Chapter 118: Maximum output 1

A/N: Hey, everyone, bad news. I had some technical problems everyone, uploading today’s and tomorrow’s Chapters in this one Chapter, and webnovel wouldn’t let me delete it. So if you’re reading this, DO NOT UNLOCK TOMORROW’S Chapter, TITLED; MAXIMUM OUTPUT 2.

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#1. Damon Darkfell – 103 Eggs.

#2. Alistair Von Drake – 71 Eggs.

#3. Rose Darkfell – 68 Eggs.

#4. Aric Tinubu – 55 Eggs.

#5. Sasha Dursely – 52 Eggs.

#6. Levi Stormbreaker – 45 Eggs.

#7. Fabian Ashton – 42 Eggs.

#8. Marcel Jean – 35 Eggs.

————

“….”

Staring at the shocked spectators, I smirked, but soon furrowed my brows. While I had gotten first place, what surprised me was this;

——-

#48. Dion Williams – 9 Eggs.

#53. Anastasia Necron – 5 Eggs.

The most viable conclusion I had come to, was that she didn’t care much about the rankings, which was why she didn’t bother.

“The top 64 are eligible to move on to the next phase.” Instructor Summer’s voice reverberated through the stadium while I was lost in thought. “The rest should move to the designated seating area.” She continued.

After that, the rest of the students who didn’t make it to the top 64 left the field. Once they were completely gone, the instructor continued to address us.

“The next challenge of the culling games is the Maximum Output test.” She said, letting her words sink in, before waving her hand, and a massive crystal that looked more like an altar appeared on the ground before the students.

“You all will use the most powerful attack in your arsenal and direct it at this crystal. The higher the number of points it shows, the more your points. But be warned, you’ll also be graded on how much time you take to charge up the attack. The more time you take to charge the attack, the more points would be deducted from your overall score.

Then the stunning instructor turned towards me, I knew what was going to happen, and was already regretting letting my ego win.

“Student Damon Darkfell, since you took first place in the egg challenge phase, you’ll be the first in line.” She said. “Step forward within five meters of the crystal, and throw it your best.”

In the novel, this phase was done in ascending order, so of course I would be the one to be called out first. There was just one problem though, In situations like these, I hated to be the first or the last. Instead I preferred to do whatever, after others had demonstrated what they could do, so there’d be a benchmark.

“Student Damon Darkfell, I said to step forward, or is there a problem?” Instructor Summers’ voice cut sharply through the air.

“Uhhh… is there a chance that I don’t get to go first?” I asked a little hopeful that the sincere pleading expression on my face would be able persuade her, but oh was I so wrong.

“Since student Damon Darkfell is forfeiting his scores for this test, the next student should step forward.”

“Huh what?” I blinked. This woman did not just try to automatically forfeit me did she?

“What? had a change of mind?” She glanced down at me, which to be honest even if she was an instructor, was starting to piss me off, for the sole reason that I had to crane my neck up to see her.

“You could say that.” I muttered, walking towards the crystal with dragging feet, and trying my best not to curse her seven generations.

’You know what? Curse her seven generations.’ I couldn’t resist cursing.

As I reached five meters away from the crystal, a reflection split off from me. As soon as I became two, I suddenly noticed a spike in the number of gazes on me. I ignored everything though, or rather, my reflection ignored them all, and stretched it’s hand towards me.

I meanwhile, retrieved my sword from my spatial storage, placed it in my reflection’s extended hand, and then stepped aside.

As soon as my reflection accepted the sword, “Your time begins the moment you begin mobilizing your aether.” I silently took notice and acknowledge that.

’Now which technique to use?’ I thought as I swung the sword around a bit. Using blooming spring would most likely mean I would have to physically strike the crystal with my sword to make a sound impact. Summer blaze on the other hand, would create a searing slash, but would ultimately still fall short of what Rose would later use.

In the end, I decided to use the third art. To truly stand out, I had to do this in a second. Mobilize my aether, channel the technique, charge it with enough aether, and then release it. All in a second.

“You got this Damon.” I cheered for myself as I held my sword vertically before me. The surroundings completely went silent, as my senses ceased to recognize the cacophony of sounds. All my focus was on the technique I was about to unleash.

