144 Selection Part 3

What ensued after Greyson's test was exactly as he expected. A lot of:

Hello, I am so-and-so. I am from the "insert name" Kingdom.

I am the royal prince/princess of the "insert name" royal family.

or

My family name is "blank." We are the most powerful in "blank" city and/or Kingdom.

Amidst the sea of faces, Greyson felt like he was drowning. It was like these people had no redeeming features and all that remained in his memory were indistinct outlines. All he could do was politely nod and smile and introduce himself while trying his best to leave the arena. Actually, this portion of the selection did not take very long and one could leave right after they were done. However, most people wanted to check out the competition for rivals or people to avoid, so they stayed behind to watch the entire process. The next stage of the selection would take place the next day. Without looking back, Greyson forced himself out of the crowd and raced back to his room. After a moment's thought, he decided that he would just skip the meals later. Anyways, he had stored some food inside of his storage necklace. The dining hall would end up being a free for all where he was the fresh meat. As everyone here was most definitely taught strict lessons in etiquette, there should be no one daring enough to just barge into his room uninvited.

Opening his door, he was greeted with the sleeping faces of the "animals." Lucius, Snow, and Theo were all snuggling together on the bed. Gold switched places with his sister since Greyson was not too sure about how deep the knowledge of the Moon Empire's citizens was. Speechless he looked at the group of them and felt envious of their easy lives.

A childish grin flashed on his face as he quickly closed the door and dove straight onto the bed. Stuck underneath his body, the sleeping magic beasts were all shocked awake and struggled to crawl out.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.novelhall.com for visiting.

"You're on my tail! Get off!" Lucius hissed angrily. "You large lump! What's wrong with just waking us up normally?"

"Da..ddy... I can't breathe... Too heavy..." Snow also whined as her voice was muffled underneath the blanket.

"Greyson, you really almost caught me under there as well." Hearing a voice from above him, Greyson looked up in shock. Touching his head, he realized that Theo had woken up at some point and climbed up onto him. Picking off the mouse by his neck fur, Greyson tossed him to the end of the bed. Feeling that it was enough, he rolled to the side and let out the two from underneath him. Lying on his back, Greyson just wistfully sighed.

"Hm? Did something happen at the selection thing earlier?" Catching the hidden nuances to that sigh, Lucius turned to look at Greyson.

"Nothing..."

"Oh, I must have been mistaken, then." Easily ignoring the subject, Lucius started licking to smooth out his fur.

"Well, if you must know, I just miss my family. Humans are harder to be around." Although he was irked by the lack of concern, Greyson decided to just say it himself.

"You're only realizing that now? I hate humans the most. Elves are a close second, though." Lucius just rolled his eyes unsympathetically.

"Ouch. Thanks for that."

"You aren't human."

"...I guess you're right. When have you even met elves before?"

"I have met one. Your good-for-nothing teacher."

"You're basing it just off of him?"

"Well he claims to be some kind of idol back home, which means that the elves endorse someone with his personality. How could they possibly be good?"

"Hahahaha, I guess you're right." Chuckling to himself, Greyson felt that his mood actually did get uplifted by the usual banter. His heart feeling lighter, he decided to take a short midday nap. The rest of the magic beasts all cozied up next to him and continued sleeping as before.

...

As he quietly relaxed inside his room, he was completely unaware of the bomb he dropped on the rest of the people present during the exam. All the higher-ups yelled at their subordinates for not knowing about Greyson and ordered them to find out everything they could. By the end of the day, most of everyone in Lunar City knew of Greyson's name and basic backstory. Hearing that he was an orphan from a poor background, almost all the magicians with powerful backgrounds wanted to lure Greyson over to their side with promises of resources and status. The Moon Empire was no exception to this, either. Princess Aphina and Tenth Prince Braiden Yce, who was the leader of the 10 onstage from earlier, ran to their uncle feeling indignant.

"Uncle! How could you keep something like this a secret?! If you knew of his abilities beforehand, you should have tried to pull him into the imperial family. Now everyone knows and there will be fierce competition!" Shouting before she even got through the doors, Princess Aphina was obviously fuming.

Walking inside the door, she spotted the familiar figure sitting at his desk. This man looked to be in around his 50s, with the signature black hair and blue-grey eyes of the Yce family. His unruly hair was haphazardly tied back with some string. His pitch-black hair was sprinkled with white and grey hair that marked his age. Wearing a rather grave expression, he gave off a stern and disciplinary aura.

"What now?" His deep, almost melodic voice tiredly questioned. This niece of his never seemed to be capable of sitting still and keeping calm.

"That boy! Greyson, the one with white hair that you mentioned has potential. What, 'has potential'? You make it sound like he's just a little more talented than the rest. However, that's a 15-year-old magister level stage five magician! Uncle, even some of the inner region countries do not have geniuses of this caliber!" Exasperated by her uncle's nonchalance, Aphina could not help but try to emphasize the main point. Braiden also stood by her side and nodded along. Clearly, he was not the type to be as energetic and loud as his sister, but he agreed that his uncle was too careless this time.

