Legendary Traveler: By Earning Progress Points I will Become Supreme!

"The Theory of Pliability?" Tristian asked with some reserve, earning a nod from Mark in response.

"Since it's made out of leather, there is a certain limit to how far it can stretch, yet even if that is the case, this young man appears to have crossed the standard threshold; someone with his lack of knowledge and age should find impossible." Stretching the backpack a bit, Mark stared down into the space it held before reaching into it slowly.

A second later, he retrieved his hand and examined it before speaking again.

"There is no spatial density, nor time dilation, from what I can tell; the only thing this pack has to its name is it's bigger on the inside than the outside." Looking at it one more time, Mark felt he'd seen enough and returned the pack to Maevis, who began retrieving all the items inside.

Within the span of a few short minutes, the entire long table was filled with all the items Aoni had come back with. From plants or herbs, he found some of the weaker fruits Nyria had located.

There were samples of tree bark, branches from many different species, and even mineral and rock samples.

Also included was a collection of pelts, ranging from Gradeless to 1-Star, of basically each monster or animal available within his Territory.

Up until this point, the contents of the pack had been divided between each of the respective Blue-Cards, as they could tell the quality far better than their peers. Still, when the moment came when Maevis brought out the two bottles of water filled with melted snow and Energia Crystals, she paused and looked at Aoni with a cocked eyebrow.

"The contents of this thermus?"

"It's a sample of the snow covering my territory, as it was my only source of water; they must have been mixed in with the rest of my stuff, such as the cooked meats and jerky." Lifting his head only to look up at the water bottle, Aoni thanked his lucky stars for not being dumb enough to try bottling the Cavern's lake water.

"It happens, don't worry about it; I will just take a quick sample of the water to check for micro-organisms or bacteria," unscrewing the cap, Maevis quickly dipped a thin strip of paper into the bottle, then closed it up and placed it back into the backpack before turning to the second bottle, repeating the process and motioning for Aoni to step forward and take it. Discover hidden tales at My Virtual Library Empire

"You will be working in a bit, so stay hydrated," she said offhandedly, causing Aoni to nod like a meek child and take a few sips of water.

Meanwhile, as this interaction continued, Tristian went through each mineral and rock to determine their quality and properties, and he scanned them with his tablet so as to keep accurate records.

With so many hands touching each item, a system of checks and balances needed to be in place, a chain of command if you will, and as such, he needed to verify that everything listed in the profile shown on his table was present in the room.

This kept people from falsifying information or stealing items due to greed.

Every now and then, the portly bald man would make some kind of comment under his breath, but overall, there wasn't a single thing that truly drew his attention.

He may only be in the middle of the chain of command, but as a Blue-Card Armorsmith, he had millions of tons of materials several times more valuable at his beck and call than these measly things.

In fact, just about the only good thing he could find was the fact that each item seemed to carry a trace of Elementalized Ice Energia, which he knew only to be a byproduct of Aoni's Territory.

Rare as that was, it wasn't necessarily uncommon; in fact, Tristian knew of over a thousand people of higher Grades than Aoni, who had territories with a density hundreds of times higher than what he could feel through the materials.

Tapping on his tablet a final time, Tristian set it down and began collecting, picking out specific items for the test he was going to give Aoni, such as certain types of stones or minerals.

Around the time Tristian finished, Maevis did as well, and between the two of them, they were able to divvy up enough materials for two tests.

"Young man, what can you tell me about these creatures?" However, unlike his two fellow examiners, Mark was quite caught off guard, the reason being a small fragment of carapace.

"Sir, that and a lot of the exoskeletons came from a brood of insects found deep within the cave system of my Territory. They seem blind and move in packs without a hive mentality." Following the prompts of his AN, Aoni noticeably left out key information about their habitat or numbers.

"Interesting, Tristian, Maevis, take some of these for your testing," Leaning across the table, Mark handed over some insect parts, causing his peers to reevaluate their tests with the added materials.

"You have quite a wide variety of monsters and creatures living in your territory, which also explains the bloodlust you are on record having experienced when leaving the Flume," Mark added before tidying up his own piles.

"Yes, Sir, it has been a rough few days, and I am just happy to be home."

"Even more so without any viable summons on your side, let's take a look at your TD real quick." Cutting In, Maevis pressed a button on the desk, dimming the lights and causing a hologram projector to appear in the center of the room.

A few seconds later, all of Aoni's information was on display for all four people to observe, and what they saw drew quite a bit of chatter between the examiners.

"An All-purpose Crafting Attribute that boosts not only passive gain rates but also has binding and tracking functions," Mark muttered while scratching his thin face.

"Amazing, he's even got Focused Crafting; it's already at E+; it took me years to even unlock that, let alone increase its rank!" Sounding a bit jealous, Tristian snorted while leaning back.

"Weapons crafting at F+, Tailoring at E, Armor Crafting at E. Have you two noticed something? Apart from his Blacksmithing passive, none of his other passives mention smithing, only crafting." The only one calm and objective throughout the examination was Maevis, who noticed a trend the others hadn't.