Chapter 385: An Unexpected Gank

If there was one thing that no one was worried about in the Challenger Cup, it was the safety of the challengers. There should have been no challenger who was capable of dishing out a single blow that exceeded the damage threshold of the substitution magic tool.

The damage threshold didn’t refer to the injuries sustained by the challengers but the extent of destruction required to destroy the substitution magic tool.

That was the reason why offspring of nobility and royalty were willing to join the tournament and spectators could watch the battles without any worry. What people were more concerned with was how pitiful the challengers died when they were eliminated.

Even Roel was only concerned about the results of the other members of the Bluerose Faction. Not once had it crossed his mind that his friends and subordinates could be in danger. That was the reason why he was so shocked when he heard that Paul had gotten injured.

Roel quickly had the member of the Bluerose Faction bring him over to where Paul was at. On the way, he inquired about the details of the incident.

There wasn’t much the spectators could see in the preliminary round. The dungeons were massive, and there were over ten thousand challengers fighting one another simultaneously. It was impossible to cover all of that. Only the most exciting battles were brought out to enliven the crowd.

This time, the group that had the most clips shown was none other than the tenth group.

The only one whom Roel was close with in the tenth group was Paul.

Paul was still at Origin Level 5, so he didn’t stand out amongst the challengers. He was also lacking in combat experience as a First Grade student.

For these reasons, Roel didn’t think that it was likely that Paul would be able to clear the preliminary round, so he made sure not to heap pressure on the latter. Paul himself was also participating in the Challenger Cup with the mindset that ‘it’s the process that matters, not the outcome’.

Who could have thought that someone would target him?

The culprit who injured him was no other than Kurt, one of the three male transfer students from the Knight Kingdom.

Kurt Gustav, successor to the Gustav Marquess House. Brown-haired, towering physique, and below average appearance.

This was the information that Roel had on that man thus far.

Kurt didn’t particularly stand out within the group of transfer students. Those who encountered the transfer students from Pendor would tend to notice him first due to his tall stature, but their attention would soon be captured by the more striking others. Amongst the transfer students, he was fairly plain in comparison.

Yet, it was this plain man who became the surprising dark horse of the preliminary round, as well as the one to halt Paul’s path.

The dungeon chosen for the tenth group was the Berserk Beast Jungle, which was known to be the home of irascible demonic beasts. Assaults from demonic beasts were common there, making it a highly dangerous dungeon. Yet, Paul fared well in that environment.

Paul had adopted the Ackermanns’ Kingdom Origin Attribute. An Origin Attribute that the Ackermanns went all out to monopolize would naturally possess great powers, but how far a person was able to develop those powers would depend on themselves.

Two transcendents with the same Origin Attribute could potentially develop in different directions depending on their circumstances and depth of understanding. It was similar to how everyone was taught a similar curriculum in university, but they ended up writing different thesis papers.

Lilian had managed to grasp Ten Fortresses, which was traditionally considered to be the extremity of what the Kingdom Origin Attribute was capable of. The spell was a miracle created by the will to protect and the long history of the Ancient Austine Empire. It had been several centuries since anyone had managed to fully master Ten Fortresses.

As someone who was still tilling in the farmlands till last year, it was inevitable that Paul’s understanding of the Kingdom Origin Attribute and worldly experience were beneath Lilian’s. Nevertheless, as the protagonist of Eyes of the Chronicler, he was bound to have things that only he was capable of.

Paul’s understanding of the Kingdom Origin Attribute was extremely simple—he thought of his own body as a country. He deemed his act of self-defense to be equivalent to protecting his own country. His mindset couldn’t be said to be wrong as it was simply too difficult for a struggling orphan who had grown up in hardship to be thinking about the larger world beyond his immediate one.

His interpretation of the Kingdom Origin Attribute manifested in his ability to summon legendary weapons of the Ancient Austine Empire.

With this ability, Paul was able to escape from the jungle and enter the cavern where the crystals were located. However, Kurt was already lying in wait there, ready to ambush him.

There was an explosion of mana, and Kurt’s hand suddenly expanded into the size of a towering tree before slamming down on Paul, causing the cavern to collapse in the process.

Paul would have never stood a chance against an opponent like that under normal circumstances, but Kurt’s assault had caused a misunderstanding and stirred a riot.

There was no doubt that Kurt’s partial gigantification was a powerful magic, and his target was clearly directed at Paul alone. It was just that he failed to consider how the powerful shockwave of his attack would embroil the other challengers in the vicinity of the cavern.

Knowing that Kurt’s intentional aggression had already sowed the seeds of conflict, Paul exploited this opportunity to fan the flames of conflict. He loudly accused Kurt of monopolizing all ten crystals.

That immediately turned the crowd against Kurt.

To make things worse, the uproar from the large-scale fight invoked a stampede from the irascible beasts in the jungle, resulting in a three-sided battle amongst Kurt, the challengers, and the demonic beasts.

It was a complete chaos.

The challengers who arrived belatedly had no idea what was going on at all. Before they knew it, they were already dragged into the fray and were forced to fight with all they had in order to survive.

It was under such circumstances that Paul received too much damage and ended up sustaining injuries.

Roel’s face darkened upon hearing the circumstances surrounding the tenth group. The other members of the Bluerose Faction chose to keep silent when they noticed his awful complexion.

They rushed to the entrance of the Berserk Beast Jungle, where injured challengers were lying all around the place. The battle must have been truly intense to result in such casualties.

Under the lead of the other faction members, Roel and the others soon found Paul. The latter was lying on a stretcher with blood stains all over his body. It didn’t seem like he was fatally injured, though he appeared weirdly exuberant.

Why does he look so happy despite having suffered injuries?

The perplexed Roel approached him, only to swiftly hear of an unexpected news.

“Big brother Roel, the tournament’s judges have just told me that I’ve held onto my crystal for ten minutes before my substitution magic tool was broken, which means that I can advance to the next round!”

“You cleared the preliminary round?”

Roel was surprised to hear those words.

It turned out that Paul had managed to acquire one of the crystals in the fight and successfully held onto it for ten minutes. It was just that before the crystal could activate and teleport him out of the scene, he received a powerful attack from Kurt that destroyed his substitution magic tool and inflicted injuries on him.

It came as a huge surprise to Roel that Paul actually managed to maneuver his way through that hell difficulty scenario and clear the preliminary round. The result showed just how much Paul had grown since enrolling into the academy

Roel heaved a huge sigh of relief, gladdened that Paul had managed to make it. He knew just how important the Challenger Cup was to him.

This was a chance for Paul to prove himself. If he could accomplish something here, his circumstances would improve significantly. It wouldn’t be enough for an illegitimate son like him to succeed the crown, but at the very least, he wouldn’t face as much oppression anymore.

It was unlikely that Paul had thought that far ahead, but as a friend, Roel couldn’t help but to be concerned about it. For that, he had spent quite some time training Paul up for the tournament.

Who could have thought that a transfer student from the Knight Kingdom would target Paul, nearly causing the latter’s elimination at this important event?

Roel could have forgiven Kurt if he had come at him directly, but the latter had chosen to target those around him instead.

This was not something Roel could tolerate. With a darkened look on his face, he decided that something had to be done.

—

Changed Grant to Kurt