The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 631 – Offense

The trio left the conversation there.

Percy knew that he couldn’t count solely on the rewards to get him through the tournament, so he still hoped that he and his companions would light up the seventh circle during the final assessment with their own strength.

The fifth category was offense, according to the attendant.

The test appeared simple at first, taking place in one of the smaller rooms, much like those from the durability assessment. Ten enchanted pillars surrounded Kassorith in a wide circle, about fifty metres across.

A random number of pillars between one and ten would supposedly flash at any given time, and Kassorith would have about a minute to strike each with enough force to “destroy” it.

Hearing more about the rules, Percy was honestly quite impressed with the amount of thought the organizers had put behind the test, to make sure that it was as fair as possible for all types of mages.

Spells of every affinity would work, including spectral or mental attacks – or even bursts of healing – so that those with rare affinities not suited for physical destruction wouldn’t be uniquely disadvantaged. Apparently, some of the previous assessments would have also looked somewhat differently for a life or mind mage than they had for Kassorith.

Participants were allowed to charge their attacks, though the amount of damage required to destroy the targets increased linearly, depending on how long they remained active.

It was also up to the participant whether to attack multiple pillars at the same time or eliminate them one by one. The second approach was obviously easier to pull off, but it was much slower, so later attacks would require more power to destroy the pillars.

In other words, the test was just as accessible to a person who specialized in firing a barrage of smaller attacks as it was to one who preferred to pour all their mana into a single, powerful blast.

Percy and his companions could have gone either way, since their enchantments were quite versatile. After a few moments of deliberation, they decided to set up five three-layered heating formations, just like the ones that they had experimented extensively with during their stay in Lanthaniel’s internal world.

They felt that it was a good compromise, as it would give them the option of fuelling as many of the enchantments as necessary to demolish the targets. If less than six pillars lit up, they would only have to charge up a single wave of attacks. If more targets happened to activate, Percy and his companions would have to fire twice.

Destroying the pillars at the start of the assessment should be easy enough with just Percy’s willpower, giving the trio plenty of time to accumulate mana and prepare the actual formations for later – just like they had done during the durability test.

The only challenge was accurately guessing how much mana to pour into each attack.

If they used too little, they would fail to destroy the targets, giving the devices a chance to not only regenerate the damage, but even grow more durable. Suffice to say, this would be bad for Kassorith’s reserves. Conversely, pouring too much mana into the enchantments would empty their core faster than necessary.

Happy with their strategy, they began the assessment.

Before long, crimson beams rained upon the glowing pillars one after the other, forcefully deactivating them. The air inside the small room grew unbearably hot in no time, to the point that a regular Blue would have had trouble breathing.

Kassorith’s lightning affinity didn’t grant him much resistance to heat, and he didn’t have access to his lava core either, so he wouldn’t have fared well if not for his Greater Thess’kalan Physique. Even with it, each breath scorched his lungs, making the test somewhat unpleasant.

Still, nobody complained, doing their best to last as long as possible.

Percy and his companions made several mistakes during the earlier waves. Thankfully, it didn’t cost them much mana, because the pillars had still been relatively easy to destroy. By the time the difficulty picked up, they had gotten a good enough grasp on the assessment to manage their resources more efficiently.

Lighting the sixth circle up proved laughably easy.

Knowing that they had passed four out of five tests – one more than what was necessary – filled them with confidence, though they didn’t give up until they were out of mana.

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The seventh circle was almost fully active when their core was squeezed dry. If they could have launched one more barrage, Percy was certain that it would have been enough, but it wasn’t meant to be.

This wasn’t ideal, since they had only managed to light the seventh circle up in one of the assessments. However, Percy wasn’t too discouraged, finding solace in the knowledge that they had come extremely close twice more.

These tests were quite comprehensive, but they still hadn’t evaluated all of their abilities. Percy had barely taken advantage of his enhanced senses during the agility test, and none of the assessments had even touched upon his close combat skills or Kassorith’s ability to recover from the verge of death through his bloodline.

Would any of those things help them to overcome the monstrous opponents that they would undoubtedly face in the next round?

It was hard to tell. The other participants were bound to possess several trump cards of their own. Even so, Percy was determined to do whatever it took to get his hands on the Void Decree. He knew that he might never get another chance to earn it, and he wasn’t one to let such opportunities slip through his fingers.

