Chapter 8 - Insolence

The capital city of Ziviria is crowded with people.

Today begins the preliminary match of the Coalition Adventurers Competition. There are thousands of adventurers who signed up for this after the country-wide announcement four days ago.

The venue of this competition is the Ziviria National Stadium. This large stadium can accommodate half a million people and its field can withstand the total amount of damage caused by over a hundred A-rank adventurers simultaneously.

No doubt the materials used to make this stadium and the safety standards for the audience are both of highest quality available to the government. There are crowds of adventurers and the general public entering the stadium orderly.

Half a million seats have been booked online for the duration of the entire competition and anyone failing to enter the venue within half an hour before the start of the match will be blocked from entry along with their booked seat cancelled but of course, refunded. The empty seats can be rebooked by others online again.

A Magic Horse Carriage stopped in the parking lot of the stadium.

Orion got off the carriage and was received by the officials. A pretty girl in a short skirt guided him to the VIP box while trying to secretly flirt with him. He was expressionless throughout the process and reached the destination where other S-rank adventurers as well as political leaders were gathered to watch the competition.

"Orion, good morning! Hahaha. You're as poker faced as always."

"How about it? Will your closed disciples enter the ten spots of domestic competition?"

"Yeah, how much confidence do you have in them?"

"Reveal something. You sure kept your disciples hidden till now."

Orion only smiled a little before he answered: "They are all very talented adventurers. I believe that not only will they be in the top ten of domestic competition but will also easily win the global competition."

His firm tone as he said that made others a bit skeptical but no matter what they thought in their heart on the outside everyone only wished his disciples good luck while praising him for his achievement in the past week.

No way, this guy actually uprooted the entire Assassin's Guild operating in the coalition's territory and killed the guild leader, an S-rank assassin. Not only did he bloodbath them but he also attacked two more S-rank adventurers, one in their home country and another from the neighboring federation.

These two S-rank had some grudges with him. With a fierce battle he managed to kill both of them thus shocking the coalition and alarming the council.

The interesting thing is that he didn't receive any punishment for such a sudden assault and blatantly weakening the top strength of humanity. What can the council do? Besiege such a strong adventurer and form irreconcilable hatred? So he was let off with a strong warning and advised to be patient in handling any dispute.

Now within the circle of S-rank adventurers, Ghost Spear Orion is not only considered the fastest S-rank adventurer who achieved the rank in shortest time but also the contemporary strongest adventurer. Killing three S-rank in a few days is such an astonishing record.

The time came for the start of the preliminary.

The competition is divided into four ranks and the stadium field is also divided into four parts. Two A-rank adventurers entered the field on the north side, two B-rank in the west, C-rank in the south and D-rank in the east.

"It just so happens that one of Orion's disciples will compete in the first round."

"Let us watch which genius made Orion feel so confident about the future result."

He only smiled faintly without saying anything. He looked at the blond girl that appeared on the stadium field. He silently lamented that her opponent was an unlucky chap.

On the field.

Esmeria stood on the field and observed her opponent for a second, then she lost interest. Too weak! Her extrasensory perception though suppressed by the secret realm could still vaguely see through the strength of others due to her own higher realm.

Human Evolution Codex, the main technique that humans of the empire practices to walk the journey of evolution is very miraculous. There are essential abilities one awakens as they practice this technique.

Extrasensory perception is one such example.

Instead of always relying on the five senses one uses the Cosmium in the environment to perceive beyond the range. The higher the realm the more mysteries of evolution excavated and the more this essential ability strengthens.

Another noteworthy ability is Thought Translation.

In the Cosmic Sea, there are other races besides humans who also dominate the universe. The language they use is obviously different. There are some who don't even use vocal cords for communication.

To avoid the embarrassing situation of not understanding the other party during any negotiation or exchange, Thought Translation ability becomes an absolute necessity. Even the languages of Azure Planet's humans are different but because of Thought Translation Esmeria and other Pangaea humans didn't need to waste time learning new languages.

This ability works in such a way that it conveys the thought one wants to communicate to the other in the language or sound they understand while their side's response is properly translated on one's senses. The use of Cosmium allows this complex but effective operation.

The disharmony of how the foreign language is spoken gets mitigated by properly understanding the translated thought and using the Cosmium wavelength of speech to match the mouth expression that appears intuitively.

Other dominant races also have similar tricks for foreign communication.

Derek looked at the beauty who was his opponent. His eyes became greedy as he looked at her without any restraint. He decided he would go easy on her lest she gets any scars and after winning the match take her for himself!

Esmeria frowned slightly. A commoner actually dares to look at her with such intention!? She didn't say anything but waited for the start of the match. In her memory of the future whether it be some alien race in the Cosmic Sea or humans in secret realms there were many such people who didn't understand their own worth and dared to covet her.

