Chapter 420   - A Grand stage

The others were not too worried about Ray, but they would not exactly say they completely trusted him either. Whatever the case was, they were sure he would at least message them if he got into serious trouble. Maybe… Well they hoped he would. Instead, they were now left with the job of trying to find a place they could sleep in the meantime.

The all kingdom tournament was still a good two weeks away. And officially the invitation for them to arrive was three days before, and then they would be staying directly in the empire's main building where the emperor himself lived. But before then they needed to find a good place to stay.

Ray, wishing to get stronger before the event, decided that he would go and check out the so called arena. It turned out that it would be the same arena that the all kingdom tournament would be taking place in as well. So it was not only a good chance for him to possibly get stronger, but also to look at the place he would be fighting at.

Walking through the streets, no one seemed to pay him any attention, but what he did notice was everyone's quality of life here seemed better in a way. Just like the city of Zrey, they had better buildings and houses. The people there were also more clothed and such. It made Ray wonder how they were able to treat so many people like so. How they were able to afford such things.

At least Zrey had the auction house and the werewolves bringing in income from outside places. Also, the population there was far smaller. Perhaps the empire was hiding something that they just didn't want people to see. Still, Ray didn't pay too much attention to this because at the end of the day these weren't his people to look after.

It didn't take long for Ray to spot the arena; he did not even need to ask for directions as it was as clear as day due to how big it was. It was around three times the size of the one at Avrion. Looking at it, one could tell that it seemed to have a slightly different aesthetic style altogether. Whereas the Avrion arena was quite smooth and rounded.

This had a style that seemed to fit the entire city. Made mostly of large columns and arching hallways. The architecture was detailed as there were patterns that had been carved by hand. Even with the help of werewolf and such, he couldn't imagine how long it would take.

Upon entering the reception area, there were several signs showing people where to go. And then there was a separate area where one could purchase different kinds of tickets. What surprised him more was that there also seemed to be advertis.e.m.e.nts for the all kingdom tournament there. A man standing at the entrance was handing out pieces of paper. When looking at it himself, Ray realised that it was an article on the all kingdom tournament coming up.

Telling people where to be and how much tickets would cost. They certainly did seem to be going all out for this event. Currently though, people could purchase tickets to watch the beast show that was taking place. Off on the opposite sides, there were even bets taking place as well. Then finally there was another area for people who wanted to register as contestants. This queue seemed to be completely empty right now.

Approaching the area, he saw that there was a single guard who looked very bored, as he wiggled his writing tool in his hand, and he was quite surprised to see someone new registering in a while.

"I would like to register for the… Beast hunt." Ray said as he looked at the sign that told him the name of the event.

"The next event is at two o'clock, there's someone participating at the moment so you will have to wait your turn. Just fill in this information for now, and we will use it to decide your betting odds over there." The man pointed at the betting booth.

Ray looked at the sheet and noticed it was asking him for several different things. First, it was asking him for his adventurer rank. He hadn't actually done much in terms of an adventurer in a long time, and he made the others in the group increase their rank instead. Right now he was only one rank above the lowest, which was an F rank making him an E.

After that, it asked him what level of equipment he would be using. Most of Ray's armour wasn't that great. His chest piece was at the advanced level, and his new gauntlets were at the king tier, but everything else was around the intermediate tier level.

"So are we able to choose what level of beasts we face in the arena?" Ray asked.

"You mean, you are entering and you don't even know what happens." The man sighed. At first the man was exited to find out a new confident young participant seemed to be entering the event but now his hopes were dashed. The man in front of him was simply a fool, he thought.

"Everyone starts off facing the same level beast, the lowest possible a basic tier beast. Although this beast can be different and won't be the same for every participant. From there it will keep on increasing up till the emperor level beast."

This was the first time Ray had heard the use of the emperor tier beast. Straight away, the idea of a strong battle ahead of him was coming into his head. It seemed like it was a good decision to go to the empire after all. Emperor tier was a level just above the king tier.

After the explanation was finished, Ray handed over the information back to the man. Whatever was filled in on the sheet would be used to base his betting statistics straight away. Now looking at the sheet, his face had completely dropped.

The main thing that stood out was the fact that Ray was only a Rank D adventurer, at best he could imagine Ray beating an intermediate tier beast.

Giving out a big sigh, he gave Ray a special pass that would be used to show he was a contestant.

"Just wait for your name to be called around two o'clock. You free to roam around the arena or even watch the current one going on now. The time of you event may be delayed depending on how well the current person is doing, but the time will never be earlier than two o'clock. So please if you can stay here that will be best. And I do encourage you to watch what a real fight would look like, maybe you can get some tips." The man said with a smile.

Ray had long grown tired and used to this that the words didn't even register. They simply bounced off him. However, he did decide that he would enter the arena stands and watch what was going on. There was nothing else for him to do In the meantime, anyway.

Once he had entered the stands, he was surprised with how full it was. The stands were around 70 percent full. According to the notice board, these types of events happened every single day, which was why Ray was surprised to see so many people. Especially when there wasn't a set schedule, and it relied on people like himself asking to fight.

What Ray didn't realise is when a participant was taking part in an event. The arena had promoters on the outside who would advertise the time and place. In the city there were enough people who would pass by and were interested in watching the fights. This would eventually get others to come as well.

Right now, looking down on the floor, it was made mostly of a hard orange type of material, in certain places one could even see it had been stained with blood.

Suddenly, a loud thump was heard, as a large ape-like creature with eight arms had fallen to the floor. A man stood on top of the ape with a sword held in his hand. Full of strange purple spiked beast gear and a helmet covering his head.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Roki has just defeated the Advance tier ape, he now must decide if he wishes to move on to the next tier beast! Please cheer as loud as you want if you want him to move onto the next stage of the event."

Of course, the reaction was as expected as the crowd went wild screaming on the top of their lungs for the next level beast. All Ray could do right now was watch in excitement for his turn on the stage.

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