MMORPG: Rise of the Primordial Godsmith

"…Woah."

Receiving an announcement from the tournament's organizers to head on up to the main amphitheater, Valyr and the other participants slowly made their way up to the surface after spending most of their time in the underground town the past couple of days.

With that, almost everyone participating in the tournament was left at a loss for words when they saw how much the amphitheater had changed while they were lounging around, Valyr included.

What was initially an amphitheater that would have no issues fitting a couple hundred thousand people had expanded to accommodate at least a couple million people at once.

Not only that, but the center stage where all of the fights would take place had undergone massive expansion as well, prompting everyone looking at it to think that holding hundreds of fights on it wouldn't be much of a problem.

'Spatial magic?' thought the young man to himself, only to then come to the conclusion that the current sight before them was undoubtedly the case.

After all, was it possible for the amphitheater to expand and accommodate 10 times as much people than it did through in just a few days?

"…And here are all the participants that registered in Algerie Kingdom's Myriad Prodigies Tournament!"

Just as Valyr and the others planned on continuing to admire the sheer scale of magic that was employed over the entire amphitheater, a clear voice suddenly interrupted their thoughts, causing everyone to look at the charismatic man standing at the center.

"May all of our participants please make their way to the center?"

As these words left the man's mouth, the participants briefly looked at each other before doing what was told, allowing everyone in the audience to quickly understand the overall scale of the tournament.

Of course, those participating in the tournament had also begun to realize this at that very moment, with some of them looking at the sight surrounding them with their mouths slightly agape.

'That's… a lot of people,' thought Ataraxia to himself, briefly glancing at the direction where Valyr was at before shifting his attention back to the man that called for them.

"Now, before I proceed with the main event, let me first introduce myself to everyone." Utilizing a skill that amplified the loudness of his voice, the charismatic man's words soon echoed throughout the entire amphitheater, causing everyone's attention to fall onto him.

"The name's Schubert Madeldale," he said with a smile. "As a member of the kingdom's Royal Madeldale clan, I am greatly honored to be the host and announcer for this wondrous event."

"I'm sure almost everyone here has experience with the tournament that has come before this one, right?" As this question left Schubert's mouth, almost everyone in the audience nodded in agreement, their expressions briefly showing them recalling the memories they had on the matter.

Continuing to don a smile on his face, the man let out a slight chuckle. "I'm pretty sure those tournaments only had around a thousand to a couple thousand participants, right?"

The audience nodded in response.

"Well… you're in for a surprise, then," said Schubert with a grin. "Over the past three days that the registration was open, the total number of people that registered to be a part of this tournament is 167,428 people."

Unsurprisingly, many among the audience let out shocked gasps and looks of surprise at the figure given by the man.

Even those at the same stage as him were left utterly speechless by the figure, expecting the number of participants to be around 10 to 15 thousand people at most.

But over 150,000 people? That was insane.

After attracting more of the audience's attention with his words, Schubert eventually began to talk about the tournament itself, prompting both the audience and the participants to perk up their ears in response.

"Now, with there being so many people participating in this tournament, the organizers have come to the conclusion that the tournament would roughly be split into three rounds."

"Consider the first round as a more stringent screen round for the participants. During this round, all of the participants' abilities would be tested, checking to see if their skills focused on a certain aspect, or if it encompassed far more than one."

"After that, those who pass move onto the second round, which is greatly inspired by the tournament everyone here has undoubtedly gone through."

"Battle royales," said Schubert with a smile, the words instilling a slight sense of fear to some of the audience.

"The second round consists of battle royales, whittling the remaining number of participants down to where the usual tournament setup we know and love could be done during the third round."

"According to the organizers, it'll take at least a couple of weeks for the tournament to reach the third round, even with the spatial magic that has been employed to expand this amphitheater."

"With that being said, I'd recommend everyone visit the town beneath the amphitheater at least once if you want a slight change of pace from the constant fighting that would happen on the surface."

Inwardly chuckling at the small advertisement he'd done, the announcer briefly took in a deep breath as he took note of the expressions that appeared on the participants' faces.

Though it was not obvious at first, a great portion of the participants actually had looks of confusion on their faces, most likely stemming from the fact that the first round was a round to further screen their capabilities.

Of course, the organizers had already taken this into consideration, prompting Schubert to segue onto the next portion of his introduction.

"Now, I'm sure many of you have begun to ponder over the first round's purpose," he said, his magnetic voice prompting everyone to pay attention to him. "After all, all of the participants had to go through screening first before being allowed to register as one."

"However, what if I told you that this first round is not without reason?"

Whoosh!

At those words, a small group of individuals soon made themselves known as they flared their auras to the utmost limit, causing both the audience and the participants to feel pressure as these people made their way to where Schubert stood.

Enduring the pressure he felt from these people as best as he could, the announcer eventually continued where he left off. "Although this tournament's goal is to find out who among our participants is the greatest prodigy of our kingdom, it also serves another purpose."

"And that is a platform for these participants to be recruited by the most prestigious of organizations."