The fourth round was extremely hard to cross for anyone who was not extremely proficient with magic and also had decent power behind it. Only having one of those two qualities would not be enough, a mage needed to have both to cross this round.

It was a fight against a special kind of mechanical puppet. This puppet was a S rank puppet so none of the participants needed to defeat as it would be almost impossible. What they needed to do was to fulfill a few conditions against this boss to go to the next round.

This puppet was designed in such a way that it fought using a few patterns. Firstly the mage who was fighting it needed to figure out the magic pattern which this puppet was using at that time. With that the mage would be able to guess how the puppet was going to attack next and would be able to counter that accordingly.

But that was not all. Obviously none of the mages would be able to last even a second before this S rank puppet if it was fighting with full power. So the puppet would start the fight by limiting its spells to be at the same level as its opponent. Then it would increase the power output over time.

But a mage was able to reset this increase by breaking through the puppet's defense with a spell. With each interruption, the time for the puppet to gain strength would be increasing so it was advisable to only use the powerful attack when a mage would really not be able to withstand the power of the puppet.

This was a very delicate thing to decide as any wrong decision would immediately end this challenge for them. If the mage was too late to reset the puppet then there was a chance that the mage's powerful attack also would not be able to bypass the defense of the now strengthened puppet. So all the mages needed to truly use all their brains to clear this round.

...

The round started with an A ranker challenging the puppet. He did quite well and took a cautious approach. He never took the risk to allow the puppet to reach its max potential and was able to easily clear the round by fulfilling one of the winning conditions which was the time limit.

There were three conditions that would allow the participants to clear this round. All 100 of them could go to the next round if all of them could fulfill the conditions but that was highly unlikely. So the first and the simplest solution was to last against the puppet for 8 minutes and that would be enough to clear this round.

Then the second condition was to perfectly decipher the magic pattern that the puppet was using. This would not have been too hard for mages of this calibre but only if they were given at least an hour of time, quiet environment and a chance to easily observe the pattern. But they were getting none of these. So if anyone could completely decipher the high level magic pattern in that situation then that person would be a monster and would immediately clear the round.

Then the third and the last condition was to obviously defeat the puppet. It was not a farfetched idea and the puppet would be maintaining the same level as the mage it was facing at the very beginning. So if a mage started the match with the strongest spell and if that spell was powerful enough, then it might be possible but still the chances of that happening was very very low.

...

After the A rank mage gave an excellent performance with almost mechanical countermeasures and made the stage to look easy, the true difficulty of the event was revealed after that. 11 people failed one after another including an A rank powerhouse. None of the were able to last 8 minutes before this extremely powerful puppet.

The next person who finally managed to clear the round was another A ranker but the way he did was extremely unsatisfactory. After the end of his round he was not able to even walk properly and immediately fainted after coming out from the arena for losing too much mana. He was able to just barely survive against the puppet to pass this round.

There were a few more surprises and one of the A rank mages managed to actually clear the third condition. She was actually the best contender to win this whole competition before the news that the S rankers would be participating was announced. She came prepared and used a super powerful spell she was famous for called "Fallen Sun". She was also called the lady of fallen sun, Archenite for this signature spell of hers. It was truly a very good magic spell and even Elena was impressed.

...

The person who gave the next big surprise was Benshui. She did the unthinkable and within five minutes, she was able to decipher the magic pattern completely and cleared the round. It was truly her demonstration of her amazing talents which was truly unrivalled. And alongside her hardworking personality, Benshui truly was turning into a real monster in magic.

And to everyone's disappointment, Alma failed to qualify for the next round. He did his best but as the puppet grew stronger faster and faster he was unable to maintain the rate of damage with his limited mana supply. And that was the reason for his defeat. He still gave a very good performance and was able to reach the six minute mark before losing.

...

After getting out of the arena, Alma went to his favourite noodle shop to bury all his sorrow. Normally one would go to a tavern for this type of thing but as Alma did not drink, he did not go to taverns. A bowl of ramen was the best thing he could get in this situation.

As he was busy devouring his extra large bowl of ramen while a little bit of tears were leaking from the side of his eye to add some extra salty flavour to the bowl, a very good looking woman came and sit beside him. She had beautiful golden hair and she was the most beautiful person that Alma had even seen.

Noticing Alma looking at her, she gave him a dazzling smile and ordered an extra large bowl of ramen just like his. Then she started to eat it. Even though both of them were eating the same thing there was something magical in that lady's style and Alma was unable to take his eyes off her.

After finishing her bowl in record time that lady smiled at him and said in a gentle tone -

"How about we take a walk together in the outside forest ? I want to show you something."

With that Alma fate changed by the hands of the strongest person of this world.

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