Chương 41: Chapter 45: Evaluation

Under the shadowy veil of her cape, Rhea Oberon observed the kids wrangling in the camp. It was merely a tier 5 artifact, its primary function was speed, though it was capable of shrouding her presence. It wasn't highly useful against monsters, but against the senses of those unclassed youths, the cloak would have no problem hiding not only her but their whole group of proctors. Since the expedition began, they had been using it to observe the groups without their knowledge.

After all, beyond her task of protecting them, Rhea would have to present a clear evaluation of everyone on the expedition to her house. Most others would have left the task to one of the helpers, perhaps only taking note of a few of the individuals, but she took her job too seriously. Rhea had been keeping meticulous notes on all that unfurled among the groups, denoting all their merits and shortcomings, their character, their values and vices.

It was her assessment which would decide how the clan would allocate resources, educate, and groom the children for potential positions. So far, she couldn't say she was impressed. After all, she was a high-silver-class ascendant. Anything these youths could come up with was nothing but children's tricks in her eyes. Though she had to admit there had been a couple that surprised her a little. The first one came from her house, one of Evelyn's apprentices.

Elin was the only one in her generation to be born with higher wind attunement. Her reputation within the clan was only shy of her mentor when Evelyn was her age. Though Rhea was certain that the gulf between the mentor and the apprentice was far greater than anyone seemed to believe. Nobody but the Patriarch and perhaps a few high-ranking seniors of the clan were aware of how far Evelyn had gone before her class ascension.

The house had publicised that she was merely tier 7 during her trials, but Rhea knew more than that. Although Rhea was a couple of years senior to Evelyn, they had sparred and even gone through expeditions like these together. And in all that time, Rhea could not help but have a premonition that Evelyn wasn't showing her full hand. Regrettably, all of that was of little concern now that they couldn't find a single clue about Evelyn's whereabouts. In her absence, Elin seemed to have grown in both skill and maturity.

At thirteen, she was already tier 7 in her race while consolidating her tier 4 mana foundation. There was little chance of her advancing in either before her trial, though what Rhea was more glad to see was how well the girl had carried herself and her group. Yes, she had gone on expeditions like this before. Rhea had even watched over her a few times. But in none of those instances had she been so taciturn and steady in leading her group. The others were mostly disappointing.

None of them seriously lacked intelligence, but they hadn't yet grown beyond their childish vanity or arrogance. Well, Rhea had seen some never lose that uppity hauteur throughout their lives. It was usually those who lacked skill. Compared to their lacklustre conduct, Elin had shown shrewdness befitting an heir. The girl was clever, there was no doubt about it, but she had never known how to use her spontaneity and charisma to her benefit.

Every elite of their clan went through lessons on leadership from a young age, but very few seemed able to apply those lessons in practical situations. Rhea was glad to see Elin putting some effort into it. Elin fought hard during all the battles, leading from the front while leaving leeway when they were back in camp.

Not only did she advise her group on various topics and on how they should carry themselves during expeditions, she even helped them bring out more of their capabilities in hunts, uplifting their abilities and helping them advance their hunter titles, ultimately earning their loyalty. If she were to keep at it, Elin would go far. Unlike her cousin Benny, who seemed to have become too good at patronising and lording over his lessers. The other person to surprise her was the kid who was now sparring with Benny.

It didn't take trained eyes to see the boy was clearly letting Benny win. And that stupid boy of her clan wasn't even noticing it. Tier 5 at the age of ten was considered the bare minimum to be regarded as gifted in their house. However, Ember Blackstone seemed to have a promising grasp of mana as well. In the first couple of days, he had performed well within his station, if only a little more reticent.

Then, last night, the boy seemed to have completely overturned her early assessment when he sneaked out from the camp on his own. As for the reason that compelled him to go alone, Rhea didn't have to think too hard. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. She might not be the oldest among the silver rankers, but Rhea was all too familiar with eagerness and greed. It wasn't completely negative, either. She didn't know any high-ranking ascendants lacking selfish desires.

Without high aspirations or ambition, one would simply laze around, daydreaming of days of glory. The more startling part was the boy's dichotomy in nature. He was both cautious to the point of being timid and daring enough to be reckless. Either was pretty common, especially in someone as young as him, but after the first couple of days of quietness, the boy seemed to have flipped his personality completely. Outside of becoming more independent, he had been egging the Huan siblings into a fight.

