Chapter 2307: Inscription Finals


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    After half an hour, Sam finally broke through the room and came out without so much as a scratch.


    On the other side, his opponent is still struggling. The spectators are unable to even look at his state. His body bleeding all over, the blood corroding at a rapid rate, his hair fell off and whatever that''s left of his skin seemed to have been charred.


    Now, he even lost his ability to move.


    All they could see is that he is screaming at the top of his lungs. What they didn''t know is that, he also lost his vision and the only thing he could see is an illusion that is torturing him just as much as the physical torture of other inscriptions.


    He didn''t look like the prospective candidate of the Zeus academy.


    The arrogance and superiority that is usually associated with that identity has long since disappeared.


    He looked nothing short of a corpse. Except he is still faintly breathing which is burning his lungs up. As soon as Sam arrived outside, the elders in charge of the test broke the room downpletely and brought him out.


    But all of them knew that there is no point in that, except that guy might have a couple of peaceful moments before he dies.


    One of the elders is even kind enough to give him some pain numbing medicine which made him stop feeling that pain for a moment.


    They all turned to Sam who just casually walked away from there. As usual, the news spread like crazy. The Elder of the Zeus academy who is supposed to be at the examination is not there and he got the news only after the kid was retrieved.


    He came to check on him.


    He was so confident that he wouldn''t be needed in an inscriptionpetition and stayed back, focusing on the solobat situation.


    He should have at least sent someone there to inform him. But most of the Zeus academy members are not there among the spectators. The ones that are in were unable to contact the elder. The people from other academies? They couldn''t care less.


    They did feel some pity for the man since he endured so much pain, but that is all. It stops at pity.


    Everyone in the Zeus academy, irrespective of their rank or status, hates Sam. Now, their hatred burned so much that they wanted to just to run after him and kill him.


    They knew they couldn''t do that though.


    They had to bury that anger.


    After walking through a couple of blocks, Sam took off with spatial blink before he could be attacked again.


    He disappeared from everyone''s eyes.


    Meanwhile, the Zeus academy students without even the prompting or permission of the elder in charge took a major decision.


    "We are going to destroy Gambler academy. All the Solobat people will focus on their respective counterparts from the gambler academy.


    There is no other goal until this is finished."


    Even though it is proposed by one of the fourth graders, the rest of them agreed unanimously.


    The Gambler academy people didn''t know they are in peril because of Sam''s actions. Even if they did, they wouldn''t likely care. Gambler academy did defend Sam in a much more serious situation after all.


    That day passed with the whole realm learning how Sam tortured and killed a Zeus academy student in an inscriptionpetition.


    The next day.


    Sam arrived at the Open-air auditorium, for the third and final round of the inscriptionpetition.


    Everyone is looking at him weirdly. Every gaze is mixed with some level of anxiety, some level of fear and a little bit ofpetitive spirit.


    Sam looked ahead, waiting for the elders to exin what kind of twistedpetition this would be.


    He ended up being surprised after listening to the details though. It is not as twisted as he expected it to. It is pretty straight forward.


    "All sixteen of you will be sent into the exam tower specially modified for thispetition. Including the ground floor which is marked as the first, there are sixteen floors in total.


    Each floor contains a challenge for each of you. A challenge that should be ovee by anypetent inscription master.


    Once your challenge is done, you will be eligible to move upstairs. However, you wouldn''t be able to leave immediately. Because thispetition has elimination on all sixteen floors.


    In every floor, one person will be up for elimination. If a person is unable to even ovee the task, even if it is just ast ce, then they are directly eliminated.


    However, if they managed to finish the task even at thest ce, they get to challenge the secondst candidate for an inscription contest. The person being challenged can dictate the type of the challenge.


    Unless they want to give that opportunity up to the challenger.


    The challenger can request for a few revisions, but it is ultimately up to the person being challenged.


    Whoever wins the challenge will be moved to the next round, while the remaining person will be eliminated.


    The same happens in the next floor, and the next one, until only one person reaches the sixteenth floor. That person is already a winner if they are in that position.


    However, they still have one final challenge which allows them to multiply their rewards. Whether they finish it or not, will not impact their ranking and the rewards are purely for the


    winner and not the academy.


    It will also not effect the ranking of the academy.


    There is one final condition, that I forgot to mention.


    When you are trying to solve the problems in a floor, there are no rules barring other candidates to interrupt you. The only restriction is the same as before. They cannot use, physical, ranged or any other direct attacks and can only use inscriptions.


    As long as that rule is satisfied, even killing is allowed.


    With that in my, always keep an eye on everyone around you. Because just the speed at which you solve the problem will not be enough to seed. No matter how fast you can do it, if you are unable to even attempt the solution, then you will inevitably fail.


    Keep that in mind."


    The elder exined all the rules in one breath while the candidates listened intently.


    Sam really did feel a bit surprised, because there are way too many known variables in thispetition. In the formationpetition at least, they were put separately in different ces and there is a variable chance for them to encounter each other.


    However, this time, save for the actual problems that they need to solve inside, the rest is clear. Everyone is already strategizing what they need to get the most benefit in their minds.


    Still, along with the surprise, Sam is feeling a bit excited.


    This is just another method for him to stir up more trouble. If things go south, he can always quit. For some reason Sam felt relieved with this kind of feeling. Not a lot of obligations, no need for the grit to always win. No need for constant stress because there are limited


    consequences.


    ''This must be how mediocrity feels.''


    Sam muttered to himself as he walked into the tower with the rest.


    They were greeted by sixteen swordsman, all wearing a set uniform. All of them looked so identical, in their body type, height and weight, even in the aura, that if Sam hadn''t seen their face, he would have believed they are clones of the same person.


    One of the sixteen stepped forward and spoke.


    "We are the people speciallymissioned by the Thor academy to assist in thispetition.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The first round ofpetition is to test the effectiveness of your inscriptions on weapons. We will all be used swords and we are going to the same technique. A single thrust. This will be done on an academy standard training dummy. We will calcte the damage done before and after the inscription. Whoever creates more damage with their inscription


    wins.


    It is a simple contest, I am sure for esteemed masters like yourselves, wouldn''t be fazed by


    this.


    First, lets start with the demonstration."


    He didn''t even wait for any reply from the candidates and just proceeded with the demo.


    All sixteen of them took out swords, they stepped forward and a few training dummies came out of the floor. They all in one unified motion, thrust their swords forward on the training


    dummies.


    *DING*


    Even the sound that came up on the contact is unified.


    "900"


    That is the only number that hovered over all the statues. Their strength is also the same. The impossibility of just made all the participants feel a bit odd.


    Of course, that onlysted for a moment as they immediately picked up the swords that were


    ced neatly on the tables.


    All sixteen tables are ced side by side in a single line for them. Awfully convenient if someone wants to mess with others.