Chapter 776: Bone Age [GT Ranking Bonus Chapter]
A few minutes passed in silence before Ryaen rose to her feet as she stretched a bit. "I will be heading to my room, although I don’t know if I will be participating, I should get ready," she stated.
There wasn’t exactly anything to prepare. She simply wanted to condition her body. Maybe do a few stretches, perform a bit of martial warm-ups to awaken her senses and everything else before the big day tomorrow.
William sighed as he spoke, "I guess this is where our enjoyment and hedonism end," he mused as he rose to his feet. A smile could be seen on his lips; he was already itching to swing his claymore, after all, it had been a while.
"You guys can stretch, I will be visiting my sister for a bit," Finch said as he rose to his feet.
Vaelric didn’t say anything in particular. He simply sighed and also stood. They bade Asher farewell and immediately left, each of them going to prepare for the big day tomorrow.
And as for Asher, he had no stretching or anything to do. His Absolute Physique always ensured he was in a peak state, ready to enter combat at any given moment. He simply sighed as he rose from the bed and walked towards the fridge within the room, took out some fruits, sliced them onto a plate, and simply started gaming while he ate them.
Asher literally had zero pressure.
While many people were getting hyped across various hotels and locations, making last-minute preparations and training, Asher simply kicked back and relaxed as though it was the most natural thing to do. And indeed, he had no preparations to make.
Time blurred by as the night came, the big day arriving faster and faster, as though Crymora itself was fast-forwarding time.
Asher simply ordered another lavish meal as though he were someone who had paid to watch the Inter-Empire Competition. Even the hotel kitchen staff were confused, as no other student ordered any food, not even Finch. Only Asher did.
Asher simply ate, watched a cartoon, then slept off without a shred of panic. Truly, he was sticking to enjoying his time to the utmost.
The next day arrived swiftly. Asher rose as early as 6 a.m., truly an early bird. He simply walked to the shower, bathed, and changed into a fitting outfit that didn’t restrict his movements. At first, Asher was tempted to wear one of the robes he had bought during his shopping. He wanted to dress like the people from those Murim manhwas he had read back on Earth. But he changed his mind. He walked to the mirror, looked at himself, then shook his head and decided to dress in the Murim style he had originally imagined.
With five minutes left on the clock, he headed towards the elevator and went downstairs. Upon arriving, Asher could already see everyone; they were all already waiting. As usual, Asher was the last person to arrive yet again.
Asher found Finch and the gang and walked towards them. "Good morning, how was all your sleep?"
"I couldn’t sleep. Sigh, I tried getting as much rest as possible, but I ended up staying awake throughout the night as anticipation nearly killed me instead," William replied with a shake of his head.
"Basically the same," Ryaen replied.
Even Finch nodded, none of them having gotten a wink of sleep. Asher simply shrugged and said nothing else. While he looked forward to facing these geniuses, he wouldn’t lose sleep over them.
The tri-articulated bus that FatelessPen had spoken about yesterday arrived. It was simply three buses attached together like trains. The moment it hissed to a stop, six doors swung open, and immediately everyone began to board and take a random seat.
The bus hissed forward. Asher simply stared through the window, the world outside turning into a blur and smear as the bus moved quickly despite its slow-looking size. Within half an hour, they arrived at the venue.
Asher’s eyes could only widen in pure amazement. It was a coliseum, but not just any coliseum. This particular one was titanic in size, shape, and form. Asher couldn’t help but wonder if the Overlord had built it just for this particular Inter-Empire Competition or if it had existed within the Thalvorn Empire before now. But at the moment, he could only see the exterior, not the interior, as he was still outside.
The tri-articulated bus hissed to a stop as its speed slowed. The six doors hissed open again, allowing everyone to step down, and at that moment, FatelessPen was already standing at the front.
"Let’s move," his voice echoed as the bus drove away.
Asher looked around. He couldn’t find students from the other Empires, so he simply followed everyone as they all walked behind FatelessPen. It seemed as though Cindralis had dumped everything concerning the Inter-Empire Competition in relation to the students on him.
They entered a passage that led into the huge coliseum. They walked through what seemed like a corridor before FatelessPen turned left and through various directions before arriving at a door. He knocked gently as he spoke.
"Students of the Star Academy of the Zarethorne Empire are here," his tone calm.
The door clicked open after a second. FatelessPen stepped in as he spoke in a low tone, "Follow me."
Asher stepped in, a huge chamber opening up before him, which had clearly been enhanced with a spatial ability yet again. His eyes tracked ten staff members who stood in suits and gloves beside various huge tank-like technologies within the room that seemed as though they were used for experiments.
"We will begin with identity checks," one of the ten staff members within the room spoke as he motioned forward.
FatelessPen turned to them and nodded, and everyone began to move as a different man seated behind a table plainly asked for their names. The guy basically asked two questions, which were: "What’s your name?" and "Is this you?"
And while he asked that last question, he pointed to a document that contained basic information on every student. Clearly, everyone had been registered beforehand.
Asher didn’t need to think to know that this particular staff member, who only asked two questions, possessed some type of lie-detection skill or at least something related to it. Asher simply answered yes to the last question. Although the questions might seem simple, they covered a lot of bases.
"Next is the age check," one of the ten staff members spoke.
With that, the huge tank tube hissed open, and students entered one after the other. A humming sound would follow each time before a number would be displayed digitally above the tank tube. Asher immediately understood they were checking for impersonators. After all, nobody was supposed to be higher than twenty-two years old, as they weren’t supposed to be older than that depending on the age at which they entered the Star Academy.
Asher waited to see if his system would alert him to any type of mental or soul intrusion as he let the tank tube scan him. But the system remained dormant, which led Asher to believe they were measuring something like bone age.