The moment I mobilized my aether, a furious gale disturbed the air in my immediate surroundings. From my main body’s perspective, the visual representation of orange autumn leaves swirling down from trees.

“Fall.” My calm voice fell in the same instant I swung my sword at the direction of the crystal. A massive wind blade formed, tracing the arc my sword my sword followed. In less than a second, the wind blade collided with the crystal, severely lacerating the earth on its way, carving a deep trench up to two meters deep.

Fusha!

A strong gale spread outward from the point of impact, blowing my hair backwards, and my reflection disappeared soon after, from exhausting all the aether used to create it. The crystal, on the other hand, blinked on a number 1, before suddenly spiking in speed. It went from that one, to a hundred, to two hundred, and finally stopped at three hundred and forty two.

Click!

At that moment something also clicked in my brain. I immediately summoned my status screen.

====Status====

Name: Damon Darkfell

Race: Human

Age: 18

Title : Third prince of the Darkfell empire.

Rank : Eta+

Strength : Eta+

Agility : Theta-

Stamina : Eta+

Aether capacity : Theta

Luck : Delta

Charm : Alpha

Techniques: Aether reinforcement (Grandmaster), Darkfell royal sword style (Grandmaster), Mirage steps (Master).

Unique physique : Nexus prism physique (Omega rank.)

– initial ability: One of many [Create reflections of yourself to confuse foes. The strength of your reflection depends on the amount of Aether spent. You can seamlessly swap places with any of your reflections.]

———-

’No… way.’ I stared at the screen before me in disbelief. My Darkfell royal sword style had ranked up to the grandmaster mastery, probably from the sheer efficiency in which I had unleashed the third art. The fourth art that had sounded muddled to me before suddenly cleared up in my brain. It was so tempting so much that I almost tried it right away, but alas held myself back.

The crowd meanwhile,

-“Whooooooooooah!”

The expression of awe didn’t come from only my fellow first years, but instead it came from the second years, and even some of the third years.

It was a given, the first years at the moment were only awed by the power of the attack. The second and third years meanwhile, were awed by the score the crystal displayed. My fellow first years would also soon be in the know.

“Step away from the crystal, student Damon Darkfell.” instructor Summers voice broke me out of my stupor. ’Tsk,’ I clicked my tongue. ’Not even going to let me appreciate the art of my technique.’ I thought as I moved back into the ranks of the students.

Alistair meanwhile who was the next student after Damon stepped towards the crystal spear in hand. He walked calmly, but his steps still echoed even through the chatter of the crowd. I guess it was his protagonist halo at work.

The moment he took the last step that would keep him in the required five meters range however, a blindingly gold aura erupted from his body, and when it vanished, he had undergone…. what do they call the transformation thing again? Oh yeah, metamorphosis.

At the moment his aura was vastly stronger than anything a first year student, or an aetherial his age could muster. Alistair didn’t waste time. He thrust in spear in one simple fashioned thrust, at the crystal.

One moment he was five steps away, and the next, he was before the crystal. “Upthrust!” he yelled as his spear clashed with the crystal.

CRAKAKAKA!

The air detonated in a series of pockets, as the earth beneath his feet and that beneath the crystal shattered in a spider web pattern, before a shockwave stronger than what my attack had generated, swept past us.

“Tsk. Show off.” I clicked my tongue. Not that I was one to argue, I also showed off quite a bit after all.

The crystal on Alistair’s part, began rushing through the numbers, from one to one hundred, to two hundred, and then finally settled at two hundred and ninety eight.

“Wooooooooooooaaaaaah!” The crowd roared even harder at Alistair’s score.

“Step away from the crystal, student Alistair Drake.” Instructor Summer’s voice reverberated from above. The next student after that, was Rose.

Unlike Alistair and I, rose didn’t need to be told to step forward before she did. And she didn’t step forward per day. Instead she simply blurred there.

Also, Rose didn’t use a technique, nor did she use a weapon. Instead, a gold flames erupted from her hands, then proceeded to compress into a blindingly gold core that warped the air from just it’s presence alone.

BOOOM!

