"Rigged? What do you mean?" Emery asked Cedric after the confusing advice Cedric had given.
Cedric suddenly looked like he had said something he wasn't supposed to. After he looked at his surroundings and made sure no one could hear them, he leaned closer to Emery and whispered, "You'll understand what I mean later, Emery. If you're observant, I'm pretty sure you have already noticed some stuff by how the advising magus treats your class. People like you and me, or probably even your friends, have no place to be the academy's elite. Just be grateful you've been selected to attend the Magus Academy for the second time."
Indeed, Emery had noticed some change of attitude after his return, like Magus Minerva for example. She seemed to have become distant all of a sudden. "Please tell me more, senior," Emery said.
Cedric drew back to his spot and said with crossed arms, "It's really not my place to say what you should or shouldn't do. But what I can say is that I was in your position before, and my advice is to evaluate yourself, know your limits, think about what your goals are and what's best for you or your world."
Cedric was becoming more and more mysterious in regards to his explanation. Instead of answering questions, this actually raised more questions in Emery's mind. Emery tried to get this cunning Cedric for more information. However, Cedric raised his palm to stop Emery from asking further and decided to give some excuses such as he needed to get back to work on his upcoming examination and he would help on some other day instead. Emery considered his excuse, after all the man had already helped him a lot today. So, Emery once more gave a respectful bow, as he didn't feel to push more the issue.
Emery and Cedric parted ways in front of the moving door inside the Apothecary Institute. Emery took the door going down, while Cedric took the door going up.
Once Emery was alone, a budding sense of exhaustion was springing up inside him. On top of the 24 hours he had done with the others and the few hours spent with Cedric, Emery hadn't had any good rest yet. Hence, he decided to go back to his personal residence.
Taking a carriage first, then a couple of portal trips, he arrived at his home with the attendant floating cube greeting him. It asked Emery if he wanted any services, Emery mentioned to the attendant to wake him up in a few hours. All he wanted to do now was to sink into his soft crisp bed that overlooked the magnificent view of the amazing stretch of mountain and waterfalls by the window.
As he lay on it and stared at the view, Cedric's advice, which sounded more like a warning, kept echoing in his mind, making him wonder what was it that wasn't Cedric's place to say. The thought only disappeared when his eyelids became as heavy as a log and he fell into the darkness called sleep.
A few hours later…
The floating attendant cube came into Emery's room and woke him up with a horn-like sound. Emery jolted awake and readied his stance. Seeing that he was still in his room, he lowered his guard and mentioned to the floating attendant cube to never use that sound again.
He looked up at the time, there was still an hour before their designated meet up. After refreshing himself with a meal and washing himself, he still had thirty minutes before the meeting, but decided to head out already.
Emery arrived fifteen minutes earlier at the plaza, and to his surprise, everyone was actually already there. However, the situation didn't look good since his four friends looked to be quite upset at the three acolytes from Zaiueo.
"What's going on?" Emery asked, walking up to Klea who didn't seem too keen to answer. If Emery remembered correctly, that was the first time Klea had ignored him, the situation seemed to be dire for her to behave like this.
Emery looked at Julian and Thrax, whose face was becoming redder and redder by the second, seemingly arguing with Zuna. He then turned his attention and walked over to Chumo who was standing not far from them.
Since Klea didn't seem to be looking at them, Chumo was able to speak and explain what was happening. "They've decided not to join us. The three Zauieo said they've already joined another group."
"What? Why?" Emery asked in surprise, trying to think why they had backed out since he had thought their collaboration had gone well.
"We are sorry, we think it's best to join another group instead of yours" said Zuna, the one in the middle.
Thrax raised his voice so much that the passerby was staring at them. The vein on his head looked as if it would pop out any moment as he said, "Who was it that said before that we are destined, huh!"
Zuna remained expressionless not minding Thrax's loudness. However, he bent his back with apology.
Klea finally moved forward and said, "I thought we made a pretty good team, and we still have a task together. Please reconsider."
Zuna, whose back was already straightened, answered, "I am sorry, but it is final. We will still do 'our' task, don't worry. However, we have chosen a different planet, so we won't bother you."
In contrast to Thrax, Julian remained calm and collected, but he was tapping his finger as he asked, "Can you at least tell us the reason or which team you are joining with?"
Before any of the three Zaueio was able to answer, an arrogant voice from behind them said, "They're are joining our team."
Emery and his friends turned around to see a group of acolytes heading toward them. The voice belonged to the prick named Rowe, he was with his fellow acolytes from Kalios. Seeing this group of people, Emery began to wonder why the three acolytes from Zauieo, whom they had thought had hated this bunch, would join them? Was this related to what Cedric had mentioned?
"What the fuck is going on here!" Thrax demanded.
Rowe returned Thrax's rage with a smug face. He said, "Hahaha! I can explain, however, I don't think your lower realm brain, which is comparable to a shit, can understand."
"You damned prick! You're doing this to mess with us, aren't you!" Thrax roared, summoning his spear, ready to fight.
Zuna stepped in between them and said, "There's no need for a fight. We just thought we could get better results by joining them, that's all."
Thrax lashed on Zila by saying, "That would mean that you think that we're weak, aren't you?"
Rowe burst out laughing even harder. He mocked Thrax and said, "That's exactly what he means! Hahaha!"
Thrax, no longer taking any of this, stomped the ground with his tier two spear. He pointed it to Rose and said, "You Kalios shit! Let's see who is weak right here, right now! Come and fight me! We're not the same as last year. Fight me if you dare, you scum!"
Klea was about to step forward, looking to stop this farce, but Emery grabbed her by the arm and shook his head. He whispered to her, "Let it happen, Klea. This is a chance to see how strong they are before the Magus Games start. Also, I'm sure they wouldn't dare kill Thrax, it's against the academy's rule."
This seemed to have convinced Klea. Although she was still hesitant, she did as Emery asked and backed down. Meanwhile, Thrax waved his tier two spear and readied his stance. There were a lot of onlookers now and it looked like it wasn't just Emery who had the same idea of wanting to see how strong these people from Kalios indeed were.
Thrax gritted his teeth. He began by using his [fire infusion] spell, lighting up the whole spear into flames. Roaring, he ran at his full speed and delivered his most powerful blow as he shouted, "Take this!"
Rowe didn't move at all, he stood his ground with a smug face and took the full power of Thrax's thrust. A loud clunk resounded the whole area! Thrax's spear hit Rowe squarely on the middle of the chest, making the acolyte from Kalios take back three steps. However, the arrogant young man wasn't injured.
Thrax looked as if he couldn't believe that his strongest move hadn't made a dent on Rowe's body. Emery noticed that Thrax's hand was trembling a bit. He guessed this was due to the rebound of Thrax's attack.
Rowe dusted off his uniform. With a smirk on his face, he said, "Oh don't look so shocked, wormbrain. In fact, be proud since your attack was stronger than I thought. You are probably the strongest worm I've ever seen. Hahaha! Anyone else wants to try?"