Chapter 196 Beginning Of A Nightmare [3]
-(Present || Back in Sky inside the blue dome)-
I was in a happy mood ever since the announcement about the Cla.s.s Wand being eliminated was played. The compet.i.tion was moving at the predicted pace.
But this wasn"t the only reason I was happy. There were two other reasons...
My level and the new technique of my art!
"Leaderboard" I excitedly called out the status screen.
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Name - Nathan Hunt
Age - 16 years (???)
Rank - Iota(Lvl.16) (Suppressed)
Stigma - Iridescence
Extra Stats - 36
Number of lives - 3
>>> Stats (Click to expand)
>>> Techniques (Click to expand)
>>> Skills (Click to expand)
>>> Quest (Click to expand)
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I was now Lvl 16! And this was my suppressed level! I was even higher than Lvl.16!
"Defeating an Overlord gave tons of exp!"
Floor 13 had a level limit of Lvl.16, otherwise, I would"ve already leveled up a few more times!
This wasn"t even the best part. It was the 2nd technique of my art that I gained in proficient mastery!
Phzzzzt-
Two swords materialized in the air.
[Enchantment: Wind]
Fwooosh-
A small air current wrapped around the swords. The wind currents were subtle enough that the crow perched on my shoulder didn"t notice them, heck even I could sense them only because I was spending ether to maintain it. They were barely a breeze and completely unnoticeable.
But this was given. I learned this technique yesterday when the number of cracks and constellations surpa.s.sed the quota set by the art.
And this wasn"t all.
[Enchantment: Fire]
A warm glow appeared on the blades of the two swords.
[Enchantment: Earth]
The swords became heavier and I could feel that their durability increased.
"Hehehehe....."
s.h.i.t, I couldn"t help but let out a silly laugh.
The art allowed me to use elemental enchantments of my affinity! The elemental enchantment ability was special but what made it truly spectacular was Ether.
Ether gave me all elemental affinity!
Besides, air, earth, and fire, I could use ice, light, and darkness too! But the last three were noticeable and could"ve alerted the crow. So, I wasn"t using them.
With [Elemental Enchantment], I was halfway to reaching intermediate mastery. Non-stop practicing my art in [Singularity] showed wonders!
(Aren"t you too carefree?)
Suddenly Eth spoke.
"About the Abomination?"
"I"m not. Administrator will kill it anyway. I don"t need to fight it."
(Not about that. I meant the bonus-stage reward. You want to kill the Shadow with the help of Abomination. But there are very high chances of you losing too. Isn"t that why you need to get the Skill-Evolution stone? To upgrade [Golden Turtle]?)
"And?"
Eth wasn"t wrong. There was a possibility that the Shadow was impervious to physical attacks and even energy attacks. It explained the Shadow"s confidence in tailing me, a suspect of being Mr. Pepe, without proper disguise abilities when our levels were the same.
It was only a possibility, and I could be wrong.
But if I was correct, then the only choice would be using Abomination to kill the Shadow. To make sure I also don"t die at the hands of Abomination, I needed the skill-evolution stone.
(n.o.body got the skill-evolution reward in the novel. So, you don"t know where it is.)
(And you did nothing till now. How are you planning to get the skill-evolution stone?)
"What do you mean by nothing? I already did everything, though."
"See that? It"s because of me"
On the ground, Leon and Cadmus facing each other. A battle about to erupt.
(Huh? Wait, again something that wasn"t in the novel?! Why is this entire compet.i.tion going differently?!)
? (Did Anna"s absence affected the compet.i.tion to this extent?!)
My lips twitched.
I said it was happening because of me, yet Eth was ignoring me because he didn"t find my previous actions suspicious.
Talk about being cruel!
***
-(Past || In the sky of blue dome when the compet.i.tion is about to begin)-
"Anything else you might want to know?"
"No, that was my only question."
Nathan shook his head.
Satoru bought out an artifact and spoke into it. His voice reached every corner of the blue dome.
"Greetings, my fellow cadets! We"ll be starting the Inter-cla.s.s compet.i.tion in a few minutes, so I"ll get to the point. Why do you think Ward focuses on compet.i.tions like these rather than only focusing on making its cadets level up?"
"It to nurture its future leaders! To nurture you!"
"We humans are weak! We don"t have the spirit armies of elves, we don"t have the herculean strength of Barbarians, we can"t hope to defeat demons without a useful stigma! And each one of you will be fighting those monsters on frontlines!"
"You will be forced to bear the majority of the brunt when the other weaklings of our race cannot do anything! You will have to fight against those stronger than you each day as they threaten to kill you!"
"If you can"t reach Sandra-rank, then stop thinking about your levels! Anything below that is a dime a dozen there! Your rank means nothing! Even being a Gamma-ranker doesn"t guarantee your survival on the next day!"
