Chapter 101: 101. “Pandora.”

"As you may already know. The ranking competition, or Cross Ranking, is a tournament which is at first local, then intercontinental," Arima said and everyone nodded.

"There are three continents participating in this competition; the Main Land, Heriz Land, and Yeron Land. The three biggest academies from there each hold a local tournament which will narrow the participating teams to two per continent. After that, the main tournament will be held at Mid Isle," Arima explained and projected a world map.

A red point marked the three continents then were connected together by a line. It formed a red triangle and the point of intersection of its bisecting lines glowed with a green light.

"That green dot is mid-island. This is why this tournament is also called Cross Ranking. Of course, at the end of that tournament, a ranking will be determined by the jury. That ranking will not only list the teams or the classes, but all the students participating."

Arima looked at this class. "I assume you understand that I want you to aim for the highest possible," He said then waved his hand to change the projection. A complex tournament bracket with a lot of different sections was now projected.

"This is the bracket for the main competition. For the local, it's just eight teams competing until there are only two," Arima commented. "Now, for the main tournament. There are six teams competing. Those teams will contend against each other like this," Arima declared and the projection changed to display six letters.

"Let's label the teams with letters. From A to F. Firstly, the first round will be A vs B, C vs D and E vs F. The losing teams will be eliminated. After that, we are left with only three teams. This is the important part.

“During the second round, it will be A vs B, then C vs A and B vs C. In this case, the teams won't be eliminated if they lose once. They will accumulate points. The team with the most points at the end will win the tournament," Arima explained as his projection illustrated everything.

"Now, what are the examinations of this tournament? How will they compete?" Arima raised the question and the projection came back to the bracket. "This bracket is separated into different sections. There's three to be exact at first," He said and the image changed into three empty squares.

"One, it's of course, combat. Four 10 vs 10 matches, three 2 vs 2 matches, and four 1 vs 1 matches," Arima stated and the first square showed an arena. "Which means that I'll have to intensely train your teamwork."

"Two, it's magic theory." The second square illustrated a staff.

"Three, life force and spiritual forces’ density." The third square showed four small acronyms, Lf, Au, Mp, and Kill.

"And, yes, killing intent is also part of the test," Arima remarked. "These three categories will filter the initial six teams. Following that, there are five categories to determine the final winner between the last three teams. You have, of course, the three categories I just listed you plus two others."

Arima said and two more squares appeared on the hologram. "The first one is quite significant; magic control. It's a critical aspect of magic that must be mastered as much as possible. It’s obvious that it would be here. If it wasn’t, I would have some complaints."

Ofia nodded when she heard that. She knew how important magic control was. And she had even the pride to say that she was better at it than all of her classmates.

"The final category is," Arima paused and smiled. "Is what I showed you earlier; mana core manifestation," He revealed and everyone exclaimed in surprise. "What I showed you earlier was to prepare you.”

Arima grinned. “And in fact, I will, later on, teach you something. How to increase your core’s purity and,” His grin became even broader. “How to form a second core.”

The students blanked when they heard that. They wondered if they had heard correctly.

“I’m not kidding. It’s possible to increase the number of cores. Although it’s indeed very dependent on one’s talent, all of you here have definitely enough of it to form a second one. Having several cores can strengthen you greatly. The more cores you possess, the quicker your mana recovery is, the larger your mana pool, the denser your mana becomes, and most importantly, your magic formations can be then fueled by several different sources. And believe me, that’s a huge boost,” Arima chuckled as he saw his students trembling with excitement.

"Anyway, remember the tests I just mentioned. The details about how the scores will be established are for later. For now, from today onward, I'll make you focus on these areas for your training."

Arima smiled and stood up. “And, we will begin right away," He announced and everyone was instantly transferred into another dimension.

Night, Karma, Arister, and Chulainn all sighed. Especially Night, he really hated teaching children.

Karma was sighing because she was lazy to help.

Arister sighed because he didn't want to get dragged into it, but he already considered Arima as a friend so he candidly followed.

Chulainn sighed because he felt that Arima was going to ask him to do something.

Lanya looked at them and then sighed as well. It was for a totally different reason though. She just wanted to raise her level to the Earthen Realm as fast as possible but she had to wait for the Cross Ranking so that Arima would give her the method. Until then, she knew she was the weakest of the group and felt quite frustrated.

"Stop sighing, it's bad for your mental health," Arima uttered when they had arrived in the middle of a rocky canyon.

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Meanwhile, in a remote world, Karaskan was flying in outer space surrounded by different twinkling lights of varied colors. His speed was astounding, at a point where even Arima wouldn't be able to see him well.

Karaskan stopped just in front of a huge blazing star. The light of the flames illuminated his figure. The heat and arcs of fire coming out of the star looked very threatening.

Its size wasn't something as big as the sun in Arima's world but it was easily bigger than the Earth. Karaskan extended his hand without a word and darkness escaped his palm in great quantity and density.

