The villainous young master just wants to live a Buddhist-like life.

　Dark nodded slightly and said, "It seems so."

　After saying that, he pointed to Dulles, who was sitting in the group of casual diners. Dulles immediately raised his hand and waved vigorously at him, appearing unusually enthusiastic.

　Professor Harvey chuckled and said, "It seems he likes you quite a bit."

　Dark said, "Perhaps."

　Dulles did seem overly enthusiastic, but there are always some people who are just naturally outgoing.

　In addition, he didn't detect any negative emotions from Dulles, meaning he wasn't that concerned.

　"It's a bit of a shame."

　Suddenly he heard a sigh behind him and couldn't help but roll his eyes. This kid's grown up and become disobedient; he even wants to hit his old father! How outrageous!

　With Dark's schedule finalized, Ergan's schedule is naturally set as well.

　She will play in the last match of the first round of the qualifiers, against Whitney the Sand Scorpion!

　The sixty-first duel then began.

　This duel will be between Eluliri Clarissa from St. Marian Academy and an orc player ranked in the seventies in the preliminary rounds.

　That orc player may have considerable skill. However, he revealed too many of his trump cards during the qualifiers, and we now have a very thorough understanding of his deck.

　Under these circumstances, it is not difficult to construct a deck that is effective against all opponents.

　Although it wasn't an easy victory for Eluri, she ultimately won without any major incident.

　Then came the sixty-second duel.

　The mysterious orc who ranked first in the preliminary rounds has finally stepped onto the official stage of the qualifiers!

　The moment he stepped onto the dueling platform, the entire arena erupted in cheers! Mephisgram's opponent was an elf.

　This elf comes from the Elven Academy of Arts and is said to be a professor with solid skills within the academy.

　He is a relatively rare mountain elf among the elves.

　Mountain elves are very compatible with rock and ground elements, and they are often good at using these types of magic cards.

　The mountain elf appearing this time is named Atwood, a muscular elf that is completely out of place with the delicate art style of elves.

　Apart from his long ears, there was almost nothing about him that resembled an elf. But even among the elves, his magical talent was among the top tier.

　Unfortunately, he ran into Mavis, who came in first place in the preliminary rounds.

　You could say that there was an element of luck among the top 100 contestants who made it into the preliminary rounds.

　However, it's absolutely wrong to say that the player ranked first got to where they are today through luck.

　Mavis is very powerful.

　Neither himself nor his magical spirits.

　The outcome of this duel was not much of a surprise.

　Atwood's strength is not weak, and he was careful to hide his trump cards during the qualifiers. Therefore, a ranking in the seventies was not his limit. However, his hidden trump cards had not yet reached the level of a "god card." That was not enough to allow him to defeat the number one ranked player.

　Atwood had anticipated this situation before stepping onto the dueling ring, so his expression was not pleasant.

　As a professor participating in the World Cup, one would naturally want to set a better example for one's students.

　His original goal was to reach the third round of the qualifiers and advance to the top 32. If given another chance, he would aim for the top 16.

　He finally made it through the preliminary rounds, only to be challenged by the "champion" in the very first round of the qualifiers. How could he possibly advance any further?

　"What a stupid competition format!"

　Atwood cursed inwardly; he was always quick to anger. Others might say, "I just lost to the champion," after losing to the "champion," but he would never say such a thing.

　If you lose, you lose.

　I'm just not as skilled as them. But I'm still very angry!

　But this anger vanished completely shortly after the duel began.

　The release wasn't achieved through a duel; rather, it was abruptly extinguished!

　Mephis Graham brutally beat him during the duel.

　The disparity in strength between the two sides was so clear at that moment that Atwood was powerless to retaliate.

　In his desperation, he finally activated his special ability—absorbing earth elements to form an indestructible rock shell, enveloping himself within it.

　Even though he played the "coward," he couldn't buy himself time for the next round.

　那坚

　The indestructible rock shell was shattered by Mavis's single punch! Then, with another punch, Atwood's health was reduced to zero.

　After the duel ended, the arena erupted in cheers, interspersed with the triumphant howls of countless orcs.

　Mavis's impressive performance filled them with pride. It was as if they themselves were the orc on stage beating up the elves.

　This made the elves' faces turn extremely ugly. The orcs had produced such a powerful Mavis.

　The Elven race's hopes—Alvaartmis—were dashed. This stark contrast is indeed hard to accept.

　"..." hidden inside the private room.

　On the surface, this was also true of Lionheart.

　He also gave the Elf Queen a disdainful smile.

　However, deep down, he was extremely wary of Mavis.

　He still couldn't find out where Mavis came from, and all his attempts to contact her were rejected.

　The other party didn't even bother with pretense; they didn't even bother to pretend.

　He, the king of the orcs, was not taken seriously at all!

　"Too arrogant!"

　Lionheart gritted his teeth.

　But his children were all useless. All he could hope for was a strongman from another race.

　Unfortunately, the orcs are not particularly talented in magic technology. Even promising talents like Eva Herst are too young and lack depth. This is a true period of "talent gap".

　He sent people to recruit the strongest contestants, but received very few responses.

