Chapter 348: Important Lesson

"Avatar Artificial Fusion, Dragon Deification."

"!!!" Everyone widened their eyes, including Head Instructor Ryan.

"What happened?"

Some of them noticed the glistening crystal that fell to the ground and couldn’t help but say, "Magic item?"

"But that form..."

"Yeah? Isn’t that..."

"Avatar Fusion?"

They couldn’t exactly connect a magic item to Auric’s form. How could Auric, a Rank 2 human, somehow use something that only a Rank 6 human could use?

There was no magic item that would allow a transformation. On the one hand, it just proved that Auric had a black dragon as his avatar. On the other hand, this mysterious method had just shocked the world.

More importantly, this fusion allowed Auric to escape his doom.

Still, Supervisor Jacob and Mr. Green thought they could ask the questions later. The first thing they needed to do was to subdue the perpetrator. Without hesitation, they closed the distance and attacked Head Instructor Ryan.

’How? What is that? How could he use an avatar transformation?’ A lot of questions popped out in his mind, but Head Instructor Ryan snapped when his instinct kicked in. He hurriedly formed a barrier with his energy, stopping Mr. Green and Supervisor Jacob.

Both of them could definitely win against him, but if Head Instructor Ryan managed to stop this attack, the others would help first. It didn’t matter whether he made a mistake or not.

The first thing those instructors would do was to put him into their custody. There was no way they would allow Mr. Green and Supervisor Jacob to harm him.

Hence, Mr. Green and Supervisor Jacob knew they had to make sure this attack counted.

What they didn’t know was that Lindwurm was actually giving an instruction to Auric directly in his mind. Because he fused with Auric, Lindwurm’s figure had disappeared.

Auric knew what had happened as well. Even though he also had a lot of questions, he still listened to Lindwurm.

"Auric, point your finger at the target and say ’Delete.’ I will do the rest."

Auric frowned, but still pointed his finger toward Head Instructor Ryan. He muttered, "Delete."

All of a sudden, the solid barrier that Head Instructor Ryan had formed was hit by something invisible. Supervisor Jacob and Mr. Green also witnessed it.

The barrier between them suddenly glitched and started to disappear as if it had been erased from this world.

Panicked, Head Instructor Ryan tossed himself to the side. Supervisor Jacob cut his left arm while Mr. Green struck his chest.

"Gah!" Head Instructor Ryan felt his internal organs almost explode, but he managed to withstand it. He didn’t understand how his barrier suddenly disappeared, but it was clear Auric had something to do with it.

Nevertheless, he survived. The other instructors were coming toward him to help. The same went for the instructors from Esfrata who supported Supervisor Jacob and Mr. Green.

Auric was stupefied. He never thought that such a small power was more than enough to cancel such a powerful barrier. He might have underestimated his father’s power. It was no wonder Lindwurm told him to get stronger first. If he relied too much on this power, he might end up getting drunk of this power.

Still, he was struck from the side. It wasn’t an enemy. It was Maya.

Maya simply tackled him to the ground and hugged him as tightly as possible. Her hands were shaking. She thought she had lost him.

She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she lost him because of her own blunder. In this case, there was no one who could determine who was in the wrong. Was it Auric’s failure to calculate Head Instructor Ryan’s actions and dare to cross the finish line? Or was it Maya’s blunder in kicking Head Instructor Ryan toward the finish line?

Nevertheless, a standoff happened between Dermania and Esfrata.

Meanwhile, the other three countries were completely stupefied. They saw the wings on Auric’s back were gradually disappearing as though the transformation had been undone.

"Eh? What happened?"

"Did I see dragon scales, claws, and wings?"

"You didn’t see it wrong. I saw that as well. That was a special technique that could only be used once you reached Rank 6, right? How did Auric use it?"

"The gray energy. That must be his unique element. What is his actual element? We know nothing about his unique element. Is it related to that ability?"

"But I saw something falling apart. It should be a magic item."

"Have you ever seen a magic item that allowed a Rank 2 human to perform Avatar Fusion? Even if it was for a brief moment, he was in that form and withstood an attack from that bastard."

They were discussing a lot of things because they were curious about what Auric did, but they forgot about three things.

The first thing was the cheating Head Instructor Ryan had done. Still, they could prove it later by interrogating the students.

The second thing was what would happen to the training program. Now that there was a huge conflict between Esfrata and Dermania, including the fact that an instructor intended to kill a student, this event could be canceled entirely.

The third thing was the fact that the entire event was broadcast live. In other words, everyone could see what had just happened.

[Dermania was attacking a student from another country because they were cheating?]

[A good old Dermania.]

[No wonder their reputation is not good. Dermania is Dermania. If they’re not the first, their opponents must be cheating.]

[They’re the cheaters.]

The people were criticizing Dermania as much as possible. They couldn’t contain their anger because this was what happened as soon as someone stood out.

Supervisor Jacob had previously said that he didn’t want to say anything about Auric’s method. He was right. If he said something, Dermania would use it to kill Auric.

Supervisor Jacob glanced back, checking Auric’s condition. "Greenfell. Can you escort Auric out? I will take care of this matter."

