After Logan's long speech, the element assessment ceremony started. Bruce began to look at his opponents from every family. From his observations, there is only one person from the young generation who could challenge him, Johnathan Hopkins, the prodigy of the Hopkins family.
It seemed that the Hopkins family was putting all their resources to develop this prodigy. From his aura, Bruce can tell that Jonathan was at peak level for body refinement while he was only at High Level Body Refinement.
The way that Jonathan associated with everyone around him showed Bruce that Jonathan is an arrogant person who really believes that he's a once-in-a-million-year prodigy.
For example, Bruce noticed that Jonathan disregarded anyone that is not of importance to his family by watching how he interacted with the servants of the Stellae family and the audience.
In Jonathan's eyes, those commoners are nothing but worms. Whenever the ladies looked at Jonathan, his eyes began to glow, and his smile looked quite perverted for a 10-year-old kid.
Bruce can only imagine the cruelty the Hopkins maid will go through after Jonathan grows up a bit more. Bruce's final evaluation of Jonathan is someone akin to a clown since he's no different than the other elite kids.
There are plenty of others who are more gifted than Jonathan in this world. His attitude will get him killed someday.
Bruce did not enjoy hanging around the other elite children because most of them act arrogant without the ability to back it up.
Bruce hated the most when highly privileged kids treated servants like trash. If someone disrespected Lisa in front of Bruce, he'd kill that person on the spot.
Lisa is the closest person to Bruce outside his family since she had been taking care of him ever since he was a baby. Lisa cooked him anything he wanted and always let him nap on her lap. Though Lisa is a servant, her position in his heart is much higher than those of high-class ladies.
"Alright, let's start the elemental assessment ceremony. Next to me is the latest version of the elemental accessor. This accessor has been created by the alchemist of the Imperial Academy
"Though applicants to the academy will have a chance to access their elemental talents through the accessor during the entrance exam, I will be conducting the assessment exam much earlier to recruit one youth to Imperial Academy who has an affinity with fire."
The crowd went wild after hearing the announcement from Alchemist Ron. Bruce smirked after figuring out what Alchemist Ron was up to. Obviously, he was not doing this out of the goodwill of his heart or because he's friends with grandpa.
Those who have an affinity with fire are extremely high in demand since they can become alchemists. Usually, if an applicant shows strong talent in fire, the applicant would be recruited by several influences in the Imperial Academy.
Alchemist Ron wanted to beat everyone to the punch and got permission to recruit before the official exam.
"First candidate, please come up here and touch the elemental accessor"
Alchemist Ron officially started the examination and about 30 youths lined up to take the exam. Most of the youth possessed no affinity with the elements while some had affinities with other elements other than fire.
While the families with talented youths celebrated, Alchemist Ron's face became grimmer because there were only 2 youths left to take the assessment. When it was Jonathan Hopkins turn to complete the assessment, the crowd got quiet.
"19th candidate, please come up here"
Alchemist Ron called out to Jonathan placing his last hope on him since Jonathan was renowned as the prodigy of this generation. Even only a minority of youths could reach peak body refinement stage before the age of 10 in the continent.
"Bzzzz. The candidate has affinities with Water and Earth"
The Hopkins family went wild after hearing the results because that meant Jonathan was a true prodigy. His future would be limitless, and he would have no problem joining the Imperial Academy. There was also a good chance that the Hopkins family will be in control of Meropis country in the future.
Upon hearing the results, Jonathan smirked at Bruce and walked back to his seat as his family applauded him.
'Huh, only two elemental affinities, and everyone acted like they have seen a god' Bruce thought to himself as he walked toward the elemental accessor.
Compared to Jonathan, Bruce had almost no good reputation other than being handsome and rich. There were a few reasons why that is.
First, he was at High Stage Body Refinement, which was standard for kids his age given the resources of the Stellae family.
Secondly, he was extremely lazy and rarely went out for people to notice him.
Lastly, aside from his looks, Bruce did not act like an heir of a noble family since he regularly hung out with commoners and ate their food. No one really had high expectations of Bruce aside from his family who know his true capabilities.
Bruce casually touched the elemental accessor and channeled his energy into it. Then a phenomenon happened, the crystal glowed bright red, then bright blue, then bright orange, and then bright green.
"Bzzzz. The candidate has affinities with Fire, Earth, Water, and Air."
The entire audience turned deathly quiet while the Stellae family had their mouths open. Jonathan Hopkins stared at Bruce as if Bruce had murdered his entire family.
It was his moment to shine in the spotlight and have countless influences recruit him. He trained so hard every day and was given countless resources from his family to improve his martial cultivation. How is it possible that he is inferior to a lazy heir from the Stellae family?
Amidst the silence, Logan whispered to his father.
"Dad… Maybe afternoon naps are good for you?"
Upon hearing the outrageous question from his son, Elliot began to contemplate deeply as if he has found the meaning of life.
"Son… Maybe you're onto something here"