After learning this new information, Sam went into a deep thought, before that he kept Sky away.
From what he could think of, the thunder god temple is full of experts far beyond his level, so it is hard to say if the formation will work on them.
After that he took away the formation and sat on the bed. He is thinking about what he could possibly expect tomorrow.
Since, they said that there is a final test, he will only have a chance of know why they are truly here, after the competition.
So, Sam laid back on his bed for a good night's rest, after all there are still some after effects from the space gate transportation.
The next day morning, the ten candidates gathered outside their dormitory. A person who is in his late forties came to them. He is a Grand realm expert.
He handed each of them a chest badge and said.
"These are the temporary identity tokens of the thunder god temple. So, please keep it safe.
As for me, I am an attendant of elder Moriya and I would be the one in charge of your arrangements for your stay here.
Today, I will take you to a tour around this area.
Right now, you are in the inner zone of the temple where the core disciples and inner disciples reside along with the elders, Great elders."
He paused and pointed at the huge structure in the centre of the island and said.
"That is the thunder god temple, in which the Temple head and the Grand elders reside. Today, I will take you guys to the trading zone.
There, you can trade, barter or even buy any items available. There is another currency apart from the spirit stones and those are points.
The points which you have in your card are one of the currencies. One point equals ten spirit stones.
Even though, it isn't much, it is still hard to get them and there is another use for the points and that is the temple exchange area and the temple library.
The temple contains of a unique exchange area where there are very high-level weapons and treasures which are acquired and created by the temple's ancestors and predecessors as well as some of the rarest natural treasures like herbs and ores.
In that place, only points can be exchanged and the spirit stones doesn't work. So, the points are more valuable.
In the same way, the points can be used to exchange for battle skills, cultivation techniques and other knowledge in the temple library.
But, the bad news for you guys is that there is no way for you guys to access those two places as they are only for core disciples of the temple.
You are only our visitors, so you can only get access to the trade market. I will show you around, follow me."
After that they walked for a few minutes before arriving at a bustling place. The place was packed with people. There are many shouts of vendors.
"Spirit replenishing pills, freshly produced."
"Spirit recovering potion, freshly brewed."
"Fangs of Silver wolf and leather of Golden cougar, high resistance against physical and metal attacks, a great material for armor."
Many people who have badges strapped on their chests are selling, buying, trading. The place is as good as a city market. The attendant carefully explained everything in the market.
"Even though, it is all temple's property, it is still same as a city. We have a trading department and real estate department too.
People can buy places for houses, or even shops in the trading market. We have restaurants, brothels, battle arenas, weapon shops, pharmacy shops which might be either run by elders or disciples.
We even have the four professional towers in here and except for the core members who are sent here by their respective associations, the rest of the members are from the temple.
The citizens of the islands under the temples also come here to trade.
A part from that, there is a mining and ore department, where people can buy ores, sell ores and if anyone discovers a mine, they can make a deal with mining department.
There is a herbology department specialised in scavenging herbs from wilderness and also farming them…"
The attendant went on and on. He especially took his sweet time on the special departments and facilities of the thunder god temple and Sam could vaguely sense what is happening.
This guy is selling off the benefits in the thunder god temple, one can easily identify it if they read between the lines.
After a whole day of explaining, they finally stopped at a place which has a large stone pillar.
The stone pillar is not cylindrical rather it is a cuboid.
On one side, there are names of the ancestors of the temple engraved, on the other side there is something called the champion of decade list, the other side is called current ranking and the last one is the temple heads names.
The attendant explained all three sides before stopping at the current ranking.
On that side there are multiple lists.
"These are ranking lists of outer disciples, inner disciples, core disciples, elders and Great elders.
In all these categories, each category will be further divided into their cultivation levels and in each sub category the current top ten will be named here.
These names will be changed constantly…"
As the attendant explained, Sam looked at the names of the rankers and he saw one familiar name, Moriya, he is ranked first in the elders list.
Moriya is of Nascent stage and since he is the best of all the elders, that means he is the strongest Nascent of the thunder god temple.
Sam was impressed, then he saw the top rankers of the Great realm level.
There are three sub categories even in the Great realm, the initial stages, the middle stages and the late stages.
Sam didn't know anyone of them, but he is looking at the list because the attendant is explaining about someone on the list.
"The late stage members are all off the age limit for the competition and ten middle stage top ten are the ones who are going to be participating with you and among them the first ranker is the most talented person of the temple.
The thing is, he just turned nineteen and he is already at the peak of the middle stage great mage. His combat prowess is off the charts and he is also Grandson of the Temple head.
You know what, he is a heaven chose. I wasn't here at that moment, but there was a phenomenon at the time of his birth.
There was a huge light on that cloudy night and landed on him as soon as he was born.
That was called blessing of heaven and there are records in the ancient library.
So, he is called heaven's chosen son.
He has a very high position in the temple and is being groomed as the next temple head…"
As he rambled on Sam looked at the name.
Arthur.
All the candidates are looking at the name with eyes dazzled, particularly Nicholas, this guy would battle any person as long as he is strong.
The attendant proceeded to explain about another candidate.
"The second ranker Arman is also a genius at the age of eighteen he just entered the middle stage of Great realm.
Even though, he is a genius, he doesn't have any notable background at least it is not considered great when compared to Arthur.
Arman is not considered a genius in beginning; he is just son of a working staff manager of mining department and his speed at completing initiation is not even fast.
At the age of fifteen he just barely became an acolyte and on that day, he even suffered an accident and almost died, but he survived due to his pure will and worked hard from then onwards. He is very skilled at short sword and particularly with the lightning element.
He is also a promising member for becoming a Grand elder of the temple."
As the attendant was rambling, Sam is deep in thoughts.
Arman's story intrigued him. Fifteen years old, almost dying , accident, survival, working hard, suddenly becoming a genius, there are all coinciding with his story.
He is wondering if it is really a pure coincidence of there is something special about this Arman.
He has to meet this guy.
After explaining something about these guys, the attendant left them alone and let them shop. It is very easy as they can just simply exchange the points in the same way they transferred in the capital.
Sam took a stroll and went to the Mining department.
He has a better use for raw metal than the weapons and other goods.
He entered the office and was greeted by a receptionist. The receptionist saw the badge of the temporary visitor and knew who Sam was as they are previously informed. He was a bit disappointed as he didn't expect much from a Peasant, but at least he kept his condescension in check as they were informed to be formal with these guys.
"Welcome, what can I do for you?"
He greeted Sam with a professional smile.
"I want to buy some ore."
"Sir, I think if you want to buy for individual use it is better to buy them in weapon shops as most of the ore in here will be raw and was preferred to be sold in bulk, you would have a hard time refining it."
"I want to buy a large amount."
The receptionist paused for a second and said.
"Please take a seat."
After that he passed a small cylindrical crystal similar to the one Moriya used for checking details of the candidates after infusing some spiritual energy.
"This is the catalogue of our available ores, please take a look and inform me if you find what you want."
Sam took the crystal and looked at all kinds of ores that are available.
After half-an-hour, Sam came out of the department, with a middle-aged man and the receptionist sending him out with smiles all over their faces.
Sam made around six billion worth purchase after all.
Sam felt like he had got a great deal. Many ores he wanted to find weren't there in the Orion empire and even if they are available they are a lot costlier but there are more precious ores and available at a cheaper price here, so he made use of the chance and spent a 'little'.