In any case, the upcoming fights were a problem for later.

As they exited the room to meet up with the attendant, Percy couldn’t help but think about the system the Void Hand used to evaluate their disciples, wondering how he would fit in it.

On paper, he was a Yellow capable of fighting against Violets, making him a Sixth Circle mage like Kassorith. This was more than enough to cause quite a stir in the Void Hand, especially since Percy felt that his strength was relatively balanced, potentially allowing him to do well in most categories.

While fighting at full strength, the combination of his Cloak, domain and body should be enough to resist a Violet’s attacks. His enchanted weapons should also be powerful enough to return the favour with something equally deadly, and he was more than fast enough to keep up with such an opponent. Finally, he also had plenty of power and control over his domain, so he was confident that he could light up the sixth circle in four out of five assessments.

He would probably only fall short in the mana category. Despite having two cores and the Dance, he would barely qualify as a Fifth Circle mage.

Of course, Percy was technically cheating. He could only fight against a weak Violet, and only thanks to the domain that he shared with Micky, essentially borrowing strength from his friend who was a Green. Without that, Percy was only as good as a powerful Blue in most categories.

On the flipside, the Huehuan had also proven himself on par with a Sixth Circle mage, and he might even be able to reach that level without Percy’s help in some categories. The caveat was, once again, that Micky was a Green, so he was only punching up by two grades, not three.

Finally, by joining forces through their Extreme spell, they could likely defeat someone in the upper end of the Violet grade. Even so, Percy didn’t think that they would be able to light the seventh circle up in any category, and the Lone Wanderer was technically also a Green due to possessing at least one such core.

In other words, no matter how Percy looked at it, it was debatable whether he and Micky could honestly claim themselves capable of fighting three grades above their own. They were certainly close, but not quite there.

Perhaps, if all four of their cores had been at Green, the Symphony would have allowed them to just barely touch the level of a Seventh Circle mage, but it was difficult to be sure. Besides, by the time they completed their artificial advancements, Micky’s first core would also reach Blue, so the question would likely remain unanswered for the foreseeable future.

Was this a huge problem?

Not really. This was ultimately just an external classification system that didn’t affect anything. However, it did remind Percy that he still had plenty of room for improvement before he could be considered a true paragon – his lacking grade aside.

‘Well… it’s not like jumping up by three grades is some kind of hard limit either,’ he thought. ‘It’s just that nobody has ever done better than that, probably, but there’s no reason why I can’t aim higher.’

A paragon could theoretically hold their own against the weakest gods, but Rhaziel was the strongest deity on Felmara. Percy had no idea what that meant exactly, but he doubted that becoming an Eleventh Circle mage would be enough to free his friend’s enslaved people.

Then, there was also the matter of Robari and Marnok. The Cardinal Devil had driven multiple gods mad, so Percy would need to grow stronger than them if he wished to help the sailor.

He sighed, knowing that he couldn’t afford to grow complacent just because his track record was somewhat impressive. His enemies were extremely powerful, and he wasn’t going to bring them down simply by flaunting his potential. He needed power, and he needed it fast.

‘Either way, it’s not a bad idea to popularize this system on Remior,’ he thought, deciding to tell Phoebe about it the next chance he got.

In the past, their world hadn’t produced many people capable of jumping grades, but this was about to change – especially once the Dance spread. While Percy had done his best to keep his boosting art under wraps, he was under no illusion that things would stay that way forever, nor did he intend them to.

Upon exiting the room, Percy was broken out of his thoughts after spotting a group of conversing Denytes who had likely also finished their assessments. He recognized most of them from the space station, though there were a couple of new faces among them.

That alone wouldn’t have been a big deal. It probably meant that they had been escorted to Marador Prime separately, by their mentors or something. However, Percy couldn’t help but gasp as soon as his senses brushed over a certain person’s badge.

Three of its five corners shone in a white colour, indicating that the owner of the pinned ticket had managed to light the seventh circle up in most of their assessments.

That might not be all that impressive for someone with two Blue cores – a couple of other Denytes like that had lit up just as many corners. The problem was, this person didn’t have a second core yet. Percy only spotted a single patch of magical hair growing on their scalp.

In other words, they had brutally outperformed Kassorith without even having the Void Decree!