The Greatest Warrior of All Time Returns-Chapter 422

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Chapter 422

Even if you called it the first preliminary round, it was nothing more than setting a minimum cutoff line, so there wasn’t anything difficult about it.

“Did it go well?”

As I entered the lodging, Rebecca, who was wearing a robe as if she had gone out to gather information about the surroundings, greeted me.

“Nothing happened, right?”

“Of course. I did some sightseeing and everything. It was very nice. More importantly… the preliminaries?”

“Sur messed up his strength control and the machine broke a little, but it was resolved well. No problems.”

At my answer, she looked at the brave chick wearing a horned helmet as if it were cute.

When she reached out her hand, Sur climbed proudly onto Rebecca’s palm and fluttered his endlessly tiny wings, showing off his majesty.

It was like the pose a lesser panda takes when it raises both arms to threaten.

“Pfft… Good job. Sur is amazing, huh?”

Rebecca was also a spirit mage, so she tended to have a favorable impression of spirits themselves.

At first she had been puzzled when she saw spirits like Grivy and Sur, but she already knew that my spirits were spirits of a different type from ordinary ones to begin with.

“So I’m not that scary anymore?”

“Now that I understand the whole situation. Those blue eyes are still a little scary, but… I’ll have to get used to them.”

That was a relief.

When we first met, right after Sullivan was dealt with, she had suddenly been terrified.

“First, let’s sort out the plan. Among the participants, there wasn’t anyone who looked like they could contract with Elraim.”

“The prize the organizers put up was… advice from the contractor of the Spirit King along with the prize, right?”

For an ordinary spirit mage, it was a reward enough to make their eyes roll back.

The Spirit King had almost no contractors even in the history books.

The reason rumors hadn’t spread was probably because it had never properly shown itself at an official venue yet.

“But… is it really okay? You’re participating under the name of Belmud. What if someone protests that it’s a proxy participation?”

“They said it was coordinated with the organizers too, but the details I’m not really—”

“Don’t worry. I just finished negotiating.”

At that moment, the lodging door opened and Melissa walked in.

She came in calmly, glanced at Rebecca and me, then handed me a sheet of paper.

“I finished talking with the organizers and the Belmud Marquis family. For now, just say you’re participating as a member of the Belmud Marquis household. The Belmud young master doesn’t do outside activities anyway, so there’s no one who knows his face. There probably won’t be any protests. Just don’t take off the mask.”

“Alright.”

It looked like she had solved everything with connections.

“And even if something happens just in case, it’s fine. I’ll handle all of that.”

“You? How?”

“Hey. Leon. What can’t be solved with connections?”

Seeing her speak so confidently and ominously, I felt like she really had become a high-ranking noble.

Still, wasn’t this putting the cart before the horse? 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

“If you talked that deeply with the organizers, couldn’t you just ask about the contractor of the Spirit King?”

“That’s… the story gets a bit strange.”

After choosing her words for a moment, she opened her mouth again.

“The organizers don’t know either.”

“What?”

Melissa explained the situation at the time in a voice mixed with doubt.

Originally, they had been looking to host it somewhere other than the Spirit Corridor.

But one day, the Spirit King suddenly appeared before the organizers’ executives and nobles.

And it demanded that the competition be held in the Spirit Corridor.

For spirit mages, the Spirit King was a being with immense presence just by existing.

On top of that, it offered spirit sap and advice from the Spirit King’s contractor as the winner’s reward, so from the organizers’ standpoint there was nothing to object to.

That Spirit King was probably referring to Elraim.

The organizers had been half-doubtful at first, but when all the spirits simultaneously showed respect, they came to believe it.

However, the Spirit King didn’t stop there and added one more condition.

A pre-selected list of spirit mages.

Not a single one of them was to be left out of participation.

And another thing.

As many talented spirit mages as possible were to be made to participate.

At this point, suspicion naturally arose.

But there was no way to know what the Water Spirit King Elraim was aiming for.

It seemed that was also why they had become lenient about proxy participation.

After that, Melissa said she had to return to work and would come back later, then left.

In the strange atmosphere, I glanced at Rebecca.

“There wasn’t any talk about the second preliminary round?”

“Ah. The second preliminary. I was just about to talk about that.”

She spread out a map.

“Here?”

“It’s a bamboo forest located not far from the Spirit Corridor. There are special spirit waters there. Teams of three that succeed in retrieving them advance to the main round.”

“Securing spirit water?”

“The important part starts now. Only sixteen teams can advance to the first main round. So the number of specially marked spirit waters in that forest is also sixteen.”

“If you find it late?”

“You fight each other and steal it.”

“So it’s just a battle royale.”

This kind of thing was my specialty again.

“Team assignments?”

“Autonomous.”

That must have been what that talkative guy I met in the first preliminary had said.

* * *

The number of people who passed the first preliminary was greater than I expected.

Well, it seemed like they let most people pass as long as they exceeded a certain cutoff line.

Because of that, there were many people gathered, but to my eyes there was a strange contest of spirit.

People were forming groups centered around the seven chick-like talents I had seen in the first preliminary hall.

As if they absolutely wanted to be on the same team as them.

Their names were, if I remembered correctly, Corison Jackper and Behena Mobierty.

Among the others, the only name I remembered was a quiet boy named Eltemion Rubakara.

I remembered him because even among those called prodigies, he had shown outstanding potential.

While I was wondering who to team up with, I suddenly realized that people’s gazes were strange.

“That’s him, right? The mutant spirit.”

“Yeah. That’s right. But I heard his score was green.”

“Green? Then isn’t that upper-tier level?”

“I heard the machine malfunctioned. So they don’t know if it was measured properly.”

“Hm… Then shouldn’t they remeasure it?”

“For now, since he passed the cutoff no matter the maximum, they didn’t bother remeasuring.”

