Steve stuck to his role as captain of the team.
He made her feel comfortable with her achievements while subtly encouraging her to do more. He had pushed himself harder than before in his on-field assignments and had plenty of close calls, which made him dig deep into his potential as a berserker. Those experiences had molded him into a fine Expert ranked entity that was in touch with his basics.
Boar Berserker's demon beast greatly helped him in his mission. As a result, Steve shared and invested half of the resources he earned in his demon beast's progress. Due to this the boar-type demon beast also entered C-rank not too long after Steve's breakthrough.
'Battling with them is not going to be easy? Who said that? You don't need to get chicken feet looking at these bastawds, Steve.'
Ramy Richards commented on Steve's words. A clenched fist was raised in front of him before he added more.
'Only these fists will decide who awe bettah wankers among us.'
Nobody talked for a while after Ramy spoke. The White Raven members were glad that Ramy had not spoken out loud about what he had said to them. Otherwise, the entire group would have been made fun of by other participants.
Steve had a grim expression on his face when he turned around and looked at Ramy. He looked at Ramy's fist that he had raised in front of him and narrowed his eyes at them before commenting.
'Sometimes I feel you choose your actions and words purposely, knowing full well how they will get interpreted by others.'
Steve immediately assumed his previous position and resumed listening to Rufus' speech. The expression on Ramy's face when Steve looked at him was, "I don't know what you're talking about."
The sound-element knight chuckled in his head and a hint of a smile could be seen on his face after Steve and others took their eyes off him. It looked like he enjoyed the group's response to his speech impediment issue. Something that he could have avoided when talking over voice communication but chose not to.
Ramy Richards was used to carrying his speech impediment like a badge of honor. He was never ashamed of it. But after breaking into the Adept rank, Ramy's mana circuits were reforged and his speech impediment had technically vanished.
But by that time, he had made peace with his condition and considered it a part of him. So he carried on with his defective speech without letting anyone know his impediment had been cured.
Ramy Richards still looked almost the same for the most part. But his stature and his musculature had increased by a large margin. He was as tall as Steve and looked almost as beefy as him. He was wearing knight armor and carried a sword attached to his waist.
Ramy was only a step away from achieving the Expert rank. It technically made him the second strongest member of the current team White Raven after Steve.
The sound-element knight could feel that his breakthrough into Expert rank was near. He just needed the right kind of inspiration or enough stimulation to achieve that.
'My point is... you guys don't need to get so wowked up. Ewen will be hewe soon. We'll just have to follow his instwuctions. And not only will we get gwaduated with flying colors but also weap plenty of added benefits for ouwselves.'
Ramy was looking forward to Eren's arrival. He did not doubt in his head that Eren would be a lot stronger than all of the current team White Raven members combined. He just wanted to see how much.
Ramy also wanted to challenge Eren to a duel. But that would come later when the event is over. Ramy wasn't delusional enough to think that his whims would be entertained at such a crucial time by Eren.
There was someone in the group who didn't quite agree with Ramy's assumption about Eren. She voiced her opinion right away.
'Yeah? Forget about Ramy... But I think you guys are giving Eren too much credit. I mean he would be stronger than us, no doubt. And I'm not trying to underestimate him in any way.
But look at the competition all around us. Didn't you hear? The rankers from the remaining four academies as well as students of Royal Ren have been put through multiple funneling processes to attend this graduation event. You know what that means?'
Rebecca White AKA Becky posed a rhetorical question to her group. With a short pause, she answered it herself.
'It means everybody who stands here has already proved their mettle. Just like we had to back when we were in LA.
We will not be dueling with random opponents at this event. We are up against elites in a crowd of elites. Who can say with confidence that their team will fare better against the top teams from Royal Ren?
The point I'm trying to make is don't depend too much on a single individual. Especially when it comes to working as part of a team.
Eren is not a miracle drug that can cure all your problems as soon as he shows up. Plus, he is not much of a team player either. Chances are he will leave us to our devices while he looks after his own interests. That's all he has done, in case you forgot.'
Rebecca said with a serious tone in her voice. Nobody completely agreed with what she said. But they had to admit that there was some shred of truth in them. It was just that the words she had used to speak the truth made it seem as if she was jealous of Eren's progress.
Becky had also completed her on-field assignment under a kingdom-certified mage acting as her tutor and employer. She was in the last stage of the Adept rank but still quite far away from achieving her breakthrough into the Expert rank.
Under the mage's tutelage, the cold-fire mage had managed to unearth and find for herself the true potential of her unique affinity. The only reason she was experiencing a bottleneck in her ranking journey was because of her unique affinity.
Becky believed that she could have been an Expert ranker at this point just like Steve. The mage wouldn't have shied away from challenging Steve for the team's captainship had she managed to achieve that.
