CHAPTER 69: [ STELLA ]

Stella opened her eyes and tilted her head.

She tapped her lower lip as she studied him, her eyes sweeping slowly from head to toe. She seemed deep in thoughts, reflecting internally what she must’ve felt in his body.

He could almost see the thought processes in her head, it looked like confusion paired with wonder.

Does she not care that I’m a ’cultist’?

"Doesn’t look like you’re hiding anything. If you did, you hid it well... Your eyes, however..."

She trailed off, still figuring it out.

"It’s my class. My archetype is specialist, my class is beholder. It revolves around my eyes."

"Oh, is that so?" she said, her eyes lit up.

She got closer once more, grabbing his chin and moving his head left and right while looking into his eyes.

"Amazing..." she said.

She was touching him as if they had known each other forever, uncaring that he was almost completely nude. If anything, it felt like she barely considered him like a man, more like a novelty.

"I can feel an activated spell, but also that those eyes don’t seem to belong. Your class affected your body? That’s interesting, to say the least... not the first one, but that rarely happens..."

Alexander shut his eyes for a moment, then re-opened them. The irises had turned into crosses staring through Stella’s gaze.

He felt her fingers dig into his skin, slightly trembling, while her cheeks flushed at the sight.

A smile drew itself on her lips as she got closer, he could feel her chest pressing against him, forcing him to step backward while she moved forward.

"Stella?"

He grabbed her shoulders, forcing some distance between them while she remained focused on what she saw.

Reactions had been diverse so far, but none had ever come close to this one.

"How impure is your mana?" she asked without flinching.

He recalled the test he had to go through at the Adventurer’s Guild.

"Impure. Director Gardner said I was in the top 1%, but I don’t know what it means."

Her eyes lit with hunger; He could feel the lust through them.

"Higher than 50% impure?..." she said to herself.

Alexander let go of [ Witness of All Paths ], his eyes slowly going back to their usual shape while the expression on Stella’s face went sour.

"What? Is this your limit? You can’t last longer? Is it consuming too much mana?"

Still holding her at arms length, Alexander shook his head.

"I’ve answered your questions, it’s time you answer mine."

She had a disappointed look on her face, he could feel her trying to push forward yet his arms held up.

"What questions?" she asked. "If I answer them, you’ll let me perform more tests?"

"We’ll see. First, what could you feel in my eyes?" he asked.

"No need to worry about it, I won’t keep you from participating. Like I mentioned, it’s extremely rare but cases like yours do exist. I’m a professional. I would’ve noticed if you modified your body to gain an unfair advantage, this seems to be natural, despite how unnatural it feels."

Alexander nodded.

Had she rejected him, it would’ve been a good excuse to opt out of the tournament. But would it have been enough?

Knowing Sunder, he probably would’ve pressured someone to force me in. They already have posters with me on them....

"Any other questions?" she asked.

"Yes. What’s the next step?"

She sighed, both her shoulders dropping.

She took a few steps back, going back behind the table while glancing several times in his direction.

"You pass the physical exam. You’ll be given gear created specifically for this event. Every guild, from E to A will be using this equipment. They’re all identical, so everyone will have the same benefits from it, everything is considerably low in power but sturdy."

"So we’re essentially all given wooden swords? What’s the point of a tournament where everyone uses watered down equipment?"

"Unlike the S tier, lower tiers are extremely volatile in terms of power. Some guilds will be competing for the first time, some have fought multiple times already. Everyone using ’wooden swords’ makes it a lot safer and avoid unnecessary televised deaths."

Alexander nodded, it made sense. It also created an even playing field, where money couldn’t buy power, something that didn’t matter for S-tier guilds.

Stella gestured toward the boxes on behind her.

"Since your archetype is specialist you’ll have to tell me what gear you favor."

"I use a mage gear, usually."

She turned around and went toward one of the boxes. With one wave of her hand, she unlocked it and opened it. Out of it she pulled out a white mage robe, laying it on the table.

It looked plain, with some nice designs on the sleeves and collar, but that was mostly it. Everything else was just white.

He put it on, it was a bit short but otherwise fit him well.

"Weapons?" she asked.

"A channeling staff," he said.

She turned around once more, before being stopped by Alexander.

"And two swords."

She turned around, "what kind?"

"Medium size, light."

She nodded, grabbing everything and laying it on the table.

The wooden staff was essentially a long stick with a swirling pattern at the end, it looked passable for what it was, but didn’t compare to what he dropped from the Lich.

The swords were double-edged swords with thin blades, ending in a pointy triangular shape.

"Why two swords, if you use a staff?" she asked. "A staff and a sword I’ve seen before, a staff and two sword doesn’t make much sense to me, you’ll just weigh yourself down."

"It’s not for me."

Stella sighed while shaking her head.

"Don’t pick weapons for your guild members, they’ll pick their own when they arrive at this step of the process."

"It’s not. It’s for my companion," replied Alexander.

Her face turned pale, she tilted forward while lifting a single eyebrow.

"Really? A companion?"

Alexander nodded silently.

"This much impurity, and you also have a companion?..."

She then leaned forward on the table, narrowing her eyes.

"It can... hold swords?"

"She can."

She looked as if her soul had left he body.