“H-honey!” A shiver went through the muscular man.
“Amos! You useless imbecile, idiot, good-for-nothing, piece of trash... I only got you a spot after spending 1,000,000 gold coins, yet you’ve wasted it just like that?”
The fatty flesh on the obese woman quivered as she said, “I’m going to skin you after we get home today and give you a taste of the 18 torture methods1...”
“Honey, I—”
The muscular man was as pale as a sheet, and he shook like a leaf.
“That guy...”
Meng Lei had overheard the fat woman and the muscular man’s entire conversation. Aside from finding it funny, he didn’t feel an ounce of compassion for him at all.
Of all people, why must he target him?
He could only blame himself for being unlucky.
Whoosh!
At this point, the sharp sound of something slicing through the air suddenly rang out beside his ear. Meng Lei raised an eyebrow and turned his head to the side slightly. A flying dagger gleaming with a chilly glint flew right by his ear.
“A sneak attack?”
Meng Lei turned around leisurely to see a small, skinny figure wrapped in black clothes about three meters behind him.
Both his head and neck were solidly wrapped, and only a pair of cold, emotionless eyes was left exposed.
“How can this be?”
However, there was a hint of shock in that pair of eyes at that moment. “You’ve actually dodged my flying dagger despite there being only such a short distance between the two of us? And when you even had your back to me?”
Meng Lei abruptly showed up right in front of the small, skinny figure. As their eyes met, he whispered in a low voice, “The entire ring is shrouded in my spiritual power. Ambushing me? What a joke!”
“What?!”
The small, skinny figure was greatly astounded. Then, he felt an intense, severe pain coming from his abdomen. He lowered his head to see that Meng Lei’s fist had landed squarely against his abdomen.
Boom!
A surging, great force assailed him, and the small, skinny figure turned directly into a launched cannonball and flew right out of the ring.
“That’s a mid-level eighth-grade assassin.” Meng Lei secretly sighed inwardly. “He’s no weakling. It’s just a shame that he ran into me.”
Meng Lei looked toward the others—the free-for-all was still ongoing.
Aside from the two that he had blasted off the ring, the other contestants had also reaped their own respective rewards. A contestant was eliminated every two seconds, and the number of contestants in the ring decreased at a rapid rate.
, 80, 70, 60...
Five minutes later, only over 20 people remained in the ring. The situation gradually became clear—aside from Meng Lei and a few other experts, everyone else was in small teams.
As the saying went, “A fence needs the support of three stakes, and an able fellow needs the help of three other people.”
In a free-for-all arena battle like this, even a small team comprising only three people would hold an extremely big advantage over others and benefit greatly, let alone when many of the small teams seemed to have come prepared.
There were as many as five to six people in the teams, and one of them even went up to as many as ten members.
A ten-man team! There was no need for a further explanation behind the meaning of the team!
“Victory will be ours, Team Fighting Dragon’s!”
That’s right, Team Fighting Dragon was the ten-man team. Not only did they coordinate well with each other, but they were adept at both offense and defense, swiftly cutting down the rest of the contestants like a ferocious tiger that had emerged from the mountains.
Boom!
Team Fighting Dragon eliminated a five-man team.
Boom!
Another solo expert was blasted off the ring by Team Fighting Dragon.
Boom!
In the twinkling of an eye, aside from Team Fighting Dragon, only Meng Lei, another Magician, and a six-man team remained in the ring.
“Wipe them out!”
Team Fighting Dragon turned around and charged toward the six-man team. Under the current circumstances, the six-man team posed the biggest threat. As long as they could wipe out the six-man team, Meng Lei and the other Magician didn’t pose a threat to them at all.
“The two sirs there. Let’s join hands and wipe out Team Fighting Dragon!”
Upon sensing the great threat, the six-man team hastily tried to recruit Meng Lei and the other Magician. “As long as we join hands and finish off Team Fighting Dragon, we’ll win!”
“That’s right! There’s only eight of us in total...”
A glint flashed across the Magician’s eyes, and he instantly agreed to the six-man team’s suggestion and formed an alliance with them.
Meng Lei, on the other hand, was taken aback for a moment there. “Form an alliance?”
“Let’s finish off that fellow first. I’ve taken notice of him for a very long while now.”
“He’s very strong. We mustn’t allow them to form an alliance. Otherwise, things will become very troublesome.”
At the sight of this, Team Fighting Dragon temporarily looked away from the six-man team and targeted Meng Lei instead. Then, they charged directly toward him.
Team Fighting Dragon was made up of ten Dragon People. They had either a pair of horns on their heads, Dragon scales on their faces, or a Dragon tail at their bottoms...
The ten Dragon People were strong and powerful, and their performance in the ring just now had directly conquered countless spectators’ hearts. At the sight of them charging toward Meng Lei, the audience broke into screams and cheers, shouting and rooting for them.
“Go for it! Go for it, Team Fighting Dragon!”
“Finish him off! Victory is yours!”
“I love you, Team Fighting Dragon...”
Boom!
As though ten T-rexes, Team Fighting Dragon came crushing toward Meng Lei with an aura capable of ripping everything into shreds. “Kid, if you know what’s good for you, then get the hell off the ring yourself, lest we end up having to dirty our hands!”
