What was the best time of an awakener?
Every awakener had a personal answer, but the most common would be when they advanced.
The next best time?
When their understanding of their divine path improved and after hours of deep meditation, they could feel the significant improvement.
This feeling of progress was very intoxicating, almost irresistible to any awakener.
However, even the greatest geniuses improved bit by bit. Even their fastest advancement needed to be built upon days of accumulation.
By the time they reached Level 5, they knew that even they must spends months to advance a single sub-realm.
That intoxicating feeling was already lost in the flow of time.
But…
Varian was flooded with that euphoric feeling.
With each punch, with each kick and even with each injury, he felt a slight, but obvious improvement.
He would challenge a genius, fought for a few minutes and won with heavy injuries.
Then, he'd go to the rest room. Heal and replenish his aura.
And challenge a stronger genius.
His actions led to a rumor—Varian was challenging all second years and he started from the bottom.
Varian wanted to thank this 'genius'.
Using the same excuse, he enquired about the top geniuses of second year and challenged them one by one.
Thirtieth.
Twenty Ninth.
….Twentieth.
They didn't last even a minute. Varian was disappointed, but not discouraged. They were bigger fishes.
Nineteenth.
…Fifteenth.
They could last five minutes against him. But the more he fought, the stronger he got. And the increase in his strength with each match was higher than the increase in the opponent's strength.
Thus, while the nineteenth opponent held him off for almost seven minutes, the fifteenth one only lasted for five minutes.
Varian's streak didn't end there.
Fourteenth.
Thirteenth.
…Tenth.
He encountered the divine paths he didn't awaken in.
Controller of Body Path. Telekinetic. Beast Morpher. Elementalists of Water, Fire and Earth. Even a few awakeners of Gravity.
But he didn't awaken. Frustrated, he asked the System and it only responded that his Origin was already ready to awaken.
It was him who didn't meet the conditions yet.
And in its stupid fashion, it didn't reveal any details of the conditions.
Varian continued challenging.
The fifth genius was from Earth.
But their match was anything but friendly. Apparently, he was one of Sarah's fans.
Varian found his telekinetic powers troublesome, but with his great vitality and improved stats, he finished off the other party.
The fourth genius was from Neptune.
A Lightning Awakener like him. Of course, his opponent was at peak Level 5 compared to his level 4 Lightning path.
But the match yielded good benefits for his rather stagnant Lightning Path.
Then came the third.
The girl glaring at him.
Ahri. The strongest second year genius from Neptune. Younger sister of Neptune's third year's strongest genius.
As they started the battle, her eyes turned cold and the air nearly froze. Normal Awakeners would be frozen from the sole pressure she emitted alone.
She stood naturally in the bloodlust she emitted, almost like she was born with it as she looked down at Varian.
"I, no, we all underestimated you. But do you think you can take the throne of strongest second year? No way!"
Her subtext was: 'Yes, I underestimated you. But if you want to be first, you need to beat me. Sorry, you have no chance.'
Varian looked at her angry face and coughed lightly. "I know I can't take the throne."
"Don't argue, you can't—eh?" Ahri almost bit her tongue as she blinked her eyes in suspicion.
With a confused expression, she scanned him from head to toe. "Since you know you're gonna lose, why even bother challenging…oh, you want to know the difference between us?"
Ahri 'realized' and nodded. She looked at him with less hostility and said. "Alright. I will try to not injure you too much."
"…" Varian shook his head at her hyperactive brain and said with a nonchalant expression. "No one can change the strongest second year because…it's Sarah."
Boom!
It was a silent explosion, yet its effect was undeniable.
Ahri's expression turned bitter as she clenched her fists.
Sarah Albert…since she only fought with the strongest level 6s, everyone subconsciously treated her as third year.
But she was only second year. Yet, her strength was in the top ten of the best third years across the Solar System.
She was an anomaly of anomalies.
She achieved this despite her dual paths. Even her elders said on multiple occasions that had Sarah been born with a single path, she would be the unquestioned strongest genius.
Neither Charles nor her brother, Ashtarh would stand any chance.
'Why can she have so much talent…why should she be better than Elder Brother? Damn her!'
Ahri looked at Varian and gnashed her teeth. Was he mocking her saying that despite being of the same age as Sarah, she was far weaker?
"You! Damn it!" Ahri clenched her fist and the air inside the barrier halted for a moment.
The next moment, Varian felt an unprecedented force striking him from all directions.
It was as if the air itself turned into iron and crushed him from all sides.
Ahri was a peak Level 5 Telekinetic.
Each of her attack had the strength ranging from high level 5 to peak level 5 Enhanced Awakener.
Boom!
Varian's physical strength erupted as he broke free of the mental power and dashed at Ahri.
Like lightning, he covered half of the distant in an instant but before he could take another step, his instincts screamed at him.
An invisible force crashed down at him like a sledgehammer and Varian hurried to put up his arms in guard.
But the mental power once again appeared and tried to lock up his arms.
"Telekinetics are annoying as fuck." Varian heard the line many times, but only now did he understand why.
With their ability to attack from long distance, and from any direction, they were difficult to deal with.
