Chapter 16: Talent: Divine Judgment

Drake remained silent for a moment, while Marcus, the burly bodyguard standing beside him, regarded Nero with a different expression.

The hostility he had shown earlier was gone. Instead, it was replaced by doubt and a little surprise.

The words spoken by the young man was very logical. It was to the point it almost made him believe him for a second.

"Young man, what is your name?" Drake finally asked.

"Nero Martinez."

He revealed his name because the way the old man casually had a powerful bodyguard accompanying him made it clear that he was influential. Besides, even if Nero lied about his name, the old man would find out the truth sooner or later.

Why go through extra trouble?

Drake then nodded thoughtfully.

"I’ll remember that name."

Nero felt a little awkward being examined so closely by the old man. He had already pushed his luck far enough today, and he didn’t particularly want to get involved in anything else.

"Well, I should get going now. I hope the remedy helps."

He gave a slight bow before turning around and leaving the park.

Drake seemed to have more questions for him, but Nero wasn’t planning to stick around and answer them.

As he walked away, Nero checked the System to see whether his choice had been completed.

Unfortunately, there was no notification.

’Well, I guess that makes sense.’

The condition was to help Drake resolve his Mana blockage, and simply giving him a possible treatment probably wasn’t enough.

Besides, there was no guarantee the old man would actually follow his instructions.

Nero knew the chances of completing this choice weren’t particularly high, but he was willing to wait and see.

After all, an Epic reward was an Epic reward.

Still, he was rather satisfied with how the encounter had gone.

Three days ago, he would never have approached a complete stranger like that, especially someone accompanied by such a terrifying bodyguard.

He was still nervous around people, but at least he could push through that nervousness when he needed to.

’I’m making progress.’

With that thought, Nero continued toward Awakener’s Pride University.

By the time Nero reached the university, the campus was already bustling with activity.

However, something unusual seemed to be happening near the central training area.

A large crowd had gathered around the arena, with students trying to get a better view of whatever was going on inside.

Excited conversations could be heard everywhere.

"Did you hear? Richard is fighting someone from the Sterling family!"

"The Sterling family? You mean Damian?"

"Yeah! This is going to be good!"

Nero became curious after hearing the conversation.

A fight between Richard Hyperion and someone from the Sterling family?

That sounded interesting.

He approached the crowd, looking for somewhere he could watch the match without having to squeeze between too many people.

"Nero! Over here!"

A familiar voice suddenly called out to him.

Nero turned toward the sound and spotted Lucas waving enthusiastically from a slightly elevated platform near the edge of the crowd.

His messy blonde hair made him rather easy to recognize.

Standing beside him was Jasmine, his twin sister.

She wore a fitted jacket over a casual top with her golden hair falling past her shoulders. Unlike her energetic brother, she seemed quite relaxed about all the activity surrounding them.

Nero made his way toward them.

"Hello... Lucas." He decided to greet Lucas after some hesitation.

"Yo, Nero!" Lucas greeted him with a grin. "You picked a great time to show up. This fight is going to be amazing!"

Before Nero could respond, a golden window appeared.

[Choice Detected: Social Interaction]

[Option 1: Greet Jasmine.]

[Reward: $10,000 Cash (Common)]

[Option 2: Focus only on the fight and ignore her.]

[Reward: $5,000 Cash (Common)]

Nero almost couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

’Ten thousand dollars just for saying hello?!’

Wasn’t this reward a little too generous?

He had received plenty of strange choices before, but this was practically free money.

Besides, he was trying to become better at interacting with people, so there was no reason to ignore Jasmine.

Nero immediately selected the first option before turning toward her.

"Hey, Jasmine."

Jasmine turned toward him with a small smile.

"Hello, Nero."

Her response was surprisingly friendly, especially considering how little they had spoken to each other before.

"Did you come to watch the fight?" she asked.

"Yeah. I heard Richard Hyperion is fighting someone from an important family."

"That’s right!" Lucas immediately joined the conversation. "His opponent is Damian Sterling. The Sterling family is one of the few families that can actually compete with the Hyperions here in our city."

"Oh? Is he that strong?"

"Definitely! And his Talent is pretty interesting too."

Lucas seemed rather excited to explain.

"Basically, he can create projections of his attacks. If he throws a punch, another copy of that punch can appear and attack from a different direction."

He demonstrated with his fist.

"And that’s only a basic application of his Talent. Once he reaches C-Rank, it’ll become a seriously terrifying ability."

Nero nodded attentively hearing his explanation.

If an opponent could attack from multiple directions at once, even defending against a simple punch would become troublesome.

"That sounds pretty powerful."

"It is," Jasmine agreed. "But Richard’s Talent is no joke either."

"It’s called Divine Judgment. He can create constructs out of condensed light, including weapons, shields, and barriers. As long as the structure isn’t too complicated, he can form it almost instantly."

"Light energy?" Nero asked.

"Yeah. It’s somewhat similar to the energy used by Awakeners with the ability to manipulate Life Energy aka Ki, except light energy is considered one of the superior energies in our world."

