Azer Karuza shook hands with some of the parents and had some small talk, but at that moment, an anxious-looking teacher came running over to him.
"What is it, Johnson?" Azer asked with a raised eyebrow. "What's with the hurry?"
"Ryan just challenged Kiernan to a ranked match!" Johnson said excitedly. "They need your permission first, though."
"Ryan did what?" Azer's eyes shook. 'Why would he do that? He can't possibly think about defeating Kiernan, right?'
"What will I say to them?" Johnson asked.
"I'll give them my permission." Azer said.
"B-but, so suddenly, we don't have a referee on standby!" Johnson shouted anxiously.
"No need." Azer removed his jacket. "I shall act as referee for this."
"Y-you will?" Johnson looked surprised and then nodded. "Alright!"
The gossip about Ryan's challenge to Kiernan spread like wildfire across the graduation hall, and soon everyone started to head towards the ranked match stadium.
Usually, after the graduation was over, the students would like to immediately just leave to go home, but now, after hearing about the incoming ranked match, they all headed towards the stadium!
The stadium started to get filled with students and their parents. It became about half-full because the ranked match was put together so suddenly.
If they announced the match to the public a week before the actual match, the public would pay a great amount of money to actually spectate it!
Inside one of the locker rooms, Ryan wrapped his knuckles with the white tape while dressed in his fighting uniform.
"Why did you do that?" Nathaniel was with him and asked with an exhausted look. "You're facing a monster."
"Haha, last night I remembered that I haven't actually fought Kiernan properly before." Ryan said. "My loss against him left a sour taste in my mouth. I must fight him before I leave this school and never come back."
"Now that I think about it, none of us have seen him actually fight since the nationals." Nathaniel thought. "No one wanted to challenge him at the ranked matches, so he has been just sitting at the top place comfortably."
"Yeah…" Ryan grinned. "He's been training every day, though, like a possessed demon. He must be crazy strong now."
"So have you." Nathaniel said. "After nationals, I've never seen you train so much. Why the change in mood?"
"The nationals made me realize something. I don't hate fighting as much as I thought I did." Ryan chuckled. "I've also stopped playing video games. I've reached Middle Stage Martial Fighter, so I am not a pushover anymore!"
"Heh…" Nathaniel grinned.
He'd also reached Low Stage Martial Fighter.
After the nationals, he also trained harder and improved a lot.
With his father's guidance, his Kamala Style had become even stronger than before, and his Triple Technique was now nearly flawless.
A teacher opened the door and said, "The match is about to start. You may enter the ring."
"Alright!" Ryan smashed his fists together and left his locker room.
Alone, in the locker room, Kiernan wrapped his hands with the protective tape.
He didn't expect having to fight today, especially not against Ryan, but he respected his challenge and accepted it.
'Well, I guess this is good. If even after this match it looks like I can't break through his bottleneck, I must ask that favor from my father.'
He looked ahead at the floating interface before his eyes.
[Name: Kiernan Hunter]
[System Level: Beginner]
[Martial Rank: High Stage Martial Fighter]
He had reached High Stage Martial Fighter rank, level 6, and his birthday came and went a few days ago!
As a first-year, his current rank was unheard of in New Rakuya. It was astonishing and shocking.
However, he was far from satisfied!
He'd been trying to break through to Martial Champion rank for the last month but had been unsuccessful in doing so!
He'd finally reached the Bottleneck of the Weak!
It didn't matter what he tried; he couldn't break it!
He even focused on leveling up and became much stronger, but the bottleneck didn't show signs of breaking!
The reason why so many high schoolers never reach Martial Champion was because of the bottleneck. It was very hard to break without having reached the Age of Growth!
Kiernan was still a year away from the Age of Growth.
'Maybe this fight will shed some light on the bottleneck.' Kiernan stood up, and headed towards the door.
'If it doesn't, maybe I can't stay in Irio for the time being. I must do something to break this bottleneck!'
He'd been participating in not-so-legal underground matches and won a lot. Thus, he was able to level up quite a bit.
However, he learned something about the system.
He couldn't farm points. Thus, he couldn't just defeat the same opponents one after another to get experience points.
Once he defeated an opponent, if he defeated that same opponent afterwards, he didn't receive any experience points.
He'd already defeated pretty much every martial arts under Martial Champion in Irio. He'd even defeated some Martial Champions, who were just middle-aged with beer bellies, and way past their primes.
While their rank was Martial Champions, their strength was way below that.
If he stayed in Irio, his next avenue would be to challenge Martial Masters. However, he didn't think he was capable of challenging them just yet.
Thus, there was no one he could challenge in Irio anymore!
That's why he hadn't been able to increase his level even further because of that fact.
Kiernan left the locker room, walked down the short hallway, and arrived at the stadium amid roaring cheers.
The ring stood at the center of the stadium, and Azer was standing inside, waiting with his hands behind his back.
At the same time, Kiernan and Ryan stepped up the stairs and entered the ring.
"The last ranked match of the year is here!" Azer screamed. "The challenger, Ryan, ranked second in Karuza High, and the champion, Kiernan, ranked first!"
"Whoo…" Ryan patted his hands to shave off some nerves.
"Are both fighters ready?!" Azer asked with a shout.
"Yes!" Ryan immediately moved to his sprinting stance, his leg muscles already increasing in size.
"I am." Kiernan moved to his defensive stance.