The results were totally out of my predictions...

On the screen, it said...

"Intermediate Warrior,"

The crowd was dead silent; no one knew what happened.

The principal was the first to break the silence by saying, "The first person in history ever to do their first test and be in the warrior rank, Stephen Wilson, you now hold a new record, and now the first place in the king's tournament."

Everyone started clapping.

I quickly glanced at my family, I saw my mom with a slight smirk on her face, and I saw Shella with admiration in her eyes.

Intermediate Warrior rank, that's crazy. If I ever see Daruma again in the future, I must present him with the most heartfelt thanks I ever gave to anyone...

"With that being said, let us transition to the second round of the King's Tournament!" Said the principal.

All the students made their way to the exits; that's when I got a transmission in my head.

"Come visit me before the round starts," this sounded almost like the principal.

As we cleared off the arena, I made my way to the back storage room, where I felt the principal's presence.

"I'll be frank with you. Do you want to be my disciple?" Said the principal.

This was very abrupt... But I already knew my answer.

"No, I don't, I want to be a lone wolf; I want all my achievements to be brought about by me and me alone," I said.

"Hmph, good answer, kid, you have a strong mindset. You can always come back to me if you change your mind. When you get first place, come meet me at my office once again tomorrow." The principal said.

We all got a 15-minute break, with that, I ran as fast as I could to see my family.

I saw my mom and Shella in the crowd; as I made my way to them, many people were congratulating me on the way.

I never really had anyone aside from my family, and that old man complements me; this was a pleasant bonus for the work that I am putting in.

"So, what do you think?" I say with a massive smirk on my face.

"As expected of my son," Mom said.

"You are the strongest in your school?" Shella asked.

I didn't know for sure, but I had a strong feeling almost no student can contend with my full strength.

"Of course! You must also be strong since you're my sister!" I exclaimed.

We all laughed and continued talking for a bit until the principal made an announcement.

"All students get ready for the 2nd round of the King's Tournament."

"I'll see you guys after this round; I'll also smoke the competition here!" I said to my family.

"Good luck!" Mom and Shella said in unison.

"Everyone present here, I would like to announce that the King of Challengers is here today from China! Let me introduce you to Zhou Duyi, The King Of Challengers." Said the principal

"He will look at the next two rounds today and the final round tomorrow. It is our greatest of honor to have the King in our presence." Said the Principal

All of the students were in one big group waiting at the center of the arena.

"This next challenge is one for mental fortitude and physical fortitude. We will have an expert come on stage and exhaust a curse; every student present will be affected. This curse will slowly sap away at your body's energy, the last to fall wins. That isn't the only thing, though; the curse will affect their body; it will also imply the student's worse fears; they will have to fend off their nightmares while trying to maintain on their feet." Said the principal.

This was once again almost catered towards me... I already trained in mental and bodily fortitude in the books... Those books must be a treasure of the gods; it's legit like a cheat in a game.

"Everyone get into place. The match will start in 3...2...1... NOW," said the principal.

As soon as he said, "NOW," a curse was emitted throughout the arena, though the audience wasn't affected.

My body instantly started to release smoke, almost as it was dispelling the curse...

"Ha, the number 1 already had to throw up his defense..." Said some random student.

I didn't know what to say... I felt... Nothing, it was like the smoke was absorbing the curse. I felt a bit of the curse; it was as if someone started touching my body, but nothing like what the principal said...

I felt my brain getting light stress as well, but once again, it wasn't as bad as the principal made it out to be.

It seems as though my body can fend off against curses, but why? What are the properties of this smoke? What is Daruma's power?

After 2 minutes of this act, multiple students fell to their knees; they lost the battle.

A couple more minutes pass, and nearly half of the students fell.

I still felt almost as good as before I even started...

I peered over to my left and saw Alice still standing, I wanted to move, but there were still too many people. I didn't want to mess them up.

Thirty minutes pass in total, the amount of students is 1/5 of the original number, but I was the center of attention once again. Everyone was confident I was going to fall first, but here I am... hehe.

Alice was still up; I made my war towards her; that's when the King started laughing.

In English, the King said, "This kid is something else! He is moving while under the curse! So you better win kid, I want to see you against the other King's candidates."

I got praised by the king himself; of course, I was happy, but I honestly didn't know the emotions floating throughout my body...

Everyone started clapping. Was this because of me? Or because the king said something?

I shrugged it off; I didn't want to get full of myself.

I went over to Alice and just stood there; I didn't want to say anything and mess her up, she's doing great as is, but I feel like she's bound to collapse soon. So, needless to say, I still will be coming first, but at least people will recognize her.

