“All participating contestants are chosen from the Dragon God Empire academies’ current student body. They must be 30 years old or below, and both Warriors and Magicians are eligible to enter.
“Apart from attractive prizes, all students that show excellent performance will also win great honor and glory for their academies.
“There’s even word on the street that the prizes this year include a slot to enter the empire’s sanctum of blessings!
“Therefore, the president and other academy leaders have placed great importance on this year’s inter-academy competition. The president has even specified during the meeting this morning that you are to participate.”
At this point, Mr. Dirk asked, “Meng Lei, do you have any other questions?”
“The Empire-wide Inter-Academy Exchange Competition of The Elites...”
Meng Lei was rather troubled. He said, “Mr. Dirk, as a member of the academy, I am obliged to represent the academy to participate in the inter-academy exchange competition... But aren’t we kinda bullying others if I join?”
“Uh...”
Mr. Dirk was taken aback for a moment before he subsequently burst into silent laughter. “Are you concerned that there’s... Cough, no real challenge in the competition, Meng Lei?”
“Yeah, that’s more or less what I mean.”
Meng Lei nodded repeatedly. He didn’t dislike competitions like these since he could take the opportunity to broaden his horizons and pick up a few attributes, spells, bloodlines, and whatnot to enrich his arsenal of weapons.
However, if they were asking him to fight with a bunch of kids, then that would be rather meaningless. Besides, it would feel somewhat like he was bullying young children.
“If it’s about that, then there’s no need for you to worry at all!”
Chapter 125: Intense Competition, Posturing Fatty
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“If it’s about that, then there’s no need for you to worry at all.”
Mr. Dirk shook his head with a laugh and went on. “The exchange competition’s prizes are much more attractive than what you can imagine, and they will attract hordes of experts.
“Because of this, apart from current students, there are actually a larger number of contestants that aren’t from the academies. They join the academies in name just to obtain competition eligibility.
“Additionally, there are many seniors that should have graduated simply refuse to do so, and they stay in the academy to pursue their studies for several years, all for the sake of obtaining competition eligibility, too.”
“You can actually do that?” Meng Lei was a little startled at what he heard. “In that case, aren’t current students like us at a huge disadvantage?”
“Yes, but there’s nothing to be done about that. The prizes are simply too attractive.” Mr. Dirk shook his head and added, “Frankly speaking, if it wasn’t because my age doesn’t fulfill the requirements, even I would want to register for and join the exchange competition. How unfair. This is simply too unfair!”
Meng Lei was rendered completely speechless. Was this really an inter-academy exchange competition? Even the experts in the community were rushing all the way here to join the competition.
“It can’t be helped. The current students tend to be very young, and it is common for most of them to be comparatively weaker. This leads to a severe lack in showmanship quality to the exchange competition, and the level of competitiveness in the competition also becomes very low as a result.”
Mr. Dirk explained with a smile, “Therefore, they can only relax the competition requirements and allow more experts to participate.
“However, there’s ultimately still a 30-year-old age limit. Otherwise, it’s possible that even some of the shameless old antiques would show up. The competition won’t be able to go on anymore that way.”
“Alright, I see.”
Meng Lei shook his head and then asked, “When does the exchange competition start, Mr. Dirk? Where is it held, and what do I need to do?”
“The competition officially starts half a month later, and it’s held at the Imperial City. However, before you go to the Imperial City, we, the Fire Dragon Kingdom, will first conduct a preliminary round of filtering—in other words, the qualifying round.”
Mr. Dirk explained, “The exchange competition stipulates that each kingdom holds only 50 competition spots, and the contestants for these 50 spots will be selected via the qualifying round.”
“Only 50 spots per kingdom?”
This dumbfounded Meng Lei.
There were over 70 academies in Fire Dragon Kingdom’s capital city alone. After adding up all the academies in the whole kingdom, the number of current students far exceeded 100,000, not to mention that there would even be experts from the community.
Yet there were only a total of 50 spots despite there being so many contestants?
The competition sure was tough.
“In that case, I’ll have to join the qualifying round first?” asked Meng Lei as he raised his eyebrows.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Mr. Dirk replied with a light nod, “The one-week qualifying round will start in two days. After that, the selected winners will head to the Imperial Capital on the tenth day to represent the Fire Dragon Kingdom in the exchange competition.”
“Alright, I got it!” Meng Lei nodded slightly.
“Meng Lei, Douglas Magic Academy is in charge of hosting the qualifying round this year. Don’t forget to attend it two days later.”
“Got it, Mr. Dirk.”
After hanging up, Meng Lei continued his study of wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic, striving to master it and get it down within two days.
...
Early in the morning, two days later, Meng Lei woke up and left his condominium after he was done packing his things.
He had only just walked out of the condominium when he bumped into Fatty Hart and Daniel right away. The two of them were in high spirits and all pumped up.
Fatty Hart chuckled and said, “Old bro, you’ll be the champion of the qualifying round