Jasmine turned her attention toward the arena.

"And when you combine that with Richard’s combat abilities, there aren’t many first-year students who can challenge him."

"Both Damian and Richard is currently at the peak of E-Rank. So everyone is eager to see how it plays."

Hearing this, Nero nodded. E-Rank was the lowest rank among Awakeners, followed by D, C, B, A, and S-Rank. The higher the rank, the more powerful one’s Talent was. Being at E-Rank at this age was perfectly normal, as most people awakened around the age of seventeen or eighteen.

Just then, the crowd suddenly erupted into cheers.

Nero turned toward the arena and saw two young men entering from opposite sides.

One of them was Richard Hyperion.

His long blonde hair was tied into a ponytail, and he wore his usual confident smile as he acknowledged the students cheering for him.

The other young man was Damian Sterling.

He had dark hair, sharp facial features, and a lean build. Unlike Richard, who appeared rather relaxed, Damian seemed completely focused on the upcoming fight.

The two eventually stopped in the center of the arena, facing each other.

A moment later, the match began.

Damian made the first move.

He rushed toward Richard and threw a straight punch at his chest, but at the same time, a translucent copy of his fist appeared on Richard’s left.

The projection attacked from a completely different angle.

However, Richard reacted immediately.

A golden shield formed around his left arm, blocking the projection, while he stepped aside to avoid the actual punch.

He then created a blade of condensed light and swung it toward Damian.

Damian ducked beneath the attack before throwing a low kick.

Another projection appeared at the same time, this one aiming directly for Richard’s head.

Bang!

Richard blocked the projection with another shield before retreating a step.

The crowd cheered as the two continued exchanging attacks.

Damian relied on his projections to attack from unexpected angles, while Richard used his light constructs to defend himself and counterattack whenever an opening appeared.

Neither seemed willing to give the other an advantage.

Nero watched the fight with great interest.

’So this is how people use their Talents in combat.’

It was quite different from the spar he had with Lucas yesterday.

Both Richard and Damian were using their abilities alongside their physical strength, making their attacks much harder to predict.

And now that Nero had mastered the Combat Fundamentals, he could understand some of the decisions they were making.

Of course, recognizing their movements didn’t mean he would be able to keep up with them.

Their physical abilities were still far beyond his own.

The battle continued for several minutes before Richard gradually began gaining the upper hand.

He seemed to have figured out Damian’s attack patterns and was positioning his constructs in advance, blocking the projections almost as soon as they appeared.

Damian tried changing his approach, but Richard was already prepared.

Finally, Richard feinted toward the left, deliberately drawing out one of Damian’s projections.

The moment Damian committed to the attack, Richard rushed forward.

A large hammer made of golden light formed in his hand.

BOOM!

The hammer struck Damian directly in the chest, sending him flying backward.

He crashed into the arena wall before collapsing onto the ground.

The match was over.

The surrounding students immediately erupted into applause.

Richard stood in the center of the arena, looking barely exhausted despite the fight he had just finished.

He raised a hand to acknowledge the cheering crowd.

"Good Fight!" Lucas cheered. "What do you think, Nero?"

However, before Nero could reply, someone suddenly rushed toward Richard from the crowd.

It was Lyris.

She approached him with a towel in her hand, looking rather excited.

"You were amazing!" she said with a bright smile. "That last move was incredible!"

Richard accepted the towel with a warm smile.

"Thank you, Lyris. Your support means everything."

He began wiping the sweat from his face while Lyris continued talking to him.

From the way they behaved, it was obvious that the two had already become quite comfortable around each other.

Nero watched them from where he stood.

Strangely enough, the familiar tightness in his chest wasn’t there.

Seeing her beside Richard no longer bothered him nearly as much as before.

’Well, that’s good, I guess.’

However, there was something he found rather strange.

Lyris hadn’t contacted him once since the party.

Usually, she would message him regularly, sometimes even asking about the most ordinary things.

But it had already been a few days, and he hadn’t received a single message from her.

’Did she just forget about me after getting together with Richard?’

Nero didn’t know.

He was still friends with her, at least as far as he was concerned, but he had no idea what she thought about their friendship now.

Still, he wasn’t going to spend his time worrying about it.

He had his own things to focus on.

Everyone had their own life to live, and he was finally starting to take his own seriously.

Just then, Jasmine, who had been watching Richard and Lyris, turned toward him.

"Hey, Nero."

"Hm?"

"Are you and Lyris close?"

Nero was a little surprised by the sudden question.

He turned toward Jasmine, who seemed rather interested in his answer.

"No," he replied quickly. "We’re not that close."

Jasmine raised an eyebrow at his answer. "Is that so?"

"Yeah."

She didn’t respond immediately, although her expression suggested she wasn’t entirely convinced.

After a brief silence, she asked another question.

"Then... why did you suddenly decide to change, Nero?"

"Are you sure it wasn’t because of her dumping you?"