Chapter 204: Encounters and the Arrogance of the Depths
Chapter 204: Encounters and the Arrogance of the Depths
**Cassian - 45 Points**
Even though it had not been very long since the exam started, Cassian had slashed through several C and D-rank monsters, as well as a few unlucky students who dared to cross his path, all in a matter of seconds, moving in a straight line toward his objective.
He was only a few points away from reaching the base score required to officially join the academy. However, points were not what Cassian cared about.
Right now, his mind was focused solely on tracking the mana of two people within this colossal forest where thousands of living beings breathed: the Child of Dawn and the Eastern Boy, Lunox.
At the initial moment of teleportation, the spatial distortion had practically flung Cassian and the Child of Dawn to two completely opposite ends of the map.
The distance between them was miles. Cassian was advancing toward his target, completely ignoring most of the obstacles or high-point monsters in his path.
Now, he was jumping from the thick branches of centuries-old trees to others, moving at a speed that would leave even the wind behind. At this rate, Lunox would reach the Child of Dawn before he did.
Just as Cassian leapt from the trunk of a thick oak tree and was about to step onto another large branch, he felt the air suddenly grow hot.
The direction of the wind had changed. He noticed a massive barrage of flames rapidly descending upon him.
*Boom!*
The hurricane of flames swallowed the branch Cassian had aimed for and a large portion of the tree, creating a massive explosion. The force of the explosion scattered charred pieces of wood and a cloud of black smoke everywhere.
"I HIT HIM!" shouted a male voice with joy, echoing in the silence of the forest. "Bullseye! I caught him in the air!"
Two people emerged from a thicket beneath the trees. One was a young male mage, holding a staff with a ruby-encrusted tip, his face illuminated by a grin.
The other was an armored female student, holding a long spear with a silver tip. When the smoke slowly cleared, it was revealed that the tree had been completely charred and split in two.
Puffing out his chest with pride, the mage boy pointed the burning tree out to his friend. "Did you see that? I don’t know who he was, but that is what happens when you are so careless, ahahaha."
The female student cautiously raised her spear and looked at the points screen on her wrist. She frowned. "Are you sure? No points came in."
"What?" Realizing this as well, the boy looked at his bracelet. His points had not increased. The smile on his face instantly faded, replaced by a cold panic.
"What do you mean? Even if he wasn’t eliminated, he must have been heavily injured after that explosion, he should have at least fallen to the ground!" He quickly raised his staff into the air and sent out waves of his mana to scan the surroundings.
However... He could not feel anything. Not a sign of life, nor a fluctuation of mana. The forest around them was as dead and silent as a graveyard.
"What is going on...?" the boy whispered. His voice was trembling. His hands holding the staff began to sweat.
And right at the moment that whisper fell from his lips...
*Schwing!*
The thin, chilling sound of metal flawlessly slicing through flesh and bone echoed in the forest.
The boy’s eyes widened in terror. Before he could even understand what happened or feel the pain, both of his hands that were tightly gripping the staff were severed from the wrists in a flawless, straight line. A waterfall of hot, crimson blood splattered from his severed wrists into the air and onto the girl’s face.
"AAAAAARGH!" The boy let out a lung-tearing scream at the horrific moment of realization when he saw his hands fall to the ground.
Yet his scream was cut short. The moment the scream left his lips, a fist struck the boy directly in the face.
*Crack!*
The sound of his nose and cheekbones shattering into pieces echoed in the forest. The boy’s neck snapped backward from the force of the blow he received, and he flew meters backward.
He had lost consciousness in the air before even hitting the ground. His bracelet instantly flashed with a red light, and the boy’s body turned into particles of light, eliminated from the exam area.
The girl stood frozen with her friend’s blood splattered on her face. She could not breathe. When she slowly turned her trembling eyes forward, she locked eyes with Cassian.
Cassian only had a few faint, insignificant burn marks on him from the massive fire spell just a moment ago. He stood before her with his pure white hair, expressionless blood-red eyes, and the black sword he held in his hand.
The girl’s legs began to tremble. Cold sweat covered her body. Her friend she had just eliminated was a mage in the middle stages of a 4-star core.
