Moments turned to seconds as Elizabeth"s unhatched Clearlight Sparrow endured the forceful integration of Marshall"s Qi. However, considering its bloodline was nothing more than a weak Mortal Grade Beast Bloodline, the unborn Sparrow was forced under a horrible set of circ.u.mstances. Though it had yet to hatch, the Sparrow fetus in the egg had already formed a basic level of intelligence; something only seen in some of the relatively stronger Soldier or higher Stage Beasts.With this basic level of intelligence, it wished for nothing more than for Elizabeth to nurture its potential to the utter max as it instinctively understood the miraculous effects of her Magic. Now being confronted with this objectively inferior Qi, with regards to potential and nourishment properties, the Sparrow felt so attached to Elizabeth"s energy that it would rather die than be corrupted by Marshall"s Qi and risk losing potential.
As was the case, the Sparrow used its basic level of intelligence to try and escape. Though it was less than ideal, by prematurely hatching and returning to its master, the Sparrow felt it would be better off dead than by letting even a wisp of "worthless" True Qi taint itself. Being more than powerful enough to break out of its sh.e.l.l, a bird"s cry rang through the VIP area as a seemingly infinitely bright light consumed everything it touched within the room.
As the light died down, a never-before-seen purple and gold-colored Clearlight Sparrow could be seen struggling to escape Marshall"s grasp. Born larger than the average Clearlight Sparrow even though its birth was premature, and with a body comparable to a fledgling several days old, this Clearlight Sparrow stole the voice of everyone present to witness its appearance for a couple seconds.
"Purple?! No… It also has the markings of Ancestral Awakening!" Doing his best to control himself, Marshall felt his mind give out as he appraised the energetic Sparrow in his hand. Looking up to face the horror and shock of all the people around him, Marshall stuttered as he asked, "W-who"s t-this bi-rd"s m-mas-ter?!"
Slowly everyone"s eyes landed on the first judge who had initially ruled the Sparrow to be disqualified as the judges traced back who last gave them a chance to probe the Egg. The judge in question, nervously said, "T-this Clear-l-light S-parrow belon-gs t-to a g-girl named El-lizab-beth Ultimatia..." Just like all the others, he too was affected by the imposing words "Ancestral Awakening."
At that moment, various thoughts crossed Marshall"s head, slowly morphing his face in spite. "Who? Elizabeth Ultimatia? Never heard of her… Someone this talented is not a part of MY faction? And they get to possess this supreme Tamed Beast? Hmph!"
Giving way to his boiling thoughts, Marshall asked, "And who exactly is this Elizabeth Ultimatia?"
Darby, one of the few people that already knew of her from the Forging Event gave everyone in the room a brief recap of the dominant manner with which she overtook the position of Smithing Champion. He mentioned her background and in response to this newfound knowledge, Marshall"s hateful expressions changed into a malicious smile as he thought, "Heh, nothing but a b.u.mpkin! After the compet.i.tion is over and done with, all of this will be easily resolved with an invitation to my Tamer Frontier Faction..."
Evidently confident that the Clearlight Sparrow before him would in one way or another eventually come to be a tool for his faction, Marshall handed the beast over to the judges and personally ruled Elizabeth to have pa.s.sed.
…
Back on the arena stage, Elizabeth had been hard at work whilst cultivating some grandmist to excavate her hidden potential. Not at all knowing what had just transpired in the VIP area, she believed she had already been ruled disqualified. But, because the rules stated that compet.i.tors couldn"t leave until the results were announced, she reluctantly had to stay on stage as literally hundreds and thousands of salty pract.i.tioners both in the compet.i.tors area and spectator"s area alike seemed to never tire their foul mouths.
She couldn"t be bothered to care about the idiots around her, so instead of risking her concentration being broken whilst practicing her Enchantment skill via the annoying crowd surrounding her, she sunk into a light meditation as she waited for the results to come out. As several minutes pa.s.sed, Elizabeth guessed there must have been something holding the judges back as there were far fewer compet.i.tors in the Beast Taming Event as there were for Forging, yet the Beast Taming judges took longer to finish processing the results for Stage One.
