The ranking board above flickered the mont Edward got off the stage, placing Ezekiel at his forr position while he dropped to the 67th rank.
An annoyed twitch afflicted the noble’s eyes as he stared at the returning Ezekiel with a somber expression. Yet he wisely chose to make no comnts. His opponent wildly outclassed him.
Without any breakthroughs in his strength, Edward had no confidence that he could win against the chanic while still at the E rank.
Beyond the Institute’s walls, he had multiple ways to get back at Ezekiel for the searing defeat burning away at his pride and ego. But such thods couldn’t be implented within those walls. Not if he wished to be banished from the school.
And with the interest placed on Ezekiel’s inventions, Edward didn’t believe that the teenager would be entirely without support even outside the Institute. One could easily infer how readily he could obtain a solid and powerful backing if he wished. Such an opponent wasn’t worth antagonizing over a bit of wounded ego.
So, even with the seeds of resentnt taking root in Edward’s mind, the young noble wisely chose to disappear into the crowd of students filling the waiting lobby. His priority was to beco invincible in the eyes of the chanic. For now.
Ezekiel, on the other hand, didn’t bother glancing toward the noble once he was back in the lobby. He instead moved to et his friends, who both wore an "as expected" expression on their faces.
"I didn’t expect you to show off your equipnt so well. Though you did have an excellent test dummy." Yuri giggled, a hint of pity in her eyes as she thought of the helpless noble.
"You’re better off directly opening a shop and selling your inventions. You made a battle look like a weapons presentation — not to ntion that the poor test dummy has probably developed so form of trauma." Vahn sighed.
Ezekiel simply chuckled at their words and shrugged. "I’ll take that as a complint then." With that, the chanic moved directly to one of the couches in the lobby and plopped down with a carefree smile.
Seeing this, Vahn couldn’t help but ask, "You’re not watching the matches?"
Ezekiel waved his hand in an equally carefree manner. "Doesn’t matter. Aside from a few students, nobody else can force to bring out my Battlesuits. There’s no need to focus on every single match. Might as well rest."
Hearing this, Yuri and Vahn smiled wryly, understanding that their friend was looking down on the majority of the students. And truly he had every right to. At the E rank, the boost his machinery gave him was simply too powerful to be overco by students who had only just begun systematically learning about their Paths.
Of course, multiple students stood a chance of defeating him — but only if he was unwilling to reveal so of his hidden cards, or better yet, his Battlesuits.
So students in the lobby also glanced over at Ezekiel’s resting figure, surprised by the confidence he projected, not even bothering to observe the battles of his potential opponents.
The next matches continued without suspense. Intentionally or not, the majority of the truly powerful students were ranked toward the lower end of the rankings, resulting in most matches ending with the challenger’s victory, with barely any challenged individuals managing to hold their ranks.
Vahn and Yuri won their matches, which ca as no surprise to anyone present. The two had properly cented their positions among the top 10 mages of the first-year students. Ezekiel also won his second match easily, making sure to fight in the most showy way possible while highlighting the properties of his inventions.
By this point, students of all years were overflowing with curiosity, wondering how the young student before them was capable of creating such inventions. So — professors included — even jokingly wished to crack open his skull to see what resided within. That was how groundbreaking his inventions seed to them.
But they were all certain they were witnessing the rise of a new branch of Forgers — one that would co to be known as chanics, as terd by Ezekiel himself.
There were other surprises during the matches as well: dark horses rising among the students, and top students who simply blasted their way through matches with no need to strategize.
One of them was Ashlyn Break, the silver-haired girl with the B34 – Vulcan Fist Talent.
As Ezekiel had theorized, her physical attributes were far too powerful for a re E rank Awakened — even for a Brawler.
This allowed her to wade through her opponents’ attacks unbothered, as whatever ans of offense they employed simply scraped past her skin before she closed the distance and knocked them out.
The worst damage she had suffered across her matches was a shallow scratch that drew minimal blood and a slight burn mark, both of which healed within minutes. This allowed Ashlyn to win her battles with plenty of energy to spare.
If anything, the only use she had for her mana was constantly repairing her uniform — she was the only other person besides Ezekiel who had arrived at the Trials as unprepared as she could be.
And that was because she didn’t need to prepare. Her natural defense was simply superior to any armor permitted during the competition. Because of this, she had foregone an E rank armor entirely — it would only be a waste of resources when it broke down under her opponents’ attacks anyway. She would rather let her far more convenient self-repairing uniform take the damage.
After the embarrassnt of having her skin seen by Ezekiel during their first lesson, she had made it a habit to imdiately repair her uniform the mont it received even the slightest tear.
Soon, Ezekiel — having advanced to the 56th position — had his turn once more. He didn’t give it much thought and did as all the other confident students had: he chose to challenge the participant at the 46th position.
The chanic found himself on the stage again, a serene-looking teenage girl standing before him.
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