Chapter 39. Debut

Yawning as he rolled out of his bed crammed into a small room with two other double bunk beds where there was barely enough space between the beds for him to get around.

“Man, I wish they would throw out those two other beds so I can have more room.” Ken murmured to himself while heading for the bathroom for a quick shower to get refreshed.

As he was getting dressed, Ken heard Lovetta calling for him and opened the door to greet the girls.

“Did you wake up by yourself today?” Lovetta asked, impressed to see Ken was already awake.

“Big day today! Getting kinda nervous.”

“No way you would get nervous with me cheering for you!”

“Genesis, how can you wake up this early when you aren’t even going to participate in the tournament but can’t put in a single minute of effort into studying so you don’t drop out next year.”

“Stop pressuring me to study!”

“I will break up with you if you don’t pass next year.”

“YOU WHAT!”

“Please don’t scream Genesis. It’s still early and people in the other rooms might still be sleeping.” Indra added quietly.

“I’m just joking! Let’s get going before you wake the whole floor up!”

After two whole years of studying and training, on the second day of the tournament, Ken will finally make his official debut.

With the final exam over, once again, none of the students from the class of 2000 failed and all 1022 will be moving on to the third year. While it’s true no one has failed yet, the pressure is now on for Genesis and many of the students.

With around half of the students still not at advanced level, they will only have 2 more chances to pass or face expulsion and based on what Ken learned from the older students, the drop out rate spikes from this point onward as advanced level is no longer something most people could pass without putting in some serious work.

While school seems to get harder and harder for most, the more Ken learned and understood, the easier everything got and after two years of studying, Ken managed to pass advanced level on every subject with ease and had now surpassed his private tutor.

When they first started school, Alice was in the top 5 for her overall ranking but after two years of not doing any studying and only focusing on helping Ken, her original entrance score had now dropped her out of the top 100.

On the other hand, Ken had leap frogged all the way up to overall rank 88 from his exponential growth rate and to see his name on the top 25 for both elemental and physical practical scores shocked most of the class.

Even though his studying had gone extremely well and his growth much faster than even he could expect, the situation with Clare had only gotten even worse.

Not long after the party, Alice confronted Clare and the two got heated after Alice called Clare a drama queen and the two hadn't talked since and Clare had only gotten more solitary.

While she did nothing but studying and training the entire semester, it seemed like Clare had hit somewhat of a plateau and while she maintained her ranked one overall score, Lovetta’s lead over her grew larger on the physical enhancements while Luke had almost caught up in both his elemental and physical performance.

“Wish me luck Genesis! Hopefully I reach at least day two if they give me some favorable matchups in the bracket.”

“Good luck Ken! Show the world how strong you are!”

While Genesis stayed outside of the stadium to have breakfast, Ken along with Lovetta, Seraphina and Indra headed for the backstage of the stadium to get ready for the tournament and enjoyed the free buffet offered for contestants.

“Morning Emma! What time did you have to get up to get this food ready?”

“Morning Ken! Everyone! I have been working since 5 this morning but my job is almost done so I can join Genesis and cheer for you from the stands.”

“Ken, you shouldn’t eat too much before the matches.” Lovetta warned as Ken grabbed plates full of food.

“I see you have finally decided to join the tournament, too bad the ice princess gets to take care of you before I have a chance but I will take the pleasure of beating the dog.”

“You think too highly of me Luke, I doubt I will make it far enough to face off against Clare. But thanks for having the confidence in my ability though.”

With Clare no longer interacting with Ken at all, Luke had kept up his physiological warfare with the daily taunting and after seeing Ken’s improvements on his overall ranking, the Darrumburgh noble was not happy at all and Ken was not looking forward to another semester of his constant belittlement.

With the bracket released, it would seem that even with Lucia’s interest in him, Ken was not big enough of a draw to have things go his way. Instead of having to face one of the top three in their class in the final four, he got matched up against Clare in the round of the top 16 and knowing his current abilities, he was pretty sure if he could make it this far, that will be the end of his tournament run and not good enough to be in the prize money.

“Lame, I honestly think I have a shot against anyone except Clare, Luke and Lovetta but looks like they won’t risk putting someone without a track record into the final four.”

“You could just beat Clare and make it too!” Seraphina added happily.

“Don’t talk so loud! She is here somewhere and if she hears you say that I will end up having to deal with the consequences.”

After going over the orders they would be going up on stage, the group waited and chatted and watched the matches on the mirrors that were placed all over and waited for their turn to go up the stadium.

Finally getting the call up, Ken entered the stage with a large group and with the sun shining down on his face, for the first time in his life, he is now in the center stage of the biggest arena and being watched by the entire world.

Heart pounding, Ken murmured his keywords to himself over and over, making sure that he doesn’t forget what’s what in the heat of the moment. Looking around at the stadium packed with excited people and hearing Lucia keeping her promise of giving him some extra attention, Ken had not felt this level of nervousness since the first day he showed up to the academy.

Finally paying attention to his opponent after getting inside of his section of the arena, he realized it’s one of the noble goons that follows Luke around. Knowing how much connection and pull Luke has, Ken gathered that even though Luke couldn’t set up a match where he himself would take Ken out, he managed to set up his goons to face off against Ken.

