What happened next was simple. After Oliver's surrender, the referee seemed to have contacted another person before he gave a red pass to Oliver and then let the whole incident off.
He wasn't disqualified from the competition and instead even got an instant qualification ticket which made him able to ignore the rest of the rounds and enter the third part of the test freely.
No one objected to this idea, as they knew just how fearsome this boy was and how much power he held. The only strange thing was that they didn't replace Oliver's old badge with a new one. The prowess the boy displayed was far more than what the badge showed, it was even more than the power level of 6.
Perhaps, it might even be 7...
After all, the power the tentacles showed wasn't much extraordinary compared to the referee. The only advantage of it was its ability to be made in large numbers, making it a battle one would definitely not want to engage for a long time in.
As this aspect of it didn't increase the prowess of his ability, his power level would also not be considered that high, contrasting to his true fighting power.
If one calculated his power by who he can fight and win, he might even be able to win over power level 10s.
After being dismissed without any punishments, the boy walked down the platform and found a place to sit. However, no one was there to sit with him; he was just too scary, considering he could even fight with that powerful referee and was the sole cause of the many injured they were witnessing right now.
Some probably had broken bones too.
As for after that, several more people came onto the platform very fast. They were there to take care of the aftermath of the round, meaning they were there to carry the injured.
There weren't really many heavily injured people; so they only healed those that had light wounds on the spot and just carried the ones with severe injuries with them to another place.
...
The original fight that was filled with cautiousness had become rather bland and dull after they witnessed the fight next platform. Oliver's power had completely overwhelmed them, and caused their minds to enter a state of shock, resulting in their movements also becoming forceful and simple.
The oncoming teams that were filled with cautiousness and the intent to gang on them, didn't even bother to fight them now. They fougth their own battles, with other teams and the rest of the story was ordinary.
Each of the teams fought against each other, with our fighting prowess greatly reduced due to our unstable mental state. Due to it, we had it quite easy and by the end, we managed to win over one team.
After we won, we went over to the team by our side, intending to also win over them. Unfortunately, we fell prey to another team as their dendro user had a power level of 3, and had quite similar powers to Bedwyr.
Due to them suppressing our power, our loss was determined.
In the end, that team was even able to take on the team we intended to fight, and became the winning team of the platform.
"Fortunately, due to Kirt, we were able to avoid that monster. Otherwise, we would've been like those that were on the floor" Bedwyr said right after we had sat down on our own seats.
With the distracted mind he had during our fight, it was obvious his mind had been influenced deeply by what he saw.
Like most people here, he didn't see such a scene like this before. The precious humans being tossed around like that in batches, as if they were worthless objects, had shook his mind; even though he knew that the monsters were far worse, he hadn't seen them with his own eyes before after all.
Like how most people won't care much about war if they hadn't seen the scene pf where it happened or experienced it themselves, Bedwyr, Elen, and Kirt also weren't much used to this kind of violence.
Perhaps, the National Test was another way to train the mind of the young generation so that they can get more used to monsters later on. The fact that the competition didn't prohibit participants from inflicting severe injuries upon other participants, and that the healing team was always quick to come, just indicated that the nation wanted to see injuries upon the participants.
Injuries so that they could develop their mind, and at least have a real experience in fighting.
The idea that Oliver was let off without any troubles even after injuring so many people further proved that point.
As for the rest of the second part of the test, it wasn't anything that was going to implicate us.
"Do you two intend to watch the rest of the match?" Elen asked us as we sat and looked at the competition going on.
"No, I will be leaving soon" Bedwyr answered.
"I also intend to leave" following Bedwyr, I answered her.
My mind felt tired after witnessing Oliver's power. I had killed an animal before, no, I have killed three animals before. After a while, I got used to it even though it was uncomfortable the first time, I have to say.
After all, this world functioned on who was stronger and although this may have changed in the later years, being strong still made one's social status higher than the others.
Since I intended to walk on the path of fighting, strength was needed and to back the strength I will hold, there needed to be a good mentality.
Due to this, I didn't think much of killing them after my thoughts had stabilized after killing them. I am a selfish person, that was it. With my true thoughts influencing myself, that discomfort was soon gone.
However, seeing that power that could crush me easily, I just felt mentally tired. Therefore, I didn't want to stay here any further. I just wanted to go back home and throw myself onto the bed.
If my tiredness were to be gone on the way back, maybe I will watch some anime. I didn't intend to tire myself more.
"Then let's get a few things to drink before we separate" both of us didn't deny Elen's suggestion.
