Death... and me

The other elders immediately looked at Saya. After all, she was the Guild Leader here.

"Well... No rules say that you can't build your formation above the protection formation. However, that's quite a risky move since it might be affected by the other formations' attacks when the test starts."

Rean knew that, but he didn't care. That's because the Lightning Field was the field with the least amount of participants, to begin with. The chances of something happening to his formation would be very low. In his eyes, it was worth the risk.

'I will need three formations to complement the Lightning Strike Formation. Those would be the Elemental Absorption Formation, the Spiritual Energy Absorption Formation, and the Shooting Formation. Fortunately, they are quite simple compared to the Lighting Strike Formation. Besides...'

Rean then looked at the Protection Formation right below his feet and smiled.

Nevertheless, making four formations at once was anything but easy. If not because Rean was extremely confident in his proficiency in Lightning Formations, he would never try such a risky move.

First, he built the base of all work, the Spiritual Energy Absorption Formation. He worked so fast that it was completed in just three minutes. Soon after, he fused the Lightning Strike and Lightning Absorption Formations together with it. All three formations related to Lightning, so Rean knew every rune and material necessary perfectly.

"This... Is he building a Triple-Layered Formation?"

"What are you so impressed about? Look at the top contestants of the last phase. They are all making Triple-layered Formations."

"Indeed. They're all aiming for single strike formations."

"Because they can't use Spirit Stones, the Spiritual Energy around their formations would be consumed in a flash. There won't be enough for a second or third strike. In that case, they might as well throw everything against the Protection Formations at once."

It was true. Havek, Qia, Milo, Artin, basically everyone was making a similar type of formation. The types of attack formations were different from each other. Nonetheless, they all aimed for a single powerful destructive, corrosive, piercing, or whatever strike.

Havek was in the Water Field. He obtained several types of corrosive materials to make his formation. His formation would try to corrode several layers of the protection formation at once. That was quite a bold move since there wasn't enough Spiritual Energy. Of course, being the genius he said he was, his face brimmed with confidence.

Qia made things simple. In fact, she didn't really have an element she excelled in. In the defensive formation exam, she went to the Earth field because Earth was the best for defense. This time, she went to the Fire field simply because it was perfect for offensive formations. She decided to make a single-point explosion formation for her trial.

Saya paid special attention to Rean, though. Of course, Droman did the same thing. They were curious to see just what kind of gimmick Rean would pull off this time.

"Guild Leader, are you planning to take that boy as one of the representatives?"

Saya nodded.

"For now, he seems to be a good choice. He's only sixteen, so his age matches the under 25 requirement from seven years in the future. Still, let's see how he performs in the test first. After all, he hasn't measurably passed the previous tests. I can't tell yet whether he really has some talent or if he's just crazy."

All the elders agreed with her. In the first test, he forced his way through the movement restriction formation. In the last one, he destroyed the formation that was supposed to test his defense. It was hard to guess what he was capable of.

After fifty minutes into the exam, Rean finally finished his triple-layered formation. Anyone who looked at him would be able to see the beads of sweat on his face. Sure enough, as good as he might be with Lightning Formations, making a triple-layered formation in just fifty minutes was still an arduous task.

Surprisingly, Rean wasn't done yet.

'Life Style, First Form, Enhancement!'

Rean then jumped down from the Protection Formation and flashed away. A minute later, he brought a big stone back. The ones who looked at that became puzzled as they thought.

'A stone? In a Lightning Formation?'

'Wouldn't its earth property obstruct the Lightning Formation instead?'

Rean didn't know what the others were thinking, nor did he care. He quickly jumped above the protection formation and started to build the shooting formation. As mentioned before, such a formation wasn't anything hard to make. It merely gathered some Spiritual Energy and used the energy to shoot any object put on it.

Rean then placed that stone above the formation, where it began to float. Following that, he attached the spiritual copper wire to both the stone and the Lightning Strike Formation behind him.

The shooting formation took longer than the Energy Gathering Formation, though. That's because Rean didn't want to use the Spiritual Energy from the surroundings when the test started. So he had that formation gather and hold Spiritual Energy on its own. When the time for his formation came to be tested, it would be fully charged and wouldn't use the surrounding Spiritual Energy. Thanks to that, the Lightning Strike Formation wouldn't be affected.

'Fortunately, it doesn't need a lot of spiritual energy, so it will only take a minute or so to absorb the amount necessary.'

58 minutes. That was the time Rean used to finish all the preparations. By now, most of the Formation Masters in the exam already finished their own formations as well.

Saya, Droman, and the others could tell what Rean was trying to do... and thought the idea was quite funny. Their only doubt was whether it would work or not.

Seeing that one hour was up, Turin finally announced the end of the building test.

"That's enough! Those who haven't finished their formations are disqualified. As for those who did, stay beside your formations so that you can activate them. Let's start the test. First, the-"

It was then that he received a Spiritual Sense Message from Saya.

'Go to the Lightning Field first. I want to see what that Rean boy can do.'