Jake Kennedy was the 3rd son of the Marquis the most talented of his siblings and had already been preselected by the Guild of Omniscience as a guild member.
The Marquis and the leader of the guild had a good relationship and their headquarters was also set up in the city of Fraum where the Marquis lived.
Blessed in swordplay, he had already reached the level of an intermediate knight and had already bested many knights in his father's army.
People didn't know but he had an elemental affinity for every element even though he didn't actually have it, his system allowed him to use any mage spell as a skill regardless of affinity. This, however, came at a cost.
The cost was that his skills had cooldowns.
But for any spell he did have the elemental affinity for, he could use those spells indefinitely.
He was blessed in every way with his messy blonde hair and a childlike yet chiseled face giving him the aesthetic of a naive yet handsome young man with a strong sense of justice.
The values that his father believed in were for the collective good of humanity and that we should ensure that everyone is treated fairly regardless of their social status commoner or noble.
Even though Jake maintained an amicable relationship with his peers in noble gatherings, the reality was that he didn't like most of them.
There was one person in particular that Jake didn't like.
It was the fat scum loser known as Adam Dacre Alastair.
While Adam wasn't so bad during his childhood, after the age of 11 his behavior took a turn for the worse and he even mistreated Mia who was Adam's closest friend for most of his life.
Mia would always talk bad about Adam and how much worse he had become to both Jake and Mikhail throughout the years.
Something happened today that left a bitter taste in Jake's mouth.
He had always enjoyed Mia's company and Mia was a gorgeous woman in his eyes.
There had been talks of marriage between Duke Gavin and Marquis Kennedy about a possible marriage between the two families but nothing had become of it just yet.
When their noble clique was together in the 1st examination hall, Mia started chatting up this guy with white hair and purple eyes.
That guy seemed to have a physicality that was nearly on par with his own and seemed to be of a noble lineage as well.
Mia seemed to really enjoy talking to that guy for some reason even though he personally knew that most of the time whenever talking to her many suitors, Mia always suppressed herself to maintain her image to inspire others.
While her being so chummy with another man who wasn't Jake did make Jake feel a bit uncomfortable, Jake chose to look elsewhere to get the negativity out of his mind.
So what if Mia was having fun talking to another man? It's not like he and Mia were in a relationship, they were just close friends at the end of the day.
While he did rationalize this in his head deep down he knew that in the noble world, everyone already looked at them as a power couple.
While there wasn't any official link rumors would constantly circulate about how close they were and how bright of a smile Lady Mia had while she was in Jake's company.
But as Jake was about to walk elsewhere with Mikhail to distract his mind from this morbid train of thought, he overheard something that shook him to his core.
"Adam? What Adam? The only Adam I know is that fat pig that follows Cassandra everywhere."
That's when it clicked.
The guy Mia was talking to was none other than the scum known as Adam Dacre Alastair.
The stain of the Dacre family.
'Why is she talking to that scum? So what if he looks a little better? Did she forget all the bad things that scum did to her?'
Jake chose to move away from that place as thinking about it only angered him.
Today was the day of the entrance examination.
No distractions were allowed.
As he made his way through the 1st test the result was expected.
Supreme Potential.
The highest of the highs is the potential that the legends in Klienova had.
Jake's future was already destined to be filled with bright lights and glory.
After taking the written examination, Jake then stood in the hall with his entire group with him.
Mia and Charlotte were right behind him so he chose to clear out this dark cloud of doubts rumbling inside his head.
"Mia, who was that guy with white hair and purple eyes you were talking to? I don't think I have ever seen you two talk before."
Jake chose to feign ignorance because it would seem weird that he knew who the guy was even though he was nowhere near the area where the original conversation was taking place.
"Hmm? Oh.. what do you mean you have never seen us talk before? That's Adam you know?"
"Adam? Which Adam?"
Jake didn't want his worst fears to be true, let it be anyone but Adam Dacre Alastair.
"What do you mean which Adam? There is only 1 Adam I have ever known, Adam Dacre Alastair."