"Fanta"
"Cola"
"Chocolate milk" yep, the one who wanted chocolate milk was me. Because I wasn't in the mood to drink a soda, I chose the chocolate milk.
"Alright, here" after inserting a few coins, Elen handed the drinks to us. Cola for her, Fanta for Bedwyr and chocolate milk for me.
"My treat this time because we did well in the test" Elen opened her Cola and began chugging it down. I also opened my chocolate milk and started drinking it, only Bedwyr didn't seem to be drinking it any time soon.
After that, we bade our farewells and left in different directions. Well, all three of us were taking a taxi.
...
The Third part of the test won't be beginning soon. Since the second stage wasn't publicized, strangely, I wasn't able to watch the rest of the competition. However, I knew the result of the test, I was one of its participants after all.
The second part ended with four people winning and three going to the next stage. The cryo user Snow Lily, a new nickname given to Gwenyth, the girl with the power level 6. Because of her rather graceful moves, face, and the lily flower on her clothing, she was given this nickname.
Besides her, there was also the Plant Wall, a rather uncool nickname given to the dendro user on Snow Lily's team. Although it didn't sound nice, this was indeed the case as his ability mostly materialized in the form of walls made of plants.
In the match, he had even formed plant walls from all sides, shielding both himself and the orange-haired girl from any attacks.
After that, the Lightning Gum, the orange-haired teammate who always seemed to be chewing gum. She had excellent control over electro and was a speed-based offense.
Lastly, it was the person who had gotten a special pass right to the next part of the test. No one gave him any nicknames but he was known as a fearsome individual who can control strange elementals to form tentacles and attack.
He was feared by everyone.
The third part will begin three days later, and he was buying a ticket to it right now. Just from their section, if such people were coming out, how will it be for the entire competition? It was surely going to be exciting and since he had money, he was going to watch it.
Well, having money didn't mean he should spend it wastefully. Therefore, for now, he was only spending the money he earned through programming and just putting back his inheritance money.
He will need it later, but the time to spend it wasn't now.
'Besides that... I have also benefitted hugely due to the test. Now, I seem to have gotten closer to forming the energy seal'
Seeing others control elementals, in their own way, had given him insights. If he could utilize this insight he gained, he could very well break through a bottleneck in his forming of seals.
Everyone utilized their elements and abilities differently. In fact, the mortal stage's power levels only depended on how much elementals you can gather.
As for how efficiently you can control them, it didn't matter for power levels. How the elementals listened to you, hear and do as your will said, all depends on the quality of your Isor.
However, through his enhanced elemental vision, he could more strongly sense the relation of the elements and the Isor. How they reacted to each other, and how their related to each other. The knowledge he gained may have already been depicted in books and he had heard them before, but seeing it with his own eyes was very much different from hearing its description.
He saw the two's unique intricacy with each other, making his control over elementals increase rapidly. Besides, his mind had just gotten stimulated after seeing the power of Oliver. This had made his Isor go through a change, just as if it was going to break a bottleneck and advance to the next realm.
As soon as he felt he was going to break a bottleneck, not in his seals, but in his control over elementals, he immediately went to the dark realm. Comprehensions would be more efficient and would have bigger results there.
... Well, that's what he thought.
The dark realm is a place that is visited by souls and not the physical body. Therefore, it's only reasonable to boost comprehensions related to the soul.
As for elemental-related fields? Since my Isor was in my physical body, and I won't have my physical body nor the elementals in the dark realm, of course it won't boost my comprehension about it.
Not only that, I ended up losing that bottleneck- f***.
Kirt really cursed his own stupidness due to his imbalanced mental state right now. He had just been contemplating over something and he was just going to break through a bottleneck. Of course he would be excited.
If he hadn't done that, he would've reached a stronger realm of control over the elementals; it may have even been possible for his Isor to advance along with that and his power level to increase significantly.
What's lost is now lost. Sigh, all my comprehension went to waste. But at least, my Isor may have gotten inactive due to my soul leaving my body, resulting in the changes that were going in it halt and decrease, my mind still holds that comprehension.
As long as I get a chance and still remember this feeling, I will be able to trigger this reaction again, and go through a bottleneck. What it needs for it to trigger again is time, and I have plenty of time.
I could try stimulating it once again with the same conditions as today. And the most reasonable time to stimulate it again is three days later, the third part of the competition.
Not only will there be Oliver and Snow Lily, there will also be other young geniuses. He will definitely gain something from it, as long as he follows what he must do.