Faust closes his eyes and raises his head up as the morning sun rays warm up his skin.
*"The tree under the hill, it looks lonely too. Hmmm, I will try to make it within 59 seconds."* He thinks of a tree that is under the hill he lives. It is 20 meters walk from the foot of mountain to the village. So he thinks there won't be any people there now to catch him doing this feat.
*50 seconds*
He paints a picture of the tree under the hill in his mind, the way it smells and the way it feels to be laying under it. Faust looks calm as still water without even moving a muscle in his face. All of his focus is only on the tree.
*58 seconds*
Gus, who has been watching Faust this whole time, raises his eyebrows in amusement. Bella, who is sleeping near the door, suddenly storms out of the door barking. It is surprised as to where Faust disappeared to in broad daylight.
Faust, who is in front of the door, has teleported to the tree under the hill in the blink of an eye.
Gus, who is watching Faust all this while, grows a smile upon seeing Faust's teleportation. "It took him 58 seconds, heh! But, what good can a short range teleportation can do in combat. Sigh!" He says while covering the breakfast on the table with lids and leave the table without eating anything.
Faust walks from within the carnival street with lots of food stalls and entertaining games settled on either side of the street. Faust doesn't seem interested with those. He quietly walks towards the main spot. A stadium painted in sky blue color with a purple water fountain stood proudly in the middle of the area.
The stadium is filling up with people and contestants. Faust walks up to join the contestants queue and as he walks inside, he sees Ahito and his brother are talking in a corner.
The eyes of Ahito, which are filled with admiration for his brother, suddenly turned cold and despising as he saw Faust. The brother of Ahito also notices his expressions and turn his stare at Faust.
"It is ok, I will take care of it. You go train more and apply next year." His brother advices Ahito.
As Faust walks further, he comes across Caitlyn. She and her father are talking to the parents of Roy. Both of them seem to be praising Caitlyn, but her face looks pissed and uninterested.
*"Oh, it's her!"* Faust says in his head.
Caitlyn rolls her eyes while yawning and suddenly catches Faust who is staring at her.
She quickly corrects her standing pose, stops the yawn in the middle; she stands in attention with her legs being close to each other, holds her hands in her front and passes a smile at Faust.
Surprised, Faust checks behind him to see if she is smiling at anyone else. But there is none. He is the only person standing in that spot. He realizes that she was smiling at him and forces a smile back at her.
The face of Caitlyn glowed up and her smile widened, it is such a warm smile that it instantly soothes his heart watching her.
Faust keeps watching her until she disappears into the crowd. He then continue walking until he reaches the contestant room.
All of the contestants seem nervous, they are shaking their legs rapidly, while counting numbers, and meditating to relieve their fears.
"Fausty! You are hereeee!" Nick jumps out onto Faust, he brought his arms around Faust's head and squeezes him.
"Ahhh! You are suffocating me!" Says Faust while trying to let go of Nick's hold.
"Hey Faust! Where is grandpa, Gus? Knowing how much he is obsessed with you, I thought he would come here to send you off!" Tim says while looking behind Faust.
"Or is he hiding outside and spying on how his grandsonny is doing?" He sneaks out of the contestant room to check, just until his head pops out of the door.
"Ah, no! I sent him off to the audience's seat. I didn't want to him to bother me so much." Faust says with a grin but deep inside he doesn't know if Gus will show up to watch him. He doesn't want to upset Nick or Tim so he made up that lie.
"By the way! I don't see Roy, where is he?" Faust asks as he tilted his head to the side.
"Ahhhh, Roy is a noble right, he gotta stand beside his father. Until his time comes. That is how they distinguish between us commoners and nobles I guess." Tim answers as he fit two metal knuckles on each of his hands.
"Ah! Tim! These are the legendary Vajra knuckles? Grandpa Yang gave them to you?" Faust asks upon seeing Tim's new knuckles.
They are a pair of shining knuckle Busters with pointy ends on either side.
"Haha! No, these are just a replica of the original ones. I will get that real Vajra knuckles when I pass the test. And I'm sure each and every one of us will ace the test." Tim boldly say out loud with tons of confidence while smirking.
Upon listening to the words of Tim, all the other contestants who are sharing the same room with them, suddenly glared at the three of them.
"Heh! Look how they're staring at us. I like better competition." Nick says while he crosses his arms in front of him.
All of a sudden, an announcement flies in from outside, "All the contestants are now being called upon the stage."
"Alright guys!" Roy says as he adjusts his knuckles, "Let the action begin."
Faust pulls his waster out and tucks it in fiercely to make it fit perfectly and Nick stretches his arms while cracking his head.