CHAPTER 81: CH 81 RIDICULOUS QUEST

Auth Note: A few Chapters previously had a shorter word count because i wanted to make the info dumps less boring for you all.

As an exciting arc is commencing now the Chapter count will be on the larger side.

my update freaquency from now on will be 1 or 2 Chapters per day.

if i get extra time i will release 3.

Thanks for understanding

-----------

Klaus entered the vast lobby of the World Heritage Centre, the air thick with the excited chatter of thousands of spectators.

As he stepped through the grand entrance, all eyes in the immediate vicinity seemed to turn towards him.

His striking appearance, his recent notoriety from the banquet, and his status as William Bennet’s adopted grandson made him an instant focal point.

However, Klaus didn’t bother to acknowledge the attention. He simply walked to a relatively secluded seat in a corner, took out his mobile phone, and began scrolling through it, completely ignoring everyone in the lobby.

His posture was relaxed, his face showed a mask of disinterest.

At a distance, across the bustling lobby, Arthur looked at Klaus with a complicated expression.

He had seen Klaus’s battle against all the scions in the conclave, klaus had displayed overwhelming power.

The unprecedented skill of summoning a meteor of that size, still left a profound impression on Arthur.

He had never witnessed such raw, destructive force from a single individual.

For the first time in his life, Arthur had felt a chilling realization, he might not be able to surpass someone. His own path to power, though rapid, seemed to pale in comparison to Klaus’s.

As for the ruthless act of cutting the entire body of James Ravenstein, though James was undeniably a "dick" and had deserved a lesson, Arthur believed that what Klaus did was unnecessary, overly brutal, and lacked the restraint a true hero should possess.

It went against his own ideals of justice. Still, Arthur realized that getting the first rank in the upcoming ranking battle wouldn’t be so easy with Klaus as a competitor.

"Hehe, I wish he was here to see this" Arthur thought, a wry smile touching his lips.

He closed his eyes for a brief moment, and the face of a frail young boy with pure white hair, a figure from his own past came to his mind.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, high above the main hall, the ten Paragons were sitting in a dark, heavily reinforced control room.

The room was designed for absolute security and observation, its walls lined with multiple large, translucent screens displaying the live broadcast of the competition from various angles. The hum of powerful servers and diagnostic equipment filled the air.

"Magnus, you have certainly made things special this year," the patriarch of the Ashford family, Neil Ashford, commented.

He was a man with sharp, intelligent eyes that held a scheming glint, a look he usually kept hidden from those outside his inner circle.

Magnus Ashburn, the Principal of the Guardian Academy, replied plainly, his voice calm and even.

"Since this generation of hunters is being called the ’Golden Generation,’ I thought the challenges should also be interesting and exceptional. We need to push them to their limits, to see their true potential."

Lady Crimson, seated beside William, had a frown on her face. "

Tch, why such complex methods? Why not just use the traditional tournament method?" Her tone was one of clear disapproval.

"Why a battle royale, or these convoluted challenge rules? Truly strong students might still fall this way, after being grouped against by cowards who exploit the rules."

William spoke up, a wide smile spreading across his face, clearly enjoying the discomfort of his rivals.

"Well, didn’t you see how my grandson roasted some peanuts last time, hahahah!" William’s booming laughter filled the control room, mocking the five Paragons, Ravenstein, Neil Ashford, and the heads of the Helios, Cromwell, and Hawkins families all at the same time.

His words were a clear jab at their humiliated heirs.

"Hehe, William, aren’t you a bit too confident on your dear grandson?" Neil Ashford replied, his voice still smooth, but a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. It was a look that promised future retaliation.

"Well, he has earned it," William simply smiled, his expression unwavering, maintaining his confident posture.

But his sharp eyes caught the dangerous glint in Neil’s eyes.

"Something is not right," William felt. "This bastard must have schemed something for this event" William’s intuition, honed by decades of political maneuvering, was catching onto a deeper plot.

Just then, on the main broadcast screen, all the participants for the ranking battle walked into the arena, arranged in orderly rows.

The crowd on the seating platform, filling the vast arena, cheered loudly for them, their excitement palpable.

There were a thousand VR pods installed in the hall.

A gigantic screen, spanning an entire wall, was set up to broadcast everything live to the audience, showing multiple perspectives of the arena.

Beside the screen, there was also a digital ranking table, which was blank right now, awaiting the first results.

Among the participants, there were quite a few new faces, individuals never seen in public before, clearly hidden talents brought forth through the academy’s efforts.

One of them was a purple-haired youth with weird, intricate tattoos covering his exposed skin and multiple piercings adorning his ears and face.

He had a very creepy, unsettling smile on his face, a permanent fixture that seemed to mock everything around him. His eyes, visible through the piercings, held a strange, unsettling light.

In the Paragon’s control room, a voice sounded, filled with surprise

"Neil, is that your brat?" the Ravenstein patriarch asked, his gaze fixed on the purple-haired youth on the screen.

He noted the sheer similarity of the facial features, hair colour and the distinctive nose that clearly marked him as the direct blood of neil ashford.

