The moment Kiera arrived at the arena, the gazes were naturally drawn to her, as participants of the diamond division had to be special individuals, which made both participants and spectators curious.

However, the attention she garnered was a little too excessive for her tastes as she sensed several powerful gazes boring through her from the balconies above. The participants also looked at her intently, especially the Blue Rose Crown Princess, who stared at her in a mixture of confusion and surprise.

Kiera sighed in her heart, realizing Bethany probably never notified the higher-ups of her participation. She nodded toward the princess in a gesture of friendliness, the latter returning the gesture expressionlessly.

About to enter her assigned group’s line, Kiera sighed in helplessness as someone exited the line and purposely blocked her way, a ridiculing gaze on their pompous face.

“Are you lost, kid?” the young man said arrogantly, his chin raised up with mock in his smiling eyes.

Kiera sighed deeply again and shook her head, having difficulties understanding why the fucking dumbass in front of her couldn’t just use the Identify skill. Well, she wasn’t idiotic enough to repeat his stupidity anyway.

[Diamond Apprentice Magician Lv.8 (Human)]

“Weak,” she casually thought, Tyrannical Lightning enveloping her arm as her violet blade whistled through the air, its tip stopping a hair’s breadth from the man’s adam apple before he had the ability to react.

Stepping back, the man paled, looking in fear at Kiera's lightning-enveloped blade as if he saw a ghost. "L-l-lightning Attribute?!"

Kiera ignored him and stepped into the line, now, the gazes on her intensified by several times, additional ones too, she could even feel the emperor staring at her.

Though she disliked attention, showing her prowess made the Six Young Rulers visibly cautious, especially the Rashmeer guy in her group.

He would probably opt to leave her alone, so she could devote her full efforts to hunt Mana Beasts and steal tokens from weaker people instead of uselessly consuming her time on defeating someone relatively strong. At least until she was strong enough to wipe the floor with him in a few moves…

Soon, the diamond division’s groups consolidated completely— ten groups of thirty participants each. Kiera was also amused to see that the obnoxious crown prince of Corinth was the last addition to her group. And the moment he stepped into the line, the audience suddenly started to clamor— not due to his presence, of course, but due to the happenings in the sky.

The roofless arena suddenly darkened, the light from the ten suns barred by three huge shadows. Moving her gaze to the sky, Kiera's pupils narrowed to a point at the sight of three immense, winged lizard-like creatures that floated above the stage.

They were entirely red in color, even their reptilian slit-shaped pupils and human-sized claws. Each of their bat-like hand-wing was at least twenty meters in size while their body was as big as a blue whale’s, making them the biggest creatures Kiera saw in her entire life, lives to be exact.

[!! Red Sky Wyvern]

[!! Red Sky Wyvern]

[!! Red Sky Wyvern]

“The Empire’s three Tier 2 Lv.120 Red Sky Wyverns, granted to the three Knight Commanders... It is said that due to their powerful heritage, they are as strong as normal Tier 3 Mana Beasts, amazing…”

“The Emperor personally caught them when they are born and let the Imperial Tamer tame them as war mounts. And at the start of every Annual Tournament, they put on a display to show the empire’s prowess, as it is the only nation on the continent able to tame such creatures!”

Kiera heard some participants speak among themselves, impressed such a creature can actually be tamed. Even domesticated tigers back on Earth occasionally killed their caretakers, so she guessed only absolute power could keep a whole Wyvern in place.

“Diamond Division, please follow me,” the overseer suddenly said and started walking to the south, the other two overseers doing the same. A short walk of fifty meters later, he stopped and beckoned to the sky.

Suddenly, the wyverns descended, each stopping in front of a division, surprising all of the participants. Kiera nodded in understanding the moment the gigantic wyvern stood next to her, realizing they were brought now as they were the means of transportation to the forest.

“This beast is really nerve-wracking...” she thought as she spotted the wyvern’s eyes examined her division, looking at them as if they were prey. If that oversized lizard decided to disregard everything and try to eat them, he could mow through them in a heartbeat.

But the wyvern’s pressure was nothing compared to the middle-aged man sitting cross-legged on its head. The man wore a golden armor carved with the empire’s insignia, with an adamantium spear strapped to his back— obviously a mana armament.

His messy black beard was divided by a long scar that stretched from the center of his forehead to his chin’s left side, passing through his left eye, which was obviously blind. However, his remaining eye held a cold, indifferent gaze that sent shivers down Kiera’s spine.

She could sense the terrifyingly enormous amount of blood this man spilled in his life. And although he probably was weaker than the emperor, his presence was many times more dominant, he was akin to the epitome of battlefields.

“This man is the epitome of a soldier... Reserved, modest, but probably turns into a killing machine when he fights, impressive.” Kiera gazed at the man expressionlessly and agreed to try and not offend the Empire until she was strong enough.

“Commander Tristan,” the overseer saluted to the man, who returned a light nod before jumping on the Wyvern’s back, beckoning the division to do the same.

The flight proceeded in silence, with the overseer occasionally using his vast mana to stabilize every participant who struggled to remain on the wyvern's back, the immense speed it displayed was no joke.

Kiera lay on her back with her eyes closed while ignoring the recurring gazes she received from the others. Truthfully, many of them wanted to approach and talk to her, there was no harm in getting to know someone who controlled the Lightning Attribute.

However, the lofty atmosphere rolling from her small body stopped them in their tracks, their curiosity suppressed by a bizarre sense of reverence. She simply laid there, unmoving, but her detached, dignified presence dominated them in a different way than just in power alone.

