I was a little boggled by the number of comments I received today, and since I'm short on time, I won't be able to check them today. I will, however, check them as I check the chapters for any mistakes in the future. Hopefully, another reader would answer questions if there are any among those comments.
In the middle sat a man in his fifties, but he had the robust body of a man in his early thirties with muscles so ripe he could crush people with them. To his left sat a woman of around the same age as Rayla, a little older maybe, not as well endowed as her, but definitely as beautiful as her.
Next to the woman sat another young woman who was a spitting image of her, but younger. She looked like a delicate porcelain doll whose features were soft and refined. She had black hair like her mother and deep brown eyes, just like her mother as well.
To the right of the man were two boys, one in his early twenties and one around my age, or perhaps a little younger than me.
Who cared about how they looked, right?
So, moving on. I could tell at first glance from the arrogance naturally held in their eyes. They were all nobles. There were two ranks of nobles in this timeline, so he was the lowest rank noble, a knight.
His body was built like that, too.
While I observed them, the announcer, none other than my aunt, said out loud in a crystal ball that glowed slightly green, "Welcome, everyone. Today, a new generation has stepped into the world of the strong to protect our kingdom, to protect humanity."
"Let us welcome them with a round of applause before we move to show how talented the children we would depend on are." My aunt announced, and once everyone was done applauding for a while, they stopped.
Once they did, my aunt continued, "Now. Our city lord has brought a very good chance for this generation to grow. Thanks to the generosity of the lord, the contestant to perform the best would be granted a mana cultivation technique!"
The crowd broke into a round of loud applause. I couldn't understand why everyone was so shocked and happy, but it probably had something to do with the mana cultivation technique.
The crowd calmed down only after five minutes, after which my aunt continued once again, "Now, without any delays. Let us begin."
As she did, a large rock was brought forward by a muscular man who placed it into the middle of the stage and moved away. My aunt announced why the rock was there, much to the confusion of everyone else.
"The one to break the rock the most would be the winner of this competition. The rock has a preservation magic cast on it by the wife of the lord, so it will revert back to its state after it has been damaged." My aunt explained.
"Now! Who wants to go first?" As my aunt asked that question, everyone but me raised their hands and began to shout, "Me! Me! Me!"
Well, one of the 'Me's' was picked who held a sword in his hand. He slashed at the rock with his feet firmly planted into the ground, his form a classic textbook, and a faint aura around his sword.
The sword clashed with the rock, only leaving a slash mark behind. With a downcast expression, he moved away while the slash in the rock disappeared and the boulder typed rock returned to how it was.
Everyone had a try, but no one could do it in the end. The most damage was delivered by my cousin, who used a magic spell of fire attribute and destroyed a small chunk of the rock.
To be fair, it was a giant task to ask of these kids, and it was expected that each and every one would fail. I wasn't going to win as well; I had no intention of standing out. But...
[A primary quest has been activated]
[Task: Destroy the boulder]
[Time limit: The end of the test]
[Punishment: Level -10]
The punishment was a bit too harsh for the quest, but that was not the bottom line. Had it been a secondary quest, even with the same punishment, I wouldn't have attempted to complete it, even at the loss of the levels. After all, why would I do something like that at the cost of a comfortable life?
However, if it was a primary quest, then that was a different story. You know how in those stories, one must take one step for the paths to open. It was the same in this one. The first primary quest would lead to a bigger scenario as I would go forward.
No matter if I could afford the punishment or not, I couldn't ignore this quest.
I sighed and moved in front of the rock. Instead of a flashy move or a big spell, I opted for a simple technique. The basic use of science.
I created a fireball in my hand, which resembled the flame spell a lot due to its size, so no one doubted me or tried to find any oddity in the spell.
But instead of throwing it at the rock, I began to compress it with the help of more mana. I wasn't negating the mana on the inside; I didn't even touch it. I simply applied mana on the outside so it would compress, the fireball, that was.
The mana layer on the outside was less than the mana on the inside, so the compression wouldn't remain for a long time, and it would disappear all at once. Now, what would happen if the mana inside decompressed at once?
Well, let us find out.
I shot the marble-sized fireball at the rock, and it penetrated it in the middle until it stopped somewhere near the core of the rock. Everyone waited for a few seconds, but all the damage I had done was a small hole, which made some of the audience laugh.
Just as my aunt was about to break the awkward atmosphere, the rock shattered into pieces as the fireball inside the rock decompressed all at once.
The rock pellets spread out on the stage, but no one was hurt. Everyone stared agape at the scene, and I could hear some murmurs from the nobles' table.
I let it go and checked my level. Indeed, I had grown by five levels, and the primary quest was completed, but there was no sign of the following quest, so I closed it for now.
No one knew how it was done, but everyone knew that it was done. I sighed and moved back as my aunt began to announce the obvious winner once the noble lady gave it a go.
The robust man stood up from his spot and approached me. Now that he was before me, he was almost twice my size in height, and I was tall for my age. Anyway, he gave me a book in front of everyone while the system notifications showed up once again.
[Would you like to learn the first star mana cultivation technique?]
[The system advises the host against it]
Even without it telling me, I wasn't going to learn this. After that, there was a short speech from the lord who claimed how happy he was that a new generation had stepped up and how many capable awakeners would help protect the city.
Then, the real problem, one that I was worried about, sprang up. The lord turned to me, in front of everyone, and asked, "Jack, would you like to be my guard? If you choose to do so, you would be rewarded greatly and your status would be elevated to a squire as well."
Now, if I were in front of a gangster, a politician, or a law enforcer, I would have said no, but I was in front of a noble. Nobles considered the word 'no' as their insult.
Especially if it was in front of practically the whole town. There could only be one answer, and that was a 'Yes'. If I said anything else other than that, the wealthy and flexible life he was talking about would be turned into hell for me and my family as well.
Anyway, usually I would have said 'Yes' to avoid a headache and then found ways to break out and grow stronger, but in the current circumstances, that was not possible. There was my family, well, Jack's family, and the sweet activities that I had planned for them.
If I were to be painted as a fugitive who ran away from his duties, my family would hang, and I wasn't strong enough to protect them yet.
So what I needed to do was simple. Buy myself some time.
"I would love to do so, my lord." I said with a cursory bow before I straightened up and said, "But may I delay my answer until I have completed my town's training? I need to confer with my family on this matter."
Say 'Yes' and 'No' at the same time, leave your answer undetermined, at the cost of a logical excuse.
In front of this many people, he would have no choice but to comply.
"Haha!" He laughed out loud before he said, "Very well. Train for a month and then visit me. I shall hear your answer then."
And thankfully, since he wasn't offended, he gave me a month.
A month to get stronger than him.