Second World

”Outworlders stay out of this!” Prince Therribus said curtly.

”Considering they will be the ones that participate, I say their voices carry weight,” Prince Alonzo countered.

Jack didnʼt wait further for them to start another argument of whether he was to be allowed to speak or not, so he just spoke, ”How about you organize another tournament within this country? All three of you select an equal number of contestants. Letʼs say ten or twenty. Have them compete. Ten winners will be the ones joining this world tournament. This will ensure you get the best to represent this country, will you not?”

Everyone was silent after hearing it. Prince Therribus broke the silence first, ”that is a terrible…”

”I agree with that idea!” Rhemos cut in while Therribus was still speaking.

”Me as well,” Alonzo threw his support.

Itʼs two against one, Prince Therribus wore a scowl on his face. It was as Rhemos had pointed out, Therribus had the least interaction with outworlders. His interaction with them was mostly through quests he put out via his underlings for missions that were too shady or too menial for his men to do directly. This idea heavily put him at a disadvantage since most of the more skilled outworlders should have thrown their allegiance to the other two princes.

”I say this is reasonable as well,” Royal Advisor Mason added his support.

”I thought so too,” Duchess Isabelle joined in.

Seeing everyone was having an agreement, Therribus knew there was no point to continue debating.

”Hmph! Just tell me when and where this selection tournament will take place,” he uttered and then turned around and left. Garland gave Jack a hostile glare before following his liege with heavy steps.

Alonzo turned to Jack and asked, ”do you have a suggestion as to the format of this selection test?”

”That will depend on the nature of the world tournament. You said you will need ten participants, five for team battles and five for individual ones? Meaning ones that joined individual canʼt fight in the team and vice versa?”

”Yes,” Alonzo answered. ”Additionally, the individual battle is separated into class categories. The five will each represent classes that came from the advanced classes. Knight, Warrior, Archer, Rogue, and Mage.”

”No tournament for classes from Healer advanced class?” Jack asked.

”After reviewing your outworlderʼs class, the tournament council concluded that Healer class is not suitable for single combat. In exchange, the team battle requires one spot reserved for the healer class. The other four are unrestricted.”

After pondering for a while, Jack said, ”How about this? You organized the selection by advanced classes as well. So there will be six selections. How many participants for this selection process is up to you, but we only need one winner from the healer class section, and two winners from the other five classes.”

”We will have one winner more than we need,” Red Death said.

”You are correct,” Jack agreed. ”Except for the healer class, the one who placed the first on each of the sections will join the individual battle. The remaining five will take a vote themselves on who is the one player to be excluded. They should be able to decide by themselves which composition suit better for the team and make the decision.”

”Ainʼt that mean the team match will be composed of runner-ups? Except for the healer,” Rhemos stated.

”Well, thatʼs true…” Jack said.

”The glory and reward for the team battle are the most out of the tournament. We canʼt ditch the team match for the individuals,” Mason said.

”Uh… In that case… Well, easy. Just place me as a participant in the team battle,” Jack said.

The others looked at him. Rhemos and the cloaked man behind him carried disdain in their gaze.

”Iʼm serious. As long as it is not one particular outworlder, who Iʼm pretty sure wonʼt be joining, Iʼm confident I can take care of five outworlders.”

ʼAre you talking about Master? What makes you so sure he wonʼt join?ʼ Peniel asked inside Jackʼs mind.

ʼThe guy was busy conquering a country to pave the way of him becoming a God. Do you think he will spare the time for a measly tournament?ʼ Jack replied.

”If you underestimate other players just because you have three classes, you will regret it sooner or later,” Red Death said.

”Oh? So you already know I have three classes?” Jack asked.

”The report of your fight with Saint Edge had already spread,” Red Death replied. Then to Prince Rhemos, she said, ”That being said, I also agree that if he is placed in the team battle, our winning chance will be high even if the rests are second-rate.”

Rhemos considered Red Deathʼs opinion. He then said, ”Nevertheless, he has to join the selection like the rest. We canʼt just place him into one of the slots for team match while the others have to go through the selection.”

”I think itʼs pointless but fine, I will join the selection tournament,” Jack said.

”Good. Now that we agreed for a selection tournament, letʼs talk about the details,” Mason offered.

