Several massive auras started to blast off inside the forest. All the nearby animals ran away, feeling the tremendous magic coming from the deeper parts of the valley of trees.
"More," Frederick said with a bored expression. "Only Midnight and Lance are the ones who passed through my standards yet. The rest of you, you're all so f*cked!"
Not long after his words, the auras vanished one by one. Several people fell to their knees, in fact, of the nine people, only two were left standing.
"If this is all you can do, then you're all better of not joining," Frederick said with a bored expression. His words were like daggers with venom lacing the blade. It hurt deeply, cutting through their flesh, but it was true.
If they wanted to even compete with the other top Adventurers, they needed to get stronger. Each of them needed to get to the level of Galaxia if they wanted to win.
"With your current power, you won't even make it to Top 75," Luck snickered. "What a pity. I made a bet with Glitch earlier, he voted for you and there were three of us who voted against you. Glitch will lose for sure."
Elliot wanted to silence him with his fist, but he was too frustrated to do so. It was only a day into their training and Frederick didn't made them do anything else except for bringing out their aura as much and as long as they could.
Even Sun, who was just a step away from passing Breakthrough was having a hard time. Let alone them who were not near it. Elliot was thinking that Frederick might be too strict to them.
"You know," Frederick sighed. "The ones who actually joined for the past few years were Lance, Midnight, and Luck. The rest are just for headcount, filling in the required seats to join the competition. Only the three of them would actually participate while the others would just do their best, which wasn't much really."
"Your point, exactly?" Elliot quirked his brow up, challenging his guild master.
"My point is that, if you're aiming to win this, at your level, you're not going to make it. You're far less than average and that's not good," Frederick replied, leaning in to the boy's level.
The intensity of his red eyes felt like they were burning Elliot to the ground. He wanted to turn around but he couldn't, wanted to retaliate but was too late.
"But we're tired," Elliot excused. "Can't we just rest?"
"That's what they all said before," Frederick chuckled. "But then, they just stopped. They did their best and pursued. Though most of you are quite lower than them in terms of power, you'll reach the top like them soon. Only if you're willing to push yourselves through your limit."
"Wait, they?" Ed asked, standing up from sitting on the ground. "You mean Lance?"
"No," the red-haired man said with a smirk dancing in his lips. "Them."
Without skipping a beat, nine even more massive and more fearsome auras activated from nearby. The group raised their weapons, afraid that they're being attacked.
Apart from Lance, Midnight and Sun, the group formed a circle and became alert of any surprise attacks. The one they just felt were auras of people of top-ranked Adventurer level.
"It has been a while since I saw the prettiest woman in the world," a familiar voice spoke, his flamboyancy was still incomparable. "Oh, my Midnight. My dearest sunshine, why aren't you replying to my letters. Did I do something that made you upset, my love?"
"These are the members of the Tinted Cosmic Guild," Frederick introduced. "They're here for demonstration."
"Demonstration?" Elliot asked. "Do you mean they're going to train with us?"
"You wish," Luck snickered. "They're only here to show you what you'll achieve after Frederick's training."
"But I thought"
"No, little one," Galaxia spoke, raising his hand to his head dramatically. "We're only here to ask for Master Frederick's advice. We need to get our yearly check. Just to see if we're ready for the Championship. We need to know if we can win this year. Last year, we only placed second. How sad. Besides, our auras kept faltering these days. I feel like we're slowly getting weaker."
"Y-You're still doubtful?" Connor whispered. "With the auras they just conjured. It felt like a large wave was coming to us and yet they still needed a second opinion whether they'll win or not?"
"How strong is the last year's winner then?" Ethan asked, grimacing at the thought. "And I thought I was already intimidated with stronger people before. These guys didn't even make it feel like our enemies last year matter."
Elliot clenched his fist, watching the scene in front of him intently. He needed to know how strong their opponents were. To him, he didn't need to feel intimidated. He can always drink his extra XP potions with his teammates. Plus, he has unused equipment materials in his Inventory. If they needed better items, he can craft them.
For him, these two weeks will be spent crafting and doing the thing that his class required him to do best, creating.
With enough supplies and equipment, they'll surely win the fight against their enemies, no matter how strong they are. Ethan and George weren't so far from them either. The two boys were almost at the Legendary rank. If he could give them a couple of potions, they'd be Legendary within days.
"Okay, you may now start."
Elliot awoke from his thoughts after Midnight's words. He shook his head to fully remove himself from his thoughts and focus on the men in front of Frederick.
"Okay," Galaxia said. "Everyone, let's go."
Without taking a second to push themselves, the group of Galaxia exuded powers that shook the forest. With their collective number of powers, they were able to make the ground tremble and trees shake.
If there were any other animals in their part of the forest, those animals had probably ran in cowardice now.
Elliot had faced a number of stronger enemies than Galaxia before. He had faced fiercer, and ones with greater powers than any of them.
Yet, Galaxia and his guild mates made it seem like his previous enemies were just kids.
'New feature unlocked.'
[ Collective ]