Jake Smithson was one of several novice Awakeners who everyone paid attention to: each division had its planners and scouts, all considering whether their characteristics would make a good fit for their division.

"I have here a dossier of some of the standout novice awakeners."

"Just pick out the ones we need the most. We don't need a lot of them."

Ranking below the Ten Stars were around sixteen other divisions, according to the awakeners of Nohas.

One of these divisions, Skyward, found their attention piqued by another novice awakener.

The relationship between novice awakener and division is meant for one to derive maximum benefit from the other.

The awakener will have protection, security, association, and an avenue towards growing stronger.

The division, meanwhile, will use its assets to develop the awakener for future expeditions, adventures, and battles: success in these ventures will mean increased prestige for these divisions, and enough success will give them the influence needed to become a division on the level of the Ten Stars.

The most reliable way of doing this is to recruit and develop novice Awakeners.

"For now, a guy named Jonathan looks noticeable. He's cruel; doesn't look like he'll have trouble doing our wet work. It looks like among all the awakeners here, he's the best fit for our Awakener Pursuit Team."

"We haven't had a good recruit that's a good fit to our Awakener Pursuit Team yet.. our roster of dungeon raiders is already complete. I agree, we should actively reach out to him and give him our recruitment pitch."

"What will our pitch have?"

"Everything and the kitchen sink; show him everything we've prepared."

Aside from promising training, skills, and safety, there are also gifts that divisions make use of to help recruit novice awakeners.

When recruiting potentially talented awakeners, providing information on what each division offers is typically insufficient to recruit them: this is where the gifts come in.

Prodigies tend to receive a lot of these offers from many divisions: more detailed information, accounts of successful Awakeners, and gifts.

"That seems excessive."

"Well, we had best bring our best foot forward. Last I heard, the Dragon Knights and Berserkers have also stepped up their recruitment game. We simply can't dawdle and negotiate; find the right guys and get them in our division, that's what our game plan is, now."

"Acknowledged. I will proceed, then."

"Dont forget to tell him that the Ten Stars are nothing but relics living off past glory: it's the up-and-coming divisions that are starting to come into power and will take this world by storm. Besides, the 'Grand Duelists' are a shadow of their former selves – we're just waiting for them to relinquish their spot in the Ten Stars for us to take their place."

To recruit their chosen awakener, Skyward showed their hand, and awakener prodigies are more than what is at stake at the moment: one of the Ten Stars, the Grand Duelists, have been losing power and influence over time.

Despite the sheer power of their leader, the position of the Grand Duelists within the Ten Stars is in peril, and the Skyward division is aiming to strike at them directly and replace them.

This wasn't just recruitment; this was war preparations: to the point where they were covertly giving awakeners training in skills meant versus fellow awakeners, not just monsters.

This evaluation's purpose was to find a novice Awakener they could train to help bolster their ranks.

'We need expendables. There is no other way; to become part of the Ten Stars is like making an omelet. Some eggs have to be broken.'

Novice beginners with potential; also known as expendables.

Such is the cruelty of life in Nohas.

***

For the first time in a very long time, laughter was heard in the Awakening Store.

Kelderian wasn't sporting his usual frazzled expression and hunched-over posture.

This time, he was standing straight up, taking confident strides, and wearing a huge smile on his face, almost as if the burden he was carrying was removed completely.

"You seem in a good mood, sir," his assistant began.

'I hope he hasn't snapped.

These past few days has him under enormous stress.

I really hope this isn't him going postal.

I should have filed for some leave last weekend.'

Kelderian's sudden change of mood over a short period of time was quite bewildering; his assistant didn't know how to deal with it; when he was called, he stood up a little bit straighter, and prayed his death come quickly and painlessly.

"Of course I'm in a good mood, check this out," Kelderian continued, gesturing towards a parchment scroll in his hand.

The assistant took the copy of the scroll and began to read the letter within, eyes widening as he read the letter in its entirety, and not realizing that he was making strange sounds by the time he was finished.

"Wait, what? Is this..?" the assistant asked, and when he saw Kelderian sporting a look of triumph, that was when he began to understand what was going on.

Both of them couldn't help it.

They laughed; loudly.

Their laughing fit lasted around several moments before it subsided; Kelderian and his assistant were catching their breath before they could speak again.

"Finally, this whole bit of business is over and done with; it's not a matter to be worried about anymore," Kelderian said with a sigh.

"Congratulations, sir! As they say, perseverance yields results."

"That's true. Still, though, that guy was going to be different the first time I saw his purchase logs."

"I know, sir. How did you get the dimension manager to allow us to do this?"

Apparently, the higher-ups had been notified of the anomaly in the Awakening Store named Jake Smithson, and had taken steps to resolve the issue.

"I honestly don't know; I was expecting to be given a memorandum or something. He just bought that much stuff."

"Well, it's one less worry off our hands. We might have made a mountain out of a molehill, but we were within standard protocols to do so, right?"

"Nothing about that Smithson is within standard protocols."

They shared another laugh, because the official notice from corporate headquarters indicated that the dimension manager does not see Jake Smithson's purchases at the Awakening Store to be a matter of concern.

"Agreed, sir."

"Well, now that we've been given the green flag, we're just going to have to sell him the items in our catalog."

"Sir, isn't this going to make us the top performer of the year? That Smithson fellow's purchasing history is unparalleled – he's bought enough for five or ten Awakeners already, and it's only growing."

"Ha," Kelderian answered, relieved that the corporate directive was to let the Awakening Store carry on its business towards Jake, without anything to worry about, "but as they say in that other dimension over, every cloud has a silver lining!"

It just took one notice from corporate to turn Jake from the headache of the Awakening Store into one of their biggest assets.

