Meanwhile, on another side of the plaza,
"Age 15, Earth Ethereal Realm Level One, Qualified."
A burst of astonishing exclamations sounded from the crowd, and lines of gazes of awe and envy landed on the rosy pink-haired exotic beauty in front of the Ethereal Assessment Stone.
The middle-aged lady instructor responsible for holding the assessment was shocked when she saw the three azure lines appearing on the stone.
A pleased smile of approval was revealed on the instructor's face as she nodded at Valentina, impressed at her cultivation level. She already heard about Alchemist Azrael's personal disciple having exquisite pink hair and breathtaking beauty. She was happy that Valentina wanted to join their establishment.
But she wondered why Valentina didn't enter as an Elite disciple directly.
"Excellent, to be already a liquid stage cultivator at a ripe age of fifteen, you are truly a god sent talent. As expected of Alchemist Azrael's personal disciple. You are the most outstanding candidate among the ones I have received today. There is no doubt that you will make it into the Elite batch. Do continue to work hard, and you will turn out to be one of the iconic figures of this world in the future." The lady instructor said with a heartfelt smile.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Valentina nodded with a calm demeanor, and there was no other expression of joy or satisfaction. She merely wanted to get this over with fast and rejoin Damien.
The other candidates admired how Valentina didn't show any signs of smugness or haughtiness even after having such talent and being held in high regard by the instructor.
Whispers were sounding from the crowd as they all discussed how this super-genius was the personal disciple of Alchemist Azrael.
But they wondered from where Alchemist Azrael picked her up as only a family with abundant heritage and resources could nurture someone as strong as her unless it was all done by Alchemist Azrael himself.
But their thoughts were time and time again distracted by her intoxicating beauty.
All the boys started crushing on her, and some even forgot about their girlfriends as their eyes were melted by her beauty.
However, one of the disciples who watched everything from the sidelines took out a messaging talisman, "Hehe, pass a message to Senior Brother Roy that a hot and powerful beauty fit for his noble self has arrived."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"}) Meanwhile, more than half of the initial candidates in Damien's group had already been eliminated after the Ethereal Energy Assessment.
Now, only the second part remained - Team Combat Assessment.
"If you don't want people to associate you with your alter ego identity, then cut off the connection between your Lightning seed and your Origin seed." Luna's advice sounded in his mind.
"I can do that as well? So, won't my prowess be reduced?" Damien questioned. He never thought that he could isolate his Lightning seed from his Origin seed.
"Yes, your combat prowess would lessen by two or three levels, but you still have your Anti-God Arts, which is more than enough to pass off as a student here. Your consumption of ethereal energy will also reduce, allowing you to fight for a longer time. Besides, you inherently have an excellent talent in Lightning Laws, so your combat prowess would be higher compared to even other talented Lightning element practitioners."
Damien had thought of other plans in case people have some vague suspicions between him and his alter ego identity.
Although he knew that no one thinks that his alter ego identity has a Lightning seed, he thought it wouldn't hurt to be on the safer side just in case he had to use his Lightning ethereal arts as Alchemist Azrael.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})When Luna said that he could conserve his ethereal energy more, it made sense as making use of his Origin Seed would drain more of his ethereal energy. The exhaustion that usually set in after using the first skill of his ethereal arts, Searing Strike Rendering Worlds, a few times was proof enough.
The elderly man looked at the leftover group of candidates and saw how most of them left with a sad face. There were only twenty-five candidates left, which was barely one-fourth of the initial number.
He wasn't surprised as they had strict standards on the type of disciples they want to admit.
He spoke in a clear voice, "Now that the first part of the assessment is over, we will move on to the next and final part - Team Combat Assessment. All of you will be mixed with other groups and then divided into teams of five. You all will be put on a field where there would be three flags. Two teams will compete against each other to capture as many flags as they can within fifteen minutes. The flags would be spread around the map, and you would also be given their location through the wrist bands we would give you."
One of the candidates asked, "But will we know if the other team already captured one of the flags, and can we steal it from them?"
The elderly man nodded, "Yes. The wristband would transmit the movement of the flags directly to your mind and even the cultivation level of the person holding the flag so that you would know whether to deal with that person alone or as a team. Your team member's location would also be made known to you. But know that you can't pass the flags you had captured to your teammates."
Another candidate questioned, "But what if we lose because the other group had powerful team members?"
"In this assessment, not only me but all the invigilators would judge each and every action you make through a live screen where we can see what you all are doing. The criteria for passing this assessment do not completely depend on whether you win or lose the competition as a team but also depends on your individual performance. Even the disciples would be watching your competition as some of them would scout out promising candidates in case they qualify."
He continued, "And no need to worry too much. We would only match teams against each other with the same average ethereal cultivation as a whole. A team might have a very powerful team member, but the rest of their team members might be relatively weak, or sometimes it might be a balanced team. You can't be sure unless you are in the field and compete."
"Oh no, I hope I get matched up with a genius; otherwise, I am done for if the other team got Middle-Level Spirit Ethereal Realm people." One of the candidates whined.
"What a wimp. Don't expect your team to carry you. It doesn't matter even if your team wins if your performance is shit." Another candidate retorted to his comment.
The elderly man took out some white wristbands which floated in the air and said, "These are the wristbands you will put on your wrists and should not be removed for any reason till the assessment is over. And remember, purposefully injuring others without any reason will result in instant disqualification, and obviously, no killings or serious injuries would be tolerated. If you want to eliminate someone, you can simply remove, damage, or destroy their wristband, and they would be instantly teleported out of the field."
'Hmm, sounds fair enough.' Damien wasn't worried as, at most, he would be facing High-Level Spirit Ethereal Realm guys, and even if the other team had an Earth Ethereal Realm cultivator, he was confident of at least capturing at least one flag by himself. After all, the average cultivation level of both teams would be almost the same.
Damien put the wristband on his wrist as the elderly man distributed them around. Just as he put it around him, he felt a faint connection to his soul plane. He understood that it was to transmit his location and cultivation level.
"Hey, we are in the same team!" Fynn said as he peeked at Damien's wristband.
Damien saw that the number '1' was displayed on the wristband, and the same number was displayed on Fynn's wristband as well.
"Well, I guess we would be sticking together for a while." Damien faintly smiled.
