She just said 'Disappear from my sight' and the golem evaporated in thin air.
...
Hearing about the strength of an SS-ranker is a usual thing for them, but seeing it with their own eyes is a completely different experience.
Every hurdle and trouble seems so insignificant against the overpowering strength of an SS-ranker that it's quite marvelous to look at.
Moreover, the amazing fact is, Raji is still just at the beginning levels of the SS rank, currently, she is at the 'SS-' rank to be precise. (Ashtel is at 'SS+' and Neo is at 'SS'… both of them are talented but not as much as Raji…)
She just entered the SS rank only four years ago, to begin with.
Raji is 27 years old now, she became an SS-ranker at the age of 23… don't underestimate her talent just because of Link and Rio, she worked hard to reach her current strength because she wanted to beat the sh*t out of Neo for deceiving her.
Raji awakened at the age of 15 got admitted to the academy at the age of 16 and became an SS ranker by 23, which means she only took 8 years to reach SS rank.
This speed may seem quite fast, but no it isn't.
King Allen is recorded to have reached the SS rank in just 5 years and by the end of the 'thousand-year demon extinction war, he was already a peak SS ranker.
If you have the talent you may reach your max potential rank quite fast, but the real difficulty starts from the moment you reach your max potential rank.
Your growth rate after reaching the max potential rank becomes so slow that you sometimes doubt yourself 'Am I even making any progress?'.
It took King Allen to reach the rank 'SS' only five years, but to reach the peak of that rank it took him more than a hundred years of training. (This is how this world works, you grow up fast and then continue to struggle in the hope of improving…)
…
Seeing the amazed looks on the faces of the students when they saw her strength, Raji didn't feel much.
She shook her head and replied in her usual cold tone:
"It's nothing special, you kids have talent, you can eventually grow to the same levels as me, there's no need to be envious of me… just work on improving yourself everyday…" (Raji)
Raji could see a bright future in these kids, she knew that once these kids grew up there would be more SS-rankers in the human empire, this way they would be able to protect the existence of humanity even better.
'Once Link and others grew up, there would be more than five SS-rankers in the human race… how wonderful that would be…' (Raji)
'In the first place, the birth of so many talented individuals in the same era is already a huge boon for mankind…' (Raji)
While Raji thought about this she felt happy in her mind.
She knew that it was an extremely rare occurrence for so many talented children to be born in the same generation, she was already thinking of giving Link and others the title of 'The second golden generation!'.
In the history of mankind, there have been only one or two SS-rankers present at the same time mostly, only once in history have there been more than five SS-rankers in the human race at the same time.
That was the time of the golden generation led by King Allen.
That was when there were still a few years before the thousand-year war started.
But now it seems that the same thing might happen soon.
With Link and other's talent, it would not be wrong to call them the second golden generation.
...
While thinking all this Raji nodded her head again and again.
'I just hope all these children grow up fast…' (Raji)
For an SS-ranker a few years was nothing much, they could live a thousand years, thus she was expecting to witness the growth of Link and others with her own eyes.
She was willing to wait for them to grow up and stand beside her shoulder to shoulder, and protect the human race together.
Just when Raji was contemplating about future in her mind, Link came forward and brought out a bright red orb from his space ring.
He stretched out his hand towards Raji and showed her the orb.
"Uh… I found this thing in a magma filled valley… do you know what this is…?" (Link)
Link awkwardly asked Raji what the orb was.
He was being cautious because he didn't want to get slapped by Raji in front of Riya's father.
He didn't want to ruin his image as a 'good guy', in front of his future father-in-law.
(He was about to beat the sh*t out of Damian when he screamed at Riya just a few minutes ago and now he is being so well-mannered… Link really has a thick skin that even defends against embarrassment…)
Raji squinted her eyes at Link's question and stared at the orb for a few seconds.
She used her mana detection on it and then replied:
"This seems to be some kind of Key to unlock something… from its mana fluctuations I can sense that there should be two more of such orbs to complete this key…" (Raji)
Raji then glanced at Rio and said:
"Bring over that 'black colored orb' which you got earlier…" (Raji)
Hearing Raji's words, Rio nodded his head and brought out the black orb from his space ring too. (Raji had already sensed the existence of that orb when Rio got it earlier…)
"There should be one more I guess.." (Raji)
While Raji said that, Damian brought out the orb in his space ring with an awkward look on his face.
He was hesitating to go near Raji for fear she would start hating him again. But Raji only looked at him with cold eyes for a while and then stopped staring at him.
She seems to have calmed down now and has decided to not Kill Damian.
Damian also heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that Raji wasn't angry at him anymore.
He hurriedly stretched out his hand with the orb in his palm.
When all the three orbs faced each other, they all started to shine brightly. The orbs flew from their hands and started to revolve in the air at a constant speed.
Slowly the three orbs came closer and merged into each other creating a colorless and transparent orb that looked like it was made of glass at first glance.
Link tilted his head in confusion and asked Raji with a confused tone:
"What is this thing even made of, it's so mysterious to look at..." (Link)
'It looks so good, I can make an accessory out of it and gift it to Riya!' (Link)
Raji frowned at Link's question and replied in a cold tone.
"I can sense extremely condensed life force in this orb… these orbs have likely formed from the life force and the remnant 'wills' of those who died on the battlefields…" (Raji)
"This thing might even cause mental corruption if someone holds it for too long…" (Raji)
"What the!? This thing is quite dangerous then!" (Link)
Hearing Raji's words, Link was quite bewildered, he thought this thing was made of some shiny metal or something, but who knew that this was created from the corpses of thousands of individuals.
'I-I guess I shouldn't give this to Riya after all, she might mistake it for a candy and swallow it by accident… no no! I shouldn't give it to her…' (Link)
(He is just making excuses, Riya is not that stupid.... perhaps....)
Link decided to not let this thing get near Riya at any cost.
…
Unaware of Link's thoughts Raji closed her eyes and sensed the whole dungeon again.
After a while, she opened her eyes and said in her usual cold tone.
"This orb seems to be leading you towards something…" (Raji)
Raji handed the orb to Link and explained.
"Imbue it with your mana and it will lead the way…" (Raji)
While saying that Raji flew in the air and said:
"I will stop interfering in this test now that the unnecessary troubles are already solved… you guys go ahead and continue your test…" (Raji)
"Just remember that you still have a lot of time left, just remain careful and you will be okay…" (Raji)
After saying all this, Raji's figure disappeared into thing air.
She seems to have teleported somewhere else.
Link and the others didn't get the chance to question her further, thus they shrugged their shoulder and stopped thinking about it.
While Link and Damian went towards the rest of the group, Rio glanced at the sky for a few seconds before following behind them too.
…
In the sky far above the group.
"Heh, this little guy can still see me even when I hid my presence… how mysterious…" (Raji)
Rio easily saw through Raji's stealth due to his 'true immunity', moreover his eyesight has improved a lot since he became an A-ranker.
Raji was quite satisfied with his progress though.
…
…
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! Finally, the mystery of the orbs has started to unfold itself slowly. Let's see what these mysterious things these orbs hold in them…
Question of the day.
Isn't it Kiss Day today of the Valentine's week, so how is it going?
1.I got it (Humph blasphemy!!)
2.I didn't get it. (Fellow comrade we know thy pain…)
By the way, don't forget to use those power stones and also leave a review if you like the story. Comment your opinion about the chapter. Your support is my motivation.