I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

Chapter 299: Bubble Mania

The crowd was silent, the hosts were speechless, and th wide victorious smirk stayed on Aquarius's lips. It took a while for the hosts to recover from the utter shock, Irv stuttering to say the words.

"T-The magic measuring device b-broke" Irv uttered. "A person needs at least 200,000 magic points to break the magic crystal."

"This means t-that we have our winner!" Zia announced. She had better recovery than Irv, which showed fully.

When Aquarius thought that he was going to be cursed by the audience, he heard the loudest series of cheers and hollers yet. He looked up and saw that the crowd was cheering for him, clapping their hands in frenzy as if they weren't going to think twice about throwing eggs at him earlier.

"This man is amazing!"

"His ego is huge, but his power makes up for it."

"Why isn't he in Top 10? I heard they banned the current top 10 because they're all capable of destroying the device."

The last comment made a domino effect within the audience. They were now debating on how powerful Aquarius can be, considering he's only in Top 21. Maybe he was just holding back before.

"Alright," Zia boomed from the speakers to stop the crowd from talking even more. "Here we have the list of scores for the round!"

The list showed Aquarius in the number one spot, with a score of 200,000+. They needed a magic measuring device that has a higher measuring capabilities to accurately measure his own. The judges didn't thought someone was able to break a device with his magic, so they opted to use a higher standard than average.

If they knew Aquarius was going to completely obliterate it, they would've used the highest quality device. This was one of the lessons they listed on what to expect about the ace of Azure Scorch Guild. They will start to expect massive destruction from them.

"That skill just now," Minos pointed out. He was crossing his arm and staring at Aquarius who was walking in the stairs up to their balcony. "It was a skill that would drain 95% of his energy. He did went all out."

"Let me explain. It might help you in the future if you have a small opening to let your attack pass through," Midnight spoke. "Aquarius condensed his magic into a string-like sphere so he would be able to pierce through the device."

On the other side of the stadium, Frederick was explaining the concept to Elliot's students. "Aquarius is strong, but his magic couldn't surpass 200,000. That level is approaching Guardianship. What he did was a cheap trick to destroy the device instead of letting it measure his actual magic."

"Is that even allowed?" Viper asked. His hands started to get sweaty in fear that the team would get kicked out because of it. "I mean, that is plainly cheating."

"You're all kids, so let me make things very clear," Frederick turned his way to the kids and looked at them with a serious expression. "Magic alone will not get you anywhere. You need tactics and tricks up your sleeve. The sole reason why the poor couldn't grow because they think their magic is limited when in fact, they must don't know how to maximize its potential. The judges will consider what he did as a part of magic points, a game changing one."

The three students nodded in understanding. They continued waiting for the hosts to speak again as they internalized what they have just learned.

Meanwhile, Aquarius was passing through the small metal gate of the balcony where the Champions were seated. He opened the small gate with Minos dashing in front of him to catch him.

"Why did you have to do that?" Minos sighed in disappointment. "You could've gone for up to half your magic and you're could've did well."

"I needed to look strong," Aquarius replied with a hushed voice. His skin turned pale and his lips started to chap. "Water. I need water."

"Here you go," Ed handed him a glass of water they have on the side. 

On the side of their balcony was a small table that contained a pitcher, glasses, and fruits for the Champions. Ed took a glass of water along with an apple, and handed it to Aquarius.

"Thanks," the blue-haired man whispered. He gulped the water in one swift motion, biting the apple continuously as if his life depended on it. "Watermelon. I need more water."

"His body needs 40% of extra water to function properly," Minos said. "10% is already a dangerous level. 5% is critical, and 2% is considered dead. It's when his body couldn't regenerate water anymore, even external water couldn't help him out by then."

"So he's in a critical condition?" Elliot asked. "Why did he let this happen? It's dangerous for him and he knew it."

"For his pride," Minos answered. "He felt like he needed to outperform everyone else by a thousand miles so he could prove himself right. His actions earlier pushed him to this state where he couldn't think right and just did what his body told him."

"The peer pressure is dangerous for him," Midnight said. "Let him rest and recover. I think today's match is over"

"And now, let's move on to the second round of the day!" Irv yelled. "Today is the day where we have our first very special match."

The hosts took a moment of silence to let the crowd hype themselves up. Everyone knew what they meant by this, having a lot of them expecting this from the first day.

"That is right, we will have our first doubles!" Zia cheered, creating an erruption of yells of excitement from the audience.

The stadium felt like it was shaking by how loudly the crowd went. Even the cheer they did for Aquarius earlier was nothing compared to this.

"Alright, let's do this. Let us see our duos!" Irv yelled. He raised his scepter to show the screen where the names were.

[ Battle of the Champions

- Round Six -

Axcel Moose & Strike Gruntly

Furx Bliss & Kasey Hart

Megan Holmes & Rollie Nixon

Hope Dragonborn & George Canes

]

The entire Azure Scorch team looked at Hope who had an innocent and oblivious look in his face. It wasn't when he stood and was walking to the gate when he realized that everyone was looking at him.

"Dragonborn?" Elliot scrunched his face. "That's what Lance registered you as?"

"I know more and more about my friends with just this competition," Connor flattened his lips. "I just knew that Lance gave him a cool, but definitely suspicious surname."

"Age had caught up with him," Elliot deadpannded. "He's getting old, guys. I really think he's getting too old."

"Hey, so what are we now, ancients?" Midnight crossed his arms. "Whatever, you two, go down and hurry. The others are already almost at the field."

"Yes, sir," Hope and George chorused. They rushed down the stairs, through the bleachers and into the open field. 

It was another vacant battleground. The props and the stage where the battle should take place was empty again.

"Is this another measurement thing?" Hope whispered to George but the large man just shrugged.

"I'll take the damage, focus on dealing them"

George stopped, him and Hope stared at each other for a minute before they looked around to see the other champions. Realization had just hit them that all the current Champions have tank-type roles. This made both men gulp, waiting for the impending doom that they knew awaits them.

"For this round, we will have" Irv trailed off. "A game of hamster balls!"

"I knew it," Minos laughed from his seat. "The moment their names were written in the same category told me that something like this was going to happen."

"What's going to happen?" Elliot asked him.

Minos snorted and shook his head, trying to hold his laugh but kept on failing, "Just look."

Nine Casters from the Son of Heaven religion walked in front of the Champions. They pointed their palms at each of the team's Champions and casted, "Invincible Bubble."

Their magic created a large water bubble around the Champions. They were all looking at each other as they let the bubble swallow them and the air inside it made them float.

"For this round, the Champions shall knock the other players out by blowing their bubble," Zia instructed. "There had been no obstacles for this round, so expect a battle mania. There's nowhere to hide, and you can only slam at each other's bubble."

"That sounded really weird for a monent, Zia but let us see who the winner will be," Irv said. "Let us start, Round Six, Bubble Mania!"