The head director who was talking to Reagan Cooper frowned at this and gave him a sidelong glance.

"Did you already know he was that strong, Professor Reagan?" he asked, and Reagan Cooper smiled a little.

"I've received word on that, head director. I think this kid can get the freshman classrooms to move up a lot in the rankings this year, so I was already expecting him to win this match." Reagan replied, and the head director nodded.

"You're right; that kid is not only strong, but he also seems to know how to read other people's weaknesses, so in combat experience, he's already above any of the current students." Replied the head director, staring at Matt.

'Matthew Dietrich, eh... Looks like the Allen's got themselves a good subordinate for Miss Alice.' He thought, smiling.

Soon after, the fighting resumed once again in all the arenas.

With Matt's example, many returned to combat.

They were 64 relatively large fighting arenas, so many of the farthest away could not see what Matt and his strength had done; even so, those closest to them all had been watching the fight, so when they began to fight, the intensity throughout the place increased.

Among those arenas, Isla smiled with happiness to see that Matt had won and almost jumped for joy, though she was able to contain herself.

She wasn't like Matt; she was lucky. She had only gotten one of the first-year leaders with 300 less power than her.

Although it was not an easy battle, she could win it relatively easily. Although she had to fight again to take down another guy, the fight was soon over, and no one else wanted to face her because her way of fighting was quite cunning.

Thus, the other 62 battles continued their fight in different ways. Some only required the strongest to fight, as with Matt and Isla, while others had to fight hard until the last one standing, as the powers were very similar.

That is why the simultaneous fights went on for more than 2 hours until finally, the last one from the last arena could hold the token in his hand and smile joyfully.

Winning a fight in this place was a challenge for many, and this challenge came with enormous rewards.

Many of them were commoners trying to climb the social ladder, trying to gain that status in the army that would allow them to become more powerful.

And finally, today, they succeeded.

Naturally, some of them couldn't hold their happiness and jumped for joy after obtaining this outstanding achievement.

Although Matt simply went to congratulate Isla, "Congratulations, Isla. It looks like your efforts have certainly paid off." Matt said, smiling, and she nodded happily at him.

"Thank you, Matt! I promise I'll try harder to help you and not be a burden to you!" she said; naturally, she was happy.

She didn't care about the status she could get in the military; she only cared about knowing that she was getting stronger and more capable. That motivated her to keep getting stronger.

As the two were talking, a person came in, accompanied by two others.

Matt was attracted to this person's strong power, so he turned to see him.

It was a man older than him, one of the third-year students, who was heavily muscled; he was even more muscular than the instructor he fought against in the guild, which surprised him a little.

This guy stared at him.

"Are you Matt?" he asked, and Matt nodded at him.

"You are?" Matt asked back, and the guy smiled.

"Well, I'll wait for you in the arena. If you're unlucky and it's your turn against me, then you'll probably be able to take a few blows. But if it's your turn against one of my elder brothers... Hehe, how unlucky you must have been." Replied the guy and turned around, causing Matt to frown.

'One more idiot.' Matt thought as he shook his head helplessly.

Though he thinks he figured out where they're coming from.

'From the way they talk and the body odor, they should be friends or minions of that Becker guy. So, he's got dogs in the third year too...' Matt thought and sighed.

Isla frowned, "Who was him?" She asked doubtfully, and Matt shook his head.

"Just some idiots, nothing more. Get ready to fight. Soon, the second-round fights will start, and we're all going to fight at the same time." Matt replied.

Isla then nodded.

Just as they finished speaking, one of the directors again took the stage.

"Congratulations to the winners. Currently, only 64 contestants remain and the direct elimination match begins. The rules stand." Said the director and stepped off the dais once again.

Then, the referees began pulling out tickets containing different names and loudly announcing the opponents who would be facing each other and the arena number.

"Isla Moore versus James Patel, arena 9!"

"Charles...!"

"Harry...!"

Shouts rang out from side to side, and soon, it was Matt's turn.

"Matthew Dietrich versus Caspian White, arena 26!" shouted the referee, startling Matt.

'Ehh, enemies tend to meet often, right?' He thought, smiling, and climbed into his allotted fighting arena.

Caspian White was also surprised but smiled at him.

"I hope you'll go easy on me, Brother Matt. I'm not as tough as I look." Caspian said with a smile, and Matt shrugged.

"At the very least, we should fight to the best of our ability, right? Since we're the only S-Rank in our Hall, we should be able to put on a good show." Matt replied, and Caspian nodded.

"Maybe we can put on a good show this time." He replied, and they both stopped talking soon after.

Soon, the referees finished calling out names, and each stood on one side of the different arenas being used.

"Start!" they all shouted at the same time.

In Matt's fighting arena, they both pulled out their weapons as soon as they heard the start of the fight...