World of Laws and Magic: Jupiter

A few moments later, the Water Monolith dissipated as the the water from the ground ceased to flow; Jessica also cancelled her Tension Wall spell which caused the water wall to immediately evaporate. Jessica then raised herself to an upright position and the azure magic energy emerging from her body abated.

Ritchie observed the clouds and asked the obvious question:

"Where are their bodies?"

As if to respond to his question, the ten students suddenly appeared huddled up on the ground over fifteen meters away from the triumphant three. A black robed person also appeared but standing in closer proximity to Jessica, Falen and Ritchie. 

The person had a hood on their face but as soon as the person spoke, everyone realized that the person was male:

"Your spell would have killed these ten people if I had not intervened and as such, they will be disqualified from the exam at this time."

Jessica felt that the man's words made sense so she only silently nodded her head. Falen and Ritchie did the same. The ten exhausted and frightened students who looked at the three in trepidation were immediately enveloped in silver light and then they vanished. The robed man followed their example immediately after and disappeared.

Ritchie didn't want to waste any time so he suggested:

"We should move on to finding the other items on our exam list."

Jessica and Ritchie agreed with silent nods and prepared to set off. Falen walked over to Jessica's side and softly remarked:

"Aren't you glad that the invigilators forced us into a group together after that battle. We three are clearly the shit."

Jessica turned her head slightly to look Falen in the eyes and replied with a plain face:

"You are the only shit here."

Ritchie couldn't help but let a small chuckle escape his lips when he heard that. Falen's eyelids twitched but he did not curse at Jessica in response, this surprised her a bit but she quickly dismissed it and said:

"Let's go for the blue spice mud next."

After Ritchie made a guess at a probable location, the three moved on using their respective movement spells. Jessica sped off amidst a water torrent, Falen propelled himself upwards and forward with small explosions at his feet and Ritchie floated forward without stop while remaining upright like a hover vehicle.

The three spent the next twenty four hours traveling the expanse of the realm and searching for materials which brought them to caverns, underground mines, rain forests, marshes, hills and valleys and seemingly bottomless pits.

Throughout the journey, they came into contact with other students and the ones that they did not incapacitate, Ritchie negotiated deals to obtain a portion of their supplies for letting them off in return.

They only rested for about two hours during the period and so ended up having crossed tens of kilometers. Falen openly rejoice at their success:

"Man, when this is over I'm going to celebrate my ranking with a big can of beer. You in princess?"

Jessica ignored his question and remarked:

"Our next goal is the bliss cherry. That's an illusion path material that grows sparsely in arid badlands so we should find it in the area that we're heading to now."

Ritchie bent down and scooped up some of the dirt on the ground into his hands. Seeing that it was completely dry and almost flaky, he reassured:

"We are definitely going to the right place."

Falen spoke at this time:

"Well alright then. The bliss cherries are the last materials that we have to obtain to complete the requirements of the exam list. With this kind of efficiency, we'll probably be the first group to finish. Let's go."

The three moved off again like usual with their movement spells and crossed about two kilometers. The land became more parched and arid as they advanced but eventually they came upon signs of vegetation.

Brown colored vines moved along the ground and led into a large cluster of vertical rock formations that seemed to extend about fourteen meters into the air. The rock formations were well spaced apart but there were many of them for kilometers in the distance.

Jessica did not stop to observe the new terrain and continued pushing forward using her Mini Torrent spell. Soon she advanced between the rock formations with Falen and Ritchie closely trailing behind her. After moving for another hour, they finally came upon a place where the loose, brown vines on the ground bore fruit and they immediately stopped to observe the five meters squared area where fruit grew on the vines.

Ritchie went forward to pick one of the marble sized and shaped purple-green fruits and then he declared:

"This should be the bliss cherries."

Falen eagerly retorted:

"Then let's pick 'em up and be done with this exam."

Jessica and Ritchie nodded their heads silently but before they could do anymore picking, a fire arrow made of red-orange flames arrived at their location at cannon ball speed, directly piercing the ground between them and creating a small explosion.