His worst fears were now realized.
'Oh god why is it that fat scum she started talking to again... well I can't call him fat now can I...'
Instead of replying to Mia, he chose to look at where Adam was in the Auditorium.
The man in question seemed to be bullying a commoner and standing in the commoner row trying to cause a ruckus.
'You can change the way you look but you cannot be the rot from inside you.'
To Jake, Adam was the same fat pig loser he had always been in his eyes.
A pig in a crown is still a pig.
To Jake, it made no sense why Adam was even attending the academy.
A talentless loser like him with no combat capabilities could never survive in the academy where all the elites of the continent congregated to grow together.
Just to be sure, however, Jake used the cheat skill that he got from the system after finishing his first quest.
[ALL SEEING EYE ](S) activated.
Jake's eyes glowed with a hint of gold, barely noticeable to the busy crowd around him.
The invisible strands of golden light shot towards Adam, reflecting away as they touched his body, almost to cause some sort of a reaction.
The [ALL SEEING EYE] wasn't an omnipotent skill that could reveal everything about anyone he looked at.
As the golden rays reflected from a person or an object, it would cause an outburst of aura.
The intensity and the density of the aura would determine how strong of a tendency that object or person has to be good or bad.
When he uses this skill on people they radiate red auras based on their threat level to him and how hard he would have to try to fight them and defeat them.
On objects, they would radiate a green aura based on how good the artifact was for him to use.
An object with a dark blue aura was cursed and would be bad for him.
Adam finally started to radiate aura.
An extremely faint red fiery aura started to radiate from him.
This meant that Adam wasn't even a speck of dust to Jake in terms of combat capabilities.
'Heh as expected... I don't know why I was worried.'
He smirked as he thought about how stupid his train of thought was that someone as pathetic as Adam would be a threat to him.
All of a sudden, however, the aura around Adam changed.
Instead of the gold rays reflecting from Adam, they started to get consumed by the red fiery aura.
The colour of the aura got darker and darker and the area it covered grew larger consuming all of the students surrounding Adam within it.
The colour now became completely black, and the flesh of all the students started to burn away leaving only their bright white skeletons to be seen.
Screams could be heard of all the students being burnt alive while they were still conscious a terrifying visage that would be a horrible nightmare stopping anyone from ever trying to sleep after they experienced it.
Adam was nowhere to be seen.
He was replaced by a man of shorter stature with black hair and red eyes, he was muscular and his body looked quite good but it was nothing compared to Adam or Jake.
As everyone behind him burnt alive, that being came closer to Jake, for some odd reason, Jake couldn't move a single limb.
He couldn't run away, his mouth couldn't open for him to scream either.
It was as if he was a prey perfectly trapped for his predator to taste.
After coming close to Jake that being showed a devious smile with an insane look in his eyes saying, "Know your place. Never try that again."
Jake couldn't even feel the nervous shaking of his body because he was just so immobile that even his body refused to shudder with fear.
The oppressive force all around him was too strong for him to handle.
And then that man went on to flick Jake's forehead and with that, Jake was out of the illusion and back into reality.
He could finally see his hands shaking and sweat poring down his forehead.
An inexplicable system message came in front of him.
" THE [ALL SEEING EYE](S) IS UNAVAILABLE FOR USE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. "
Looking back towards Adam, that guy was too busy arguing with a commoner girl who had hair similar to his own.
They seemed to be having a disagreement.
It was almost as if Adam had no idea about what had just transpired in Jake's vision.
'Something is seriously wrong with that guy.'
Suddenly someone grabbed Jake by his shoulder.
Still in an agitated state, Jake's reflexes got the better of him and he tightly grabbed the hand on his shoulder and twisted it.
"Woah woah! Dude chill out it's just me."
Jake, who finally got out of his headspace looked at the person he was twisting the hand of.
It was none other than his best friend since childhood, Mikhail.
He swiftly let go of the hand and apologized.
"Mikhail, I'm sorry, I have just been really excited about the final exam and all."