"Why do you think the dimensional manager made an exception for Jake Smithson, sir?" the assistant asked, curious about the situation, as since the Awakening Store was still under beta testing, and any ridiculous amounts of purchases would warrant a notice – or worse, a visit – by corporate.

But corporate gave them a massive swerve by saying their customer should be allowed to purchase freely – this was an unprecedented notice, both in terms of the Awakening Store, but of the Hero Plaza itself.

"The dimension manager gave him an exception? Bah, I don't give a damn," Kelderian replied, no longer concerning himself with the how's and the why's of the matter. "What's important is that we can now run the Store without problems. Finally! I'm going to file for a day off and spend that entire day sleeping."

The assistant nodded, noting the dark circles under Kelderian's eyes and his own, but then a thought came to him: "What about Veilon?"

That was the only other concern left: Veilon.

He lost his first wager against Jake and was now obsessively paying attention to his every single purchase, at the expense of everything else.

"Corporate sent a recall missive, he's going back to his department as soon as this wager is over."

That meant Veilon no longer had to place wagers in Jake's purchasing activity.

"Oh, I see, sir. With the latest notice sent, he should be returning back to his department once his latest wager is finished."

A chilling thought suddenly swept through Kelderian: what if Veilon wins the wager? Corporate already sent their notice.

Kelderian's thoughts were interrupted as he turned his head to see Veilon standing there, his face impassive.

"Since when have you been here?" Kelderian asked.

"Did you say I should go back to headquarters now?" he asked.

"Yes, we just got a notice from corporate. They're asking us for a hands-off approach to Smithson."

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"Then this is my last chance," Veilon said after he took a deep breath.

"What? What do you mean, 'last chance'?"

"It's my last chance to beat him!"

***

As the evaluation continued, Jake and Liam were quickly making their way up the tournament, both of them winning two matches already without issue.

The number of novice Awakeners was cut down to 25, and all of those were proven talents that would make worthy additions to any division that fit their skills.

Jake, however, had no intention of resting on his laurels: he has more at stake than a simple tournament, and he had to win it all.

Ninety-nine percent of the way is called a failure.

'Second place is failure, because if that happens, I can't get Gold Label access.. and lose Black Label access as well.

Five more matches to go until the Gold Label.'

Jake only needs five wins to take first place.

'If someone drops out or is too injured to continue, even less.'

With 25 Awakeners left, the tournament can randomly give you a bye, letting you advance one round without even fighting.

'No.. I would rather fight my way to first place. If I finish these duels quickly, I get to the Gold Label quicker.'

Jake, however, would rather face his challengers head-on, opting to fight over getting lucky enough to get a bye.

The sooner he fights, the sooner he finishes, and the sooner he gets closer to Gold Label access.

'Defeat would mean the end of my career as an awakener. My power here depends on my purchasing power there.'

Defeat is not allowed: this is the harsh reality Jake is under.

'I wonder how Liam is doing,' Jake thought, as he was unable to watch due to his own match starting in a moment. 'I know you'll do well, Liam. You're different from these other awakeners.'

He wasn't worried, as Jake had seen Liam fight other awakeners before, and win – if it wasn't for Jake, Liam would have been one of the best of the novice awakeners and a good prospect for winning the entire thing.

'These other guys look okay, but I am confident Liam can prevail.'

He'd seen the other awakeners, and they were pretty good: but he knew something about Liam that they didn't. During the forty-five days after defeating the third calamity-class boss monster, Liam spent all his time training, so he could catch up to Jake, only taking breaks to eat and sleep.

Unfortunately, something unexpected occurred.

"Winner, Damian!"

Jake's eyes widened as he heard the sound of cheering and applause from the stadium nearby.

***

As Liam was heading back to the waiting area, he was still processing what just happened a few moments earlier.

'Where did they get someone like that from?'

Since he'd seen Jake defeat other Awakeners quickly, Liam thought he'd do the same: use Blazing Wrath – his most powerful skill – at the beginning, to set up the tempo for the match. If he caught his opponent on the back foot, he'd press the attack, and he'd win.

It worked for those two rounds, up until he ran into Damian.

Before he could enter the tunnel towards the waiting area, he could hear the audience's chatter.

"Damian's unbelievable, isn't he?"

"Well, Liam's not too bad. Wonder why he just surrendered, though?"

Despite the feeling of loss beginning to enter his system, Liam powered through and decided to approach the match from a more rational perspective.

It was, after all, how he was able to emerge from that match unscathed.

'Never saw that coming – does this mean he's been holding back all this time?'

Liam isn't an obsessive shopper like Jake is, but his interest lies in studying the skills of other Awakeners, so whenever he had the time, he'd watch other matches and strategize based on what he saw.

Damian's match was one of these things he watched and planned for, but he didn't expect this level of strength.

'To be able to ward off my strongest attack without any damage.. unbelievable. And he's still somehow holding back.'

The audience didn't think it was a very entertaining match, because as soon as Damian emerged from the Blazing Wrath attack, Liam conceded immediately.

Even his opponent found himself displeased with the outcome, despite his victory.

It was supposed to be one of his informed decisions, but Liam still felt lousy for both losing in such a manner: yes, he didn't think he was the strongest in Brino, but he thought he'd be more than a good match for anyone.

That, however, was a miscalculation.

Nohas was a large place, and he wasn't the only one who got a powerful skill and the work ethic to make something even better out of it.

He emerged into the waiting area uninjured, except for his dignity.

There was one thing on his mind, though: something that prevented him from feeling sorry for himself.

'Someone who could take on my most powerful attack, something that even Jake had to block, without any injury meant that Damian was a lot more powerful than he's letting on.

I have to inform Jake about this.'

***