Jake Smithson is a man in a hurry.For him, his current circ.u.mstances are the worst possible place to be in: within Kingsville, trying to win a wager in order to gain access to the Gold Label, and far away from monsters and the points he could earn from defeating them.
Every moment counts.
So when the awakeners in charge of the first leg of the novice awakener evaluation, Jake immediately went for the biggest concentration of novice awakeners and did what he could to finish as quickly as possible.
He had to get through this evaluation as fast as possible, so he started taking down compet.i.tors one by one, quickly and efficiently.
While he was doing this, another awakener doing the same caught his eye.
"Someone who looks like he knows what he"s doing!"
It was Damian, one of the ringers placed in this event, and when he saw that Damian was clearing the field just as fast as he was, Jake stepped back for a moment.
"Yeah, that"s how you do it!" Jake cheered as he saw the speed at which Damian was eliminating the novice awakeners. "Let"s get this part of the evaluation done, and fast!"
At the same time, another group of novices tried to jump Jake from behind, and he dealt with those accordingly – all the while, Jake was smiling. Having someone else help finish these preliminary rounds faster would be great.
Damian, though, had other ideas – as soon as there was a lull in the fighting, he looked at the weirdo with the ostentatious appearance.
"What"s wrong with him?"
"There are two ways this goes down, either way, you"re hitting the floor, friend. So choose wisely," Jake said, ignoring the looks given to him even as he continued eliminating other awakeners quickly.
The ringer"s brows rose as he saw what was going on: this newbie was defeating other awakeners as efficiently as he was!
Jake didn"t realize that he was neck-and-neck with Damian when it came to novice awakeners eliminated.
"Honestly, I want this done quickly. If you want to fight back, it"s just going to hurt more for you. Now stay down, at least it"s only your pride that gets wounded! One, two, three – okay, you"re done! Great. Now stay there until the preliminaries end, you"ve seen what I could do, right? Wonderful!" Jake said as he got another novice awakener to throw in the towel just by talking to him – this wasn"t the kind of behavior Damian expected in the compet.i.tion, let alone in the environment of a free-for-all like this.
"This guy is messing around too much!"
Intending to cut this upstart down to size, Damian rushed towards him…
…only for a gigantic sword to stop his attack in its tracks.
"That was a strike even beginners couldn"t withstand, and he parried it just like that?" Damian thought, shocked.
Instead of anger, Jake sported an expression closer to confusion.
"What are you doing, friend?" he asked, without a hint of effort or strain in his voice as he still blocked Damian"s attack with that gigantic sword of his. "Look around, we"re already done! There are only five men left standing here. The evaluation"s finished, there"s no need to fight any more."
"What? Down to five already?" Damian thought, surprised as he pulled back his strike and sheathed his sword, the evaluation already finished.
As the other awakeners were brought to the next leg of the evaluation, Damian continued to eye Jake warily.
"He didn"t panic when I swung at him. I see that even we ringers are going to have a hard time with this guy," he thought, thinking about the "greeting" tradition and how he should show how he"ll overpower this upstart eventually.
"Out of all the novice awakeners, he"s someone to look out for."
An arm went around his shoulder, and Damian realized it was Jake smiling at him.
"Hey, man, don"t give me that look; it"s uncomfortable coming from someone who did me a huge favor. I should take the time to thank you properly – you saved me a lot of time."
Jake"s head edged over to the ringer, and he continued, whispering conspiratorially.
"Listen, man. I"m in the middle of taking care of something important – if it works out, I"ll get you a box of pizza or something as my thanks."
***
Elsewhere, the novice awakeners who were eliminated from the preliminary rounds were made to gather in one of the larger hallways within the arena, and eventually grouped themselves up according to the tutorial area where they came from.
Naturally, their discussion wandered over to how they were eliminated, and who the strongest among the novice awakeners were.
"Jonathan is the real deal."
"He"s from the third tutorial area, right?"
"Yes, I heard that he lorded it over the other awakeners, especially after killing the werecrocodile. He also got the female awakeners to wait on him, like maids of some sort."
"They also say that he used to be in the mob as some sort of enforcer or something."
"Wow… thank G.o.d that I wasn"t summoned in that tutorial area…it would have been a real disaster."
"What about your area?"
"We have two: Kevin and Ling. They formed a faction themselves and competed with others. They stuck with each other, so I don"t know who"s stronger –we"ll have to find out during the evaluation."
