2263 Bet

Slowly, one by one started submitting their weapons.

Sam stood at his spot while observing everyone else. There are many kinds of people there. The most eyecatching are the people at the peak of the second grade. The people that are ready to breakthrough to the Divine Plane Pre-transcendence.

And these people have participated in previous competitions as well.

These kinds of people are present in every single year. The people at the peak of the grade that are ready to move forward and give their all in the last stint to be the best of their grade. More often than not, they end up being the main characters of the tournament in all the aspects.

So, everyone expected them to be the same in this one as well.

The Elder and some fourth graders who are the elders' assistants started sorting out the weapons and performed other tests like the aesthetic level and the durability. Meanwhile, the students just hung there at their stations.

The guy next to Sam looked at him and said.

"Did you really just come for the sake of coming here? I thought a guy like you wouldn't do things like that.

"

"Your name is Manson, right?

"

"Do you know me?

"

"You are one of the students that hang out with Crow. Of course, I know you. Particularly, since you are the odd ball of the group. Your cultivation level is at Late stage of Divine Plane Initiation, while Crow is at Middle Stage. So, it is pretty hard to not notice you.

"

Manson just shrugged.

"Anyway, you didn't answer my question.

"

"I am actually as serious as I can be for this competition. I don't know what gave you that idea.

"

"First of, your participation in this competition. If you are serious about this, like everyone else, you would have waited out your breakthrough, watched this year's competition like a spectator.

"

"And?

"

"Even you have joined this, you should give it your all. The weapons you made, no offense, they are good, but the are definitely not up to competition standards. They are made with basic techniques, you didn't make a single alloy and you didn't even ask for any materials from the competition inventory.

They are the basic among the basic weapons.

You are a genius, but you should take these things seriously and not tarnish your reputation by just brushing it off.

"

Sam just chuckled and looked at the elders and the students processing the weapons. The other tests are done and only one last test is left. The damage test.

The five students responsible for demonstrating the attacks lined up in front of their training dummies with the weapons of the first contestant.

*BANG*

They all attacked at the same time.

'782'

'792'

'783'

'800'

'765'

The five scores popped up. There was a stream of applause that followed those scores. The scores are nowhere near the scores the students got from the original demo. But as mentioned before, they are the custom weapons the students use on a regular basis.

These weapons are made on the spot after watching the move one time. They are pretty good, all things considered.

The second contestant's weapons were tested.

' 723, 721, 700, 698, 674'

The five scores appeared again.

The third contestant.

'515, 512, 567, 627, 537'

"That kid is gone.

" Manson commented as he saw the scores. Even though these scores could be considered okay, they are indeed not cut out to be in the top rankings.

Sam looked at Manson at this moment and wanted to test something out.

"You want to make a bet.

"

Manson frowned and asked.

"A bet? On what? Is this about how your scores are going to be? Is that the way you want to choose to make me believe that you are serious?

"

"Not really. I don't need to bet on my scores. I just want to have some fun until we wait our turn. After all, both of us are the last two entries of the competition. We need to kill the time anyway. And I am sure, what I am about to suggest is a lot more entertaining than just witnessing the scoring part of it.

"

"Okay, what is it?

"

"After the tenth evaluation, I will start guessing the scores of every contestant. It would be approximate of course. If the actual scores are closer to my estimation, than I win. If it is off by ten points or more, then you win.

"

"You are going to guess the scores for all the contestants? There are dozens.

"

"I will. You know, let's make it more interesting. As long as I get it wrong for three contestants, then you win. How about that?

"

Manson thought for a moment and said.

"Okay, alright. I can do that. But what would the winner get?

"

"A favor? I don't really have anything that I want to ask you right now. Let's just go with a favor.

"

"Okay, but nothing outrageous, alright. Make it a small favor, like information, knowledge sharing or going on a mission together, that is all.

"

"Alright, Manson. You don't have to worry about that. I won't ask too much of you. It would be a small favor. After all, this is just a friendly bet.

"

"Alright. You are on.

"

They shook hands and Sam activated his energy vision. The seventh set of weapons were being evaluated and it would be soon the time for the tenth set.

He just observed the energy circulation of the students who are doing the demonstration. Of course, he cannot observe what is happening deep inside their bodies from here, but he can observe what is happening in the weapons.

The energy circulation through the weapon cannot be hidden.

And he did observe it when they demonstrated before the forging process began.

As the evaluations went on, he examined the energy circulation in the weapons and compared that information within the first original demonstration.

Now, in his head, he has some data to compare with. After the ten are done, Sam spoke.

"All weapons approximately 530.

"

Manson nodded and looked at the scores.

'530, 538, 528, 539, 537'

"Not bad, were you always this good at guessing.

"

"Yes. The next one, All weapons less than 300.

"

'290, 291, 290, 261,293'

"That is pretty cool. You got it right again. But are you sure, you want to continue this. You won't be able to guess everything.

"

"We already made a deal, let's see through it. The next one, The first three weapons around 730, the fourth one around 500, the fifth one around 300. That guy didn't have enough time.

"

'728, 734, 725, 493, 295'

Now Manson felt a bit stumped. He looked at Sam and then at the stage. The first one could be brushed off as a guess, second one as luck, but third one? He didn't know what to consider that as. It would be stupid of him to just attribute everything to luck and guesses.

This made him feel a bit nervous and excited at the same time.

Nervous because he will lose the bet, and excited because… it is fun.

"Next one…

"

Sam went on to guess the scores and the more he got correct, the more accurate he became. He even started estimating accurate scores for some and he only missed the mark by two or three points. The accuracy definitely improved.

In that process, he even noted who could be the top scorers of the competition.

Out of all the people, only five people managed to go past the middle of eight hundreds for their scores and out of them, two of them have some nine hundred scores as well.

After looking at the scores, Sam also felt kind of confident about his weapons. Even though he is confident that he can get into the tournament from multiple events, if he learned anything after observing Gambler academy for so long, that is to not underestimate the people in here.

In his mind, this academy is the only one that is actually focused on improving the student skills without much ulterior intent. For the rest of the academies, the improvement of students is just a means to gain glory.

But here the goal itself is the improvement.

And the whole academ is focused on identifying and developing the individual talents and needless to say there are some really tough, smiths in the academy that use their unique techniques. They might not beat the profession focused academies like the Hephaestus, at least at the moment, but in the long run, these students will carve their own unique signature in the outside world.

So, Sam is actually considering one thing in this competition.

That there is a possibility that he might just get a run for his money. He never had to worry about it in the first grade because, those guys can't beat him on a fair ground without an advantage in cultivation level.

Now his competitors got it.

"Well, its my turn soon. You want to guess that?

"

Sam nodded and looked at the stage.

"You are really good. The first three at nine hundred and the last two at 890.

"