Chapter 123 Competition

The school's atmosphere was quite festive, many students but also family members were allowed inside this particular day. They could support their sons or daughters or simply enjoy the activities. Food stalls were stationed everywhere waving the smell of cooked chicken in the air.

The crowd was big, a little too big even. All were excited to see the new talents of the academy, especially the third or last year's performances were always a pleasure to look at. Some came looking to recruit potential fighters. For what? There are plenty of hunting guilds looking for partners, merchants that need bodyguards, the local government that needs guards and watchmen and there are even some darker organizations looking for new meat.

Gambling dens or arenas were the lifeblood of some places. Only the more desperate ones visit those kinds of places, but that didn't hold them back in the slightest. If they could find a few willing to put their lives on the line during a fight, they could gain a lot of profits. Even assassination groups were looking for potential members, although they had to stay a bit more out of sight.

Lucas didn't like the crowd, especially since he didn't recognize anyone. It was just a crowd of unrelated and uninteresting people that didn't have anything to do with him. He only wanted to do the duels and leave.

The proposal from his guest teacher was very tantalizing, the knowledge of how to reach the next Rank as a mage. Lucas had tried many things, but he just couldn't make any progress the moment he stepped into Rank 1. There was only one thing that bugged him. He didn't know why the teacher was so generous.

Elam wanted him to win, so he could get the prize. Lucas didn't know what that prize was, but it must've been pretty good if Elam wanted it. Still, there was a reason, but his guest teacher wouldn't gain anything by giving it away for free.

Lucas could only go on with an uncomfortable feeling in his heart. On the way he passed the scoreboard once more and since most people were either in their seats or eating something from the carts, he was alone to inspect the rewards.

Most of the rewards were pretty good, although he didn't understand some of them. Certain plants or berries didn't seem like a great reward, but Lucas simply didn't have the knowledge. There were also runes and spells up for grabs. None interested Lucas all that much since he was confident that he would create them on his own eventually.

'There's only one thing that actually looks good.'

If he finished fifth or above he could get a 'Salve for an unwavering mind', there was no further description, but that was the only thing he could use right away. Throughout his days his headache became the norm to live with. The sudden glow on his forehead and the pain that throbbed now and then was annoying, but he was getting used to it. He didn't know if it was good to get used to it though.

Lucas looked for a spot to wait until the duels started. It was time for him to reveal who he was and reach the top or try to stay hidden and reach the low 50's. Getting first place did come with a lot of benefits, not only the rewards, but also a way to grow to the next Rank.

'Sigh, we'll have to choose.'

'I don't care about our placement, all I want is that salve to cure our headache. That's all.'

'Don't you understand the importance of our choice?'

'I do, but it's too late now. Our name and skills will be displayed anyway, there's no point in worrying about it anymore.'

'Sigh, fine, let's just get first place. All we have to do is beat every student that is stronger than us...shit.'

'Hahaha, all I have to say is that as the one in control, don't hesitate in our choice. Do what feels natural and if we do try to get first place and fail miserably, we'll have tried and expanded our techniques and tested out our strategies. So honestly, I'm looking forward to this.'

'You have a strange way of thinking.'

'I could say the same about you, you know?'

Lucas bantered on inside his head to waste some time. He wanted to talk to Eleven now, since that was the only somewhat friend he had. But Eleven had no reason to be here, he just needed to grow stronger and wanted to leave the academy as soon as possible.

While waiting, he checked out the meditation technique he received. All it did was calm the mind while absorbing the surrounding magicules, filling up his core a bit faster. It was nice to have, but didn't change anything special.

The seats in the courtyard weren't always there, only for special occasions were they pulled out. The courtyard was a pretty big rectangle with seats completely surrounding it, leaving only two pathways at the outer ends for entering the courtyard itself.

As the seats were filled to the brim, Lucas could see plenty of people that had around the same strength as he had and a bunch where he didn't feel anything. Those were either normal people or at least one Rank above him.

To be seen by so many eyes, all dissecting his battle method and skills made him feel irritated. Next to him was a newly crafted sword he got from Elam. After enduring his 'training' he received it as a reward for holding on.

The sword looked like a basic straight sword but had tiny lines that ran from the hilt to the tip of the sword. By pouring in a certain type of magicules he could make his sword catch flames or coat it in a layer of ice without damaging the weapon. The hilt didn't have that many decorations, it was basic, but it was strong.

The director popped up in the center of the courtyard, it seemed things were about to start. Looking at the man with Magic Vision didn't reveal anything.

'He must've put some sort of protection on himself.'

'Seems reasonable, considering the audience, although I do wonder if he'll stay here for long.'

The old man raised his hands ever slightly, but everyone stopped talking. Lucas still couldn't tell why.

"I welcome you all to the annual duels. We'll start with the first years, moving up to the last years. Good luck.", and he vanished once more.

Lucas felt the urge to laugh at how useless his appearance was. It was only useful to gather the attention so that the other teachers could fill in the empty space.

"Welcome everyone, like our director said the first years will start with the duels. Before we start let me explain the rules."

"1. Every student can only challenge students with a higher score on the scoreboard.

2. When you get challenged you have the option to accept or decline. Declining will mean giving up 10% of your points.

3. When you accept a self-determined number of points have to be wagered.

4. The student who got challenged has the right to decide over the type of challenge.

5. The winner of the challenge receives all the wagered points.

6. You can only challenge the same person once.

7. Artifacts aren't allowed.

The type of challenges can be anything that you're confident in. Whether that be physical strength, figuring out an array or simply combat. The choice is up to you. All students should have received a pin, fueling that pin with elementless magicules will mean you want to challenge someone. We'll shout out the name of the challenger, and then you can come up to the courtyard."

