Chapter 85: Group

Eren walked back towards the cliffside, his mind wandering on his memories and all of his regrets. Eventually, he reconvened with the rest of the 1-A Division examinees.

They were already busy with their groupings. Many of the examinees chose to put their eggs in Magnus’ basket. They thought he was the strongest, and therefore would give them the best chance in winning the Second Test.

"He’s a Lindberg! He’s definitely going to be sponsored by his family."

"Yeah. Hopefully, he’ll share those with us..."

"Why don’t all of us join Magnus’ side? It’s much better isn’t it?"

Having more members meant having more manpower. They could traverse through those Territories and get their corresponding flags a lot faster than the other groups simply because there were more of them.

Coupled with Magnus’ power, their group seemed to be poised to take the upper rankings of the second test.

"Pang Cai! Can I join your group?"

"Me too! I want to join as well!"

The chubby scion of the Cai family laughed boisterously before nodding. "Yes, yes! Anyone can join. And I promise that all of our members will have access to all of my resources. Sunspores? I can provide that for you. Skyward Herb Soup? All you can eat!"

More and more people joined Pang Cai’s group. Not a bad choice, Eren thought. Having more resources meant they could challenge more Territories through pure resilience. As long as they had sunspore, they could win basically any Flag.

In comparison to the two scions, Eren and Ku’Vara received the least attention.

The monk had offers. He was just disinterested in accepting them.

"I already have all the help I’d need," Ku’Vara muttered, gesturing to the beehive-like nest on his back. This increased his reputation of being a weirdo. But he didn’t seem to care.

"It doesn’t matter. We can still join other groups!"

"Yeah! I’ve heard that one of the leaders on the other Divisions is a scion from the Hearth family!"

"Is that them? Look at their members! We better go now or else we’ll get left behind!"

The entirety of the Subterranean Burrows became engaged in conversations. Soon, groups emerged.

Eren observed that those who were famously strong or had connections to the Prominent Families, were easily able to attract a lot of members.

It was another case of the rich getting richer. Mob mentality caused people to join a group because it already had a lot of members. This cascaded upwards, till the majority of examinees were gathered only in a few groups.

Out of the 42 chosen leaders of this second test, perhaps only 6 of them had groups numbering more than a hundred.

"We can definitely win this." Abe walked next to Eren, patting his shoulder.

"There’s no guarantee they’d win just because they have more members," Sky muttered shyly.

"Yeah. We’re fine with just nine members," Henry assured.

Eren was resolved to go through this Second Test alone if he had to. But perhaps having a few members to use wouldn’t be bad either.

"Thanks," he said to them. "I thought you guys would choose another group."

"Are you kidding me?" Abe said. "I would never team up with those stuck-up scions."

Celeste walked over to Eren, leaning towards him and whispering, "As much as you distrust me, just know that I trust you very much."

It was at this point that Kaiser approached him. Eren would never get used to that prickly feeling that he would get when Kaiser’s cloudy left eye was looking at him.

"This is your stamp." Kaiser handed him a seal emblem. The very same one that would be used to stamp a wax to seal an envelope.

On its underside was his initials. E. G.

Eren felt the presence of Ræzoň permeating the seal itself. It was some kind of mechanism that would allow an Array Formation to become imprinted onto a body, thereby marking them as Eren’s team member.

This is a pretty simple use of it...

An Array Formation was a technique to imprint Ræzoň onto an object, thereby letting it retain some kind of magical ability or Martial technique.

The Martial Manuals were a kind of Array Formation. It allowed anyone who saw its symbols to become imprinted with the details of the technique itself.

There were plenty more ways to use an Array Formation. It could be used to set up a trap, it could be used to delay a reaction from an item until a certain requirement was fulfilled, it could even be used to protect a city from an attack, or it could be used for a simple talisman protection.

It varied greatly, and was dependent on its creator.

Eren took the Stamp from Kaiser, who lingered for a second as he handed it.

"Is something the matter, Proctor?"

Kaiser looked at Eren, his brows furrowing. "...nothing."

He must have noticed that something is different about me. He probably sensed the Aspect of the Primordial Fire. But seeing as he’s not reacting, I have a feeling he doesn’t know much about it.

As Kaiser was about to leave, Eren said: "I’ve heard from Geister that you two were teammates a long time ago."

The red-haired man stopped in his tracks, but didn’t look back. "A long time ago, yes." Then, he walked away to give the other leaders their stamp.

Eren inwardly clicked his tongue. It looked like he wouldn’t be able to use that connection as a way to gain favors from Kaiser.

It didn’t matter. He was more interested in Ms. Calliope as an ally. He was curious as to what other things they tested for the Academic Sector of the License Exam.

One by one, he stamped his new team members.

The seal left an imprint of Ræzoň in their skin for a second, before dissolving down into their bodies through their pores.

"Where do we go now?" Celeste asked Eren.

"What else?" Eren said as he looked at all of them. "Let’s go conquer a Territory."