Indecision danced in Tai’s eyes as he looked down at Akito. With a light press he could take Akito out right now, but he was hesitant. Frankly, if it wasn’t for their past conflict he’d have already asked Akito to join his team.
Akito’s skills definitely put him in the top three hundred like Marina said, but that’s only on the surface. No one knew what the format of the Elite Exams would be before they began, so the rankings were naturally skewed towards individual capabilities. In a test like this where teamwork is possible, Akito should be in the top hundred. He even covered an area that Tai wasn’t proficient in, making him very enticing.
But that past conflict did exist, and teamwork in this exam held risks. The rules for working together were so detailed that Tai was sure the proctor valued teamwork more than anything else.
The rate at which teammates gained keys drastically reduced, and a team can’t transfer to the final gauntlet unless all members have nine keys.
Many Calculations went through Tai’s head before he lowered his spear. “Do you want to join my team?” Tai answered Akito’s questioning gaze with a question of his own. As someone raised to inherit a position of management, he knew there were no eternal enemies, only benefits. Since Akito would be useful, he’d use him.
Besides, it’d only make life difficult for Akito if he tried to backstab him. Even if a teammate got eliminated the Realm would still treat the survivor as if they were in a team. And how would he get into a team afterwards? Who’d want to work with someone who counts as two people and had let their last partner bite it?
Akito looked up in stunned silence for a while before his eyes narrowed in calculation. As much as he’d like to sneer in Tai’s face, he received a similar upbringing and understood how the game worked. Sometimes one had to take a step back to reap the biggest gains.
Akito’s eyes eased and he said, “Not interested,” in a cold voice. It wasn’t out of grudge. If he only thought of the exam he’d reluctantly accept, but the optics as a whole were too bad. Just a couple weeks ago he’d suffered a big loss to the Vault Family and brought shame to his Household. If he now followed behind the Vault heir like a lapdog the Singh House really wouldn’t be able to hold their heads high.
“Got it.” Tai nodded his head without surprise. He would’ve made the same choice in his shoes. That didn’t slow down his spear as he stabbed forward though.
Lightning sparked as Akito dodged backwards, but Tai’s spear left no room for escape. Akito froze in midair as Scorch pierced his heart. Well, at least it would’ve.
Akito turned illusive just before the spear pierced him. ‘Damn it.’ Disappointment and frustration came over him. He couldn’t move, or even feel, any of his limbs while he rapidly vanished. Only a couple hours in and his exam would end here. The only solace he took as his eyes stood frozen on Tai’s face, is that he too would soon join him.
‘So that’s how the safety feature works. It seems our proctor is quite kind.’ Tai thought as Akito vanished. The Planal Artifact prioritized the eliminated examinees safety and turned them impervious before removing them. This might seem obvious to do, but it cost more energy than a lot of proctors were willing to spend.
Even excluding the Elite Exams that were practically bloodbaths, among those with safety precautions few were as good as these. It was good news for Tai, he could act more uninhibited now.
Honestly, he’d aimed his Heat Road sub optimally out of concern that it might kill Akito. He couldn’t aim it in Akito’s domain after all, and controlling the output wasn’t possible.
Heat Road is his own creation. He converted the doused flames into Heat Qi and stored it in the rings on Scorch before releasing them in one big blast. The destructive power of the move made him rather proud, but it did have several flaws.
He needed Scorch for one, or at least a weapon with a similar design, and it took a bit of time to use since Scorch had to transform. The charge time might seem like the biggest downside, but it only took so long because he’d paced himself to give Akito a timer.
What Tai considered the biggest annoyance was that he couldn’t control the output. He had to use at least one ring of heat to use it, and if he wanted to increase the power he had to go directly to two rings. There was no in-between.
‘With this I don’t have to worry about anyone kicking the bucket at least. It seems I can use that seal without concern.’ A mischievous light shone in Tai’s eyes. He obviously didn’t only bring his armor and Scorch in, it’d be dumb to not use the other half of his exchange points. He’d avoided the ridiculous markup on sealing material by taking materials from different professions instead.
Technically seals could be made out of anything. It’s a profession with a lot of situational aspects to it and required a deep understanding to use effectively. That’s why the bar for entry and mastery were so high.
The advantage that items specifically labelled sealing material offered was their malleability. Their ability to change their properties was immensely useful, but Tai didn’t need them for his plan.
If he knew exactly what properties were needed, he could just use fitting materials from other professions. ‘You were the ones who pushed me to this so don’t blame me for the results.’ Tai thought coldly.
The trouble he’d cause using that thing wasn’t small, but since they wanted to target him, they’d have to suffer the consequences. Any opinions they had of him won’t matter after he comes first.
‘I’m getting ahead of myself.’ Tai shook his head. He needed a proper smithing station to make that seal, and he still hadn’t found one yet. Only by clearing a smithing challenge would he be allowed to use the station to make something, this was the case for all profession stations.
Tai wasn’t worried that he hadn’t come by one yet. Unlike sealing, smithing was a popular profession that many Households swear by. He didn’t believe the Head Proctor would dare tamper with it at all. He just needed to find one.
“Hm?” Tai had been on the verge of leaving through the door when his head whipped back in surprise. The entrance door for the challenge once again opened.
“Whew, just caught him. Would’ve been annoying if you’d left the room already. A young man with a fiendish grin said as he laid eyes on Tai.
Tai’s eyes turned cold as five more people entered behind the man.
‘Found you. Was almost worried someone else would get to you first.’ He recalled Akito’s words when he ran into him. He’d originally thought it was trash talk, but now it’s clear there was more to it.
“So now that we’ve caught him, how do you want to do this?” The fiendish man looked over to a blue haired youth.
“I believe we already talked about this. We’re not friends, whoever gets him gets him.” The youth said while pulling out a long dagger.
“Oh come on! You really want to risk it in a free for all this early in the exam?” The fiendish man took out a large sword.
The blue-haired youth snorted. “And what would you suggest? That we each take turns?” He said, clear derision in his eyes.
“Jeez William, you’re breaking my heart here. Here I am, racking my brains for a way where none of us get hurt, yet you’re acting like I’m trying to scam you.” The fiendish guy said in mock pain.
The two continued to bicker without paying any attention to anything around them. They didn’t put Tai or even their own companions in mind, as far as they were concerned their only opponent was each other.
There disregard was only natural, they both held the highest status in this room. They were William Bose of the Bose Family and Heath Burns of the Burns Family, both Earl rank houses. Their personal strength wasn’t weak either, as they were ranked 433 and 471 respectively.
The two men that stood behind Heath were also members of the Burns Family and were ranked in the nine-hundred region. The woman standing to William’s left ranked much higher at seven-hundred and was a member of the Bose Family.
Wielding so much power why would either of them pay attention to the fish in the barrel? If it wasn’t for the rewards, a mere Viscount Heir who rarely ranked above a thousand in most information reports wouldn’t be worth their time.
What they didn’t know is that Tai completely disregarded them too. His eyes were singularly locked on the second woman in their group. She was tall and stocky, with short cropped brown hair that framed her face. She also seemed to ignore the two clowns as she stared directly at Tai with a focused gaze.
This was a fairly well known individual in their age range. A Body Cultivator from a small Baron Household, she was seen as a little miracle for gaining such strength to rank in the six hundreds in such a money costing path with such a background.
Many would go over her information and lament that her talents were wasted by the inability of her Family, but few knew how true that was.
‘Nico Fran… Rank 220’ Tai gripped Scorch harder as Marina’s information on her sprung to his mind.