He was much stronger than the vast majority of the participants in this exam. To have eliminated him so easily, without even giving him the chance to cast a single spell... Furthermore, to be able to completely hide his presence like a ghost after that explosion... He was no ordinary person.
The girl could not stop her hands from trembling as she held her spear. When Cassian slowly turned his head toward her, the girl felt as if her heart would stop. Her eyes welled with tears. Forcing her lips, she tried to smile in a forced, pitiful manner, contorted by fear.
"T-team... Do you want to team up?" she asked, her voice no different from a whisper.
Cassian just stopped and looked at her for a second with his empty, red eyes devoid of any emotion. There was neither pity nor mockery on his face. Then, as if the girl was not there at all, he slowly turned around and started to walk.
A massive sigh of relief escaped the girl’s chest. She closed her eyes. "I am saved..." she thought to herself. "He had mercy on me. Men are all the same..."
However, the moment the girl took another deep breath, she realized her lungs were filled not with air, but with a warm liquid that tasted of metal. Blood suddenly poured from her mouth and nose.
She felt an unbearable, tearing pain right in the middle of her chest. When she slowly turned her head down, toward her own chest... she realized her hands were completely empty. Her own silver spear, which she had been holding tightly just a moment ago, her safety... had pierced right through her own chest and protruded from her back.
As the girl collapsed to the ground covered in blood, she looked one last time at that white-haired silhouette walking away. Just as the word "Monst-..." was about to spill from her contorted lips, the light in her eyes faded, and her body vanished, scattering light.
Cassian had just taken a step to continue on his way when he stopped. From both sides of the forest, at the same time, he felt two different groups approaching here at a running pace. The massive fire spell that had exploded moments ago had drawn them here.
Within seconds, two different groups emerged from among the trees, coming face to face with each other and with Cassian in this small clearing in the forest.
The first group that emerged from Cassian’s right consisted of 6 people. Among them were heavy armor users, healers, and mages. However, the person standing at the very front, overshadowing the entire group... was a young, blue-haired male with an arrogant gaze, holding a massive trident whose tips were adorned with blue sapphires, resembling Poseidon’s pitchfork.
Cassian recognized him the moment he saw him. This was Daemon, the Crown Prince of the Pelagorn Kingdom. The Lord of the Depths, the apostle of the Water God Thalassor. He was a genius at controlling water and ice, and possessed incredible arrogance.
However, from the other side, the group that emerged from Cassian’s left, despite consisting of only 3 people, was much more striking.
The golden blonde hair of the girl walking at the very front shone like a sun, her blue eyes looking on with nobility.
She wore a light warrior armor bearing the symbols of the imperial royal family. Celine Luminara. Charles’s younger sister and the only princess of the Holy Luminara Empire.
Right to her right stood a dark, black-haired boy who possessed the absolute aura of a knight with his stance and the way he held his sword: Veris. He had been raised since childhood to be Celine’s personal knight.
According to Cassian’s notes, this boy was madly in love with Celine, but in later Chapters, when Celine fell in love with the Child of Dawn, he would be dragged down the path of evil out of jealousy and anger, turning into one of the greatest enemies.
Slightly behind them stood a timid, brown-haired girl, probably the one casting support or healing spells for the team.
However, all these complex relationships, noble titles, and potential future troublemakers... Cassian did not care about them in the slightest at this moment.
Cassian turned his focus inward and scanned the horizons of his mana. He was only a few minutes away from catching up to the Child of Dawn; he was very close. On the other hand, however...
Cassian tilted his head slightly. When he searched for that Eastern Boy, Lunox, he realized his mana had completely changed direction and was rapidly coming straight toward him.
The mana fluctuation created by the explosion a moment ago must have caught Lunox’s attention as well, but he was not targeting the explosion; he was targeting Cassian directly.
"His intuition is truly too strong..." Cassian thought.
### The Meeting in the Clearing
In this small clearing in the middle of the forest, three different groups were staring at each other in deadly silence.
Cassian, a lone warrior in the middle; the arrogant prince of the seas, Daemon, on one side; and the noble princess of the empire, Celine, on the other.
The first person to break this tense silence was Daemon. Resting his trident on his shoulder, he took a few steps forward with a fake and arrogant smile on his face.