It spread around, sucking in the starlight. Even the flames coming from the burning star were extinguished when they touched the darkness. A veil of darkness soon covered the entire star and started to become tighter as it pushed against it.

After some time, the veil of darkness became distorted at several places as if there was an explosion within it. When the distortions were gone, Karaskan waved his fingers. The veil then vanished and you could now see that the star had been completely consumed.

There was only a small object drifting there instead. Only someone with the eyes of at least an Earthen Realm individual would be able to see it. That object shook and suddenly became attracted by something as it flew toward Karaskan's hand.

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The latter caught the object and inspected it. It was a small black box with strange designs on it. There were some runes inscribed on it that delivered spirit waves so strong that it would make anyone under the Heavenly Realm dizzy.

Karaskan grinned. "I thought that I wouldn’t open this box in a very long time. I wonder; a Life Hunter that I angered in the past who then became a Silver Emperor…" He snickered. "Isn't that destiny?"

*******************************************

At the same time, Azes was overseeing multiple worlds when he suddenly felt a pain invading his arm. His eyes narrowed and he rolled his sleeve. He spotted a strange black mark a bit below his shoulder.

"Damnit!" He shouted with a voice that could even make Chulainn cower. He slammed his hand on the table and broke it. It was important to know that the material in which that table had been made was something that even Arima would have problems to destroy.

"I thought that Pandora had been destroyed!" He shouted. "How did he hide it from us?" He grunted and then sat down. He teleported on the roof of his residence along with his chair and looked around at the pure white city made of stone.

A true depiction of God's Land. Azes gazed at a peculiar structure in the distance, surrounded by majestic trees.

"I hope it won't take too long, I need to know his past even more now," He sighed then returned inside.

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"Okay, it’s time to form groups," Arima said to his students who were gathered in front of him. "For starters, the four groups of ten, you can make them however you want. But for the pairs and the four who will fight in a 1 vs 1, they will be decided by me."

"Thus, the pairs will be Balan and Melody, Ofia and Lena, Isla and Gaodu," Arima listed and the concerned students stepped forward.

"The solo fighters will be Ferzia, Irian, Airon, and Kine," Arima listed one more time and the called students moved to the side. At the same time, the four groups of ten were already almost done.

Arima observed them and glanced at the four he had just called. Especially the two latest entries, Airon and Kine.

Airon was a 17-year-old human. He was basically an ‘Arister junior’. He was kind of gloomy, serious, and mainly used darkness magic.

On the other hand, Kine was the only student in the class who was from the demon race. She was 16 and her forte was fire magic. Arima also noticed that she had traces of Blood Eater in her. The racial ability Raal had used against him.

These two new students, along with Irian and Ferzia, were the four strongest students in his class. At least, in a 1 vs 1 situation.

"I'll take care of the four groups of ten and the pairs with Lanya," Arima declared. “Arister, you'll coach Ferzia since I'm sure you want to."

Arister forced a cough and walked toward Ferzia.

"Night, you'll train Kine," Night groaned but still walked to his assigned student.

"Karma, you'll be with Irian," Karma smiled and nodded before joining up Irian.

"And finally," Arima glanced at the cub resting on his shoulder. The Hellhound’s expression fell. "Chulainn will be with Airon"

"…I didn't stay with you to act as your helper, you know?" Chulainn retorted as he jumped off Arima's shoulder. His body then expanded and he turned into a three-meter-tall three-headed-hound. He stared at Airon with his four heads.

"You'll be in my care kid," The middle head said and Arion's expression twitched furiously in anxiousness. He recalled how domineering the beast was when it came out of the Hell Gate.

"Now, you four will principally teach them magic control and spar with them and point out their weaknesses," Arima instructed.

"For the more specific things; Karma, you'll be sure to teach Irian martial arts. Night, you'll help Kine master the blood aura. Arister, teach Ferzia how to be aware of what's going on in a fight, she doesn't pay enough attention to her surroundings. And Chulainn, your job is to teach Airon how to use effectively his darkness magic," Arima gave all the directives and brought the rest of the students with him somewhere else. The four teacher-student pairs then commenced their training session.

Arima had also set his own training program.

"First of all, Gaodu, I need you to awaken your inheritance," Arima suddenly said and not only the student he was talking to but everyone around exclaimed in shock.

"What?" Gaodu was completely overwhelmed. "An inheritance?"

"Yeah, I saw it in you back then. You have an Earthen God aura hidden in your soul," Arima explained and Gaodu gaped.

"Are you going to do the same as me?" Lanya asked.

Arima smiled and nodded. "Kinda," He replied then looked around. "Melody, Balan, I'll teach you both a new magic. Ofia, Lena, you'll learn how to perfectly coordinate your movements when you resonate. Isla, I'll give you something that will make use of your talent. As for you all, I'll give you the best magic you could possibly hope for in a group battle," He announced in one go and smirked.

"Teaching younger generations is funnier than I thought," He muttered.

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