With slow and steady steps, Alex moved towards the monolith that was now free from the floating spectres.
The runes on the monolith glowed in a golden ethereal light as he felt beckoned by it.
"All I have to do is touch it."
He stood right before the monolith, staring right at the inscriptions with a profound gaze. Then his right hand moved slowly to touch the runes and as it got closer, the runes brightened even more.
The moment Alex touched the monolith, his eyes took on the same brightening glow as he fell into a trance-like state.
Suddenly, the runes on the monolith moved around in a spiral, moving towards the point where Alex touched the monolith and continued until every bit of rune on the monolith disappeared into him.
"Amazing…"
He muttered in utter disbelieve as the insights the runes brought him opened his mind to a lot of things he didn't know about his light abilities, despite doing so much research on them.
...…
Ross had managed to close a lot of distance through the lightning storm along with battling the specters. And while he had his own challenges, his larger mana pool afforded him the capacity to do more damage to the spectres, buying him more room to manoeuvre.
But things took a bad turn when he finally reached the second resting area where the monolith was located.
Due to the fact that the spectres could reform if they weren't destroyed completely, the number of spectres that followed him to the resting area in addition to the ones that remained floating around the monolith all moved to attack Ross.
'Fucking hell! They are becoming too much!'
He gritted his teeth in frustration at the never-ending wave of spectres that were relentless in their assault, giving him no breathing room.
As he gradually pushed forward towards the monolith, he waved his great sword in wide arcs that claimed multiple spectres at once, even then, they were too many.
'Guess I'll have to make a big move and then make a run for it.'
He had no other way besides using a large amount of mana to burn the spectres away. He had no desire to taste what the spectres could do and wanted to keep it that way.
With a determined gaze and a defiant roar, he channelled his mana as the great sword blazed with intense flames that lit up the entire space. The temperature rose many degrees as it dissipated the fog on the ground.
He placed his left foot forward as he swept the sword in a wide arc that conjured a spiralling wall of intense flames that rose several meters high.
The spiralling flame wall grew as it spread away from him in a wave, swallowing and dissipating every spectre that was caught in it.
The move took a lot of stamina out of him as he knelt on one leg with heavy breaths. He could finally catch a break after sweeping all his targets into oblivion.
"Ha… Ha…I did it."
He muttered to himself with a small smile, recalling the vow he made to grow as powerful as possible.
'Still ways to go…'
He looked towards the monolith a short distance away from him with a firm and unyielding gaze. Slowly, he approached the monolith and watched it glow in bright fiery runes the closer he got.
'All I have to do is touch it and I'd be out of here. But these runes aren't just for decorations.'
He could sense a profound aura coming from the monolith as he slowly moved his right hand to touch it.
And the moment he did, the runes shined brightly as they spiralled around the monolith and entered through his hand. His eyes glowed a fiery red at that moment as he was shown powerful flame techniques.
"I see…."
He flashed a small grin in excitement.
....
"These first years are very fortunate."
An instructor muttered feeling cheated out of having the opportunities the kids were granted.
"Right? To think the academy would go out of its way to award the students with such powerful techniques."
"Yeah, and I bet we all know the reason why."
There was no need for words as they all turned to look at Alex's figure being taught a powerful light-based technique that was otherwise not known to the public.
Once again, they witnessed Alex magically burst with so much manner in an instance, something that did not make sense to them, but they could only keep their mouths shut; kind courtesy of a certain someone.
"Being bitter about it isn't going to change anything. Remember, we've been instructed not to attempt having any of the lucky ones to pass the techniques to us."
Instructor Horvey shook his head as he reminded his colleagues of their status.
"Tch! You don't have to remind us, you know? Let me drown in my sorrows."
They could only complain about the unfairness of it all. All these preferential treatments the first years were getting were unheard of. The board never really cared how the students grew to become hunters, just that they became strong beings to join the fight against the void creatures.
Yet ever since Alex appeared after surviving the cosmic mana wave, so many people kept an eye on him, pushing him to reveal more of his abilities.
"It doesn't matter. With less than 300 of the 2000 students who began this trial remaining, the event would be coming to close soon."
A young-looking female instructor gave her input after remaining quiet for so long. She agreed with instructor Horvey's take on the matter as there was no point in feeling bitter.
What was important was that they could now clearly see which students were the elite of the elite and while not all the students partook, it was still enough.
After a few murmurs, silence returned to the instructor's lounge as they continued to watch the students claim their rewards.
'Claiming the sigil is going to be the most challenging aspect of the event. So far as I can tell, only Alex stands a chance. However, with his mana depleted and that form dying out so quickly, it might become a problem for him the farther he goes.'
Instructor Horvey noted with deep brows.