"If you want to become strong, then hone your techniques! Become a hero that can save your race! Ranks and levels will come on their own as you butcher those aliens!"
Satoru closed the artifact and returned to the other overseers.
"Do any of you want to speak anything?"
Everyone refused except one.
"Here" Satoru pa.s.sed the artifact to Nathan.
"Do your best. I hope that everyone can perform to their fullest. Because as they say: Your actions for today determine your tomorrow."
Speaking only a few words, Nathan stopped.
Satoru spoke a few last words.
"I"m officially announcing the beginning of the Inter-cla.s.s compet.i.tion! Go!"
With the compet.i.tion starting, the overseers were dispersing when Satoru called out to Nathan.
"Aren"t you curious why you were made an overseer?"
"I am, but I didn"t think you would know the answer. Since you"ve said this, do you know why I was made an overseer despite being a low-rank cadet?"
Nathan didn"t deny Satoru"s claim. He had his reasons for not asking this question earlier, but he wouldn"t refuse if Satoru wanted to answer him.
"It"s because of this"
Caw- (x4)
Four crows came out of Satoru"s skin and flew to each overseer. In their mouth was a small disc.
"This disc is a mini hologram similar to the one that shows the entire dome and the cadets" location in it. You were called to fill in for Isabell, to see if you had any additional talent."
Whiiiir-
A mini hologram appeared from the disc when Nathan touched it. It was the same as the one from before, the only difference beings its size of 0.5x0.5 meter.sq.
"Nathan, you aren"t a combat-department cadet anymore. You were allowed to remain in Ward because of your special condition, but the research department isn"t making any breakthrough in it. Their a.s.sessment is: The arm was corrupted by Nether, and cannot be healed. They"ve also given up."
"You aren"t also doing anything noteworthy in research-department. In short-"
"I"m wasting the resources that can be used to nurture another talented cadet."
Satoru nodded.
"You were called here to see if you have talent in War Strategies. Apparently, your performance in [War] subject was better than average and Ward is hoping to nurture you in that direction. But if you don"t...."
"So, what is my job here?"
Satoru pointed at the mini-hologram in front of Nathan.
"You need to predict the strategies cadets will use against each other and tell us if there are chances of rules being broken or a dangerous situation happening so that we can arrive at the site early. Don"t worry, every one among us will be doing the same, but your performance matters, especially if you want to stay in Ward."
Satoru stared at Nathan.
"Can you do it? What formation do you think they are adopting?"
The hologram in front of Nathan was showing the movements of cadets. Admittingly, he had no idea what they were planning.
Nathan could make superficial guesses based on the hologram and their movements. He could also predict the line of thought of cadets, but that was only for a few cadets whom he knew about from the novel.
However, Nathan answered.
"p.o.o.p"
"Hah"
"If you connect the holograms of cadets with lines, doesn"t it look like p.o.o.p?"
"Pffft"
Henry and another overseer laughed. Henry was barely containing himself from exploding into a laughing fit.
The joke was bad. It was so bad that they could not help but laugh.
"This is what happens when you bring idiots!" Kenny glared at Nathan. While the fourth overseer had red ears, clearly embarra.s.sed by his vulgar words.
"That makes no sense. There is no attack formation like that."
Satoru, true to having qualities of head overseer, acted calmly.
"And that"s what I want to say. You can"t expect me to predict the actions of cadets who are top in their generation, can you?"
***
-(Present || Nathan looking down at the face off against Leon and Cadmus)-
(Can you not remind me of that? You could"ve used any example, yet you chose to say p.o.o.p!)
(And I swear if you tell me that it had a reason behind it, I"ll....)
tsk
"Okay, I"ll not say anything about it."
"Anyway, do you know that Cadmus is manipulating the compet.i.tion?"
(Isn"t that a given? Although it was never explicitly said in the novel, it is easy to notice that someone is pulling the strings from behind. Otherwise, it doesn"t make sense how Cla.s.s Wand and Cla.s.s Shooter were able to ally so quickly.)
Cadmus was the heir of one of the big three families. It went without saying that he could buy one or two cadets with his resources and wealth and use them to cheat.
"But isn"t it weird? Even if Cadmus can give orders to someone from another cla.s.s, how did he make them fight Leon? To do that, Cadmus would need Leon"s location, and the only ones knowing about everyone"s locations are..."
(Overseers)
"Bingo"
"Cadmus has a spy among overseers, too."
(But how did the spy not get caught by the Student council?!)
"Don"t forget who Cadmus is."
The fight between Cadmus and Leon was reaching climax.
Unconsciously, I smiled. I couldn"t predict other cadets" actions. But that wasn"t necessary, to begin with.
I only needed to predict the action of the one manipulating everything from behind.