"Raven Peace-loving, corruption level 89%, chances of becoming a Magus are very high," Rexton announced in a loud voice. At some point, the crowd had fallen silent, most of them feeling as if they were in some sort of a dream. The developments of the day had evoked a myriad of emotions.
Raven immediately rushed back to Gray with a happy smile on her face. Gray was also happy for her.
Everyone in the Peace-loving family also beamed, especially the Earthly Knight whose face had turned ugly after Gray's performance.
She called Raven with a smile on her cold face and started to praise her. Raven, although a little reluctant, had to move toward her. Gray didn't mind, as there was nothing wrong with it.
Not everyone was happy with this development, especially the Blue Swan family. The Earthly Knight had also started to frown.
The Stormwind family already had a super genius, and now the Peace-loving family also had a good seedling. While the fortunes of other families were rising, his family seemed to be walking in the opposite direction.
The Earthly Knight, who had seen a lot of ups and downs in his life, started to panic for the first time. He was surprised by his own condition.
He, who had never frowned while facing hundreds of apocalypse beasts, was getting fearful just because of some genius. Suddenly, he shook his head to get rid of the oppressive feeling.
"Geniuses were just geniuses, not supreme experts," he thought.
Under the perplexed eyes of the crowd, it was the turn of the weakest Nobel family, the Maxwell family. The crowd, with bated breath, looked forward to the performance of the Maxwells, as the appearance of geniuses had raised their expectations.
Gray's eyes were also filled with anticipation. However, their expectations weren't met. One after the other, the youths from the Maxwell family walked to the statue and performed the ceremony.
All of their performances were average, the highest they reached was 60%. It would be difficult for the Maxwell family to turn their fortunes around in the future.
Seeing this situation, Gray fell deep in thought, and his gaze unconsciously landed on the ancient statue. A high corruption level was absolutely necessary if any of these teenagers wanted to walk the path of knighthood established by the true lord Asura after the apocalypse.
Moreover, the people of this world didn't have a choice in this matter - if they wanted to live a peaceful life, it was absolutely necessary to have at least some strength to protect themselves in a world where ferocious beasts ran rampant.
Thinking of all these points, the admiration that Gray had for True Lord Asura grew. The Lord was someone who had blazed a completely new path in such a dark and treacherous world, allowing humans who were already on the brink of complete extinction to fight back against the dreadful assault of apocalyptic beasts.
While Gray was lost in thought, most spectators had already lost interest and were preparing their children for the ceremony, as it would soon be their turn after the noble families were done.
Suddenly, Gray felt a strange aura enveloping the surroundings, a feeling that was strangely familiar. Surprised, Gray followed the feeling, and his eyes landed on the youth with a silly smile on his face - the young master of the Maxwell family, Jackson Maxwell.
In the next moment, Gray remembered all the information about the poor guy, and his eyes flashed with pity. Just like Gray, the young master of the Maxwell Noble was also a failure.
Jackson and Gray were of the same age, and both of them had already participated in the ceremony multiple times and failed to prove their talent. He was famous for being a retard in the entire Knight Heaven City, and because of him, the entire Maxwell family had become a laughing stock of the entire city several times in the past.
While Gray was thinking, his eyes suddenly narrowed as he noticed a strange thing. For a moment, the silly smile seemed to have disappeared, replaced by complete disbelief, as if Jackson was greatly shocked.
The change was only momentary, as in the next moment, the silly smile returned to his face.
Gray was intrigued by such a change, and he hurriedly looked around to see if anyone else had noticed Jackson's strange behavior.
The people were laughing and chatting with each other, and even Rexton seemed to be lost in thought, not paying attention to the last participants of the ceremony.
Just then, a familiar, enticing voice, whispered beside him, "First a chaotic aura, now a residual breath of the time river,"
Startled, Gray suddenly heard an extremely enticing voice again. At some point, Rose had appeared beside Gray and was looking at Jackson in the distance with narrowed eyes, her figure even more enticing and mesmerizing than before.
Gray was shocked by her sudden appearance, but this time he didn't fear her as before. He couldn't understand such an irrational reaction of his own body. He shifted his attention away from her and followed the actions of Jackson carefully.
Jackson had already cut his knife with the ceremonial knife, and a drop of blood slowly moved towards the ground and splashed on the statue's feet.
"Jackson Maxwell, corruption level 41%, chances of becoming...."
Mid-way, Rexton stopped speaking, and his face turned ugly. He immediately jumped out of his state and disappeared. Seeing Rexton's reaction, the faces of the four Earthly Knights also changed.
They seemed to have understood something and exchanged looks with each other, shock visible in their eyes. No later, they also followed Rexton and disappeared.
Gray also felt that something was amiss, but he still couldn't take his eyes away from Jackson's figure. From his perspective, whatever had happened with Jackson was more important than whatever these "big shots" had encountered.
'To think, I would travel back 600 years in the past, a year before the second apocalypse,' Jackson exclaimed while looking around his surroundings in amazement.
If Gray were to hear what Jackson was thinking right now, he would have definitely been left shell-shocked.