Nolan cupped his hands and bowed toward the man in the same manner that he’d seen many others do throughout his time on Venara. “Thanks for the offer, really, but I can’t take you up on it. I would just be wasting your money. Besides, I’m already in a sect.”

Looking at the clothes that Nolan and his friends wore, the man raised an eyebrow. “And what sect is that?”

“The Earth Sect.”

“I’ve never heard of a sect by that name.”

“It’s new.”

The elderly man glanced at Ian and then shook off a thoughtful frown. A light breeze ruffled his thin hair as he placed a hand on Nolan’s shoulder. While he didn’t squeeze or apply any pressure, it felt like a bowling ball was resting there. All warmth left his face as he stared down at Nolan with frightful force.

“I’ll be upfront. You’ve mocked my disciple—don’t try to talk your way out of it, I saw you laughing when he failed to lift the rock. Even the imperial family of the Thebes Empire showed us every courtesy when we stopped by to see the capital, so why would I tolerate the mockery of a couple of kids from some nameless sect that probably doesn’t even exist?” A spatial bag appeared in his free hand.

“Elder Hogan, watching you bully these kids—”

“Only your husband may speak freely with me.” Charcoal robes twitched in the breeze as the man snapped at the woman that Nolan had spoken to earlier and then completely ignored her.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?”

“Haldi, be quiet.”

“When I tell my father what you said, they’ll have to wheel you out of the valley in a vegetable cart! Ow! But Mom, he—ow! Why…okay. I’ll stop, I’ll stop!”

A calm stream of energy from the Millennial Ring began to swirl within Nolan’s chest as he watched the woman twist her son’s ear. “I guess I’ve got no choice then.” He met the man’s gaze and responded with a helpless smile.

“Count yourself lucky,” said the man as he proffered the bag. “If violence wasn’t prohibited during the festival then I’d have already forgotten about killing you by now. That’s just the kind of man I am.”

While there was no way for him to contend with the elder in terms of strength Nolan had every confidence that he could match the old man’s speed if he activated the Tranquil Void Step, and he had also heard that even members of this kingdom’s upper echelons would receive punishment for causing trouble during the festival, let alone an invited guest. With these things in mind, he gave his neck an irritated roll, bones popping comfortably, and then slapped the man’s hand away. “Alright, if you’re gonna be petty like that then I guess I’m fucked either way, right? Then is there any point in being polite?”

He snatched the bag with enough force to show that he no longer cared for the man’s opinion and then jumped off of the rooftop. He spotted a loose chain of vacant spots within the crowd and jumped from one to the next before he appeared at the base of the platform, at which point he tossed the spatial bag upward and addressed the interested eyes of the competition’s host.

“Excuse me, sir. Apparently I’d like to give this a shot.”

The man nodded and indicated toward the fractured earth that surrounded the area around the platform.

“Is this a joke? That kid is only at the sixth level of Profound Entry.”

“You didn’t see? I think he was forced to do it by that guy in the black robes.”

“That old master? Why would he concern himself with some random kid?”

“I don’t know, why do people do anything that they do?”

Nolan ignored the tides of speculation that seemed to shake the air as he considered the large mass of ore before him. He found it funny how the onlookers had no problem making a ton of racket while he was up to bat, when they had maintained respectful silences for all of the other contestants.

With hardly any pause, Nolan summoned six small discs of spiritual energy and directed them to exactly where the previous challenger had laid them. He’d initially thought of taking the time to devise a simple construction arrayment in order to create a basic lever system that was large enough to lift the rock and also dense and resilient enough to support it, but that wasn’t his style. The guy that preceded him had orchestrated this frustrating situation, so he might as well mock him a bit more.

Creating small pillars out of spiritual energy required the simplest of arrayment diagrams, to the extent that Nolan was successful with his first attempt at activation and brought six small pillars into existence with hardly any effort. With a mind like his he was immediately able to see that the guy that came before him had incorrectly calculated the angles necessary for the pillars to lift the rock in the most efficient manner, but he didn’t bother with correcting the simpleton’s moronic math. At this point in his practices he was confident that he could raise the rock without relying on inner essence or physical strength.

Silence dominated the plaza as the large mass of ore wobbled ever so slightly and then slowly began to inch its way upwards. As the rock crept higher and higher the sight created more and more dumbfounded expressions.

“He’s also an arrayment practitioner, and he's better than that last guy! Who would have thought?”

“He’s way younger than that sect disciple but he can still create an arrayment so easily? This is…this is a genius for sure!”

“Calm down, I’ll admit that I’m impressed but come on. There’s no way that he…no way that he can…”

People began to quiet down as the tiny pillars continued to swell, from small fingers of golden light to resplendent rods the length of hands, to full-on arms of formulated energy. He’d already lifted the rock well past his ankles, though he was still a dozen centimetres from reaching his waist.