Fifteen more minutes pass, that is when nearly everyone fell, but me, Alice, and a couple of S ranks from different Elemental classes.

It seems the encounter with that beast was an experience for Alice; she totally blew past my expectations.

But in the next occurring 5 minutes, Alice fell, then the other S ranks followed.

Now I was the last guy standing... I didn't want to look stupid as I was the only one standing, but I really wanted to impress mother.

I looked down to Alice, and she had her thumbs up, "You go, Mr.King!" she whispered.

I had a short smile on my face and looked up to the king.

"If I daresay, what is the record of this event?" I said

The king laughed and said, "1 and a half hours. Can you beat that, you brat?"

It's already been 50 minutes, and I felt no type of encumberment; I guess I'll be setting another record right here.

More time has passed; it's been nearly an hour and twenty minutes.

The crowd started chanting, "Record, Record, Record!"

I didn't want to stay here all day, so I started acting like the pain started to get to me.

I wanted to only go 10 minutes past the record, In which I did with extravagant acting. But, as I hit the 1 hour and forty minutes mark, I fell to my knees.

I raised my fist and said, "That's a new record!"

The crowd started cheering. It felt all surreal to me.

The king stood up and said, "Well done, kid! You beat my record by 10 whole minutes. The future will be bright with you by its side."

"What is your name, child?" The King asked.

"Stephen, sir, Stephen Wilson," I responded.

The King started laughing uncontrollably, "Haha, WILSON! You will be the greatest challenger, mark my words."

"Thank you, Sir," I responded.

I looked for my mom; I saw a big smile on her face when I saw her. Shella was also jumping around.

Mom said something, her lips were moving, but it was completely inaudible to me.

"Just like your father," Cynthia said under her breath.

The principal came onto the stage.

"Great! Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the second round, Stephen Wilson in first place in both rounds, leaving him 1st place on the overall leaderboard." Said the principal.

Everyone started clapping.

"Second place goes to Pyo Jung-Hee, closely followed by Alice Blake!" The principal said.

Everyone started clapping once again.

Alice is in third place? Wow, she is much stronger than I thought to be.

"The students will now have a thirty-minute break; then we will go for the last round for today!" Said the Principal.

This is going really well in my direction, what I wonder what the next challenge will be...

We made our way backstage; that's where I met up with Alice and Chase.

"Alice! You are in third place! You are killing the competition!" I said.

"Thank you! You are as well, first place? That's some crazy talent." Alice said.

"Thanks... How about you, Chase?" I responded.

"I'm 9th," Chase said.

"We are all in the top 10; we are one of the strongest groups!" Alice said.

We collected each other for about 5-10 minutes.

I once again ran towards my family so I can meet them again.

"I got first again!" I said.

"Yes, you did dear, I can see why you were able to explore the expert zone..." mom said

As she finished her sentence, everyone in the crowd looked at me.

"Whoops was I too loud?" mom said with a smirk on her face.

"You went to the expert zone?" the king said.

"Yes, sir, Alice and I went to the expert zone to train," I responded

"Ha! The two in the top three went out to train in the expert zone; you're not failing to impress everyone, keep it up." Said the king.

"Thank you, Sir," I responded.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you," I said to mom.

"I don't know what you're talking about..." Mom said while grinning.

I've been blazing through all the challenges now; if only the third one is just as easy, I can almost guarantee first.

With the remaining time we had left, I sat and talked with mom and Shella.

After a couple of minutes, the principal call for all the students to be back in the arena.

"Okay! Break time is over; let us go into the last round for today. What we will be testing in this round is the student's energy pool. So what this means is that the student must output a level 3 barrier and defend off against a barrage of attacks; the longer you can withstand, the higher you place on the boards." Said the Principal.

"We will be going from the bottom of the leaderboard to the top, the bottom 10; please come up." Said the Principal.

The students all put up a level 3 barrier and held their position.

"3...2...1... LAUNCH," Said the principal.

As soon as the countdown finished, the machine fired a large array of missiles at the students; 7 of them were instantly knocked out, the last 3 stayed up only for a couple more seconds until they too fell.

That was... a little over-the-top for a start...

"Next 10 students come up," Said the principal.

The same occurrence happened again; nearly the whole line of students fell after the first 5 seconds, there were a few held up for 10 seconds or a bit more, but there was nothing too exciting.

That was when we hit the top 50 students...

The drastic leap from time standing was unheard of; the highest time before the top 50 was 15 seconds, the 50th student had 30 seconds...

And the time only kept growing, we were now at the top 10 students, and the time to beat was almost 45 seconds.

"The last 10 students come aboard." Said the principal.