The core shot at the the crystal, creating three concentric rings in the air, and at the same time leaving a blazing trail of charred earth in it’s wake.

A blinding explosion from which Rose herself was sent flying backwards from the impact of the core clashing with the crystal swept past us, so much that instructor Summers had to leave it away.

And that was something. A simple wave from a Delta ranked aetherial could destroy buildings as if they were paper.

The debris that was supposed to be from the explosion, was also cleared out by the wave from instructor Summers, so we very easily saw the number the crystal was displaying.

“…425?” I muttered, surprised. That was significantly higher than what Rose had gotten in the novel. ’Ah, I see I thought.’ ’My existence must have spurred her to train more.’ I nodded in belief. What a source of good influence I was.

But then I frowned. ’This makes defeating her significantly more difficult to do.’ She was stronger than canon Rose at this point.

“Meh, still doesn’t matter though, I’ll still win.” I said with confidence.

-“Whoa, how did she do that?”

-“She’s stronger than Alistair?”

-” No, I don’t think so, maybe just higher attack power.” A particularly smart student mentioned.

The next student, Aric Tinubu, stepped into the line. Tinubu still sounded like a weird ass surname to me, but somehow, it felt familiar. ’Have I heard it somewhere before?’ I mused. But was soon forced to take my attention off that, as the dude began his attack.

“Shadow Raven!” He yelled as his shadow conjured into a man sized raved and shot at the crystal, clashing with it head first. The ground shook a bit upon the impact, but nothing much happened afterwards. The crystal meanwhile slowly blinked and ran through the numbers, eventually stopping on two hundred and sixty eight.

The next student was Sasha Dursely, a side character I quite remembered from the novel. She especially saw a rival in Delilah since they both used arrows. Personally I would pick Sasha. Not from some bias be ause of my beef with Delilah…. I think.

Sasha stepped forward, bow and arrow in hand. The moment she came within five meters of the crystal, she drew three arrows from her quiver. Unlike Delilah, Sasha couldn’t conjure wooden arrows, and arrows made of aether simply consumed too much aether at her current rank, so she always carried a full quiver.

Sasha placed the three arrows on her bowstring, and drew the string taut, before releasing all three simultaneously.

BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM!

The sounds of the three arrows breaking the subsonic barrier overlapped creating an outward force, and pushing them forward even faster.

BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOOM!

Each, arrow struck the crystal with a resounding boom, stirring up debris everywhere. When the debris finally cleared, the numbers showing in the crystal, was a two hundred and forty eight.

“Next.” The instructors voice echoed through the stadium.

Unsurprising, the next student was the same bastard who blasted me off the cliff with a lightning beam. The bastard even had the nerve to smirk as our eyes met when he made his way towards the crystal.

As he stood before the crystal, Levi held his sword in quite a similar fashion that I did, before his sword was enveloped in a wildly crackling lightning.

CRAKAKAKA!

Snakes of stray lightning scorched the earth as a lightning beam shot out of his sword and towards the crystal as he pointed his sword at it. When the lightning clashed against the crystal, the lightning streaked all over the crystal for a while before eventually stopping.

The crystal showed a three hundred and five.

“Next.” The instructor called out once more as Levi moved back into the ranks of the students.

The next was Fabian, who steeped up with all the grace his arrogance carried. When he reached within five meters of the crystal, Fabian adopted a stance, before swinging his halberd in a horizontal sweep.

“Tempest wheel!” The wide horizontal arc, made a beeline for the crystal, and clashed with it, before breaking into embers of light and floating away. When the debris from the clash faded, the crystal was showing a three hundred and twenty six.

The remaining students kept giving it their best, until it came to Dion’s turn, and boy did he perform woefully, scoring only a hundred and sixty eight.

Then it finally reached Anastasia’s turn.

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Hey, everyone, bad news. I had some technical problems everyone, uploading today’s and tomorrow’s Chapters in this one Chapter, and webnovel wouldn’t let me delete it. So if you’re reading this, DO NOT UNLOCK TOMORROW’S Chapter, TITLED; MAXIMUM OUTPUT 2.

Thanks for the support everyone. Also, there are now five advanced privileged Chapters on webnovel. So if you want to read ahead, you are far from unwelcomed.

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