Getting closer to where his companions were gathered, Enrico noticed that Victoria was standing apart with a bored look.
'To think that all that boredom will vanish the moment she feels fear for the first time.'
[I don't like her. To me, she's just a coward.]
'She's not entirely a coward; she just felt fear and couldn't move forward — and that's pretty human.'
[In summary, a coward.]
Approaching Elaris, he noticed that the match being broadcast to decide the last participants for the eliminations was ending, with only five left.
"Did anyone interesting show up among them?"
"No, all below the expected level... It seems the only ones capable of giving us a good fight are the rank ones from their academies or the students from the best academy of each territory."
Astrong from Sanos, Shengtian from Tianlong, Academy Della Corona from Vesparello, Academy Aurora Viva from Floravita, and Academy Ryuuen, which had surpassed the former best academy of Tsuyokuni as number one.
'Just like in the original story, everything's going well so far, but I need to focus completely on seeing if there's another reincarnated person like Giulia, only from another academy.'
[That'll be hard since they can choose when to appear. Maybe not all of them are as crazy as Giulia.]
'Found one.'
[How? Where?]
Following Enrico's gaze, the system saw a boy breathing heavily. At first, it didn't understand that statement, but upon noticing the boy's rank and academy, it realized.
[Isn't that from the second-best academy in Sanos? Besides, I don't remember that boy being among the five chosen from the Sentinel Academy in the original story.]
'Yeah, he doesn't appear, and I don't think I caused any changes near his academy.'
Another thing that confirmed for Enrico that the boy was reincarnated was his fighting style — he was using boxing, a combat style that didn't exist in that world.
'Giulia must've noticed too, so let's watch from a distance to see what happens.'
[It's very possible they'll try to fight to the death.]
'I hope not. The boy seems completely unaware of this world, so he's a total beginner.'
That boy was quite innocent and seemed to be trying his best to fight his opponent, and precisely because of that, he was a perfect prey for the other four reincarnated ones.
[Not gonna lie, watching him struggle like that makes me want to help.]
'He probably has a better system than you. Actually, all the others probably do too.'
[I hope he dies — and his fellow reincarnated ones as well.]
The boy's magic was quite basic — like Giulia's — the only difference being that his was Earth magic, perhaps the only thing in common between them, both having received only basic affinities.
"If they hadn't been placed in bodies with greater potential than mine, I'd almost feel connected to them."
"With that, the first phase is over, so I'd like all students to move to the center."
"Enrico, let's go."
"I'm right behind you."
After Sofia's voice echoed through some kind of magic, ending all those battles, Enrico moved alongside Elaris — the two being the first to arrive. Each academy lined up from rank one to five.
"Very well, now we'll talk about the final phase. As most of you know, we'll form groups of six students who will fight one-on-one to earn points."
Each student would have six matches, each worth a certain number of points depending on the outcome. At the end of the six rounds, the fifteen with the highest points would be chosen for the inter-academy battle. In case of a tie for the spots, a tiebreaker would be held where they'd fight a seventh round — whoever won would advance.
The point system worked simply depending on how they won: a decisive victory gave seven points, a clear victory six points, a close victory five points, a draw two points, and none for a defeat.
"These are the simplest ways, but there are other ways to earn small amounts of points — for example, defeating an opponent ranked above you grants two extra points, a quick finish adds one point, taking no damage gives one point, and winning through intelligence also grants one point. So, you can earn up to ten in total, which is the limit."
They could also lose points through penalties — using forbidden magic cost two points, a serious offense like attempting to kill could cost ten and possible disqualification, cheating cost two, and forfeiting a match cost three.
"We'll be removing the barrier's effects on you, which is why there's a rule against killing. This will be a real battle between you all — if we kept the barrier, you might do things you normally wouldn't since there'd be no risk of death."
Each student would be placed into fifteen groups, A through O, each containing six students — making a total of exactly ninety participants.
"The arenas where you'll fight are beneath the dome, where battlefields created by me await. And one more thing — even if you're not first in your group, there's still a chance to be among the fifteen best in the continent, so give it your all until the end."
With that, everything was now explained to the students, including the commoners who didn't know much about these tournaments, which were held every year. At most, they only knew that only the strongest participated.
'As far as I know, the king of Sanos is starting to make it possible for normal commoners to watch — of course, by paying a certain amount.'
[Pretty smart of him.]
"Now we'll decide who will face whom, so look at the magic hologram."
A hologram appeared where several names began spinning rapidly. As time passed, they started solidifying and dropping into luxurious boxes labeled with their respective groups.
"Let's see who I'll be facing."