Chaos and Watching it Unfold
The crowd was stunned. That wasn't how it worked. The teacher gave the punishment and the student accepted it. If a punishment could be accepted or denied, what was the point of it?
The instructor became furious and immediately roared.
"Ridiculous! This is a sacred institution. If we make exceptions, wouldn't the world descend into chaos?"
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to beat you into the ground, that's what"
Rage billowed into the sky like a pillar pushing back the falling void. Strength, Toughness and Resistance turned visible. Fearlessness, Durability, and Anti-Force were more transparent. As these eight traits formed an endless whirlpool, the Rage suffocated everything within several hundred feet.
Yes, in addition to the 6, he also sensed Fury and Momentum. However, the instructor had less experience with these traits, therefore, they didn't show up. Yet, they formed the backbone of Rage.
"Oh my god! What kind of feat is this?"
"I think I've seen this before. It's not a feat. It's an extremely powerful trait"
"There's no way it's a Foundational or Advanced trait"
"I'm not sure. I've never seen a Stacking trait before"
"I'm going to bulldoze you, Cadet, and let you know how terrifying the world is"
As the fist descended, the ground turned into a mud swamp as buildings bent but never broke. To inexperienced Cadets, it felt like Zeus was angry that humans didn't level up to his expectations.
A melodic tune suddenly cut through the pressure as a lullaby permeated the air. A projection of a fist rose up to meet the expanding Rage. As musical notes surrounded and squeezed the projection, the holographic image only grew and grew.
'Brat. I'll meet your Rage with Repetition. Watch carefully. I augment Fury with Essence Manipulation. It now requires 1 less trait and only relies on Foundational traits'
The projection that had been augmented by Repetition was now being buffed by multiple different spells. Well, it was only one spell but because Fury was unpredictable, by giving it access to basically an endless array of spells, it would choose one at random. Using the Gambler to only pick the best ones basically meant maximum damage. He didn't need to stack the favor in his odd. He knew all the techniques.
The result was obvious as the instructor's 8 traits were broken to various degrees by a wild variation of Rage. He didn't even know what had happened. With his Rage, he felt invincible. Then out of nowhere, a truck hit his fist and caused a mental collapse.
'Kek. I bet you didn't think traits could be broken right? They won't be the same anymore but you yourself aren't shattered'
The instructor was horrified and pale as he looked at Skyfang.
'Your traits are too monotonous. 90% of this city share the same fucking traits. Now you'll have variety'
The instructor took a deep breath before bowing to Skyfang and leaving, which left the crowd shocked. The other instructor, a woman, didn't know what to do. After a moment, she resumed class. Whatever Skyfang did, it had nothing to do with her. It was best to let management take care of it. Skyfang himself was long gone. He had gone somewhere.
—
The ex-general and the head instructor were looking at the young man in front of them suspiciously. He had told them he was Leo Skyfang but they didn't believe him.
How could Leo Skyfang, a bright young man, be the same as the person in front of them? He was covered in a pitch black aura that was neither friendly or malicious. It was randomly crazy in a good way.
Skyfang had waited for them patiently outside the room, almost like he could see them inside but chose to exercise common courtesy.
This terrified them. A wild reckless person who had restraints. Controlled himself but looked crazy. Had fanatical facial expressions that changed in an instant but kind and nice when actually interacting. This was someone that was unpredictable.
They had seen the earlier events and that was why they were cautious.
Skyfang was versatile yet matched weak traits against stronger traits pound for pound. This subverted their understanding of the system.
Even now, they were exerting their own battle auras on him yet he didn't even seem to recognize it.
"Just what on earth happened to you these past few days?"
The room was silent like Skyfang had no intention on replying. He lay perfectly still even as the koi fish int he pond swam, the air tickled them, and servants continued to lay food outside the room. The birds continued to flap and the day continued to tick by.
"I went on a journey that took me across different paths"
"This is the most dramatic change I've seen in anybody"
"Some people experience more growth then others"
"Even the most famous geniuses don't have such ridiculous growth"
"The praise is recognized. Means very little in an actual battle with changing variables"
The head instructors eyes narrowed and his breathing slowed down. The two brothers looked at each other before getting up and walking to the window, reminiscing.
"That girl, Dawn. She wants to go back to the battlefield. She wants to take you with her after the last meeting between the two of you. Never seen anyone that ridiculous. Says there are even more ridiculous people in the world. Come back in 6 months for the mid-season qualifier"
"I'm not officially in the military yet"
"She's a Triple Archetype Elite. She has equal authority to a 4 star general, despite what her actual rank may be"
"Do you want me to go?"
"We have nothing to teach you here. She's stronger then me so my Sea of Fire will do nothing to you"
"I cut class the other day"
"Did you?"
"2 days and I already graduated?"
"Graduation isn't dependent upon whether you completed the curriculum but how you apply yourself"
"What about Hindenbrook?"
"What about him?"
Skyfang stood up and left the room. When he was gone, the two brothers finally sighed in relief.
"Good lord. I thought I was speaking in front of God at first"
"The pressure he bore down simply through presence alone is insane"
"How do you think the military will react?"
"The military has countless monsters and freaks even stronger than geniuses. It'll be a good learning experience for him"
"What about that freak, Chibi?"
"No one speaks about him. To speak about him is to wish for early retirement from life"
"The strongest Triple-Archetype Elite in the world"
—
Leo Skyfang walked out of the academy and straight into the entertainment district. He wasn't a troublemaker but he did enjoy amplifying the craziness in crazy individuals. What better place to find a bunch of them then in a place where luck was plentiful.
I, Orchestrator, loved setting up chaos and watching it unfold. He enjoyed seeing how people thought, reacted, and made decisions on the spot. Therefore, he went to the first empty match 3 machine he saw and smacked it real good. He got a jackpot worth 100,000 coins. So did the 4 other machines to the side. The Gambler knew that when everybody hit the jackpot, then it was impossible to blame one person. If he was asked to move to other machines and then the same thing happened, then it might look suspicious.
That ended up exactly what happened. When he hit jackpot 5 consecutive times in a row, and each time was higher than the previous by 25 times, management asked the entire row to switch to different machines. He complained just like everyone else and as provided complimentary tickets to a B-grade concert.
He observed them through reflections. They took apart the machine and examined every part. Could find nothing wrong. They even brought out the heavy hitters. The money was all returned of course. All the machines were fine. Probably a fluke.
Instead of slots, he went to a table where they had to make a combination of 5 cards with 2. He lost 1/5 of his wealth learning about how the other players played. This was a good way to further divert suspicion from him. The goal was not to make money all the time but to leave with net positive returns.
Naturally, the Sprinter was a godsend in reading and memorizing everything. He found every persons tell and bluffs. He invested a loss of 10,000 coins for every 50,000 returns on average. Every other hour, he would intentionally lose up to 25,000 coins. He gradually moved up the ranks and was eventually at the big tables where millions were bet every round. He bowed out at 5th after struggling. Well, he made it look pretty convincing. He was invited to a bigger table worth 100's of millions but didn't have the coins for that.
He was given a debt-free loan and was even told that all responsibility would fall on his benefactor. His play was just that awesome.