William didn't get any chance to send messages over as Tara never left his side. This lady was indeed persistent and didn't even leave to check over the ongoing mission of her team.
William wanted to ask if they found anything, but he refrained from doing so. He knew he made things up, and if he was lucky, then the team sent out would find traces of monsters in one of the two regions he pointed at before.
He selected these two places as they were the farthest away from the city. If the city forces were this vigilant and looking for monsters all the time, then the areas around it would be all empty and void of monsters.
As for the end result of this search mission, he didn't care about any. He was going to amass lots of contribution points, enough to let him into the next higher-level library.
"I'll send the message then," she didn't leave as he expected, took a Message Paper out, and relayed the request for an audition under William's name to whoever was on the other side.
She remained silent for a few minutes before her face slightly changed. "What's wrong?" Angelica befriended Tara during the past week, and the two exchanged lots of talks and shared lots of their life events.
William heard all of what the two were speaking about, and he didn't try to stop Angelica from telling Tara lots of things about her origins.
Angelica was from this world, and so it'd add another layer of credibility for him in Tara's eyes.
"Well… It seems your luck is running thin," Tara gave William a serious look, "there are groups of elders designed for each audition, all formed out of seven members. They are well versed about the five aspects of knowledge in the library."
"Then?" William didn't find any surprise about this. He was going to explain his theories, and there must be well knowledgeable people who'd test these out.
"Out of all these groups, there is one who is very infamous in the entire city," Tara paused, while her face showed a conflicted expression, "each audition group is known for the number of people they gave them credit and accepted their contribution. It's a percentage, and the standard one is around twenty percent."
"And this group? What's their overall acceptance ratio?"
"Zero!"
William already expected this group of elders' ratio to be low, yet it was indeed the lowest percentage anyone could have.
"They never let anyone pass? Not even one?!" William was surprised by this. Even if it was hard to add new knowledge, one that was unknown for these elders, it was still impossible for no one to add something new.
"They… They have high standards for their assessment," she sighed, "any other group will just ask you to add something new. No matter how trivial it was, you'll end up getting contribution points in the end. Yet this group… They are called Demons for a reason, right?"
"You know them, not me," William shrugged, and she sighed again, in a tiring tone this time.
"They'll ask you to add something that wasn't just new, but it'll help to introduce an entire method to their knowledge. Just trying to improve something existing doesn't qualify in their eyes as something worthy of rewarding."
"Oh, they are interesting…"
"They are demons," Tara paused, seemingly hesitating about something, "I once tried to apply for a promotion, ending up falling in their roster. I suffered a lot, didn't score anything and had to remain where I am."
"I see you aren't living a bad life though," Angelica felt her new friend's pain, and tried to console her by saying such supportive words.
"All my friends at my age and current level of power got promoted, all but me thanks to them… They are demons!"
"..." Angelica didn't find any suitable word to support her friend.
"Don't worry, I'm going to give them a punch in the face," William joked, while taking the entire situation as a joke.
"They are all dark gold grade masters, ones at the high and pinnacle of it!" Tara didn't get the joke he cracked, and that made him simply smile.
"When is it starting?" he jumped over this point, as he never cared about who his testers were.
He was ready to face anyone. As for the strict conditions of these elders, he knew he was able to impress them.
"In an hour," she looked at him, "if you want, you don't have to show up there."
"You said it yourself; I can't retreat once applying, right?"
"Yes, but as failure is guaranteed, why add embarrassment as well?"
"Don't say such bad omen words in front of my face like this," William rolled his eyes, "let's go. I'm going to settle your score with them."
"..."
Tara didn't know what William was thinking about. She led him and Angelica out of the library, leading them towards the place where auditions underwent.
She tried to dissuade William from putting himself in a tight spot. She spoke a lot about how these elders were harsh, always saying mean words that would end up most people devastated and dejected.
Yet no matter how hard she tried, William just calmly smiled and said nothing. He walked after her, while Angelica was the person who got affected by Tara's warnings.
She looked very troubled about this upcoming audition, and agreed with Tara that it was pointless to go there. She tried to walk William away from this, but the latter just responded with the same calm smile, without saying anything else.
·?θm William knew they cared about him, didn't mean anything ill or something. So he just let them speak as they wanted, until they ended up in a big circular building with a grand dome and four short spear-like towers that extended from four different angles around the building.
"We are here," Tara stopped at the entrance, "there is still a chance to avoid this…"
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