"Yea, he’s my grandson" Neil Ashford replied, a proud expression on his face. "His name is Veridian." He watched his grandson with a possessive pride.

"Oh, what’s the deal with him? Why so weird?" Sophie Crimson, aka Lady Crimson, asked, looking at all the strange piercings and intricate tattoos the boy had on his body.

She found his appearance unsettling. "And why is his one eye covered with a patch? Is he disabled?"

Neil’s face twitched in annoyance at her blunt questions. He let out a dismissive sound

"Humph!"

"We will know soon enough," he stated.

William, who was quietly observing everything as his gaze was fixed on Veridian, thought

"So, this is the brat that he is so confident about. This is Neil’s trump card." William’s intuition was catching on to something.

He felt a sudden, strong premonition that Klaus might have a significant challenge this time, that might push him to edge.

Meanwhile, Klaus, who was now standing in one of the rows on the arena floor, waiting for the trial to begin, frowned. His attention was not on the other participants or the audience, but on what he saw on his System window. A series of alarming notifications had just appeared.

[Ding! ????? has awakened from the slumber.]

[Ding!! ????? is interfering with the System functionality.]

[Ding!! ????? has assigned a new quest.]

[Quest - Valour of the Swordsman]

[Description:

As an SSS-ranked individual, you possess overwhelming elemental prowess, capable of dominating the entire entrance competition with ease. However, ????? thinks that your sword skills are getting rusty and wants you to rely solely on your blade for the duration of this event.

TASK:

Win the tournament with just the swing of your blade. Rely on pure swordsmanship and physical prowess.

Conditions (only applicable for the duration of the event):

- All elemental control and elemental skills will be blocked. You will be unable to access or utilize any of your elemental abilities (Ice, Fire, Earth, Shadow).

- System’s mental barriers protecting your mind will be shut off. Your mind will be exposed to external influences, including illusions and mental attacks.

- Every skill above mortal rank will be blocked. This includes Dragon’s Might (Myth), Origin Absorption (Divine), and Dragon God’s Sight (Divine).

- Only all traits and non-elemental skills (like Apex Velocity, Phantasmal Veil, Stellar Sword Descent, Omniscient Tracking, Poison Body) will work.

- Skills absorbed during the event won’t be activated until the quest is over. Any new skills gained through absorption during the competition will be temporarily blocked.

Rewards:

- Fragments of Vance’s memories

- core of arkian temple

-------------------

As Klaus read the quest from top to bottom, his expression became increasingly incredulous. He felt it becoming utterly ridiculous.

The conditions were absurd almost nerfing his 70% of strength

"What use are Vance’s lost memories?" Klaus muttered internally, a wave of annoyance washing over him.

He had, at some point, already realized that the memories he had received upon transmigrating, those of his life as Vance, were incomplete.

He knew he was an orphan, but he didn’t remember anything specific from the time spent in the orphanage, or any details of his early childhood.

He knew enough basic information to pass for Vance and navigate the world, but there were significant gaps.

He had realized that there might be a possibility of memory loss, a missing chunk of his past. This concern was now confirmed by the quest’s reward.

He remembered the System had told him how everyone in this world had a status panel, but until his own System activated, he simply had not known that fact.

Although the System had framed it by saying that the Heavenly Will influenced his surroundings, keeping him distant from everyone,

he also realized that at least Vance, his original persona, should have known about the presence of stats and panels in this world, given his exposure to hunters.

This only raised the concern of memory loss, which was now explicitly solved by the quest’s reward.

"I reject this ridiculous quest! Why would I get nerfed when I can just breeze through the challenge?" Klaus internally scoffed. This was an unnecessary obstacle.

"also the core of arkidia sounds impressive but i don’t think nerfing myself is a good idea.

"System, I reject the quest!"

[DING!! REJECTION RECEIVED.]

[DING!! ????? SAYS HE WANTS TO MAKE THINGS EXCITING.]

"Nope, it’s my choice, bruh!" Klaus plainly rejected again, his internal voice firm. He was not a puppet.

[ding!! ????? asks are you sure about your choice?]

"yup, no means no"

[DING!! ????? is suppressing the trait Buddha Incarnate.]

"Huh! Stop it!" Klaus mentally shouted, a sudden, ominous sensation washing over him.

He felt the profound calm of his Buddha Incarnate trait begin to waver, then rapidly recede, its soothing influence diminishing.

[DING!! ????? is awakening the trait Draconic Pride.]

"System, stop this question mark guy!!" Klaus urged, his internal voice now filled with urgency, a hint of panic.

He did not want to suddenly snap someone’s head off in the middle of a public arena. He hated that feeling of losing control, of being overwhelmed by raw, unbridled fury.

[Host, System commands are being overwritten. I have detected a greater authority accessing the System.]

[quest is being accepted on behalf of the user]

"What the fuck do you want to say??? What bullshit authority??" Klaus demanded, his internal voice rising in a desperate shout. The System was being overridden, this in itself was a sheer absurdity.

[Host, ????? has administrator access to the System.]

"Shit"