“Bastard! Serves you right!”
The muscular man, the small, skinny figure, and others that Meng Lei had thrown out of the ring just now were overjoyed at the sight of this. Delight flashed across their eyes, seemingly already witnessing the scene of Meng Lei being beaten into a pulp and thrown off the ring.
“To think there are actually people looking down on me!”
Meng Lei was as calm and collected as always. As he gazed at Team Fighting Dragon coming toward him with a crushing momentum, his right hand grabbed upward toward the sky, and all the Thunder Elements within 1,000 meters converged madly.
In a mere instant, a silver, savage-looking monster revealed itself and floated above the fighting ring.
“A t-thunder dragon?”
All the spectators gasped, their cheers abruptly dying down.
Team Fighting Dragon also raised their heads, only to see a Colossal Dragon with a wingspan of over 1,000 meters and wholly formed by lightning manifesting above their heads.
Its empty, vacant eyes bore coldly into them, and its brutal, raging might engulfed the entire venue. Despite standing a great distance away, Team Fighting Dragon could still feel the thunder dragon’s fearsomeness, nevertheless.
In a split second, everyone in Team Fighting Dragon swallowed hard, cold sweat trickling down their backs as a thought welled up within them, “Should it strike me, wouldn’t I be a total goner?”
Howl!
The thought had only just occurred to them when the thunder dragon suspended above them suddenly let out a loud, sonorous dragon roar. Then, it flapped its wings and swooped down headfirst.
Boom!
The arena exploded in an instant!
Chapter 128: The Last Day, The King Watches The Battle
Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
The 1,000-feet-long thunder dragon crashed downward with a great boom. Amid earth-shattering sounds of explosion, raging lightning instantly covered the whole fighting ring.
Electric currents wreaked havoc as smoke billowed and rose.
All the spectators in the venue felt a violent tremor go through the entire arena. There was ringing in their ears, and they experienced temporary deafness.
Crackle, crackle!
The electric currents running rampant gradually dispersed and revealed the covered fighting ring, rendering everyone flabbergasted at once.
The fighting ring that reached several meters tall had disappeared. What replaced it was a black, charred chasm, and Meng Lei was standing right at the edge.
Team Fighting Dragon and everyone else in the fighting ring had disappeared, whereas over ten black, charred “wooden blocks” laid quietly at the bottom of the chasm.
Well, they could just be called wooden blocks for now—because they were pitch-black all over and bore a striking resemblance to charred wooden blocks.
“H-how did this happen?”
“Where did the ring go?”
“Where’s Team Fighting Dragon?”
“What grade of magic was that thunder dragon just now? Why is it so terrifying that even the fighting ring has been blasted into oblivion?”
“That’s the Ninth-Grade Spell... Raging Thunder Dragon!”
“What!?”
“A ninth-grade spell!?”
“Hiss!”
The spectators involuntarily sucked in breaths of chilly air. “No wonder it was so terrifying... To think it’s actually a ninth-grade spell!”
“That teenager is a Ninth-Grade Great Magician?”
“A great Ninth-Grade Magician? How can that be?”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The audience’s eyes landed on Meng Lei in tandem, astoundment, incredulity, and disbelief within them.
There were quite a fair number of Ninth-Grade Great Magicians in the kingdom, but most of the ninth-grade experts were already very advanced in age.
A Ninth-Grade Great Magician as young as Meng Lei was practically unheard of... No, it wasn’t unheard of! In fact, they had heard of one recently!
“Meng Lei?”
“Could he be Meng Lei?”
Someone among the audience let out a shout. The whole place went into a great furor in an instant, and everyone’s eyes widened and bore into the teenager standing at the edge of the chasm, their eyes full of fervent passion and astoundment.
“16 years old!”
“A Ninth-Grade Great Magician!”
“The number one genius in all of Fire Dragon Kingdom’s history!”
“Meng Lei!”
“That’s Meng Lei!”
“Meng Lei!”
“Meng Lei!”
“Meng Lei!”
The whole venue broke into massive cheers, and innumerable people shouted Meng Lei’s name loudly.
Fervency!
Idolization!
Excitement!
In particular, the look in some noblewomen, debutantes, and wealthy young ladies’ eyes were overt and openly ravenous, as if wishing that they could devour Meng Lei.
As for the ten-odd wooden blocks lying at the bottom of the chasm, no one cared about them at all.
“Am I that famous now?” Meng Lei wondered as he took a look at the fervent audience.
Then, inspiration suddenly struck him. “Those celebrities in my past life earned money like they were just picking cash off the ground. I wonder if I can emulate them?”
No matter how famous he was or how many worshippers he had, if they couldn’t be turned into actual, practical gold coins, then all of it was nothing but empty titles.
“This is a pretty good money-making idea. I can discuss this a little with Fatty and see whether or not I can earn some endorsement fees or something...”
Just as Meng Lei was silently making plans mentally, Jim, the host, hurried over and looked at him with a complex look on his face.
“Mr. Host, have I passed the test?” asked Meng Lei passively.
