Rise of the Eromancer

Everything else was black, and all Rhys could see in front of him was Sylas West; his long, white combed hair, the only light in this darkness he found himself in. And if it disappears, then so will Rhys.

But he knew, he knew the thing in front of him was not actually Sylas, but imagining it was him was the only thing he could really do — to imagine what would happen if he just smashed his fist straight onto his smirking face.

His head would just probably disappear into existence. Sylas may be a Noble from one of the strongest Olympians, but the blood he was carrying in his veins is primarily an Elemental — as long as he catches him off guard with Ayesha's strength, that would be it.

And as Rhys's fist got closer and closer to the image of Sylas, everything suddenly returned to him as he remembered where he was. Sylas, now only just a bipedal training machine; its silhouette, entirely metallic and skeletal.

And as soon as Rhys realized what he was about to do, he stopped.

He stopped his fist just an inch away from hitting the head of the training mannequin, as not doing so would probably obliterate the machine entirely.

Rhys was not going to hide his strength. After all, what he wanted was to attract attention and gain influence fast, but he did not want everyone to know what he was truly capable of, at least not yet.

He is powerful now, extremely so — and he knows that. But there are still people out there stronger than him.

Unfortunately for Rhys, he does know he is powerful, but he once again underestimated Ayesha's strength as the entire testing hall trembled and his foot landed on the condensed metallic floor. And the mannequin… the mannequin violently fell backward just from the shockwave of his fist suddenly stopping and snapping the air in front of it.

The mannequin quickly bounced back like a punching bag, however, and Rhys immediately caught it with his hand to prevent it from flying altogether.

And suffice it to say, everyone witnessed what he just did.

"Was…"

The other examinees truly wanted to say something, but the only words that were really escaping their mouths were their own stuttered breaths. They could try and find excuses for what just happened.

A sudden earthquake. A bomb exploding. Or maybe even a hole opening up in the middle of the city — and most of them would actually be more believable than a Lowborn causing the entire training hall to shake and cause a training mannequin to bounce from it.

And suffice it to say, no one would even believe them even if they told the people outside — only the people present in this room would know what just happened… and even they couldn't believe it themselves.

"What was that?" The people who were supposed to be judging the trainees were now all standing from their seats as they looked at Rhys, "Do… do we have a recording of what just happened!?"

"...No. The recordings are only allowed to be reviewed for security purposes only."

"But I missed it! I wasn't looking and missed what happened!"

"Why weren't you looking? You're a judge."

"Because he's a one-armed Lowborn! I was expecting him to just struggle and ultimately give up in the end!"

And while the other judges were starting to raise their voices, Kenneth Kennedy, the guild master of the Laughing Bronze, could not help but cover his mouth as he stared at Rhys, who was also just seemingly looking at them. It was hard to see if he really was staring at them, since half of his face was covered by his hair.

It didn't matter whether he was or not, however. What mattered was that unlike the other judges, Kenneth actually saw everything. Everything.

At most, the judges probably only saw Rhys causing the mannequin to bounce from the floor without it even having the chance to even fight back. But Kenneth saw Rhys stopping his fist just before he hit the head of the mannequin.

[You can leave, 120,] and as the other judges were busy trying to figure out what happened, Kenneth grabbed the microphone from the other judge and took it upon himself to tell Rhys to go wait in line again for the next test. All the other judges were part of the government, and Kenneth would be stupid to actually let them know what he knew.

Rhys was a wild card. It doesn't even matter if he is a Lowborn—no. Perhaps it matters more that he is, because that would attract even more attention, and in turn, more people would be lining up to sponsor and suck up to his guild.

No matter what, the Laughing Bronze should have him.

"Okay. Thank you, Sir."

And as Rhys was turning around and leaving, the other judges wanted him to stay so they could ask him some questions. Kenneth, however, did not let them even glance at the microphone as he waved his hand.

