After Ray's fight against Stelle, he left the room where the capsule he had used to enter the virtual world was. While walking back to the seats, his mind replayed every single instance of the fight.
Stelle had forced him to make a sneak attack, which was unprecedented. Not even against Gideon had he been forced to scheme a secret plan in case he was close to losing, and yet this girl who seemingly was his descendant had been able to do so.
It wasn't like he had let his guard down, after all, as soon as he confirmed her identity as the descendant of the Last Hero, he had made a decision in his heart to absolutely hold nothing back in the fight, except of course demonic power.
He was sure that if he had used demonic power to its greatest extent, he would win easily, but he would also be discovered. Maybe he wouldn't be associated with his real identity as Rex Draco but as a monster capable of shapeshifting.
'It seems that I will need to grow stronger.'
Perhaps because his pride had been slightly wounded, a new resolve to grow stronger surfaced in his mind. It was not intense, but it would anchor him to not be lazy around and fall into arrogance.
'A lot of the kids in this era are unbelievably weak, yet there are those that even leave me on edge.'
Cù Sith's soul-damaging attack, Mara's magical talent and mana pool, Jynn Caster's absolute insane mana and aura pools and mentality, and Arianne with her enormous divine power.
And Stelle's... something.
He couldn't really begin to explain what was going on with her. For some, they might think of her as someone capable of wielding a large amount of aura, but once they uncovered her ability to use natural energy to mask her lacking aura reserves, most people would mock her as fake and untalented.
But to be capable of performing the Washing ritual requires great hours of training. And at her age, these hours of training couldn't be of normal or slightly rough training. They would have to be both body and mind-breaking training hours.
Maybe she was not talented, but to be capable of pushing through at that intensity meant that she had a will stronger than most, and that showed once she went through the Washing during their fight.
Once again wielding all of her mana and aura, mixed in with divine power, her raw power surpassed even Jynn's and thanks to her arduous training, the way she controlled her body and the new energy coursing through her was at another level.
'I should start acclimating more with this body so I can use all of its physical energy to generate more aura.'
Ray already established what the first step was.
He was excited in a way he never felt before. He was not excited to pay back a minor inconvenience someone had caused with enormous amounts of violence. He was not excited about a great fight that would make him bleed and give his all.
He felt excited to grow stronger and compete with someone that was capable of reaching new heights, for sure.
If he had fought someone else, like Arianne or Jynn, would he still feel like this.
No, he wouldn't.
Because, while they might have forced him to go all out, they didn't give him the feel of colossal potential that Stelle gave him.
'If I am to compete with someone to see who grows stronger faster, shouldn't I naturally choose the one with the most potential?'
For a moment, he completely forgot the reason why he was in this era.
Teach the next hero? This seemed way more fun to do.
Meanwhile...
Stelle was also walking back from her capsule room. The first thing she had done after exiting the capsule was check if she could wield mana and divine power.
She couldn't.
She was not surprised, but still felt slightly disappointed. In the end, what she had performed in the match was something that only happened in a virtual world with a virtual body.
While it was true that her virtual body was a copy of her real one, and therefore it was possible that she could replicate what had happened, she didn't know how to, or rather, the exact method to do it.
"Since this is the virtual world, and you don't seem to be aware of what you just did, find me in the academy, and I will show you how to do it again."
That's what he had said.
He was right. She was completely unaware of what she had just done. She was capable of understanding that what happened had been caused by her attempt at absorbing natural energy as a desperate move.
"Find you in the academy, huh..."
She looked down at her ring, which had divined the result of her battle when she first saw Ray. It had divined certain death, had it failed to predict her transformation, or was it that he was hiding something more?
She didn't know for sure.
If he really was holding back, why was he hiding that power and resorting to tricks to win instead of using said power?
Stelle was not a big fan of hiding power. She understood that sometimes to protect one's interests, some things need to be hidden, like the fact that her "large aura pool" was in fact just a natural energy-inflated aura. But she never hid her capabilities.
Perhaps it was because she grew up with a need to prove to her family her value, or it was simply her personality that made her feel conflicted with such an action.
'Fine then, Ray. I will find you. You will teach me about what just happened, and I will uncover your strength.'
She finally reached the arena and looked around.
Her eyes locked with those from the person in her mind right now.
'And then...'
He smirked in a challenging manner, like he was provoking her to do exactly what she was planning to do.
'... I will defeat you completely.'
********************************
Astra's POV
Astra felt one of her familiars automatically canceling their summoning. That only happened when she ordered them to do so in case a specific condition was met.
In this case: "The Entrance Exams are over for Ray, there were no inconveniences."
She was glad it ended that way, although she was curious about his performance.
Because she was talking with Joan, she was not sharing her sight with her familiar's, so she was not able to see how he had done.
Before the entrance exams, they had spent some time together. He grew accustomed to his own body achieving strength beyond the average of this era.
Another thing that she was curious about was his opinion on this generation.
Naturally, she had done plenty of research on this year's talents, as well as some others from previous years.
The next leader of the Cù Barbarian Tribe, Cù Sith.
The prodigious daughter of the Matriarch of the Amazons, Tiana Bellator.
The youngest son of the Emrys family, Zillah Emrys.
The current Saintess, Arianne.
Astra's thoughts stopped for a moment, her mind looking back at the various Saintesses she had once met. Two of them had made a great impression on her. One of them was a childhood friend and the other a comrade that had helped her and Gideon in the fight against Ray.
The older members of this generation were also of great strength.
Melea Uclaria, the princess of the Uclaria Empire.
And Luke Kismet, known as the strongest student of the Uclaria Academy.
However, none of them had the same importance as HER.
Stelle Meyer.
She was a descendant of Gideon and therefore from a lineage of dozens of heroes. And she was destined to become the new one. In an era where Heros no longer exist and humanity has to defend itself with simple heros, she will become the new ray of starlight that will save us from impending doom.
Ray requested to not be informed of whom the New Hero would be, so he was unaware that Stelle was the one he should teach.
Not that Astra was worried that she would be ignored, just the fact that she was Gideon's descendant was enough for her to draw his attention.
According to him, he wanted to find her on his own, believing that he would understand her more if he approached by accident and not on purpose.
'Seriously, for a demonic dragon, you still...'
Sigh
She turned towards Joan and gave her an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry, Joan. I will have to leave for some matters, let's talk another time."
"Hm? Oh! I see, don't worry, you can come here any time, I will be prepared to receive you with something better to eat."
Joan looked at the trail of food on the table that was between them. It was some desserts that she had tried to bake in a hurry to eat with their tea. However, because she was in a hurry, she ended up committing some mistakes.
'Yes, tini-tiny mistakes, not a big deal.'
Astra meanwhile thought.
'Thank god, I thought she was still holding a grudge when she served me this.'
"I will gladly indulge myself at that moment, then. See you later, Joan."
As she said this, she took off, flying in the sky with magic.
It was time to meet up with Ray and see how the exams went.