Neer was dumbstruck seeing that almost every academy invited him to join. For some reason he didn't feel elated by this, instead he felt pressure weighing on him. They all wanted him to join their academy and he didn't want to reject any of them yet.
He took a deep breath and said while bowing toward envoys and elder Zhan "Thank you very much for your kind invitations. However, may I decide which academy to after all three tests have been concluded?"
Elder Zhan nodded. "Yeah take your-"
His sentence was cut short by an impatient voice from envoy's stand ''Why do you need to wait until then? Shouldn't you join the best academy and I guess you should know which academy hold the number one title in Green leaf kingdom?" It was Cilera who spoke.
Neer was silent. He didn't know what should he say. He couldn't tell them that it was because he wanted to wait until Max joined an academy. If he told them this, he would become their target.
Just as he wanted to say something, a melodious voice with a hint of sarcasm sounded from the envoy's sitting area once again.
''Why can't this boy take his time before deciding which academy he wants to join? Do our number one academy not have patience to allow the boy some time to think, or do you want to force him to join your academy, huh?"
Everyone turned to look who was it that dared to mock the royal academy. However after Seeing that it was second ranked cloud academy's envoy, everyone nodded in understanding. Some even mumbled under their breaths ''It seems that the rumours are true that there is some kind of conflict between number one and number two academy.''
The rest of the envoys seemed surprised that it was second envoy who spoke up for the kid. She seemed to have no concern about the recruitment until now. However, their surprised paled in comparison with the surprise first envoy felt.
She knew her personality very well. Despite being a gentle looking beauty, she was very hot tempered and most importantly, she wouldn't interfere in other's matters if it didn't bother her. Other might think that she opposed her because of the rivalry between their academies but she knew better.
However she didn't have any time to think about this because of how the second envoy presented her words, their royal academy's reputation will suffer if she didn't concede now.
''Of course not. We of the royal academy never forced anyone to do something against their will. I only wanted to save everybody's time because he must already have an academy in his mind which he wanted to join before coming here." Cilera reasoned with a smile.
She then glanced towards second envoy and smiled triumphantly. Although she didn't know why the second envoy, who ignored her 99% of time would quibble with her over this, at least her words bothered her to some extent.
''Ugh-"
'Why am i feeling satisfied because of this?' Cilera felt embarrassed.
....
Neer sighed in relief. After bowing to the envoys and elder Zhan, he went and joined Max at the edge of the arena once again.
Max smiled wryly. He knew why this guy wanted to wait until all tests completes. However, he knew that Neer was adamant about following him so he didn't say anything about it.
"You go back and wait for me in the sitting area. I'll go test myself." He said and went to test his affinity.
"Hey look. That blue-haired youth was talking to the dual elemental genius and it seemed as if the genius was his subordinate." Someone from the audience exclaimed.
"Tch, what a lucky guy. He has such a genius as his subordinate."
"He better be more talented than him or he would become a joke."
"I don't know if he is more talented or not. But he is the most handsome guy here for sure." A girl giggled after hearing that people were getting jealous of him.
Max smiled bitterly in his heart after hearing that loud chatter. 'It seems I'll be a target of everyone's contempt if my affinity turned out worse than Neer's.'
Max didn't know what grade his mana affinity was right now. Before he woke up in his body, he had zero affinity. However after he woke up in this world, he could feel the mana around him after some concentration. And as he grew stronger, he didn't need to concentrate as much, a clear sign of his mana affinity improving.
'Based on how my elemental affinity formed a eight-meter wide halo during the legacy trials, my mana affinity shouldn't be too bad right?' He wondered.
While thinking about this, he arrived before the crystal orb and placed his hand on it.
"Stimulate the mana inside the crystal." The supervisor repeated what he said to everyone.
Max nodded and concentrated a bit.
Whoosh!
The mana inside the crystal whirled crazily and an invisible mana wave rippled outwards. The supervisors observed as the wave slowly travelled away from the crystal.
One inch...
Three inch...
Four inch...
Five inch...
The supervisor's gaze sharpened when the wave crossed five inches mark.
Six inches... Seven inches...
After reaching seven inches mark, the mana wave started thinning out.
'Can it reach eight inches?' The superior wondered.
Seven and a half inch...
Finally the mana wave dissipated after crossing seven and a half inch mark.
The supervisor felt bitter in his heart. Although Max didn't have grade eight affinity, having grade seven was more than enough. As for him, He started cultivating when he was ten or twelve years old and now it's been more than five years since he became a disciple of Green pagoda.
But even now he was only two star mage because he only had grade three mana affinity. He tried numerous ways and his affinity also improved but it wasn't by much. He couldn't even break past grade three. Now he was witnessing genius after genius with mana affinities higher than five or even grade six at such a young age. He couldn't help but feel jealous.
He sighed and announced "Grade seven affinity. Pass!"
"Oh? So he also has good talent. I guess it's okay for him to have a grade seven holder as his subordinate." The man who previously predicted that he might not have higher grade affinity, said.
The people around him looked at him with scorn. A bold young lady laughed "You are judging him as if you are more talented than him. Moron!"
Envoys also noticed that there were a lot more genius this year than the past years.
