Chapter 25: Darek!
Darek looked at Ken long enough for the latter to think that he wasn't going to reply.
"No." He replied, going right back to his daziness, thinking that with his response Ken wouldn't bother him.
Unfortunately, Ken wouldn't let go of such premium study material.
"Hmm?" Ken, hearing the response, thought for a second and smiled to himself.
Then he acted dumb.
"Then why are you here?" he asked again.
Darek this time opened his eyes and looked at Ken closely with a somewhat fiery expression.
Ken wondered if he should raise his arms and go, 'Wow, let's not get feisty' but decided against acting anymore social.
Darek didn't look very much like the social type; he was more like a revenge-driven novel protagonist.
So Ken decided to be just a little open with him.
Once again a 10-second eye-to-eye confrontation happened before Darek answered.
"Why do you want to know?" he asked.
"You look strong." Ken almost immediately replied.
"..." Darek wondered if he should answer or not but then decided that not answering was more annoying than just letting it out.
"I already finished my quota this month, so I'm resting." He said.
"Quota?" Ken, hearing this, didn't immediately speak.
"Yes, you can only enter the trial and floor gates once a month." he said.
"That's limiting and annoying." Ken said.
"Yes, especially if you're late." Darek said while looking at Ken.
"I guess so." Ken stopped speaking for a few seconds.
He was thinking about the reasons why the sect would implement such rules, but he quickly came to a few realizations.
Such a large structure like the tower, and it being a copy of many for each generation, surely it costs a ridiculous amount of resources to run?
If the sect allowed disciples to just enter it every time they wanted, it would just be ridiculous.
First, this not only allowed for the disciples to all have their turns and not have to wait for someone's 100th try.
Secondly, the tower can remain functional, and the sect wouldn't have to worry about it running out of steam or having some kinds of problems in its formations.
Thirdly, a disciple's main focus the first few years was to learn as much as they could about the mystic world and the techniques that took them the most time to comprehend.
This and many other reasons Ken couldn't fathom yet were the reasons behind implementing quotas for each disciple.
"I'm Ken, just Ken, and you?" He turned to ask Darek.
"Darek... Darek Shadowsmith." Darek took quite some time to tell Ken his full name, and when he did, he studied Ken very closely.
"Nice to meet you, Darek." Ken smiled and brought out his hand.
'Does he not know?' Darek looked at the outstretched hand and wondered if Ken didn't know that he was the 5th ranked in the leaderboard.
'No, He doesn't look like the type to be ignorant about such things.' Shaking hands with Ken, Darek didn't take his eyes off him.
'Hmm?' Darek felt a strong grip, and out of habit, he tried to apply pressure, but he couldn't believe he was overwhelmed.
'He's testing me out, and he's being so upfront about it. Such strength... How come I don't know about him?'
'A potentially no-name commoner with higher than average physical strength, the way he moves is akin to that of someone who's beyond me when it comes to the efficiency records.'
'High comprehension, and a higher chance of him training to gain strength instead of being born with it. A technique? Disciplined training?' Darek didn't have enough information to know.
'All in all, will take me 15 seconds with enough preparation.' He wasn't talking about direct confrontation; he was calculating the time it'd take to assassinate Ken. A habit, so to say.
Darek caught a glint in Ken's eyes and immediately understood that just as he was analyzing him, the other side was too.
'He's not just any regular commoner; he knows his stuff. A spy? A member of some unknown agency? There is even a chance of him being an enemy sent by my own agency or others.'
'Assassination might be harder than I first assumed. A D-rank target, should take around 3 minutes.'
'He poses a big enough threat for me to keep him in check.' He wasn't letting any stone unturned as many such ideas circulated through his brain.
The first impression he got of Ken was that of a kin. Someone who analyzed those around him.
Don't ask him how he analyzed this much in a few seconds; intelligence agency heir privileges allowed for this much.
"I was right; you are pretty strong." Ken added.
'So he does know about me.' Darek nodded to himself; there was no way he was wrong.
'Thankfully, he's not an ass-licker.' Darek had seen many of that type, but he didn't leave that possibility; many played the 'not impressed' role just to get on his good side.
Indeed, many fellas didn't mind becoming buddy-buddy with the heir of a literal assassination agency. Some people would even hold onto a blade if it could take them off with it to the sky.
He'd seen many such cases.
Though he was pretty much a loner within the sect, a lot of the top 1000 disciples knew him; some even had very close relations to him.
'Let's see what he does now that he knows who I am.' Darek followed Ken's eyes as the latter looked past him and at the gates.
"So, I can take it that you've gone through these trials more than once, right?" Ken asked.
'He wants advice? Or using as a gateway?' He didn't immediately assume.
"Can you tell me what I would go through?" Ken then asked.
'None of the above; he's gathering information directly.'
"I need to know what you're going for." Darek glanced at the card Ken was holding and asked.
"I'd prefer knowing about both, but let's start with the trial."
-----End-----