Many found it counterintuitive to pit students against each other when the assessment was focusing primarily on their instructors - the teaching apprentices. Why not just have the apprentices duke it out?
It was exactly because the evaluation was centred on the apprentices that the current format was employed. The tournament worked to gauge the capacity of a teaching apprentice apart from their cultivation. It looked at their ability to scout student talent, unearth it, and nurture it. It acted as an indicator of how effective the apprentices would be as instructors in the future.
Of course, there was always the element of luck involved. Sometimes, an apprentice may hit the jackpot with an extremely talented student. Other times, the opposite combination may apply. But it was never truly possible to level the playing field so that everyone had a fair shot.
Gaige traversed through the Academy hallways, towards the site of his very first match. For the preliminary stages, four matches were set to occur at the same time. Each of them would take place in one of the repurposed practising fields.
The students weren't told who they were competing against. They were only provided with a tablet prescribing their own number allocation, and a field they were supposed to congregate to for their match. This blind match-up method was used to reduce the influence of psychological stress and other external factors that may influence the mental stability of the competitors.
Gaige wasn't the least bit worried about this match. He was confident in his skill, and Teacher Way's tutelage. He had stably reached the Late stage of the Mana Condensation realm and had practised and perfected all of his spellcasting and swordsmanship skills to their limits. This tournament would act as a platform for Gaige. A lot was riding on his success. He had to redeem his teacher's reputation and he had to prove his prowess to his father and his clan.
As he and his teacher arrived at the field, he cast his attention around and observed his competition. He never really cared much about others, so all the faces appeared unfamiliar to him.
"Woah! Who's that hunk?"
"That's teaching apprentice Jo Way. Don't you know? He's the only teaching apprentice at the Foundation Establishment realm in Radiant Academy."
Hushed conversations started to erupt in the audience following their arrival.
"That's amazing! He looks so hot! And his student looks so striking too."
"That's Gaige Bori. He used to be the trashy Third Young Master from the Bori Clan, but recently his cultivation skyrocketed and he managed to trump Caine Jonas!"
"Isn't Caine from the year above? He's that strong? Now that you mention it, he really does look striking. He has that cold, devil-may-care, external appearance."
As the irrelevant discussions propagated, a series of loud cheers and greetings broke through the din.
"Hey, Boss! What's up?"
"Yeah, are you ready for your match today!"
"Of course he's ready. What kind of question is that?"
"Boss, good luck!"
Four large and pudgy boys trudged along with excited grins plastered across their faces. Their enthusiastic tones grabbed everyone's attention.
"Who're those four?"
"You don't know them? They're the F4!"
"The what?"
"F4! Fatty 4! They're the biggest bullies of our batch."
"If they're the bullies, who're they calling Boss?"
"Shh! Don't let them hear you calling them fatties!"
"I didn't... Hey, why are you hiding behind me!"
Gaige tuned out the mob chatter and honed in on the so-called F4. They walked up to a boy at the other end of the field and greeted him with a subtle hint of respect and reverence.
"Hey, what are you four doing here?" The boy asked nonchalantly.
"We're allocated to this field as well!" One of the F4 winked and nudged his neighbour with his elbows.
"Yeah! There was a... mistake... in the chart. So we just courteously asked the representative to smoothen things out," his neighbour added while rubbing his index and thumb finger together. Through connotation, Gaige understood that money changed hands.
Gaige frowned and tried to focus harder on the conversation. However, his attempt was interrupted by the chatter between the characters next to him.
"Why're you shivering? Are you scared?"
"You've no idea how horrible those guys are! Before, they used to bully me by taking my lunch money or playing practical jokes on me. But in the past year, they've changed their methods! They caught me one day and strung me up by a tree. They then quizzed me on different subjects like cultivation, alchemy and whatnot. Whenever I got the wrong answer, they would use a branch to spank me!"
"They spanked you in public? But... But you're a girl!"
"I KNOW! uwuuu," the girl bawled.
Gaige gritted his teeth. "Those scoundrels!" he muttered under his breath.
"Boss, did you get a new enchanted artefact?" One of the F4 exclaimed while pointing at the grimoire in the boy's hand.
