Unlike Blake who was not bothered by the ranking, Castiel and Brian were in tougher positions.
Castiel was the 23rd in ranking and seeing that the top twenty were like unmovable obstacles, he was constantly being challenged. If not their was a limit to the number of times he could be challenged (AN: see the briefing chapter or the one before for more info.), he would have been swarmed with challenges.
Castiel had awakened the darkness element as his second element, but kept it a secret, he used his fire element and a well concealed attacks from the darkness element to defeat his opponents. Although he was strong enough to be in the top 20 if not top 10, he decided not to because he wanted to get experience from handling those below.
As for Brian his situation wasn't that great. Due to the fact he won his opponent by outsmarting him and not with much of his power, he was placed in the 40th position.
During these 4 days he had risen to the 31st position with the help of the offensive abilities that came with the water element. The water element was very versatile because it could be used to heal, defend and also attack unlike the polar opposite, fire, that was mostly used for attacking.
But like everything in the world that had a disadvantage, so did the water element. The water element was a jack of all trades and a master of none, when it came to the healing aspect the light element was better than it, the earth element was better when it came to defense and fire and other offensive elements were better in attacking.
At first it was not much of a problem for Brain when he faced opponents that made the rookie mistake of focusing on their attacks and neglecting their defense, because of his superb defense was strong enough for him to withstand their attacks, before he defeated them with water spells.
But when he went up against the previous rank 31 who awakened the same elements as him, it was a drawn out fight that he one only because he had more endurance and casted his spells in an efficient way that help him reduce the mana cost. All he could do now was pray he would unlock more offensive spells when he advanced in realm.
…
The previous day…
The fusion process had come to an end and luckily for him it was a few hours after his class.
When the mana explosion occurred his mana pathways were freer and everything was like the system had said. After casting some of his spells, he had noticed the casting time had reduced and the spells were more powerful compared to the first fusion process.
Although he had handled the pain much better than the last time and didn't faint, his body was too weak to do anything causing him to fall asleep without even knowing.
Back to the present…
Today and the next were his class free days and just like he had planned, he was going hunting for beast cores.
After packing three days worth of food in his dimensional space and all that he needed, Blake headed for the administration building to request for permission to leave the school.
"Where are you heading to?" The clerk asked as he scribbled down things.
"Mina forest." Blake replied.
(AN: not sure if I mentioned it in earlier chapters, but this is the forest surrounding Calton city.)
"…" The scribbling stopped and the clerk looked at him with a surprised expression.
"You are aware that the school wouldn't be able to save you once you are outside its walls?" The clerk asked with a worried expression because over the years he had heard stories about kids leaving the school and never returning.
Even when corpses of students with missing limbs were found in the forest by adventurers and most of them were first years.
"Yes." Blake answered with conviction.
"Why don't you go with a team." If it was first year, he would have just given a simple warning, but after seeing it was Blake he wanted to stop the kid from throwing his life away because he had bright future ahead.
"No, thank you." Although he could see the clerk cared, the questions were getting annoying.
"Alright, if you say so, sign here." Seeing that Blake wouldn't budge, he could only sigh. 'Too bad his future is bright.'
After filling all the necessary paperwork a warp gate was opened and his was teleported to the school gate.
"Now to get to the adventurers association and get registered." Blake said as he went to board carriage.
'I wonder how much these gold coins are worth… Any ideas?' Blake thought as he looked at the pouch of gold coins given to him by prince Bryon when they were brought to the school.
[In my time ether was our currency used, but I don't know the value of gold in this age.] The system explained.
"Let's find out then." He said as he boarded a carriage.
"Where to young master." The carriage driver mistook Blake for a noble because of his well tuned muscles and handsome look.
"To the adventurers association building."
30 minutes after he boarded the carriage, the sight of a 5 story building with a shield and sword crest on it, came into his sight.
When he got down from the carriage he took out a gold coin from the pouch and handed it over to the driver while watching the look on his face.
"Young… Young master the fare is only 20 copper coins, I don't have this amount of change on me." The carriage driver stuttered a bit when he saw the gold coin.
"There's no problem you can keep the change." Blake didn't know the value of the gold coin nor the amount of change they were looking at and in order not to sound suspicious by asking, he decided to let the man keep the money.
"Please young master please I cannot take this…" The carriage driver rejected.
The gold coin was enough to get him a better carriage and the balance would still be more than a month's work.
(AN: we all know this can't happen in this age, but lets just play along XD.)
"Since you will still return, I will wait for you then I can take you to where the money can be changed." The carriage driver proposed.
"Alright." Marveled by the carriage drivers modesty, Blake agreed before making his way into the building.
"How may I be of help." The young blonde receptionist said while checking out Blake's muscles.
"I would like to register with the association." Blake replied.
Not being the first time someone young was applying, she took him to another room and handed him a form.
"Please fill this form." The receptionist said.
'Isn't this too much paperwork for a magical world?' Blake complained as he quickly filled it.
He handed over the form with a gold coin as the registration fee.
"Congratulations Mister Zero on being a member of the association." She found the adventure name 'Zero' to be kind of awkward, but she acted professionally and handed him an adventurers crest with the name Zero on it.
"You can sell your spoils, materials and items through us for a little fee. Also you can exchange your contribution points for items in the shop." She took him on a tour, and showed him the different places in the building including a shop.
"You will now be able to take up jobs commissioned to us, but the grade of the job that can be taken will be determined by you rank." She said while pointing at a large bulletin board.
When he was done he went back to the carriage driver who took him to where he go his money changed.
Blake found out that 100 copper coins were equal to 1 silver and 100 sliver coins were equal to one gold coin. (AN: wouldn't want you doing math, so I decided to make it simple.)
'Call me big brother tycoon!' Blake was shocked when he saw the exchange rate because he was given a hundred gold coins by prince Bryon.
[From my knowledge it might not amount to much because magical items are more costly than normal items.] The system burst his bubble.
'Party popper' Blake harrumphed.
He decided to exchange only half of the gold coins because it would cumbersome carrying a large amount of coins.
He got back to the carriage driver and told him to take him to the border of the city.
When they arrived at the city gate he gave him the gold coin and although he refused, Blake instead he took it.
"Thank you younger master for your generosity." The carriage driver said while crying, he had never gotten his hands on such an amount of money in his life.
After leaving the carriage driver who was still shedding tears of joy, Blake showed the city guards his adventurers crest, he left the city and after 30 minutes walk he arrived at the natural border formed by trees.
"Let the hunting begin." Blake said as he walked into the forest.