The consequence of such insolence was also obvious.

As soon as the C-rank referee gave the signal Esmeria opened her book. This book was actually just a disguise to fit with the image of a summoner who was a known profession in Azure Planet.

She released the Blood-toothed Jaguar from her beast nurturing space inside the heart. Due to her Exquisite Hundred Beasts Heart she has a strong spatial affinity similar to her future husband Xar who can actually choose the path of illusion that requires the same affinity.

To hide the news of her physique her family helped to create the public record where she was only revealed to have strong spatial affinity from birth and her frequent use of space-related treasures for the path of beast taming she chose.

This book was such a disguise. Even though she entered the secret realm with her peers her grandfather still cautioned her to keep the matter as foolproof as possible. Many things can be deduced as long as too many people know about it.

The Blood-toothed Jaguar, a very rare D-rank mutated beast, appeared with a flash of light. Its appearance was similar to a normal jaguar except the two large red fangs that came out of the mouth.

Esmeria's original tamed beasts are unknown in the Azure Planet. If they're sent out then their realm will drop to the ordinary state because of the restrictions in this secret realm and she will have to spend more time and resources to help them regain strength.

So not only will she have to regain her own strength but she also has to nanny her tamed beasts. Instead of such hassle her grandfather simply made that commoner prepare a batch of rare and strong creatures in the category of birds, beasts, insects and amphibians from D-rank to A-rank.

S-rank was a bit out of reach considering that one had to venture towards the center of the continent to get to their habitat. If someone really went there to capture one then there might be a lot of commotion or other variables from the Demon Lord's army might appear.

For the sake of his granddaughter training in peace at the earlier stage of entry in this secret realm, S-rank beasts were excluded from the capture list.

Blood-toothed Jaguar pounced on Derek as soon as it appeared. He was shocked to see such a rare beast which he only read in books in the academy. His reaction wasn't slow. He dodged to the left and thrusted his sword at its belly.

Clang!

The collision of metal sounded. Derek was wide eyed to see that his sword thrust not only failed to penetrate the flesh but instead made sparks upon contact. The fur of this jaguar was so tough that it was akin to metal.

Blood-toothed Jaguar swapped its claws toward the left leg of Derek. He hurriedly blocked it with the sword but the strength of this swipe was too great for him to hold his ground. He directly flew in the air and rolled on the ground from recoil.

Before he could get up, a whistling sound came to his ear. He looked up and saw a blade made of blood closing in on him from the direction of that beauty.

Esmeria shot a Blood Blade at the opportune time.

The path of beast taming. One can not only tame beasts to command them but can also use various bloodline abilities through bond or higher understanding.

Esmeria doesn't have much bond with this freshly tamed beast from Azure Planet but her understanding of beast taming as a Level 3 Final Stage evolver is more than enough to fully display all the abilities and power of Blood-toothed Jaguar who's just a Level 1 beast.

The Blood Blade was about to hit the head of Derek. The C-rank referee saw that he couldn't dodge it nor defend it in time so he took action but when he rushed forward to block it he found in his horror that his shield was directly pierced like a piece of paper and the Blood Blade directly chopped off his leg.

It was similar to a hot knife through butter.

Without the obstruction of the referee, who was now wailing on the ground while clutching his chopped leg, Derek's head horizontally split into two and the power of the blade finally dissipated after traveling a bit more distance.

The stadium suddenly became silent.

The other matches in the field also paused at this moment. From the beginning of the match till the death of Derek less than ten seconds passed.

Esmeria's ruthlessness chilled the heart of the audience and her strength which even eclipsed C-rank astonished them. In the VIP box where top figures of the coalition stood there was also a similar silence.

What did they see?

A freshly graduate D-rank adventurer actually has strength greater than C-rank. Killing the same rank is as easy as cutting vegetables while higher rank can't put up a proper defense. This…

"This young lady has the potential of S-rank."

One of the S-rank adventurers said with a deep voice. Others who heard his analysis also nodded in agreement. Thinking back, all of the present S-rank strongmen weren't as strong as her who could fight across ranks while being only at D-rank.

"She could have ended the fight easily with her strength. Was there a need to kill the opponent? Orion, isn't your disciple a bit murderous?"

Another S-rank adventurer questioned with some dissatisfaction. Derek was an acquaintance of his cousin. Seeing him killed in a competition upsets him.

"Swords have no eyes. Accidents happen when people are fighting with real weapons, let alone adventurers who are using skills and magic."

Orion replied blankly. In his opinion, Lady Asterisk showed great mercy to the scum who dared to look at her lewdly. In the empire it would be justified to have his entire clan executed for such offense to a noble.

This guy was let off with only his death. If she had intention to follow the usual laws of the empire then Orion might have gotten a message for mass execution at this moment.

So, punishing them is a matter of course.