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nThe meeting was adjourned after the abrupt visit of the birds.

nOnce again the evening sky of the city saw the beautiful lights of the metal birds moving to their new recipients.

nDove caught the bird that landed in front of her. She felt really impressed by the craftsmanship that went into it. She examined the bird a bit before she accepted the wrist band and just like the recipients before, these people also went through the introduction on how to use these birds.

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"Someone is generous enough to give these out away? I wonder what his intentions are. Forget about Sam, whoever is the person behind this Hub, they pose a bigger trouble if they have any bad intentions.

nI think we need to keep an eye out.

"

nAnother senior voiced out their opinion. Dove didn't reply though. She was lost in admiring the structure of the bird and she even tried to examine the formations.

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"For how generous he is by offering the birds, he is way too protective of the mechanisms and research that went into this. I think the generosity is most likely backed by pride more than anything else.

"

nDove said to her peers.

nAnother lady who is standing at a corner is also examining her bird just like Dove, she understood Dove's words more than anyone else in that room at that moment.

nBecause just like Dove, she also managed to get a deeper understanding of what went into this bird.

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"I think so too. As generous as he is, giving away this bird also gives him a sense of validation.

nHe is confident that no one would be able to go past his twisted security measures and copy this to make a knock off and the convenience it provides makes the people get attached to it easily. And he is the only one who can provide it.

nHe gains a sense of satisfaction and pride from this.

"

nThe lady analyzed and Dove nodded in agreement.

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"Anyway, we indeed need to get in contact with this person and see what his true intentions are. But since even the deans of the academies are accepting him, there is not much for us to worry about. We just need to observe what the effects on our students are and then we are fine.

"

nDove then gave some more instructions.

nMeanwhile, Sam is preparing a bit more. That day, there is nothing else for him to do. He needs to wait for two days before the inter academy tournament is held. That tournament would decide ten people who are eligible for individual competition from this region and there would be a group aspect.

nEach academy will send their top ten to fight in a group battle in a neutral ground. The academy that wins will send their group for the tournament at the finale of the Inter Academy Freshmen tournament.

nUsually, the combatants would either rest or make some last minute preparations before they enter the big stage. But Sam cannot do it.

nBecause the next day, there is another part of the tournament that is overlooked by the common populace, but was always keenly observed by the instructors, students and even the seniors. It is the tournament for professionals.

nThe Inter academy Freshmen tournament has both aspects. The first one being the combat and the second one being auxiliary profession aspects.

nSo, the next day, there would be a bunch of tournaments simultaneously going on.

nWeapon forging, Puppet Making, Formations, Inscriptions, Medicine Making, Musicians, Painting etc.

nThere are a bunch of competitions going on and since there are some people who are skilled in multiple occupations, the tournament format is a bit different.

nFrom the dawn to midnight, anyone can go at anytime and participate in any occupational test. For example, if someone wants to participate in Weapon Forging, they can just go to the examination hall directly.

nThere the elder in charge would let them pick the challenge from a jar. The participant has to satisfy the requirements of the challenge in three hours, which is the average time limit. Once the task is done, they will submit it and leave.

nAfter the competitions are done, the Elders will grade the scores. Of course, if they did it by themselves, there is a great chance of bias.

nA person like Sam would be screwed over a thousand times.

nThe elders don't like him, so there is a chance that they would screw him over. Since the challenge is different for everyone, it would be even more difficult to fairly grade. So, that task would be done in association with the Exchange Center.

nThey would go there and use the appraising formation there.

nIt would judge what the challenge is and what the result provided by the students is and it would grade the score appropriately.

nThe one with the highest score wins. Each school will decide top ten in each profession and just like the combat part of the tournament, once again these people will compete. The only difference is that only a few professions have team competitions and even for them there are only five participants for a team.

nThe reason why the common populace won't watch this is because of the format.

nFights are exciting, one side wins, other side loses and they would have a clear winner over the rest.

nBut these competitions go on for the whole day and there is no direct head to head clash happening.

nThe students on the other hand are interested because they are competing with each other and they need more talented people into their factions.

nSam entered the competitions the next day. Since the dawn to midnight, he kept himself busy.

nThis came as an unexpected surprise to a lot of people. Sam never attended any classes related to these professions and he never interacted with people in the field. He wasn't seen at the simulation rooms of the hub. He just fought and made trouble.

nAnd Sam's participation in every test is very quick. He went picked the challenge, completed it in an hour or less and left.

nFor the first time, even the common populace showed some interest in these occupational tests. And to their amusement, Sam scored big in many tests.

nHe is ranked first in formations and inscriptions, he is ranked second in Weapon forging and puppet making. Tied for second place in medicine making. The results for the rest of the tests he participated were not released.

nSam went to the Elders in charge and asked then they told him a rule that he never knew. A person can only be selected as participant in five occupational test and they decided to give Sam priority in the five most competitive fields. Three of these five happened to have team events too.

nThey didn't announce the other results because they believed they are irrelevant.

nThe whole day went eventfully.

nThe seniors who were observing the competitions were also met with huge surprise because of Sam's participation.

nThe next day is once again time for common populace to enjoy. They would watch as the geniuses beat each other up to get the top spot.

nBut everyone knew that there are only two prospects for the top spot this year and they genuinely wished that the fight could go longer this time. They knew that as long as the arena is large enough these two will fight.

nWhen they saw the arena, they were a bit disappointed. It is definitely large. Larger than the open tournament arenas, but it is not large enough. They knew that one of them is going to slip out of the arena very soon after the fight starts.

nBut they still hoped that one of the two made improvements and would dominate the other.

nThe rest of the rounds went as expected. There is some excitement as many people tried their hardest and even overcame some serious obstacles, but the final results are mostly expected.

nThe final battle was indeed between White and Sam.

nIt also went just the same as the previous open tournament fights. The crowd was a bit disappointed, but they still enjoyed the treat of that fight a bit. Everyone is betting on who would win the tournament even if they didn't win the fight.

nAnd the scale tipped towards White.

nBecause Sam seems to have changed his fighting style a bit, he is not using elemental powers as much as before and he is trying to stay in close contact with White, which also happens to be White's most advantageous zone.

nBut right when they thought White would take the cake for this tournament, with a hit, Sam smirked.

nHis palm is covered with dense spiritual energy. As White poked his cane at him, he met the tip with his palm.

nThe rippling recoil that usually even dispersed the effect of Sam's void style, ripple style, and repel style most of time, didn't work as everyone expected.

nAs soon as the tip and the palm met…

n*BOOM* A huge energy explosion occurred. Neither combatant moved, but the recoil energy that should have blasted Sam away didn't do that, instead, it seemed to have been dispersed completely.

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