The three were alarmed and instinctively scattered in different directions before most of the explosion was able to spread out. The explosion was small so they only needed to each run about four meters away to get away from its blast radius.

Before they were able to even search for the culprit of the attack, an indifferent voice sounded from above them:

"We will be taking those bliss cherries and it would be wise for you to go somewhere else."

The three Magicians looked up towards the direction that the voice came from with intense frowns plastered on their faces. Even Jessica, who usually kept a plain expression frowned.

(I know that voice.)

Falen squinted his eyes and caught sight of four people standing at the edge of the top of a rock formation in close proximity to his group. The man who seemed to have spoken stood out from the rest because of his strange spiraling eyes and white hair. There was another man that possessed short, black hair and wore a genial smile, a woman with short, blond hair who had a silver bow cocked and another woman wearing a red dress and heals who had long, black hair and who maintained a plain expression as she looked at the three.

Jessica absentmindedly spoke aloud:

"Nick Capitol."

The badlands were free of noise and the acoustics among the rock formations were relatively good so everyone heard her speak. Ritchie raised his right eyelid when he also discovered the identity of the white haired man. Falen, however, snorted and then spit on the ground before cursing at the four:

"Fuck off!"

Nick smiled and then cast Space spreading his special space so as to envelope his group and a section of the badlands ten meters away from the three on the ground. He willed and he, Jessie and Pearl appeared ten meters away from the opposing trio while Cindy remained on top of the rock formation, ready to shoot another fire arrow at a moment's notice.

Nick observed the three closely and when his eyes ended up on Jessica, he stared at her for a few seconds upon which she stared back in return without saying anything.

Falen looked and Jessica, then at Nick and feeling that their interaction was strange, he interrupted them with his words:

"Alright, that's enough. I don't know where you get off giving us orders but the fact is that we found the bliss cherries first. First come, first served. Go find materials elsewhere or else."

Falen usually would not waste time talking to his enemies and would have already launched several explosions the second that he noticed them but Nick Capitol was not a random nobody.

Even if Falen was unaware of all the drama involving Nick during the mid-year exam, he had clearly seen the confrontation between Nick and Lieutenant Andrew Wiles at the end of that exam; he was wary of the man to say the least.

(What are the chances that we would encounter this guy of all people?)

Nick was currently having similar thoughts as he continued to keep an eye on Jessica. He inwardly sighed:

(This is troublesome. That woman is no joke and I was just thinking that I would be able to leave this realm without too much issues to think about. We have all the materials we need and even some in extra quantity, all except for the bliss cherries. Abandoning this batch is impossible since this arid land may or may not have more of the quantity that we are after and there are only less that ten hours until the exam ends.)

Nick spoke, showing no signs of backing down:

"Like I said, we'll be taking those bliss cherries, go else where."

Nick's words were like the straw that broke the camel's back as Falen's body exuded a cloud of magic energy in response and he stared at Nick and his teammates with unconcealed hostility, saying:

"You're about to die, boys and girl."

Jessica quickly ran to Falen's side and slapped him on the right shoulder, indicating for him to wait. Falen's expression eased but he continued exuding his magic energy; he looked at Jessica, puzzled.

(What the hell is she doing?)

Ritchie, who was some distance away at the side, stood with no intention of doing anything. He did not want to fight Nick.

(That man defeated multiple soldiers and a powerful third year during the mid-year exam. This batch of bliss cherries is not worth the effort of trying to deal with him if we can simply find more. This is just an exam. A wise man sees and mitigates foreseen risks.)

Ritchie knew based on their working together so far that Jessica was a very intelligent woman, probably one of the most talented rank 2 students he had ever seen so he assumed that she had stopped Falen because she had the same thoughts as him but to his surprise she had other designs.

Jessica broke her plain expression to smile at Nick like she was looking at a long lost friend. She spoke with a tinge of excitement in her tone as she pointed at him:

"Nick Capitol, this is the time when you and I will compete once again."