"Princess Celine," he called out, his voice echoing in the forest. "What a great coincidence... It truly has been a long time since I last saw you. I last saw you at the 16th birthday banquet of your older brother, Prince Charles. You were a smaller, more fragile girl back then."
In response to Daemon’s words, Celine did not show even the slightest crumb of emotion on her face. She merely narrowed her eyes and pointed the tip of her knight’s sword directly at Daemon.
The smile on Daemon’s face turned mocking. "Ahh... What rude behavior. We haven’t seen each other for such a long time, and the first thing you do when we meet is point a sword at me? Considering that one day we will be betrothed for the nations of our two kingdoms... Isn’t what you are doing a bit too rude toward your future husband, Princess?"
Celine’s eyebrows furrowed violently. The tone of her voice was as cold as a freezing wind. "Watch the words that come out of your mouth, Prince of Pelagorn."
Right next to Celine, the knight candidate Veris gritted his teeth, leaned toward Celine, and whispered: "Princess... Are we going to fight? They outnumber us two to one, and..." Veris swallowed hard, his eyes scanning the blue aura concentrating over Daemon. "His aura is very heavy. He must definitely be at the peak of a 4-star core. Facing him right now is too risky for us."
Meanwhile, Cassian found their noble bickering, their talk of ’you will be my wife’, ’my sword is only pointed at enemies’, so meaningless and boring that he slowly walked over and comfortably sat on a thick, fallen tree stump.
He placed his sword on his lap and closed his eyes. Since that Eastern genius was coming here for him anyway; then there was no need for him to run after him and tire himself out. He could sit here and wait for his prey to come to him.
This indifferent, relaxed attitude of Cassian suddenly caught Daemon’s attention. Daemon threw a condescending look at this white-haired youth in rags sitting on the stump like a spectator.
"Is this beggar-looking brat from your team, Princess?" Daemon asked, pointing at Cassian with the tip of his trident.
"No," Celine cut him off. She did not know who Cassian was either, but she disliked that eerie, dark feeling radiating from him.
"Hmm... Good," said Daemon with a smirk. "Because my team needs a few more points. If he is not under your protection, that means we are taking him."
Without even turning his head, Daemon made a slight hand gesture to his massive teammate standing right behind him, who was as large as a behemoth and holding a two-handed war hammer as tall as himself. "Take care of him."
The massive boy nodded, shouldered his hammer, and began walking toward Cassian with heavy but ground-shaking steps.
Daemon turned back to Celine. He extended his hand toward her as if making an elegant offer. "As for you, Princess... I have an extremely generous offer for you. Let us eliminate those two useless fools next to you. Let’s take their points. Then you join my team. I will protect you. Do not worry, I will personally ensure that my future wife achieves a very high ranking in this exam."
As Celine looked at Daemon in disgust, Veris angrily drew his sword. "Who are you calling use-"
However, Veris’s sentence was never finished.
*BOOOM!*
Right in the middle of Daemon and Celine, something fell from the sky with tremendous force. The tremor created by the object hitting the ground kicked up the dust around them.
Daemon narrowed his eyes and looked into the dust cloud. His breath caught at what he saw. His pupils shrank.
The person who had fallen between them was his massive, huge teammate he had sent to take care of Cassian just seconds ago.
The boy’s eyes had rolled completely to the back of his head, his consciousness long gone. However, what was truly terrifying was the massive indentation on his chest.
His armor was shredded like paper, and several of his ribs had broken, tearing through his skin and protruding outward. That massive behemoth of a man had been turned into a rag with a single blow.
The boy’s bracelet flashed, and his shattered body vanished within seconds, scattering light.
As the dust cloud slowly cleared, everyone in the area stood frozen. Daemon’s mouth hung open in astonishment, his arrogance vanishing in an instant. Celine and Veris retreated a few steps in terror.
They all, involuntarily and with great fear, slowly turned their heads toward the direction of that stump.
Cassian was still sitting on the stump in the same relaxed position. The sword in his lap had not moved a millimeter. However, a faint smoke was wafting from his left hand protruding from his cloak. And he had fixed those emotionless, blood-red, empty eyes... directly on them.
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