He certainly possessed some cunning, but sadly, he was filled with the same childish arrogance as Benny. Rhea had seen too many of the type. They were either too lax with themselves or too eager to make a name for themselves. Otherwise, Rhea believed he would make a good bodyguard for either Benny or Elin once they arrived at Sunrise Academy. Well, at least he wasn't lazing around. Thinking of that, she eyed the man from House Blackstone.

"Glint, what is your view on the kid from your house?" The man did a double-take, surprised at her question. He eyed where Benny and Ember were sparring.

"He's certainly talented," Glint said, "but his temper is... a little fiery." Rhea snorted a laugh.

"He was more uncommunicative and quiet before. After his father went missing, the boy grew more prone to anger, always getting into squabbles with older boys of our clan." Rhea shook her head. The man was clearly not seeing it. The boy clearly had better control of his emotions than Glint gave him credit for. Ember was very deliberate in his actions. Perhaps the instances where he lost his composure were even calculated through certain skills.

It wasn't unheard of for kids to gain skills like Deception at a young age.

"You disagree?" Glint asked. Rhea merely eyed the camp.

"The expedition seems to be going too comfortably." Comfortable enough that a ten-year-old was sneaking around at night without fear.

"Let's make it more exciting for the kids."

Ember took it easy throughout the day while his mana and stamina recovered. Of course, he wasn't completely idle either. Since he couldn't work on his more prominent skills, he tried to supplement the lesser but useful ones. He didn't even have a rudimentary grasp of tracking before coming on this expedition. Ember had to make a conscious effort to remain mindful of that, as with stalking prey. Hunting wasn't a clear-cut skill like swordsmanship or Blitz Steps.

There were a few steps to it, be it tracking monsters, using stealth to ambush them, or fighting them head-on. Even how one carried oneself in the wilderness all seemed related to hunting. While Ember could already dispatch creatures around level 30 with ease, he clearly hadn't mastered the many basic aspects of the art. That's why, despite managing to slay over thirty tier 4 creatures in the last few days, his hunting skill seemed to have stalled at the seventh step.

Of course, it was no joke that he had managed to gain two levels within a week despite it being only a copper skill. Ultimately, Ember wasn't that worried about it. He would probably need to target some difficult creatures, beasts that would challenge him in one form or another, to master the skill quickly. That humongous mirewood toad that had almost devoured him might prove to be a good target. Unfortunately, all of his spells were deflected by its tough defence.

Ember wasn't impatient to target it now that he had a good idea of its dwelling. For now, his more immediate goal was to advance his three copper skills—Keen Mind, Meditative Muse, and Breathing Art—to the maximum threshold. He couldn't be certain, but there was a fair chance of merging them into an iron skill.

According to the information he had gotten from the clan archives, the path to merging the three mind-related skills involved the copper variant of a meditation skill, a focus skill, and one related to memorisation. Obviously, Ember had chosen the more uncommon path for both focus and meditation, but that didn't mean there was no chance that his path would lead to a dead end. After all, Meditation and Breathing Art had some common aspects, while one focused on the mind, the other centred around the body.

He was hopeful that getting all three skills to the maximum threshold might awaken some uncommon variants. Ember didn't regret taking Split Focus or any other skills. Even Common Language Acquisition would perhaps be helpful once he delved into other regions and needed to learn a foreign tongue. He could even advance it when he had more skill slots to spare. A copper or iron variant would certainly be more helpful in acquiring additional languages. The second objective was to have a backup reserve of mental mana.

Ember had separated two apertures, one located at his temple and the other at the back of his head, solely for mind-attuned mana. Unfortunately, in the past year and a half, he had never managed to fill them completely. It was simply due to his expenditure of mental energy being too high for his attunement. And that became even more true in the wilderness.

After the first week passed, they decided to move their camp further into the wetlands to gain better access to the hunting grounds and the dwellings of those monsters. In that time, they still found no sign of those goblins, but Ember was fine with that, as his bounty from those frogs had been rising day by day. Even after the misadventure on the very first day, Ember still kept sneaking out during the night on his own. He didn't hesitate when they changed the camp's location either.

Unfortunately, it seemed he hadn't been too cautious with his approach, as somebody had already caught on to his schemes.