As the conversation continued, information as to who the stronger of the novice awakeners of each tutorial region began to spread among the eliminated awakeners.
After all, while waiting for their fate, all they could do was talk and share their experiences.
"We were eliminated by this really strong fellow. He had this ridiculously huge sword and he was swinging it like it weighed nothing. I didn"t even last a minute against him… would"ve made it to the next round if I didn"t run into him… how"d I end up in the same elimination round as that guy… where"s he from?"
Another awakener was mentioned in the conversation, and right then, another two awakeners quickly took on ghastly expressions and thousand-yard-stares.
The other awakeners quickly picked up on the change and asked them.
"You know that guy, huh?"
The two of them opened their mouths slowly, inarticulate noises coming out as if they were reliving some sort of monster or boss attack.
"You have to tell us, was it that guy?"
The two awakeners snapped back into reality, and nodded.
"There was someone like that in our tutorial area."
"I"m not sure if you"re talking about the same person, though."
"Huge sword. Lots of jewelry. Odd behavior. Dangerous aura. Was that the guy?"
The two awakeners nodded slowly.
"Yeah? How was he? He"s the strongest one in your tutorial area, right?"
"Uh, that"s…"
"I mean…"
"Come on, please answer us! They"re still in the colosseum, so they can"t hear us talk about him."
The other awakeners were now clamoring for an answer from the two, and their faces deepened in thought before one of them answered.
"Oh, he"s strong. Completely different from other awakeners from the very beginning," the answer came out in a hurry; as if he didn"t want to talk about it anymore.
It was the worst possible answer to give, as it only piqued the curiosity of the other awakeners.
"What happened with him?" a female awakener asked. "And why do you look like that when we ask about him?"
The awakener shuddered as he recalled the terrible memory of the 11th Tutorial Area: how their village was turned into one person"s stomping ground.
This wasn"t due to the Skeleritter monster, but rather, the awakener named Jake Smithson.
"You have no idea how terrifying Jake Smithson can be," the awakener explained. "All of us from the 11th Tutorial Area want nothing to do with that guy. If you p.i.s.s him off, that monster will move heaven and earth itself to get you."
The two awakeners distanced themselves from the others and made their way to a corner, where they huddled in fear, eyes darting to and fro, apparently trying to find Jake Smithson in the crowd.
***
Human nature is truly amazing: when brought to Nohas to kill monsters, they created factions, authority, and hierarchy.
It came with the urge for power and control: they both competed against the monsters, and against each other.
At this point in time, the compet.i.tion between factions are now more important than slaying monsters.
In fact, these factions keep other factions in check more than the monsters do.
This is why divisions are always on the lookout for prodigies: novice awakeners from the tutorial areas who have the potential to be great, and thus, with enough investment, will increase the power of their division.
And this is also why there are a lot of representatives in the divisions attending the evaluation process right now.
Their interest is piqued even further as, out of the large array of novice awakeners, a hundred novice awakeners went forward to the next leg of the evaluation.
A one-on-one single-elimination tournament was up next. With the brackets randomly organized and the preparations finished, the evaluation continued on in earnest.
"Advancing to the next round: Norman!"
The gathered citizens of Kingsville attending the event applauded the latest victory as the compet.i.tion proceeded swiftly – it was both a spectacle and means to see how powerful the novice awakeners became during their time in the tutorial area.
This evaluation had been taking place for a long time already, and thus, the flow of events was streamlined to the point where little time was spent for each round.
"Impressive performance."
"I think he used to work out before coming here: he has good evasive movements."
Awakener resource staff members from nearly every division were watching the evaluation, looking for potential awakeners to scout.
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"The guy Norman beat was also pretty decent, all things considered."
"He has the talent, true. If trained well, he will improve dramatically in a short period of time."
"I like his fighting style – it will go well with our division"s "Triple Thunder Sword Art"."
Simply making it to the top 100 is an achievement in and of itself already, as their advancement to the tournament is enough to get scouts from divisions to consider them for recruitment.
Winning or losing is not relevant at this point; finding the right division to develop that talent is the more important thing. As long as you can find the right skills and combat methods, you will have a good career as an awakener.
"Put him on the short list, the next match is coming."
"Will do."
The scouts were constantly on the lookout to find promising players who would make their division stronger, and as they did, another elimination match began: a showdown between two awakeners.