Falen was stumped by Jessica's sudden change in disposition and because of his momentary lapse in mindset, the small cloud of magic energy emerging from him dissipated. Jessie and Pearl who were on opposite sides of Nick raised their right eyebrows when confronted with Jessica's jubilant attitude. Pearl directly asked Nick:

"You have a fan?"

Jessie muttered absentmindedly:

"I want a fan that pretty too."

Nick rolled his eyes at both Jessie and Pearl before replying to Jessica:

"You want to compete? I just want the bliss cherries, Jessica. Don't make things difficult for this old man."

Jessica's expression became less jubilant and more straight faced and she then pointed her left index finger at the batch of bliss cherries and made a threat:

"Either we compete or no one gets these materials. Go ahead, test me."

Ritchie who was still standing some distance away opened his eyes wide in shock, seeing that Jessica was really trying to bring trouble down on them and even threatening to destroy their own benefits in the process.

Falen regained his composure and lightly chuckled.

(I like where this is going.)

Nick's indifference transformed into a tight frown and without turning his head, he spoke to Jessie and Pearl:

"You two, get ready, you'll each have to take on one of those people so that we can take all the bliss cherries. I'm going to separate all of us so that the materials don't get harmed. Since the objective is right in front of me, I won't giving up on it now."

Pearl could intuit Nick's reasoning for not backing down but did not fully understand why he wanted to separate them.

(Is it because he is afraid of damaging the bliss cherries?)

She replied:

"Do what you think is best. I'll beat any one of them."

Jessie internally sighed:

(Somehow Nick became the de facto leader of our group and is making the major decisions. Although he is competent and rational, this time he's being too cautious. These people don't seem like they amount to much? What? Is he afraid of that fairy over there? Jessica...that name actually rings a bell now that I think about it...)

Jessie just wanted the exam to conclude so he decided to go along with whatever did so the quickest:

"Just blow the whistle, coach."

Nick breathed in and out deeply, following which the flow of the magic energy in the atmosphere changed. Feeling the change, Ritchie tried to defuse the situation.

"Wait, we can split..."

He was too late. Nick knew that since Jessica had made her threat, she was likely to carry it out.

(Someone who can sit at a monolith studying it for months on end while starving and exposed to the elements is definitely crazy. The unreasonable fear the crazy. I'll have to deal with her myself.)

(Dominate The Space.)

Before Ritchie could finish his sentence a greyish magic power radiated from Nick in all directions, enveloping everyone present except Cindy, following which Nick, Pearl, Jessie, Jessica, Falen and Ritchie disappeared from their positions.

Cindy who had been watching the confrontation from above was surprised by the sudden disappearance but then realized that it was probably due to Nick's method. She asked herself:

"Do I pick the bliss cherries on my own?"

While Cindy was pondering the decision, else where among the rock formations at three different locations...

Nick and Jessica appeared fifteen meters apart from each other, one facing the other feeling a mutual wariness.

Pearl and Falen appeared about fifteen meters apart also, bearing undisguised battle intent.

Ritchie and Jessie appeared about ten meters apart but did not seem too interested in each other.

Three battle locations were instantly set up due to Nick's actions.

*****************************************************************************

Nick observed Jessica who maintained her straight face for a while before shaking his head and saying:

"You asked for this."

Jessica replied while patting her chest with her right palm:

"The academy encourages us to compete. There is nothing wrong with doing so during the exam. That being said, give me your best."

Nick's indifferent expression eased a bit and he then replied:

"Don't die!"

Nick quickly formed the laws for one of his space path spells within his mindscape. The laws radiated a mix of grey and white light as they formed; upon completion, the symbols transformed into a violent gale that consumed much of the solid magic ice below it.

Nick raised his right hand's index and middle fingers to the level of his face, following which a sphere of dull-grey light the size of a basket ball formed at their tips before shrinking down to the size of a marble and twinkling like a star with bright grey light.