“Great, at least I get to take some of my frustration out on the lackeys.” Ken thought to himself knowing that while Luke was for sure strong and studies extremely hard, most of his groupies are just slacking through their days like Genesis and doing nothing but partying and socialization.

Well versed in all types of weapons and bare hand combat as he trained up everything equally, Ken decided the ideal weapon for him would be a broadsword. Light enough in weight to be wielded with one hand so he could use a shield on his offhand if needed. While still keeping up with all of his martial arts techniques, Ken spent a great deal of time working on his sword fighting skills over the semester.

Snapped back into reality with a fireball flying at his face, the nervousness and tension Ken had disappeared as his training and instincts took over.

With him sparring daily with the likes of Lovetta, Alice, Indra and Seraphina. The fireball felt extremely slow and lacked any power in comparison. Realizing straight away that the skill difference between him and the lackey was massive, Ken enhanced his physical attributes fully and before the opponent even realized Ken was upon him, Ken slashed down with a flashy 360 spin that exploded on contact.

Without a moment to relax, Ken followed up with one more slash that exploded on contact and with that, the match was over in under 10 seconds.

“Did he really just shatter a master level protective spell in two hits? It’s only been a year since he couldn’t even use keywords!” Zeev shouted seeing the crazy growth spurt Ken had in the year since the two had sparred.

“He has definitely been training hard, that boy. Judging by the way he moved, there is no doubt his enhancements are above advanced level now and to be able to combine that on contact with a spell this powerful, if you don’t train up Zeev, he will overtake you soon enough.” Boris added, trying to light a fire under his son while also extremely impressed by Ken’s growth.

“Did you all see that! Combining his physical enhancement with an elemental attack on contact! Ken was able to fully break a master level protection spell in only two hits!” Lucia shouted excited into the speaker as everyone got to watch Ken finally taking the world stage with a flashy start.

“Ken! Great job on your win!”

“Thanks Indra!” Ken answered happily as he returned backstage, satisfied with his first official match.

As the day went on, Ken had a few more matches during the morning and it went just as smoothly as the first where he was able to win easily without taking a single hit while ending each match within 5 hits.

With each round so far against a lackey of Luke’s, Ken was able to relieve a lot of pent up stress while watching Luke getting more angry each time he walked back victorious was the icing on the cake.

“I wonder how much money Luke had to spend to get all of them to be set up as my opponents.”

“I bet he just paid for the bracket and bullied all the opponents his lackeys faced into losing on purpose.”

“Can you beat him, Lovetta? It would be great if you could wipe that smug smile off his face.”

“Sorry Ken, Luke and Clare are too balanced for me with this limited arena and time limit. If we had a different terrain and no time limit, I might be able to surprise them but in the open arena, their defensive magic makes it too hard for me to beat unless I get way faster and stronger.”

“They really should change up the tournament format once in a while. I bet if we were in Chelmswell, you would be much stronger amongst the forest.”

“You should visit again. My sister and mom miss you and I bet Zeev and dad would be happy to spar with you again.”

“Our break is not long enough! Maybe next year since I’m going to visit Vespera and Darrumburgh with Alice but I am definitely never going back to the forest during the winter months ever again!”

With the morning matches over for Ken, he joined up with Emma and Genesis in the stands and watched the final few groups finishing up their morning matches.

“Ken! Can you not show off so much for the world to see? I already have enough trouble keeping girls off you!” Alice complained as she joined the group from her family’s viewing platform after seeing Ken.

“Alice, I think you had to keep exactly zero girl away from me this entire semester.”

“Only because the drama queen left you and people are scared of Luke.”

“You should go make up with Clare. What’s going to happen with your family if they find out you aren’t buddy buddy with her?”

“It’s fine, my dad and uncle had already established a good connection with the Yelwraek over the past year and my involvement is no longer needed.”

After chatting for a bit, the rest of the girls joined the group and as Lucia announced the intermission, Alice rushed back to be with her family while Ken and the rest got a small lunch before starting the matches for the afternoon.

The afternoon matches went equally well for Ken as he had no issues beating every opponent without taking any damage. Not only was his raw enhancement and spell power in the top 25, he was also dedicated to improving his base abilities and stamina.

Compared to any none special race that didn’t have unfair nature advantages since birth like Alice and Seraphina, With Ken’s base abilities, his enhancements and enchants, his quick activation with keywords and his abilities to put what he had learned into actual combat, he has no doubt raisin to be one of the top tier fighter in their year only below the likes of Luke, Clare and Lovetta solely due to his lack of time.

“Amazing job, Ken! You destroyed those nobles! Even the ones who are at advanced levels on their abilities!”

“Thanks Emma! Most of them aren’t even using keywords so they were too slow to do much. They were probably only training to have a decent score for the showcase so their parents can brag. In actual combat, most are more than useless.”

“It will get harder tomorrow, the bracket is pretty much rigged so none of the actual competent fighters will run into each other on day one.” Lovetta added, knowing from her experience from the past 3 tournaments.

“I just hope none of Luke’s lackeys is competent so I get a few more easy matches and show off until I get destroyed by Clare.”

With the second day of tournament over, the group stayed around the tournament ground for a nice meal to celebrate Ken’s amazing debut and headed back to bed early so they could get ready for the matches on the following day.