Three days after the registration, the first day of the preliminaries had begun. As a participant in the tournament, Azrael, who was masking as Erik, was in a camp outside the black walls together with thousands of other fighters.
Due to the number of fighters, it was a tradition to hold the preliminary in a more spacious area, like outside the city, to avoid chaos among citizens. The arena was reserved for the main event, which would be participated in by the winners in the preliminary.
There was also the factor that the participants in the arena were equipped with an expensive item, so the fewer the gladiators would save the empire and the guild some money.
Large tents were scattered around the camp, and each tent could give dozens of warriors shade from the sun while waiting for their fights. Within the camp, numerous makeshift wooden raised platforms, around eight in total, were temporarily constructed to serve as arenas for the prelims.