“Of course! It’s just that...”
Jim pointed at the ten-odd wooden blocks at the bottom of the chasm with a wry smile. Ten people were supposed to remain in the 100-man free-for-all, but Meng Lei was the only one standing now.
Well, alright, it wasn’t as if a situation like this hadn’t occurred in the past, right? But the problem now was that there were ten Dragon People among the ten-odd people that Meng Lei had finished off.
One must understand that these ten Dragon People came from eminent backgrounds. Although there was a liability waiver on fatalities in the qualifying round, now that they had died here today, the people backing them up would never let the matter rest.
“Don’t worry, they are still alive.”
However, what the host didn’t expect was Meng Lei shaking his head and saying with a smile, “They’ve just passed out, that’s all. You can wake them up just by pissing on them.”
“Really?”
“Of course!”
...
After the battle ended, Meng Lei left the arena directly. Only arena free-for-alls were scheduled for the next two days.
One could only advance to the next round after the arena free-for-alls.
In other words, Meng Lei had the following two days to rest. He was thinking of using these couple of days to get his hands on some endorsement fees and whatnot.
Thus, Meng Lei contacted Fatty Hart and told him about his idea of making money through endorsements. Fatty Hart was utterly stupefied by what he said.
“Endorsements? What are endorsements? Food?”
Meng Lei hung up on him right away. Then, he returned to the library like the good boy he was and buried himself in his study of wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic again, never to mention the matter of making money through endorsements ever again.
F*ck!
To think there actually isn’t the idea of celebrity endorsements in Heaven’s Vault Continent! Well, that’s so goddamn awkward!
...
Meng Lei stayed in the library, closing himself off to everything happening in the outside world, but the qualifying round blazed on, nonetheless.
After two days of intense competition, the first elimination round and arena free-for-all had finally ended. A total of 412 people had successfully advanced to the next round.
As such, the second selection round began.
Compared to the deeply flawed arena free-for-all, the second round was much fairer because this particular round featured showdowns between random pairs of opponents—two-man showdowns among 412 contestants where the victor would advance to the next round while the loser would be eliminated.
Two days later, 206 contestants were left.
Another day later, 103 remained.
They had finally reached the last day of the qualifying round.
On this day, Meng Lei woke up early in the morning and rode Fatty Hart’s luxurious vehicle to Douglas Magic Academy.
Fatty Hart was very excited today, and he chattered non-stop.
“Old bro, let me tell you a piece of good news. His Majesty, the king, and Her Majesty, the queen, as well as all the adult princes and princesses, will be here to watch the battle today.
“Apart from that, innumerable royalty, nobles, officials, and the wealthy, as well as the presidents of all the major academies, will also be there.
“It’s no exaggeration to say that today is definitely the most ceremonious day ever since the start of the qualifying round. You’d better perform well. If any of the princesses fancies you, you’ll be able to kick back and relax for the rest of your life.
“Hehe! Never mind about the other princesses, but if you can gain the fancy of the Ninth Princess, you’ll strike gold...”
“Are you in heat right now?” Meng Lei rolled his eyes and asked dryly, “Do you think there’s a need for me to b
e a social climber and attain the peak of my life by conquering a princess?”
“Uh...”
Fatty Hart was stupefied for a moment before he replied sheepishly, “That’s true! Old bro has already become a Ninth-Grade Great Magician before he’s even 16 years old. You’ll definitely attain Saint Domain realm in the future, and your future is limitless...”
As they engaged in idle and nonsensical chat the whole way, they finally reached Douglas Magic Academy. The academy today was completely different from what it was like in the past.
Security within 1,000 meters of the academy was tight and brisk.
Teams of palace guards wearing golden armor were stationed every three to five steps, sealing off all the routes leading in and out of Douglas Magic Academy.
In the sky were even several handsome, magnificent-looking Dragon-Falcon Knights suspended in the air and circling around as they sealed off the air space above Douglas Magic Academy.
Douglas Magic Academy could be said to be completely surrounded on all sides at the moment—not even a fly could get past the guards!
Fatty Hart landed one kilometer away from the academy. Then, he pointed at the palace guards in front and said, “Douglas Magic Academy has been cordoned off, so I can only send you this far, old bro.”
“Thanks!”
After expressing his thanks, Meng Lei asked, “Are you going to watch the battle in the academy today, Fatty?”
At his question, Fatty Hart’s face fell at once, and he replied, “I would like to, but the spectator fee goes as high as 100,000 gold coins. I can’t fork out that much money!”
It was already the seventh day of the qualifying round today. Even though the number of contestants was falling day by day, not only did the people’s enthusiasm not wane but on the contrary, it was even rising further and further.
As a result, the spectator fee also rose higher and higher day by day.
,000 gold coins, 8,000 gold coins, 16,000 gold coins...
By today, it had finally broken the 100,000 gold coins mark!
To be honest, 100,000 gold coins weren’t actually a lot. However, Fatty Hart had already spent all his savings on the luxurious vehicle, so how could he possibly still be able to fork out the huge sum of 100,000 gold coins?
Picking Up Attributes From Today c1-406 Page 69