Capitalizing on the extra time, by the time the announcer finally buzzed-in to report the results, she had managed to carve out a whole 1% the hidden potential available to her after breaking through to the Peak of the Warrior Stage. 1% seemed like a small amount, but as Elizabeth grew in strength, the requirements to completely excavate more and more potential via Chaos Requiem increased exponentially. That "mere" 1% took well over a couple hundred thousand units of Inner Strength to achieve…
"Now then, for the results. At this time, all compet.i.tors are to turn to the TV to the north to see if you have been disqualified..." Waking up from the distinct buzzing noise, that always paired with the announcer"s voice, Elizabeth expected to find herself in the list of names that scrolled down the screen. Yet, from beginning to end, her name was nowhere to be found…
Elizabeth wasn"t the only who noticed that anomaly as a sizable portion of the people in the arena were waiting for her name to flash by to gloat at her. After the announcer moved one to introduced the results for those who pa.s.sed all the way up to the top ten without Elizabeth"s name appearing either, people started to suspect two very different scenarios being at play. Either Elizabeth had been eliminated from even being named for being the only person to turn in an unhatched Beast, or… there was surely some sort of foul play leading to her being in the top 10.
One by one, the top ten were then announced with the large TV screen showing pictures, along with information of their performance. But unlike the Forging Stage, as the compet.i.tors that pa.s.sed on to the Second Stage were named, attendants would bring back their Clearlight Sparrows. Those in the top ten would have their Sparrows shown alongside their picture on the TV screen.
Elizabeth saw that the person ranked tenth nurtured a Sparrow with green feathers. This was the case for all the other compet.i.tors leading up to the compet.i.tor who came in third, the only difference in the top sevens" Sparrows being the vibrancy of their green feathers. Then, as the announcer revealed the results of the person in third place the whole arena burst into cheers, announcing, "As for third place, the Taming Frontier Faction"s very own Princess Tamer, Kacie Kristensen, achieved a rarely seen score of 9.11 after managing to nurture a cyan-colored Clearlight Sparrow."
As soon as the picture of the lightly-colored cyan Sparrow appeared on the TV screen, the crowd reacted the same way they had when Elizabeth was revealed to have won the First Stage of the Forging Event. However, since that was only third place, after the runner up was revealed people went even more insane. The announcer, holding up his cards with a strange expression, said, "The runner up for the First Stage… Uh, again?" Taking a moment of silence as he felt a headache coming, the announcer continued, "From the Taming Frontier Faction… and the champion of the last five Wushi Beast Taming Events, Felix Lindberg. Even after scoring an unprecedented 9.52 score, nurturing a Clearlight Sparrow almost to the brink of indigo, he still came up… short?"
With Felix"s picture and information being displayed alongside the fearsome-looking Sparrow, almost everyone began to utter curses of "Bulls.h.i.t!" or something in the same vein as only Elizabeth had yet to be mentioned…
Naturally, Elizabeth, who was fully expecting to lose in the First Stage, was also surprised to see herself win first place… again. However, as some of the compet.i.tors around her had started emanating killing pressure and intent in utter discontent, her expression changed. Treating the killing intent she was submerged in as if it were air, Elizabeth thought, "The first place came out of left field, but I"ll take it. As for these people… Heh..." Smiling as if to taunt the idiots who felt like they could pa.s.s one over her, Elizabeth arrogantly sat back on her chair and lifted her feet up to the table in her station, looking every bit the part of a c.o.c.ky b.a.s.t.a.r.d…
Listening to the announcer"s words like music to her ears, Elizabeth"s smile deepened as she heard, "And the number one spot goes to… Elizabeth Ultimatia… The recently declared Smithing Champion has taken to the Beast Taming Event and earned a score so high… it"s literally off the charts. In just ten minutes, Ms. Ultimatia has nurtured a Clearlight Sparrow to the point of Ancestral Awakening..."
As Elizabeth"s picture came on the screen with the purple and gold-colored Clearlight Sparrow cropped to the side, everyone, literally everyone in attendance — aside from the people in the VIP room who had already seen the bird first hand — called "utter bulls.h.i.t." The people who had kept a close eye on Elizabeth as she performed pointed to the fact that her Egg hadn"t even hatched when the Stage was over and those that didn"t fall in this camp simply refused to believe that there was someone so talented to be this amazing at two different completely unrelated secondary occupations.
As the crowd got worked up, so did Elizabeth"s fellow compet.i.tors and as a result, the killing pressure threatening her redoubled to several times the intensity of before. Smiling with an intensity to match the pressure around her, Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders as she waited for an attendant to bring her Clearlight Sparrow. She didn"t have to wait long as the Sparrow fought to the best its best ability to break free from the attendant"s hands and fly over to her side.
Landing right next to her feet upon the table, the Sparrow looked to Elizabeth as a child would when confronting their mother, and after being subject to second-hand exposure to the killing pressure Elizabeth was under, it went completely berserk. Ringing with bird cries, and casting the world under the effects of its partially perfect bloodline, people couldn"t ignore the bird"s influence, even if in reality it couldn"t hurt even the weakest Mortal Stage pract.i.tioner.