Bridget's words echoed across the room with such unshakable faith that it made the likes of Boris Fanum shift uncomfortably in his seat. One of the examinees fighting in there was, after all, his son.
Despite the immense talent Theo had displayed in recent years, there had never been a time when the headmistress of the academy had said such powerful words about him! For this kid to be acknowledged by one of the strongest experts in the capital... it only meant one thing!
He was a monster, someone who was on par with the students of the elite class.
A thin line of sweat slid down Boris's face as he recalled Nox's fierce gaze back at the Adventure Guild. Although his level was nothing to write home about, I strongly suspected something was wrong. I know it—my instincts hadn't been lying then... is it because he's the son of Arthur?
Boris paused, his eyes constricting to the size of a needle as he remembered something extremely crucial: Wait, this... this scene—fighting alongside monsters... hadn't Arthur done a similar thing before?
The instructors, their eyes trembling with disbelief, peeled their eyes to the magical screen as they watched the beasts continue to steal more and more tokens from the other participants, who were either caught off guard or brutally defeated in one-on-one combat.
Among them, a particular creature caught their eyes—it was a panda with icy details running through its body. Though the panda appeared extremely cute, its eyes were fierce, belonging to those who had fought countless battles. Moreover, unlike the sleek, dark creature, the panda didn't sneak up on the examinees.
Instead, it engaged them in frontal combat! At first, most of the participants had dismissed the panda as a weakling because it was at the intermediate tier and because of the nature of these beasts, which were known for being extremely lazy.
But these ignorant fools paid with their bodies, as the panda seemed to greatly disdain being looked down upon. It took all its anger out on them, making the examinees beg for their lives.
In the span of a few minutes, the pets had collectively accumulated over 50 tokens!
Finally, with a slightly shaky voice and dread-filled eyes, one of the instructors spoke: "Isn't this against the rules? He's clearly not doing anything!"
The other instructors also seemed to agree, and some even voiced their thoughts aloud, demanding that Nox be disqualified. In their eyes, this was nothing but a cheap trick that undermined the whole purpose of the entrance exam.
Brawn, who had remained silent all this while, chuckled deeply before addressing them: "You're all ignorant. I'm sorry to say this, Bridget, but it seems your instructors are far too narrow-minded."
Narrow-minded? If it were any other person, the instructors—who were all powerful Awakened—would have jumped up in anger. But this person... this person was even more powerful than the headmistress, who was, in turn, a peak-level Awakened. It would just be pure foolishness to even show their displeasure, as just one attack from the guild master of the infamous Silent Whisper would send them to the afterlife to meet their pantheon god.
"I understand. We encountered a similar thing even in the Western Region Fight Summit," Bridget responded coolly, not taking the words to heart, knowing that Brawn was right. Then she said in a respectful voice, "Allow me to enlighten them."
"Go ahead." Brawn waved dismissively as he watched the ongoing fights on the screen.
Bridget then proceeded to explain to them that the beasts were part of Nox's class and, in Eos, just like Awakened were not restricted to only some class skills, Nox was also allowed to utilize everything related to his class, which focused on using pets in battles.
With a bitter expression on his face, the leader of the Adventure Guild nodded in agreement with what Bridget said. "Unfortunately, the headmistress is right... there is nothing wrong with the boy's actions. The painful truth is that his class gives him an edge over others."
With this class, he doesn't even need any party members to participate in the Dimension!
Think about the special examinee who was in possession of this powerful beast. Everyone's eyes shifted to the panel that displayed Nox dashing through the forest with unmatched, lightning-fast speed that left some instructors struggling to keep up.
Nox had been running for quite a while now. Of course, this sprint didn't put any physical strain on him, as he was already used to such endurance-based tasks.
Despite not finding any issue with this, however, there was a frown on Nox's face. The tremendous roar from a few minutes ago had felt as if the beast was close by. The more he ran, the more he realized that there was a massive distance between them, and the roar had been powerful enough that the shockwave had spread far and wide.
This realization made Nox abruptly come to a halt, and his feet slid across the ground, carving a deep, friction-filled gouge in the earth beneath him.
The sound of the fighting was still very intense as the ground trembled, the trees wavered, threatening to fall, a few already lying defeatedly on the ground. There were constant booms and bangs, each capable of making one lose their hearing. Moreover, with each clash, the wave of bestial aura, which was accompanied by a ferocious gust of wind, seemed to explode outward.
"That beast..." he murmured, his voice low, almost reverent. "It's not still close, is it? Did I underestimate the level of the beast?"
This thought only made the smile on Nox's face grow, and his expression distort! A higher-level beast meant more experience points!
"Heh, must be a big one to make that much noise from so far away." He stretched his arms, cracking his knuckles, his movements deliberate and almost ceremonial as he proceeded to activate [Divine Velocity], which he had avoided all this while.
A feeling similar to an electric current charging through his veins coursed through him, as his form flickered into the distance.
With Divine Velocity, it took merely a second for Nox to arrive at the battlefield! Quickly deactivating the skill, Nox found himself in a clearing the size of two soccer fields back on Earth.
There were light gashes and deep chasms etched into the rocky ground, and all the trees seemed to have been obliterated. In the midst of this destruction, an ape-like beast with white, glistening fur, standing over two meters tall, was fighting a wolf with deep purple fur and a pair of glowing, menacing eyes.
"Two Level Nine King-Tier Beasts! What a pleasant surprise!"