After such a horrific incident, there were no longer anypetitors who were dissatisfied with the standings and thus the second day of the ''Battle of the Finest'' concluded right when the sun was about to set.


    The event of today spread like wildfire to even the surrounding cities and regions. The influx of people trying to get inside the city to witness the third day of the tournament increased even further.


    Simon came back to his room after filling his stomach on the way. He sat down on his bed, closed his eyes and recalled all the battles that had happened today. It was spectacr how each and every participant disyed their skills and powers to face against their opponents.


    These matches were extremely informational for Simon who was a Demon noble and a dungeon master. Who knows he might even have to face them in the future when his dungeon grows further.


    From what he noticed, levels yed an important role in this battle; however, what it boiled down to at the end was the ss they each had. A human in terms of pure stats was inferior to a demon noble but to make up for it, they have ss and ss-specific skills.


    Though even amongst ss there were some rare sses that more than made up for these differences and Simon had witnessed a few of them with his own eyes. His earlier preconception that he would be able to win against any humans simr to his levels with just his stats alone, was brutally destroyed during the matches today.


    The top 50 participants all had rare sses and disyed abilities that showed people why they were better than the others.


    "There are sses that focus on a specific stats and sses that boosts all your stats in general. It would be obvious to see thetter win over the former with andslide margin. However, that was not the case".


    "The people with sses that focused on specific stats clearly had more of an edge on people with sses that gave an increase to all stats in general. It was not because they had skills matching their stats, but also knew what their weak and strong points were and used it marvellously against their opponents".


    Simon contemted, he felt like he too was improving as he retrospected what he saw today. Unlike the ranking system of Demon Nobles, the ss system of humans was varied and each gets the kind of ss depending on their mastery, suitability, the path they have walked on and their vision.


    sses were sses at the end, it wasn''t the only factor that made these participants strong. One also had to factor in their years of experience and training and also their potential which represented theirtent talent and how high their ceiling was.


    It also showed the purity of their bloodline and how powerful they can be in the future. Most of the top 50 participants had high potential with a handful of few having been assessed with very high.


    It would be not an exaggeration to say that people with very high potential will have less difficulty moving up the levels and are more likely to get more rare sses during ss changes in the future.


    Additionally, Simon noticed that the stats from the previous ss get stacked with the stats that one gain after they ss change to a new ss. That is to say, a truly powerful human would have high stats suiting to their level.


    If one looks at it like that, they were powerful opponents even for Demon nobles. As Simon was lost in his thoughts, suddenly the voice of Adalinda rang inside his head.


    "Hey can you hear me? Hehe, I have finally caught my disciple but since she ran too far, it will take some time for us to reach the kingdom of Ellesmere. Wait for us there".


    Simon got up from his seat but unlike the previous time he was looking cluelessly all around, this time he did not seem too surprised. Just like always, she ended the transmission after leaving a few words of instruction for him.


    Well, he had already decided to watch the ''battle of the finest'' tournament to its end so there was no problem on his end to wait for a few days.


    Additionally, he did not have to worry too much about his dungeon since Irene and the Lightning draconic Serpent was there. Thus he could take his time to explore the outside world and train in the meantime.


    After all, an opportunity to get outside the Ghastly winding forest doesn''t present itself every time. This trip to the capital city Ellesmere was proving to be very beneficial for Simon. His level was not stagnant anymore, he was getting a change of pace and he was also constantly learning by watching these talented and young geniuses who were the future of this kingdom.


    <strong>BOOM… BOOM…</strong> the morning of the next day started with firecrackers going off. Even before the sunlight greeted thend, the people started bing lively with activity going on all around. Stalls lined up everywhere, inviting customers with the delicious aroma that was wafting off.


    Today was the third day of the ''Battle of the Finest'' tournament and the mood of the people was festive. The coliseum was already jam-packed with people when Simon entered.


    Looking all around, he noticed that the main stage was a little different than yesterday with peculiar mechanisms ced at the four corners of the stage. These mechanisms had huge mana stones (shouldn''t be mistaken for Mana crystals) powering them.


    After a while, Cyrus arrived on the stage and dered the start of the third stage ''Individual Ranking'' that would be held on the main stage.


    "To protect the safety of the people and to prevent the rampaging energy to reach the audience stands, we have ced barriers around the stage so that everyone can watch the battles without any worry. This barrier was created with the help of dozens of level 450+ mages and is even capable of withstanding an attack from someone above level 500".


    With Cyrus revealing the purpose of the weird mechanism ced at the corners of the stage, the audience finally understood why they were there for and at the same time also understood that the matches would be unlike all the previous battles and would be so fierce that a barrier would be needed to protect them from the aftershock.


    "The name of the participants whose name I call out, pleasee down to the stage. First battle, Roscoe Ironwood from the kingdom of ckthorn—Vs—Marcus Sarge from Savannah Beast Guild".


    The moment thest name came up, the audience erupted in a huge mour. This was the first battle of the day and who else was better suited to start it off than one of the strongest participants favoured to win the tournament.


    Cheers of encouragement and support, sounded out for Marcus as he walked over to the main stage. His opponent was someone from the Kingdom of ckthorn who have a unique way of fighting.


    "Listen up Marcus, that prince from the sanguine Empire, Erwin and that Lass from Magician''s guild is one thing, but you must also be careful of those participants from our neighbouring nations. Particrly those participants from the kingdom of ckthorn, the weapons and artifacts they used during the second stage of the tournament for some reason make even me unsettled".


    As he observed his opponent, he remembered the conversation that he had with his fatherst night.


    "Even father thinks those weapons are dangerous?".


    Brutus Sarge nodded "Right… though weapons are weapons at the end, depending on the person who uses, it makes them strong or weak. Remember, you must end the battle as soon as possible if youe around any participants from the Kingdom of ckthorn. If you draw the battle for long, you will expose your skills and strength to that monster of a prince and Erwin".


    These were thest few words of caution his father had given him before the match. Cyrus looked at the two opponents who were raring to go and signalled the start of the battle.


    As soon as the whistle was blown, Marcus rushed towards his opponent. [Gale Beat w], he utilised his ss-specific skill, a huge green w materialised in his right hand and came sweeping down of Roscoe.


    <strong>CLANG…</strong>


    A loud grating noise of metal colliding with metal sounded out and in front of their astonished eyes of Marcus, his beast w was stopped from proceeding any forward.


    "Hehe, it seems that even an opponent of a level higher than 400 is no match for these weapons that prince Ivan gave us".


    Roscoe said smiling widely, his hand held a peculiar sword that had curves around the de and had a dull edge. The sword was pitch ck in ck in colour but other than that appeared ordinary at a nce.


    Marcus narrowed his eyes when he saw his green w slowly bing weaker and losing ground against the sword until finally it was pushed back. Marcus dished out a fierce leg sweep however, his opponent swiftly dodged it by jumping back.


    After opening some distance from Roscoe, Marcus observed the former, more urately the weapon he was holding. From what he could tell, his attack bing weaker was due to the sword.


    The weapon must have some ability that chips away at one''s strength during collision.


    "Father is right, that weapon indeed is bizarre. But that does not mean that it is omnipotent, if I can''t touch the sword, I''ll just have to target your body" Marcus thought inwardly before pressing forward once again.


    A storm of punches and kicks assaulted Roscoe and forced him into defending.