Emma Ziken— Silver 30
Adrian Reben— Silver 30
These two were the winners of Group 10’s battle. Both of them were super rookies. Emma belonged to the 6th rank Steelheart Guild, and Adrian Reben belonged to the prestigious Reben family, whose members believed themselves to be descendants of gladiators and were known to be very proficient in sword and shield mastery, with their specialized class often resulting in bolstering this specialty.
With the 3rd round finishing, the winners could either go home or watch the ranking battles happening today.
There would be a one-day break for the twenty Silver-rank participants as the spotlight would shift to the Gold-rank Adventurers tomorrow, who would face their second and third rounds of combat to determine the top 80 rankings in a similar competitive format as today.
The gold-rank Adventurers had a more intense first round, so they needed a one-day break.
Almond, Lily, and Natalia left as they didn’t stay for the ranking matches.
Upon returning to the courtyard, Alfred welcomed them while Julian was already swinging his sword in a chopping motion.
He didn’t look at the trio and just said, “Congratulations,” as he continued to chop the sword with focus and eyes closed.
Beside him, Ashkar was doing the same. Sylvia and Nyssara were in their respective green garden and crystal garden, one tending to flora and another one sculpting weapons.
The other spirit wraiths were at the beach, fighting and training. Almond had gotten permission to get them onto the seas, so they would go there, explore, and fight sea monsters that occasionally wound up nearby. Since there were ships there that monitored the ocean’s situation, Almond ordered his spirit wraiths to prevent harming them and other Adventurers if they encountered them.
Roken had started training after he finished watching their battles on the TV.
…
“Let’s spar, darling~ I didn’t have enough today,” Lily smiled eagerly, wanting to fight Almond and practice some of the ideas.
“Same,” Almond smiled. He suppressed his stats, and both of them grabbed crystal weapons from the weapon rack made by Nyssara.
These crystal weapons were uncommon-grade with low durability, making them perfect practice weapons to increase their proficiency.
Moreover, Both of them suppressed their stats to 30 in all because fighting with limited prowess during spar allowed them to creatively innovate new moves to bypass and break the limitations while also allowing them to technically go all out because with their stats suppressed, they couldn’t hurt each other’s Fortification, preventing injuries.
“I am going to do solo training and will sneak attack on you two periodically, sounds good, right?” Natalia grinned.
“Then we’ll also launch sneak attacks on you while you are training,” Almond laughed. “It’ll help you improve.”
“Good idea, Almond. We should do that,” Lily chuckled.
“Humph, fine! I’ll be ready.”
…
The next day, when Almond woke up next to Lily’s soft bosom with a notification that said that his new Spirit Wraith was ready.
It had 1st floor’s Floor Boss spirit, Zolen’s spirit, and 18 boss spirits of dungeons, all belonging to golden-colored bordered B-rank dungeons.
But Almond ignored the notification as he didn’t want to think up its disposition, name, and backstory. Snuggling his head, he closed his eyes again and fell asleep as Lily also moved in her sleep and tightened her arms around him.
An hour later, both of them woke up and had breakfast that Alfred and Natalia prepared.
It was 10 o’clock, so Julian was already at the arena in the Reljord city.
The trio ate food while watching the 2nd round.
Julian passed without worry as he was proficient in Mana techniques, more than average adventurers his age.
Since the Gold-rank bracket allowed up to people of 30 years of age, they had some powerful Adventurers with refined combat styles honed over the years.
Fortunately, Julian managed to enter the 3rd round.
“Will he win, Almond?” Natalia curiously asked.
“He’s going to bloom,” Almond smiled.
Roken blinked, “Bloom? How? I was busy with my own thing, but he only practiced just one thing for a week straight, right?”
“Did something happen to him? Like some sort of awakening?” Lily asked as she raised her eyebrows.
Almond chuckled and shook his head.
“He didn’t awaken anything yet, but…” Almond’s eyes glinted. “He should awaken something. That’s the feeling I got, and he also told me that he was getting to something, which was why he just continued with that singular practice of chopping. Well, I hope he does bloom.”
