lei?"
"Probably dead!" Sheng Lu started laughing with his brother.
Hina rolled her eyes and pointed to Fei Lei's section, "Really? Then who is that?"
Everyone looked over to see Fei Lei was standing in the middle of a clearing surrounded by the fallen remains of the body-doubles. For the past half hour, the last two contestants were hiding in the shadows, waiting for Fei Lei to let down his guard.
Fei Lei grinned and activated his Danger Sense as he sat down and said, "I know you're watching me! I can hear your hearts beating."
Two shadows in the far off foliage frowned as they whispered with one another.
"How did he notice us, Recka? No human has hearing abilities that good!" A feminine voice murmured.
"I don't know, Hicka. Mabey something's wrong with our wood blending spell." The voice of a young boy called back.
"I'm going to give you to the count of ten. If you don't come out, I'm coming in to get you!" Fei Lei shouted.
"Sis's new friend is strange," Hicka whispered.
"Let's attack, I don't like how fast he took down those mages!" Recka declared as he powered up a Level-3 Water Spell, Ocean's Lance.
"Be careful that's his real body down there, Bro, if you hurt him, Sis might hate you," Hicka whispered out.
"Relax, I'll give him a warning shot. Once he sees how destructive my spell is, he'll give up," Recka replied as he released the spell near Fei Lei's location.
A large spire of water in the shape of a lance jetted towards Fei Lei at incredible speeds. Fei Lei's danger sense sent a mild pain to his frontal lobe as he then activated his boost spell and darted away.
A tidal wave of mana exploded leaving a chunk of the terrain as an empty crater, however, Fei Lei's body was nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd he go?" Recka shouted.
Suddenly Fei Lei appeared behind them and said, "Right here."
The duo screamed, revealing their forms as small children, one with blue hair, one with red hair, and both wearing the uniform on Hina's Magic School.
hey used a movement spell to gain some distance and were surprised by the fact that Fei Lei didn't make a move on them. He stood in place waiting for them to attack, Recka and Hicka stopped in place and said, "What gives?"
The crowd was shaken, they couldn't see how fast Fei Lei moved because of the smoke from created by Hicka's attack. They couldn't understand why Fei Lei wouldn't take advantage of his opponents' moment of weakness.
Hina grinned and said, "Hmm, that's Hicka and Recka, when did they become Erudites? Those kids."
"What the, what is he doing?" One of the contestants that Fei Lei knocked yelled.
"Being a fool," Sheng Lu laughed.
"One should never let go of an opportunity to annihilate one's enemy, only a moron would do that." Sheng Tai said in a snobbish tone.
"Shows what you know. Fei Lei understands he isn't in any danger, he's using my fellow students to work on his spell."
Everyone looked at Hina in shock.
Yan Mei smiled and followed up, "Yep! He seeks every available chance to improve what weapons he has in his arsenal. He's not like some moron who confuses a couple of kids holding back with a life and death battle."
Sheng Lu and Sheng Tai growled at what they were witnessing. Fei Lei continued to stand in the center of their attack range and said, "Well, are you going to attack."
"Are you crazy mister?! Do you know how powerful our spells are?" Hicka called out in frustration.
"We can destroy you at this range without any problems, so just give up already!" Recka said while stomping her feet.
"Then, why don't you?" Fei Lei asked innocently.
"We don't want to be murderers!" Recka followed up.
"I told you, that if you don't attack..." The image of Fei Lei's body turned into a blur as he appeared in front of the two, "I will."
The duo jumped back and again and looked at each other before Hicka said, "Bro, I don't think we should go easy on this guy."
"I agree, Hicka!" Recka shouted as a few dozen water bullet spells appeared over his head.
Hicka yelled out her spell, "Earth-Cannon!" while the ground in front of her took the shape of a medieval cannon.
Fei Lei grinned as he closed his eyes and focused on the pain created by the Danger Sense spell.
The duo began their assault by launching low-level spell projectiles, spherical cannonballs made of earth and water
Fei Lei dodged left and right, avoiding the attacks by a wide margin. The terrain around him was rapidly being destroyed by the kids' attacks, all while Fei Lei was tampering with his spell matrix.
"I see, more pain, the bigger the threat, however, if I change the wording in this section. It becomes, Detect-Intent, rather than Danger-Detection," Fei Lei thought as he sidestepped a cannonball.
Dodging a water bullet, Fei Lei thought, "No, that messes up the earlier sequence in the matrix. This time, let's try altering the first half of the spell."
Suddenly, Fei Lei was moving even quicker, "I see, remove the pain phrase and replace it with mental images,"
Fei Lei could now picture a target on his body, it was in the shape of a crosshair, and it got larger and brighter the closer he was to being hit.
Grinning, Fei Lei started to advance through the barrage of water and earth. His feet turned into blurs as he disappeared from the vision of the kids.
With a simple light-handed chop to the back of their heads, the duo's eyes rolled into the back of their sockets and collapsed into a pile of wood ash.
Cheers erupted as Fei Lei stepped out of the forested region, though not all of the crowd felt the same way. Some mages still thought Fei Lei was cheating somehow.
As Fei Lei walked passed the failed contestants and rejoined Hina, murmurs, and talks of who Fei Lei was, and how he was so strong started spreading.
"Do you think he was born with a blessing?" Someone whispered.
"Maybe. It could also be some kind of spell." Another spectator answered.
"Could be a mutant, or maybe something not human." A mage speculated.
Surprised about Fei Lei passing, looks of scorn and murderous intent came from the Sheng brothers shot over at him as he walked back to Yan Mei and Hina's sides.
Fei Lei then heard Sheng Tai shout, "I challenge Fei Lei for his Dungeon Slot!"
The crowd gasped in disbelief.
Fei Lei leaned out with a confused expression and asked, "Wait! Can he do that?"
The announcer said, "Yes, but only once, and if he loses then he will have to forfeit his slot to you. Should you win, you can choose anyone to take his place, even sell the slot to the highest bidder."
Fei Lei grinned as he held out his hand and the other behind his back, he then waved his outstretched hand as if he were shooing Sheng Tai while he said, "Well hurry up and use that idol to summon your avatar. After all, you don't want to die!"
Sheng Tai frowned and with a red face he shouted, "You bumpkin! This is a personal challenge, it has to be fought in person!"
Fei Lei then smiled, "I then I guess today is the day you die. We can kill? Right?" Fei Lei turned to the announcer who nodded his head.
"If he agrees to a death match then yes." The second announcer declared.
Fei Lei turned back to see an embarrassed Sheng Tai fuming, never before had been so publicly humiliated. He then pointed his finger at Fei Lei and shouted, "I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to cut off your feet and turn you into a slave, I'll bring you back home and give you to mother."
Fei Lei laughed as he stood forward and said, "I've been dying to try out my first original spell, and I can tell, you're going to be a fun subject to test it on."
"You're going to regret turning this into a death match! If you lose, your life is forfeit, which means, I'll own you if I choose to spare your pathetic life," Sheng Tai said cracking his knuckles with his grip.
The announcers used their mana to make the stage disappear and reappear as a simple stone arena.
The two stood in the center ring, ready to face off against one another.