"Oh, this? This was a gift," the boy clarified.
"Wow, that's a spatial enchantment!" A random bloke next to the boy chimed in.
"HEY! Who do you think you are, disturbing our Boss?" The first F4 member retorted.
"Yeah, stop eyeing our Boss' stuff! Or do you want me to fix your eyes?" Another F4 member added while cracking his knuckles.
"Now, now, boys. Let's keep it civil, hmm?" Their boss quickly interjected, causing the enraged F4 to slink back.
"Oh my goodness! He can control those fatties? Who is that boy?"
"I remember now! That's Markus Reva. He's the genius from my friend's class."
"How come I've never heard of him before?"
"Apparently he's very hidden. Everyone thought that he was just some orphan from the frontiers. But recently, he's been walking around with a very intricate enchanted artefact. One of my friends tried to steal it from him, but those F4 caught him and really did a number on him."
"That makes sense! Those rich fatties wouldn't become his followers for no reason. Look! He even has another enchanted artefact on him."
"Damn! Rich people sure have it easy..."
Before the rumour mill could snowball out of control, an authoritative voice interjected, "All participants please approach the bench."
All the students quieted down and walked over to the bench next to the combat arena. On it, there was a large box with a hole cut on its top. The referee standing next to the box took the tokens in each student's hand and dropped them into the box one at a time.
"We shall now decide on the match-ups," the referee declared once all the tokens were inside. He reached in and pulled out two tokens.
"First match: Number 32 vs. Number 41!" He bellowed.
Two individuals stepped forth from the crowd and walked forward. Everyone gasped as they saw who the combatants were.
"It's Gaige and Markus!" Someone exclaimed.
"Yeah, Boss! You can do it! Beat his ass!" The F4 cheered in unison.
The referee waved his hands to stop the clamour and rattled, "In order to keep things fair, the combatants are only allowed one offensive weapon of choice. Be it enchanted or unenchanted. Combatants, declare your weapons!"
In response, Gaige unsheathed his sword.
"That's a Brionium sword!"
"No way! Brionium is supposed to be one of the rarest and most expensive metals. How did Gaige get his hands on a sword like that?"
"The Bori clan probably commissioned it."
While the hushed chatter resurfaced, the referee turned his gaze towards Markus. In response, the boy unsheathed the wand and paraded it around for inspection. The referee frowned and nudged his chin towards the belt satchel. Markus smiled and opened it up for inspection as well. The referee directed his senses into the satchel and frowned harder.
He saw a bunch of useless materials inside. Coal, sulfur, a few liquids in phials. It didn't make any sense to him. But since there weren't any potions or boosting drugs hidden inside, he was satisfied. After that, he nudged his chin towards the grimoire in Markus' hand.
Markus handed the book in while saying, "Am I not allowed to carry a book for reference?"
"During a fight?" The referee retorted while thoroughly checking the enchantment.
He then flipped through the pages to inspect if anything was hidden inside. All he saw were a bunch of uninterpretable scribbles and nonsensical spell circles. With a disdainful frown, he declared, "It's your choice," while handing the book back.
"There's no offensive capabilities in this book!" The referee bellowed for the record.
The two combatants then walked into the centre of the field. Once there, Markus extended his hands as a sign of sportsmanship and said with a neutral expression, "Good luck!"
Gaige snorted and reciprocated but with a visible frown on his face.
Markus didn't understand why Gaige was so averse to his gesture. He didn't know that Gaige had categorised Markus as a bully after seeing that he was involved with the F4. He thought that Markus was just being facetious with his act of goodwill.
Without pause, Gaige returned to a position away from the centre and entered a prepared stance with his sword at the ready.
Markus did the same and pulled out his wand. He then activated the grimoire in his hands, causing it to float to his side while opening up to a specific page.
The audience quieted down as the air became increasingly tense.
The referee assumed his position next to the arena. He was prepared to intercept the fight in case one of the combatants was about to suffer from a mortal injury. He activated the ritual formation around the arena, causing a translucent shield to materialise. This would ensure that the audience wouldn't get caught in the line of fire and suffer unwanted injuries.
After making a thorough check for the final time, the referee raised a flag, and shouted, "BEGIN!".