The difference was simply too stark. Less than a fraction of the time to finish in a result more than ten times better. To make matters worse, it was clear that he still wasn’t satisfied.

However, they took Dyon’s attitude as him mocking them. If he really cared so much, he would have put more time aside. Clearly, he simply wasn’t taking them seriously.

The leader of the Dimwell Clan had a savage pulse trembling along his forehead. His head really seemed like it might burst at any moment. By the time the formation testers made their way down, it really did seem like he was bordering on losing his cool.

Up on the judges’ platform.

“He didn’t try to find a method of circumventing the number problem. How is that even possible?”

The beard of the formation guild’s head trembled. Even he felt that the competition task was a bit difficult. You could probably spend months calculating and deriving the formulations you’d need to build such an array. Doing so in 30 minutes was inconceivable.

Any other time, the formation guild head would simply think that Dyon was acting and that he had been thinking of the problem the entire time. But, even if he bothered with such thoughts… so what? Even if he had, hadn’t the result spoken for themselves? Whether he was acting or not, did it even matter?

Empyrean Baron’s gaze narrowed. He too didn’t quite understand how to interpret this. His understanding of formations was quite high, but still several levels beneath the formation guild’s head.

The audience itself was almost numb to the test phase. No, it was more accurate to say that they were numb for even the following two rounds. Whether it was the repair of a treasure task in round two, or the pill concoction with missing ingredients task of round three, neither was even close.

On the third round, instead of waiting like he had during the first two, Dyon actually started immediately. Concocting the pill with missing ingredients in just moments and turning to leave without waiting for the results. Maybe it was only now that they realized that Dyon wasn’t a talisman inspriptionist, nor was he a weapon’s smith… He was an alchemist.

“I believe I’ve done what was asked of me. I’ll be taking my reward now.”

“There’s still three rounds left.” Patriarch Nightwell responded coldly.

“Not my problem. I have no intension of putting myself in harm’s way for your family. I only agreed to help you with these rounds and guaranteed you first place. Deal with the rest yourself. If you can’t do that, you don’t deserve to hold the crown in this realm anyway, and I’ll just go and make a deal with the other two families.”

Dyon’s deadpan gaze swept over the Patriarch.

“I don’t remember agreeing to such a thing. And, I don’t plan on having anyone lead you there until this competition is over.”

Dyon almost yawned at the response as though he was expecting it.

“Did you daughter forget to tell you? I’m a Spiritual Sage, I could have found your world core whenever I wanted. Your help is unneeded. You can consider it a courtesy that I haven’t already gone ahead without your permission. If you want to retract that permission…” A fierce glint lit in Dyon’s eyes. “… I promise you that I still have the ability to ensure you lose this. Try me.”

Dyon swept his shoulder past the Clan Patriarch. It suddenly became very obvious to them all that Dyon was the taller of the two.

The truth was that Crystella hadn’t forgotten to tell them. It was just that the Patriarch either made a mistake, or didn’t believe that Dyon would dare to do such a thing. But by the time he gathered himself, Dyon really had left.

To make matters worse, Patriarch Nightwell, who was very much used to having his family on his side, looked around to see several displeased gazes. However, they weren’t aim toward Dyon, but rather toward him. It really was pretty unseemly what he had just tried to do.

“Hmph.”

The Patriarch looked away defiantly, unwilling to admit to anything.

**

“Is it alright to antagonize them like that?” Saru asked.

Dyon shrugged. “At this point, it doesn’t matter anymore. Their Patriarch is too stupid to hide the truth, I can read him like a book. They’re already planning something.”

“They are?”

“Probably.” Dyon didn’t explain. “But it doesn’t matter regardless. We would make an enemy out of them taking Amethyst out anyway. I’m also not a fan of people who try to take control of me.”

By this point, Saru and Lilith felt that maybe they were a bit emotional in convincing Dyon to save Amethyst. But it was already too late to change Dyon’s mind. It was rare enough for him to do so in the first place. Now that he had once, he wouldn’t do it again.

“Unfortunately for them… Allowing me to see their world core is the biggest mistake they could have possibly made. I’ve been priming for three months already and the final three rounds will take years to complete. If they believe that they’ll be facing the same me who entered when this competition ends, they’ll be sorely mistaken.”

Immortals were powerful, but their concept of time was far too skewed. To them, this time was a blink of an eye. They couldn’t wrap their minds around someone improving vastly so quickly. And that… would be their downfall.