Eternal Thief

On the fifth day of Hunter Mania,

In these past four days, out of 68 contestants, 22 had been already eliminated, and 14 out of 22 were dead!

However, the more astonishing news was out of these 14, Archie had killed 5 of them within two days and completed his quota of five badges per person.

The remaining nine were divided among Charles (2), Bobby, (1), Lucas (1), Hugo (2), Nancy (1), another fiery demon (1), and a demon from the poison wood demon clan (1).

The four demons around the projection pool haven't moved for a moment and scrutinized the contestants.

Bodach looked at Archie's projection. He was currently laying on top of a tree lazily, completely concealed within a formation and his concealment cloak.

He couldn't help but comment with a chuckle, "Do you guys also think that this challenge seemed a child's play to this brat?"

Old Imp frowned and said in exasperation, "Hmph, he's just lucky to encounter those idiots with inferior cultivation. They can't even ambush someone who was so recklessly walking around, they deserved to die!"

The demon tiger strips chortled. "You and I both know it wasn't the case, Old Imp, so stop denying it and accept it. We have a genius soul cultivator joining our institute this year."

Bodach nodded with a meaningful smile on his empty mouth, "Don't worry if he joined my Soul Assassin House. I'll make sure he won't tease those pups in your Martial Arts House."

"Hmph, who said I'm afraid of a pesky soul cultivator?!" Old Imp retorted muffledly.

Everyone smiled when they heard this, but they didn't tease Old Imp anymore. They were all old friends and often pulled each other legs.

Ampersand smiled before he said while looking at Archie, "Alright, enough joking for the day. This little brat is not bad. He had perception and a calm mentality with astute decision-making.

"From his personal records in Secret Royals, we all know how he lived his life in the Life Grand Demon Region. Which made it quite clear he was someone who like to hide until he got the chance to attack and finish everything in one fell swoop.

"Furthermore, his archery skills are above average, but he can improve with good guidance. So, …" He looked at Bodach and asked, "Tell me, Brother Bodach, do you want to take him as a personal student?"

Bodach thought for a moment before he said, "I'll let Old Fifth take him as a personal student in Special Grade-1. I want to see if he could break into the soul realm before he reached 100 years and then shift him into Core Grade-1 to myself.

"Although his personality and deceitfulness are very much to my liking, he's still not talented enough to enter the Core Grade and become my personal student.

"Even if I accept him, those brats from the direct bloodline of Awareness Realm might try to suppress him. But if he entered the soul realm before the age of 100, then he's worthy of fighting for the best resources of our institute."

Everyone couldn't help but nod at Bodach's approach regarding Archie.

Everyone knew there were four types of classes in the Royal Demon Institute, Ordinary, Extraordinary, Special, and Core, with five grades. Each grade lasts for 10 years.

Although every student in the royal demon institute was at the top of their generation, the students in the Core Grade Class were considered geniuses among geniuses of the Demon Race.

Furthermore, the number of students in Core Grade Classes wasn't even two digits, and each of these students had at least a 30% extra chance than their peers to break into the Law-Awareness Realm.

At their graduation, a core grade student was appointed in the Demon Emperor Domain to further nurturement.

If they managed to enter the Law-Awareness Realm within five thousand years, they will be granted the title of Grand Demon Duke and could start their own tribes if they wanted.

That's why the students in Core Grand Classes were arrogant and won't accept someone who they deemed inferior, and they might suppress them secretly, extinguishing their future.

That was why, without sufficient strength, it would do more harm than good to send someone who has a chance to become a core grade student to a core grade class.

The Special Grade Class was a much better choice. That place was also for the elites, and competition there was fierce as well. But it was a perfect place to send an immature core-grade seed and see if it really could bloom there or get crushed.

It was a common method used by the Royal Demon Institute to test these immature core grade seeds, and if they can't even handle the pressure of special grade classes, then they only amount for this much.

Although Archie's mentality was like those in the core grade classes, his straight was still lacking in comparison.

Ampersand also agreed with Bodach's opinion, eyes shimmered with ambiguity as he said, "If he chose my Soul Combatant House, I'll also place him in Special Class. But unlike Brother Bodach, I think he's more of a kind who thrives under pressure, and if we wanted to turn him into a core grade seed, it needs a different approach."

"Oh? It seems brother Ampersand had something in mind." Bodach questioned, and others also looked at him with interest.

Ampersand nodded and said, "Let him include in the team of Fiery Hell Secret Realm from our institute. That place is filled with opportunity, and this might help him break into the soul realm."

"This?" The others were startled by this proposal.

Although the Fiery Hell Secret Realm was indeed filled with opportunities, it was a perfect place to nurture talent. But this expedition wasn't like the past anymore, and those who were going inside might lose their lives.

"He's cunning enough to survive in that environment, and sending him to a special class will only waste his talent and time.

"We should allocate him to the expedition team directly that was going to form in the Imperial Domain in one month.

"If he broke into the soul realm within three years under that pressure, then there's no need to do anything, and we'll accept him in the core grade class," Ampersand said matter-of-factly.

Bodach fell into deep thought, while the two didn't remark, since it didn't matter to them in the least because they couldn't accept Archie because of his soul cultivator status.

Bodach finally smiled and nodded, "Alright, this method is really more suitable to temper this little wily brat. He's already at the platinum river soul core realm and if he enters the fiery hell secret realm, it'll also strengthen the demon race team."

Ampersand smiled in satisfaction and said, "Then it decided, whichever institute's house he joins, we'll give a seat to the fiery hell secret realm to him. As for how much he benefits from this opportunity, it depends on his will to live."

---

Ace was completely oblivious to the thoughts of the Royal Demon Institute's Housemasters, and even if he knew, he didn't have time to care about them at this moment, because something in his thief's space was showing movement!

His entire focus was on a palm-size, oval shape stone that was white and filled with small black dots, which looked like dark rune symbols now, and they were all shimmering in gray luster at this moment.

It was none other than the egg of Nether Paradise Bird, he got in the blade domain as Feng, because an alchemist misunderstood it for the Nether Flame Alloy.

At that time, the system had told Ace to store it in the thief's space and let it absorb his Heavenly Qi every three days, and it'll hatch within 1000 days.

Although he didn't clearly remember how much time had passed, he never forgot to feed it his heavenly Qi every three days. Because it was a beast above Grade-9, and if he could tame it and raise it, who could stand in his way in this world?

The most astonishing thing was, as Ace fed it his heavenly Qi, it would always absorb a little bit more than the previous time, and two days ago, it almost exhausted Ace's entire heavenly Qi reserves!

If it kept increasing like this, he might not have enough Qi to feed it, but to his surprise, after the last absorption process, the dark dots on this egg's surface suddenly changed into black runes and started glowing unexpectedly!

Ace knew it was time for it to hatch, so he stopped hunting others since he had already achieved the target to pass this test and kept observing the little egg with expectancy.

Yet, three days passed, but the egg showed no movement, and only those mysterious black runes were glowing deeper and deeper.

Ace even moved the egg to a spacious area of his thief's space so it won't affect Eva's cocoon. As for talking it out, he had no such plan in this place.

At this moment, the glowing egg suddenly started to tremble as if the creature inside was ready to come out!