Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 65: Eve of The Competition

In the blink of an eye, three years had passed, Axel was currently 15, though he looked like a very healthy and handsome boy of 18-20 years old. On the other hand, Akon was now 10 years old. He had matured and grown a lot.

With the new artifact that Axel had created three years back, for suppressing the cancer, since it worked far better than the necklace created by his master. Akon could lead a completely healthy life, but in these years, Axel had taught his little brother how to fight, using just his bare body, of course. He now lived like a normal human, being able to do everything that a normal person can.

Axel himself also trained in combat, just pure physical combat, maybe with a sword in hand, but no empowerment of mana or anything. The battle construct that his master had gifted him was quite useful, actually. It was terrifyingly skilled in combat. It seems to be inputted with almost all combat-related data that his master had in his arsenal.

Whether, weapon fights with any kind of weapon, or melee, even ranged combat. But it cannot use mana or anything. It’s good for training, just pure physical combat. Even then, Axel enjoyed physical fights greatly. There was just something fist-to-fist and sword-to-sword fight, it was downright exhilarating.

Axel also broke through to a third circle runecaster. The transformation and increase in power was extremely painful, as always. But when it was over, the power in him increased 10-fold again, maybe even more. He wasn’t totally sure.

Axel also learned the reason behind, why none of the Tower masters were actually present in the towers. Each of the tower masters’ strengths is too great, they reside in the subterranean world, which is filled with countless dangers, even for them, and similar opportunities. So, in hindsight, it could be said that vice masters are the ones in charge of the towers. At least most of the time.

However, after advancing into the third circle, his pace had been as slow as a snail. After getting that humiliating thrashing, Xavier never bothered him again. In the new school where Akon was admitted, the situation was the exact opposite of his previous one. Everyone always buttered up to Akon, knowing he was the little brother of the vice tower master’s disciple.

Axel also met the other disciples of the vice tower master’s they were amiable towards him nonetheless. But even they did not know the extent of Axel’s true power. The vice tower master had three other disciples. Kirk 5th circle, Ebony 5th circle, and Haruko 6th circle.

However, the important thing was, the time of the competition had reached. In just a few days. The competition will be held. Surprisingly, it will be held in the very runic tower’s territory. So, everyone was quite busy making preparations.

The mage city surrounding the whole tower had to be modified and restructured to accommodate the countless mages that would come from all the other towers and countless powerhouses. Many magi were needed to maintain order and security.

After all, most of the people coming will be audiences, and a small number of elite teams shall be participating in the competition from each of the towers. Two formats of competition will be held, team and individual.

He himself was too busy with his own projects, to mind any of the changes in the mage tower and the city all around. Axel was about to reveal himself for the first time in the competition, he had to say, his master tried his utmost to keep him absolutely hidden. But he didn’t think much about the competition.

He was more worried about the turtle-like pace of his when attempting any of the 4-rune artifacts. His mind was literally having trouble registering idea of what and how to harmonize 4 damn concepts together, even his master or the librarian simply gave vague answer’s. They mostly instructed him to figure the thing out himself, obviously.

A week later, the Rune city was bustling with activities, countless shops filled with delicacies of many magical beasts and magic tricks were situated. Even many normal humans were also in the crowd, obviously those related to mages. Humans with no direct connection to the mage society obviously could not enter.

No one knew why the mage society was kept moderately hidden from the eyes of the normal humans. One after another envoys and participants from other towers arrived. Many of the powerful warriors from various organizations also came to enjoy the competition.

The mage city and the entirety of the runic tower’s area were situated in a separate dimension, which people usually did not know about, even Axel himself only found out when the city was expanded to accommodate the crowd of mages and warriors.

It was a spectacle that even forces of the other empires would come to visit, and the runic tower welcomed them with open arms. But considering the specialty of the Runecasters, countless shops were built just for showcasing everyone’s arsenal of created artifacts. Artifacts created by Runecasters were held in value, so they came in search of high-quality artifacts.

