Days passed since the Wizard Saint tournament came to an end. Well, there was some trouble in the guild, but Ben took care of it. Most of the trouble was related to jobs and clashes with other guilds, minor problems.
Later that year, Fiore held another tournament for their legal guilds. It was the Grand Magic Games which was established with the purpose of finding the best guild in Fiore. They held it on the day of the Dragon King Festival.
Almost every guild in Fiore was excited about this event to determine the strongest guild in Fiore. The members of Fairy Tail were also excited, especially because of the reward. Ben on the other hand, wasn't that interested in this competition.
For Ben, the best guild is one that can do it's jobs properly and ensure it's members' safety. Fairy Tail is currently the guild with the highest job completion rate and number. They finished more jobs than any other guild in Fiore, so they are the number one guild now.
It's still not on the level when Makarov was the guild master though. The problem lies in the fact that there weren't a lot of S-Class mages right now. At the moment, Ben, Kenshin and Mira were the only S-Class mages and the only ones who can handle other difficult jobs are Ben's students and the other senior members who needed to go together to complete those jobs.
Even so, they completed more jobs than other guilds. Their development is also better than the previous generation. The remaining Fairy Tail mages are improving at a faster rate than in Makarov's era so it's a big achievement in itself.
Ben might not be interested in the Grand Magic Games, but he can't ignore the rest of the guild. So he decided Fairy Tail will participate in this competition. However, they will only send their young members, and the weaker ones at that.
Only 5 guild members can join this competition as a group. So Ben chose the weakest ones among the younger members who are qualified to take jobs. The ones that will participate are Laki, Vijeeter, Max and 2 of Ben's ex-students, Gea and Hans.
Ben had a reason for doing this. This competition is a chance for them to gain experience by competing with other mages. He wasn't interested in victory, their mages' development was more important to him.
For Ben, this competition was like a game, like the name implied. In the end, people will believe more in a guild that can finish more jobs than other guilds. Still, he knew that this Game would have lasting effects after it ended.
Many guilds joined this competition, be they small, medium or large guilds. There were hundreds of mages that will compete in this tournament. The euphoria is almost the same as the Wizard Saint tournament.
Most people assume it's another fighting tournament, but it's not. The kingdom had the guilds compete in several events. They were just like Games, truly living up to the competition's name.
For the preliminaries, they just measure the participants' magic power using a device. Every participant will measure their magic attack. The top 64 teams with the highest total magic attack will proceed to the next round.
Fairy Tail passed the preliminaries and goes to the next round. The 1st round is a Detective Game. They are given a problem to solve and they can find clues to solve the problem all over the city. There is no time limit but 16 teams that finish first will pass.
In this round, Fairy Tail almost failed, but they still managed to obtain 15th place. Laki and Gea contributed a lot in this round because they were the only ones who can use their brain properly. Well, at least they passed.
The next round was a team tag match. It's just like a game of tag with the arena being the west side of the capital. They don't use an elimination system but a point system.
Each person is given 3 red ribbons which represent their points and they need to steal each other's ribbons. The 8 teams with the most ribbons will advance to the next round. Fairy Tail is number 3 in this match because they are quite good with their hands.
Well, they were quite cunning as they used the others' battles to steal their ribbons. Ben was the one who taught them this strategy using their magic as the biggest factor. He isn't interested in victory, but he wanted to reach the semi-finals at the very least.
The next round is a team match. All members of each team will fight against other teams in the arena. This is a league system, not a knock out system so they will fight against all teams in the top 8.
Each team will fight twice per day so this round will last for 4 days. Ben doesn't need to give any instructions because their team members are capable enough. The previous rounds have increased their teamwork so there will be no problem.
They can switch any team member that is injured in this round. But Fairy Tail didn't switch anyone out because no one was seriously injured. Some light injuries were normal in their line of work so they can't switch members out because of light injuries.
But because they didn't switch any members out, they can't take 1st place. They still received 3rd place, so they passed to the semi-finals. It was a good result considering the ones who participated were not the strongest members.
Fairy Tail is ready to lose in the next round because they don't plan on switching any team member out. However, the next round turned out to be the last one even though there were still 4 teams competing.
The final round's match is also quite surprising because it's not a fighting match like everyone thought. The final round will be a racing tournament with the circuit being the capital and it's surrounding mountain area.
Each team is allowed to have 3 land magic vehicles. They can also use 1 if they're confident they can win with just 1. Of course, attacking other teams using magic is allowed provided they don't kill anyone.
They are given 3 days to prepare their magic vehicles and strategy. It doesn't matter what they'll do. They can buy, rent, build or modify their magic vehicles. The only restriction is that their magic vehicles weren't illegal based on the Magic Council's regulations.
Ben really didn't want to win at first, but things were different now. If there is something he doesn't want to lose to from others in this world it's his passion for racing cars. He had lost a magic vehicle race in the past, so now he wants to win.
He had built some cars since he had become guild master with the help of some magic engineers. Those are magic vehicles that they made for the guild members transportation and for selling. Magic vehicles with advanced engines are expensive, so they can make a serious profit.
Also, Ben still held the patents for the newest generation engines. Currently, the only ones that can sell magic vehicles with Ben's engines are those who have bought the right and him. So it's safe to assume other guilds don't have the new generation engines like Fairy Tail.
Well, they can buy or rent the new generation magic vehicles. But Ben can always modify their vehicles to become faster. He worked with Fairy Tail's engineers to modify 3 of their magic cars into race cars.
The modified cars are very fast, not as fast as Light Runner, but very fast nonetheless. Lamia Scale, who was also competed in the final round, actually has 2 new generation cars. They were gifts from Ben.
"Sly bastards. Using my gift against me." Ben was slightly pissed off.
"There's no rule that says we can't use them." Jura said as he approached Ben.
He clicked his tongue but didn't say anything else because Jura was right. They just stand next to each other as the race starts.