When Clifford saw the content in the scroll, he frowned his face. There was a brown metallic stamp the shape of a wolf's head at the top left corner. Aside that, there was nothing in the scroll. It was blank. Clifford was confused, the scroll he was holding was definitely the message type.
"How come it was blank," he asked himself confusedly.
He took a closer look at the stamp but he couldn't recognize it at all. He rubbed his thumb on the stamp and he immediately felt a sharp pain on the thumb, he removed his thumb quickly and discovered that it was bloody. He looked at scroll again and was surprised, wordings are now starting to appear on the scroll.
He then remembered that this was how top families and organisations pass important or top secret information to each other. Information can never be breached when this method is being used. There were normal message scrolls and secret message scrolls. The one in Clifford's hands was a secret message scroll, only top and secret organizations had access to it. This immediately made Clifford to feel uneasy, this definitely meant some secret organization was try to pass a message to him. Even though he felt uneasy, he was curious as to what was in the scroll.
The words were now fully revealed.
___"You have a lot of responsibilities, a big test awaits you."___
It was boldly written in dark red. Clifford read words multiple times. "Responsibilities? Big test? Does this mean I'm being watched?" Clifford kept asking himself series of questions.
Wariness swelled in his heart, he was confused. For the first time in a long while, he became nervous. If he failed the test, does it mean he would not get the answers he was looking for? If he failed the test, would he fail to see his father?
After he got the content of the scroll, it burnt itself to ashes.
Clifford took a deep breath and grabbed the badge he received when he registered for the tournament before he left the suite. He decided to get back to the message after he was done with the tournament.
Clifford left for the academy, the tournament would take place at the combat arena. When he arrived at the combat arena, he was greeted by the view of a massive amount of people. Almost all the seats of the arena had been occupied. There are also influential figures at one stand of the arena, they were present in order to pick talented mages to nurture for their benefit.
Clifford went straight to the section where participants of the tournament were seated. He found Benson and Ada among the crowd, he also saw Dora but she was far away from where he was seated. Although Dora, Benson and Ada had already been enrolled, it was mandatory for every newly enrolled to attend the tournament.
The tournament would soon begin with the category of people that were there to get enrolled for free. They had to get in to the top thirty rankings. They were soon called to stage, Clifford joined them as well. There was a total of one thousand nine hundred and twenty participants, only thirty would pass. The chances were very slim, Clifford could see many nervous faces among them. He shook his head with pity, these nervous people were already bound to get eliminated. One has to be bold to pass this kind of tournament.
They were told to bring out the badges, numbers were displaced on each people's badge. Clifford's badge displayed the numbers seven hundred. The chief judge officiating the tournament announced that they would be matched randomly with other participants. He then stated the rules which must be strictly followed. The rules are;
Participants are not allowed to kill each other.
A participant can forfeit the duel by stepping down the stage.
Participants are not allowed to inflict heavy damage on each other.
The participants are to follow the instructions of the judges strictly.
Not following the rules stated would result in elimination.
Shortly afterwards, the tournament started. The first round began and the participants were randomly matched. There was many duel stages so multiple duels are going on at the same time.
Clifford was soon called to stage to have his duel. Immediately he stepped on the stage, some people recognized him. He was the mage that defeated the dark skinned man. Massive uproar arose from the crowd, they were excited to see Clifford on the stage.
The participant that Clifford was to fight was nervous when he recognized him, he immediately conceded the duel. The spectators were displeased by this, they booed him off the stage.
The first round ended, half of the participants were eliminated. Nine hundred and sixty participants were left, they rested for twenty minutes to replenish their mana before the second round began.
Clifford's opponent of the second round conceded the duel too. His reputation of defeating the dark skinned man was too frightening.
His opponent of the third round didn't concede the duel like his previous opponents. She was a water mage, she had defeated her opponents in a strong and domineering way. The crowd expected her to give Clifford a tough duel but she wasn't strong enough to compete with Clifford. He defeated her in one move. The crowd were excited seeing this, Clifford really lived up to their expectations.
Clifford's opponent of the fifth round was an earth mage. He had defeated his former opponents in a very dominating way, he was already being labelled as one of the favourites to end in the top thirty. Unfortunately for him, he was drawn with Clifford. He did not even have a chance to cast a spell before he was punched off the stage. Clifford did not cast any spell, he only used speed and brute strength to knock him out. The crowd was shocked and amazed. "He doesn't even need to cast spells to defeat opponents." The spectators were thrilled by this. Clifford was fast becoming their favorite, especially for the girls.
"Clifford come marry me."
"I would not mind becoming your second wife."
"Am in love with you Clifford."
"He's not only powerful, he is dazzling and handsome."
Various screams were heard from the girls, they were already falling for Clifford.
Some powerful families had already put Clifford at the top of their recruitment list, they would do anything to recruit him.
The rounds kept on going until 60 participants were left. None of Clifford's opponent could match his insanely strong fire element or his brute strength, he had defeated all of them in one move each. The crowd were already dumbstruck by this. Would Clifford become the first mage to win every duel with a single move? This was the last round, reaching this round wasn't by luck. Everybody left in this last round were simply very strong.
The round soon began and Clifford was drawn with an Asian young guy. This Asian had defeated his opponents in a stealthy method, he had many cunning tricks that were uncommon to mages. None of the mages wished to be drawn to him. Clifford's fans were unhappy about this, they are sure Clifford was the strongest of the participants. But they were not sure if he was smart enough to defeat the trick Asian mage. If he failed to beat the Asian, he would be eliminated. This was already causing unrest among his fans. The Asian even seemed to be faster than Clifford in terms of speed, Clifford just had to be smart to defeat him.
The Asian stood across Clifford on the dueling stage, he was a poison mage. Poison mages although uncommon are one of the most dangerous and cunning mages. They would sneakily attack their opponents or attack them with weird and unusual methods.
Only a smart mage would be able to discover their tricks.
Immediately the judge declared the start of the duel, the Asian released a swarm of poisonous bees that he had breed himself. He had not shown this in the previous duels. When the crowd saw his method, they knew it was over for Clifford. How would he defend himself against a swarm of poisonous bees? The Asian seemed to be confident of this method, he smiled mockingly at Clifford. He commanded his swarm of bees to attack Clifford all at once.
Clifford wasn't even worried, he just stood there and watched the bees come closer to him. The crowd looked at him as if he was a fool, a swarm of poisonous bees are about to attack him but he stood there doing nothing.
"Is he retarded?"
"He turned out to be a talented fool"
His haters which were mostly young men who were jealous of him were already raining insults on Clifford but he stood there with a smug smile. When the bees were about a few inches away from him, he suddenly sank into a shadow closest to him.
Everybody's eyes lit up, they didn't expect Clifford to still have a card up his sleeve, even the Asian was shocked. He didn't expect Clifford to be a shadow mage, the crowd were shocked by this as well. A young basic rank shadow mage, when was the last time one appeared. Clifford was turning out to be the biggest surprise of the tournament so far, all the powerful families are ready to battle it out with other families in order to recruit Clifford.
The master of the group Clifford dueled with few days ago had ordered his students to not expose Clifford's shadow element ability. Clifford didn't really care if they expose it or not, that would not stop him from achieving his goal today.