The Herb King

The next day, it was the official start of the battle event. The arena that was specifically built for the competition was already packed with people and everyone was excited to witness the epic battles of the young talents of the empire.

There were even some people who placed large bets on their favorite participants, hoping that they could earn a large sum of money. This betting pool was set up by the Merchant Association and the Imperial Family.

Looking at the amounts of bets placed by the observers, Alec Ward has the most bets on him. With his sudden rise in the recent years, the young lord of the Ward Household was indeed one of the strongest participants.

"Does anyone of you know what the first part of the event is going to be?"

"I have no idea. The organizers didn't mention anything. Let's just wait and see."

Meanwhile, the more than one thousand participants have already surrounded the battle arena. It was a huge platform and was definitely enough for the young Espers to show off their abilities.

"His Majesty has arrived." Someone suddenly announced in a loud voice.

Everyone craned their necks and stared at the special section made for the Imperial Family.

Emperor Ragnar walked towards his seat with a calm look on his face. His overflowing charisma made the spectators look at him with deep veneration.

Following behind the emperor was the second prince, Prince Calvin, and Dimitri who was still acting as an assistant.

The commoners kneeled respectfully at the emperor as they greeted him. "Greetings, Your Majesty!"

Emperor Ragnar gestured for everyone to stand up. He then smiled as he said. "We all came here for the battle event so I will not waste too much time on some stupid speech. I now announce the commencement of the competition!" He then flicked his sleeves and sat down on his seat.

Everyone clapped and cheered, excited for the battles that would come.

Prince Calvin nodded his head at the emperor. He was the main organizer of the event so it was best for him to tell everyone the rules of the first part of the competition.

Prince Calvin walked towards the center of the huge platform. Everyone followed him with their gazes and they immediately shut their mouth.

With all eyes gathered on him, Prince Calvin wasn't nervous. He smiled as he said. "The first part of the event is an elimination round. All participants must step inside the bronze tiles around the battle arena. Each tile is inscribed with a gravity rune. The strength of gravity would increase as time passes by and only the remaining two hundred fifty participants will have the chance to showcase their prowess. This event will eliminate those with weaker willpower and perseverance." He then turned his gaze to the participants and told them. "Participants, please step into the bronze squares."

All the participants heeded him and step into the bronze squares. They felt a bit nervous and some even summoned their world essence in preparation for the unknown.

Looking at their faces, Prince Calvin smiled as he gave a signal.

The bronze squares immediately lit up and the participants could already feel the sharp increase in gravity. They felt as if a heavy boulder was pressing down on them.

There were huge screens prepared all over the stadium for the spectators. Everyone could see the struggling faces of the participants through the screen.

The people who had placed large bets nervously stared at the participants they'd chosen.

Meanwhile, in the VIP section, Leric was looking at the screens with an uncaring look on his face. Sitting on either side of him were Anna and Samira who were looking at the participants with extreme attention.

Lord Julius and the others were also talking about their perspective on the participants' strengths based on what they know.

'What a boring event. Why are they even excited about this? It's more fun to watch horse racing than this lousy gravity dog crap...' Leric muttered disdainfully in his heart.

Suddenly, Leric's eyes narrowed as he inspected the runes on the bronze squares. He could tell that the runes were not ordinary. The strokes were forceful but were still refined. It was definitely the work of a top Engraver! His disdainful eyes were replaced with a solemn pondering look. He never thought that Engravers could actually bring out such power and that those gravity runes were merely for the sake of the competition. What if those runes were used in war?

"Sir Aethelwolf, what do you think about the participants?" Lord Harold suddenly asked him when he saw Leric staring at the screen with unblinking eyes.

Leric turned his head at him and responded thoughtlessly. "They're so-so...aya! I mean, they are good prospects and I can see that some of them would be great warriors in the future."

Lord Harold chuckled when he heard him. He definitely said that the young talents were so-so, but he didn't expose him.

"Sir Harold, you see those runes? What do you think will happen if we place them in the key areas of the empire?" Leric changed the topic and pointed at the runes.

Lord Harold was dumbfounded when he heard his question. The others also perked up their ears and listened to their conversation.

Place gravity runes in the key areas of the empire? It was a great idea, but the number of runes needed would be a lot and the materials they would have to gather for them were astronomical. Other than that, there weren't a lot of Engravers in the empire and even if all Engravers in the empire worked together, it would still take them years to accomplish what Leric had just said.

"I know that it would take a very long time to do it. I believe it would take around five years or more to finish the entire plan and the number of resources needed would be tremendous. However..." Leric's eyes suddenly narrowed into slits as he continued.

"If by chance the empire was able to accomplish this idea, we would be prepared for any war that would come. Be it against a neighboring empire or even the combined might of two empires, they would have a hard time fighting against our soldiers. Man, Engravers are so damn scary..."

Leric's words stunned them into silence. Sir Aethelwolf, the scary ones aren't the Engravers, but you and your crazy ideas!

Although Leric's idea was bordering the line of impossibility, it was still worthy of consideration.

When Leric noticed that they had gone silent, he gave them a confused look. "What happened to you guys?"