There was a reason as to why Dame was taking longer than usual just to find the secret path to the library, and it was all because he had headed to a different place instead. He was heading to the Clan's vault.
With his privilege of being a young master, he was able to practically go wherever he wished, and that included the vault. It all belonged to his family currently anyway. At least, the less restricted levels.
'If I'm going to leave this place, then I might as well go ahead and take whatever it is that I can get. We need to help our business after all, and it can't count as stealing if it belongs to my family already, right?' Dame thought.
What were the options that Raze could do in this situation? He had attempted to stay at the back of the group in order to stay out of trouble and not be seen while all of this was happening. Who cared about what the Clan had to prove.
Raze didn't care at all because he wasn't a part of it, but there was no way for him to escape either. What would happen if he just flat outright rejected the offer that had been made? Would that just get him into more trouble?
'I guess the only thing I can do is just show them what I did before. It's just a friendly competition, so no one should make a big deal out of this,' Raze thought as he walked forward. When he did, the man from behind started to cheer.
"Go on, Callum! Woo, show him what the Neverfall Clan's got!"
Raze was starting to think that this person was far more obnoxious than even Liam, which he didn't think was possible. What was even stranger was the fact that no one seemed to care how this Clan member could suddenly produce the descending steps so perfectly.
Instead, now, almost everyone was rooting for him as he walked to the front. He could hear cheers and see the faces of expectation from the others.
'I guess this is quite the change from the usual,' Raze thought to himself.
There weren't many times where he had people cheering him on to do something in his life, but since coming to Pagna, this was now the second time after the last event with the red headband wearers.
When Raze got close, he stopped, and both Rayna and Mantis were looking at him directly, while Mac was tapping his feet away, clearly nervous about what was to happen. It was quite possible that the last demonstration was a complete fluke.
This close, Raze was wondering if Rayna or Mantis would notice anything. After all, he had met both of them before.
'Wait, why is she here?' Raze started to think. 'Is this the woman they were waiting for? I never knew she went to this Clan, and the others called her young miss. I guess the Light Faction had captured quite the important person.'
Raze got in the same stance as last time and readied himself, just like before. He looked at Mantis, who he didn't remember much about, apart from the fact that he had caused quite a heavy blow on Simyon that caused him to kneel over.
With this thought in mind, he lifted his foot, gathered the right amount of Qi, and perfectly slammed it down, dispersing it out towards the others.
A large smile was on Mac's face. "Perfect, that is textbook quality!" Mac started to cheer. "As you can see, there are students that can learn the difficult technique and can benefit from it greatly."
When looking over at those from the Splitting Fang Clan, they didn't seem to be as pleased as Mac thought.
"As you said, he performed it perfectly, but so did I, and I don't even care for this technique," Mantis commented. "This doesn't change anything, and in fact..."
Mantis then jumped up and into the center, standing right next to Raze. Quickly he whispered.
"Watch and see, this is something you can't do," Mantis commented.
He lifted up his foot, slamming it on the ground, producing the first step, and then right after that, he used the second descending step, charging right off from his position. He not only had performed both steps but Mantis had combined them together, creating a larger surge of Qi.
"I wouldn't even call myself talented in terms of using the Descending Steps, yet I can do this. I know its limitations, which is why I know how useless it is."
Mac couldn't believe it; Mantis knew not just one but two of the steps already. Now he was starting to doubt himself. It was clear that Mantis knew more about the steps than the average clan member in order to be able to perform it.
Or it was just that he was that talented. As he said before, the level of Qi control, it was just too much for Initial Stage warriors, and even then, the impact and greatness of the skill wouldn't show until someone knew how to combine around six steps or higher.
By then, everyone was already in higher stages, being able to perform all sorts of different types of techniques. He had only shown them the first step; it was impossible for them to up Mantis, and even if someone performed the same thing, then it wouldn't amount to much.
There was a smug look on both Rod and Mantis' faces as he went to return to his friend's side. When walking past Raze, he looked at his face with a half-smile, the corner of his cheek raising toward his eye.
Yet Raze had no reaction at all to what he had done, unlike the others behind him.
"Crap, man... that guy's even younger than me, and he can already do that," one of the clan members commented from behind.
"Are the only talents in the Neverfall Clan related to the clan head? Is there no one else that can rise?"
Although no one could say the Neverfall Clan was weak due to its master and their descendants, the quality of the clan and pride didn't just rely on the few on the top. They had to have confidence to frequently produce strong Pagna warriors.
It would allow them to take pride in being in a clan among those that were the greatest, but they were unable to make that claim this year.
Suddenly, while everyone else was feeling down, Rayna started to walk forward. Everyone wondered if she was now going to show off some of the skills on her own, but instead, she stopped just short of Raze.n))O1n
"You... you can do more than what you showed us, right?" Rayna asked.
Raze was a bit taken aback from what was happening. What had he done for her to suggest this? Why was she even asking these questions?
"I'm going to take your silence as a yes. I want you to show him, show him something he can't do. Show him the strength of the Neverfall Clan. If you do, I will reward you with an item from our vault," Rayna suggested.
This had caused Raze's ears to shift slightly. A vault full of treasures belonging to one of the top clans in the Demonic Faction, a place where Alter couldn't even reach. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the Dark Faction founder had come here.
Maybe there would be something of use inside that not even the Neverfall Clan knew of. 'Something that I can do that he won't be able to do. Well, we are learning the Descending Steps; I guess I could show that.'
Raze was debating, wondering if it was easier to just leave the matter be, but he had somehow already caught the attention of Rayna. Apparently, he wasn't doing a good job of keeping low.
"All right, but you better take me to the vault and let me choose," Raze said as he walked over to the center of the room.
'I wasn't planning on showing him up, but the guy was big-headed and annoying in the first place, and I guess I never got the chance to pay him back for what he did to Simyon,' Raze thought, as he got into a stance again, ready to show everyone the power of the Descending Steps.
