Chapter 7: The Second Round  

minutes passed in the blink of an eye, and all the participants passing the first round gathered on top of the Arena stage.

Vice Principal George stood up from his chair and again started floating in front of the participants before telling them the rules of the Second round,

"Let me tell you about the second round, which is also quite simple."

When the participants heard the word 'simple' they knew it was not going to be simple at all.

"You all just need to stand still and meditate under some pressure. It doesn't matter if you want to use a skill. After 3 hours those who are still standing will pass the second round."

Vice Principal George slowly waved his right hand to place a big hourglass in the air.

After the hourglass appeared all the participants felt a heavy weight descending on their shoulders. A few participants fell immediately unable to withstand the pressure. It was just the starting and almost twenty participants were disqualified.

Alec who was standing in the middle of the stage, took a deep breath. He closed his eyes and started meditating. The pressure was not enough to make him fall. Carcel, Lara, and Mia also looked fine. However, there were some participants who were already having difficulty standing.

Seeing the intense atmosphere on the Arena Stage, the crowd started placing bets as to who would fall next.

While all this was happening, a certain someone was not feeling any pressure!

Kyle looked around and saw others, who were already sweating buckets of water.

'Is it only me, or the pressure is almost non-existent.'

He glanced at a participant falling in front of him before mumbling under his breath, "I never knew I was this talented."

As time passed the pressure on the participants increased, but Kyle felt like everyone was overacting. When the pressure is only equal to a few glasses of water why are they falling?

He looked toward Vice Principal George only to find the Vice principal staring dagger at him. But when Kyle's eyes met with the Vice Principal, the vice principal turned to look at another participant.

"Huh?? Did I misunderstand?"

Kyle exclaimed with a confused expression, but in reality, his brain was working like crazy.

He had a doubt when in the first round he suddenly appeared in front of the finishing portal. And Right now his breezing through the second round proved his suspicious.

It seemed the Vice principal was helping him. But the question was Why?

Was it because of the skill he obtained? Even though Kyle had an idea of what was going on, he pretended he knew nothing. If the Vice Principal wanted the skill core back from him, then it was impossible because he already learned it.

Kyle used his brain for a while but then stopped thinking about all this. He would rather prefer not to think about complicated things. And also it was better to stay away from someone powerful like the Vice Principal.

Just like that two hours passed, and almost half of the participants were already disqualified. Right now even Alec was sweating, but he stood straight with his eyes closed.

Carcel and Lara were also having some difficulty, while Mia used one of her skills ["Protection of unbreakable Shield"] to remove some pressure for a while.

On the other hand, Kyle looked tired and bored. He was not sweating like others, but his legs were numb because it was his first time standing for so long.

'Ugh, I am tired, just how much time is left?'

Kyle started stretching his hands and legs like he just took a nap, making almost half the participants who looked at him cough up blood. All of them were struggling to even stand up properly and here he was stretching his body while yawning.

Even the crowd noticed Kyle because unlike others he was passing the test like a breeze. Kyle Second Brother Neon also looked at him seriously thinking,

'I knew it, Kyle had potential.' Vice Principal George was still floating in the air, he looked at Kyle and frowned.

'You Rascal! If not for you learning the Ice Dragon's skill, I would have already disqualified the likes of you.'

The Vice Principal was the one putting pressure on the students, he made sure to put minimum pressure on Kyle. But right now seeing Kyle's attitude, he had the urge to put almost double the pressure on Kyle but looking at his fragile physique he decided against it.

When the Vice principal looked at the other participants he felt guilty because he was basically helping Kyle in cheating.

'Let's calm down, I am doing this for the Principal sake. Yes, I am doing this for the Principal.'

Vice Principal George consoled himself inwardly to lower his guilt.

Finally, as the last hour of the competition came to an end, the pressure on the Participants vanished indicating the end of the Second round. Many participants fell with ragged breathing and sweat dripping from their drenched clothes. Even Alec, Carcel, and Lara sat down on the stage to calm their nerves.

Among the hundreds of participants, there were two participants who were still standing.

The first one was Mia, she was standing because in between she used some spell to lower the pressure. And the other one was obviously Kyle, but when he saw everyone was barely able to stand he also pretended to be tired and sat down.

The Vice Principal looked at the winning participants with satisfaction before announcing in a loud voice,

"Congratulations to the 401 participants who passed the second round with 'efforts'."

He was emphasizing the word 'effort' while giving Kyle a quick look.

The crowd erupted into thunderous applause to congratulate the Participants.

Vice Principal George also clapped for the participants with a smile before telling them about the final round,

"As it is already late, the third and final round will be held tomorrow morning. All participants should rest for the day."

The winning participants left the Arena with pride, and their relatives and friends congratulated them. But those who failed to make it to the next round were depressed and left the Arena with bitter faces.

Neon left the crowd and hurriedly rushed toward Kyle. He hugged him tightly before exclaiming with a prideful smile,

"Kyle, You were absolutely amazing out there. I knew you could do it."

Kyle also grinned and hugged Neon back. He felt happy making his brother proud even though he cheated. Still, no one will ever find out about this.