Back at the circular hall where the Paragons were all currently gathered, Luminous turned towards Aric and spoke, "You've got a good seed, Aric."
Currently, many of the Paragons were watching the live footage display of Kael. Although they were all here because of their grand children, they were still keeping an eye on the other talents in the human domain.
Aric simply smiled and responded, "He still has a long way to go compared to Lady Seraphina's," Aric replied, directing all the praise to Zoey. Her live footage was also being displayed.
Seraphina simply maintained a serene smile in response, choosing not to say anything. If not because each of the people currently present were all monsters in their own way, they would have immediately worshipped her as a goddess because of her her beautiful smile.
Currently, every one of their grandchildren was leading the rankings, well, apart from a particular white haired man's.
Luminous's gaze suddenly shifted towards Magnus, who was simply gazing at the screen silently, his mouth curling up into a huge grin as he teased.
"Say Magnus, I didn't think your seed would be this weak. You might want to ask your son to check if it's his; something must be wrong somewhere!" Luminous finished his remark with hearty laughter, his laughter reverberating through the hall.
But unlike what one would have expected, Magnus didn't utter a word. He didn't even turn to look at him, completely ignoring his existence.
Luminous smirked. Magnus had always been a tough nut to crack. He had always been reserved.
No matter how hard he had tried in the past to get a reaction from Magnus, he had never once succeeded. Not even being able to get a change in expression from the man.
In fact, he hadn't even bothered to watch Atticus's live footage since the beginning of the test. He had no idea why his ranking was so low, and he didn't care. The only thing he cared about was the fact that Atticus, Magnus's grandson, wasn't even in the top 10 of the ranking.
Luminous had a feeling, he had a feeling that he might succeed in getting a reaction from Magnus today.
Just as he was about to continue,
"Shut up, light bulb; something good is about to happen," Zephyrion suddenly spoke up, interrupting Luminous.
Just as Luminous was about to flare up at Zephyrion because of the way he addressed him, he saw the rest of the Paragons gazing intently at the screens.
Luminous followed their gazes and focused on the screen currently displaying Atticus's live footage.
…
Atticus darted through the forest with speed, his whole senses focusing on any movement around him, trying to locate beasts.
If Atticus didn't know any better, he would have said that today, he was the unluckiest person in the world.
Atticus had been scouring and moving around the forest for a while now, but he had hardly seen any beasts to kill.
The few he had encountered had all met their demise swiftly without any struggle, but those beasts had been far too little to make any difference in the rankings.
'I might have to increase the intensity a little bit,' he thought as he kept searching for beasts.
Although Atticus wasn't completely sure, he suspected that they were all currently being watched.
Atticus was currently using conceal to appear as an advanced+ rank, and to keep up the act, he had to only display the corresponding rank output. If he displayed something higher than that, he would be giving away to others that he was stronger than he appeared.
But Atticus didn't really put much emphasis on this. If keeping a low profile meant that he was going to lose this test and not get the first rank, Atticus would forsake that mindset immediately.
'If I don't find any beast in the next 5 minutes, I'll ramp up the pace,' Atticus decided. But as if the world was making fun of him, Atticus suddenly heard the sound of something moving a few meters away from him.
Atticus immediately veered off course and swiftly dashed in that direction. After moving for a few seconds, he came across a clearing about 30 meters wide, with trees surrounding it.
And in the middle of this clearing were 8 evolved beasts, all emitting an aura of an Advanced rank beast.
'Finally,' Atticus thought happily, completely elated at his find.
He took a step forward but suddenly, Atticus's form froze.
'Something's wrong,' he thought, his mind racing.
Atticus couldn't put a finger on it, but something about what he was currently seeing felt… off.
It felt as if what he was seeing was a lie.
'Never rely on only one sense,'
During the past 5 years of his life, Magnus had drilled those exact words into his very being. In every action he took, it should only ever be taken with all his senses working in tandem with each other.
If Magnus were to ever find out that he hadn't heeded to his instructions and fell into any trap because of this, Atticus couldn't help but shiver at the consequences he would face.
Currently, using his vision, Atticus could see a large clearing without any trees and the forms of 8 different beasts sprawled across it.
Using his ears, Atticus could hear the sounds of rustling leaves, every movement of the beasts, even their heartbeats.
Using his nose, Atticus could smell the scents of the flora in the area and the disgusting scents of the 8 Advanced rank beasts in the clearing.
But using his last sense, touch, what Atticus was feeling wasn't the forms of the 8 beasts in the clearing.
What he could feel was the area blanketed in thick amounts of mana, and in front of him, 8 different large clusters of mana were close together.
'Illusion,'
Atticus's realization was as swift as his movement; his figure blurred as he swiftly sidestepped a dangerous sword slash that suddenly appeared behind him.