It was as if she was simply… Better, her existence standing in a higher echelon than theirs even though the gap in combat power they felt wasn’t too great. And the ones among them who hailed from royal and noble families that controlled the lives of millions, feelings of jealousy and hate budded within them.

Of course, the violet-white-haired girl didn't know she just casually made several new enemies, the bloodline aura was something her body automatically exuded and she wasn't even aware of it happening. She continued resting, careless of anything else.

Kiera only broke her posture when the wyvern halted its flight, her gaze settling on the overseer, who demanded attention with his hand.

“We have arrived at the Avelot Forest, but before you start, I shall explain the final rule. Once your feet touch the ground, there will be an hour before you can attack other participants, use this hour however you like. Those who fail to follow this rule or the other rules will be immediately disqualified.” his powerful voice resounded, “on the ground, you will find bags to contain your tokens.”

“This makes it easier on me then, but before I do anything, just to be sure…” Kiera thought, satisfied by the newly told rule. Upon landing, she took a bag and instantly activated Vanishing Step, disappearing into the woods and activating the Guide once she was far enough.

“Guide, when will I be as powerful as a True Magician?” there was a good reason Kiera asked this question— she would have gone crazy from boredom if she had to sit aside and wait until the other contestants gathered enough tokens instead of leveling up in fear she’d become as strong as a True Magician while still being a Silver Apprentice, although she had only one level before she reached Gold.

[Individual {Kiera Ashborn}’s combat power will exceed the boundaries of the {Apprentice Magician} Rank upon achieving the Gold Circulation of the {Apprentice Magician} Rank.]

“So I can hunt as much as I want as long as I don’t undergo Mana Circulation,” Kiera sighed in relief but was also surprised at the same time.

"Well, I should start hunting," she activated Eye of the Tyrant to pick up on any mana trails from beasts and disappeared the moment she locked on one.

Her tracking brought Kiera face to face with a gigantic fox the color of flames, its immense body swiftly jumping toward her with a dive as soon as their gazes met.

Kiera shook her head and simply raised her palm and touched the fox’s head lightly, her gentle touch stopping the elephant-sized fox in its tracks. Then, Destruction charged up in her palm before the skill’s tyrannical energy penetrated the fox’s body.

BOOM

An explosion occurred, the fox’s body instantly bursting into countless pieces, dying the surrounding trees crimson with the hundreds of liters its body held while its scorched flesh turned into dunes of black dust.

[Tier 1 Lv.100 Fire Fox defeated, EXP received.]

[You defeated an enemy 32 levels above you, bonus EXP received.]

“No level...” Kiera sighed, in earlier circulations, this kind of level difference would’ve yielded her at least six levels!

“The real benefits will be with the Diamond level beasts… But they are surely rarer due to the Elimination Games’ rule system, I hope the others don’t find them first.” Kiera muttered and continued her search.

…

In the arena, a gigantic airship floated still at the center of the arena, each of its sides having six immense screens that showed the Elimination Games’ happening, two screens for each division.

Kiera’s brief encounter with the fox was just displayed, the nonchalant brutality she demonstrated stunning the vast crowd. It was not every day that they used to see such a small child holding such power and skill, actually, they never witnessed such a child before.

Bethany was also surprised, she could instantly recognize the skill Kiera used as she experienced it on her own flesh. For a veteran like her, it was easy to notice Kiera didn’t grow only in terms of raw power, but also her skills equally grew if not surpassed her rank’s growth.

She smiled in content, happy with the performance her beneficiary presented and laid back in her chair, relaxed. But suddenly the smile faded from her ravishing face when she caught the shape of a woman in the corner of her eye.

“Your Majesty, it is a pleasure to see you,” Bethany giggled, heavy sarcasm apparent in her voice as she gazed upon the devastatingly beautiful young woman standing on her right. “Apologies, I didn’t notice your great presence beforehand, otherwise I would’ve sent a greeting.”

The woman wore snow-white robes with a pattern of a blue rose stretching from her chest to her abdomen, their size unable to hide the perfect curves they hid below, while her lustrous black hair was topped by an icy blue crown, seemingly crafted out of ice.

“Do not jest, you have sensed me as soon as I arrived, I was tired of waiting,” the woman replied, her cold eyes gazing sharply at the mischievous woman. “The child you sponsor, where have you found her?”

“Well, you won’t believe this if I told you... “ Bethany rested her head on her palm and laughed playfully. “She appeared out of nowhere a month ago in the Corinth Kingdom in the far east, looking to sell two Masterwork Grade Mana Armaments through our auction house.”

“I tried to recruit her to be our second representative upon delivering her the money, and she agreed! But she then proceeded to disappear from the face of the continent up until three days ago. So, during the 27 days she was missing, I decided to run a background check on her.”

“Yet even using our entire intelligence network, the only piece of information was that she one day appeared outside the Great Ranuros Forest’s eastern region and saved a Baronet’s granddaughter. There is no record of her birth, family, or education in any nation’s books, and if she was an outsider, we could’ve found from which shore she arrived on the continent, but there is nothing.”

“So the only possible explanation was that she was either brought to here by an extremely powerful magician we couldn’t detect, or was indeed raised in seclusion by a local powerhouse as she stated.”

The woman’s eyes narrowed upon hearing Bethany’s words before nodding lightly, “keep a track of her, but do not antagonize her, she could be an important ally in the future.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Bethany said, relieved by the departure of the woman.