Under the arena, we were taken to a massive room with a gate three times the height of a man. Well three times the height of Zach, anyway. It would take far more than three of me to reach the top of the door.
"Attention please the next exam will begin soon. Before then, you may view your current standing on the boards around this hall." An examiner called out to all of us.
Only now did I notice the corkboards with lists posted to them. There were several copies, so it seemed we could view our scores from anywhere. I was deeply curious about how I ranked up so far, just like everyone else. I found a free list with Hannah and Zach and we proceeded to monopolize it. No one wanted to approach with Zach's impressive stature and aura.
I found myself staring at his muscles again and drooling a little before I remembered I was there to look at my score, not Zach's muscles. Not even heavenly-sculpted muscles. Curse you, hormones, I need to focus.
"Hey Zoey, we got the same score on the first exam, we're both ranked first in that exam with 3800 points. Impressive, no wonder you chose to cultivate, you're built for it." Zach said casually.
"Thank you, but if you're going to keep hanging around beautiful young maidens like ourselves we'll need to work on your compliments. You shouldn't draw attention to your past misdeeds in the same breath you're trying to make a compliment." I replied haughtily with as much snark as I could muster.
Hannah poked me in the side while I was drawing all the height I could muster to pretend to be prim and proper, tickling me in the process. My noble air was ruined in a second as I held my stomach and giggled mightily.
I could practically hear everyone nearby mentally jotting down my weakness to tickles. By now they had all read the scores and they wanted every advantage they could get. Those who were victims of my Frostfire Nova pitied those naive fools. Anyone's chances of getting close enough to tickle me while I was serious were near nil.
"Hannah, what was your score?" I asked once I could breathe again.
"It was 2000, a fair bit behind you and Zach, though that goes for everyone. Closest score behind you two was 3100." Hannah replied, "Even so, I ended up ranking 151st, not looking good for me is it?"
"Not necessarily, you seemed to hold your own pretty well in this last match, let's see how you did there." I tried to comfort Hannah. She may be annoying, but she was starting to grow on me.
"What the fuck Zoey?! What did you do to get such a high score in the battle royale?" Zach exclaimed while looking at the scores.
"I blew up the arena of course. It seemed like the most prudent course of action," I said as if I had meant to do it all along.
"You blew up the arena? You can't be serious, that wasn't a tiny ring, it was an entire acre!" Zach seemed to be losing his tenuous grasp on reality.
"Yeah, just an acre and my range is ..." I checked the ability in my system for the first time, and nope, never mind, I can't say that out loud, "... sufficient." I finished and hoped they didn't notice my flabbergasted expression.
The radius was 1 kilometer. I could level an entire city block in an instant. That was too monstrous! And the damage ... the referee was wise to move out of the ring. No wonder he was reacting so strongly to me, I had set off the martial arts equivalent of a tactical nuke in that arena today. And I was suggesting using it casually as "crowd control."
Hannah came to save the day for me again, "She's right, it interrupted my fight a little bit. A blinding white flash," Hannah raised her hands to mimic an expanding explosion, "The ground shook and there was this loud noise of an array being rent nearly in twain. Then only Zoey was in the ring. That sound will haunt my dreams. Even the referee had run away. It happened very close to the start of the fight, couldn't have been more than twenty minutes in."
I might actually like this talkative girl after all. She was a good storyteller.
"You ended the battle less than twenty minutes in?! What did you do for the last four hours?" Zach was nearly beside himself.
"It was fourteen minutes, and I meditated while watching Hannah's match. She's quite strong. The 2000 points from the first match are clearly wrong." I replied matter-of-factly.
"Meditated for four hours? So while the rest of us have nearly no qi left, you have nearly a full tank?" Zack was clearly upset with the unfairness of Heaven and Earth.
"A completely full tank and yes. Are you okay Zach?" I made a motion to check Zach's temperature, but he was too tall for me, "Heaven and Earth aren't always fair you know."
"I know that," Zach moped, "But I'm supposed to be the unfair one. Look at at this, Zoey Seeker, first rank again, with 4615 points. 4615! And where is the prodigy Zach on this list? I'll tell you where, second place, and not by a small margin. No, that would be too kind. No, there's such a chasm between our two scores that the spread of everyone else who passed the exam could fit between our two scores. 3360! That's my miserable score. What the heck am I supposed to do with that? Am I supposed to introduce myself as Zach, the former prodigy?" Zach was taking it very hard.
"Aww Zach, I'm sorry, I was so mad at that Curtis kid that I wasn't thinking of how my performance would affect everyone else. But you had to know this day would eventually come right? There's always someone who shines brighter. One day I'll get stomped on too."
"Yeah I know," Zach moaned, "But it wasn't supposed to be until later. I wanted to enjoy a little time in the spotlight."
I walked over and hugged Zach from the side. I was touching his glorious muscles at last! "The spotlight is over-rated, but I promise I won't set off any more nukes without consulting you first."
"Deal, but umm what's a nuke?"
"Umm, it's a word I made up to describe a big explosion," I covered my slip-up hastily, "Let's find Hannah's score."
"I already found it while you and Zach were being melodramatic," Hannah gave us a dead-inside glare that reminded me of baristas back on Earth. Was she actually annoyed with us?!
"It makes no sense though, my score is actually higher than the person who won the match." Hannah contemplated.
"Oh 2850 and 33rd place, that's way better than the last round and it puts you in 91st place overall. Keep it up and you'll be joining the sect with us." I said encouragingly.
There was no need to say where Zach and I were. We were of course second and first place respectively, much to Zach's dismay. He was starting to come to terms with his loss though.
"Zoey, you and I are fighting a match after this to prove once and for all who the strongest one is." Zach bounced back fast, so I decided to crush his spirit.
"How about an arm-wrestling match right now?" I challenged.
"Bring it on, pipsqueak."
"Oh, you've done it now."
Five seconds later Zach was on the floor where he belonged. He merely sat in the dirt with a despondent expression until the examiner announced the next exam.
"Participants, we will begin the next exam soon. As you all know, powerful cultivators about to die will often leave an inheritance behind with many trials and rewards in hopes of finding a successor. Whenever the inheritances open, thousands of cultivators will flock to them. Within the inheritances, fellow cultivators are just as dangerous as the traps."
"Today you will be undergoing a mock inheritance. You and the other fifteen hundred participants remaining will enter the inheritance through this door and be randomly teleported about. Your goal will be to acquire as many treasures as you can within the next two days. Just like a real inheritance, you may choose to either cooperate with or harm anyone you come across."
"Miss Zoey Seeker, the sigils barely withstood the attack you used in the last exam. We'd appreciate it if you refrain from using that or any more powerful abilities during the next exam. Deaths aren't uncommon during these tests, but we're actually quite pleased to announce there have only been two deaths so far. It's our own personal best."
"Darn, I was looking forward to using my ultimate supper-massive neutron death cannon, guess I'll have to save it for later." I strung a bunch of intimidating nonsensical words together to bluff that I was holding back. One kid actually stomped out of the exam in response. It wasn't Zach, but only because Hannah held on to him when he tried to follow the other kid out.
"We are beginning now. The remaining 1499 of you please line up in an orderly line and enter the door."