Hearing Ace’s wager left EVERYONE speechless.
“ACE, STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS!” Laempted to rush forward, only to be promptly stopped by the church’s guards.
“You should listen to him, boy. If you gh with this, you shouldn’t expect me to be light-hearted just because you’re a child.” Brutus said disdainfully.
“Who needs your mercy? I just thought it’d be the perfect handicap to give that little lizard, so he at least stands a ce if he ever does choose to challenge me iure.” Ace retorted with a mog snort.
“HAHAHA, your arrogaruly knows no bounds!”
The other adults with the power to stop this bet wao but ultimately decided against it, not wanting to offend an iial member of one of the world’s stro forces in the world for an arrogant child that didn’t know what was good for him.
“Do we have a deal?” Ace asked, paying no attention to the rea of the crowd. He had no idea what was going through their minds, nor did he care.
“Fine, brat. It’s a deal.” Brutus said as he licked his lips sinisterly.
Seeing Aod at him, the examiarted the test with a regret-filled sigh.
Ace felt ahereal energy attempt to pressure his mind, but as someone who’d literally had a front-row seat to sky-splitting battles in his st life, this pressure was virtually ent. If it weren’t for the fact that he was actively paying attention to it, he wouldn’t be able to feel it at all.
Seeing Ace’s face of boredom, Brutus sneered. “Just wait, brat. This is only the beginning.”
Ace didn’t respond; he simply stood with his hands in his pocket as he stared Brutus dead in the eye with a calm fidence.
As the pressure increased, the people in the audience sighed regretfully.
“It’s already surpassed Wharton.”
“If he weren’t sant, he would’ve had a magnifit future.”
“A shame, a real shame!”
“We all make our own choices in life, and this is his!”
Ace was no longer even looking at Brutus. He was casually staring at the ceiling, thinking about food, when he heard someone in the cro.
“He’s reached the rare level of spiritual essence.” A man in the croas paying attention to the time said.
“He doesn’t seem to be too affected yet, either.”
“You don’t re…”
“Unlikely, the differeween rare and exceptional is like the differeween Heaven ah. Even if he easily withstand this, it doesn’t mean he has an exceptional level of spiritual essence.”
“He’s right. I remember a few years back, there was another child in a simir position to Ace. She could easily resist the pressure at the beginning of the rare stage, but in the end, she only reached 42x her peers.”
As time passed, everyone who doubted him started doubting themselves, especially Brutus. Oside, he was fidently looking at Ace with disdain, but on the inside, he was beginning to worry. ‘This is impossible…
There’s no way this brat has an exceptional level of spiritual essence.’
Eventually, Peter, the recruiter for the Ernst Institute, broke out into a boisterous ugh. “HAHAHAHA. Brutus, it looks like you messed up on this ohe boy just passed the time for exceptional spiritual essence!”
“IMPOSSIBLE!” Brutus shouted in disbelief.
“Ahe facts are clear for all to see!” Peter replied, seeming to take pleasure in Brutus’ misery.
Though the Ernst Institute and the War God Academy weren’t ehe former was the leading institute fes, whilst the tter was the number one school for warriors. There has always been a rivalry betweewo fas.
Ace, who was only just starting to feel it, smiled indifferently at the oversized idiot in front of him but said nothing.
Looking at Ace’s smiling visage angered Brutus more, he was so close to jumping on stage and snapping the boy’s neck, but he could feel Peter had locked on to him. With the amount of talent as a mage Ace had shown so far, there was no way he’d just stand by and watch him kill him. Especially as getting Ace to join him would meaing Killian and Alissa as well.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got, but there was nothing he could do at this point.
Ace was no longer paying any attention to those around him as he began to make pns for the future. ‘With the 100,000 from that idiot, Mom and Lance should be able to live fortably whilst Killian and I are at school. I just o find a way to hide their location so no one use them to get to me.’
“63x…
His spiritual essence has reached 63x. His spiritual essence just surpassed young master Dixie of the Leon family.”
“This kid Ace just set the record for the highest score of this geion.”
“And it looks like he still carry on!”
At that point, Ace was starting to feel unfortable by the ever-increasing pressure, but it was far from unbearable. He hadn’t said a word from the start of this test to now, but his eyes had never left Brutus.
Thankfully the intimidating recruiter was dressed in full body armour. Everyone present would have seen the man’s tensed, vein-filled arms if he weren't. It took every ounce of willpower he had to keep himself from jumping on stage and tearing Ace limb from limb.
Even if the others couldn’t, how could Ace, who had his observation locked on Brutus, not notice just how angry the petty recruiter was? But the angrier he got, the wider Ace’s smile became, whily served to ahe man even more. It was like a vicious never-ending cycle.
Even as the pressure intensified and Ace began tle, his expression never ged. His mog smile still present.
“His Spiritual Essence…
His Spiritual Essence has just reached 90x?” A member of the audience who had been monit the time said aloud.
Peter looked at Ace with stars in his eyes. ‘Even if he has a low affinity, the fact that his spiritual essence is over 90x his peers will make him alehan Dixie.
I don’t care whom I have to offend; he must join the Ernst Institute!’
As time passed, the crowd watched Ace’s trembling figure with bated breath.
“92…”
“95x…”
“96x…”
“97x…”
The crowd was ting in anticipation as they excitedly watched Ace make history.
When the formation finally dimmed, the room went dead silent. It wasn’t until they heard Ace’s calm young voice that they snapped out of their shock.
“Woah. That was harder than I thought.”