"Brother, are you sure you're okay? I saw you shaking staring into the distance so I wanted to check up on you but you ended up twisting my hand instead. Is everything alright?"
"Oh yeah yeah! Everything is alright! it's just that the thought of showing my strength in front of so many people is new to me so I'm pretty agitated."
"Hmm.. you're not the type to be swayed by his emotions so easily... oh well, I guess this is quite the new experience we will have soon even I'm nervous. I have never even been into a simulacrum pod."
"Well, we won't know how It feels until we go inside it ourselves."
The group then went on to talk and jest about all of their expectations of academy life.
He thought back to when Cain had just announced that he was the new principal of the academy.
This was news to everyone present.
Even the highest of the nobles of the empire had no idea of this arrangement, thus they weren't able to inform their kids about it.
Jake had always admired Archmage Cain since he was a kid as that man was a great example of someone overcoming the limits of their social standing to reach the peak of the world and be on the same level with individuals who have the highest honour.
They soon made their way to the Simulacrum Pods.
As soon as he sat inside, his system window popped out with a new quest.
" MAIN QUEST
OBJECTIVE: COME IN THE TOP 10 OF THE RANKINGS.
BONUS OBJECTIVE: BECOME NO.1 IN THE RANKINGS.
REWARD: [ALL SEEING EYE] IS AVAILABLE FOR USE AGAIN.
BONUS REWARDS: BLESSING FROM THE GOD OF JUSTICE.
PENALTY: NONE "
Jake smiled as he saw the system window.
That incident in the Auditorium was only a minor set back.
As he materialized into the arena he could see a golden halo surround the entire stadium up in the sky.
That only meant one thing.
The Gods were witnessing this tournament as well.
He could see his little sister in the audience who was only a year younger than him.
They had already discussed that if betting took place she should bet all of her pocket money on him.
Jake would get a cut from the winnings as well.
Representatives from all of the top guilds were present in the audience as well.
"Ladies and gentlemen! We will now begin the tournament! "
Soon all the students got teleported into their separate sections
Evergreen forest: Rich with lush green trees and heavy presence of trees. Melee advantage.
Deciduous orchard: Tall yet thin trees, a forest with plenty of open space, Range advantage.
Volcanic valley: Filled with lava traps and eruptions, Fire Affinity advantage
Icy tundra: Filled with extremely cold temperatures and high peaks, Ice Affinity advantage.
Sunny sandcastle: Filled with maze like interiors, Strategy advantage.
Driest Desert: endless dunes of sand with dry winds, Wind Affinity advantage
Soggy swamp: Humid air, muddy and watery ground, Earth Affinity advantage.
Shaky pier: Near endless sea with near infinite blocks of wood floating on top of it, Water Affinity advantage.
These were the 8 sections where the students were being divided into.
Jake opened his eyes and saw himself in a lush and bright green forest, he was surrounded by dense foliage all around him.
He knew that he was in the Evergreen forest arena.
As soon as he reached he saw multiple other competitors near him.
He wasn't planning on holding back, he kicked againstnthe ground and dashed towards the other competitors with his short sword in hand.
The other participants barely gave any resistance against Jake's strong yet swift slashes and stabs.
You could almost say it was quite unfair considering that the aggregated stats that Jake had were already at the 3rd tier.
All the other students except for a few exceptions were at the 2nd tier at most.
After taking care of the competition surrounding him, Jake laughed thinking this was a great warm up.
On the opposite side of the Evergreen forest, Adam was looking at his system pop ups.
|| ENEMIES ARE NEAR THE HOST, ENEMY'S AGGREGATE STATS ARE HIGHER THAN THE HOST.
[UNDERDOG](S) IS ACTIVATED. ||
Looking at his status window, Adam couldn't help but smile.
He couldn't get ahead of himself however.
The gods witnessing the arena directly meant that Adam had to hide most of his cards.
After formulating a plan in his mind, Adam was ready.
He stood there, the only participant in the entire tournament who didn't get have any armour or weapon with him.
He could be seen with a weird martial stance.
It was time for a slaughter.