In the beginning, Shane was astonished by the quick change of the subject which the Emperor addressed.
However, after thinking about it for a short while he realized that it was only logical why the Emperor wanted to see his strength.
The Emperor had only thought of Shane as a mere pawn until now. But, after hearing that his race would be able to claim multiple elemental crystal caves in a basic dimension and the possibility to get the exclusive trading right with the human race, Shane's importance drastically increased in his eyes.
The Emperor was already glad to have received so many elemental crystals from Shane but it was still far from enough to have a stable supply for future generations!
As such, having an elemental crystal cave or the exclusive rights to receive elemental crystals would solve this issue, allowing them to expand in the basic dimensions!
With enough time, they might even gain enough benefits from Shane to claim their own elemental crystal cave later on!
Shane also understood this, and his existence became much more important in the eyes of the Emperor than it was only a moment before.
He couldn't let him simply die inside the Basic-Dimension which forced the Emperor to take a look at Shane's combat prowess.
If Shane were to be too weak to travel through the dimension in which the Lesser Starlet Foxes lived, the Emperor thought that sending a small combat unit with Shane might be the solution, even if it would cause a small commotion and alarm the Lesser Starlet Foxes.
This would be slightly disadvantageous for his guest who wanted to solve a system mission that demanded him to catch a Lesser Starlet fox alone and alive, which was the most important aspect in his opinion.
Due to the mission's requirements, it would be difficult for Shane to catch a Lesser Starlet fox if there would be other people following him at every little step.
The Emperor understood this too and they exchanged a knowing look because they understood what was important to the other side.
As such, Shane agreed to a spar against an Elemental that was roughly on par with his strength.
Meanwhile, the Starstream fox came out of its hiding spot and took his initial position next to the Emperor who stood up, revealing his height of five meters before he approached Shane as he said.
"Follow me. We will turn the spar into a little event if that's fine with you, Our race likes to fight against each other, even if it's mostly a one-sided battle.
As you might know, we are a race that heavily relies on our mana and affinities to overwhelm our opponents. This, however, stresses on a simple combat style.
You might wonder why I tell you this, but it's relatively simple. Not only do I want to see how strong you are, but I also want to use the spar as an example to show everyone that a simple combat style has its good and bad points.
According to Idral's foresight ability, you shouldn't be a pushover and from your aura, I can tell that is definitely the truth.
Furthermore, I don't think that the mission to catch a Lesser Starlet Fox is as simple as it appears at first glance, considering that it's a beast everyone labels as extinct!"
Shane just nodded his head before he said,
"I don't mind fighting openly, but can I fight a Superior Elemental that is roughly at my stage?"
He was curious how strong superior elementals were and if he was already at par with the strongest elementals that were at his cultivation stage!
The Emperor stiffened for a moment before he issued a sound that was similar to a sigh.
"Right now, we have only one Superior Elemental who only recently reached the Expert stage, but she won't fight you….Her situation is difficult… Under normal circumstances, superior Elementals wouldn't enter the Basic-Dimensions, but she did and….well, that's her own business and nothing I will reveal here..."
'Are superior elementals difficult to handle even for the Emperor? That's something new!' Shane thought while following the Emperor outside the palace where they were politely greeted by the guards that kneeled down in respect.
'That's really annoying!' He could only think as his eyes flitted to Impress Idral who floated behind them who turned a blind eye to everything that happened around them.
"Once you become stronger, this will be normal...Being looked at like a god or a similar existence might be annoying in the beginning, but after some time you will learn to ignore it."
Shane nodded his head because it sounded logical. At the same time, he sincerely hoped that humanity would never become like the Elementals with this behavior.
It would be really annoying and make him feel uncomfortable.
Shaking his head, he decided to avert his attention back to the emperor trying to get more information about the Elemental he would spar with. The emperor fell quiet, seemingly pondering about a suitable answer.
"There should be a few Greater Elementals inside the arena. One of them will probably challenge you, just pick one among the challengers you want to fight then."
After that was said, the emperor averted his attention to the holographic screen that manifested in front of him. He sent a message to the citizens of Caera that there would be a spar in the arena soon.
Their guest would fight a Greater Elemental and the Emperor wanted them to gather in the arena to witness the battle in person or through the broadcast.
Shane was astonished when they approached the arena that seemed to be overflowing with tens of thousand elementals. He mumbled to himself,
"I'm not here to be humiliated, right?"
This caused Empress Idral who continued to float behind him to laugh as she said,
"That's not the case. Kidar only wants you and your challenger to give 100% without holding back. If you wanted to lose intentionally, you would be humiliated because we will also broadcast your fight! Other than that, Kidar has already explained that he wants the Elus-race to understand that their combat style has to be more versatile.
We have tried telling this to everyone but until now, all of our tries proved futile….To be honest, it might sound cruel but if you're confident in your strength, can you dominate your opponent so that the Elemental has not even a single opportunity to fight back?"
"HUH?" Shane exclaimed loudly, which was eyed weirdly by the kneeling elementals, but Shane couldn't care less about that at the moment. He asked himself if his understanding of the Primordial language was really correct right now.
"You want me to defeat my opponent in an overwhelming manner, without giving him a chance to fight back?... Really?"
Shane was utterly dumbfounded right now, not knowing if the Empress was joking with him when the Emperor in front of him said,
"Idral is not joking with you. We, the Elus race, are stubborn and hate to change something if it works fine without taking any visible efforts to improve. As such, demonstrating overwhelming combat prowess might be able to convince most Elementals to change their combat style. This is very important for our survival because we only recently encountered races that used the Elementals' simple combat style against them!"
Thinking about it, Shane could only nod his head. He regulated his world seed's mana absorption to the bare minimum which it required to sustain itself before he said,
"I can do that, but I can't promise anything. It would be better to have a medic team nearby…"
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