11 Chapter 11: Qualifier Exams

Lake walked out of the stadium with a big smile on his face.

After the match had ended in Don's victory, Lake won a total of four thousand dollars after returning what he owed to Leah.

Evelyn walked next to Lake with a bright smile on her face as she had also won some money after she followed Lake and betted on Don.

All in all, the two of them were extremely happy with the outcome of this match. The only person who wasn't happy with the outcome was Leah, who was following silently behind the two.

"Hey, how did you know Romero would lose?" Leah asked as she looked up at Lake.

Lake was slightly surprised for a moment. This was the first time Lake had seen Leah place down her pride to ask him something since they met.

However, Lake didn't let this affect him as he casually replied, "Didn't I tell you? It was destined to happen."

Leah who had just let down her pride to be serious was quickly enraged by Lake's reply.

"Bastard! I'm being serious here!" Leah shouted at Lake as she tried to kick him in the legs. Naturally a kick of that level would never be able to reach Lake as he simply sidestepped it as he watched Leah almost fall after missing her kick.

At this point, Leah was glaring daggers at him and had tears welling up in her eyes. Feeling as if he had taken it too far, Lake felt slightly awkward.

Sighing, Lake said "It was simply a bad match up. In terms of potential and strength, Romero may seem stronger than Don but that isn't entirely true. Romero held the advantage in strength, stamina and mana capacity. These three advantages made him able to push his enemy to the edge without expending nearly as much energy as his opponent had. At that point in the match when Don was at his end, Romero made a big mistake that caused him the match. He used his family's spear technique, his biggest weakness. This allowed Don to claim the advantage and ultimately win."

"Hmm, what do you mean by greatest weakness?" At this point, Leah calmed down, however she was now frowning after hearing Lake's explanation.

"The Nine Heaven Spear Technique is one of the few high ranking martial arts of Sunset city. It ranks top in terms of power even among all the other high rank martial arts, yet you called it his weakness?" Leah said.

"Indeed, the Nine Heaven Spear Technique is one of the most powerful high ranking martial arts with highly destructive power. If used by a suitable person it would easily be able to overpower Don's Dragon Flame Sword Style, which only ranks among the low high-rank in terms of raw power." Lake said.

Hearing Lake's words, Leah frowned even more. Leah was a smart girl and was raised in a rich environment with high educational standards. That's why she was able to pick up on the small detail Lake had said, "What do you mean by suitable person?"

Lake smiled as he remembered the unique shaped fate that floated above Romero's head, "The Nine Heaven Spear Technique is an extremely powerful skill with one of the highest forms of destructive power. Romero, who has a strong physique with great stamina and mana capacity, by all means should be able to display extremely high destructive power with this skill in hand. However, all that advantage is thrown away because of the lack of one crucial thing that the skill requires to perform properly, mana strength. "

At that point, Leah had come to a realization as she said, "You mean…"

Leah didn't finish her sentence as Lake simply nodded in agreement, confirming her thoughts. Lake clearly remembered the Fate above Romero's head. The threads of Fate above Romero's head had woven together to form a smaller version of Romero's body. At first Lake didn't know what Romero's fate meant, but after observing his past, Lake was able to come to a rough assumption on the meaning of the fate.

Lake was able to conclude that the shape of the fate corresponded to the target's talent. In the case of Don, he held a sword shaped fate meaning he has a strong talent with the sword which was clearly demonstrated in the earlier battle. On the other hand, Romero's fate was in the shape of a body. After observing Romero's past, Lake concluded that the body shaped fate represented a talent in physical skills or strong physique in general.

Lake looked at Evelyn and Leah as he continued on with his earlier explanation, "Due this lack of mana strength or magic power as some would call it, the strength of his Nine Heaven Spear can't even reach one tenth of its full potential. This is the reason why I said that his family's technique is his greatest weakness. When he had used the spear technique in the match, his mana strength was far weaker than Don's, making his Nine Heaven Spear Technique lose against Don's Dragon Flame Sword style in a battle of power. In my opinion, Romero is more suited towards physical fighting skills and techniques that strengthen the body than those that revolve around explosive power like the Nine Heaven Spear Technique."

"So what would have happened if Romero didn't use his skill and continued to fight using his pure physical strength?" Leah asked.

"If he hadn't opted to use his family's technique, he would have won the battle in the final push." Lake replied.

