“Territory… Really…?” Garen’s emotions were slightly moved. If he was able to obtain a territory of his own and become a noble lord, the land would merely be secondary as the truly important benefits and rights that he would gain from this was that many illegal matters would become legal through the right of a noble lord. This was the most important thing to him.
“You’re probably aware that although many territories are actually extremely small areas, all of them are still very valuable. Therefore, there are still many people who scramble after these territories madly despite being unable to find a way to purchase them. Meanwhile, Blue Narcissus provides a means for our own internal members to obtain this land as a benefit. Neither Black Rose nor Thousand Year Tree provides this benefit. This is something that only Blue Narcissus has specially obtained,” Kris could see Garen’s fervent interest towards these territories.
“Looks like I’ve made a wise decision,” Garen smiled.
“Of course,” Kris took out a pendrive that looked like a gold pendant the size of a fingernail. It looked like a shell-shaped piece of jewelry. “All of this is information. I’ll be leaving first. May you be victorious in your match tomorrow!” she stood up.
“Thank you very much,” Garen stood up as well and nodded.
Kris shook Garen’s hand lightly before turning around and exiting the door.
Once she heard the clicking noise of the door shutting behind her, she nodded towards a young man who was waiting in the corridor. Both of them walked together and left the new students’ dorm.
“How did it go?” the male student was also dressed in a cream-colored school uniform. This was the uniform of Grade B. Meanwhile, the students of Grade C wore pure white uniforms.
“It was very strange. This Nonosiva was completely unlike the rumors. He gave off an air of experience,” a faintly surprised expression had appeared on Kris’ face. “I felt as if I was dealing with an old man. He spoke steadily and remained indifferent the entire time. He did not seem like a young person at all.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? If he possesses good potential, just form a close relationship with him. There are many students in the Academy who can pretend like this. You don’t need to be shocked,” said the male student while smiling.
“I don’t think he’s pretending…” Kris furrowed her eyebrows slightly. “He just gives off an extremely strange air. Realistically speaking, he should feel some pressure at least since the final match is about to begin. However, I noticed that his mental state could not be better.”
“Alright, stop overthinking. These things aren’t related to us. It will be even better if this Nono has good potential.”
“You’re right,” Kris nodded and changed the subject. “What should we have for supper tonight?”
“Let’s go take a look. We ate things with a lot of calories during lunch so I don’t really feel like eating now.”
Both of them walked down the road that was lined with street lights under the night sky. They resembled the other student couples that snuggled closely next to each other. Frankly, they did not look any different from the rest at all.
****************
Whoosh!
Garen pulled the curtains together and sat in front of the computer. All of the hard drive’s contents had been downloaded offline into the tablet computer.
There were four files in total and he opened one to investigate it carefully.
The state of the finals was immediately displayed in front of him. Compared to the academy’s simple announcement about the match, the information here was clearly more abundant.
Moreover, the thing that caught Garen’s attention was not the class rankings but the individual rankings instead.
Once they had reached this stage, class C5 had already secured their position in the top ten. However, overtaking the next few positions would be a problem. The subsequent fighting matches would all be Total Defeat Matches.
‘Total Defeat Matches refer to matches where victories will only be determined once all of the competitors on the other side have been defeated.’
‘Three-on-three matches will be held. The previous rule of three wins out of two matches has been abolished. The new standard states that all of the members of the opposing team must be defeated before a winner is determined.’
‘This decision has taken the final match into consideration, as well as the strength of the entire group and the Elite competitors. The Total Defeat model is used to create a strength assessment that is ultimately fair.’
‘The final match will split the first three competitors into three melee groups. This will ensure that the three strongest competitors from the individual battles will form three groups of powerful individuals. Therefore, each person will be given one chance to challenge…’
Garen glanced through the information continuously while time ticked by.
Unconsciously, the night sky became darker. Numerous videos of his opponents for the next day were attached to this information. They were arranged in detail and Garen was fully absorbed when he watched them.
The more he watched, the more apprehensive he became.
The weakest opponent that he would face tomorrow was already at the same level as London, whom he had encountered today. None of them had any weaknesses and were all characters with sharp minds. Although it seemed as though they lacked fighting experience, each of them was still able to use specialized techniques that were combined with their Willpower. Their unusually powerful levels had exceeded Garen’s expectations and imagination.
One of his opponent’s information stated that he had previously used a Willpower move known as the Electric Wave Hammer.
The Electric Wave Hammer was an external Willpower weapon that was produced by integrating one’s Willpower and Mech to release a warhammer-like force field that could not be seen or touched. However, it could pass through Mech armor to injure the opposing pilot’s somatic functions directly. Opponents who possessed Willpower levels that were similar to his own were the only ones who could detect and see the Electric Wave Hammer prior to its attack. Therefore, they would be able to dodge or defend themselves from it. Meanwhile, they could only defend themselves if they possessed specialized measures.
After going through it carefully, Garen understood this technique was not considered as the strongest among the Level 2 or higher techniques. There were other powerful techniques that could only be used if one’s Willpower was strong enough. For instance, the Willpower Slicing Blade, another opponent’s finishing blow that possessed great destructive power. When facing opponents whose Willpower was much weaker than his own, he could simply destroy them within a second. One direct strike against the body of his opposing Mech Pilot would form a sharp attack that resembled knife wounds.
“How troublesome,” Garen’s eyebrows were furrowed. After coming to this world, he had always retained a strong ego. Although this place was a tremendously technologically advanced world, he still felt as if it was far from the Ancient Endorian Secret Technique civilizations in terms of developing his potential. However, he had now realized that the paths that were opened up by Willpower were not inferior to those of Ancient Endor in terms of strength…
“These are two civilizations that are going in different directions. It looks like I’ll have to be careful in the future,” after looking at the specific effects of these highly destructive moves, Garen stopped belittling them completely before acknowledging the Willpower strength systems properly.
