Chapter 2305: Second Round

*BOOM* *CRASH*

Sam broke through the only intact wall of the room into the corridor. He didn't crash into the wall head first, rather he used the guy who boldly attacked him as the tool to create this path.

Once the opponent is stuck to the wall in the corridor and is stunned for a second, earth element is conjured on Sam's leg.

*BAM*

He stomped on the ground, breaking it open.

He let himself fall freely onto the floor below. Only after he fell did he realize that he truly underestimated these fellows.

Few people were standing there oblivious to what was happening. The corridor of that floor is filled with people. They panicked when the ceiling above came crashing down and attacked instinctually.

The rocks and debris from the feeling didn't hit him. The barrier appeared and blocked them. In the same way, the barrier blocked Sam from the attacks and at the same time from falling down completely.

This made him levitate in the air as the continuous attacks poured in from below.

He couldn't move for a moment and just like that the opponent came from the hole above.

*BAM*

A punch came at Sam, which he blocked with an energy barrier. However, he still felt the shockwave and a slight numbing pain.

The other party's cultivation superiority is clearly showing its edge.

Sam activated his spatial element and used blink. In a flash, he disappeared from there and reappeared at the entrance of the building.

This time, things were not out of his expectations. He guessed that someone would be there and they were there, standing and doing nothing.

Judging from their expressions, they don't exactly know why they are standing there.

He didn't wait for even a second before he blinked again.

*SWOOSH*

His opponent came down and looked around. He rapidly spread his spiritual sense with no reservations trying to find Sam's location. But there is nothing. The rest of the opponents spread out to examine the surroundings.

They knew Sam was using spatial elements, so they were looking for spatial fluctuations.

However, there are none they could find nearby.

The possibility that Sam might have used a node far away from this place did cross through their minds.

Still, even their contacts at various locations of the city didn't find anything.

For some reason, one of them wanted to look underground and he managed to discover a faint trace of spatial energy.

The marked candidate, the one who is currently engaged with Sam, gritted his teeth and threw a punch to the ground.

*BOOM* *CRACK*

Accompanied by an explosive noise, the ground split open, creating a crevice until it reached the spot where the spatial fluctuations were created.

However, that is another dead end.

They didnt find any other traces nearby.

There are not signs of digging, or even a sign of any human presence that might hav existed there.

They could only guess that Sam managed to leave this place with another blink and they went back to finding where he could have possibly blinked to.

Sam disappeared from everyone's trace and reappeared in the hideout again.

He sighed and muttered to himself.

"These guys are pretty persistent."

Sam just sat there as he started thinking about his plans once again. By now, he got a lot more than what he initially expected in this tournament.

He won the formation contest and is pretty confident about the inscription contest as well.

It would be great if he could win more, but it is not the main goal anymore.

The main goal is to create more chaos in the academy realm.

Just his ranking alone already caused so much tension, so he can continue doing that and try to increase his rankings in other competitions.

At the same time, there is another way that he could use.

The motivation of all these academies is to rank higher in these competitions. He realized that it could be exploited easily.

He just needs to find a way to disturb the rankings. That is his current small goal.

While he brewed in his own thoughts, time passed and it is tomorrow.

Sam made an entrance on Harbinger to the second round of the Inscription competition.

He didn't check the results of the previous competition. He didn't also worry about his ranking. He is confident that he will win and he did.

The Elder came onto the stage and explained the second round.

"Thirty-two people have managed to pass the first round of prelims and advanced to the second round.

Now, we decided to take a much more direct approach to select the finalists.

There would be sixteen finalists. So, right now all of you will be paired against each other and compete head on.

The format is pretty simple to understand.

Both contestants will be given a room. An empty one devoid of any protection except for what

little the stone could provide.

Your job is to turn the room into a cage of inscriptions.

You can use any kind of inscription, elemental type, fusion with attacks, added scrolls,

inscription formations, everything is on the table.

Once you and your opponent have finished with your respective rooms, both of you will be placed in the rooms of the others.

You need to break the inscriptions and come out of it.

The one who comes out faster with as limited damage as possible, will be declared as a

winner.

As you might have guessed, you cannot use attacks, you cannot use direct formations or formation discs. You cannot use any external help.

If you are going to use your own specialized tools, you need to get them examined and

approved.

First follow the process of approval for the tools and then we can start the competition."

All thirty-two contestants went for the approval process. It is not really that difficult. It is just

to ensure that someone doesn't use an overpowered tool that could make others take advantage of the whole thing.

Sam doubtfully placed his inscription pen in the formation for examination. The pen could be considered simple and complicated at the same time. It doesn't have many features that could actually help with drawing an inscription or amplifying it.

At least, not in the version he is using. But it does have a lot of other features that could help him in the drawing process. Like the multiple compartments for various inks, the ease in shifting the cartridges fluids and the nib is also flexible.

But his worries are for nothing. He managed to pass easily. Contrarily, the other candidates

faced a few difficulties with their own tools.

After everything was sorted, lots were drawn to determine the opponents.

Sam couldn't even stop himself from grinning as soon as he saw the opponent he was

assigned to.

It is a candidate from the Zeus academy. This guy tried his hand in the formation competition as well, but didn't do well in the illusion tower.

His forte is inscriptions and he couldn't handle the pure formation-based competition.

But he believed this is his playground and in fact came in third in the first round prelims.

However, when he saw Sam's grin, he felt a bit odd. A bad feeling gnawed at him.

When he sat and waited for his turn, he even got a message from the academy members.

"Destroy him"

That is the gist of it.

He mulled over those words until it is their turn.

Sam went into his empty room and took out his pen. A wicked grin appeared on his face as he

drew in the inscriptions at an incredible pace.

The elders watching whatever that is happening the room were dumbfounded at the runic

marks Sam is making on the walls.

"What are those runes? They look.."

"I have never seen those kinds of runes. Is that guy playing a joke here? Or is it some kind of a

disguise technique that covers the real runes? I have heard of those kinds of tricks before." "It is a possibility, but the disguise techniques are usually placed on top of the already created runes. And the way they are glowing, I don't they are just some random symbols." Many spectators had similar thoughts. Whatever Sam is doing, it is quite a mystery to them. The most mysterious thing of all is that his runes are not dissolving into the wall.

It is quite common for people to hide the inscriptions by adding a few runes in the formula so that the others cannot perceive it easily.

It is even more common, almost a norm in competitions like these.

But his runes are visible to the naked eye as if he is confident that they wouldn't do shit even if

they saw it.

At least, Sam took some time in this round and didn't finish it with a massive gap compared to

his opponent.

They finished approximately at the same time.

With a flash, both of them exchanged their places and landed in each other's rooms.

*BAM*

Sam felt a huge thrust of gravity and almost hit the ground with his face first. He slammed his

foot against the ground to regain balance.

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