Jessica was a little shocked by the quickness with which Nick cast his spell.

(Judging from the magic power that I'm sensing that spell is high quality but he only took an instant to cast it.)

Nick had never stopped working on his spells throughout the over six months since the mid-year exam. All his experiences and studying gave him many ideas and possibilities to work through. This new spell is a result of just some of his ideas.

(Venus.)

Jessica immediately found herself rising off of the ground; she felt as if her body had no weight whatsoever. When she rose about two feet, she decide to act:

(This isn't good, I need to stop his momentum.)

Even though Jessica had this thought in mind, Nick's high attainment in space path and his growing familiarity with space path spells gave him the ability to quickly cast methods, far more quickly than Jessica who was not even close to being a water path master.

Not even half a second after Nick cast Venus, Nick cast another spell. He raised his left index finger tip to the level of his face and a sphere of dull-red light the size of a basket ball was quickly formed before it shrunk to the size of a marble and shone a little bit brighter.

(Mars.)

Normally Nick would launch Mars at his opponent for it to have the greatest effect while minimizing the chances of the spell harming him but this time, he had other plans. Nick brought his left index finger tip and the tips of his right index and middle fingers together. Grey and red magic powers combined to form something new, something different...

(After months of spell making practise, I happened upon a concept that I never thought possible before I gained enough experience. I asked myself whether the laws of two spells could be harmoniously combined to create a new and even more powerful spell. Theoretically this was not a very innovative idea but to do it practically using the effects of two different spells...that was something else. After much time spent researching and testing, I finally obtained a result. I call it a combination spell...)

The combined spheres of light suddenly merged and shone with an intensely bright cream colored light which then flashed out in all directions enveloping, Nick, Jessica and the rock formations in the vicinity.

(Jupiter.)

The rock formations instantly collapsed and the rubble from dozens of them moved to rapidly circle the edges of the cream light which from the outside seemed like an imperfect sphere, resulting in two rings of rubble being formed. The rocks circled the cream light horizontally with uniform motion that did not allow for deviation and so the situation was that Nick and Jessica were trapped in a massive collection of light with two rings circling it owing to the forces of gravity generated by the combination of Mars and Neptune.

Jessica struggled to breath as she free-floated in midair, feeling pressure coming towards her from all sides. Her eyes were completely filled with cream light so she could not view the surroundings or see Nick. She could not even sense the magic energy coming from his body because this spell had flooded the area with a profound magic power that made him indiscernible by way of magic sense. She coughed out a mouthful of blood and mused:

(Not even during the mid-year exam did I feel so troubled. This is the first time in my life that someone has put me into such a pathetic state while being completely battle ready. What is this feeling that is creeping upon me? Hmmm...I think that this might be...death.)

In that moment of realization, Jessica grew afraid but instead of cowering her, her fear stoked her repressed savage nature.

(I'm not going to die here. You are!)

******************************************************************************

Falen stood at his spot and turned his head to his left, sensing the battle that was happening some hundreds of meters away from here. A bead of sweat quietly fell from his face as he thought:

(What the hell is that magic power? It's not just its intensity that has me shook, something about it has...a presence that I can't ignore.)

Pearl looked in the same direction as Falen and her thoughts spun rapidly:

(He is able to perform a spell like that at rank 2? Advanced grade spells are usually powerful, sure, but what Nick is doing feelings like something more. This magic power that I'm feeling feels like its...alive. Does that even make sense?)

Pearl's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a shout from Falen:

"Hey, sweet thing. Stop paying attention to what's going on over there. God knows that I don't even want to think about what fuckery your friend is up to if I can sense his magic power from all the way over here."

Pearl turned her head away from the direction of Nick's battle and focused on the man in front of her.

(I might as well deal with him since Nick's situation already indicates that things won't end without a fight.)

Pearl separated her feet a few more inches apart with her red heels firmly stuck into the ground and her arms raised slightly in front of her, taking a battle stance. Falen laughed at the sight, saying:

(That's what I like to see.)

