After two weeks, the day he had been waiting for had come, the start of the tournament. Considering the Duke had announced the prize of the tournaments, it was bound to get a lot of attention, with many people wishing to enter the tournament.
Of course, the Duke had set some restrictions, namely only cultivators at the Genesis Core realm and under the Genesis Spring realm could enter the tournament. Along with no members, nor associates of the powerful families were allowed to join in the tournament.
While the later restriction had caused some discontent from the powerful families, a 'persuasive' talk with the Duke made them see the benefits of it. However, even though the powerful families couldn't directly enter the tournament, it doesn't mean they couldn't offer powerful cultivators to act on their behalf while giving some benefits to entice the one they tried to convince.
Ryker knew this because he had seen some members of powerful families asking a peak Genesis Core expert for some resources in return for some of the entry tokens, along with the stipulation one of the tokens could be kept by the man.
He didn't receive such an offer as his strength was deemed too weak by the powerful families, which is fine by him, as he didn't want to have any association with them, at least without knowing them well enough.
All in all, the 2 weeks before had been hectic with a lot of members of the Adventure Guild not showing up at the Adventure Guild building, most of them spending time training themselves for the upcoming tournament.
He also spends the time training. After all, taking missions and hunting down the 6th Rank Genesis Beast could be seen as a form of training. And if he is lucky, he would find a weak 7th Rank Genesis Beast, strong enough to be a challenge but not too strong that he couldn't defeat the beast.
All in all, he is confident in his preparation.
-x-
Because of the number of participants, the Duke had to do an elimination round. Simply put, aside from the peak Genesis Source experts, everyone else needed to fight a round of matches, and the losers would be eliminated from the tournament.
Because of his relatively low cultivation realm, he was put in the lower bracket, where Genesis Core and some weaker Genesis Source experts were put together. For the first day, the Lower Bracker will be the one to fight, with a possible extension to tomorrow if it is not finished in one day.
A box was put in front of the ones in the Lower Bracket, "Alright, please line up and take one slip. The ones with the same numbers will be the ones to fight with one another. For example, if you get number 1, then you have to fight the other person who took the slip with number 1.
After the end of the first elimination round, you will have to fight the one with the number close to you. For example, number 1 will have to fight number 2, number 3 will have to fight number 4, and so on.
This elimination round will continue until there is one winner in the Lower Bracket any questions?" no one spoke up for the next 3 minutes, making the guard nod in satisfaction.
"Good, then line up," the competitors did so, awaiting their turns patiently. Ryker decided to hang out at the back, as he had no interest in getting involved in the scuffle at the front. He would prefer to keep his card with him until the right moment.
Soon, his turn came up, and he took one of the slips without any fanfare. His brow raised as he looked at his number, "1," he said to himself. To think he would be the one to fight first.
He walked towards the guard before showing his number. The guard gives him a brief nod before leading him to one side of the ring. However, some of the audience looked at him and gave him a sympathetic smile.
He couldn't understand why but a look at his opponent answered it immediately. The one he was up against was a Genesis Source expert at the 2nd Stage, likely one of the strongest competitors in the Lower Bracket.
He then looked at the referee, wondering when the match would start. Seeing how he was being disregarded by a measly Genesis Core expert made the man angry. He also could not wait for the start of the match so he could beat the brat to a pulp.
When the referee began the match, it was over as soon as it began, to the shock of everyone, even though they had expected it to end quickly. After all, the one that was supposed to be defeated had just slapped his opponent, sending him flying into the outside of the arena.
Not bothering for the referee to announce his victory, Ryker left the arena, making the referee remember his job before announcing the winner immediately. The crowd also goes wild. After all, they had never seen a Genesis Core expert casually send a Genesis Source expert flying with a slap.
When he got to the waiting area, the rest of the competitors looked at him warily. After all, he had just been elevated to an actual threat, as he defeated one of the few 2nd Stage Genesis Source experts in the Lower Bracket.
Ryker didn't care much about the stares, opting to sit and wait for his next turn, maybe watching some of the matches to see if they had any other tricks he needed to watch out for.
-x-
At the best seat in the arena, sat the most powerful and important person in the entire Duchy, the Duke of Kilrun himself. Though, he currently looking at one participant instead of the ongoing match.
"That boy, is too strong isn't he?" he said out loud, the person sitting next to him nodding.
"Yes," the head of the Kilrun Capital City Adventure Guild replied, "He is strong, though whether he could defeat the others in the tournament when he fights in the core tournament is the actual question,"
The others nodded, after all, they knew that no one was a match for the young man in the Lower Bracket. For deity's sake, he slapped a 2nd Stage Genesis Source expert without breaking a sweat, the rest of the competitors in the Lower Bracket would be beaten as quickly as possible.
"Despite me wanting to see some underdog rising, it just too much to ask a Genesis Core expert to beat a peak Genesis Source expert," the ancestor of the Lur Family said, one of the few Genesis Sea experts of the Kilrun Duchy.
"True, but he might caused some upsets,"