Whispering voices were heard.

“By the way, I heard he’s from the Belmud Marquis family.”

“A spirit mage from a sword family… that’s a bit strange.”

To put it simply, there was no one trying to team up with me.

No matter my skill, I was a mutant spirit mage. In other words, a half-wit.

A spirit mage who could hardly grow.

Or a spirit mage who couldn’t properly summon or contract spirits.

All sorts of strange rumors tended to stick.

In reality, mutant spirit mages were rare cases on the continent, almost as hard to find as the Succubi Demon who used to torment nightmares.

Whatever the truth, from their perspective there was no one who particularly wanted to team up with me.

It would have been easier if Rebecca were here.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone I knew in this place.

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It would have been nice if at least there were some Imperial Academy cadets I had seen before.

But it didn’t seem so.

Teams began forming quickly.

Even though they were strangers, most people seemed to have already picked out those who looked to have decent skill and slipped away in an instant.

Among them, the most popular were naturally the seven talented ones.

They each formed different teams, then picked two among those who gathered around them.

While dozens of spirit mages were forming teams, I simply watched the situation silently.

But if I can’t form a team until the end, what happens?

I wondered that while watching for a moment.

After most team decisions were made, a few people who hadn’t formed teams remained.

They were essentially leftovers with no balance or anything.

Those people just looked around nervously without moving to form teams.

Of course, the judges didn’t just watch that, so they gathered the remaining people, made a list, and randomly assigned teams.

The two who became my teammates were spirit mages who still looked young.

Both handled lower-tier spirits, and to be honest, their skill was barely enough to pass the first preliminary.

As I approached them while they were only glancing around nervously, they looked at me.

Then, realizing I was a mutant spirit mage, their expressions darkened.

“What kind of faces are those, looking like you’ve already lost?”

I spoke to them without using honorifics.

“…Do you really think we have a chance right now?”

“Then why did you come here if you’re going to lose?”

At my question, the boy let out a sigh.

“That’s… sigh. Never mind. What’s the point of saying it.”

Look at this guy?

It was clear they had no intention of cooperating, as if they had already decided they lost.

Now that I saw it, I understood roughly.

These guys had no will to do anything in this contest from the start.

Of course, I didn’t really care, and since in the end all we needed was to secure the marked spirit water, I stopped paying attention to them.

We would be a team this time, but there was no need to deeply bond with them.

Soon we boarded the prepared carriage, and the carriage headed to each starting point in the bamboo forest.

“The test lasts a total of two days. During those two days, you must find the spirit water and endure until the end. Please refrain from killing.”

In essence, this was a sieve to filter out those who passed the first preliminary.

Everyone here was a spirit mage.

That meant even if physical clashes occurred, the assumption was that they wouldn’t use hidden tricks outside their spirits.

“However, the use of artificial objects is prohibited. Please only use the approved supplies.”

What was handed to me were items spirit mages usually used, such as a spirit orb or a wand.

I checked the two items briefly, then chose one long and sturdy-looking wand and tucked it into my clothes.

Normally spirit mages used these to control spirits more freely, but for me it was an item I wouldn’t have any use for anyway.

Bang!!!

Soon, a sound like fireworks echoed in the sky, and at the same time, my two teammates and I entered the forest.

As soon as we stepped into the forest, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

It was fine that spirit energy was abundant everywhere.

But very slightly, spirit mana was leaking from our bodies and heading somewhere.

Does this kind of flow usually exist during tests?

Is it a characteristic of this bamboo forest?

I considered it, but judged that neither was the case.

Someone is deliberately doing this.

I didn’t know who the culprit was, and this was my first time in such a contest, but I could tell for sure.

This was absolutely not a normal situation.

That was when it happened.

“…Sigh. We’re screwed.”

At the calm muttering of one boy, the other boy lightly hit his shoulder and gave him a look.

“Say that stuff to yourself after it’s over. Don’t ruin other people’s mood for no reason.”

“What, am I wrong? The team that got gathered is all half-wits. You and I can barely handle a few lower spirits, and over there is a total half-wit spirit mage.”

“You bastard!”

Watching the two start internal conflict right at the beginning, I opened the rulebook I had picked up in the carriage before entering.

–A teammate’s dropout is a point deduction.

Depending on the case, it could also be grounds for disqualification.

That line caught my eye.

What an annoying clause.

In this situation, competing while dragging along two disobedient brats was extremely troublesome.

That was when—

–Beeeeeeep….

Along with a strange sound coming from somewhere, a spirit water glowing with blue light flew quickly past us.

“Uh… that?!”

That was the target we had to find in this forest.

It was the marked spirit water.

The spirit water circled around us leisurely as if asking whether we could catch it, then began to flee.

“We… we have to catch that!”

The two hurriedly tried to chase it.

But the spirit water was far too fast for them to handle.

As the two stared blankly at the spirit water getting farther away like dogs chasing chickens,

I opened the collection container meant to store spirit water.

“Serqet. Bite it.”

At those words, the air rippled and an otter appeared swiftly, diving in like a flash, biting the spirit water by the nape, and returning to me.

As if it couldn’t believe it had been caught, the spirit water squeaked and struggled, but I simply shoved the spirit water Serqet brought into the collection container with a plop.

“Looks like it’s over. Let’s just go somewhere and eat.”

I hadn’t eaten earlier anyway and was getting hungry.

At the absurd situation, the two spirit mages stared at me with blank expressions.

“What the….”

“That’s a spirit too? Isn’t that more like a beast tamer or something?”

To clear their suspicion, I signaled Serqet, and it used a spirit’s naturalization, flickering before their eyes.

“Th-that’s really a spirit?”

“What is this….”

Now all we had to do was protect this until the next day when the test ended, right?

Easy.

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