True to his nature, Falen did not wait for Pearl to start things and immediately made a move.

(Hot Boots)

A relatively large blast of heat and shock erupted from both his feet and he flew upwards, reaching about eighteen meters above ground in three seconds. He stopped at that altitude for several moments, following which Falen pointed both his right and left index fingers towards Pearl below and cast his spell:

(Burn Blast 2)

Falen's pointed fingers glowed molten orange as pellets of pure dull orange flames were shot out rapidly towards Pearl's position. Within less than a second, Falen shot eighty seven fire pellets down at Pearl before using his Hot Boots spell to reposition himself at the top of a rock formation in order to watch the aftermath of his attack.

Pearl looked up with pursed lips; her thoughts spun:

(This man's attacks are fast.)

Within moments, she cast her own spell, transforming her right had into a silver, viscous liquid that seemed to pour out from herself without end.

(Mercuric Geyser)

She quickly willed for the silver liquid to shoot up above her like a live snake and spread to cover the area of effect of Falen's attack which was about four meters in radius. She then quickly cast another spell:

(Hard Fluid)

While still spread over an almost flat area in midair, the silver liquid hardened, becoming an effective barrier. Falen's fire pellets hit the barrier one after the other in quick succession, giving off many small but violent explosion.

When all of the fire pellets had made contact and exploded. The silver barrier cracked in many places before collapsing, at which point the hard pieces reverted into their liquid form and fell onto the ground in pools.

Falen didn't wait for Pearl to reorganize her defense. He had already been preparing his next spell and so he quickly stooped at the edge of the rock formation. He joined the base of his two palms and positioned them facing towards Pearl.

(Burn Blast 3)

A red aura quickly erupted from Falen's body as his hands lit up with red-orange light before a linear and continuous blast of red-orange flames shot out at the speed of a launched cannon ball. The attack was certainly fast and Pearl could hardly keep up with its approach visually but by sensing Falen's magic power and knowing the trajectory of the incoming flames, she knew that they were coming straight at her.

She willed for the silver liquid flowing from her shoulder stump to rapidly surround her and harden, forming a thick, smooth dome about three meters high. Falen's blast of flames hit the silver dome directly, immediately following which the silver dome glowed molten orange as it heated up, before a large explosion took place which destroyed several rock formations situated around Pearl's position.

Falen soon cancelled his spell and the flames emerging from his hand dissipated. The resulting explosions had created a cloud of rising black smoke that now covered the area. He summoned a white rag from his space band and used it to wipe the sweat off his face, saying:

"The heat from my blasts even affects me to a degree. Those flames burnt at about 7000 degrees Celsius - enough to melt down any hard defense and the following explosion should have put her in her place."

Falen's magic spells were hot, fast, produced concrete pulverizing shock waves and were incredibly accurate.

(The only downside being that the more powerful they were, the more they raised my own body temperature, forcing me to limit my own movements. Man, I can't wait to get to rank 3, the downside of the rank 2 portion of my legacy inheritance suck.)

Falen stood up straight and was about to return to the ground to find Pearl, assuming that she was not near death yet. Before that, however, he suddenly felt the rock surface underneath his feet go soft and he then began to sink into it.

Falen looked closely and realized that the rock formation had started to gain a metallic grey color which was spreading rapidly.

"What the fuck?"

With his feet stuck in the slowly liquefying rock formation, a figure made of the same silver liquid emerged from below him and turned its arms into pumps for the silver liquid, quickly covering him from head to toe with the viscous fluid.

(Hard Fluid)

The mass of silver liquid covering Falen instantly hardened, creating a metal block. The figure of silver liquid that was suspiciously shaped like a woman then merged with the rest of the rock formation which stopped liquefying at that moment but large portions of it remained metallic silver in color.

BOOM!