"Got it." Mr. Green nodded and walked toward Auric. "Are you alright, boy?"

"..." Auric didn’t answer him immediately. He first picked up the shattered necklace and the chain off his neck, holding everything tightly in his hand as if it showed how important the item was to him.

Mr. Green didn’t say anything, but it was clear that the magic item somehow helped Auric do everything.

"Let’s go back!" Mr. Green nodded.

"Yeah."

Mr. Green raised his hand. "Esfrata! Stand back! All students. Follow me to the hotel and go back to your room. Today’s test is canceled. We will give you notice of what will happen later."

They didn’t say anything and just obeyed Mr. Green’s instructions. Katarina and Ellia hurriedly checked him.

As she watched Auric manage to stop an attack from a Rank 6 human, Gloria couldn’t help but clench her fists.

Auric indeed had the ability to make impossible things possible. She made her choice last night, but this incident just proved that her choice was the correct one.

"Can we even beat that guy? He can stop an attack from a Rank 6 human," one student asked.

"I don’t know, but I don’t think he can do it again. That should be the power of the magic item... his necklace."

"But how? There’s no magic item that can allow someone to have a fusion."

"I don’t know. A new technique, or is it just something unique? We need to investigate immediately."

"Hurry!"

Granda, Lech-Aistia, and the UK weren’t exactly fond of the cheating problem, but they could put it aside for now because of Auric’s ability. They needed to figure out his ability to see if they could defeat him.

At the same time, this might be their chance to win Auric’s favor or even recruit him. If they used the fact that his teacher failed to protect him, they could promise him another arrangement where he remained protected.

Auric, on the other hand, didn’t care about the threat or other things. He just wanted to know the ability as well.

"Are you sure you’re all right? Do you need anything?" Katarina asked.

"Do you want some food? Let’s have lunch. I will cook you anything you want." Ellia also came to check on him.

Auric just smiled. "Sorry, but I think I’m going to take some time alone for a bit."

Ellia and Katarina looked at each other and nodded.

"Okay, okay. Just take your time."

"We’ll get out. Vera!"

Auric waved his hand. "It’s fine. I will just stroll around the hotel."

"NO!" Both of them rejected the idea without hesitation. There was no way they would let Auric wander around by himself, especially after he’d almost died.

They immediately dragged Vera outside while saying, "You stay here."

"Don’t go anywhere! Just call us if you need anything!"

Auric shook his head while chuckling. As a result, he was alone in the room. This meant he could investigate everything without any disturbance.

Auric looked at Lindwurm. ’Don’t you think I need an explanation?’

Lindwurm said, "You might survive, but you would definitely suffer a lot. There is no chance I will allow you to get hurt like that."

’You just remind me where it hurts...’ Auric sighed. ’I don’t exactly like the fact that I have to rely on a power that’s not mine to survive. If I had planned to use that from the beginning, it wouldn’t have felt this bad.’

Lindwurm fell silent for a moment before proceeding with the lecture. "You did great. Your plan was quite excellent. Exposing them, crossing the finish line, and so on. You would get all the glory while provoking them.

"However, you did have a weakness. It was your lack of knowledge, which had been pointed out by the others a lot, like A LOT. You didn’t think it was too important, so you tried to solve that weakness gradually by asking Katarina to compile important news for you.

"Dermania has had their Rank 7 human for 5 decades already, while Joker has only emerged 14 years ago as the youngest Rank 7 human. Because of the nature of their Rank 7 human, Dermania has a different character than the rest of the countries.

"They became more arrogant and overbearing because the other four countries didn’t dare to do anything for 30 or so years. In addition, their Rank 7 human was quite involved in the political circles. Anyone whom he backed would become president.

"As a result, he was the one who held the highest authority in that country. Anyone who was connected to him would become extremely powerful.

"Because of his reign, they prioritized connections more than anything else. They even bribed people to get positions in government institutions, and so on.

"That was why when you provoked them, their reaction was quite significant, especially given the fact that your family looked ordinary on the outside. They thought killing you would be bad, but doing so would allow them to avoid the worst situation in the future.

"If you grew like Joker, Dermania would lose their sovereignty. That was why they thought in the back of their minds that you couldn’t be allowed to grow. That instructor took his chances.

"If you understood more about geopolitics and their characters, you would have made a different plan. Just because you don’t like politics or don’t want to enter politics doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn about it. Even if you are just a small store owner, everything will be related to politics. Your rent, the price of your building, the price of materials, and so on...

"I can finally teach you how important it is for you to understand all this."

Auric looked down. He might really have underestimated the importance of this topic. He used to be oblivious to everything, so he thought he could gradually change.

With Katarina compiling the news again, Auric would notice a pattern in their news, which also showed their behavior and other unique things, after some time.

But Auric didn’t have the time required to do that, not to mention that he was usually extremely busy.

This incident allowed Auric to figure out what was wrong with his approach.

His expression had turned solemn as though he knew what to do next. ’Thank you, Lindwurm. Still, I haven’t forgotten the fact that you haven’t answered my question about what you called Artificial Avatar Fusion and especially the latter part, Dragon Deification?’

"..." Lindwurm stared at him for a few seconds before looking away while clicking his tongue. "Tsk."