Chapter 149: Start Of The Challenge
August turned back to see who had entered, and when he saw the woman's face, he looked a bit surprised.
"I thought you left the city?"
"I officially did," Selenia said with a beautiful smile on her face.
She looked like a woman in her mid-thirties, with long black hair and striking green eyes that shone like emeralds.
She was tall, only a few centimeters shorter than August. Even though her aura was dormant, there was still a terrifying air about her.
"Officially? So you're here unofficially now? Aren't you afraid it'll cause trouble?" August raised an eyebrow.
"Heh, who'd dare question me?" Selenia chuckled proudly.
August didn't say anything—he just laughed out loud, as expected from the Black Sword of Dawn.
"Don't change the subject, old man. Tell me, who entered that room that made you look so excited?"
"A talented young man. More talented than anyone I've ever seen," the Chairman said calmly.
"Oh? You praise him that much? Now I'm curious to see who he is," Selenia said with interest.
"You'll meet him soon. In fact, I think you already know his sister."
"His sister?" Selenia raised an eyebrow. Why would she know someone's sister?
"Oh, wait... You mean my new student? I remember she had a brother. Actually, when we found out a newly awakened had appeared and it was related to her, we figured it was worth testing him."
"That's right. That brother is your new student, Alice's, sibling," August confirmed.
Selenia went quiet. It wasn't like she was unaware of the news—naturally, she knew her new student's brother had cleared the Dungeon Colosseum—but she hadn't gotten a chance to see him in person.
She had been tied up with some personal matters and was even supposed to have returned to the capital by now per Guild orders. Unfortunately, she had to disobey the Guild Leader's command, and she would definitely be punished once she went back.
"I want to know how talented he really is. Enough to rival Diana?" But none of that mattered now. The more important thing was discovering another genius.
"Diana? Hahaha, you're underestimating the genius of my city," August laughed upon hearing that name.
Selenia frowned and didn't say anything. She didn't care much about the old man's words. In her eyes, there couldn't be anyone more talented than Diana. That girl was a true monster.
"Anyway, what did you come here for?" August suddenly asked.
"I'll tell you later. We need a quieter place."
Meanwhile, inside the glass room, Daniel stood in front of his first opponent. It looked like a monster—completely white in color, with a humanoid body, but lacking any human facial features except for one eye.
There was a single large eye in the center of its face. It looked somewhat creepy.
[Scanning your identity...]
Suddenly, a light scanned Daniel.
[Identity confirmed: Daniel Noir]
[Welcome to the Advanced Talent Assessment Program – Medes]
[Defeat the Initial C-Rank Training Opponent in front of you]
Daniel nodded, and right after the announcement, the opponent charged at him without giving him even a second to react.
However, Daniel blocked the attack with a single punch and destroyed it completely with another hit.
The opponent's corpse collapsed to the ground and disappeared after a few seconds—another enemy appeared in its place, identical in appearance but radiating a much stronger aura.
[You have successfully defeated your first training opponent]
[You have gained 750 points]
[Defeat the Mid C-Rank Training Opponent in front of you]
Daniel nodded again. He didn't care much about the points—after all, the top ten rankings had eight-digit scores.
The second opponent also charged him without pause. Not only was its rank higher, but its combat skills had noticeably improved as well.
But this one didn't last long either. After just two moves, Daniel smashed its head with a punch.
[You have successfully defeated your second training opponent]
[You have gained 1,790 points]
[Total Points: 2,542]
[Defeat the Peak C-Rank Training Opponent in front of you]
Another opponent appeared and attacked right after the announcement. Its power had increased once again—but Daniel defeated it easily without wasting any time.
Even before obtaining the Death Body and reaching C-rank, Daniel could easily crush any being below B-rank.
Now that he had both C-rank and the Death Body, he doubted even normal B-ranks could compete with him.
The system announcements echoed in his mind again. There was nothing new in them, except this time, his points jumped tenfold.
The next opponent appeared again—still a Peak C-rank—but Daniel noticed this one had much stronger raw power and better combat skills than the last.
Daniel wanted to kill it immediately, but this one was a bit more troublesome. They exchanged several blows, and he started noticing how different this one was compared to the previous ones.
"Is it learning?" Daniel raised his eyebrows as he sensed something.
He realized that each new opponent seemed more and more familiar with his fighting style and could copy his moves better.
If he wasn't mistaken, the simulator was probably scanning and analyzing his fighting style, then feeding that information into his next opponents.
Daniel didn't want his fighting style to be exposed any further, so without hesitation, he defeated the opponent.
That made him paranoid. Could this data be sent to the Federation and used for other purposes?
Daniel frowned, but decided to ignore it for now.
He continued at a steady pace, defeating ten C-rank training opponents in less than ten minutes—even though they were all at Peak C-rank.
"Aren't their ranks going to go up?" Daniel muttered, even though it had taken him several minutes to defeat the tenth one.
The ranks weren't increasing, but the power of each opponent was getting higher and higher.
Fortunately, his score had now passed the seven-digit mark. At this rate, reaching eight digits—or even breaking nine—didn't seem that hard.
[You have successfully defeated your tenth training opponent]
[You have gained 973,800 points]
[Total Points: 1,920,000]
[Defeat the Half-Step B-Rank Training Opponent in front of you]
"Oh? Finally," Daniel smiled with excitement. Now things could start getting serious.