“Let me introduce myself to you, Emery Ambrose.” the young girl said with an elegant bow. “I am Annara Vairmont, the twelfth and youngest disciple of Grand Magus Zenonia.”
As Emery thought, this young girl with long, straight molten red hair was in fact Grand Magus Zenonia’s direct disciple. She was one of the selected few who managed to be chosen by the grand magus as a disciple last year.
Emery remembered her first impression as a young, friendly acolyte when they first met. It’s been three years since then and the young girl had certainly grown well, in certain aspects.
Annara walked around Emery while staring daggers at him from top to bottom. Her gaze was invasive, as if it wanted to lay bare what was hidden within. Her gesture showed that she still maintained her arrogance, but her touch was all over his body as she circled around.
“I really don’t understand why my master and Magus Xion were so interested in you.. But don’t you worry, I will not judge you with prejudice too quickly…” Annara lifted her head and stared directly into Emery’s eyes. “I tend to know your secret…”
Breaking the eye contact, she then glanced at Klea and gave her a condescending look. As if that wasn’t inappropriate enough, she proceeded to give the others beside Emery the same treatment.
When her eyes landed at Chumo, she stopped for a second and asked, “You are part of this group too?”
A look of surprise appeared on Chumo’s face because he didn’t expect the other party to notice him. He quickly panicked when he realized he was being recognized by the literal top dog in the Darkness Institute. As for her question, he unconsciously nodded his head.
Annara turned her head back to Emery, looked at him and said, “You are… uncommon, But I can’t say the same with your teammates. You should find a better one..”
The faces of Klea, Julian, Thrax, and Chumo immediately turned ugly when they heard those words. Like always, it was Thrax who exploded first, However, Emery quickly held him back.
With a meaningful smile on his face, Emery replied. “I am fine. Thank you for the advice… martial aunt.”
Hearing Emery’s answer as well as the sarcastic remark of her status, the smile on her face just grew wider instead of getting angry. Her eyes narrowed as she said, “Let’s see if you can make it to the last stage. If you manage to do so, then we shall talk again… I am watching you, Emery Ambrose.”
After saying that, Annara didn’t wait for any reply as she immediately turned and walked away from the ground with her back straightened.
Looking at her figure that was getting farther and farther away before being lost in the sea of people around them, Klea finally let out what she had been holding back. “What an arrogant bitch! Be careful, Emery. Zenonia must have sent her to keep an eye on you.”
Emery didn’t say anything and only nodded his head. He didn’t want to bother himself too much with this matter. After throwing this short encounter with Annara to the back of his mind, he swept his gaze over to the other privileged class acolytes who joined division 7.
There were actually nine of them, acolytes dressed in privileged class’ signature white uniforms.
Other than the two people Emery got into contact with – Annara and Armand, there was also Roran Harlight – the regular class acolyte who managed to enter the privileged class last year.
Currently, Emery saw that he seemed to be busy talking with his team members, which consisted of him, another privileged class acolyte, and two elite acolytes.
Taking note of this in his mind, he then turned his attention over to Micah and Orycon who both seemed to also have a privileged class acolyte in their team. The two most probably have huge family clans to back up to as well, which can be expected with their talent.
Meanwhile, Lodos seemed to be walking on the one man army path as Emery could see the former team up with 8 regular class acolytes. This was an outrageous plan, but one that certainly fit perfectly with the Maniac’s temperament.
Still, Emery couldn’t just instantly underestimate the other party’s team and act as if the eight acolytes didn’t exist and were just a burden. Who knew there might be a hidden gem among them.
There was another team that came up to see Earth team, more specifically to approach Klea. It was Anas of the Kaleos who came to introduce the genius hailing from their side.
A large, muscular man with brown skin with a tint of bronze in it. The man didn’t say anything when Anas began to narrate how incredible he was. Even so, Emery didn’t dare to underestimate the other party as Emery could faintly feel his strength from his gaze alone. It was calm like a lake, yet profound like the ocean.
With the Kaleos team being the last that Emery paid attention to, he immediately drew his wandering gaze back and closed his eyes as he began to condition his mind for the upcoming game.
Emery opened his eyes and a glint briefly passed through his two eyes when he saw there was only a few minutes left.
Right before the Magus Game kicked off, Chumo told the group that all the privileged class acolytes were all rank 9 high stage acolytes with six to nine of their pillars had already formed. Hearing that, the group’s expression turned serious for a moment.
“Don’t worry, it’s not like we will be fighting them, right?” Julian said in his attempt to break the tension. “We just need to survive longer!”
“No way! We can’t just aim to survive longer than them! With Emery here, we have to get the number one!!” said Thrax with enthusiasm.
Emery could only smile wryly at his friends’ antics. He both felt happy and concerned with how much trust his friends put their fate on him.
Not long after, a man was seen standing up on the VIP seating area and made his way towards the main podium overlooking the arena. Every pair of eyes on the scene focused their attention on this figure.
The man was none other than the previous deputy, now Acting Headmaster Delbrand. The grey-haired middle-aged man didn’t give off half the aura that Headmaster Altus emanated, but no one dared to take him lightly as everyone could clearly feel his strength when he opened his mouth and began to speak.
“Acolytes of the Magus Academy!”
He called on the acolytes, and then looked toward the tens of thousands of audience present in the Grand Assembly Hall. Several dozens of blue cubes flew and circled around him, projecting his image to the large screen and everyone else who watched from outside the academy.
Delbrand started his opening speech by speaking about how some people wished the game to be postponed or canceled due to the tension that everyone knew about. He fought those people with his belief that the Magus Game would be more important than ever now that such a crisis stood right at their front door.
The Magus Game would not just be a means of entertainment and wouldn’t merely to showcase and nurture the best talent, but also to show the display how passionate the future generations were, how they were also strongly thriving for progress.
The speech that Delbrand delivered seemed to have had quite an impact on the crowd, as murmurs were heard followed by a burst of cheers in the audience. Seeing that, a smile emerged on his face and he ended his speech with saying his hope that Headmaster Altus could return safely and giving his best wishes to the participating acolytes.
“May the best acolytes win!”
Just like the previous games, after the headmaster’s speech, the event was immediately taken over by the appearance of the same beautiful magus who now had colored her hair pink.
Magus Serene flew to her podium and then quickly started explaining the rules of the first game. As for the participating acolytes, the awaited notification immediately appeared on the symbol on their hand.
[Will you be participating in the Magus Game?]
[Yes]
[Choose your team]
[Kleopatra from elite class 7 would like to invite you into the team. Will you accept?]
[Yes]
Klea began to add everyone’s name, and Emery couldn’t help but be stunned when he noticed that the gladiator was breathing heavily. It was apparent that the latter was unable to contain his excitement.
“C-Calm down, Thrax!”
Alas, the Thracian only became more and more excited as the clock neared its destination.
“Alright, Earth team! Are you guys ready?!” shouted Thrax, to the smiles of the rest of the group.
The five close friends huddled and put their hands together. They were ready for the game.
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by NovelFull,