Imperial Crown.

Chapter 233 Everyone has his own destiny
After the competition was finalized, everyone present felt that they had an advantage and naturally did not worry about the prizes.

Marquis Anthony said, "I proposed the competition, so let me be the first to offer the prize."

"1000 gold coins."

The words were spoken lightly, but everyone including Tyrone, Thomas and Montreal knew that Marquis Anthony was obviously serious.

Generally speaking, the prize money for a competition is just a few dozen gold coins, and a hundred gold coins is the maximum.

Eight years ago, at the event held on Earl Tyrone’s 8th birthday, the champion prize was only 50 gold coins, but this was also widely circulated, giving the Slater family a reputation for being “generous”.

Marquis Anthony spoke, and Earl Tyrone had to support him: "I will also contribute 1000 gold coins to help."

"You two are really in a good mood." Montreal said slowly: "This is my daughter and Raven's wedding. Since it is to celebrate them, I should give more, 2000 gold coins."

Seeing that the atmosphere was becoming somewhat confrontational again, Raven smiled and said, "Gentlemen, you have really given me a difficult problem. I am just a small baron, and I cannot compare to your rich family fortunes."

"But since this is my home court, I can't be stingy. Just 3000 gold coins."

Raven said this in order to set an upper limit to prevent these families from fighting with each other, raising the stakes too high, and really turning his wedding into a battlefield.

Archbishop Thomas, who was originally tempted, did not raise the price any further after hearing this: "Since Baron Raven said so, I will also offer 2000 gold coins on behalf of the Church of Light."

The prize was thus set, totaling up to 9000 gold coins.

Raven called old Gordon and asked him to arrange things.

Old Gordon then went to find Ingra, who was in charge of running the arena.

To celebrate the Baron's wedding, the more lively the competition is, the better, and time cannot be wasted.

Therefore, Raven issued the order at noon that day, and the news about the competition was announced early the next morning and spread throughout Eagle Town.

All nobles above the level of knights who come to attend the wedding banquet can sign up to participate in the battle, with no limit on the number. They will be divided into groups of two. The winner will advance and the loser will be eliminated.

The champion will receive a prize of 2000 gold coins; the runner-up will receive 1000 gold coins; and the third place will receive 500 gold coins.

In addition, the top 10 players will receive a bonus of 200 gold coins; the top 30 players will receive a bonus of 100 gold coins; and the top 50 players will receive a bonus of 50 gold coins.

As the news came out, it immediately caused heated discussions among all the nobles.

Champion, 2000 gold coins.

This is comparable to the net revenue of most baron families for 2-3 years!

Even if you can't win the championship, the 1000 gold coins for the runner-up and the 500 gold coins for the third place are very attractive to many people!

The most prominent example is Baron Versacem.

He signed up immediately after the news came out.

This Void Knight, who had been promoted to level three for more than a year, was quite confident in himself.

Although there are more than 200 noble families of all sizes in the province, nearly 30 of them were newly separated after the battle with the Death Hand Cult. They have no foundation or strength to speak of, and it is not uncommon for the head of the family to be only of the first level or even a mortal.

The rest of the nobles were also more or less affected by the war, and their strength was greatly reduced. Now most of them are only at the first level, and the second level is extremely rare, not to mention the third level.

After the communication with Wesassin over the past few days, it can be basically confirmed that, apart from the Slater and Fox families, there are only about 30 strong people above level three in the province.

Among them, there are many strong men who cannot take part in the battle personally due to their status and strength, such as John, a fourth-level strong man who is a viscount.

Indeed, the competition did not explicitly state that "Viscounts and strong men of level 4 and above are not allowed to participate", but like an iceberg in the ocean, many rules are hidden beneath the water.

Therefore, the contestants are basically limited to the level of baron and knight, and the upper limit of strength is level three. In this way, Wessaxim has even fewer opponents, probably less than 10.

The nature of his Void Fighting Qi is special, and he has no natural enemies in the same level.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the monster must be eliminated.

"Champion. Even if I can't win the championship, I have to be in the top 3!" Baron Vissaxin set a goal for himself.

2000 gold coins are really tempting. Even if he is doing well now, this is a huge sum of money that cannot be ignored.