"120 is nothing special, he's a trickster," Kenneth let out a small groan and a sigh as he looked at the other judges, "I saw him tripping the mannequin, and then using his abilities to make it look like it bounced back."

"...Abilities?"

"Didn't you read his file?" Kenneth stood up as he drilling his finger on the file on the table, "He can create threads or something. You know how these Lowborns are, their sly."n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"What about the earthqua—Where are you going?"

And before the other judges could ask any more questions, Kenneth started walking away.

"Oh, I'm just going to the restroom," Kenneth let out a tired chuckle, "I've been holding my pee back since there might be someone interesting, but they might as well all just be as weak as that Lowborn. Except that Sylas dude, but he's already a part of Cerberus, so fuck him."

"W—"

Kenneth quickly hastened his pace as he truly did not want to say anything else, as it would surely already garner the other's suspicion. And of course, he was not actually heading to the restroom, but rather to the next testing hall.

"Mr. Kennedy?" The judges in the testing hall were all surprised as Kenneth suddenly sat with them in the Ability Testing Hall, "I thought you were only going to watch in the Strength—"

"I got bored," Kenneth just nonchalantly waved his hand as he pretended to watch the examinees below them. His eyes, however, were busy reviewing Rhys's file.

"...Why is this name so familiar," Kenneth stared at the photo of Rhys's face, shaking his head while doing so as he tried to remember where else he could have seen Rhys. After all, a Lowborn as strong as this could never have hidden himself this long. Unless, of course…

"...The Underworld Corps' secret weapon? That's the only reason I could think of. But if he is… then that means the government already owns him. But if he's not… then I really must have him."

And as Kenneth quietly whispered to himself, the other judges could really only look at each other, before just choosing to ignore him and focus on the examinees below them. And perhaps if Kenneth and Rhys had something in common, it would be that they are both… chronic overthinkers.

And unfortunately for Kenneth, the only thing he could really do was think. All the judges were asked to surrender their phones to avoid any leakage of information to the outside — that worked for Kenneth since he truly did not want Rhys's existence revealed just yet. But at the same time…

…he also could not search for traces of him on the internet.

[Numbers 120 to 125, please enter the Ability Testing Hall.]

And as soon as he heard those words, Kenneth quickly sat straight up from his seat. Not before, of course, feigning to cough so that the other judges won't notice his excitement.

"What the… am I reading this right? A Lowborn?"

And almost a repeat of earlier, the other judges started looking at each other in confusion; forcing out a chuckle as they read Rhys's file.

"Mr. Kennedy, you were in Strength, right? How did this Lowborn do?"

"Oh, he's alright. Nothing special, but good enough to maybe carry our baggage," Kenneth burst out in laughter, causing the others to do the same as they shook their heads, "But I think we can give him a Level 1 License, you know? Just for the laughs."

"Pft, an Explorer Lowborn?" One of the judges continued laughing, "Like that would ever—"

"Level 1 License," Kenneth smiled at the judge as he grabbed him by the shoulder, "It will be fun."

"...But he'll die out there. He's—"

"Relax, I'm taking him to my guild to show the others as a joke. Can you do this to me as a favor?"

"..." The judges once again looked at each other. They knew the guild master of the Laughing Bronze was slightly eccentric, but why would he even risk recruiting a Lowborn in his guild as a joke?

Unbeknownst to them, however, Kenneth just wanted Rhys to pass the test. After all, how could he recruit him to an Explorer Guild if he wasn't even an Explorer? He wanted no one to know about him, but he also wanted him to pass.

And so… he very slowly pulled out a big fat check from his pocket.

And as soon as the others saw this, the laughter on their faces all returned.

"Of course, of course, it would be funny! Ha… Haha!"

"I know right?" Kenneth also smiled, "By the way, I actually bought you guys some pizza outside. How about you guys rest…

…and just let me take over for a while?"

And as Rhys wanted, he was very slowly garnering attention. But sadly for Rhys…

…this same attention was preventing him from garnering the attention he wanted.