Treasure-hunting: Into the Unknown

"Wait, a test? What do you mean? I don't want to take a test!" Queenie put her hands on her hips, her expression hard.

Zachary kept his cool. "No? Then I won't upgrade your weapons."

"You're such a liar," Queenie spat. "You told me before that you'd help us with this, but now you go back on your word and use some test as an excuse. I think you never want to upgrade our weapons at all. Well, if that's how it'll be, fine. I don't need you anyway."

Zachary crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Well...how about this? Suppose even if you don't take the test, I'll still upgrade your weapons. But if you take it and pass, I'll upgrade them to the Rare Level."

The two girls' eyes widened. "The Rare Level?" they echoed in unison. A King Level weapon of Common Level could be easily upgraded to the Rare Level. However, if the weapon in question had some element, the chances of success were very low.

"So make up your minds, then," Zachary went on, grinning subtly. "Do you want to take a test or not?"

The two girls looked at each other, and then nodded in one accord. "Yes!"

"Good girls," Zachary said, satisfied.

After that, he gave each of them a test paper to complete. The questions he set were not too difficult, nor were they out of the ordinary. The purpose was to show their weapon refining attainment. Once he had a good sense of that, he could enhance their training so that they could perform better in the King Level contest.

The two girls didn't let Zachary down. A few hours later, they had passed the test with hardly any effort. Judging from their results, their progress turned out to be quite amazing. Their prowess was approaching the Heaven Level.

"Excellent job!" Zachary said happily. "It seems that you haven't been slacking off in the past three months."

"Of course not," Queenie answered proudly.

Rubbing his chin, Zachary went on, "With your current level, though, you're still a bit too weak to compete with other weapon refiners in the King Level contest. You will have to reach the Heaven Level, at least."

"Th

l with that. If I don't actually launch an attack, no one will notice," said Zachary. His martial energy had changed a lot, so once he attacked, any observers could easily discern his real strength.

"True, you don't need to make a move in the weapon refining contest. But you will have to fight in the strength contest," Pollard pointed out, shaking his head.

"That won't be as difficult as you might think," Zachary answered with his trademark smile.

"Well, if you're so confident of success, of course I'll help you," Pollard said in a determined tone.

While they were still talking, a slender figure walked into the dormitory. She was surprised to see the two of them chatting happily with each other.

"Hi, Polly!" said Pollard, catching sight of her. "Come here. Let me introduce my good friend to you."

"Good friend?" Polly repeated dubiously. She looked at Zachary, who was still smiling fondly, and wondered where and when he'd gotten to know her brother. Was it in the Dark Prison, perhaps? That wasn't what surprised her the most, though.

Pollard had always thought highly of himself, and had been obsessed with martial arts even as a child. Although he was loyal to his friends, he didn't actually have many of them, nor was he very good at being a decent friend himself. Hearing him talk so fondly about Zachary, then, was more than a little perplexing.