Besides, reputation is also a great benefit.

If he can leave people with the impression of being brave and good at fighting, his escort business will be further expanded.

There are many people who have a similar mentality to Baron Vissaxin, including Judra - he had a very bad reputation after causing a "bloody funeral", and he also hoped to wash away his stigma and add a little halo through this competition.

However, for most people, their goals were not set too high, such as the knights who were ignored by Judra and Visaxin and who actually made up the majority.

They are also eligible to register.

You know, for an ordinary knight, after deducting the taxes paid to the feudal lord, the annual output of his fiefdom is only between 30-50 gold coins.

A set of unenchanted full body plate armor worth around 300 gold coins is enough to be passed down from generation to generation.

This is why most of the knights under the barons and viscounts can only hover at the first level, and the second level is the best - the output of the territory is not enough to support their continued breakthrough.

They were the most enthusiastic in this competition.

The top 10 may be too difficult, but you can strive for the top 30, and 100 gold coins are enough to make people jealous; even if it doesn’t work, if you can climb into the top 50, there will also be a reward of 50 gold coins!

50 gold coins.

You can earn a year's income from just one game. Everyone will be confused when seeing this!
The news was released in the morning, and by noon, the number of people who signed up exceeded 200, and the number is still rising rapidly!
This also somewhat disrupted Raven's plan.

Although he intended to use this competition to promote some of his own products, he did not expect that it would have such a big response.

"What about our people? Have they all signed up?" Raven asked.

"They are all waiting for your order." Old Gordon said, "After all, this concerns the honor of the Griffith family. They dare not sign up without permission."

"Hmm..." Raven nodded slowly, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the table.

According to his idea, in this competition, it would be enough to let Volav take part and show his face, there was no need to wade into the muddy water.

But now that it has become such a big deal, we can no longer proceed according to our previous ideas.

"Call all the extraordinary people to me."

"Yes, Lord Baron."

Old Gordon retreated, and soon all of Raven's extraordinary men gathered together.

The strongest one among them is of course Eric. In addition, there are Link, Simon, Volaf, Otto, Wade, Bobby, and Boris.

There are a total of 8 extraordinary people, except Eric who is at the second level, the rest are only at the first level.

"You all should know about this competition." Raven asked, "What do you think? Tell us."

He glanced around and saw some people avoiding, some approaching, and some eager to try, but no one dared to speak first.

Raven finally set his eyes on Volaf, the leader of his personal guards: "You usually talk a lot, why don't you dare now? You speak first."

Volaf's face turned red. "My Lord Baron, in the past two years, they have at least been able to train new recruits. I have been following you all day and have not even had a chance to fight. My body is getting rusty!" Raven laughed. "So you want to sign up?"

"I do want to." Volaf was a little embarrassed. "But there are too many people who signed up for this competition. If I am picked out by someone with my limited strength, it will bring shame to the Griffith family."

Raven glanced at the others and observed their expressions. "You guys think so too?"

As the one with the highest rank among all the people, Eric stood up and said, "Indeed, Lord Baron, and I have considered more than that."

"After all, this competition is held in the Colosseum, and the soldiers responsible for maintaining law and order are our own."

"You know, no matter what kind of character a soldier has, after two years of training, he will admire the strong."

"If we sign up for the competition and lose, it will be difficult to lead the team in the future."

Raven smiled with satisfaction. Now it seemed that handing over the army to Eric was one of the most correct decisions he had ever made. No matter what happened, Eric would consider it from a military perspective.

Thinking of this, Raven saw Bobby's lips moving behind him, so he asked, "Bobby, do you want to say something?"

When his name was finally called, Bobby immediately stepped forward.

He was a veteran who had followed Raven to fight in the Bloody Highlands. He was also given a divine potion after that battle, which awakened his flame fighting spirit. His temper was as hot as his fighting spirit, and he spoke like a string of fireballs:

"My Lord Baron, although what Commander Eric said makes sense, I don't think we should be so calculative!"

"We are the Baron's soldiers. This competition is held in front of our house to celebrate the wedding. If we sign up, we will lose. As long as we lose honorably, without regrets, and try our best, no one can say anything."

