"Huh? What's going on? Did I see that right?"
"Did that guy just crush the pill?"
"Is this some form of pill-making technique that I don't know about?"
Many of the people watching, including the participants were confused as to what was happening. The scattered powder that was once a pill was truly something no one imagined they would get to see on the final day of the Alchemy competition.
The host who looked over the entire competition stood up and walked up to the hooded figure.
"Was that intentional?" he asked.
People could see the hooded figure simply nod.
"You do know that you won't get another set of ingredients, right?" he asked.
The hooded figure nodded once more. The host and the rest of the people came to understand that it was intentional.
"You will get 0 points for this final pill," the host said.
The hooded figure nodded and sat down.
"Very well," the host said and returned back to his spot and made the staff update the numbers.
The young man who had nearly lost was perhaps the most confused about all the people in the secret realm. He was a single step being the hooded figure and was sure that he was going to lose, and yet, somehow he was going to win.
He quickly walked up to the staff and recorded his pill and got 8 points for the pill, getting a total of 979 points in the entire competition.
The hooded figure lost with a total of 972 points, but still managed to be the 2nd.
The other contestants kept on making pills but they were sure that they had lost for sure. Still, on the off chance that the Saint Alchemist took in more than a single disciple, they tried their best.
Even then, the 3rd highest point was around 968 points, an entire 4 points lower than the 2nd person even after they lost an entire pill.
The host started setting up the award ceremony down below while Tsado started speaking up in the tower.
"Seniors, let's go below and congratulate the children. They've done truly amazing stuff in the competition today," Tsado said.
"Yes, yes, we should go," someone said.
The Saint Alchemist was the first to stand up and fly down below, while everyone else started following behind him.
"We should go too," Ning said. He was very curious about something that he had noticed some time ago, so he stood up and flew down too.
By now the participants were all outside the secret realm, and all but a single one had a sad expression on their faces.
The young man who had won it all still carried a face of disbelief as he couldn't understand why he won the way he did.
He kept looking towards the hooded figure to get some sort of answer, but the hooded figure didn't turn towards him once at all. From what he could see, the hooded figure didn't seem to have many thoughts about what they had done.
"Congratulations everyone on your performances in the competition. No matter how many points you got in this final one, you best believe that you are some of the best young alchemists that the entire world has for now," Tsado said.
"So, with that, we would like to congratulate you all for doing so well in this inter-continental competition. Truly glorious."
Everyone applauded once Tsado said that. The ones that were feeling a little sad suddenly had their spirits lifted. Tsado then called out the top 10 to start handing out awards.
One after another, he handed out awards for the 7 of the top 10. However, for the 3rd ranking alchemist, he stepped down.
The old man slowly stepped up the stage and looked at the remaining 3 people.
"Young man," he said to the 3rd ranking alchemist. "You might have come behind these 2 fellows, and that may make you feel like you're inadequate, but never forget you came ahead of 49,997 different people."
"You accomplished something that not many can hope to in their entire life, and for that, I award you this pill," the Saint Alchemist said as he handed him a pill.
"This pill is a soul-nourishing pill. It will improve your mental state and help your mind become better than it already is. As you may know by how Mind is very important for an alchemist," the Saint Alchemist said.
The young man thanked the Saint Alchemist as much as he could. The Saint Alchemist smiled and moved on to the remaining two.
"Can I ask you something, little girl? Why did you destroy the pill?" the Saint Alchemist asked.
The hooded figure remained quiet for a while before answering with a single question, "how did you know I was a girl?"
"Haha, I have a particularly strong nose that can smell the difference between the most minute of smells, and you young lady give off a lot of pheromones a lady usually gives off. It's just basic biology," the Saint Alchemist said.
The people around them were surprised that the hooded figure was a girl. Even Ning was surprised.
'The old man really is quite great, isn't he?' he thought.
"So… are you going to answer this old man?" the Saint Alchemist asked.
"Well, it's simple really. I was going to win, and I didn't want to win," she said.
"Eh?" the Saint Alchemist didn't understand what she meant. "Can you explain?"
"Yeah. I only took part because I wanted to see how good the others were. I never wanted your inheritance," she said. "I mean no disrespect, however."
"I was going to lose if others did badly, but then he started keeping up with me. After a while, I liked the competition and kept it going. But he made a small mistake and it seemed like I was going to win," the girl said.
"So, since I didn't really want to become first in the first place, I decided to give up at the last moment. I hope that explains it all."
