Absolute Beast Dominion

"Veronica, you?"

Among the three potion brewers, Veronica was also present. And from the way she walked at the forefront, she was actually ranked first.

"Good morning, my Lord." She greeted Leo with a bow.

"Veronica, you never said you were ranked first in the brewer's ranking?" Lily asked with her brow raised in pleasant surprise.

"My Lady, it's because of you and the Lord's help that I was able to recently climb up the rankings. I never got the opportunity to share the good news."

Tavian came forward after hearing the conversation.

"You both know her?"

"Yes, we do. She is a member of my territory." Leo said with a satisfied nod. It seemed he had indeed found a good talent.

"Come on, man, leave some good talents for us too..." Uraan muttered in frustration.

"First come, first served." Leo chuckled before immediately passing Veronica and stopping the other two for checking.

"What are your specialities?"

Both of them were men, and their faces themselves screamed the word—tired. Similar to how Veronica was found most of the time, they appeared to be in the same condition.

Though, they were actually worse. Veronica at least handled her looks well because she was a girl, but these men seemed to have just combed their wiry hair and come here.

Apparently, both of the men were destructive potion brewers.

"Sir, I specialize in brewing potions that eat the body from within, and, contrarily, antidotes for the same so that they don't affect our allies. My talent also allows me to quickly figure out the most optimal solution to any body-related ailment, so I can guarantee that if any opponent team uses biological warfare, I can nullify its effects if given time."

"My potions can effectively work up to Low 3-star individuals, but lethal doses can work on Peak 3-star individuals even."

Leo nodded and turned towards the other.

"Sir, I specialize in brewing explosives, Molotovs with varied flame effects, and corrosion poison that can even eat through iron. Though the less damaging ones are guaranteed to work on Pseudo 3-star individuals, concentrated attacks can even obliterate Peak 3-star individuals and beasts."

Hearing them, Aaron spoke up.

"Shouldn't we focus on enhancing our bodies? I mean, these two are indeed a great combination, but just a single person in charge of brewing enhancement and healing potions seems kind of dangerous."

Leo thought about it for a while and shrugged.

"Veronica's efficiency is more than enough for enhancement potions, but I think we will be more in need of destructive ones due to their most frequent usage. So it's better to keep them as they are. It will allow us to be more versatile in a fight and act as surprise elements"

He then turned towards them.

"All three of you are selected. Stand on the sidelines."

With that, the next group of people were called in. They consisted of scouts and intellectuals.

For this, Tavian conducted the questioning to select the most appropriate and knowledgeable person.

Soon enough, everybody was selected.

A total of 25 people.

- Top 10 students.

- Sylrael.

- Thalvyr.

- Aeila.

- Rhaegar.

- Plato.

- Miho.

- Cecil Milton.

- Yano Gilbert.

- Veronica and 2 other brewers.

- 3 scouts.

- 1 intellectual in charge of strategy, vast knowledge, and overall guessing of the opponent's next move.

After that was complete, Brant called them all in for a briefing on all the notable students of other academies.

Just like others had gathered information about Leo and the others, Aurelius Beast Academy had also gathered similar information.

But Brant only gave information about Valencrest and Velerath Grand Academy.

"No academies other than them are a threat to you," Brant simply said.

People thought it was the end, but to everybody's surprise, Brant brought up more screens.

"Elves?" Marco said when he saw the figures on the screen.

"Yes, elves. It's time you knew the reason the competition was delayed," Brant said.

"This year, we have new races joining the competition. And those are Elves and Dragons."

The moment everybody heard Brant, the lecture hall went silent. Nobody knew about it.

After a while, Tavian raised his hand.

"Professor, does that mean the Emperor is planning to lift the decree of enslavement of other races in the Human Empire?"

Brant shook his head.

"That's one of the points. And this competition is the first step towards the same. Nothing better than having our younger generation have positive opinions of them—thus the joint session. The hatred between elves and humans is deep-rooted in the minds of the general public of both races, but the higher-ups have come to realise that if two major forces—the Human Empire and the Elven Empire—keep being at odds, then the third force—Demons—will swallow us both."

He continued.

"And that is worse than trying to be friendly with a party whose only ideology differs from ours. Remember, the demons are a common and extremely dangerous enemy. If we need to overcome them, then we will need to adjust accordingly. And the first step is to mend our relationship."

"But I don't think that will be easy..." Uraan muttered and glanced towards Sylrael. Not her, but her collar.

Brant understood what he was thinking and spoke.

"Well, it's not like they won't be bringing human slaves to fight with you. So, don't worry about that. It's just a first step. It might take a few more centuries to quell the resentment we have for each other completely. Though..."

Brant paused.

"Well, you'll understand things as you grow."

With that, Brant proceeded to show the gathered information on the top students from the top 3 academies of the Elven Empire.

"And... we don't have any information about the Dragons," Brant informed them.

"Unfortunately, any infiltration attempt by us can be smelled by their sharp noses." Then he turned towards Leo.

"But I think Leo, Aaron, and Ronan might have some intel on 3 individuals."

Everybody's attention shifted to them.

"Yes—I know! Sir Leo might have fought them! Those Dragons had quite the funny faces when they came out of the secret realm, and they couldn't stop cursing at Sir Leo!" Yano excitedly said.

"Yeah... didn't you actually defeat them in a fight after they handled the Ember family's young masters?" Ronan said, recalling the story Leo had narrated.

"Oh well... I guess one had a name similar to this Vulcan from Valencrest Royal Academy, and the other two called each other Pyro and Igni. I never got to know their full names." Leo shrugged.

Though the system had relayed their full names, the dragons had never spoken them out loud in front of Leo. So he just couldn't tell them without raising Brant's suspicion.

"Wait, you actually fought the dragons?!" Uraan was shocked.

"And you won!"

"I mean, yes? Wasn't it natural considering I was stronger?" Leo muttered.

"What do you mean by that? They have so many positive traits that even a same-ranked dragon will turn out to be thrice as strong as you! Do you even understand what that means? You need to be overwhelmingly strong!" Uraan pointed out.

Aaron and Ronan also fell into thought after something clicked in their minds upon hearing Uraan.

"We were never actually able to sense their strength... since I personally sit at Mid 3-star... they should be at the very least—Pseudo 4-star!" Aaron's eyes widened as he looked towards Leo as if he were looking at an alien.

"Oi... tell the truth... What is your true strength?"

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