On their way back to the Academy, Klaus opted to stay behind. He wanted to see his girlfriend. The group left the city without him and headed back to the Academy, they all knew they had to train harder since the competition will be taking place within the next two months.

Grey started cultivating immediately after getting home, he could feel his break through was just around the corner. After breaking through to the Late stages of the Arcane Plane, his strength would increase once again.

The next day

Grey's usual routine started, waking up early for his physical training before choosing to head to the Earth Hall today. After that, he went over for his array training.

Immediately after he got into the valley, the first thing he did was head straight towards the farm. Chris surprisingly made a small place where the chickens, pigs, and bunnies were kept. Since Chris always asks him to prepare lunch before his training starts, he decided to prepare the meal immediately after entering to save Chris the stress of asking.

When he was done with the meal, he started his training.

"Why didn't you come yesterday?" Chris asked while he was still eating.

"I was about to come but Klaus, Reynolds, and Alice asked me to go with them to the city. Since I have been too busy with my training recently, I decided to take a break and go with them" Grey explained.

"You shouldn't train too hard, create some time for yourself," Chris said. He knew all about Grey's tight schedule with his training.

"Do you plan on participating in the competition?" Chris suddenly asked.

"Yes," Grey nodded. This was the first competition he would take part in. He wanted to know how he would fare when placed among the younger generations.

"Good" Chris nodded in approval. He knew Grey would definitely want to participate in it.

"Your stage is still too low, you shouldn't have a problem breaking into the Seventh stage before the competition. But you should be prepared because those who would participate in this competition are the best in their Academy, some are even more terrifying than that little lass you hang out with" Chris advised.

Grey knew what he said was correct. Although he could fight across stages, he wasn't the only one. Alice could do the same without any problem.

But this also made him more determined on participating in the competition, battling with young geniuses would tell him just how far behind he was. This would be a new boost for him to grow quicker and better.

"Set up the defensive array you have been practicing," said Chris. He wanted to see the progress Grey had made so far.

Grey nodded and got to work. He carefully used his spiritual energy to guide the lightning element in the air and started making patterns on the ground. After two hours, he was done with the defensive array.

The array only covered a diameter of three meters, this was the largest he could make currently. He activated it, and the array lit up. A translucent thin light came out from the array, it had strange lines on it with lightning flickering around it. This array also had attacking properties, if it was touched by anyone the lightning would immediately attack.

It was a special property the lightning element gave it. The lightning element is mainly focused on attack, so even when made into a defensive array, it still had the unique attacking property.

Chris nodded, he could tell Grey was improving at a very fast rate. This attributed to how focused Grey was in his training, Grey's speed of learning wasn't the best among all the people he knew, but the amount of time Grey puts into his training was insane.

This was the edge he had over others, his learning speed wasn't bad, it was just above average. Coupled with his hardworking nature, it wasn't surprising he was advancing at this speed.

"Brown" Chris called out to the Griffin.

Brown raised her head to look at Chris.

"Break the array" Chris pointed at the array.

Brown got up with and steadily walked towards the array. After getting to the front of the array, she raised one of her talons and poked at it.

Just like a shattered dream, the array came crumbling down. Grey stood stunned in the array, he didn't expect something he put so much time into preparing was destroyed just like that.

Brown looked at Grey in disdain, her eyes clearly asking 'you call this was an array'.

Chris also didn't expect this, only after thinking of what he told Brown did he realize he made a mistake.

"That came out wrong. You were supposed to try out the strength of the array". Chris said with a light embarrassed laugh.

Grey just stood still, he still couldn't believe what happened. Chris looked at him and laughed.

"Don't be discouraged, she only struck the weak link of the array that was why it broke so easily" Chris comforted him.

Brown is knowledgeable about arrays, so breaking an array with the weak link was normal for her. She wouldn't be able to break the array a master set so easily since it would be hard to find its weak link.

After hearing what Chris said, Grey was able to figure out the rest. Without proficient knowledge of arrays, there was no way she would know where the weak link was located. It seems she is even more knowledgeable about arrays than he was.

Grey took a short break since making arrays was taxing on his spiritual energy, only after getting sufficient rest did he make the array once again. This time, Chris made sure to remind Brown to test out the strength of the array.

Brown did as ordered and attacked the array. Her first attack wasn't too strong, when it hit the array, the lights dimmed a little but shone after some time. She increased the strength before attacking it again.

When the second attack hit it, cracks appeared on the array. The cracks increased before the array fell apart.

"Not bad, the current strength of it could withstand the attack of a Third stage Arcane Plane Elementalist" Chris acknowledged the strength of the array.

Grey felt the same way when he made the array, so the confirmation from Chris proves his senses were right. The strength of the array would increase as he improves in the act.

After staying in the valley for another hour, he went back home and started practicing the new techniques he took from the library. When he was done with his practice, he started cultivating. He only entered the chaos space after cultivating.

Grey's schedule was exactly the same every day, he rarely had time to visit his friends. Klaus was the first among them to make a breakthrough, he was able to break through to the Sixth stage of the Arcane Plane one week later. Grey and Alice made a breakthrough after another two weeks.

The time of the competition was getting closer by the day.

When it was one month left before the competition, the empire announced the quotas for each Academy. The students were all surprised by the number of students participating from each Academy. Even the citizens were also shocked.

Normally, the number of spots each Academy had has always been fifteen. But for this competition, it was suddenly increased by ten. They all figured something must be going on for the sudden increase in numbers.

With an increased number of spots, the competition would be fierce. Each student would want to grab a spot from their Academy, so they could participate. Most of the students rejoiced since they would get an opportunity to grab a spot.

After the quota was announced, the Lunar Academy also announced how the spots were to be given. Fourteen spots had already been taken by the students in the Ninth stage of the Arcane Plane, a tournament would be held to determine the remaining eleven spots.

The tournament was to be held in two weeks. The entire Academy was immediately filled with activity, each student wanted to progress before the tournament, so they could participate in the competition. Fighting in the competition platform was a dream for most of the students since only the best students get the chance to fight there.

The days moved faster, and soon it was time for the tournament. The Academy advised only those at the Late stages of the Arcane Plane should participate in the tournament, but if any student felt they were strong enough, they could also take part in it.

Reynolds was able to break through to the Seventh stage of the Arcane Plane just before the day of the tournament, giving him increased confidence in his chances of obtaining a spot for the competition.

Finally, the day the students were all waiting arrived, it was the day of the tournament