The teacher was done, so he went away to sit with the other teachers. All of them had great expectations from their students. Lucas looked over, but his teachers were nowhere to be seen, he could only think that it was natural.

"Oh, we already have our first challenger, Whitney, please stand in the center of the courtyard."

Whitney, an average woman took her time to get to the center. Lucas couldn't tell if she was nervous or simply uninterested.

"Tell us, who do you want to challenge?"

Whitney was below the top 50, so she knew exactly who to challenge. "I challenge Ulro!"

'Why pick him? Do they have a grudge?'

'Nah, I don't think so, look at his position, he's taking up the 50th place. So basically, the weakest of the strongest group.'

'Quite the schemer, although I don't think it matters. Ulro gets to choose the contest, who wouldn't pick their strongest skill?'

Another man came up to the stage, clearly agreeing to the challenge. He looked quite buff and by the way he handled himself, he had a lot of self-confidence.

"So you want to fight me, huh?"

"I challenged you, you get to decide the test."

"Hah! Fine, I want a test of physical strength."

"Then let's bet all our points if you're so confident.", Whitney had a straight face. She was willing to bet all her points just to get to the top 50. Ulro's face was anything but happy. 'Does this bitch think I'll hold back on her? Hah!'

"Fine, if you want to play like that, I'll gladly agree."

"And so our first contestants have decided on their bet and their contest. Sadly, the amount of points of Whitney is less than what Ulro has, so Ulro can only bet as much as her total amount. Let's bring the target."

Lucas was starting to get annoyed at the performance of the teachers but once he saw that the teachers and high ranking people were betting on the students he understood. This wasn't just a competition to find the strongest students to send to the national competition, it was an event to gather profits.

'Human nature truly is something nasty.'

'What were you expecting? For the people to be friendly and respect each other? Hah!'

A target that was mostly used for archery was brought to the contestants.

"This target can calculate the force of our contestants attacks, the number will show up in the center of the target. That is all, the challenger can go first."

Whitney prepared herself, after studying Lucas's attack during the previous day, she wanted to recreate it in her own way. She wasn't stupid enough to copy it exactly because that would only cause it to backfire. No, she spent her entire night figuring out how it would function for her. Now it was time for her to show her improvements. She didn't have anything to test it on in her dorm, so this would be the very first execution of her home-made spell.

Lucas and practically every other onlooker had already activated their Magic Vision or own analyzing spell. Since Lucas used an extremely self-destructive spell, he was wondering how she would perform. She wouldn't challenge Ulro if she knew she would fail, the scores of the tests could always be found if they visited the scoreboard. She should know the difference between her and Ulro.

Whitney placed her right foot behind her, maintaining her stance. Magicules started to circulate towards her right arm. Pulling her right arm back a small ball of flames appeared right before she punched with her full strength.

Boom

A small explosion occurred hiding Whitney and the target. Lucas looked on with a serious look.

'To use a downgraded explosive spell to boost her performance.'

'She's mocking my technique!'

'What? No she isn't, she just found a way to achieve our result with a more conventional method.'

'Hahaha, more conventional? She blew her own arm to bits!'

'Hmm?'

'I protect our arm, making it strong enough to withstand the power, she's just fumbling around!'

Like a part of Lucas thought, once the smoke cleared Whitney was hunched over hastily trying to heal her wounds. The explosion caused her arm to be shredded, making the bone visible in some parts. Lucas was amazed she wasn't shouting in pain, improving his opinion of her.

Her result was also nothing to sneeze at, the target took some time before a yellow number popped up - 106

She got a score similar to most of the Martial class, which was basically out of reach for any normal method. Ulro could only stare in a mix of anger and fear. He scored an 84, which was possibly one of the higher scores when using muscle strengthening. A cold sweat started to form on his back.

If he used the same method he would be screwed, but trying her method also was easier said than done. First he would need the confidence to destroy his arm if he wanted to succeed, and he would need to configure the spell in mere moments. If it was Lucas, he could've come up with something, but Ulro didn't have Lucas's unique body structure or his ingenious mind.

In the end he just went with his normal method, scoring a 73 this time. Perhaps due to stress or the pressure from the onlooking eyes, he scored lower than usual. The scoreboard had to be updated.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our first contest has just ended with a magnificent twist! Whitney, who was 124th on the board has just jumped in ranks! Whitney had 364 points from the tests but has just doubled her amount, bringing her to the top 50! Ulro on the other hand lost his position as he has to pay up 364 points to Whitney, bringing his total from 742 to a 378, what a loss."

The teacher brought everyone's attention to the scoreboard. Ulro could only look on in despair as his biggest strength was just triumphed by someone who didn't even have half his score. But this was also a massive boost in motivation for every participant, if Whitney could climb from 124 to 50, why couldn't they?

Matheo - 1 - 1436

Eliot - 2 - 1329

Asta - 3 - 1102

...

Conrad - 39 - 932

Whitney - 50 - 728...

...

Ulro - 122 - 378

The only reason Ulro didn't get 124th place was because the few points between his half and Whitney's previous score boosted him 2 spots. Sadly, he didn't feel an ounce of happiness. He needed to climb back up.