The Lone Wanderer

Chapter 662 – Calamity affinity (3)

‘Micky, do you think we overdid it?’ Percy asked.

‘Probably,’ the Huehuan replied.

The group of contestants was currently flying back to their landing zone so that they could return to the stadium, and Percy hadn’t missed the odd looks some of them were giving his host.

Thankfully, most participants were too busy contemplating their gains from the event to care about what anyone else was doing, Kassorith included. It would be a long time before any of them forged an internal world, and longer still before they were ready to start acquiring new elements, but they could still draw inspiration from this experience to improve their understanding of their current affinities.

Unfortunately, the small subset of people staring at the Thess’kalan included the demigod, which Percy didn’t appreciate.

He honestly hadn’t intended to show off as much as he had. He’d aimed for a score of about thirty percent, which would have placed his host comfortably above everyone else, yet without looking too outlandish.

Granted, casting a Refined spell had arguably been a poor way of accomplishing that, but Phoebe’s Decree had only classified Frozen Shards as such when cast by a Yellow. Percy had been afraid that the Void Hand’s standards would be stricter, or that the tournament’s organizers would expect more from a talented Blue, and he hadn’t wanted to accidentally lose to Remlat by being overly cautious.

Evidently, the standards of spell classification across the universe were a little more rigid than expected.

Perhaps, Percy should have watched the Inimit carefully and tried to make his own demonstration just slightly more impressive than the winged man’s, but comparing spells of different affinities wasn’t easy, so he’d ultimately decided to err on the side of caution.

‘It’s fine. Kassorith is just a genius at mastering new elements. Any other explanation is too crazy to imagine,’ Percy told himself.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when a figure broke off from the rest of the group, flying up to the Thess’kalan. To Percy’s great shock, it was actually Remlat.

‘Strange. I wonder what he wants,’ Micky said.

‘Shit,’ Percy cursed internally, suddenly feeling quite tense. ‘I imagine he’s pissed off that we’ve just snatched the qualification right out of his hands.’

Outwards, he projected the calmest, most amiable expression he could muster. He would have tried smiling too, but Kassorith’s lack of any teeth besides his venomous fangs would have made it creepy.

“Congratulations. That was quite the performance back there,” Remlat said, not sounding very angry. “Right up until you started practicing with your ice mana, I’d genuinely thought that I’d made it to the next round. Talk about a surprise.”

“Thanks,” Percy said, awkwardly scratching the back of his host’s scaled hood. “This whole group phase has been quite competitive. I’m sorry that you’re going to miss the rest. It’s obvious to everyone that you belong there.”

The male Inimit chuckled, bumping Kassorith on the shoulder with enough strength to nearly knock him off his flying greatsword. Percy had seen the playful strike coming thanks to his Greater Foresight, but he hadn’t detected any hostile intent, so he’d opted not to dodge.

“Don’t sweat it. I’ve reached the elimination phase many times before, and I expect to do so many more before Violet. There aren’t even that many rewards left that I’m too eager to earn. Nowadays, I mostly join the tournament for the prestige and to hone myself against powerful opponents, so I’ll just treat the next few weeks as a rare vacation before next year’s regional tournament starts.”

Percy exhaled in relief, feeling quite glad that the two-cored mage didn’t seem to harbour a grudge. Not that he had any reason to fear a random mortal on the other side of the cosmos, but he didn’t want to make new enemies over nothing. Especially since Remlat might one day climb to the upper echelons of a peak faction.

“Say, how competitive is the next round?” Percy asked, unable to control himself. The Inimit seemed like a nice person outside of the competition, so Percy figured that he might as well get his opinion on this. “Do you think I stand a chance at qualifying for the Void Decree with my current strength?”

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Remlat regarded him carefully before shrugging. “It varies. Our group was tougher than most,” he said, his eyes briefly brushing over Zurvanai. “Usually, there’s only a couple of people around Azalotheen’s level, so your odds of making it through one more battle aren’t zero. However, there are a couple of people even stronger than me and Zurvanai out there – at least until she gets her second core – so it’ll all come down to the luck of the draw.”

Percy frowned. He didn’t like what he was hearing, though he had expected that.

“Hey, don’t look so gloomy!” Remlat bumped him again, albeit more gently than before. “You’ve got all the time in the world to get your new core. Even if you end up in a bad matchup this year, just keep trying until you get lucky. Someone like you can definitely reach the top eight after a few attempts, and then you’ll have everything you need to compete with the best of us more easily. Hell, it took me over a decade before I made it that far myself.”