　The accumulated misfortunes over the years always gave him a sense of impending doom.

　He must seek change, more change!

　Let's not discuss the psychological aspects of Richard the Lionheart.

　After Mephis Graham's performance ended, it was finally Darkdimon's turn.

　Dak and Dulles, who was not far away, exchanged a glance, smiled at each other, and then walked out of the lounge at the same time.

　Then, they walked away from each other in different directions.

　Soon after, the two arrived at the dueling arena through their respective passages. The arena was divided into red and blue sections by red and blue lines.

　After each duel, the organizers would quickly restore it to its original state. Darker was on the red side because he was the first to start, while Dulles was on the blue side.

　The two stepped onto the rising platform one after the other, and as the platform rose, they ascended to the contestant's platform.

　Once both sides were in position, the referee gave the signal to "deploy the area."

　Without wasting words, Dark immediately unleashed his domain, and a torrent of light surged forth, colliding with Dulles's duel domain at the center line.

　"Domain Connection!"

　"The duel begins!" [Preparation Phase 1]

　Dark is quite familiar with Dulles's usual deck. His Arcane card is "Birth of Terror".

　Mystic Card "Night Parade of One Hundred Demons". Six-Star Magical Spirit Card "Ghost Pot Doll". Nine-Star Magical Spirit Card "Gap Ghost".

　These magic cards granted him exceptional summoning and adaptability abilities. He's a true Ghost-type specialist!

Chapter 1545 Darkdemon Has a Date with the Necromancer (4k)

　He placed the pre-constructed deck into the card slot. Dark's expression turned serious as he looked at the opponent.

　Now that we've entered the preliminary stage, we can't underestimate anyone, no matter who our opponents are.

　Even though... he was a defeated opponent with whom he had already fought once. When he first met Dulles, he noticed that Dulles showed no nervousness whatsoever in the face of this duel.

　This is absolutely not the mindset one should have when facing an opponent who once crushed them.

　The only possibility is that Dulles not only has a trump card up his sleeve, but he also has a big one hidden!

　Dark had no doubt that Dulles could draw a "God Card" from his deck at any moment.

　therefore.

　The fact that Mavis and Ergane were spared in the first round of duels wasn't necessarily just luck.

　Underestimating his opponent could very well result in a first-round exit in the main tournament. Thinking this, Dark raised his hand, asking his opponent if they could begin.

　Dulles immediately put the deck into the card slot after deploying the area.

　At this moment, it is communicating with the soul within its ring.

　It was a ring that he "found" by chance when he was still studying at the Holy Church Mystic Academy.

　Sleeping within the ring is the necromancer Zoe.

　Although the Holy Mystic Academy holds outdated views and is somewhat resistant to dark-type undead, there are demons above the undead. They will not expel a student from the academy just because the student keeps creating undead magic spirit cards.

　Therefore, there were other reasons why Dulles was expelled from the academy.

　Of these "other reasons," the "lost ring" accounts for a large part.

　Dulles didn't meet his teacher only after he was expelled from the academy. The spirit within the ring was his teacher.

　He was an extremely skilled liar, able to tell lies without batting an eye, and always with a half-truth, making him difficult to fathom.

　Before expelling him, the Church even used "truth serum" on him, but it didn't work.

　He was a born con artist and a born necromancer.

　They manipulate people's hearts and control corpses.

　Fortunately, he was born into a devout family and was forcibly molded into a reasonably good set of values.

　Therefore, although he liked to tell small lies, he didn't do anything really bad. "How lucky, Dulles."

　“Ever since I met you, my good fortune has never stopped.” Dulles communicated with the soul in the ring through his heart.

　Zoe laughed heartily: "No need to flatter me, I know how unlucky I am. But luck and bad luck are always balanced, I never thought we would actually run into Steven's disciple in the qualifiers."

　Dulles said, "But he said he wasn't Steven's student." Zoe said, "He's lying, Dulles."

　“I think so too,” Dulles said. “I felt a sense of kinship with him from the moment I met him; he and I are kindred spirits.”

　Zoe quickly warned, "Wait! Don't get on his good side with just anyone. Since he's Steven's disciple, he's our enemy. Kill him, Dulles!"

　Dulles said, "I know. The type of person I'm referring to is... someone who is also favored by death!"

　At the same time, he raised his hand, indicating that things were ready on their end as well.

　With both players' decks shuffled and "Life Cards" activated, the duel immediately enters "Preparation Phase 2".

　The commentators and guests were still rambling on about random things.

　Grace Leon had been a guest all day. Because he had faced Dark in the Academy Championship, the two commentators had been asking him for his thoughts on Dark Dimon.

　"Thank you, Mother Beast!"

　Although Grace was cursing him in her heart, she appeared very humble on the surface and kept praising Dark.

　While praising him, he suddenly said, "I don't think it would be surprising if he won this World Cup."

　The commentary booth fell silent instantly.

　After a long pause, one of the commentators finally spoke up: "The duel is about to begin. Let's focus on the duel arena."

　[Preparation Phase 2]

　Both duelists draw cards simultaneously.