Alex looked around as mages who were in the stands dropped below to check on their friends. He had to weave through an oncoming horde of mages as he followed Malcolm to wherever they were headed.
He paused as he felt someone staring at him from close by. As he turned to look he was greeted by a a familiar face.
Alex was confused for a moment, but he remembered the encounter a few days ago, and the meaning of her words changed significantly as he saw Tori's newly reddened hair.
'Of course, her magic wasn't suited for combat. She might have been a light mage, but she was more oriented to healing.'
Alex smiled and was about to wave but stopped himself as he saw another student ushering her towards the stage. The other mage giving Alex an odd look before he turned away.
Alex also turned back around, picking up his pace, so that he could keep up with Malcolm who had traveled quite a distance and wasn't waiting for Alex.
——————
"Are you trying to get yourself executed!?" Malcolm said after the hologram of Alex slaying the Noble class lion ended.
Alex didn't answer.
Malcolm sighed. "I edited out the end of the fight. To anyone else it'll look like the watch malfunctioned, and I set the time of the recording to seem like it ended right as you were pulled back."
"The only problem is that," Malcolm sighed again before continuing. "Every single instructor saw your dark mana dissipating. Just try to avoid using your dark affinity for the rest of the week."
Alex nodded. "I didn't plan on it."
"Good… good. You did well. I know it may not seem like I am very happy with how you were able to save his body from being digested by a pack of lions, but I am. Not many could do what you did and escape… relatively unscathed." He said while looking at Alex's still healing hand.
"I'll leave you be for now, but you may be called back here later when the rest of the committee reviews the footage. Here you can keep this as well just don't lose it." Malcolm said while handing Alex the Noble beast core.
Alex nodded before standing and exiting the room.
Alex felt strange, everything possible had gone awry. While the day was still young, Alex felt like just lying down and waiting for it to end.
So he did.
'I knew deaths were normal in the hunting competition, but if this many were to die anywhere else all other events would have been called off.'
"Alex." A voice called out.
Alex looked over to see Cameron enter.
"I somehow knew you would be in here." Cameron said as he walked up to where Alex was.
Alex sat up before speaking. "You're looking much better now."
"I'm just happy to be looking. The healers patched me up perfectly and said that the healing potion made the process a lot easier."
"What about you your hand still looks a bit out of sorts?" Cameron asked as he looked at Alex's still wrapped hand, the reddish glow from his skin indicating that he was still feeling some pain or discomfort.
"It feels fine now, much like I touched a stovetop for a brief moment." Alex answered.
"That's good… So, what I truly came here for was this." Cameron said before handing Alex a manual.
"At first I didn't know what to get, but after calling my father and asking if it was ok, I decided to give you a manual for awakening a fire affinity that my family created."
"An affinity awakening manual? I didn't know these even existed." Alex questioned as he looked At the manual in his hands.
"That's because of the way they're created. It's either a hit or miss. Some old powerful mage has to watch younger mages breakthrough and visualize what happens. Then they also have to use methods to try and recreate that occurrence. However, until people test the method, there is no telling wether it would work." Cameron said while noticing Alex look at the book with a questioning look.
"But don't worry too much, our manual has been used by several hundreds of people and quite a few have recently awakened an affinity." Cameron said trying to clear any doubts.
"Recently?" Alex questioned while looking at the books public release date that was labeled in the 1900s.
"It takes a lot of time and patience. The earliest someone has talent to awaken the affinity was fifteen years and they were a direct descendant to two fire mages."
"Then what if it was paired with a potion of awakening and a tower of fire?" Alex asked as he flipped open the manual for the first time.
Cameron went quiet as he thought for a moment, only speaking up as he reached a conclusion. "If you can afford the hefty price of the potion, and the upkeep charge of a room in a tower of fire, then I would say that you are guaranteed to awaken… Within a month that is, it all depends on you, and how perceptive you are."
"Thank you for this." Alex said with a look of gratitude on his face.
Cameron nodded and they spoke for a bit more before he returned to his own cabin.
——————
"Alex there you are." Taylor said after entering the cabin.
"Been here all afternoon." Alex said as he flipped a page with his good hand and rested the book on his other.
"Have you seen the news? There are several articles naming you 'The Heroic Dark Mage'." Taylor asked while typing something on his phone.
