Mixed Blessing System

Hearing Cedric's incredulous voice, Lothur looked at this fellow and laughed. "Oh? I see you are already prepared to assume your defeat, eh?"

Some people in the surroundings laughed with Lothur, noticing that Cedric was already on his knees, just as he had promised he would be if he lost the bet.

Realizing that he had unwittingly put himself in that situation, Cedric 'returned' to reality, putting his disbelief aside to refute Lothur's victory.

"No! That result can only be wrong! How can someone doing the test for 1-star formation masters have a result of 100% efficiency?" He shouted to the people there as if he were a lawyer defending his thesis.

Cedric then looked at the examiner and said. "If that's true, he's already at the level of a 2-star formation master! Wouldn't that be ridiculous?"

The people in the area felt sorry for the young man who was struggling not to have his defeat confirmed, even if some understood Cedric's doubts.

What he had just said was true. In general, only those already at the 2nd stage and learning this art to become a 2-star professional would get the perfect result when setting up an Iron-grade formation.

But even if Lothur was someone like that, the people there could not help but laugh at Cedric since he had put himself in that situation and had not put any more conditions on this bet of theirs.

So as impressive as it was and even a little unfair, none of them could side with him right now!

"Is the result wrong?" The examiner, with the results, looked at Cedric. "Are you saying I don't know how to evaluate the efficiency of Iron-grade formations?"

"No..." Cedric said in a slightly lower tone but still irritated. "But how is that possible? Are you telling me that he waited until he reached peak mastery n his ranking to come and take this test?"

"I don't know. I don't care." That examiner shook his shoulders. "The spatial ring he finished has four cubic meters of space, the upper limit for an Iron-grade formation of that kind. So, he got the 100% efficiency."

The efficiency of a formation was related to the rate of energy utilization it had. In the case of Iron-grade spatial rings, this rate was most easily exposed in terms of helpful storage volume.

Four cubic meters was the space limit considering the amount of energy that formation used.

And as soon as that examiner threw that spatial ring at Cedric, this 1-star formation master noticed this immediately, becoming even more disheartened.

"Tsk!"

"What a bad loser..."

"You talked so much earlier, but now you act like this..."

"It's a shame!"

"Kneeling and doing what you promised would be less humiliating..."

Several people in the surrounding area commented in low voices, making Cedric feel even worse at this instant.

Lothur saw that his victory was confirmed and asked. "Are you going to honor your own words or not? If so, let's get on with it. I don't have all day to wait for you!"

"Son of a..." Cedric threw the spatial ring in his right hand back to the examiner and clenched his fists, feeling hatred for that person who had put him through so much anger in the last few minutes.

"You tricked me!" He shouted as he pointed one of his fingers at where Lothur was standing. "You knew you were already at the limit of someone's 1-star skills, but you still provoked me into betting with you!"

"Oh?" Annaliese stepped forward and strangely looked at Cedric, emitting waves of contempt. "Are you serious? You're the one who came to us! So how is this Lothur's fault?"

"That's right! Everyone here saw when you affronted him and told him to drop out of the test without even trying!"

"Yes, thinking about it, I even feel a little angry. Someone like you wanted to stop a genius like Lothur from taking the exam!"

Several voices came up in Lothur's defense.

No one there had liked the arrogant comments of this brother-in-law of Annaliese's a few minutes ago. But now that Lothur had proven his talent and shown that he was the best in the city, no one doubted his abilities in this profession.

Not only that, Lothur had a promising future ahead of him and had even received an invitation to become part of the council of this institution. So, many there took the chance to stand by his side!

It was too easy to take the champion's side and beat a fallen 'dog'...

In this situation, Cedric felt it in his skin, being attacked by people who would normally bow their heads in his presence!

'Fucking sycophants!' He cursed those people as he felt Annaliese's look of contempt.

But Cedric had already understood that continuing to play the lousy loser would only worsen his reputation, so he clenched his teeth against each other and swallowed his hatred.

As he did so, he knelt in front of Lothur and said in great difficulty. "I beg your pardon for my previous comments... I was wrong about your abilities..."

Lothur closed his eyes and smiled as he heard those words, showing one of his open hands to Cedric.

Cedric saw this and understood that this fellow would not give up the set of Bronze-grade flags he had promised.

He stared at Lothur's right hand for a few seconds while being watched by a dozen people in the room, almost all of whom had smiles on their faces.

After swallowing his saliva angrily, he delivered what Lothur wanted.

'Shit!'

'I'll get revenge for this, I swear to you!' He thought about it while that annoying-looking fellow was already walking out of that place.

While Cedric was thinking about what to do to restore his reputation, Lothur heard some congratulatory words from Annaliese and Johann until he stopped next to one of the examiners there.

"So, what happens now? Will I already receive my identification as a 1-star formation master?" He asked that person.

That man looked at Lothur and explained. "Not today. But tomorrow, when you wake up, your cloak and association ID will already be at the address you gave us when you registered earlier."

"From then on, you will be able to act as a 1-star formation master and use some of our association's special services."

"So that's it?" Lothur thanked that man and looked at Annaliese. "Can you pick that up for me tomorrow?"

Annaliese understood the problem and agreed with him without delay. "OK."

After this brief exchange of words between the two, Johann bid them farewell, promising to meet with Lothur again to discuss the earlier proposal at Frederik's store.

With that settled, Lothur and Annaliese wasted no more time at the association's building and headed for the Christen family estate.

It was already night in Peters City, but he no longer had to report to the Frost family as before, so he was not worried about schedules.

As for Annaliese, she had her liberties as she was the patriarch's daughter, so she also did not worry about the time while she was by her man's side!