The next day, Greg and Jason quickly finished their match in the Top 200, which was scheduled at the same time, only to go back home afterward.

The two youths were astonished that their opponents couldn't even fight against them head-on after Greg used his berserk ability, while Jason overwhelmed his opponent who had a water affinity with his ice and fire affinities.

In the end, he didn't want to expose too much of his poison affinity because it was one of the only trump cards he had left, except the fortified soul conjunctions with his soulbonds.

Some students that watched his fight against Lore understood that something was wrong during their fight, yet, they couldn't comprehend what exactly it was because they weren't close enough to inspect the mist, while none of them possessed a special trait similar to his mana eyes.

As such, Jason felt partially assured that nobody knew about his peak evolved ranked poison affinity, which was definitely an advantage.

It was better to have a trump up to his sleeves than nothing, exposing everything he had.

After the two friends won their fights, only Malia had to win against her opponent in the Top 200, however, unfortunately, she was placed against a youth who contracted his first soulbond only recently.

Before their fight, the youth was laughed at because of his small soul energy, only to shock everyone at the Big-Three tournament because he contracted his first soulbond after two years, which was a rare mid-magical ranked Titanium Elephant that required more than 5.000 soul energy units.

It had a rare and powerful metal affinity, which was also the youth's sole affinity he could contract, while his soul energy was small.

Without being able to find a beast at the lower ranks with a metal affinity, he was forced to be patient.

However, in the end, he found a suitable soulbond while his soul energy barely reached the demands.

From one of the worst students in his school, he returned as the strongest, thanks to the high soul world core's amplification he received from the Titanium Elephant

Malia's fire affinity was not strong enough to burn through the thick metals her opponent manifested, even if her Nightmare horse was about to reach the magical rank soon it was still not enough.

Feeling disappointed in herself, she couldn't help but be sulky during the whole evening, only to see Greg and Jason chatting with each other happily, when it was dinner time.

Staring dagger at the two dense youths, she couldn't help but feel helpless.

While Malia sulked, Greg and Jason were somewhat expectant about the Top 100 because it was extremely unlikely that anyone who entered the Top 100 would be a pushover.

The Top 100 fights would also be held one after another without using five arenas at once in order to broadcast every single fight one after another live, demonstrating to Astrix island's citizens how powerful the three big schools and their most powerful youths were.

Jason was one of the only students who entered the top 100 while being in one of the affiliated schools which was looked at with curiosity. 

However, he didn't really think much about it because it was not important from which school he came from but rather how strong he was. 

In the end, the most powerful youths ended up within the big three main schools but only because their mana core rank and soul-awakening were superior to others. 

There were obviously also youths who were weak even though their starting point was higher due to a better soul-awakening or better background with more resources, yet Jason was a perfect example which clearly indicated that having a good soul-awakening or background was not everything. 

At least it looked like this from the outside because nobody could have known that Jason had the best soul-awakening out of all students within the Big-Three tournament as well as a backing which however didn't bring him a lot of resources he could use to absorb mana. 

His masters' teachings were different and maybe not seen as the best way to improve his strength in a short period, yet they were extremely beneficial for his long-term progress, which was exactly what he wanted.

As such, he couldn't lament about this at all, and Jason was also expectant to see his masters again, which would only take several more days.

It was only Wednesday when the Top 100 started, and both Greg and Jason were happy to enter the arena, while Jason estimated how many more days the tournament would take.

With the Top 50 and 25 being held the day after, Jason thought that the remaining fights which included the final would take place on Friday.

In the end, the whole tournament would be over only one week after it began, which was neither short nor long.

Somehow, it seemed to be the perfect time to calm down Astrix- or even more Cryo-City's citizens from the recent happenings that still lingered in their minds.

However, instead of being happy that the tournament would be over in two days, Jason felt that the next day would be extremely important for him and maybe even dangerous, even if there was no indicator about something like this.

Inside the arena, Jason suddenly noticed that there were many more students seated around the arena, divided into their classes, with a teacher standing in front of them, which caused him to smile lightly.

'Are they using the Top 100 battles to show good and bad examples of combat techniques, combat experience, battle awareness, usage of affinities, and so on?' He asked himself and it was most likely the case as he noticed hundreds of classes seated around the arena, staring at their teachers and the youths in the spotlight, which were the 100 remaining first-year tournament participants.

Seeing the other students staring intently at the Top 100 in awe, Jason couldn't help but feel weird, because they were classmates or at least peers, yet there was already such a large gap in order to be seen as a role model from some students.

Without wasting more time, Jason prepared himself for his fight, which was scheduled somewhere in the middle of the 50 Top-100 fights, as he washed his weapons once again, before sharpening them neatly, not looking at the fights in front of him.

Some time passed until a few students and even teachers noticed him minding his own business, which was badly received from the students, only to hear their teachers lecturing their students.

"This student with the lowest mana core rank and black hair who prepares his weapons is extremely clever! My dear students, remember to not only perceive the obvious! This youth is extremely calm and carefully prepares his weapons... but why exactly is he so calm?! The answer is relatively easy after a closer inspection! Even though his mana core rank is extremely low, he is able to fight against his much stronger peers. Thus, his combat strength has to be high too and he calms himself down by being perfectly prepared for the fight without looking at the fights in front of him, which might even disrupt his calmness and tense him up.

This would evidently decrease his combat prowess because a calm body and mind are extremely important in order to release one's fullest combat prowess! As such don't complain or curse this youth and try to see the bigger picture he follows!"

Hearing this, the teacher showed a proud expression, while his youths exclaimed in shock 

"So it was like this?" 

"I never expected that this is also possible!!" 

"He is almost like a veteran...wow!"

"This is the gap between us average students and a real prodigy?!" 

Upon hearing what the teacher said and his students' answers, Jason almost choked on his saliva because he didn't really think about anything as he started preparing his equipment and it was only because he neglected it that he had to do it now…

But in the end, he didn't want to destroy the teacher's illusion as he continued to prepare himself as if nothing happened.

Once he was done, he sheathed his daggers, before he put on his normal grade-2 leather armor.

Afterward, he watched the remaining battles, with slight interest, while talking with Greg about their combat prowess and tactics before it was his turn to fight.

Entering the combat arena, he immediately saw youth in front of him with a lean physique.

From his outer appearance, he didn't look like anything special and Jason seized up his opponent with his mana eyes, as he exclaimed inwardly

'What is that?!'