In one of the floors of the rune tower, 15 mighty individuals had gathered. It was the 12 vice tower masters and 3 of the vice leaders of the three warrior forces residing within the empire. Including Cedric Stormscribe himself. Sage Tower’s master said nonchalantly, "I hope your so well-hidden talent doesn’t disappoint us, otherwise it would be quite a waste of time for us."

Cedric chuckled at that response, which only showed his absolute confidence; the others narrowed their eyes at that gesture. On the other hand, the berserker sect’s vice leader threatened, "If he turns out to be weak, you’re disciple will end up paying the price, trust me."

Cedric only smiled at that threat and did not say anything more, but now that they had gathered in one place, they started discussing various other important topics.

Meanwhile, in an area beside the runic tower. A gigantic colosseum was set up for the competition. The competition would be quite simple rule-wise. Only the witty and strongest team will come out on top among the various categories of mage circles.

It was the first day of the competition, and the colosseum or arena was packed with audiences. There were various sections among the audience sittings, for mages, warriors, and normal humans, they all had different seats. Of course, there was a neutral area as well, in which anyone could sit all together.

Axel, with his little brother and his few friends, was sitting together. Today would be the team competition among the first circle mages. They were all munching on some delicacies while discussing who looked the strongest.

Emma asked him skeptically, "You didn’t tell me you had a brother?"

Axel shrugged, "Well, you know now."

Ezekiel wondered, "So, does the little one want to be a mage? On what path is he interested in?"

Akon said hesitatingly, "Uh, I’m not sure."

Jason comforted, "It’s fine, you’re just 10, you still have a lot of time to think."

Wang advised, "Yeah, its better to take your time choosing those things."

Osborn chimed in, "Yes, you should come and talk to us if you’re interested or doubtful about anything."

Akon nodded cheerfully.

Emma rebuked, "Oh please, Ash knows more about those things than all of us combined."

But Axel shook his head, "Actually, I don’t really know much about any of the other paths of magic or warrior paths as well. Too busy with my own thing."

Hearing that, all five of his friends sighed. Axel was the first one in their group to reach the third circle, followed by Emma and Ezekiel, and the other three were at the cusp of a breakthrough, just one push away. All 5 of them were extremely talented, which is obvious by the speed of their breakthroughs. Axel wondered how the dynamic of their friendship would change once his prowess was revealed.

All 5 of them were competing in the competition in different categories. Jason, Wang and Osborn were all competing in the second circle category. While Emma, Ezekiel, and Axel himself was competing in the third circle category. He shook his head, thinking about what was going to happen.

The team format fight was quite simple; each of the 12 teams had their designated territory, and they had one flag in the middle of that territory. While each of the teams had to steal their flag and plant it in their own territory, which doubles their own flag’s power. And grant them 20 points.

But they can also destroy the flag of another team, which would grant them 10 points only. And no teams are allowed to team up with one another. The competition began as Axel kept watching. Normally, he should not be in such an open environment, in case he is discovered.

Axel was currently not wearing the cloaking artifact made by his master, rather, he created one for himself. After all, who knows oneself better than he himself? Axel invested almost an entire month into making the damn thing only. But the effort was worth it in the end, Axel reckoned even a 7th circle mage would not be able to see through him, unless they explicitly peered into him with a focused intent. Which was highly unlikely in the crowd.

Axel was intrigued by how the other paths of the magic were used, it was interesting to say the least. The Sage Tower, the Arcane Tower were exceptionally strong, especially those from the Sage Tower. While the others were moderately on the same level, with not too much of a difference in team strength.

Except for the Rune tower’s team, obviously. The thing they had was artifacts of the lowest quality, that is all. A few of the talented ones did have some combat experience for that very situation, but that did not change the overall situation, and without surprise, the rune tower’s team was eliminated in the shortest time.

It became quite an embarrassing sight for the mages of the Rune Tower.