NOVPUBA massive crowd of faceless recruits made their way through the underground cave entrance. At the forefront, were those who had made it in early, while at the back was a massive crowd.
"Hang on" Leon’s voice sounded as he placed his hand on Ember’s shirt and pulled her onto his shoulder. It was abrupt and extremely fast, so she didn’t have the opportunity to react once again.
Before she even knew it, Leon picked up speed and hastily approached the recruits at the front of the crowd.
"This speed, can it be?" Ember looked on in shock as Leon quickly approached the group in front. Their head start was going to become useless in no time.
Leon was a warlock, normally when they break through, the strength of their physical body would skyrocket as opposed to mages who would mainly see a substantial increase in their control of mana.
Even though Leon’s breakthroughs were within the limits of level 1, he was still able to strengthen his physical body and, in turn, his speed became astounding.
"Hmp, maybe he’s not as incompetent, but then so what?!!" From within the crowd of faceless recruits, The blade Demon saw Leon’s advance at astronomical speeds and couldn’t help but sneer.
He believed that Leon had gotten the position of vice captain because of his relationship with Half-moon. So seeing him ahead pissed him off.
"Wind work: world traversing wind"
The blade Demon made a move and a gust of wind enveloped his legs, pushing his speed to its limits. And just then he too pushed past the crowd of recruits.
He wasn’t the only one that did this though, several others were able to push forward and approached Leon, some even surpassed him in the blink of an eye.
"Movement spells" Ember mused.
Nature usually compensates. As the physical strength of warlocks would increase with each breakthrough, the control over mana would do the same for mages, allowing them to better unitize spells.
What they had just used now was called a movement spell. It amplified the speed and agility at which mage could maneuver when moving. Mages were well known for their ability to create the most unconventional spells, most of which could only be used with mana. But who could compete with mages in mana usage?
"Hold on tight" Leon whispered before he continued pushing himself further and further....even with their movement spells, Leon was every bit as fast as they were, he wouldn’t be shown up by them.
In a much wider space underground. The faceless mercenary company’s official’s could be seen staring at several entrances in front of them with anticipation.
Most of them had their representatives inside the group of recruits, and them excelling also helped improve their status in the company.
"Hear that? They are coming…" The officials stood up in anticipation…in the distance, the sound of running echoed as a large group of people approached the entrances.
"That’s my boy."
"God speed"
"As expected"
Gradually, the recruits made their way into the Wide space from below. And each new arrival prompted the smiles and appreciation of their faction leadership, naturally not everyone could be happy.....there were those with their talents whom they had groomed being left behind, all because of Leon’s meddling.
"That’s 50!!!" From where the officials stood, a voice resounded and almost immediately a veil went up separating the top 50 from the rest.
A choke point.
Those who merited resources would get the best resources.
"The top 50 have been established. Please huddle up in your factions if you can find any members remaining" two aged men appeared before the top 50 and directed.
The two elders looked like the spitting image of the other, from the clothing they wore to the way they looked. It was apparent that these two were twins.
And so, the people from Their different factions began huddling together. This included the virtan faction, who had 5 members in the top 50.
That was 10% the number wasn’t bad.
"The Vice captain made it, good" with a smile on his face, the Demon blade praised. He hadn’t expected Leon to be as competent as he was, he ended up carrying Ember all the way there even.
"You jest captain, you are ranked Much higher than myself." Leon humbly said. The blade Demon was ranked 16, Leon was 17 and Ember was 18. The difference wasn’t that huge.
"Hehe," the blade Demon laughed. Deep down, he didn’t like the fact that they were so close in ranking, it pissed him off, especially with Ember giving him snide looks on the side.
"What’s the dick measuring competition? You guys aren’t even the highest ranked in the faction….check it out" from the side, one of the members of the company pointed at somebody in the distance.
"Ah?" The blade Demon turned over youth at the side laughing his ass off. He didn’t seem to care about the world around him, only discussing with is ’friends’.
The blade Demon didn’t recognize this person, but he seemed to be ranked 3rd in the top 50…that was insane. If they had someone like him, why was he picked to be the captain?
"Hehe, there’s always a taller mountain" Leon commented. This person wasn’t one of the few to go in without anyone noticing, but he was able to enter the top 3 even though he came from the very back.
His speed was exceptional.
(You’re really shaken by some random Mockery? You really are inexperienced)
Leon saw the look of discontent in the eyes of this so-called blade Demon when he looked at the person who came in third. And he couldn’t lie, he was disappointed.
He allowed himself to be shaken so easily by competition. His heart was not mature enough.
"Okay, congratulations on getting to the top 50, this will guarantee you get to use the mana pool down below....." one of the twin elder’s started explaining.
The mana pool was a construct used by mages to properly feel mana energy and understand how it worked. Since mages needed comprehension to break through, they would need to stay in the most mana diluted place they could find and hope for a breakthrough.
"Those of you that are able to advance to the top 20 will be allowed to go deeper into the mana pool… "
The deeper one got in a mana pool, the higher the concentration of mana. It was much better than staying at the surface of the pool, and it helped more with comprehension.
There were 4 layers to the mana pool. The first was the surface layer. There, individuals could float on the surface of the water and hope to gain comprehension….the success rate was quite low, though.
Then there was the second level. Everyone in the top 50 could qualify for that. As long as they didn’t make it to the top 20.
As for the last two layers, they were meant for the top 20 and top 10 respectively. Getting there would not only significantly increase your chances of improving mana control, there had also been instances of people breaking through to level 2 in the 4th layer.
Of course, this was rare.
"Let’s begin," both elders said, following which a massive amount of pressure fell on top the recruits, causing 10 to fall to the floor immediately.
"Gravity?" Leon squeezed his brows. He felt like a massive rock had just been placed on his back from out of nowhere.
"10 of you, disqualified!!" One of the twin elders announced. Immediately, they were pulled out from the area by other Elders. This was the second test.
"Hmp!! X2" the elder who had caused this raised his hand up and increased the pressure. This time, 5 fell. The ones left had braced themselves for the increase in pressure, so it wasn’t easy to get them down.
That didn’t mean that the elder would stop.
"X3" he wouldn’t stop until they were only 20 people left standing. He didn’t care if whether he had to break some legs to get there.
And so he continued applying pressure. Each time, several people would fall to their knees, even the kid who came third from the virtan group collapsed at 5x pressure. He was intoned for speed, not strength.
Leon could see this from a mile away, so he wasn’t bothered, nor did he care that the kid lost. But the blade demon could be seen visibly smiling, even though he himself was still struggling.
As for Leon himself, his bodily strength was already way above the people here. If anyone was able to last the longest, it would be Leon.
And he did so until the very end.
"Disqualified" the last person was disqualified.
"Haha, this is going really well, don’t you think? Quick and easy." The twin elders joked. They seemed to enjoy tormenting the recruits, and even acted like high school jocks sometimes.
"Now for the tournament round" from where the officials stood on a rocky platform not too far away. A man announced before gently floating over.
"Great mage" the twin elders fell to their knees upon seeing this person.
The term great mage, this was only used for level 4 mages.
A powerhouse had appeared.
