Chapter 474: Preliminary Matches are Easy

While waiting for his next match Joshua watched a few other matches that were a bit more interesting. He didn't even bother looking up other members of the alliance to see how they were doing since it was clear to see that the preliminaries were only going to pit high level explorers against the lower level participants in a bid to clear out all of the weak contestants as soon as possible. It was almost impossible for any member of Joshua's group to lose to someone below level seventy, so fighting against people that were in the level fifty range was just not much of a threat.

Joshua knew that there was a good chance that the preliminaries might get a bit more challenging in the coming days, but for the first day it was obvious what the system's aim was for the tournament. There wasn't really any likelihood for a Cinderella story in this tournament with the way it was structured. The matches that Joshua ended up spending some of his time watching were between the more average contestants that were being put up against people that were of similar levels. These consisted of contestants that were in that mid-level sixties range.

It was easy to see that these contestants were the ones that were likely to be on the edge of getting into the bracketed portion of the tournament if they either lucked out in some way by getting several favorable match ups or they had an unnatural level of skill for their current level. There was also the possibility of someone appearing with a unique job that was of lower level making some strides in the preliminaries. For the most part Joshua was interested in finding people like this as he looked through the matches, but he had only seen a couple of matches with people that had unique jobs. It was a shame that they didn't seem to be showing them off up to this point as they won their matches just with normal skills that Joshua had seen several other people use.

Joshua knew that he wasn't the only one in the tournament with a unique job that had the same idea of hiding most of their true abilities as long as they could. It was smart of those two contestants to learn other well-known skills that would help them when a few matches throughout the preliminaries. For the most part all of the matches that Joshua could watch while waiting were either completely one sided or between two opponents that weren't on a level that could threaten him at all. He actually watched those fights more as a way to see if he could find anybody that was worthwhile to recruit to the guild instead of as a way to scout out his future opponents.

When there was a minute left before his break time bell went off in the room to warn him he got ready to be teleported away once more. The bell seemed to be there for contestants that had fallen asleep while waiting or those that didn't like to wait around in their full gear between matches. Joshua had been relaxing and watching matches during his entire break period so the bell didn't really surprise him. He stood up and stretched his body a bit in preparation for the next match. He wasn't expecting much after the first fight so he wasn't tense at all. There was no great anticipation for the upcoming fight or any type of nervousness, instead Joshua was almost bored at the idea of fighting someone at a similar level to the last person he was put up against.

Soon the timer reached an end and Joshua was once again teleported to another battle arena. This time around the crowd started cheering excitedly the moment they saw he was going to be in the fight. Joshua imagined it would be similar for other high level competitors in the tournament. The crowd always gets excited whenever they saw a high level participant take front stage.

This time around Joshua's opponent was a woman that was covered in mage robes. She had an extremely serious look once she noticed who her opponent was and she took a deep breath as if she was anticipating a loss as she started to relax instead of being as tense as she was earlier. Joshua couldn't tell what type of magic she specialized in just from her gear, but just like most mages he knew the fight would be won the moment he got in close. She seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she ran to get as far away from Joshua as possible before the countdown ended and she started creating several spells behind her that Joshua knew were traps of some kind that were supposed to slow him down. Once the mage got as far away as she could she started channeling a big spell as the countdown was coming to an end for the battle to start.

Joshua couldn't help but think that someone that seemed so accepting of their defeat was trying extremely hard instead of just giving up. Though if she proved her capabilities of resisting against someone of Joshua's level then it would be likely that she might be able to create a bit of a reputation for herself. At the moment the girl was only level fifty-four, but she was extremely young from her somewhat childish face and small stature. It was clear that she hadn't been an explorer as long as most of the high level participants so she seemed to have some good talent or at the least great judgement skills.

The moment the battle started Joshua kicked the ground with full force causing the entire arena to shake and making the girl stumble a bit. His tactic worked as the sudden shaking caused the mage to lose the concentration she needed to form her big spell to attack Joshua with. Joshua could tell from the get go that the mage was more inexperienced even if she was a bit talented, so he wasn't to surprised that it was easy to break her concentration. It was likely she had never been put into a situation where she had to channel such a powerful spell under such tense circumstances without having several people around her to protect her. This was probably her first time in a one on one scenario with someone out of her league which explained her nervousness even if she did succeed in going through a routine to prepare for the battle.

Joshua 's powerful kick to the ground also caused a large portion of the arena to break creating a path directly towards the mage that had destroyed several of the traps that she had placed down before the fighting had even started. Joshua directly charged down the path surprising the mage that tried to create another quicker casting spell as she tried to run to the side and force Joshua to move through some of her traps. By the time Joshua had to change the angle of his pursuit of her he had built up so much speed that he had no problem dashing through her traps that were going off behind him as he passed by. Without something to slow him down she didn't stand a chance of getting her traps to work.

When Joshua was only a few feet away a large slash of wind was shot directly at his face that was trying to cut through him or at least knock him back into the small tornado traps that the girl had set up behind him, but instead of getting hit by it Joshua leaped over it while launching himself towards the girl who didn't have enough time to cast another spell while Joshua landed right next to her and grabbed her by the shoulder. In one swift move he knocked her off balance destroying the next spell she was planning to cast before punching her in the stomach hard enough to knock her out. As a much lower level mage with average gear there was no way she was able to withstand the hit.

The mages body quickly vanished as the match came to a close. Even though the girl was way out of her league Joshua still found her potential to be quite high. He noted down that her name was Marl and decided on possibly recruiting her after the tournament was over. He would have to watch some of her fights against other people, but she had left a decent impression on Joshua with her fast thinking and her ability to not freeze up in his presence. Although Joshua hadn't exerted his aura to suppress any of his opponents up to this point the difference in level alone created a sort of natural pressure that would cause most people to panic if Joshua were to dash right at them.

Joshua gave the crowd another wave as they cheered his victory before he was once again transported to the waiting room. The timer had started up again and he had another hour before his next fight. Having such long breaks between fights was kind of a waste when Joshua ended fights so quickly. He had the feeling that if it were possible to fight all of his matches in a row then he could be finished within half an hour with everything. Joshua decided to watch a few more matches while waiting for his next match. He did see some members of the alliance in some fights, but all of the high level members of the alliance were ending their fights so quickly that it was a waste of time to watch them. Similar results could be seen for high level members of other groups as well.

In the end Joshua just closed his eyes and waited for his next match. He was hoping that this time around it might be a little bit more interesting, but in the end his hopes would be squashed. When it was time for Joshua to enter the battle arena for another match he was transported in front of a crowd once more that was cheering wildly at his arrival. Joshua didn't pay too much attention to the crowd as he looked over to his opponent this time around and sighed when he saw what he was up against.

The opponent that Joshua was matched up with this go around was a decently tall man at a little over six feet. He had a lean build and looked more experienced than the last two opponents Joshua had faced for the day, but the unfortunate thing was the man was clearly a martial artist. He had no weapons and light body gear so that he could move quickly and flexibly. Joshua could see the small signs of aura that showed that he was accustomed to infusing his attacks with it. All in all the man was your average martial artist with a level of fifty-eight.

As the countdown started up once more Joshua could only shake his head at the poor guy that didn't seem to have a clue what he was in for. Unlike Marl who realized she was outmatched from the start this man was bouncing on his feet as if he was an underdog with a good shot at victory. Joshua was about to dash those hopes really quickly.