“Eh, he is coming up on the platform,” Natalia blinked.
“So he is in Group 1,” Roken wryly smiled. “Guess we’ll find out soon.”
Gelato announced the first match, and it also turned out to be between Julian and a Gold-rank Super Rookie who was 20 years old, the same age as Julian.
Floyd Banister, the level 50 Adventurer with S-rank primary class. He was also a famous silver-rank Super Rookie six months ago.
“Damn, bro’s first match is against someone who had defeated him brutally before,” Roken winced.
“Look at Julian, he doesn’t appear disturbed,” Almond said. “He is the most serene he has ever been in his life.”
“True…” Roken blinked and nodded as he observed Julian.
Floyd asked for an Ax, while Julian asked for a Heavy sword.
As the countdown reached zero, both of them activated their Mana techniques.
Strength Boost.
Fortification.
Focus Field.
Body Enfold.
There wasn’t a point in using Weapon Enfold to increase Mana consumption. Body Enfold was more important to increase their overall stats.
Julian had a slight edge in terms of Mana Techniques as his Body Enfold and Focus Field were a bit better, but not enough to make up for the difference in stats and class skills.
Having a Warrior class, Floyd had a boost in his body stats, and his good-timed skill projectiles were a problem for Julian as he was losing bouts of clashes, barely defending himself.
Roken was on tethers, “This isn’t looking good…”
“Just watch,” Natalia snorted.
Lily and Almond watched with focus.
Julian’s sword was deflecting attacks, even if barely. Neither of them were properly hit by one another.
Whenever Julian got a chance to attack, he would chop his heavy sword, which would make Floyd push back slightly and give Julian a chance to prepare for the upcoming assault.
Your adventure continues at empire
Floyd was getting annoyed because this was a guy he had already defeated before.
‘Fucking bastard, it’s time to finish this,’ Floyd’s eyes glinted as his Ax suddenly glowed red, lit ablaze in flames before throwing it at Julian while he also dashed forward, his fist also ablaze for a follow-up attack as he used his skills, not intending to give Julian a chance to do anything this time.
Julian saw the incoming attack, and his aura shifted.
‘No more losing,’ Julian’s eyes glinted as he used his primary class’s skill—Heavilist Dash: dashing forward while increasing his weapon’s weight according to the distance traveled.
Julian suddenly dashed forward, dodging past the incoming Flaming Ax Throw while his heavy sword was held high with both hands, ready to chop down.
His A-rank class—Heavy Swordsman, allowed him to use heavy swords with relative ease and granted bonus attack power when wielding heavy swords, boosted his Strength and Stamina with a passive class skill, and lastly, had a Dash-Attack type class skill.
His specialized class was more on the magic side because he was a bit disappointed in his A-rank class and wanted some better skills, but due to his conflicting views in the process, his Specialized class’s rank dropped to B in the final evaluation from the initial S-rank.
It gave him two skills total—Flame Sword wrapped his sword in flames, granting bonus fire-attributed damage, and a projectile skill—Flame Sword’s Descent, conjuring flexible pure flame sword of his desired size.
But the specialized class’s development was wholly dependent on the Adventurer…as displayed by Julian in the last moment of this battle.
Floyd was startled because Julian’s dash foiled his plan, but that didn’t matter as he improvised as his eyes glinted, intending to dodge the attack and then strike Julian to nab the victory.
But something suddenly happened.
A heavy pressure descended on Floyd as the platform slightly cracked under his feet. Floyd felt every finger of his body paralyzing under the heavy sword, his eyes reflecting it, coming down like a heavenly punishment.
‘What?!’
Julian chopped downward, striking his head as a loud blast of air pushed shockwaves around him while Floyd was smashed on the ground.
All of the damage was absorbed by the badge before it loudly beeped.
But that wasn’t all, Julian floated in the air as a heavy transparent black aura burst out of him.
The cheering arena burst out in a loud ruckus upon witnessing this phenomenon!
“OH MY GOD!” Gelato exclaimed loudly, his voice booming from the loudspeakers. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a rare phenomenon! Julian Sarhain is undergoing some sort of awakening!”