"At the beginning, we were outnumbered and risked our lives, but we still dared to charge to the Bloody Highlands. Now it's just a competition. If we don't even dare to go to the field - don't blame me for being rude - wouldn't that be cowardly?"

"We Eagles are all good men. Who would want to be trained by a coward? So, I think we should sign up!"

One good thing about Eric is that he may have personal emotions, but he never lets them affect his judgment. After hearing what Bobby said, he immediately fell into deep thought and realized the error in his thinking.

But it was difficult to open my mouth at the moment. After all, I had mentioned the benefits of not going before. If I changed my words now, it would be like contradicting myself.

But Raven didn't let him hesitate for too long: "In that case, all of you should sign up!"

When these words were spoken, everyone was quite surprised.

Even Bobby, who advocated the challenge, opened his mouth wide.

Although he was not a knight and could not be considered a noble, he had communicated with Simon, Link and others before and knew that for things like competition tournaments, basically each family only needed to send one or two people, and eight people was really against precedent.

But Raven never cares too much about these so-called rules when doing things, not to mention that this is at his home court and his wedding celebration?

As a young noble, there's nothing wrong with being a little willful.

Volav and Bobby's words reminded Raven.

There have been no wars in the past two years, and the knights have been practicing among themselves, which is also behind closed doors. It is difficult to find flaws and gain real experience. It is better to take this opportunity to hone their skills.

On the other hand, he also paid 3000 gold coins.

It would be so painful if I don’t take some back!

"I won't let you compete in vain." Raven said with a smile: "No matter what place you get in the end, as long as you win one game, I will reward you with a combat skill; if you can win two games, I will reward you with a breakthrough material!"

As soon as these words were spoken, fire flashed in everyone's eyes.

Combat skills!

Breakthrough material!

These are all good things!

The most excited one was Eric. He had been stuck on the edge of the second to third level for a while, but he never had the courage to speak to the Baron. Now he had found the opportunity.

After all, it costs more than 2000 gold coins!

Eric was actually relatively lucky, as he had experience serving in the Iron Legion and had two combat skills. As new knights, Simon and Link were much more miserable. Although they were also saving money, they still couldn't afford any combat skills.

Neither of them could afford it, let alone anyone else.

Raven's decision hit the spot that just made them happy and unleashed all their motivation.

What they didn't know was that Raven had already prepared the combat skills and materials, but just lacked a reason to give them away.

It is difficult to reward without merit.

As the saying goes, a great favor may turn into a great hatred. If you reward extremely rare breakthrough materials without any reason, it will only make things worse.

Even though Raven had not studied much about politics, his 5000 years of wisdom had given him some knowledge of how to control people.

After dealing with things here, before Raven could rest, Weisdong came to the study.

"Brother, I also want to sign up for this competition!"

Raven didn't answer immediately, but looked at him with a playful smile.

Vesdon blushed when he was looked at, and his eyes began to wander.

As a young man who is just 17 years old, he really wants to participate in the competition and stand out.

But there is a little trick hidden underneath.

That is, he also wants to become extraordinary.

After all, if you want to participate in a competition, you will definitely have to face off against extraordinary people.

Even though Visdon had been strengthened by Raven and had a strong physique, he still had no chance of winning against a true transcendent.

Looking at Raven's smile, Weisdong knew that his cleverness had been seen through, and smiled awkwardly: "Brother..."

"You want the God-given potion, I can give it to you." Raven asked, "But have you really thought it through?"

As the Griffith family grew in prominence and he presided over the work of the Chamber of Commerce in the lower city of Mon'en, Denise could still afford the God-given potion for 500 gold coins.

The reason why Visdon is still a mortal until now is also because of Denise's good intentions.

After Weston returned from the Bloody Highlands, Denise had made a decision in her heart - she didn't care about her son's achievements, as long as he lived a stable life, had a good marriage and a good family, that would be enough.

As Raven's power expands, even though Visdon is his younger brother, he will not be qualified to lead troops unless he is an extraordinary person.

Only by staying away from the battlefield can we maintain peace for a long time.

But young Vesdon was so focused on his career that he could not understand his mother's intentions:

"Of course, Onii-sama!"

Raven's mouth curled up when he heard that. This means everyone has their own destiny.

……

(End of this chapter)