The block of metal that enveloped Falen suddenly and violently burst apart as Falen flew several meters upwards away from the rock formation, soon ending up directly above the rising black smoke. He quickly landed on top of another rock formation with his breathing a little uneven but otherwise, he seemed unharmed; he looked to his previous position with some wariness. Just then, he heard a female's voice behind him:

"You fly around like an insect."

Falen quickly turned around to see Pearl standing there with not a speck of dirt on her red dress, red heels or skin. He asked:

"How did you escape my explosion unscathed?"

Pearl shook her head and replied:

"I don't think that you should be worrying about that right now?"

Falen slightly squinted his eyes then opened them wide as he coughed out a mouthful of blood and his vision grew blurry.

(Huh?)

He looked at Pearl with rage but said nothing as a line of blood flowed down his right nostril. Pearl smiled in response and spoke with much pride hidden in her tone:

"If you were wondering, you're experiencing some relatively light symptoms of magically induced heavy metal poisoning. To bad there's no doctor out her to tend to you."

Falen's vision was slowly getting worse. He wiped the blood from his lips with his right hand, then said:

"You bitch. That silver liquid, it's actual mercury, isn't it?"

Pearl replied almost playfully:

"Bingo."

Falen frowned in response to Pearl's answer. Even a high school student knew that mercury was poisonous to the touch and that coming into contact with large amounts of it could kill you rapidly. Falen was just covered from head to toe with it.

(What's going on here? All she's been doing is pumping out mercury since the beginning but I haven't seen her taking any measures to limit her own exposure. Assuming that she's using water path, metal path or both, neither is speed focused and they aren't typically used to poison people. Poison path Magicians have the benefit that they are somewhat immured to their poison but using completely unrelated paths at rank 2 to achieve the same effect should backfire on the caster, especially if like her, they are in contact with so much of the poison. Even I, a fire path Magician, can't escape the drawbacks of the heat that my spells produce at his rank. How can her powers be so potent with no apparent drawbacks. She even moves fast enough that I can't trace her movements at all.)

Falen put away his useless analysis and clenched his fist, then his body erupted with a cloud of red magic power that quickly enveloped his right fist as he punched it down at the rock surface under his feet.

(Erupted Burn)

Several pillars of red-orange flames immediately erupted out of the rocky surface all around Fallen and Pearl, rising two meters in midair. Jessica looked all around her and muttered:

"Oh."

BOOM!

The upper half of the rock formation instantly became molten orange in color and then exploded. Rocky debris flew everywhere for dozens of meters and neither Falen nor Pearl could be found anywhere near the rock formation.

Some twenty meters away, Falen appeared sitting at the base of another rock formation with his back resting on it. He looked at a smooth, circular stone in his right hand that had many laws written in it's surface that glowed bright grey. The stone however soon turned to dust which blew out of Falen's hands. Fallen coughed out two mouthfuls of blood and regretfully spoke:

"This is what I get for not having a good healing spell. Who would have thought that I would meet someone who uses water path and metal path to poison their opponent. The healing spell that I have is some crap that I bought from the academy and it isn't doing much and the effects of the poison are getting worse. Why did my predecessors design the first healing spell that I can learn from my inheritance to be rank 3. How am I supposed to cope with situations like this."

COUGH COUGH COUGH

Blood spurted out of Falen's mouth with each cough.

(This was a bad match up for me. I even had to sacrifice my space flash rock to get away from that bitch. Does she know how much a magic tool like that costs or how many connections you need to have to get one?)

While Falen was internally complaining, a female's voice sounded from above him:

"Your spell was powerful for sure but it lacked the ability to keep the target in its area of effect in place while it resolved. Nice try though."

Falen's eyes opened wide and he looked up to see Pearl partly emerged from the rock wall two meters above him. She looked straight at him as he did the same. The area that she emerged from was tainted a metallic silver color and her lower body was not visible. She calmly lectured Falen:

"Your raw power is formidable and you definitely have potential but your practically a one trick pony. Against someone like me, constantly blowing things up won't get you much but the quickness of that last spell almost got me, I will admit that much."

