Chapter 1648 Congratulations, You Surpa.s.sed Yourself
Aurora was aware of Jai"s customs and informed him of the procedure that occurred for the selection of a new wing commander.
Despite his track record, Varian decided not to knock out a prince and pose as him. It"s one thing to imitate a celestial who lived for a few thousand years but mimicking a being who lived for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years? That"d take atleast two weeks of preparation!
It"s too long!
[Please refrain from saying those words elsewhere lest you get hacked!]
Varian snorted at the jest but silently agreed with Logos" a.s.sessment. If only the event wasn"t starting so soon, a new "genius" would have risen. "Telor, you"d have gotten a genius divine brother! Bohoo! But this cruel world doesn"t allow!"
If Telor could hear his shameless words, he might have chased Varian with a slipper even at the risk of getting killed.
Thankfully for Varian, the dead couldn"t rise from the grave, well, unless Yami wished for it.
Amidst his active mental activity, Adsher clapped his hands and sparks of red light rained down in the pristine white hall.
"Pick three, write down your a.s.sessments."
Like the hundred other appraises in the hall, Varian too picked three.
Upon contact, the light burst into an ancient artifact. These were wildly different stuff. Special soil, a torn painting, a hand-sized statue, a spinning top with engraved symbols of infinity and so on.
The formerly serene atmosphere of the room turned esoteric and to some degree, even eerie.
"Mishandling some artifacts can kill you." Adsher spoke in a light tone, unbothered with the risk they all had to face.
Even the veterans began to carefully inject aura into the artifacts to make a proper appraisal. The backups were less eager to proceed and acted significantly slower.
The most anxious of the group were the newbie backups. They were elite of the elite and felt quite proud to be selected into this prestigious company.
As such, they couldn"t help but look down on the cowardly behavior of the both the main team and the backup team.
With a desire to stand out and a mentality of "I am the best", they acted in a hurry.
Unlike many things in life, the consequences here weren"t delayed.
"Aghhhh!" With an ear splitting scream, a woman fell to the ground, her arm completely devoured by a round black sphere that grew a devilish mouth.
"Sa-veee! Saveee!" The sphere drank up her blood and the mouth devoured her further, like a predator eating up its prey.
In seconds, the traces of the woman, including the pool of blood that flowed out were wiped clean by the devil sphere.
With a burp, the mouth shrunk and the artifact returnend to being a harmless black sphere.
The incident did not prompt even a single person to help. Heck, the veterans didn"t even bother to spare her a glance.
And the newbies who were acting with haste nearly halted their actions.
Unlike their elsewhere, they realized that they weren"t treated as irreplacable professionals here. Even if they were killed, no one would bat an eye.
"Jai Empire is ruthless on average than Alliance. But this company is crazy even for Jai."
Complaining in his mind, Varian wrote down his artifact a.s.sessment with a casual expression.
{A pink fingernail: from the circulation of aura, it belongs to the charmers race who went extinct after attempting a futile attempt at charming the 7th prince. Given the st.u.r.diness of the item as well as its aura attraction, it is held by a divine ranker. The charm race had only three divine rankers at the time of its extinction: Matriarch, Queen and Princess.
The fingernail"s resilience is too mature for a low rank 1 princess and too mature for a high rank 1 Matriarch. It"s the fingernail of the Queen and seems to carry the property of charm. If used to bless artifacts or dipped in potions, it can create a charm effect against opponents.}
Of course, they were allowed a database of Krystal Arts, so his a.s.sessment, while astounding, was still believable.
Even if people questioned him, he had the shield of his excellent skills—which he actually did. Despite never working as an appraiser, Varian"s powers allowed him to be as good as an elite appraiser and in some instances, even gave him edge over them.
One, he had the power of time, allowing him to feel the age of the object to sharp precision.
Two, he had the power of order and chaos, granting him the ability to a.n.a.lyse the item through its deepest composition.
Three, he had the power of life, soul and death, making it easy for him to identify the lifeforms a.s.sociated with the item.
With the database filling in the gaps of his historical knowledge, Varian was equipped to fight against pretty much any appraiser.
Of course, he took care to appear as a genius, not an absurd monster.
It"s one thing if he claimed the fingernail to be from the Queen but it"s another story if he also revealed that the fingernail was corroded by the soul fragments of 335,234 souls, 90% of which are male and 10% female, with over 100 of them being divine!
[Ah, what a genius! He knows not to do stupid things! Come, give this man a prize!]
While Logos jumped at the chance to mock him, Varian submitted the responses to the Boss of Krystal Arts, Adsher.
The man in golden dress that literally glowed nodded to himself as he went through the responses with a satisfied expression.
"As expected, the main team is perfect." He spoke in a pleased tone but his brows soon furrowed. "The backup team though…" The peaceful atmosphere was gone in a blink and the backup team looked at each other with anxious looks.
Adsher clapped his hands. "Just kidding, everyone is great as usual!"
The team sighed in relief. "Phew—"
"Except Urdanis, Hawzad and Loaslaine, you three are to be imprisoned. If the event goes well, I"ll release you. If it"s not up to the mark, well, you don"t need to live either." The mark on his hand glowed and Cyris moved at a speed beyond the appraisers" perception.
When they checked the positions of the three mentioned, they were already thrown into a cage by the ash-skinned woman.
The newbies began to sweat profusely, regretting their decision to join. They should"ve doubted it when Krystal Arts recruited them in just a dozen tests!
"The newback up is disappointing as usual," Adsher shook his head but his eyes suddenly narrowed and he glanced at the black haired humanoid male. "You. Hand"sa—."
"Hand"sum greets you, Your Majesty." Varian stepped forward with a polite but confident smile. Adsher raised a brow. "I"ve seen a lot of things but it"s my first time seeing a name like yours."
With a melancholic gaze, Varian looked into the void and replied. "I"m the sole survivor of my race and took a name that means "Survivor" in the old language of my people."
"Hmm," Adsher rubbed his chin as he checked Varian"s profile once again. It"s vetted by Cyris herself who"s under a strict slave command which prevented her from doing anything harmful or deceptive to him.
Moreover, the records of Hand"sum"s race, their destruction and abilities were quite clear. The old language of their race was not in the records, but well, it"s not like it mattered.
These guys had an innate talent with time and people, allowing them to "perceive" a lot of things that others couldn"t.
"He has no experience except for a few small companies. But he"s good and he got innate talent. He should be used."
Trusting Cryis" vetting, Adsher commanded. "Hand"sum."
"Yes, my lord." Varian responded with a big smile.
Others thought he"s happy because he already guessed what"s going to happen. But Varian was happy for a different reason. A simple, silly reason.
"Wohoo! Thank you my past self for brainstorming such a great name! My unborn son, daddy already selected a name for you! Hand"sum!
Just imagine the conversations.
[Hey, this is Hand"sum]
[Hi, Hand"sum]
[He is Hand"sum]
And even your enemies will have to call you handsome!
Huhuhu!"
As it listened to his proud laughter, Logos sighed in a depressed voice.
[…No wonder your voices collectively boycotted you from naming. How the h.e.l.l do you manage to surpa.s.s yourself? Every. Single. Time?]