Chapter 153: [Day 116] – “Conclusion” (1/2)
∼ Day 116 ∼
Letting go of the magic apparatus, Mia spared not a single of the thousands upon thousands of gazes directed at her even a glance as she walked across the stage.
It had only been five minutes since she initially poured her mana into the testing device, but seeing as her mana reserves and overall magical power was quite limited, just having evolved barely more than a week ago, it wasn't surprising that she couldn't keep up with most of the elite competition.
However, making all spheres consistently float alongside each other simultaneously had been more than enough to get the message of her talent and skill over. That was especially so since each additional marble you separately infused mana into would increase the mental strain and difficulty of the test exponentially.
As a testament to this, even the cowled figure had completely foregone her own test in favor of watching Mia. Although she definitely had a top-tier score, it was clear to anyone that she could've continued even longer. But still, she cut off her own mana to watch Mia's test for some reason or another.
The stares became quite uncomfortable as Mia returned to the booth and my side, but to my relief, Tahl the minotaur broke the awkward murmuring that had befallen the plaza.
”Now... that's was quite the display,” He admitted. ”But we still need to resume to test, so I implore all challengers to continue!”
***
With the magic test resuming in full swing, the rest of the challengers quickly finished up without too many more upsets. While there were a few who came close to the arachnid's and the cowled figure's result, none did manage to surpass it.
Mia herself only managed to come very near the arachnid's result by a minuscule amount seeing as the length of time she could hold the sphere afloat was abysmal in comparison. And she wouldn't have gotten second place if not for the cowled figure interrupting her own test.
Not that it really mattered who got the first places in these initial tests. It was simply important that with these scores that you had enough to advance to the second stage of the tournament and then have enough combined with the result of the first and second stages to advance to the third.
”Send out your challengers!” Tahl announced for the fourth time today, looking at the many contestant's booths all around the stage.
This was the fourth and last test of the first stage - the endurance test.
Without skipping a beat, I conjured three massive behemoth blood puppets with the help of some monster corpses stored in my [Ring of Holding]. Being ridiculously durable for their level of power, it was a no-brainer that the constructs would flourish in this test.
However, I would've loved to just fuze all their powers into one overbearingly resilient and sturdy blood puppet. Unfortunately, it was a requirement that I entered the contest with five followers, so I had to split them up into three to fill the gaps with capable fighters.
But even so, I was more than certain that these constructs would easily qualify our group for the second stage, not even considering that Mia and Bob had already assured us of that fact with their own impressive performances.
But just as I was about to send the constructs up onto the stage, I could feel two piercing gazes borrowing into the back of my neck.
Casting a glance back at the two cowled figures who had escorted us to the tournament, I raised a curious brow.
”What?” I simply asked, wondered what the hell had got them so engaged all of a sudden.
There was no response...
It wasn't hard to tie their unexpected reactions to the appearance of my magical constructs, but as to exactly why their sudden appearance did so, I had no clue.
Seeing that this was going nowhere, I ignored the two mutes in black leather armor as I watched the three blood puppets make their way onto the scene. Shortly after inspecting the three constructs that were beginning to draw a lot of attention from all the spectators and challengers around, a short beastkin made their way down to our booth.
”Greetings, sir...” He bowed. ”My name is Eror, and I was informed to oversee you and your constructs for the duration of the tournament; pleased to meet your acquaintance.”
I just nodded in acknowledgment as I inspected the magical fluctuations emanating from the rather unassuming Fealas. Although not all that impressive, he was decent a mage who definitely had training inside the field.
”Xavier.” I introduced myself simply.
”I hope you won't mind my intrusive scanning?” He hesitated, clearly not wanting to step beyond his bounds.
Even though he was a decently strong mage on the cusp of 4th-tier, monsters would naturally be wary of any who greatly outmatched them in terms of power. Not to mention that he had suddenly been assigned to one of the few dark horse factions in this tournament.
”No problem, you go ahead,” I replied, almost immediately feeling his perception beginning to inspect the fluctuations of mana surrounding and emanating from me.