Chapter 32

The competitions went on for a while. The final score was determined by computing the average of all scores.

Estelle and the Prince duked it out in every competition, with Estelle always being in the lead until the Prince used his cultivation base. Even though he was winning, he was frustrated at having to use his cultivation.

Most people thought that using your cultivation base was something to be proud of, but the Prince, coming from the kingdom's most prominent family, knew better. If he could win only by relying on cultivation, she would surpass him once Estelle caught up in cultivation.

He was always thought that cultivation wasn't everything. If one cultivated mindlessly without proper preparations, he was bound to hit a bottleneck eventually. Talent alone brought one only so far; the rest was hard work.

Thus, in his opinion, the girl in front of him had much more solid foundations than him. What he couldn't know was that Estelle was already an Orange Core Early-Noon Stage, the fourth Stage of the Awakening Realm, though.

A kid her age couldn't own such physical prowess without cultivating. Even though her cultivation was sealed, it didn't mean that her strengthened body had gotten much weaker.

Being able to control mana in one's body brought forth a lot of improvement in many aspects. Both body and mind improved significantly as cultivation progressed. Much more so a girl who had so far a perfect record in cultivation.

The headmaster thus climbed once again the stage, getting ready to announce the current rankings.

'This Prince might have caught up to me, but I want to see his face when he sees Vince with six hundred points. There's no way Vince is below him. Let's see if he'll remain this annoying even after he sees that.'

"Congratulations, everyone! Especially to His Highness Rick and Estelle von Sideria. Both of them achieved stunning results in the physical tests. As many of you have already heard, His Highness Rick managed to break the records in three different disciplines. Anyway, here's what all of you were waiting for. Starting from tenth place, we have Zack Lipsgold, with four hundred and forty-two points, then… In third place, we have Andre von Rais, with five hundred and eleven points. Everyone give him a big applause for climbing a whole two ranks!"

'He's third, and I'm not? How's it possible?'

"And finally, tied in first place, there's His Highness Rick Flossen and Estelle von Sideria both with an astonishing five hundred and seventy-six points! Thanks to her stunning performance in the theoretical exam, she managed to tie with him even though he surpassed her in every single physical test! The monster battle will thus be the deciding factor. As you all know, the monster battle is worth four hundred points, not three hundred! The rankings are not dead in stone yet! See you again in one hour to proceed with the second practical test. Rest well in order to be ready for then!"

'How's it possible? Is Vince not on the scoreboard at all?! There must have been a mistake! Where is he? I'll go and ask him immediately!'

Estelle thus started thoroughly scanning her surroundings, looking for Vince. It took her a good ten minutes to find him.

"Vince! What happened? Did they disqualify you because you would have humiliated the Prince? What happened?"

"Milady, I think you might be overestimating me quite a bit… There's no way I can compete with him in physical prowess. There was no mistake; I scored one hundred and four points in the physical exam. It's not my strongest suit, let's say. By the way, congratulation on getting first place! You are holding your ground against his highness the Prince, who's even a cultivator! You're amazing!"

'He's praising me? This is a first, but it doesn't feel that bad at all.'

For the first time since that dramatic event, Estelle smiled. It was probably the most bright smile she had ever shown.

Until realisation dawned on her.

'Wait… there's something sketchy here. He could hold his ground against me in a practice sword match, but he can't even score two hundred points? Maybe I should pry a little bit more…'

"Milady, are you ready for the fight against the goblin? It shouldn't be too hard for you considering your monstrous physical strength. You have to be careful of their unexpected behaviours. When a goblin feels that his life is in danger, he will resort to anything to survive."

"I know that already! You aren't the only one who already read some books!"

"As expected of milady!"

'Yes, yes! See how great I am? I'll make sure to make you acknowledge me more!'

"Milady, let's go and grab the best seats to watch others fight. Watching will help us avoid repeating others' mistakes."

Sadly it looked like everyone else had also thought the same. Thus most seats in the first few rows had already been taken.

After a little bit of searching, they managed to find some seats in the third row. Luckily they were good enough to watch the fights properly.

'Why is everyone staring at me?'

Estelle felt like everyone around her was only looking at her. But maybe it was a given, considering she was the one currently tying first place.

After that, the headmaster made once again one of his speeches to start the test.

"Welcome to the third and final test. All of you will fight a single goblin. The points will be assigned by a group of judges depending on the performance. The factors accounted for are whether you win or not, time taken to defeat, and in what state is the corpse—the less the cuts, the better the score.