Pearl's body released a silver magic power that traveled down the rock formation's surface into the ground for many meters around Falen. The ground quickly began to soften and liquefy, becoming a pool of silver mercury.

(Mercuric Alchemy)

Falen felt himself slowly sinking into the pool but he was too weak from the poisoning to mount a resistance and so he tried to say one final thing before he was completely defeated:

"You bitch..."

Pearl did not wait for him to finish his sentence and simply flicked her right index finer at him. The pool of mercury then moved to submerge Falen which it did in mere moments. Falen's vision grew even blurrier as he was being buried under liquid metal until his vision went completely dark.

Jessica's body suddenly transformed into viscous mercury and flowed downward before reverting back to her human form. She stood on top of the liquid surface without sinking and then flicked her right index finger upward. A sphere of mercury rose above the ground, falling away at its top to reveal Falen's head; he was clearly unconscious and had blood flowing from his nostrils, mouth and closed eyes.

(Hard Fluid)

The sphere of mercury instantly solidified, forming a prison that kept Falen in place with only his head remaining free. Jessica mused:

(If this man had a decent healing spell, this might have actually been a fight worth telling uncle about. Magic battles are like this - if you end up fighting someone who has a significant advantage over you in a particular area, you'll probably lose without being able to showcase your true strength. Rank 2 Magicians are usually light on good healing spells so my mercury spells have a certain situational advantage to them but that's not the main reason he lost. Magic energy quality, speed, method potency, path attainment level. My superiority in those factors is why he really lost. His attacks were flashier and superior in terms of raw power but he was like an amateur swinging a broadsword against a seasoned knife fighter. He was bound to lose.)

Pearl willed and Falen's prison fell into the pool of mercury, after which Pearl had the pool flow forward, carrying both of them away from the area of their battle.

***********************************************************************

Cindy jumped across the top of one rock formation to the other with five ribbon like red streaks of flames fluttering at her back. She was moving at about twice the speed of a jumping cricket.

(Speed Streak)

Cindy had been moving over the rock formations for ten minutes trying to find her group members. She had already picked the bliss cherries and now only needed to regroup with the others.

"Where are they? Why did Nick bother fighting with these people if he could just send them away while I picked the materials?"

Cindy did not understand that man sometimes but to be honest, she barely knew him.

(We've completed the objective of this exam with over five hours left to spare. We are definitely one of the better groups. He, he, getting close to Nick is finally paying off. I wonder how he is so strong even with his ordinary background. There must be a secret. I'll try to find it out later. Men have a way of talking too much when women make them happy.)

Soon, Cindy was able to spot one of her teammates at the base of an upcoming rock formation but what she saw shocked her.

(Is Jessie having...tea?)

Some few dozen meters away from Cindy, Jessie was currently sitting on the ground at a small wooden table across from Ritchie who was currently using a battery powered water heater to pour hot water into their mugs that were partly filled with tea leaves.

After Ritchie was finished, Jessie reached for the saucer of sugar cubes and the pitcher of cream and started putting the finishing touches on his beverage. Ritchie was about to do the same but his expression suddenly changed into a knowing one.

"Your female teammate just defeated one of mine. She seems very powerful."

Jessie replied while keeping and eye on his tea:

"Oh, you mean Pearl. Yeah, I suspect that she is about as strong as I am if not stronger."

Ritchie looked at Jessie for a moment, then asked with a little confusion in his tone:

"Why were you so quick to take me up on my offer for tea. Why didn't you want to fight me?"

Jessie looked up from his tea and answered Ritchie:

"Because I could sense that you didn't want to fight. You don't want to fight, I don't want to fight. I am not a man who makes life difficult for no good reason. Besides, as soon as Nick teleported us away, leaving one of my companions at the site of the bliss cherries, I knew that we already completed our objective."

Ritchie sighed when he thought about Nick Capitol. He had suspected from the beginning that that man was too much trouble to deal with and judging from the magic power radiating from his and Jessica's position, Ritchie knew that he was correct in his thinking. He asked Jessie:

"How strong is Nick Capitol?"

