The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 298 The Final Test 3

20 people in 2 teams were done, the staff said 74 people were the holders of SSS ranking for Spellborne Legion. Which would mean 5 more teams at least.

The third team came, another 10 nice looking prey. This time the monster was a huge snake with the upper half being humanoid. Damian knew those, he had extracted the venom spell from one of them. They were hard to deal with, he had to beat them up a lot for them to stay still in their cage and let him perform the mimicry spell.

The third team put up quite an admirable effort, but got wiped out without even making the monster's green health go to half. Neither did they show anything useful, Damian felt like it was a waste of his money-then he remembered this was free.

The next team had the Faerunian prince in it, plus other Faerunian and other kingdom's noble kids accompanying him. Damian even remembered some of them being commoners. And of course the prince was leading this one. Surprisingly it wasn't amateaur or childish as Damian had expected from the brat he remebered him as; instead the kid, Alex was his name, showed some real promise as commander.

There was nothing that special about him, but his swordsmanship was flawless, his aura control on master level. If he had to describe his fighting style in one word it would be - Efficient. He had power, and he knew technique, combined with his confidence in himself and impressive amount of mana-that kid showed promise.

Of course it was nothing compared to his sister, that chick was a monster through and through. They certainly showed they were the relatives of The Hellstorm. Damian still felt goosebumps to this day remembering that guy releasing his dark, ominous mana as if it was an endless ocean. His mana till now was the most terrifying of any third ranker's Damian had met.

'Ahh, that reminds me, maybe I should give another look to that mana sucking runic circle.. I never did figure out what it really did with all that mana.. Wonder if I even remember the runic circle till now or its also in the spellbook of my damaged bracers..'

Damian hoped till the end that Alex would show some impressive secret spell but he only comanded his teammates, handling the giant ant like monster with a clever strategy and good teamwork. The many legs of the ant were good targets to distract it and at the same time chip away its health bit by bit. There was simply no need for any big spells, the monster only spat acid once in a while and moved weirdly slow. Guess not standing out in earlier tests worked in Alex's favor, he got one of the easier monsters. Dude even managed to save 6 of his teammates at the end of 5 minutes, the monster's health was left in almost red.

The dodging around took a lot of their time. But Damian could see the staff murmuring amongst themselves, they would sure get good ranking for this one at least.

Another team came to face the challenge, this one had that beastmen boy from the empire and the teammates were mostly commoners who had ranked high in the three tests. Damian had often seen many of them hanging out together.

The monster they were given was a giant wolf. It was really similar to one Damian and Valoris had fought, though this one had brown fur. And when it released the stream of fire instead of chilly ice breath, he guessed they were the same monsters and just went on a different evolutionary path for their species.

The wolf was faster than any monsters before it, and that was a big issue for the many first rankers facing it. They also fought with cohesion and the beastmen boy was certainly proving to be equally good as other top SSS ranked individuals. Damian was waiting for some new spells to be used though, all they used were basic spells or the advanced one that he already knew.

"Come on! Get closer.. Show me some goods.." Damian muttered, swinging his spell book in his hand toward them.

"They will die if they get any closer…" A voice replied from beside his elevated bench.

For a second Damian thought Toph was the one who spoke up, and he looked at him suspiciously-though the little elephant just tilted his head in confusion. Then he looked beside his bench and saw a girl with blue hair showing herself from behind it.

It was Lucian. Damian's eyes widened, and he was lost for words. Then in his most noble, old man-authorative voice he answered,

"Lady Lucian Goldilocks was it..? Your fight was admirable.." And nodded, acting like a wordly grandpa.

"Cut the act.. Did you really think I won't recognize you..?" She said, as she jumped up the small elevated bench and sat besides Toph, there was plenty of space.

Toph looked at her and then at Damian, all confused. But after a few turns of his smooth round head, he gave up and just plopped down, resting some more. That guy had become too lazy.

"You mistake me for someone else, my lady, I am just a humble commoner from Eldoris…" Damian said, nodding to empahsize his point. She looked at him as if he had said the worst joke in her life, then ignored him and focused on the fight going on in front of them.

"Next time you want to hide, don't walk around with an elephant on your head & choose companions who are not royalty.." She advised him.

Ah, she didn't even hesitate about his identity. Well, Damian knew he would be recognized sooner or later. But this was so soon.. Did he not grow up in five goddamn years at all..?

"Why did you come so late..? I was sure you would set the record for the youngest one here.." Damian relented and asked, also turning his head toward the fight, though none of them were really paying attention.

"Father held me back, so I could do the year with the fourth prince.." Lucian answered, though there was a tinge of annoyance in her voice. Well anyone would be angry at that.