Jack wasnʼt fond of this talking session, but since he was already invited, he joined and gave his opinion whenever he thought of one. The selection tournament was decided to take place one week from now. Each prince would use their connections to gather thirty participants under their banners, totaling ninety participants.

The participants were to come equally from all six advanced classes, meaning there would be fifteen participants in each class. This selection tournament would mostly be dueling matches, but details on its format would be further discussed later among the three princes.

For the healer class, they plan to have a special battle. Two healers were to enter a constructed dimension where two teams of four equal-level puppets fought one another. The healers were to support their teams using healings. If the team won, the healer won.

The kingdom was planning to talk with the League of Champions to borrow the arena inside their venue.

After they hashed out the general outlines of the tournament. The two princes separated to their quarters to discuss their own selection process. Mason went to inform the details to Prince Therribus. Jack wanted to talk with Red Death before leaving but the woman just left with Prince Rhemos without even a glance.

When they were back at Prince Alonzoʼs quarter, the prince first thanked Jack for the success in securing prince Horatioʼs support, he then formally requested Jack to represent him in participating the World Tournament.

Jack received notification that his ambassador quest had been completed. He received exp, coins, and merit points. The exp pushed his Beastmaster class to level 37, while the merit points made him an Earl now. Another notification followed, informing him that he had received the third part of his faction quest, win the world tournament.

This quest provided even more faction points from the previous part. It granted twenty thousand merit points upon completion. But seeing the quest was described as winning the world tournament instead of joining the world tournament. Jack thought this reward suited the questʼs high requirement. Jack figured if he placed second in the tournament, the quest would be considered a fail.

The prince also asked Jack to prepare fifteen participants from his guild. The remaining fifteen he would gather from other sources. Jack didnʼt think that was weird, he didnʼt think that his guild was the only one the third prince had associated with. Being asked to fill half of the required participants already meant that the prince gave Jackʼs guild a very high preference.

He immediately sent a short message to Jeanny regarding this. He said he would explain in length later today when he was back at the headquarters.

As for the first prince, Jack learned in later days that he made a country-wide announcement to gather participants under his banner. Since he had little interactions with outworlders, other than the few he had unwillingly associated for shady missions, the rests he had gathered by using that announcement. This method mostly gathered those independent experts. Commander Quintus mentioned that other countries used this similar kind of method to gather their participants before having a selection screening.

After the discussion ended, Jack exchanged some pleasantries with the Duchess, asking her condition. She thanked Jack because she knew Jack had been the one that got her the cure. She said she was still recovering at the moment, which drew wide eyes from Jack. Jack asked her whatʼs her real power was if she fully recovered. She informed him that she was level 80 before she was afflicted by the curse, drawing another wide eye from Jack.

Jack also took the time to apologize to Prince Alonzo about Heathcliffe, saying it was his carelessness that cause the knight to lose his life. Alonzo said he had known about the knightʼs death. Heathcliffe was with the army so he had a soul registry under the army. Any soldiers losing their lives would have their names greyed out in the registry. This way, no one would wonder if a missing soldier was indeed missing or had died.

Jack informed the prince about World Maker. He didnʼt tell him about the nature of this world, he simply told him that World Maker had been manipulating Liguritudum politics and was planning to attack the whole world once they secured their power, including Themisphere. He asked him to have his men take notice if members of this guild were seen. If possible, to have them barred from entering Themisphere. Alonzo told Jack that he had no such power. Unless he could persuade his other two brothers, it was impossible to ban a particular organization. But he promised he would send out a command to have his people on alert if they encountered any such guild member.

By the time Jack left the palace, It was almost sunset.

”Damn! This is very wasting time. I should have been spending my time leveling up,” Jack uttered.

”Yeah, you are no politic man,” Peniel agreed.

Jack was not sure if that was an insult or what? So he ignored her.

”What will you be doing now?” Peniel asked.

”One week is too short for me to go back to the Jagara region to farm essences. I think I will just help Jeanny with that Ice Throne Legacy dungeon. But tomorrow I wanted to go first to both League of Champions and Order of Magi.”

”Yes, you have collected quite many challenge points.”

”Thatʼs right.. Itʼs time my ranks rose in those two factions!” Jack declared.

😉