"Yes sir." It wasn't long before the contract terms were changed and Kayden promptly signed it. For the first time in two lives, he had a strong back now, not even the nobles could bully him anymore.
"Well, Kayden, finish the competition and then we'll discuss your responsibilities. Resources will begin to be delivered to you when you are 10 years old. Dispensed." As soon as Kayden left, the generals began to argue.
This age should be for them better to observe Kayden's behavior and performance during this time.
"Commander, why give so many perks to a mere recruit? Especially since he's only at rank 6?" Again, the person who spoke first was the same woman as before.
"According to our sources, he was able to face a knight at the 8th rank while he was at the 5th rank. Not only that, but he developed his entire fighting style and improved it on his own." The army spies were impressive. It hadn't even been a few hours and they already knew a lot about Kayden.
"But isn't that normal for a genius? Don't we have hundreds of such people in our army? And isn't he too late for his age?" This was indeed true. Kayden hadn't done anything worthy of recognition.
Nowadays, there is no shortage of resources to propel someone to the higher realms, especially for an organization of this size. The main problem was that even with resources, most people got stuck and didn't move forward.
"That's what I thought. But he is only just 9 years old, and besides," the old man smiled, "he has an innate talent of the first rank." Finally, the room became completely silent.
Kayden wasn't a genius, he was a fucking monster.
When Kayden returned to the nobles' zone, he headed to his friends' meeting place which was the same restaurant as in the beginning. They had a day of rest until the next event.
"Kayden!" As soon as he walked in the door, he was greeted by a party full of people. He recognized that the majority there were part of the team that won the battle royale. Quickly, a mountain of people started coming at him and throwing him into the air.
Everyone was shouting his name and celebrating. It took a while for the boy to free himself and find his equally excited friends. Kayden only now realized what they had done.
A wave of happiness ran through his entire body. For the next few hours, they just celebrated and, when sleep finally came, each one went to their tent where they were congratulated by their guardians.
The next day, Kayden woke up early as usual and did some basic physical training. He didn't want to cultivate in a place full of monsters. If they discovered his little quirk, he would be made a guinea pig for the rest of his life.
Today was when the results of the first test would come out for those who didn't win like Kayden, from what the boy had heard it was only the top 100,000 from the first test who would move on to the second test.
Again he went to the same restaurant as the previous day, the boy had a hearty coffee, nothing there needed to be paid for, everything was a gift of goodwill from the academy, this was done to please the nobles.
After a few hours, all his friends were gathered there, Kayden was an anomaly for his age, normally teenagers when they had the option chose to wake up late, in fact, all human beings were like that for the most part.
"Good morning Sarah, do you have any information about today's test?" The only one who seemed to be well enough to answer received Kayden's question with attentive eyes.
"Well, there are some things I learned from past tests " Now that Kayden signed the contract he could know more specific details from people who have already participated "The first steps are just empty emotions with no depth, anger, hate, sadness" the girl he paused as he ate a piece of bread painfully slowly.
"The next ones are things a little deeper, for example, loneliness and sadness mixed, this lasts until level 30, and after that, everything comes memories, your worst memories will be played in your mind, it's more or less one memory for every 10 steps until the 50"
That... Kayden wasn't sure what would happen if his memories were from the other life.
"Now that things get difficult, you will be thrown into a memory of an unknown person, if you give up or anything like that you will lose, this lasts until floor 90, after that I don't know"
Now the test was a little more specific for Kayden, after asking he discovered that Sarah had reached step number 64 and Matheus only reached step number 57, it wasn't very high at all, but it was still above average.
It didn't take long and the middle of the day arrived, bringing the voice announcing the start of the next test.
"Everyone who passed received a medal, the test is limited to climbing the ladder, everyone will be called up in 10 minutes, good luck to everyone" This time the announcement was brief and without many details.
Well... not that the other one had many either, after everyone wished each other good luck they began to levitate towards the forest again. Little by little the structure of the stairs appeared.
It was simply surreal, Kayden couldn't even see its end, its height was easily ten kilometers away, its height was nearly 300 meters, and each step was wide enough for 4 people to line up on it.
As soon as everyone was placed on the ground, Kayden heard the voice again.
"The test has started, we no longer have a time limit" The phrase took everyone by surprise, in most previous tests a certain time limit was given.
'very good ' Kayden sighed and placed his foot on the first step while most were still processing the new information. As soon as he leaned fully on the step he received a rush of uncontrollable joy.
It was so much that he even opened a wide smile.
'what an easy test' The boy didn't even think twice before running to the next step, just before his footstepped he stopped in mid-air 'Wait' it took a while, but Kayden realized he wasn't in his normal state.
The discharge of emotions in his body was so strong that he even lost consciousness, finally, he realized that this test was not a walk in the park, and with a reinforced mentality he climbed to the next step.
Sadness.
Loneliness.
Anger.
Despair.
Passion.
Hatred.
Scared.
Adrenaline.
Nervousness.
Each step was something different, but nothing could shake Kayden enough after the shock of the first step, Compared to everything he experienced in his previous life, this was nothing.
Loneliness? He spent 20 years alone, angry? Every day of his first life, the only new things were unbridled love and passion that made him want to get back to meeting people from the floors below.