82

Chapter 82

Flange Orphanage, City: Three Prongs Fork, Republic of Shantu, Continent: Barat, the Year 2030, Planet: Grimoire

All of a sudden, the atmosphere became very stifling and tense. The procession of competitors walked into the center of the arena, with the name of each institute. Grifton watched without comment or genuine interest. He was more interested in how the bullies from the Orphanage suddenly became very polite and mannerly. Fucking hypocrites, I bet they'll change their tune once they're faced with harsher reality than what they'd assumed were their best of the orphanage seniors.

His thinking was cynical, but that was how Grifton viewed the whole affair: Tedious, boring, and not worth the time and effort spent putting everything together. He glanced at the upgraded areas of the arena and sighed.

Grifton discerned nothing much changed—well, nothing other than the addition of more multi-layered barriers. All he could figure out about their appearance was that they were to prevent meddling from outsiders or prevent any of the participants from actually dying should they suffer from mortal wounds.

Hmph, waste of material and effort. Grifton was disgusted. He simply continued following where his group was assigned to stand. The part was in direct sunlight, while the other half was in the shade. Fortunately for Grifton and his cousins, they were in the shady area, with the occasional sun ripple dappling their arms and shoulders. Everyone stood at attention while Darmono and Lamberton gave a brief speech. After a smattering of applause, several more boring speeches were doled out by officiously arrogant men and women who looked over the students with speculative gazes.

Grifton felt nothing but revulsion and degradation whenever one of them glanced in his and his cousins' directions. Ugh, when would this end already? He wanted to just get the first activities over with and then out of sight of those weirdos. It didn't take Grifton long to realize he wasn't the only one not appreciating the waves of speculative gazes sweeping over them.

"Ugh, are we mere merchandise for them to purchase?"

"When will we start competing."

"Disgusting, we're not whores for sale."

"True, bet they'll find a use for all the waste that litters this arena floor." That last sneering comment made Grifton sigh. So those delusional creeps were here, too? Incredible, he would definitely have to watch his back for sure. He could've sworn that the Jersey twins and Marcos brothers had been expelled. So why were they back in here again? He grunted in disgust.

"So, they were only assigned to a merchant group instead of being expelled?" Marlayne was displeased.

"I guess that is the power of connections and a social animal of a parent." Calico was annoyed.

"Whatever, they won't last long amongst the gathered talent here." Amberlyn aired her opinion in a carrying voice. "After all, they only succeeded in the past," she paused when the fools jeering and sneering at Grifton and others turned furious when she spoke further. "Because they utilized the no-longer mandatory vocal and gesture-only magic rules to their advantage."

"Too true," Grifton concurred. "It should be interesting to see how they fare now." He, for one, would love to see them get stomped into the ground just as severely or more demandingly than what he'd suffered beneath their torture.

To Grifton's surprise, though, everything didn't take long to kick off. When the rules were announced, his eyebrows rose in shock. "Wow, this is going to be...difficult, not easy at all." He listened intently to what would happen if someone was found cheating. A sigh escaped him as he grimaced slightly.

Calico glanced at him. "You'll have to tone down what you normally do outside the arena, huh?" He knew how advanced Grifton trained his psychic and non-verbal, non-gesture skills and spells. "If anything, this will challenge your ability to control the amount of mana used for the spells." He shook his head in disbelief.

"Hmph, I don't think he'll have problems if he sticks with the basics." Marlayne was dismissive of Calico's observation.

Calico had some valid points, so Grifton corroborated what Calico was concerned about. "Well, I've got mana usage under control." He smiled at both Calico and Marlayne.

Amberlyn regarded him thoughtfully. "If that isn't the problem, what is, precisely?" She tilted her head. "I remember you've managed to master all tiers...oh, right." She scowled. "They've limited the tier to the ranks...oh, that's nasty."

That is precisely what Grifton had to remain wary of. "Yes, right now, I'm in the lowest rank possible and still remaining in class." He folded his arms with a sigh. "It will be the tier of spell that I can use that'll be the stickler." Well, he did recall that there would be an assessment of all the competitors that would give them new rankings. Though how that would affect any of them, Grifton couldn't imagine.

"Oh right, there was going to be that." Amberlyn grinned. "It should be interesting to see how that shakes down." All three of them had broad smiles that nearly distorted their features.

Marlayne concluded. "With the new regulations in place and the restrictions gone as far as vocal and gesturing are concerned."

Calico shrugged. "Well, you weren't the only one who faced challenges with the vocal and gesturing." He surprised Grifton with that admittance. "We just didn't want to acknowledge that we lacked something."

It was the first time that Grifton heard that much out of them. "Huh, so you moved ahead to gain better benefits?" It hurt him somewhat to listen to that.

"Well, we did it with the intent of sharing what we earned with you," Calico heaved a sigh. However, whenever we tried, someone threatened your life." He shook his head angrily. I just don't understand people's beef with your existence."

Other than him being horribly disfigured with scarring before? Grifton grunted. "I did undergo some treatment, but I don't think the effects lasted long." Indeed, all the earlier scars were replaced with new ones. Damned bullies had tried their best to kill him several times. They'd rather kill Grifton than allow him to advance to a higher rank of casting spells.

His cousins looked at him directly for the first time, and their eyes nearly bugged out of their faces.

Calico was the first to speak. "Wow...the facial scarring is gone." He blinked and scrutinized Grifton more closely.

He was interrupted when Marlayne uttered a shock. "Do you have horns?" She tilted her head and traced a finger along one of the horns she could reach.

Only Amberlyn kept her hands to herself. "You've manifested horns. Can you bring out wings and a tail as well?" She looked at him more closely than before and spotted the scales hidden in the shadows. "Ah...the rarer characteristics."

"Yep." Grifton scratched his left ear. "I can manifest anything I need if I go against multiple attackers." The only thing he wouldn't do was use fire or acid. Ice or create mini-whirlwinds, sure, but no fire or acid. That was just nasty and underhanded. Not even he would go that far.

"Hmm, this is going to be fun to watch." Amberlyn's eyes gleamed. "Shall we go to the ranking station?"

Grifton glanced around. "Yeah, we'd better do that before anything else happens." After all, it wouldn't do to cause a spectacle. That would come off as petty if they lost the opportunity to gain a better rank. Especially if others caused unnecessary scenes before the events started in earnest.

As they approached the stations, Grifton realized something. "Huh, it doesn't matter what institute people are from."

This time, it looked like it was going by the student's surname. "Where is the 'T' line?" Grifton exhaled slowly. "Unless you three acquired a new surname?" He noticed them hesitating.

"We can go together, over here." Marlayne led the way to another station, farther back in the shadows. Much to Grifton's surprise, it held a number of objects used for assessment.

Already, a ruckus was heard throughout the area. It seemed people were already becoming agitated through the newest ranking system. "Oh my, it seems we're just in time to watch the shakeup begin in earnest." Calico snickered.