This is also to prepare you for the future, as monster corpses are often valuable and should be retrieved with the slightest damage possible.

The last and most important factor is what is your condition at the end of the fight. It would help if you tried to preserve your stamina and get injured the least possible. In real life, you never know what kind of unforeseen circumstance could happen.

The groups used in the second test are now disbanded. We will proceed by volunteering, and if no one volunteers, the judges will randomly call someone.

This test will probably take a few days to complete. Thus all of you will be given assigned a temporary room based on the current ranking. This school heavily emphasises that one should be treated according to merits.

Therefore even what kind of room one gets depends on how well he ranks. So if you want a good room for tonight, volunteering now is a good idea.

That said, good luck, everyone. So, are there any volunteers to go first?"

Unexpectedly many kids proposed to go first.

The judges then chose someone among those who volunteered. A kid with short white hair thus stepped onto the stage.

Two guards then brought in the centre of the arena a cage with a goblin inside. It was a small monster, roughly the height of the kid facing him.

Goblins were humanoid creatures with green skin and long noses. They were fairly intelligent compared to most animals but not comparable at all with a human.

Even a six-year-old was more intelligent than one of them. As for physical strength, the goblins were slightly inferior to kids this age. But they also were usually nimbler than most kids.

The two guards thus opened the cage and made some distance. A teacher was also close by to intervene in case something went wrong.

The goblin was given a wooden club, which was the most common type of weapon a goblin used.

The white-haired kid picked a sword from the weapon stand and started closing in on the goblin.

Once he was in front of the goblin, the latter started making weird noises.

Kurek. Gururu.

The two looked at each other for a few seconds. Then the white-haired kid made a move.

He closed on the goblin and tried to stab it.

Swish.

It was a miss. A nimble goblin wouldn't be hit this easily.

Kukuku.

It looked like it was laughing. Goblins were known for their violence, and they often played with opponents weaker than them. But as soon as they thought they were at a disadvantage, they would try to run away.

It was clear this goblin wasn't thinking much of his opponent.

But the white-haired kid didn't let this get to him. It was just the start of the match.

For a while, the white-haired kid tried different approaches to slash the goblin, but the latter was too agile.

Realising what he was doing was useless, he changed his approach.

Instead of trying single attacks, the kid started a continuous assault. He kept barraging his opponent with all he had, not giving it any time to rest.

The goblin had a few chances to strike with his club, but the kid successfully parried all of them with his sword.

As the goblin tried to retreat from another one of the sword strikes, something suddenly dawned on the poor goblin. He had reached the walls of the arena. Having backed off in a straight line, the goblin had soon reached the wall.

Having now nowhere to back off to, the goblin was forced to parry the downward swing coming his way with his club.

Crack.

The club split in half, but luckily for the goblin, the sword's momentum was no longer enough to cut it down. It merely left a shallow wound on his shoulder.

Without giving the matter much thought, the goblin started to run. He no longer had that attitude of superiority it previously held. But the kid didn't let this chance go.

He gave chase and stabbed with his sword as far as he could, aiming for the place where the heart was.

Splat.

The goblin managed to dodge barely, but at the cost of its right arm getting almost chopped off. The goblin started heavily bleeding.

The kid kept giving chase, but his speed wasn't sufficient to catch up to the goblin. After two minutes, the goblin sprawled on the ground.

Kururuk.

After making this one last scream, it exhaled its last breath. It had died of blood loss.

The judge thus announced the result.

"Congratulations to Tim Burton for slaying the goblin. A total of a hundred and twenty points were given. Even though he slew the goblin, the condition of the corpse was pretty terrible, and it took a while to defeat."

With a bit of a defeated look, Tim Burton put the sword back on the stand. He was completely covered in sweat, and his clothes were stained with stinky goblin blood.

"Milady, what do you think was his mistake?"

"He didn't defeat the goblin immediately?"

"Well, that's part of it. He shouldn't have picked a heavy weapon such as a sword against a weak and nimble opponent like a goblin. A dagger or a short sword would have been the perfect weapons. He would have had just that much more agility to be able to slay the goblin."

"But aren't swords considered the best weapon?"

"Swords are pretty versatile, so, understandably, most people choose to master the sword over other weapons. They are also fairly effective against both humans and monsters, making them a great weapon. But that doesn't mean that it's always the right choice."

'Well, matters not! I will pick a sword anyway. I'll show you how good I am with them.'

The next kid thus stepped onto the stage.