"And the, "Reaper," is up!" Said the king.

"Reaper?" I said.

"Yes, Reaper, you are very overbearing, strong-minded, and hold a lot of courage, I think fitting for the title of "Reaper," said the king.

The crowd started chanting "Reaper,"... It was really cheesy.

It looks like I can't let the people down.

We got into place and put up our barriers. I never put up a barrier as it wasn't a necessary skill...

Some skills aren't elementally locked, and a barrier is one of them; every element can output a level of "Barrier."

So I had my hands out and thought of a barrier...

Like all my other attempts at first trying everything, it didn't work.

"Uhm, Stephen, your barrier, put it up." Said the principal.

"yeah, I thinking on what level I should put up..." I responded.

"You should put up a level 3, that the baseline." the principal said.

"I can't go for something higher?" I asked.

I was trying to make it look like I know how actually to put up a barrier...

"No, We will be starting in 5...4..." The principal started counting.

I had to do something; I tried to infuse again with the black smoke and Voilà, a barrier came about... but it was black.

"3...2...-- Black barrier...? Are you a variant here as well?" The principal said.

"Aswell?" The king said.

"He also has black lightning," Said the principal.

"Worthy of the name Reaper, go on with the competition." Said the king.

"Yes sir, 2...1... LAUNCH." the principal exclaimed.

The barrage of missiles started once again. Though I had a big energy pool, this barrier was really burning through my energy.

As 30 seconds pass, 1/3 of my energy has been depleted.

I look at Alice, who's to my left; she looks like she'll last a minute, and to my right was Chase, who also looked as if he'd last a minute.

I had to make sure I last with them.

The 50-second mark has been met, there a student fell.

Then the 1-minute mark, 3 students consecutively fell, one being Chase.

There were 6 students left, and my energy was nearly 2/3s depleted, but then my energy started to slowly trickle down as if the cost of upholding the barrier was cut by 70%.

At a minute and 10 seconds, 3 more students fell. So finally, it was me, Alice, and the person who was 5th on the board left standing.

15 seconds pass and the random student fell, but Alice looked as if she would give in any moment.

At 1 and a half minutes, Alice too fell.

I was left, and my energy levels were barely going down... I Should stop at the 2-minute mark.

"Come on, Wilson! Beat my record! I got two minutes and 25 seconds." Said the king.

"Hmph, a piece of cake," I said.

I liked the king; he wasn't some stuck-up person who liked to flaunt his name.

The king started to laugh.

30 seconds went by; that was the two-minute mark.

My energy was going down, but I had enough to almost go for three minutes, but I wanted to stop at 2 minutes and 35 seconds.

At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, the crowd and the king started chanting down, "5...4...3...2...1..."

I beat the record; everyone was beyond excited...

As I reached my desired time, I put down my barrier and dodged the rest of the missiles to get out of the way.

The king came down from his seat and onto the stage.

"You could've gone for a couple more seconds; why stop?" Said the King

"I had low energy left, and I didn't want to get hit by missiles when my energy ran out," I responded.

The king started to chuckle, "Here, take this stone and crush it," said the king

I took the stone and crushed it; my energy pool was at max once again.

"Put up your barrier; I want to see the type of monster the humans will have by their side." The king requested.

"Yes, sir," I said while putting up my barrier.

The king released a large amount of his energy; it was beyond me, heavier than the energy from the beast that killed me.

"Get ready," The king said as he launched a massive bolt of lightning.

I barely held on; I could block the attack, though the attack completely drained my energy pool again; I only had a few scratches.

"Haha, kid, that was my third strongest attack; you just blocked." Said the king

"It looks as though we may have a chance in this war," Said the king.

I was a little flustered... "Thank you," I responded.

"You're just like your dad kid, be proud of that," The king said while walking back to his seat.

"Okay! Stephen Wilson, you have annihilated the competition, blasting through each round, coming in first place each round! The leaderboard stands Stephen Wilson, 1st place, Alice Blake, 2nd place, Johnathan Eisenhower, 3rd place!" Said the principal.

"That will wrap up today's Kings Tournament; the last and final round shall continue tomorrow; I hope to see everyone here again." The principal remarked.

The crowd was clapping and applauding the students; I looked around for my family.

I saw mom, she was saying something, but I couldn't hear.

Inaudiable to Stephen:

"You're almost exactly like your dad..." Cynthia said.

I quickly made my way towards them.

"What did you say, mom? I couldn't hear?" I said

"I was cheering you on! You did amazing in this tournament!" Said, mom.

I was thrilled; I made her proud.

"Let us go home; I'll make your favorite," mom said.

I wish everything would stay like this forever.