Percy nodded, doing his best to appear unconcerned. The truth was that Remlat’s attempt at consolation wasn’t very applicable to him or his host who only had a single shot at claiming the Decree in the foreseeable future, but he kept that to himself.

‘At least we’ve earned two more rewards and managed to get another major planet marked,’ Micky reminded him. ‘Third core or not, this won’t be a wasted trip.’

‘Indeed. The Penitent’s Decree is already a massive haul, and we even managed to upgrade our Instantaneous Formation. The special events were pretty valuable experiences too,’ Percy agreed.

He’d actually been wondering why the organizers had placed them in such strange situations. The first event in particular had felt somewhat odd, because only Kassorith and Falanor had even possessed the means to directly cleanse the beasts on Spiralis B-3. The other contestants had had no choice but to slaughter the infected creatures in the most efficient way that they could come up with while resisting the corruption.

The purpose of that had likely been to shock the talented Blues out of their complacency.

Becoming a god involved a lot more than raw power, so the leaders of the alliance probably wanted their young prodigies to identify their shortcomings and start addressing them early.

This had all worked pretty well for Percy, who didn’t stand out as much as he would have liked in pure fighting strength, but whose skillset had proven versatile enough to rank first in his group. One might argue that he had simply been lucky that both events had suited him so well, but the truth was that he would have excelled in many other situations, such as brewing, reconnaissance, or enchanting.

Sadly, those talents wouldn’t help him much in the next fight, but he would deal with things as they came.

A few minutes later, the group reached the teleportation zone. The demigod scanned the area momentarily, seemingly trying to recall the exact spot where the enchantments had been drawn.

The tournament’s organizers hadn’t employed those flying devices of theirs to stream the event this time, probably because it had taken place on a populated planet with its own technology and rules that they had to respect. However, they must have still used something else to show the competition to the spectators – probably an enchantment located near the flowerbed.

Eventually, the Clear mage guided the mortals to a certain spot, a series of colourful runes flashing beneath their feet – and tail – before whisking them away.

Everyone besides Kassorith, that was.

Percy’s heart sank as he and his spectral companions suddenly found themselves stranded on an alien planet with a barely-familiar demigod, clearly singled out from the rest of the group.

“Relax,” the powerful Inimit said, speaking a lot more casually than before. He didn’t even bother to infuse his willpower into his voice this time. “The others haven’t left the planet either. We’ve just separated you because there is somebody who wants to talk to you for a few minutes. You have my word that you will all be sent back to Maradion afterwards.”

Kassorith’s features twisted into a grimace. “That didn’t sound like a request.”

The demigod sighed. “I’m afraid it wasn’t.”

He then gestured to a spot a few dozen metres to his left, where the world itself split open to reveal an oval-shaped portal. It was barely tall enough for a person to fit through, a bright, jade-coloured background visible on the other side. Judging by how crude the construct was when compared to Metatron’s Decree, it had to be either the handiwork of a mortal with a space affinity, or a god without it.

Percy clenched his host’s fists, fully aware that his earlier demonstration had caught the wrong kind of attention.

Did he regret not trying to make his margin of victory even thinner?

A little, though he also understood that he’d done about as well as he could with his limited information. He had no idea what criteria the flowerbed used to evaluate spells, so any Crude spell he selected might have been deemed worse than Remlat’s.

Alas, the consequences of his startling performance were here, and there was no avoiding them. Hopefully, whoever was standing at the other end of the portal only had a few basic questions for him – questions that he would be able to answer.

The thought of activating Metatron’s Decree to escape to the Vault did admittedly cross Percy’s mind, but he had come too far to give up so easily. He also happened to believe the demigod’s words that the participants would all be allowed back to Marador Prime unharmed. The Clear mage had no reason to lie, and it wasn’t like Kassorith had done anything that would warrant a harsher treatment.

‘Nothing besides defecting to Metatron and helping an outsider infiltrate the alliance.’ Percy swallowed hard, though he knew that the Void Hand’s people would have acted much more forcefully if hishost’s true crimeshad come to light.

With his mind made up and his spectral companions on the same page, Percy seized control of Kassorith’s body and slithered into the mysterious portal, bracing himself for what came next.