“How would I compete with these techniques that were solely based on Willpower?” although it had been explained in the information, Willpower techniques that could pass through Mechs and injure the Mech Pilots directly were extremely rare. Moreover, they would consume a lot of the attacker’s Willpower as well. Therefore, they could only be used in close proximity. Most of them were techniques that were integrated with one’s Mech to produce more powerful forces. Meanwhile, just because other techniques were rarer did not mean that were non-existent.
Garen purposely selected the information regarding Willpower techniques before searching online again.
‘Willpower fights are slightly similar to mental strength fights. They are not always valuable as they require a large contribution for low returns. Moreover, they can only be used for one-on-one combat. There are many limitations and conditions as well. In long distances in outer space, these abilities are not very useful as the Mech Pilot’s Willpower will not be able to surpass the level of high energy particle winds and the great distance between themselves and their enemies to be able to hit them precisely. Therefore, this technique is mainly used for ground-level combat.’
Garen became more apprehensive as he continued reading. If he encountered techniques that were purely based on Willpower in situations where it was impossible for him to detect them as they could neither be seen nor felt, there would be no way for him to counter his opponent’s direct attack. He had simulated this in his mind numerous times but he could not even win five times in the end. This was also done in the situation where the Moonfang could be used unlimited times.
His mood was becoming slightly more serious.
“Seems like I can only aim for the top three spots at most…”
From this information, he had also discovered that Mech Pilots whose Willpower had reached Level 3 could use these techniques in their normal lives. In other words, they could still use these dangerous techniques despite separating themselves from their Mechs. This was also one of the main reasons why Level 2 Mech Pilots were well-respected by others.
****************
Blackboard Academy’s simulated battleground
Caus and the other red-haired male student sat across each other at the rest area. They watched the roaring Mechs clashing outside the glass window continuously while drinking purified fruit essence.
The ruby-like essence was sucked upwards through the straw inside the glass cup and gave off a glass-like luster when light shone on it.
“All of the information you wanted is here. Moreover, that guy has joined Blue Narcissus as well,” the red-haired male student passed a piece of paper with information over.
Caus took it and put his cup down before beginning to flip through and read it slowly.
“I did not intend to use tricks initially as secret maneuvers are meaningless. Isn’t it better to publicly beat him up until he becomes a begging dog that kneels before me in front of everyone in the arena?” he smiled.
“You’re certainly in high spirits,” said the red-haired male student while yawning. “I also have the assessment that I got from the leaves over there.”
“What are the comments?”
“Just the usual General Excellence level grades.”
“Oh? He defeated a good number of Excellent level opponents consecutively, so why was he awarded such a low grade? General Excellence only means that he is an outstanding student within his own class in the entire academy,” Caus was now interested.
“This fellow Nonosiva has a fatal weakness,” the red-haired male student straightened one of his index fingers. “It’s his Willpower! It’s too weak.”
Caus seemed lost in thought suddenly.
“Did you notice? When Nonosiva fights, he never uses fighting techniques that need to be combined with Willpower. Moreover, he’s well-known for using two out of the three main techniques that don’t require Willpower. What does this mean?” said the red-haired male student confidently.
“This means that his Willpower is extremely weak. It’s so weak that he’s unwilling to even consume a tiny bit of it. Otherwise, it will probably affect his endurance during the battle matches,” Caus nodded faintly while a glimmer of understanding flashed across his eyes. “In other words, I’m planning to attack his weak point.”
“Two tactics,” said the red-haired male student while raising two fingers. “If he’s able to charge at you from the front, you have two choices. The first one is to use your Willpower Techniques to get rid of him. The second one is to drag him out slowly to his death. Compared to that Impregnable Wall London, your defense techniques have almost reached Level 3. Furthermore, you are almost on par with Merseus in this aspect. You can actually play with him until he dies.”
A smile appeared on Caus’ face suddenly.
The red-haired male student glanced at him wordlessly.
“To be honest, I really don’t understand you. You could get rid of that guy in one go with your Stunt Phantom Beam Blade. You could even disable him easily by cutting off a limb if you didn’t want to kill him. Does it make sense to use such a powerful weapon against a normal student?”
“He almost murdered my older brother. What do you think?” Caus glared at him coldly.
“Don’t glare at me. I was just saying,” the red-haired male student shrugged and yawned. His gaze suddenly shifted towards a little red gadget on Caus’ shirt collar. “F*ck! You’re actually planning to bring this gadget into the arena even though you’re only going up against a normal student who hasn’t even reached Level 2?!”
He was momentarily stunned. He had always known that Caus was despicable but never expected that he could be much worse than he had imagined.
“Safety first,” Caus smiled and flipped the little gadget inside his collar to shield it.
“Really… Caus, this is the first time that I’ve thought you were exceptionally despicable.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
“Willpower Booster… And a hidden version as well…” The red-haired male student was finally speechless when he saw the other person keeping the red square item. They were allowed to use this item, and even Merseus and Bally would realistically possess one for themselves. However, they would not use it during unimportant periods because of two reasons. Firstly, this item was consumable and very precious. Secondly, extended periods of usage would cause them to become dependent on it.
This gadget was like a stimulant that would be consumed before a long-distance race. It could be hidden so that it would not be easily discovered. Moreover, it would also produce certain amplifying effects towards their Willpower. However, the effects would be weaker when it was used on higher level Willpower.
Despite possessing Level 2 Willpower now, Caus was still unable to let go of such a minor booster.