GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON fumed. She was already feeling disappointed that the fight will be a waste. It is one thing for him to not consider her his rival, it is another thing to not consider her worth his time. She knew he was prideful because of the confidence he had in his talent but it didn't placate her.

She might not know the extent of his talent but what can his talent achieve in weeks of training? She had been training her fighting proficiency for years. To her, Soverick couldn't come close to her level of skill, yet he was disrespectful to her.

In ancient times, before the era of the sages who pioneered the mana stage, the first step of spear mastery is what the most talented of fighters spend their whole life to achieve. The best of the best can maybe reach the second step.

Things have changed since then, the talent and capabilities of battle sage monkeys have improved with royal bloodlines. But even so, people need years to reach the first step. Soverick as not even spent a year or half a year and he was already behaving like mother high heaven's mythical child of the plane.

"I will take you down" She growled at him.

She decided then and there that she might not get what she wanted in this fight, but she will scar him. She will demolish his pride and he will consider her a rival then. She will become a shadow over his heart and mind. He will be the one to challenge her to regain his pride but she will demolish him again and finally steal his talent. Then he will never be able to defeat her again.

Soverick sent the challenge to her and she accepted it with relish. He noticed the hungry anticipation in her and he shrugged. There was no harm in wishing to rip someone up and taking pleasure in it. Heck, he was doing the same thing. He is also looking forward to practicing his deadly spear skills on her. Then they left for the arena. Both of one mind and accord.

Back within the Central Room. A few moments after Soverick left.

SQUARESKULL received a notification and he became solemn. He made sure there was no one around and he locked up all the doors to the central room. He accepted the request for a meeting and several holograms appeared.

The holograms were virtual projections and only the central figure was blurred in a pink shade. They were 7 of them and SQUARESKULL knew them to be the director of the battle academy and the various headmasters of the Battle Academy.

SQUARESKULL stood ramrod straight in respect. He didn't need to bow to these figures because it didn't matter. They don't care if you respect them or not, only their strength matters. If they want something then they will get it, your respect or not affects nothing. But a sign of respect is always welcomed. Especially in front of such volatile beings.

It will be a bad thing if they become your enemy. There's nothing more dangerous than an enemy that has no fear for his or her life and is willing to lose everything just to cause you harm. Sovereigns are calm and can be reasoned with, these people on the other hand can be everything but calm.

The central figure spoke first. "You went too far with your actions. Do you know why I did not step in?"

SQUARESKULL answered. "Because you did not need to."

"Correct. Because I did not need to. The boy remained unbothered. His body might be broken but his mind wasn't. It was sort of unnerving to see such a thing in a 2 years old boy but it was reassuring to see him display such willpower. But have no doubt, if I needed to, I would have stepped in."

The pink figure continued. "The importance of the boy has increased in priority. It has been decreed that he is to be nurtured to the best of our ability without negatively affecting his growth. He did not need us to step in so we did not."

Another figure joined in. "Yet it cannot be disputed that you went too far. Your training methods turned out well but you were too harsh in your duels. You were even using the third step. He is just a small boy, and yet you were heavy-handed with him. Explain yourself."

SQUARESKULL roused himself to answer. This is a new addition to his life and it started ever since the academy AI made Soverick his student. These terrifying figures drop in once in a while to question him. He doesn't like this meeting but he knows they don't mean him any harm. They just want to know his thought process and his opinion about Soverick.

"It was the only way to force him to quit trying to skip the first step. I didn't want to simply beat him, I wanted to beat him back." He answered.

One of the figures asked. "Won't that make him want to skip the second stage too to beat you?"

SQUARESKULL answered. "He will listen after his upcoming battle. Either he wins or fails, he will either get what he wants or admits that I was right."

Another figure chuckled. "You may be naive to think he will listen. He broke all training records. He faced the famed unbeatable attack of the titan frog and he escaped it. He will not listen because he considers himself unparalleled or maybe he sees things from a different perspective. As long as he believes he can do it, then he will do it. Nothing has been able to tell him otherwise."

"Is his sight special in any way? Those eyes of his are peculiar."

"His sight isn't special yet. He has yet to reach the mana stage."

"That is true. Too bad we have to limit our interactions with him. I would like to know what he is actually thinking."

The figures began to talk amongst themselves until the central figure called them to order.

"The development of the gate is impressive. Your suggestion of it is excellent but even more excellent is the ability of the boy to execute it. In one go at that without any failure. Truly impressive. What are your thoughts on the progress of the gate?"

That's the thing about this group of titans. They don't intend to lecture him about how to teach. They just want him to understand the gravity of his situation and the consequences he will face if he fails. But they will also reward him for a job well done.

SQUARESKULL considered his words before answering. "He was able to build the gate which no one thought was possible at this stage but I think he has reached his limit. One gate is the limit of his body. It is not a matter of body control but energy requirement. His body cannot provide enough energy to build and sustain another gate. His vitality might be exceptional but it cannot even support a single gate. The conversion rate of the gate is horrendous because the technique was meant to be used with mana, not vitality. How he did it with vitality is beyond me but he can go no further."

There was silence as the figures considered his words. "Your insight is appreciated." The central figure said.

Another figure added its opinion. "It is not too much of a loss. The gates will become largely irrelevant when he becomes a transcendent. He has already broken the norms of possibility with what he has achieved."

"That is true. I have made in-depth research and analysis into the prowess of the descendants of the sages. Their talent is usually normal at the vitality stage. They struggle to even achieve the first step of spear mastery. But things change when they become mana entities. Their perception and their eyes awaken. I'll send you the data on them later. My point is that if this boy is already this exceptional at this stage, what can we expect when he becomes a mana entity."

"Hmm, it is something to consider. His current intuition is otherworldly. I had to change the video surveillance from real-time to delayed feed because he was constantly suspicious of his surroundings whenever I watch him."

This made the figures chuckle. Then they received a notification about Soverick. Only high-priority matters can disturb them in meetings like this, and Soverick is one of them. They all looked at the notification.

"Oh, it seems he is about to have his first ranked battle. And it is against someone below the 300th. I expected better."

"Wait, isn't his opponent that SLEEP DEPRIVED DEMON girl from the eternal battle bloodline? Isn't she SQUARESKULL's disciple?"

"She is. SQUARESKULL did say she had her eyes locked on him. Let's watch how it happened. She must have approached him like the snake that her bloodline has made her."