13 Selection (2)

Victor's was completely red from anger. He stared at Raikou and if looks could kill...

Raikou stepped back "Hey hey, don't look at me like that. I don't swing that way, I like girls you weird bastard. I'm scared to fight you now, you might try to molest me!"

Victor's face was going redder by the second. "You're lucky that the emissary is sitting there, otherwise I would have crippled you already for your actions. I will be dealing with you in the tournament. That is if you can get far enough." Surprisingly, he calmed down instantly and began issuing threats at Raikou.

"Oh don't worry, I came all this way for you. I didn't forget you trying to beat me up for talking to your girl, a bit insecure aren't you? I will be dealing with you in the tournament. That is if you can get far enough." Raikou sent Victor's words back to him.

Victor sneered as he took a seat and waited for the event to start.

There were 1000 participants waiting to show off their skills to the emissary. Raikou was surprised by the number of people participating, and decided to enquire on the situation.

He tapped the guy next to him on he shoulder and asked him. "Hey, how did this small city get 1000 participants when the population barely exceeds 2000? Isn't the age limit 16, seems abit absurd for there to be this many people."

The guy replied "There are many villages stationed near the city, they all send out their youth in hopes that they could become the carp that has leaped through the dragon's gate. It usually never pans out and they have to go back to their villages in disappointment."

"Thanks for the information. I'm Raikou, what's your name?"

"I'm Moses. I also came from a nearby village, but unlike the others I will be the victor of today."

"Haha, that whole sentence was full of jokes just asking to be made. Is the name of your village, the red sea? There's also a Victor here today already, so you can't be him." Raikou began laughing to himself, clearly proud of the jokes he made.

"..." Moses was confused by Raikou's words. He decided to avoid any further interaction with him, to avoid becoming associated with a crazy man.

Ten instruments of some kind were brought out to each stage and everyone was told to line up according to their numbers corresponding to each stage. There were a hundred people at each battle stage, with Raikou having to line up at battle stage 7. Victor was at stage 1 and the first to go up for his stage, as he was number 1.

Raikou inspected the instruments to see what they were.

Name: Strength Testing Apparatus

Quality: N/A

Description: Attack it to see how strong you are. Values range from 1-999. Each 100 in value corresponds to a stage in the Apprentice Level.

Raikou's eyes brightened. This was perfect for him to show of his power. According to the system, the average stats of a new rank 2 practitioner would be around 40. He could easily reach 999 on that.

"Anyone who registers numbers below 600 will be disqualified from the selection. There are two more parts to the selection being the battle test and potential test. Potential will be tested last to ensure that there is no mapping of each others ability level beforehand, we want to see how future students behave against opponents they have no information on." he continued "Also, the battle part will be used to determine your rankings. The potential test only determines the resources and care you will receive if you're accepted into the academy."

Raikou agreed with this in terms of fairness. There were still some people here who were well known and people knew of their strength to some extent, but those people had pride in their abilities and didn't care.

After everyone had heard the speech, the test had begun. Victor punched the dummy and '965' was displayed on the dummy. (A/N: Gave up on calling it an instrument, just pretend it's a battle testing dummy now.) He turned around and gave Raikou an intimidating look. All the participants were in awe of Victor's strength.

By the time it had come to Raikou's turn, 300 people had been disqualified already. He stepped up to the dummy and let out a casual punch while yawning.

"How arrogant!"

"Who does he think he is."

"He's going to get disqualified, he's trying to look cool while failing. Trash!"

The spectators threw a tirade of abuse at Raikou for his actions.

'999' came up on the dummy and everyone went silent.

Raikou walked away and winked at Victor.

"Trash! I didn't even try. Wait till you get crippled under my Tiger fist. Trying to look cool, you definitely put all your power into that. That is your limit, while my future is limitless." Victor screamed.

Raikou simply laughed. He expected such a reaction from an arrogant young master.

"What did I tell you, I don't swing that way. Stop putting so much focus on me, you're going to make me blush."

"..."

The crowd's mouths were all about to hit the floor. They were shocked at Raikou's words, he was willing to offend the city lord's son!

"Is he stupid or brave?" One spectator wondered.

Raikou sat down and didn't look at the rest until that Moses guy came up. Raikou had inspected him before to see his cultivation at the 8th level, while his age was the same as his. He clearly had potential higher than victor.

Moses punched out and '900' popped up. He smiled and walked off. Raikou looked up to see the emissary displaying interest in Moses. He wasn't sure if he had received the same look from the emissary, as he tried to look cool after insulting Victor and never looked around.

By the time the first part of the test was over, nearly 700 people had been disqualified.

Raikou smiled. His favourite part was coming up, time to get a quest completed.

"Number 7 and 69 (Moses), come out to battle stage 2 to fight. Number 1 and 45 to battle stage 1." They called out all the fighters for the first nine stages, before Raikou heard his number being called out