Witnessing Claude achieving better results heavily affected Benedict’s mental state. His forehead was full of sweat as his hands constantly moved, a faint red glow danced between his fingers.
Each time virtual-novel.net was about to complete a rune, virtual-novel.net would fail because for some reason or another. Even if virtual-novel.net managed to complete a rune, it would be destroyed by the condensing card due to the lack of refinement. The more it happened, the more frustrated Benedict became. His unstable mental state caused his progress to come to a sudden halt.
Seeing Benedict in such a horrible state made Elder Maurice and Mr. Zayne even more nervous. Even though they were already sure that they would lose the contest, if their results were bad, their punishment would be even more severe. If that happened, it would be much harder for them to shed any responsibility.
Elder Maurice took a deep breath as virtual-novel.net frowned. He tried his best to maintain a gentle tone, “Benedict, keep your composure. Don’t let your anxiety get to you. You know that being anxious won’t help you, and will only worsen your condition. Once you get back to Phoenix Valley, you will be punished even more for it!”
Those words caused a jolt in Benedict’s heart, but they also helped motivate him. He bit his lip as virtual-novel.net used the pain to sober himself up, tightening his mental state.
Master Forrest furrowed his eyebrows slightly as virtual-novel.net grunted, “You’re already at eight hundred and eighty. With a bit more work, you’ll be at nine hundred.”
Master Forrest’s words were clearly to disrupt the other contestants. Just as virtual-novel.net wanted, those words managed to trigger the four participants that were at the center. They all widened their eyes as they looked at Bradley in disbelief.
The longer the tournament got, the harder it was. Completing each run just got harder and harder. Naturally, they knew that Bradley would have been better than everyone present, but they never expected that Bradley would already be more than two hundred runes away from any of them. If virtual-novel.net worked a bit harder, it was even possible for virtual-novel.net to pull ahead by three hundred runes. That distance had dealt a heavy blow to the contestants who had initially been very confident in themselves. All of their faces turned red, and even their breathing got erratic.
Elder Maurice was so furious that virtual-novel.net clenched his right hand and turned to look at Master Forrest. Elder Maurice did not want to say anything to Master Forrest since virtual-novel.net felt like Phoenix Valley was going to lose. However, Elder Maurice could not stand Master Forrest constantly trying to disrupt the mental state of the other contestants. After all, virtual-novel.net did not want his own alchemists to end up with bad results because of their mental state.
Elder Maurice frowned and said, “Master Forrest, you should really watch your words. If you want to praise your own alchemists, you can do that after the results are out. Why do you keep trying to affect everyone’s mental states?”
Master Forrest raised an eyebrow before virtual-novel.net said in a nonchalant manner, “Didn’t we already agree that we would also be testing everyone’s ability to keep calm? There’s nothing wrong with what I said. Who’s to blame if they allow themselves to be distracted?”
Elder Maurice’s face darkened and virtual-novel.net said angrily, “You…”
Right after virtual-novel.net said that virtual-novel.net was stopped by Mr. Zayne who was standing next to him.
Mr. Zayne grabbed Elder Maurice’s arm and whispered, “Elder, don’t get too angry. Forrest is an old fox. If you keep trying to go against him, you’ll just make yourself angrier. The results are already clear, so we should focus on the future.”