With hearing as enhanced as his it was a walk in the park to make out the words of the people that he’d left behind.

“How is this possible?” breathed the old master that had forced the situation. “How is this…?”

“Your friend is amazing!”

“Get off me. Your name was Haldi, right?”

“Yeah, and you’re Esteban, right? What’s the Earth Sect? Are you a member too?”

As the boy’s mother watched him with raised brows, a small smile crept onto her lips. She glanced at the stupefied, unreasonable old man and the smile widened.

Nolan didn’t bother listening in much longer. He was too preoccupied with something that he had noticed about the rock, particularly a tiny mass of pale black energy that quietly rested at its centre. A core? No, it’s artificial. This… Oh, you sneaky old fox. I see what you’re up to!

Since Nolan’s capabilities with spiritual energy were still quite a ways away from breaking even with his physical prowess, he was well aware that he wouldn’t be able to raise the rock any higher than his waist. The higher he lifted it the more resistance he was met with, though a close examination of the black halmite betrayed that this wasn’t solely due to the effects of gravity. A very well-hidden arrayment resided at the centre of the rock, though the way that the weight of the halmite seemed to increase as it rose higher and higher revealed the function of the arrayment.

Huh, that guy was right. It was so small and obscure that nobody, not even the previous challenger’s master, had noticed it. He almost felt bad for laughing along with Ian when the young man had accused the host of cheating, but when he considered the inconvenience of his current situation a satisfactory smile found its way onto his face. As long as that arrayment’s on there then I’ve only got a snowball’s chance in hell of raising this over to my head. Guess I should just get rid of it.

The arrayment practitioners present couldn’t compare to Nolan in most regards, even if he wasn’t the strongest person here. While Uncle Grey was quite eccentric, he had once been among the most important people in all of Venara strictly due to his status as the strongest Arrayment Master in existence at the time. The era that he’d lived in was one where the vast majority of people were arrayment practitioners, where the art was far more advanced than in modern day Venara. With a teacher like this and a good head on his shoulders, Nolan had a steep advantage over other students of the craft. He’d also spent thousands of hours basking within the waters of the Divine Spirit Fountain that contained enough energy that contact with the water could visually heal wounds in real time, not to mention that the general atmosphere of the glade that he’d lived in for well over two years held nearly five times the amount of spiritual energy as most places in Venara.

He arranged a dense current of spiritual energy and quickly injected it directly into the halmite. It rushed to the centre and engulfed the weight-increasing arrayment before small needles of energy began to attack the entry point, the crucial part of the diagram responsible for activating the arrayment. It only took a handful of seconds for his energy to erode the old man’s, which was a tiny amount considering the effects that it produced. The moment that the arrayment fell apart he fueled his own with an abundance of energy that quickly improved its effects.

Nolan stood calmly before thousands of disbelieving eyes as the large hunk of black halmite gradually rose about nine feet into the air. At this point he stopped supporting the arrayment and sealed off its entry point. Unless he tampered with it again, the pillars would dissipate in about a week. Before anyone could speak a word, he tossed a spatial bag beneath the upraised rock and then attacked its entry point to break it down in the same way as the previous one, at which point the large rock plummeted to the earth and disappeared into the confines of the bag without a sound.

Elsewhere in the crowd the eldest disciple from the Nightshadow Sect stared quietly at his boots with a venomous expression on his pale face. That Nolan had beat the challenge by relying the exact same arrayment that the older boy had devised was just salt in his wounded pride, not to mention that he’d copied it without expending any visible effort.

“That was a tough one.” He turned to the competition’s host. “Thanks for giving me the opportunity.”

The elderly man didn’t seem angry that he’d just lost a priceless treasure to somebody that no one present would ever have imagined capable of acquiring it. Rather, the light chuckles that left his withered mouth gave the impression of interest and entertainment. His eyes tracked the sour-faced elder of the Nightshadow Sect, who had just leapt down from the rooftops without a word and gone off to rejoin his disciples.

“Well done, lad. I didn’t think anybody would… Ahem, congratulations for your accomplishment. It was no easy feat.”

Reading the look in those wizened eyes, Nolan put on a friendly smile. “Thank you.”

The elder floated upwards from his simple seat, his smooth robe billowing in the breeze light silky sunshine. “Well friends, there you have it. This young man has succeeded in raising the halmite over his head, and then some.” The old man shot him an amiable glance. “Would you mind sharing your name?”

“It’s Nolan. Make sure to say that I’m from the Earth Sect. Uh, please.”

“Let it be known that this festival’s challenge was won by young Nolan here, a member of the Earth Sect!”