Several hours had passed, when Shane returned to the Academy's center, only to see the colosseum crowded with several hundred students.

'What a nuisance' he thought, worrying about the time he had to wait for until it was his turn to enter the colosseum.

Sighing, Shane thought that the last few hours were somewhat a waste of time, because he could have entered the colosseum before instead of jogging around to see the Academy grounds.

Even if he was curious about the academy grounds, in the end, they were no hidden treasures like the [tranquil forest] he found on his first day.

At least Shane was unable to find them during the last hours.

Even if he would have found something, he doubted that many things on Igra were as unique as hidden treasures within the Primordial Dimensions, solely from the fact that Igra was a planet without mana, compared to the Primordial Dimension with innate mana.

This difference alone was enough to tell Shane that it was unlikely to find something unique. He knew that he should already be satisfied with the tranquil forest that was extremely beneficial compared to his current progress.

Until now, humanity didn't occupy a particular Primordial Dimension that was solely used for cultivation, because there was a fierce competition for these Dimensions. They were filled with all kinds of Basic races massacring each other in order to receive more benefits without the need to charge them with other races that may hunt them later.

Everything was possible, and most races didn't dare to act without reason, but this didn't change the fact that greed was an overwhelming emotion, which caused rational thinking to dissipate into thin air.

Looking at the crowd in front of the colosseum, he checked the time, before he opened the system in order to enter PrimWeb to take a look at all kinds of threads.

Humanity's PrimWeb threads were rather boring without much useful information entertaining him. Most of them bragged about special herbs or ores they found, their luck to attain the right to receive a high-quality occupation.

Some even complained about their bad luck to have encountered strong beasts they couldn't beat and other unfortunate accidents.

Meanwhile, the government didn't post much about the several shelters they were currently constructing, while the RadiantRing shelter seemed to be avoided as a topic of discussion, causing Shane's lips to curl up lightly.

'The bloodlust thunder wolf is more problematic than they thought, huh?' The government would most likely advertise the RadiantRing shelter much more if the bloodlust thunder wolf was killed, but this was obviously not the case. Shane began to wonder if there was someone who could kill it, without sacrificing too many courageous soldiers.

'Maybe, if Aisha and some other top Top-tier Expert state with an extremely high mana purity worked together...Her attack with the Valkyries also seemed to work fine..'

Thinking about this, Shane was unsure if he should enter the RadiantRing shelter in order to approach the elemental crystal cave once again or not. On one side he had enough funds for the moment, while on the other side, gaining more funds was definitely not bad, because he needed them either way.

'This is so annoying' he thought when it was finally his turn to enter the colosseum.

Fifteen minutes later, he finally stood inside the combat arena, wearing the combat suit, everyone had received from the academy when they were accepted long ago.

Looking at the mortal ranking, which had the old schedule attached, Shane figured out that roughly 3600 students reached the K.O rounds, and estimating the length of each battle with the number of rounds, he couldn't help, but feel confused once again.

'Why does it take so long….'

Shane was impatient to establish his perfect Mortal physique more than ever before and expressed his annoyance about the long waiting time inwardly.

With a total of approximately 70 rounds, it would roughly take the whole day in order to figure out the final winner of the mortal ranking. Shane could only accept this fact resentfully.

When the teachers arrived, they immediately reminded everyone about the rules, which included not killing, permanently injuring, or doing anything in order to seriously harm others intentionally.

Other than that, the AI created a schedule, before the first pairs were called to the combat arenas.

Looking at the schedule, Shane suddenly started to wonder how the Apprentice and Expert rankings would look like, if theirs was already so annoying, and took an entire day.

'Was their first round more difficult? Maybe they had to win more rounds?' It was highly likely that his thoughts were right, and it was weird for him that the first round of the mortal rankings only required him to win five matches in order to be qualified for the next round

Without the desire to monitor his peers' battles, Shane continued to search through all kinds of forum threads in order to increase his knowledge, before he began reading the books provided by the Shirai academy.

When it was finally his turn, he entered the combat arena nonchalantly.

His opponent looked timid and Shane could only shake his head, when he charged at the youth in front of him, that was already defeated before the fight even began.

'They're already scared after barely seeing me fight like six times? Is that some sort of a bad joke?' Disappointed with the mentality of his peers, Shane could only feel frustrated, before his attention was once again focused on the books that he continued to read.

Hours passed and Shane took out something to eat, while he switched the preservable food for Umbra with new food. causing everyone around him to cast weird glances at him.

Furthermore, he not only took out the beast sealing card which was pitch-black with vivid runes engraved on it, but they also noticed Shane take out a large amount of preservable food from both his spatial ring and the beast sealing card.

Not minding any onlookers, Shane finished everything, before he stored the beast sealing card back in his body, which itched slightly though it didn't make him feel uncomfortable.

The interval between his fights visibly decreased after the fourth round, which, however, didn't mean that the fights, per se, became more interesting.

In the end, Shane was forced to exert more of his strength and wits in order to win the later fights. He found some of his opponents oddly interesting, due to their unique way of fighting.

Based on his initial observations of several youths, he could also roughly predict their likely choices once they were able to choose their occupation. It was a single leap away from them, as one only had to break into the Apprentice stage in order to unlock occupations.

This didn't mean one had to choose an occupation directly, but if there was an interesting and powerful one with a high quality to choose from, most youths would immediately pick it, without hesitation or even wondering if the occupation was useful and desired by one.

It was already afternoon, almost evening when he finally decided to close the system in order to take a look at the fights because it was already time for the quarter-finals!

From the remaining 8 youths that were left, not a single one seemed to be below the 10th Mortal stage in both cultivation and body refining, with the sole exception being Shane, who possessed a perfect 9th Mortal stage physique.

As such, everyone was equally strong, solely from the two stated facts, if one was to consider Shane as an exception, and now it was important to figure out whose combat prowess was higher, which included martial art technique proficiency, tactics, and how to utilize their strength and maybe even start scheming!

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