"Oh? Him? I guess he has gone through the first selection test for you all to be reacting like this. And? What's the big deal?"

"The big deal is that you obviously found out about him first but did not try to bring him under the imperial family and instead allowed this big fish to possibly end up in another person's pond."

"You act as if the other powers actually stand a chance if our empire were to truly compete for a person. Do they have more to offer than us?" He calmly replied.

Stumped by her uncle's words, Aphina could not retort back. It was true. Their empire was rather generous compared to others, but that did not translate into them not hoarding a least a majority of the better resources and riches. In the end, they were still the power in charge of the entire Snow Country. Who could win over them?

"But still... we missed a golden chance to ask when people still did not know about him. Now it just looks like we are obviously insincerely approaching him just like everyone else."

"Are we not insincerely approaching him? Do we not just want someone of his talent to work for us? So, what is the problem with openly acting with our true agenda upfront? If he was someone that we could bribe over with promises of riches and resources, then the way we approach is not important. However, if he is someone who does not like two-faced and dishonest people, then he might have a more straightforward and loyal personality. This would mean that he would most likely not join any other power and would just stay under the Idris Kingdom or the Aurora Academy. Plus, since he was able to make it to this point at his age, who's to say that he would be tempted by any power in the Snow Country or even the entire outer region. Maybe he only sees himself as someone who will eventually go into the inner region or even further. Then, no matter what little tricks we try to play, it would all be for naught."

"But..." Princess Aphina wanted to fight back, but she suddenly did not have the words to defend her argument anymore.

"Alright, Aphina, it seems that we were too quick to make our judgments. Uncle obviously put a lot more thought into his actions than we assumed." Braiden pulled on his sister's arm and stopped her from just quibbling. "Uncle, we will try our best to win him over. I think that with our means, it would not be too difficult to win him over."

The older man did not reply to his nephew's statement and just gave a small smile.

...

The next day came rather quickly. His quick nap turned into a sleeping into the next morning. Shocked he could sleep so long; Greyson woke up feeling disoriented. Rapidly turning is head towards the window, he made sure to check the brightness outside. The sun had yet to fully rise. Holding his chest, he let out a breath of relief that he did not oversleep. Sliding lazily out of bed yawning, Greyson felt reluctant to leave due to the warmth of the blankets. Apparently, the second stage of the selection changes every time. Sometimes, it would be a straightforward tournament battle style. Other times, the competition would depend on more luck than actual power level. Greyson was looking forward to a switch up this time since just one-on-one battle was a little anti-climactic. During the first test, he did not particularly see anyone worth fighting. If this second stage of the selection just depended on personal power, then Greyson thought there would be no challenge in winning.

Still feeling lethargic, Greyson used his water element to clean himself before pulling on brown pants and a loose white shirt. Tying on the leather string of his spatial necklace, he checked the inside to make sure he packed everything he could need. Worn-out leather boots were laced up and he was ready to go out. This time, a small mouse joined him on top of Greyson's head. The other two wished to continue resting inside. Theo felt that he had rested enough and his curious nature had him wondering what the competition would look like. Greyson did not see any reason to deny him, so he agreed to bringing Theo along. Magic beasts are allowed as partners in fights. Taming one is due to skill, thus it is not seen as cheating. Having Zephyr fight with him was also an accepted form of assistance. Though, it would most likely not come down to Theo having to help him in a fight. His talents were geared more towards reconnaissance and spying with his small body and quickness.

Traveling the familiar route towards the plaza once again, Greyson noticed a lot more eyes following his movements. Thankfully, they did not crowd towards him but just whispered amongst themselves while trying to subtly point towards him. By the time he arrived, the rest of the Idris Kingdom group already made their way over. Nicholas spotted him first and excitedly waved Greyson over, telling him to join them. Overhearing the tail end of their conversation, he realized that they were talking about him and the effects of yesterday's events. Feeling awkward, Greyson decided to not make any comments and just quietly stand with them. Luckily, he arrived rather late, thus yesterday's group of ten came out relatively quickly. The leader stepped out once again to make the announcement for the second stage.

"This year's second stage will be a little different from other years. As you all are aware, the Dead Woods border our Lunar City on the northwest side. Normally, it is populated with weaker magic beasts that do not go above the advanced level. However, our city's great magisters went out and brought back hundreds of magister level beasts and even one great magister level stage one equivalent magic beast. Each of them is marked with a pendant. You all will go out into the woods and hunt down as many of the magic beasts as you can and collect their pendants. This competition allows for you guys to form teams to hunt down the magic beasts. However, you will have to figure out how to split them all between yourselves. As the pendants in the end will still be counted individually. As long as you do not kill the other participants, stealing and attacking is allowed. Do not think you can get away with secretly killing, though. Throughout the woods, the empire has stationed many secret lookouts whether human or magic beast. That is all. We will give you a couple minutes to organize yourselves before heading out as a group."

All the participants started to split up and find their friends. A select few did not move and seemed to have decided to work alone during this second stage. Greyson was among those select few. The others from the Idris Kingdom invited him to join them, but he felt that he would only be held back by them and politely declined.