Chapter Seventy Eight - Our scores are tallied

Somethings were settled and seemed resolved; two young maidens had their hearts broken and would deal with their own unwillingness in different ways, while the relationship between two young men simply became a little sweeter (at least beneath the acidity of a certain 'lord's' tongue).

However, not everything was clear.  "G-Grandfather?"  Leon questioned once more of his lover.

"En," Jin Li replied and appeared about to clarify when he was interrupted.  Fortunately, Pike was immune to the glares of the other, though the broad youth vowed in his heart to cultivate more industriously once this all over thanks to the increased pressure he was feeling from Jin Li.  He would not be the only one to vanish into closed cultivation for a few months, inspired by the nearly eighteen year old man, who'd broken all known barriers in this realm and amazed them by forming his core so young.

"It's time," was all Pike said, regardless.  They didn't need to question what he meant, the arena was now filled full of bodies; competitors in the lowest stands, other students in the highest, while guests lingered about the middle.  Pike's whole team as well as Bowyer's had now congregated and the judges were entering the arena to announce the scores.  Jin Li was forced to retreat with Sun and Maimai, while Leon remained by Pike's side.

Jin Li felt the sourness of vinegar, but he left his lover's side this time.  It would only be for a couple of hours at most.

The competition scores were a combination of three different things; how well the team worked together, how long they 'survived' in the other realm and lastly on the spoils they returned to the Institute with.  To clarify a little better by example; Ari, the highest ranked Martial Artist in the inner school, was not a team player, relying on his 'second in command' to deal with team stuff, while he ran around on his own and collected spoils.  This caused him to have a low team score, despite the numerous trophies he and his team separately found.  His team did manage to make it through to the end, therefore they lost no points on 'survival skills'.

In contrast, Bowyer's team worked fairly well, despite most of them having never worked together nor having socialised before, he also made it through to the end, making his scores for team work and survival skills higher than Ari's.  However, everything could change depending on the items they brought back.  Cultivation treasures, rare materials or even crude wealth, all had their worth to a Cultivator seeking the ultimate goal of immortality.  It was up to the judges to decide their worth in terms of the competition.

Unlike what Leon expected, as the scores were announced, the spoils were not listed and displayed for all to see.

"It's not that that was never the case," Pike advised him.  "Historically, the teams would need to reveal their items to everyone else.  But once, a team lead by a mage returned with the intact beast core of a fifth level beast that they'd had the luck to defeat."

A beast core was not unlike the spirit core of a Cultivator, it was still formed through the tempering of spiritual energy through the body and soul sea.  It was said that a fifth level beast was stronger than an ordinary fifth stage Cultivator, though, as one would also need to be at the peak of a similar stage in martial arts or magic to truly match the natural instincts of a beast.

Unlike the core of a Cultivator, which only demons dabbling in the dark arts would steal and use, a beast core was fair game to all Cultivators and would not cause a Cultivator to fall from the righteous path if absorbed.  A beast core was also sought after by blacksmiths wishing to forge certain types of spirit weapons. The source of beast cores was not uncommon, but retrieving one from the corpse of a beast in tact was difficult. Often, dying beasts would destroy or even detonate their cores, preventing others from stealing it away freely. At best, most beast cores recovered held some cracks and would not produce good results when used. If an intact one had appeared in the treasures of students in a competition such as this, one could only imagine the envy it caused.

Leon mentioned this and naturally Pike agreed; "It was rumoured not just to be sought after by other students, but a Teacher or two threw their weight around in an attempt to have the team gift it. Also, some of the team came from cultivation families and sects..."

"Oh," Leon sighed. "W-What if t-teams q-question the scores?"

"Teams have the right to question their own scores, indeed," Pike replied, "A judge will give an explanation to them. However, questioning others scores would be considered ill-mannered and just reveal weakness. Even so, I suspect there will always be teams that mutter about it in their hearts. That is where the Interschool auctions come in..."

Leon held his breath for a moment as their team's score was announced. Leon didn't know whether it was good, but Pike looked very satisfied, Velana even had tears in her eyes, her lips curved to a gratified smile. Bowyer congratulated them, his own team's score was not as impressive, but it was still a good improvement on the previous year. He was still pleased that he'd managed to beat the incorrigible Ari by a single point, however.

Out of the twenty martial arts teams, Pike's team came third, another teams stole away first and second. The martial artist's team that stole the top slot celebrated loudly; their leader had not made the top ten of the Standings, so they couldn't help but rejoice the unexpected victory.  Sure enough, Leon noticed glances of envy and doubt cast their way, just as Pike had predicted.

Through the mirrors came the scores for the mage led teams and beast tamer lead teams; Pike's placement fell to sixth and the first and second placed martial artists fell to second and fifth. Two beast tamer led teams stole third and fourth, while it was a mage led team who won first. Leon even vaguely recognised her name; Mute from the Cygnus clan. She was known to be the strongest mage in the inner mage school at the present time.

"Not surprising," Bowyer crossed his arms, a little displeased. "Her team was filled with undeniably excellent talents."

Pike slyly grinned and glanced over at his friend. "Still disappointed that you failed to entice her cousin, Cynus to join your team?"

"Absolutely....not, no... why would I?" Bowyer denied, loudly, not being threatened by his team's scholar or anything; who asked that person to be the one of the best, yet most likely to hold a grudge, exorcist's in the inner scholar school...