Another week passed since Angus' confrontation with Prince Dietrich and the Alvan United convoy. During this week, King Leon also officially announced the knight competition.
Since the competition was open to the public and commoners, King Leon didn't announce it through a social party like the usual big event but simultaneously spread it through the main cities.
The knight competition will be held in two months, at the end of the third month. It consists of two categories: group battle and individual battle.
Each category is divided into two phases: the preliminary phase and the main phase.
The preliminary phase is a random preliminary battle until there are only 64 participants left. According to the calculation and the total number of participants, each participant may fight two to three battles daily during this phase.
However, Angus knows the hidden rules of this preliminary battle. Though the battle arrangement is stated randomly, it is actually controlled by the judges, who consist of referees and selected experienced combatants. It happens that Angus is also one of these people.
The reason behind these hidden rules is not to create a backdoor way to a particular participant but to avoid some strong participants battling each other and getting eliminated too early.
Moreover, any strong participant also gets privileges like battling less and having more strength. These hidden rules may also bias against those without connection and benefit those with strong connection, especially with the judges.
Still, King Leon believes that if the participants are strong enough, they should be able to reach the main phase easily, even with these setbacks. Otherwise, those participants are just not worthy of entering his eyes and fighting in front of everyone.
The main phase is the start of the main event. The 64 participants will fight inside the specially built-arena while everyone watches. The arena is heavily enchanted and could hold more than 50,000 people. In other words, it is already an honor for anyone to be able to fight at this stage.
Even if they lose in the battle later, they will still attract many people's attention as long as they do not perform too badly. This will definitely be a big achievement and rise in their career as combatants.
The main phase is also a venue for creating a network between participants and others. This is also why King Leon didn't mind if someone used their network and influence to enter the main phase.
It is normal to use influence and network power to connect more with other people. This is also one of the main reasons to establish communication and networks.
During the main phase, Angus and the other jurors could no longer arrange the battle. Any violator would receive heavy punishment from King Leon himself. The participants would fight based on the lottery draw.
Any loser will be eliminated directly while the winner moves towards the next fight. King Leon also prepares some prizes for the participants even if they win.
The last 16 participants will receive a large amount of gold coin prize money and high-grade skills or magic books. The last 8 participants will receive a Miasma Antidote along with Vigo's Power Arm.
The last five participants will receive a high-quality magic item, such as a potion or magic weapon, and they could also earn a high position in the Heart Kingdom military.
The winner will receive an artifact of their choice along with a wish granted by King Leon. Everyone was surprised by the winning prizes, especially the last one. For others, seventh-grade students are legendary people akin to God.
Though, the last winning prize itself is limited since the wish should always protect the interest of the Heart Kingdom. However, granting Baron rank nobility or giving some rare resources is possible.
The same rules are also applied to the group battle. The maximum entry number for group battles is five. In other words, the 1st winner will get five artifacts and five wishes from King Leon as the winning prize. The same thing also applies to the other winning prizes.
This is also the main reason King Leon asked Angus to form a team to win the competition. Granting one wish is different from granting five wishes. It is still too much, even if it is only a monetary prize.
While accepting his fate of going to another spartan training, a group of wild pigs run in their direction.
"Yay!! Yay!! Piggy!! Piggy!!" exclaimed Anna happily.
"Anna?!" called Jayna gently.
"Ahh... Mommy?!! Look, Anna brings a lot of Porky." replied Anna excitedly while flying towards Jayna.
"Gezz... Anna, how many times I told you not to bring the pigs here. You could just bring them to the kitchen," said Jayna gently as she caught the little troublemaker.
"Ehhh... But, Mommy's pork meat is delicious. Anna loves it." complained Anna.
"Haa... It will take a long time to cook all of them. Mommy could only cook one of them at most." replied Jayna.
"No, Anna wants more." said Anna.
"How many did you want?" asked Jayna.
"Emm... forty? Twelve? What is next after thirty-two?" asked Anna while counting with her finger.
"Hmm... One?" replied Jayna with a gentle smile.
"No way. That's what Mommy said before." argued Anna.
"How about two?" asked Jayna.
"Alright, Anna wants two roasted Porky." said Anna.
'So easy to be fooled.' thought everyone.
"Then, sit tight. Mommy will need time to prepare it." said Jayna.
"Anna will be a good girl. Hmm... Daddy!! What's Daddy doing? Is Daddy playing something?" asked Anna.
"Nahhh... We are not doing anything Anna." said Angus.
"Umm... Nope. Daddy is lying. Daddy must burst the bubble behind Anna's toes." complained Anna while pouting.
"Behind your back, Anna. Anyway, we are really not doing anything and definitely not bursting any bubbles." said Angus while trying to hide the fact they are sparring.
Angus could already imagine the danger when Anna found out about their sparring. One of Anna's hobbies besides pranking and eating food is her love for fighting, especially when she bursts everyone.