Jessie took a sip of his hot tea before replying:

"No idea but I suspect that if I were to fight him that I would have to sacrifice my own life to take his."

Ritchie sighed again, saying:

"I feel the same. Do you think that Jessica will win their battle?"

Jessie decided to finish his cup of tea with one more gulp so he did just that and then blew the resulting steam out from out of his mouth. He answered Ritchie's question the best that he could:

"Jessica Jones, sister of Rebecca Jones and one of the heirs to the Jones fortune. Rumors are that she is extremely formidable and has special magic powers but I don't know the details clearly. I do know that like her sister, she has inherited her grandfather's famous talent, Steep Accumulator, but that talent won't show any real effect until she gets to the regular ranks. You've been traveling with her this whole time, what do you think about her power?"

Ritchie thought for a bit before he answered some seconds later:

"She has really dense magic energy and is very intelligent. I think that she is possibly stronger than myself in terms of raw power but in terms of knowledge unrelated to her path and magic materials, she is lacking. All in all, she has extremely high potential. She and Nick are natural rivals."

Jessie shook his head slowly while pouring some more hot water into his tea cup. He offered his opinion:

"I don't think that they are rivals. You need to be on a person's level at least in a particular field to be considered their rival but in terms of magic power, Nick Capitol has Jessica Jones beat by a few levels. Do you feel what's going on over at their battle?"

Ritchie frowned.

(How did this man sense the changing events more quickly than I did, isn't he a transformation path Magician? Hmmm... it looks like...)

Ritchie just sensed what had taken place between Nick and Jessica and he stood up in shock, looking towards the direction of their battle. Jessie spoke with a bored tone:

"See, Nick is just better right now. I think that after this exam, I'm going to have a word with him to hear his thoughts on how best to cultivate."

Ritchie sighed before taking a seat on the hard ground again. He remained quiet while slowly sipping his tea. While the two whiled the time away, they suddenly heard a woman's voice echo from above them:

"Jessie, what the hell are you doing?"

Jessie looked up and realized that Cindy was softly falling down from the sky with read streaks fluttering at her back. he replied with no change in expression:

"Just having a little break. Did you collect the bliss cherries?"

Cindy looked at Ritchie who was busy sipping his tea, then back at Jessie, replying:

"Yes, I picked them."

Jessie asked in reply:

"How much did you pick?"

Cindy frowned slightly and then cautioned:

"Should I really be answering that in front of him?"

Jessie listlessly replied:

"He's cool. There's no way he's going to try to pick a fight now."

Cindy hesitated before replying:

"I picked fifty two bliss cherries."

Jessie nodded and then instructed:

"Great, give my new friend Ritchie here twenty four of them so that he can satisfy the exam requirements."

Ritchie looked at Jessie for a few moments before thinking:

(This man is not ordinary. The exam requirements are twenty six bliss cherries and I have two kept within my space band. When I picked the first one, Everyone should have seen it but I picked the second one using my advanced grade lighting path spell that conceals my movements so that I could sample the material later without Jessica and Falen knowing. He either saw through my spell or can see into my space band. Either way, he is troublesome.)

Cindy protested:

"Why would I do that?"

Jessie stood up and explained with little emotion in his tone:

"Because we've ended our conflict on relatively good terms and thus it is necessary to share the rewards. Nick and Pearl are coming this way right now with their defeated opponents. We are all about to be acquainted."

Cindy felt a little weird about what Jessie said but she knew that he had no motive to lie to her so she handed over some of the bliss cherries to Ritchie. Soon, a wave of silver liquid appeared near them and Pearl then cancelled her spell, returning the ground to being dry dirt. She released the unconscious Falen from his mercuric prison by causing the hard mercury to liquefy and seep into the ground.

She then observed the four people present, then the short table that had tea leaves, mugs, sugar, cream and a water heater resting on it. Her right eyelid twitched for a few moments before she sighed and said:

"Hand me a mug."