Varian sensed his abnormally high mental power. It had two differing properties.
One was like smoke, it silently slipped into minds and affected the creature’s brain—from affecting the decisions to controlling bodies and even manipulating memories—it was capable of every such feat and it could also be applied on self for greater physical control.
Mental power of Telepath.
The other was like water that was about to condense. It would directly interfere with reality, form into any shape he willed and act like an extension of himself. He could use it on himself for defense, movement and even offense.
Mental power of Telekinetic.
Despite their differences, they had many similarities and somehow formed a positive bond.
Now, either of his powers rose significantly by themselves.
At the same time, Varian opened ‘Status’.
[Body (Enhanced) Path L5: 1930/2000 (+1350)
Space Path L4: 220/1000 (+150)
Lightning Path L4: 865/1000 (+400)
Morpher (Plantae) Path L4: 250/1000 (+250)
Telepath Path L4: 110/1000 (+100)
Telekinetic Path L4: 0/1000]
“Sigh” Varian sighed deeply and recalled the thirty matches.
After he advanced to level 4 in Plantae and Telepath paths, he faced off a peak Level 5 Enhanced Awakener.
Varian went all out and using all his powers, defeated him fairly quickly. Despite that, the match provided him with a massive boost.
Boost that caused him to quickly defeat everyone from 30th rank to 20th. All these matches ended up giving him little Xp, around the range of 10-20.
And even if they did give good Xp, it was Xp to only one path.
In some matches, lightning advanced well, in others plantae.
It was only after 15th rank that his opponents started giving more Xp. But even then, it was not sufficient.
But the last five opponents gave better results.
As a whole, he gained 2250 Xp in 30 matches overall and around an average of 75 per match.
Not bad, considering that he overpowered most of his opponents quite easily.
“Excluding Sarah, there’s only one person left. Sixth Young Master of Nial Family. Han Nial.” Varian squinted his eyes and recalled the information about the Prime Family.
Nial Family were stationed on Uranus and were right next to Neptune. Since Neptune was fighting a two front war with Fallen Pluto and Thunder Abyss, Uranus was extremely burdened.
Nial Family didn’t shrink under the danger and instead, sent their experts to the frontlines.
In fact, right after Pluto fell, Neptune’s situation was dire.
The reinforcements from other planets weren’t there yet. Thunder Abyss was looking to continue their offensive and conquer Neptune as well.
Even though Neptune was not Pluto and was far stronger, the morale was extremely low.
Humans almost lost Neptune…fortunately, the Nial family came forward.
They charged into the battlefield and despite the unfavorable conditions of the time, held back the Abyssals until reinforcements arrived.
They saved Neptune.
The result?
30% of their higher awakeners were wiped out.
The enraged Abyssals splurged all their resources as they bribed, lured and threatened people and assassinated the leading geniuses of Nial Family.
From that day, Nial Family was in an irreversible decline.
Of course, there were promising Level 9s, but the future of the family—the younger generation was bleak.
When they felt that the sky was about to fall, Han Nial rose.
He swam against the current of times and lived on the battlefield. After surviving countless assassination attempts, he rose as the top genius of second year…until Sarah took over.
He was already touching the bottleneck of Level 5 and would likely reach level 6.
But…he was stills far weaker than Sarah, who was in top 10 of third years.
‘Comparisons kill joy…’ Varian remarked and decided to compare his strength against the normal strongest second year.
Varian entered the banquet hall and searched for Han Nial.
He asked around, but no one seemed to know where he just went. But everyone he came across praised his ‘talents’.
“Talent…” That rang a bell in his mind. He just heard something about Sarah’s talent.
He recalled William’s words.
‘Sarah in first year and Sarah in second year are like two different people.
It’s just like Charles. Her progress speed just multiplied.’
“I should ask her…maybe it’s not related to Sia.” Varian clenched his fist and exhaled.
“Han Nial…where the fuck did you go?”
The genius was nowhere to be found.
Instead, Varian found William supporting Philia as she limped. Her cold face was now pale.
The bots seemed to have already administered the medicine as the paleness was slowly fading.
Varian walked up to William and whispered. “Never thought you were this cruel.”
William provoked her and then beat her up to the point she had to limp.
If this wasn’t cruel, what was?
“…” William looked at him and shook his head. “It was Charles.” Then he helped her to the rest room.
Unlike the rumors, their relationship seemed to good as Philia didn’t object.
“Where’s Charles?” Varian looked around and saw that half of the crowd was surrounding a single duel barrier.
“Are you not going to fight?” Suddenly, a crisp voice sounded from behind, almost startling him.
Varian turned around to see a beautiful girl behind him.
Her long sky blue hair flowed down to her waist and her red eyes looked at him with curiosity.
He didn’t recognize her face, but he did recognize the long purple dress she was wearing.
Maissa Hall.
Despite his surprise, he answered calmly. “I’m looking for Han. Can’t find him.”
“Oh, too bad he left already. An emergency came up. How about a duel with me? I’ll suppress my power to whatever level you want.” She offered with a glint in her eyes, the red light in her eyes almost shone.
Varian instinctively stepped back and waved his hand. “Thanks, but I’ll pass up on that.”
“Argh…Sarah said your fighting sense is the best she’s seen.” Maissa groaned in frustration.
‘Sarah, oh Sarah, what are you doing?’ Varian took a deep breath and asked. “Where is she?”
Maissa shrugged. “She had a duel with Ashtarh, oh you probably don’t know, he’s the top genius from Neptune.”
“She’s badly injured?” Varian asked, worry evident in his tone.
He had the vitality from Plantae Path and thus, even with injuries, he could easily fight. Plus, his injuries also healed quickly and completely.
Sarah wasn’t like that. Since she fought with high level 6s, her injuries would take longer to heal.
Plus, she needed to make sure no hidden injuries were left behind.
When you reach higher realms, these hidden injuries could become a permanent block to advancement.
Of course, if you were careful, with the healing potions provided in the banquet, no hidden injuries would be created.
Still, since Sarah was an ‘anomaly’, she was likely going to be challenged by more people.
It could become a headache.
Maissa’s expression suddenly turned vibrant. “I thought you would ask whether she won.”
Varian opened and closed his mouth.
Seeing that, Maissa covered her mouth and chuckled. “Don’t worry too much. She’s not heavily injured, but she lost. She must be sulking somewhere.”
‘Sulking? Hah! Now that I think about it, that’s why I can’t find her.’ He realized why she seemed to have disappeared.
As he was about to respond, he heard a shout from the distance.