[Officially up with raws.]
"Hmm?"
James and Noah suddenly paused and simultaneously moved their hands towards their inner pockets.
"What's wrong?" Melissa asked.
The two withdrew their tokens and glanced at it.
"Not sure. It suddenly felt warm." Noah answered.
"Wow. My points are changing." James exclaimed.
The dark-brown token in his hand glowed with a warm light as the number on it suddenly increased, albeit by just one value.
"Mine too." Noah spoke.
"How?" Luna and Melissa were shocked. Even Owen seemed to not have expected it. The only calm person was Asher.
"As expected." Asher smirked.
"What is? This?" Noah couldn't help but ask with surprise.
Asher nodded.
"What's going on?" Owen asked with furrowed brows.
Asher didn't explain right away but threw back a question of his own.
"Don't you feel the entire format of this test was quite weird?"
Puzzled, Noah asked.
"Weird how?"
Asher didn't answer but instead walked towards the corpse of the monster and slammed a palm down.
Bam.
The skull of the beast broke apart as Asher's palm went straight through it.
"!!!"
Noah, James, Melissa, Luna and Owen were stunned, especially James who was familiar with the toughness of the monster's skull. Even after channelling his wind element mana, one of the sharpest natures of mana, he still wasn't able to slice cleanly through it and his ten-inch dagger wasn't able to bury itself into the depths of the skull. Seeing Asher achieve what he couldn't, with a palm strike at that, sent James roiling in shock.
'Is this his true strength?' Owen grimaced.
"Stop acting so shocked guys. That was just a trick. Have you forgotten my element is ice?" Asher smiled.
"Oh yeah." Noah nodded his head in understanding.
Breaking the skull of that monster would be difficult for first-stage Guardian mages that aren't of the earth or metal elements, but someone who wielded control over ice magic could achieve this by freezing the head and making it brittle then striking the skull with enough force.
"Back to the point, what's happening with the change in points? How did it happen?" Melissa questioned.
"The details of the test are to rob our opponents of their tokens, both personal and group token multipliers. Then what's the point of having monsters in the mix? To make it more difficult than it already is?" Asher said.
"You mean…" Owen raised an eyebrow.
"It's normal for the group leader to be the strongest and most respected, but in some cases, group members can be pressured to do all the work for the leader while he or she reaps the reward. Attacking enemy teams, clearing the road, defeating monsters and so on, the group leader could give these tasks to their members and just wait till everything is over and share the tokens however they wish. If that's the case, it would be difficult for those in this kind of team to be able to make any noteworthy performance as they would be suppressed from the start. Apart from that, if the only method to accrue points was by 'hunting' other players, it would be harder for smaller teams and weaker ones to be able to achieve much. Although the principle of the academy is focused on separating true geniuses from average elites, I don't think it would be that extreme, after all, everyone who managed to last this long is not an ordinary student. Hence, there has to be another way to collect points, one that still abides by the academy's principles and could give an opportunity to everyone present. Now ask yourself what other method would be much better than hunting monsters?" Asher pointed at the corpse with a smile.
"I don't know why they didn't mention it to us at the start, but I'm pretty sure that this was part of the dean's arrangements. The increment was only given to Noah and James because they were the ones involved in the battle. In other words, this second method of gaining points rewards those who participate in battles, and it can also allow the weaker teams to overtake the stronger ones in terms of points." Asher added.
"That makes sense, but the points we got were too small. It's not enough to make a difference." Noah shook his head.
"That's true, but look at the circumstances involved." Owen said.
"The circumstances?" James asked.
"The strength of the monster was at the first stage; the benchmark for a third-year student and a monster in the Manchurian forest. It should be expected that not many points would be offered for killing one. Apart from that, it took you two to take it down. If one of you had fought the creature, he might have gained more points than you both did. And if the monster was stronger, the points would equally be larger."
"I see." James replied.
"Then what now?" Melissa asked Asher.
"What now? Well, just a minor change to the original plan. We have to hunt as much as we can." Asher dug out a jelly-like object from the monster's head.
"Monster corpses are valuable depending on which part you harvest. Not only can we make a ton of cash from this test, but we can also gather materials to improve our strength. I happen to know of a potion that requires monster organs."
"You do?" Luna exclaimed.
Everyone stared at her in surprise and realizing that she was a bit out of line, Luna lowered her head and apologized. However, the shock was still present in her eyes.
Although Luna's family wasn't above a count in terms of influence, they were still aware of the happenings in the upper ranks of nobility. The current Arnhaunt family was not the same as it once was and this was due to the fact that their potion capabilities had improved considerably than it was before. Having released into the market three never-before-seen potions the Arnhaunts were currently racking in a lot of cash. At the same time, they had formed the White Maple chamber of commerce to bring in a couple of other families to help expand the trade and also profit from it.
From the recent actions of the Arnhaunts, anyone could see that they were slowly extending their hands into the commercial area and the ultimate 'weapon' they used to achieve this was their potions.
Now that Asher hinted at a new potion, Luna couldn't remain still any more. Her family wasn't so influential or powerful, so it was difficult for them to have any relations with the Arnhaunts or be able to join the White Maple chamber of commerce easily. There were also some disagreements between the family's elders on the decision of doing so when the chamber was still new. Now though, the performances of the potions in the market were enough to show everyone the value of being part of this chamber of commerce, but sadly, it was too late as getting membership was very difficult and only by invitation.
Truthfully, part of the reason Luna joined the group was to get close to Asher and try to get an invitation. Now hearing of a new potion in development, she could barely control herself from going right up to him and pleading for an invitation.
Unlike Melissa, her family's progress wasn't impressive and could even be said to be declining, so her circumstance was getting worse along with it. Luna had even once overheard her uncle speaking with her father about using her as a political piece in an arranged marriage.
The only way Luna could stop that was to prove her value to the family which was very difficult. Her potential had already been checked, and it wasn't like she could become a seventh-stage Guardian tomorrow. Hence, Luna decided to get an invitation from Asher and become close to him. As long as she could achieve this, her family wouldn't see her as a political piece any longer.