One was carrying two swords with mismatched sizes against another with a large medieval blade.
The referee dropped his arm, and as soon as the fight started, the man with two swords charged in.
There was no ceremony, no gesture, just a nod before the start of the fight and a huge burst of speed afterward.
The man spun his swords so that he was. .h.i.tting his opponent with the flat of his large blade.
What happened afterwards caused the scouts" collective jaws to drop.
The first swing came in, and the sheer force of the strike caused a shockwave that reached the audience, and made the swordsman"s knees buckle.
The second swing blew apart the medieval swordsman"s guard, leaving him wide open.
The third swing went down almost lazily, smacking the swordsman on the head with the large sword in an almost comical fashion.
The swordsman pa.s.sed out on the spot even before the sword made contact with his head, thinking that he was going to be squashed into a pancake.
He collapsed onto the dirt, and the referee immediately made the call.
This whole exchange took less than ten seconds.
"Winner: Jake Smithson!"
The audience clapped at the display of power, and even the scouts had to applaud the quick and brutal way the fight ended. What was especially important to them was the overwhelming power and speed brought into play, and the finesse needed to change the force of one"s attack from a shockwave-generating blow to a tap to the head.
Simply put, this was no novice awakener, and all the scouts from every division were now paying attention to this guy.
"What kind of novice is this?"
"What in the world are all those items he"s wearing? He finished some hidden quests?"
"I"m pretty sure he"s completed every single one of them."
And in between all the attention from everyone, Jake Smithson turned to the referee.
"If it"s possible, could we start the next round right away? I"m sorry, but I"m kind of pressed for time to complete this evaluation."
It was at that moment when Jake left a strong impression all of the divisions.
***
One match.
Jake Smithson needed only one match to get everyone"s attention.
All eyes were on him thanks to that one match.
"Everyone, I need you to look into this Smithson fellow. Find out who else is from the same tutorial area. I need a complete dossier on him: strengths, skills, experience, with whipped cream and a cherry on top."
"Copy that, sir."
The "Sirius" division, which claims to be the owner of the Velvet Mountain area, about 100 kilometers from Kingsville, took notice of Jake and began to a.s.sess his value to the division. While they know it may be hasty to judge everything by a single match, they won"t make their move.
However, if they find more comprehensive information – or a more compelling result – they will move swiftly.
"We should inform him that our division has the best skills made for great swords!" the man from Sirius declared. "Also, we should promise him some empowering flasks, to sweeten the deal."
Making the first move towards a prodigy doesn"t mean you"ll get to scout him or her successfully; Sirius isn"t the best division, but they are solidly placed below the Ten Stars, power-wise.
This means that most divisions resort to bribery in order to scout a prodigy, especially a prodigy that all divisions have their eye on.
And it"s not just the Sirius division who noticed Jake"s abilities: a lot of other divisions that pride themselves on scouting prodigies were also trying to gain Jake"s favor.
"We should offer him carte blanche," the recruiter from the Thunder Tiger division declared, "someone who attained that level of power during the tutorial area shows amazing potential. It is only fitting that we, the fiercest division on Nohas, devote our efforts on scouting him. One of him has more value than ten of those run-of-the-mill novice awakeners."
The recruiter from the Berserkers division, known for their battle frenzy, let out a low whistle when he saw the battle. "That newbie knows how to make use of his swords! That was flawless swordsmanship! I can smell it –the smell of a fighter, just like us."
"A prodigy."
The division that belongs to Ten Stars, Cheon-Ji-in, also noticed Jake as well.
"What do you want to do?"
"Let"s keep an eye on him for the next match, and then make our move," Timothy, one of the awakeners slated to succeed in the leadership of Cheon-Ji-in, answered, interest in Jake Smithson written on his face.
"We"ll just watch his match? We still have 25 potential awakeners left to scout. Aren"t you being a bit too hasty?"
"Well, Director Lee, I think it"s time for us to actually be hasty," Timothy replied. "We"re still part of the Ten Stars, but our name is not as prestigious as it once was. Before, our name is enough to bring all the novice awakeners to our door, but no longer. I"m going to politely suggest that we actively recruit this Jake Smithson fellow."
"And what if I do not follow your suggestion?"
"Then I shall recruit him to this division personally," Timothy answered, before turning back to where the next evaluation match was going to take place.
***