Hearing Lake's reply, Leah realized something was slightly off, "Wait, so you made your bet purely off the assumption that he was going to use his family's technique in the final battle?"

Lake smiled in response to Leah's question, "Indeed, I made the bet purely based on assumptions, but isn't that what gambling is all about?"

Hearing Lake's reply made Leah slightly speechless.

"Alright, that's enough explanations. It's getting late and I don't want to miss the last train home." Lake said as he turned to face Evelyn with a light smile, "Thanks for this date, I really enjoyed it, even though it was rudely interrupted by a third party."

Evelyn rolled her eyes as she slightly blushed in response, "I told you it isn't a date!"

Leah frowned, "And who do you think you're calling a third wheel."

Lake laughed at their responses as he continued to interact with the two of them until they separated after bidding each other goodbye.

As Lake was leaving, a hooded figure stood in the crowd as they murmured to themselves, "Suited towards physical skills…"

The hooded figure had been listening to the conversation between Lake and the girls as it had caught their attention.

The hooded figure had a serious expression on their face as they stared at the leaving Lake. If Lake had seen the hooded figure's face he would have been able to recognize the person almost immediately, as he had seen that person in Romero's past when had looked through it.

The figure didn't linger for too much as they turned around and entered the stadium.

…

Romero was currently sitting up on the white bed located within the stadium's infirmary as he looked out the opened window. Although he hadn't received any serious physical damage during the battle, he still chose to rest inside the infirmary. However, whether he was resting his tired body or broken spirit, was unknown.

At this point, the hooded figure from before entered the room as they looked at the broken Romero. Their heart ached upon seeing his depressed face and hollowed eyes. Walking up to Romero, the figure took off their hood to reveal a beautiful face with a head full of long blonde hair. The woman looked young and seems to be in her early twenties. As she stood in front of Romero she carefully took him into her embrace as she gently stroked his head.

After staying like this for a while, Romero finally spoke in a hoarse voice, "I-I… lost. I'm so sorry."

The woman's facial expression didn't change as she continued to comfort Romero, "It's okay. You were fighting on my behalf in the first place. If anything, it should have been me fighting out there."

Romero didn't say anything in response as just continued to silently accept the soothing comfort. After a while, the two separated as the woman sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Are you finally feeling better now?" She asked.

Romero nodded in response as he let out a sigh, "It was my complete fault in that battle. I didn't expect Don to overpower my Nine Heaven Spear at the end. In that one instance he managed to counterattack and end the match in one attack."

The blonde woman giggled as she looked at Romero, "It's fine. Besides, all we lost in the end was the right to raid a high class rift. It did hurt the guild a bit, but it isn't something we can't recover from. Although, you better be ready to receive the guild master's scolding when you return."

Immediately Romero had shivers as he felt a chill go up his spine.

The woman giggled in response as she spoke, "Let's look at this from the bright side. We did manage to gain something from this event."

Romero looked at her confused as she smiled mysteriously in response, "I think I managed to find a promising talent."

…

The next day, Lake was back to attending classes as normal, although he did notice a lot more people staring at him as he walked through the hallway. When he had finally taken his seat in the classroom, he noticed the shocked facial expression of everyone around him as if they had just seen something that had flipped their world's upside down.

It took Lake a while to realize that the reason for their shock was his appearance. Lake had almost forgotten that he had cleaned up his looks yesterday. Lake didn't pay them any mind as he remained indifferent to their gazes, turning to look out the window as he rested his chin on his hands.

It didn't take long for the bell to ring as everyone took their seats as the teacher entered the classroom. The teacher was also shocked to see his change in appearance as he stared with wide eyes. Lake's eyes twitched in response as he waited for the teacher to regain his calm.

After a short while, the teacher snapped back to his senses as he released a light cough, "Alright class, before we begin today's lessons, I have a short announcement to make. Your exam dates have been finalized. The College exams will begin in two weeks from now. Lake, your qualifiers for the martial course exam will begin 3 weeks from now on Friday. I hope you all take this time to prepare for your respective exams."

Immediately the entire class became restless. The student's were talking about their various preparations and what they plan to do after the exams. Lake didn't partake in any of their discussions as he silently noted down the date of the qualifier in his mind. He would have three weeks to prepare. Although it isn't much time, he should be able to use the Steel Body Martial Art to prepare for the exam.

Smiling slightly, Lake looked out the window as he anticipated the exam to come.