"Are you excited about the show?" a young woman with red hair asked a stalwart man walking beside her.
The young woman wore expensive Mage robes, while the tall man wore heavy armor with a huge axe on his back.
Surprisingly, the woman was hugging the man's arm as they were strolling through the city.
"Hell yeah, I'm excited!" the man shouted. "I've been waiting for this tournament for over ten years!"
The woman giggled as she hugged her boyfriend. "I know that you would have won if you had the chance to participate!"
The man only coughed uncomfortably. "You know that I lost during qualifications. These are the finals we are talking about. I don't think I could win even against the weakest competitor."
The girl furrowed her brows and pouted. "You keep saying that, but aren't you in the Mid Diamond Body Stage? I thought there were like only 50 of you in the world."
The man could only sigh. "Yes, but there are only 32 spots open, and I didn't make it."
"Also, there are over ten Late Diamond Body Stage warriors, and there's even a Peak Diamond Body Stage warrior."
Sadly, the woman wasn't completely fine with her boyfriend's explanation. Was he really not even average in his level?
But it wasn't a deal breaker to her. As long as her boyfriend was still stronger than her, she didn't mind. To her, strong men were attractive.
She was an Initial Archmage, and her boyfriend was at the Mid Diamond Body Stage. The two had sparred from time to time, but her boyfriend always won, which was a good thing for her.
Because of that, she still loved him dearly.
However, what she didn't see was that her boyfriend was pushing himself very hard. His girlfriend was only average for an Initial Archmage, but he had nearly lost to her in the sparring match. He had acted like it hadn't been hard for him to win, but it had actually been extremely hard.
Even more, to win her over, he had also advanced to the Mid Diamond Body Stage way too soon.
But that didn't matter.
He had had a crush on her for years, and he finally managed to obtain her.
Sadly, he didn't qualify for the greatest tournament for warriors ever held.
About ten years ago, Star City, one of the biggest cities in the southern lands of the Lightning Manor, had announced that they were planning on creating the first major Warrior Guild in the world.
There had been several smaller warrior guilds before, but there hadn't been a really prolific one.
Star City would change that.
Star City had already created its plans for the Warrior Guild.
Only the strongest warrior in the world would be allowed to become the Guild Master of the strongest Warrior Guild in the world.
Because of that, Star City had advertised in nearly every single other city and town.
The strongest Warrior Guild!
The strongest warrior!
A tournament to decide the strongest warrior in the world, with the grand prize being 100 Grade Six Mana Crystals and the position of Guild Master!
Everyone in the surrounding two million kilometers had heard about the tournament, which was essentially the entire southeastern corner of the Lightning Manor's territory.
The rise of the new warriors had been quite interesting for all the Mages.
Their entire lives, they had believed that there was only the Path of Magic, but now, warriors in the Fifth Realm had appeared.
Sadly, these warriors were quite weak compared to Mages, but that wasn't too surprising. After all, they had created that Realm just 300 years ago. With enough time, they might be able to rival Mages at some point.
But as it stood now, an average Early Diamond Body Stage warrior was weaker than the average Initial Archmage, while an average Mid Diamond Body Stage warrior could defeat an average Initial Archmage but not an Early Archmage.
One could say that, in general, a warrior's Battle-Strength in the Fifth Realm was about 1.5 levels below an Archmage of the same level.
However, it was still very shocking to hear about something like warriors.
And today, the grand tournament would be held, which would be the public's first time seeing these legendary warriors of the Fifth Realm. After all, there were less than a thousand of them in the world! They were even rarer than Mage Lords!
The two lovers were excited to see a fight between the most powerful warriors in the world!
This wasn't an event that happened every day!
"By the way," the woman said after remembering something, "you think these weird warriors from the rumors will show up?"
The man only snorted. "These scam artists? I doubt it. They might be able to fool a couple of True Path Stage warriors with their bullshit, but here, they would need to prove their actual power against real Diamond Stage warriors."
"I already told you that they are just a bunch of Mages disguising themselves as warriors. If they were to try something here, they would get unmasked. After all, they can't keep their true powers hidden during a genuine battle."
"Eh? Are you sure?" the woman asked. "The people that saw them seemed quite convinced."
The man snorted again. "You're not a warrior. Trust me. They're not real warriors."
The woman looked at her boyfriend with a bit of skepticism, but in the end, she believed him.
The two of them walked towards the center of Star City. For today's tournament, the Star Colosseum had been reserved.
Star City was an absolutely gigantic city, nearly a thousand kilometers wide, and with over 100 million people living there. It was led by three Mage Lords and thousands of Ancestral Mages.
It was a metropolis, one of the biggest cities in the entire world.
And its biggest attraction was the Star Colosseum.
The Star Colosseum was a humongous arena in the middle of the city. The arena was nearly ten kilometers wide, and there were several Magic Circles around the Star Colosseum that made the air clearer while bending space just enough so that even mortals could see the other side of the arena.
It could house over five million spectators.
Most of the time, Ancestral Beasts would be brought here to fight to the death with each other as entertainment. Sometimes, there were also public fights between Ancestral Mages being held here.
The two lovers paid their entrance fee, one Grade Five Mana Crystal each, and entered the Star Colosseum.
The entire thing was packed!
When the two of them saw the sea of people, they had to take a deep breath.
Seeing all of this could only be described as monumental.
It was gigantic.
The woman only snickered a bit.
"I bet they don't have something like that in Area 23, eh?" she asked as she lightly poked her boyfriend's side with her elbow.
The man could only sigh. "No, we don't have something like that."
