MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

"What…"

"What just happened…?"

While in the middle of watching the current five batches fight against their respective beasts, Julian was caught off guard as a bright ray of light appeared from one of the platforms, covering most of the arena in mere moments.

Feeling the immense might contained within that light, the man remained silent as he waited for the light to subside, only to then ask the question to his fellow arbiters after the light had fully dissipated.

"I… don't know," responded Liam, also surprised by the sudden burst of light. "However, one thing's for sure."

"We might just have found our first participant deserving of moving onto the third round."

Faintly nodding in agreement to his words, the four then proceeded to look through the five platforms one by one, hoping to find the cause of that burst of light everyone experienced earlier.

"Wait… seriously?" Surprisingly, Eliathaea was the first one among them to figure out who caused the burst of light, her mouth wide agape the moment she realized who it was.

"Who is it?" Of course, seeing her react that way prompted Julian and the others to look at her with curiosity, leaving Eliathaea with no choice but to point at the person that caused it all.

Feeling both excitement and anticipation as they followed the trajectory of her finger, the three began to come up with various possibilities in their heads, the names they had in mind being the most likely ones to achieve such a feat.

However, once they realized that the person Eliathaea was pointing at was none other than one of the two young men they met alongside the tournament's director, the three went silent, with Julian also looking at the young man with his mouth agape.

"Ataraxia…?"

"You're telling me… the cause of that light was Ataraxia?"

For a while, the four arbiters were left at an utter loss for words. After all, as far as they've seen during the first round, the young man specialized more in large fireballs while in combat.

But to unleash a spell with that kind of firepower behind it?

It took a while for the four to come to terms with that.

Of course, with the four arbiters realizing the cause of the sudden burst of bright light, it did not take long for the audience to figure it out, prompting the entire crowd to burst into cheers as they felt the immense might contained within that spell.

Throughout all of the batches of participants they've watched fight against the beasts, many of them were able to reach the Rank 4 level through their attacks, even though their levels were locked to the beginning of Rank 3.

With that, the audience found it more impressive whenever a participant reached the peak of Rank 4 in terms of might, with many combat organizations hoping to recruit such a participant like that into their ranks.

Then again, those participants still paled in comparison to those who could show the might of a Rank 5 class holder even with the limitations set on them, with only a few having reached that level thus far.

Now, with that in mind, one might wonder… what level of might did Ataraxia reach when that burst of light spread throughout the arena?

Through the various discussions of fighters and experts alike, the audience came to an agreement that the young man's attack had solidly reached the Rank 5 mark in terms of might.

However, they were also certain that if such an attack were condensed to only hit the beast…

They could have witnessed someone achieve peak Rank 5 might from someone who was at the start of Rank 3.

"This…" Listening to the discussions that were being held throughout the amphitheater, Julian looked at Liam with excitement, recalling that he was able to recruit the young man into the kingdom's military.

Naturally, the man looked back at him with delight written all over his face, letting out a peal of laughter the moment he regained his bearings. "To think Ataraxia would be at that level of prowess…"

"I'll raise the offer I've given him in our discussion earlier once this tournament is over," said Liam with conviction. "As long as he could reliably unleash that level of power, he deserves to be a Lieutenant Colonel at the very least!"

"I've seriously got to recruit him into the Mercenary Guild," said Eliathaea, her eyes glistening as she glanced at the young man.

"The heavens have definitely blessed me after Ylvar accepted my offer… but if I were to compare him and his student, his student definitely has a lot more potential than he does."

Faintly listening to the conversation the three of them shared, Erika continued to look at the young man with a calm expression, though her eyes spoke of an intense desire and greed to make the young man hers.

'With him showing such talent and power, he's a far better candidate to tribute compared to that teacher of his,' she thought to herself, suppressing her urge to jump into his platform and capture him as soon as possible.

'Then again, if I were to get my hands on both of them and offer them up to the god…'

'What kind of rewards would I get in return?'

…

"Huu…"

Letting out a long exhale as he felt drained of all his energy, Valyr faintly shuddered from the coldness as he laid down on the ground.

Having admitted surrender to the organizer the moment his attack had done its job, the fight between them and the serpent was effectively over, though the latter still looked at him with an aggrieved expression.

After all, through their entire skirmish, its attacks were only able to mildly inconvenience them at most.

On the other hand, the group's attacks continued to push the beast to unleash more of its strength, accruing multiple injuries from their attacks along the way.

Of course, the final nail in the coffin was none other than Valyr's attack, rendering the serpent's full might useless as its entire body was bathed in that terrifying light.

'Now that I've used the spell firsthand, I now understand why that spell is considered transcendent level in power.'

'…That's not a spell a peak Rank 3 class holder should have access to,' thought the young man to himself with a slight chuckle, being reminded of the sight of the bloodied serpent that greeted him the moment the light disappeared.

Continuing to rest on the ground for a bit more, Valyr eventually sat up and looked at the other participants in his batch, with all of them looking back at him with admiration in their eyes.

Faintly smiling at their gazes, he then looked around for both Pasuay and Coulet, only to notice that neither of the two could be found on the platform whatsoever.

'I suppose they immediately left the platform the moment I dispelled the bindings on them,' muttered Valyr inwardly, only to then stand up as he and the other participants left the platform after that.

Seeing that almost all of the audience were cheering at their batch while making their way down, a faint question soon surfaced within the young man's mind.

'Surely this performance is more than enough for me to move to the third round, right?'