Special Chapter VIII - Internship Quest (part 2)

After Arfius got back on his feet and Albert feeling rather okay, we entered the dungeon. Roy came with us, but he ended up not needed. Literally everyone in our group is capable, and we destroyed the entire monster's den without mercy. None of us got wounded, and we cleaned it up like clearing dust from a dirty library, slowly but surely as we enjoyed it.

The other teams were also doing their missions. They helped villages, dealing with stray monsters, and even did a lot of community services in the kingdom.

Compared to our team, though, their missions are whack.

The news about my team's success in taking down a Purple ranked dungeon just by ourselves made it to tomorrow's headline in the newspaper. Everyone talked about how amazing the 'Ace' team from the academy is, and they were rather proud of having them protect the kingdom.

But in reality, it was just us competing on who is killing the most monsters.

"I killed fifty six! That last one was my kill!"

"No!? The dungeon boss was my kill!"

Keira and Albert are arguing about who killed the boss. The boss was so weak, that both of them each fired a single attack at it and it died instantly from receiving both attacks.

Arfius tried to reason and joined their argument to stop them, but then the two of them lifted all of their fingers in their right hand.

""Five!""

"No! One!!"

Now, Arfius is in the argument club.

We just took down the dungeon and took a 'rest' outside the dungeon. Roy told them we were too quick on taking down the dungeon, that we had nothing to do for the rest of the day, and we could just return to the floating castle for the night.

But nobody wanted to take a rest, and we all stayed outside the dungeon entrance to slack off. 

While those three are arguing, I gave some tips to Leo on what he can do with his water magic. Training people has been rather enjoyable for me, and Leo is a very keen and quick learner. Roy listened in as well, despite not having water magic as his main magic, but he still tried a little bit.

VWOOOMMM!!!

Our entire surroundings turned dark, and everyone turned their gaze upwards.

Leo was able to create a gigantic water golem, which caught everyone's attention. The golem had a height of about twenty meters, and it was made out of thin air.

That is indeed amazing, and I bet he could have made more if he wanted to. 

Leo tried commanding the golem to do stuff, while I left him and joined the other three to solve their issue.

But…

I ended up getting into an argument with Arfius on who killed the most. 

Obviously, I did the most. But because I split up from the others when we were down there, Arfius kept on saying that I was lying.

We returned to the floating island again before sundown after slacking off for a long while. And looks like all the other teams had already returned long before us, and was wondering where we disappeared to.

After today, all the teams were accepted to ascend into the next level, which is a much harder mission. Tomorrow, we will be facing a mission more difficult than today, and the supervisors will be doing less help.

But for my team, any kind of mission is simple enough for us to take care of.

During the evening, the students stayed on the mages barracks below the floating island. Luckily the barracks was large enough to contain a huge number of students to stay for a whole week, so there is no issue in letting us stay in their barracks.

And during the night, we had some fun in the barracks with the mages.

BAARR!!!

That explosion came from the center of the large field behind the barracks. The explosion was quite large, and the smoke reached tens of meters in the air.

Surrounding the explosion on this really large field, are all the mages and students from the academy who came to watch. Above them, there are also a lot of mages who watch while flying, so they can get an even better perspective.

After all, the fighting scene in the center was very exciting to watch.

"Yaa-hoo!!!"

A single female with orange hair shouted loudly as she punched the air above her as a gesture of celebration. Next to her is a handsome boy with blue hair that is quite famous to literally the entire kingdom.

Jericho and Arfius, the two stood against a couple of professional mages from the Magister rank and won. The students from the academy know very well that their abilities right now are just as good as a Master Magician, but the mages who had no idea were quite bewildered by the scene.

They thought it was all just a joke, but apparently it was the truth.

The night games continue with many more challenges in the center of the field. Another group of students came challenging their supervisor, and it's a five versus one. It wasn't as impressive as the two vs two by Jericho and Arfius, but it was still rather emotional.

The supervisor won without receiving a hit, and the team of students who were his interns are on the ground completely beaten up and tired.

Everyone clapped their hands after the fight was over, and a man in the robes appeared again as the commentator. A mic was held on his right hand, and he wore a half mask to cover the top part of his face.

Anyone can easily tell that the robed guy was actually Eaden, and he is commentating this entire thing as the MC.

"Now, now. That was indeed impressive, though! For a group of students challenging their supervisor still requires bravery! Let's give some more applause to them!"

The spectators clapped their hands after being told. 

Thanks to the bright lighting lamps floating on the skies, I can see the entire field from up here. I can see that everyone clapped their hands while the group of students who were fighting left the field while being completely tired.

I'm sure the healing magicians will heal them afterwards. I won't have to lower my hand to them.

"Next up, we have another challenge… but this is a bit weird. It's a challenge from a very special mage to a very special student! Quite interesting, indeed!

Let me call the student first. Rize Violet, do come to the center-"

BARR!!

The ground next to Eaden exploded. When the dust cleared, everyone could see that I had arrived next to him with a wide grin on my face.

"I wonder who is smart enough to challenge me."

I said that rather loudly, and without a mic, I think everyone can still hear me.

Eaden cleared his throat, and pointed his finger towards the exit on the north. The gate was opened, and a single man entered.

"Oya."

I muttered when I saw the man. From his robe, I can tell that he is a Master Wizard, and he doesn't look young at all. If I were to guess, he is around his fifties.

And his expression looked rather stern.

He walked all the way to the center of the field, which took a very long time. The entire field was silent when he walked, and only his footsteps were heard.

Everyone recognized this man as a Master Wizard, and I know that he is a very important man in the kingdom. But looking at him closer, I feel like I have misjudged him on his age.

He looked like fifty, but for some reason, I feel like he is much older than that.

Just from his hair color, I can tell what family he is from.

A Hoaqin, huh…

"This is Lord Jelard Hoaqin, the previous family head of the Hoaqin family."

Eaden introduced him to me, but I still kept my eyes to the old man. The old man is also staring sharply at me, not turning away at all.

I knew it… he is not fifty.

The air became colder as the two of us sharply glared at one another. The spectators around us simply become silent as they watch the event unravel slowly in front of them.

"You are… the one who beat Valencia?"

I see... Ah, right. He is Val's grandpa.

"Indeed. I met her for the first time, the other day."

"Valencia was… my greatest. It's too bad she likes to stay hidden from the people, when she could have become the next arch mage."

"I agree. She could have."

"… So you agree as well?"

"I mean compared to a snot like Arfius, anyone who knows about her would be able to tell."

Hearing my words, the old man laughed loudly.

"I have come this evening to see for myself what kind of person that actually can beat Valencia. I trained her myself, and she was already past the point where she can even beat her father."

"She… beat her father before?"

Honestly, I shouldn't be surprised. Val absolutely destroyed me when I was lowering my guard. I don't think there's anyone in Xyphon that is capable of beating her, though I'm still not sure about Julius.

"I see… so you wanted to find out for yourself."

"Indeed… would you accept the challenge from this old man?"

"With pleasure."

The old man chuckled as he nodded. He turned around and began walking to a certain distance.

"Tell everyone to get ready. This fight might get slightly uncontrolled."

I said without turning to Eaden, and he got very confused as to what is about to happen. I turned around and left him completely confused, and he stuttered when he announced it.

"L-Looks like… we have the star event of the night! An elder from the Hoaqin family as well as the previous Hoaqin family head, Lord Jelard Hoaqin, has come personally to challenge a student from the second year, Rize Violet!!

How will this spar go, we shall see!!"