"They are?" Alex asked with a look of discomfort on his face.
"Oh yeah. Have you not seen the recordings from the competitions?"
"I saw my own."
"Well Cameron's was running because he was in danger… you know what I'll show you what was released to the public." Taylor said while pulling up a video.
Alex looked at the screen and read what was written as music played from Taylor's phone.
'Breaking news.'
The scene changed as a woman appeared on the screen.
"Recent reports have just arrived, stating that there was a malfunction in one of the teleporters at a school in the mid-eastern portion of the kingdom. A malfunction that wasn't detected until after the students had returned from being sent out."
"What was this malfunction you might ask, well every student was sent out to the middle of the desserts of the kingdom of light, alone. If you look here we have a chart of the movements of the students. As you may have noticed several students were released within a danger zone that they shouldn't have access to."
"What could have been a much more terrible tragedy, was made safer by the teachings of the schools who took place in this competition. Look here as a student who notices he is in a unsafe area, hides and manages to remain undetected from several beasts who pass him by within the several hours they were trapped out there. And here as several students locate each other through the use of cosmetic firework-like spells, banding together even if they weren't from the same schools."
"There are several more cases of quick thinking, but one stands out the most."
Alex watched as several other videos filled the screen, even seeing Taylor healing another mage for a brief moment before a video of himself showed up. He watched Cameron hiding behind a rock, and saw himself approaching from a distance.
"This young mage travelled nearly twenty miles before encountering another soul, and when he did that youth was nearly on deaths door. Here you can see him helping out and hear him learning of the situation, and instead of turning around he had this to say."
Alex cringed internally as he heard his own voice. "I'm a bit of an experienced hunter, and even if things turn sour, just surviving shouldn't be a problem."
The map that showed students' locations popped up again. Alex's own path that he traveled was highlighted and was the longest line on the map by far.
"This boy travelled over sixty miles and entered into the danger zone, just to hope that he could save another live. Look here as he spots a deceased mage surround by several lions, and rather than just letting nature have its way he steps in so that the boys parents can see their sons face again."
Alex watched as he rescued the blurred out image from a lion. How his hand got injured, and him lying on the ground in exhaustion before being teleported back to the school.
"But who is this boy who was heroic and fearless. He is one of the many dark mages that we are told are spineless, evil, and cruel. I don't know about you all but from what I've seen, this boy is none of those things."
Alex watched as the woman spoke of him like he was some type of hero. 'I don't feel like a hero.' An old English word popped into his mind as he listened to the reporter paint a saint-like image of himself with her words.
"You said there were many about me right."
Taylor nodded. "At least you don't have to worry about not being recognized anymore."
"I've never worried about not being recognized." Alex said while his gut sunk as he pictured his future days of having strangers calling out his name.
"Haha, don't worry I'll be a bodyguard for you to hold back the press, if it ever comes to that." Taylor said before handing Alex a blue bag.
"I hope it doesn't." Alex said with a chuckle.
——————
'Thankfully, in the winter the sun is rarely out. It saved me quite a bit of mana.' Alex thought as he started applying runes to the frame of the suit of armor.
Rather than just applying all of them at once Alex just did one at a time and even then the group was one of the first to complete the second phase.
Jim, Dan, and Alex gathered around Paul as they watched him go through and check the suit with the computer. They held their breath as they watched the computer display green check marks over and over, praying that there wouldn't be a mistake.
After nearly a minute, Paul smiled and put down the computer before activating a rune on the armor which folded open so that he could enter it.
After going through multiple different maneuvers, jumping to incredible heights, flipping, and running at a fast speed, he got out of the machine.
"The mech is ready for use." Paul told a judge.
David looked around before nudging one of the judges next to him.
An older judge stood up before heading down and entering their mech. Paul stood in front of the mech as he explained the controls.
When it was all done, the judge immediately tested out the functions that Paul hadn't tested. The mech took flight for nearly five minutes and shot several rounds of fireballs before landing and destroying a wall of dirt that the old man created. When all the testing was done and the mechs energy was low, an empty core was shot out and a new one automatically replaced the old.
The old man stepped out of the mech a satisfied smile on his face.
"This mech is very well made. I expect many companies to call you up and give offers for the production rights in the near future." The old man said to Paul who was the one who created the blueprint.
Paul thanked the man and they waited for the rest of the creations to be tested.