Death... and me

In the Formations Guild, Turin saw that time was up and announced.

"Alright. The test starts now. You can use any of the several field environments here to build a formation of your own choice. As mentioned before, you have one hour to finish your formations."

Rean, Qia, Milo, and the rest of the participants immediately rushed to the fields. Qia went for the region where Earth Element was more concentrated. Not only her, but at least half of the participants did the same thing. Earth was known for its defensive properties, so it was to be expected.

Milo, on the other hand, entered the Forest part. His formations would make use of the abundant Wood Element in there.

Havek chose the river for his one. He was especially good with Water Element Formations and was quite confident in his chances.

To make so many different environments in such a small space, the Formations Guild prepared an even bigger formation underneath the field. It could control the weather on each side without affecting the other. Naturally, they also designed an area where Lightning Element was abundant for the participants.

However, there were very few Lightning Element Formation Masters. It's not that others couldn't use the Lightning Element in their formations, but that Lightning was known for its huge consumption of Spiritual Energy to work. It was powerful as long as it had the Spirit Stones to work with. Unfortunately, such a thing wasn't allowed here.

Rean didn't mind, though. Even when he wasn't working on the Communication System Formations, he also practiced several other types of standard Lightning Formations. This last month inside the Formations Guild Repository helped him improve even more with that. Of course, he also learned about other types. That's why he could find the core or flaws of the formations in the previous phase that fast.

'Still, there is a huge lack of Spiritual Energy here. It seems like I can only do a double-layered formation.'

Double-layered formations were basically two formations built to work together. It wasn't wrong to say that instead of two, that it's a single formation. Naturally, making the two work like that without disturbing the functionality of the other was several times more complicated.

However, Rean had an advantage here. The communication system formation, or to be more specific, the Router Formation used this type of system to start with. Rean had done this kind of formation so many times that he even dreamed while doing it. The only difference was that he would change the communication formation into a defensive one.

'Hmm...? Defensive?'

Rean pondered for a bit before his eyes lit up.

'Yep, there is no better way to defend other than that.'

A playful smile appeared on Rean's lips as he got to work straight away.

Droman, who was watching Rean through his Spiritual Sense, narrowed his eyes.

'What is he doing? It won't work if he does it like that.'

Rean had really caught the examination elders' attention during the last phase, so they also paid attention to him every now and then.

"That kid is making a double-layered formation, isn't he?"

"He is, but it seems like he's still too inexperienced. Those runs won't be able to last for long."

"Hahaha! It's fine. Considering that he can do a double-layer, he should at least perform well enough to head into the next phase."

"I'm not too sure about that. Quite a few of our participants can do the same thing. This is, after all, the Formations Guild Main Branch exam."

Suddenly, someone else's voice appeared behind those examinators.

"That's enough. Pay attention to the other participants as well. Your job is to prevent anyone from cheating on this test. While you are looking elsewhere, someone might get the chance to play some tricks."

Those elders were taken aback as they looked behind.

"Guild Head! You came back!"

Her name was Saya Horzulun. She was a Heaven Peak-Level Formations Master. Just like Werxa, she was responsible for supervising the Formation Master Guilds in the Sasamil Empire.

"I just arrived from the Headquarters. Anyway, how are things so far? have you found anyone interesting?"

The elders quickly returned their attention to all the participants as they nodded their heads.

"Yes. One of them was that boy we just talked about. However, he passed the first phase in quite a peculiar way."

The one who talked was Zako. He then took the chance to explain to Saya about the first phase in his test field and how Rean worked around it.

Saya couldn't help but show some surprise on her face as she looked at Rean in the distance with her Spiritual Sense.

"No wonder you're interested in him."

The other elders nodded and then proceeded to talk about the other participants.

"There is also Havek Sasamil. Although he was a lot slower than Rean, his time of analysis was excellent."

"In my group, I had Felo Susume and Lanca Mion. Their times were very close to Havek's from Zako's group. Felo is a disciple of one of our members and a subordinate clan descendant, while Lanca came from outside the Capital."

"There is also Suli and Hersha Deskalo, from the Deskalo Subordinate Clan. They were in different groups but performed quite well. You can look forward to their performance as well."

The examinators then continued to give their reports from each test field. Saya heard all of that and nodded with a satisfied expression.

"As always, the main branch attracts the highest talents of the Empire. In any case, I have good news for you all. The Headquarters have already decided on the next guild group competition."

The elders were taken aback.

"What?! It'll happen again?!"

"Great! It's quite rare for this to happen."

Others thought it to be a bit strange, though.

"Why is it happening now? I doubt they don't know the situation between Chrole and us at the moment."

The elders immediately went silent after hearing that. Indeed. There's a big chance of a conflict breaking out in the next few years. There are only so many Empires in the world. A war between them was very rare due to their own power.

Saya nodded. As the high echelon of the Formations Guild, they were obviously privy to more information than others.

"That's why they want to start it right now. It would be bad to hold such a competition while the war is ongoing. After all, Empire Wars usually take many years to be over."

The other elders had to admit that it was true. Although their guild wouldn't be directly affected, it was still a bad thing since many talents would be lost.

"What will be the rules this time?"

"Also, when will it take place?"

Saya then explained.

"We will use three participants from our side. They will then join the other guilds in a group competition to define the overall position of each Empire."

The elders were taken aback.

"Wait! Are we joining hands with other side occupations?"

Saya nodded.

"Yes. Talismans, Blacksmith, Alchemy, Formations. Although there are more, those are the four main side occupations in our world. Each Empire will have these four guilds bring their best talents and compete together against the other Empires. Of course, there are regions of the world where there are no Empires. Maril Region is a good example of it. Still, the guilds also invited the main powers in those places to participate if they so wish."

All the elders were surprised to hear that. It's not that such a thing didn't happen before, but it had been hundreds of years since such a joint competition took place.

"What are the requirements?"

Saya then pointed at all the young Formation Masters in the field.

"Under 25 years old. That's basically it."

The elders nodded.

"In that case, Earth High-Level Formation Masters will probably be the limit of the competitors. However, there is no need to select the ones present in this field, right? We have quite a few more experienced members around 21 and 22 years old from examinations in previous years."

Saya shook her head.

"The competition will take place 7 years from now."

"Oh! I thought they would go through it earlier."

Another elder shook his head in response.

"That's to be expected. Although the situation in the two Empires isn't good, the Sasamil Emperor is still alive. No one expects this war to start for the next decade or so, at the very least. Before that, the new Emperor or Empress will have to ascend to the throne and consolidate their position. It's not even guaranteed that a war will happen to start with. In any case, 7 years is already quite fast for a competition of this size."

Saya agreed with him.

"That's correct. That will also give us the time to train our choices properly."

The elder and Saya continued to discuss that news as the second phase happened.

Rean looked at his project and couldn't help but nod, satisfied.

'That's perfect. The runes were made in quite a hurry, but it should still be fine. Now then, let's finish the connections between the two. With a Spirit Energy Gathering Formation and the Lightning one, I should be able to achieve the desired result.'

Finally, one hour went by. Turin then immediately came forward to announce.

"Time is over! If you didn't finish your formation, that's your bad luck."

Quite a few Formation Masters had ugly expressions. It was obvious that things didn't go as expected for them and one hour ended up not being enough. Still, rules were rules.

Turin ignored that as he looked at the Formation Masters assistants on his side.

"Bring the Spiritual Blast Formation."