Chapter 11: Freshman Competition

The target An Xia pointed at was a stone split into two halves.

The moment he activated the rune, almost simultaneously, a translucent giant with a blurred face appeared behind the stone.

The giant even held a club in its hand.

The giant cautiously approached the stone.

After confirming that the stone showed no reaction, it suddenly raised the club high above its head!

BANG!

The giant vanished, and the stone went from two pieces to four.

An Xia fell silent.

Wait, where is my Spiritual Impact?

How did it turn into a blunt strike to the head?!

Most importantly, is this not supposed to be Mental-type Magic?

Why is it dealing physical damage?

So as long as the result is the same, knocking someone unconscious with a club and knocking them out with mental force are considered equivalent?

“Hiss!” An Xia sucked in a breath, genuinely feeling a headache. Not a single spell he had learned was normal.

First, there was the Fireball Spell that fell from the sky.

Now there was this sneaky blow to the head.

Anyone who saw this would be dumbfounded.

There was no need to continue learning new spells.

An Xia estimated that he could learn any type of magic—only that each one would undergo some kind of mutation.

Just as Sezer had said, this was darkness that absorbed countless rays of light.

But An Xia felt that another explanation was more fitting.

It was that all the light shone to such an extreme brilliance that the naked eye could only perceive it as darkness.

The next day, the other freshmen gradually arrived at Lance Magic Academy.

The senior students arrived on the third day.

The academy quickly grew lively.

When the freshmen learned that three people had already reached the academy on the second day after the Entrance Test, they all became curious.

However, no matter how they inquired, they could not find out who those three were.

After all, An Xia and his group kept to themselves too much.

The three of them spent their time meditating, waiting for the opening day, when there would be a competition among the freshmen.

This would allow the instructors to assess their strength and assign them to classes.

Those who achieved good rankings in the competition would receive a considerable amount of Academic Credits.

After experiencing the first-floor cafeteria of the Bronze Badge, the three of them made up their minds to advance to the Silver Badge as soon as possible.

After all, the food on the first floor was barely edible—it only ensured that people would not starve.

Even the academy’s supermarket had restrictions on entry based on badge rank.

With a Bronze Badge, one could only access ordinary daily goods stores, leaving the three of them unable to spend their money even if they wanted to.

Soon, the official opening day arrived.

The morning sky was clear and blue, and the air within Lance Magic Academy carried the fresh scent of grass.

The three gathered once again.

“I’ve become a Level One Mage,” Melva said casually.

“Me too.” Anders grinned, showing his bright white teeth.

“Huh?” It was An Xia’s turn to be confused. “How do you advance to a Level One Mage?”

“...” Melva sighed. She had forgotten that An Xia was still a complete novice in magic.

“When you meditate, can you sense tiny colorful particles?”

“Yes.”

“Those are the elements scattered throughout the world. What you need to do is use your mental power to guide these elements into your body. Once inside, they are stored within you. The next time you cast a spell, after constructing the rune structure, you will not need to expend extra mental power to draw in elements—you can directly use the ones stored in your body. However, the body’s capacity for storing elements is limited, usually similar to your mental power limit. So when you can fill your body with elements up to roughly your mental capacity, you become a Level One Mage.”

An Xia seemed to understand. “So if my mental power breaks through to Level Two, and I increase my element capacity to match it, I would become a Level Two Mage?”

“Exactly.” Melva nodded.

“After your mental power breaks through, you need continuous meditation to reach its limit. The same goes for element capacity—you must constantly draw elements into your body to gradually raise the limit until it matches your mental power.”

“Anders, call me when the competition starts,” An Xia said.

Anders widened his eyes. “You’re going to—?”

An Xia smiled faintly and immediately closed his eyes to meditate.

Although there were many freshmen around, very few paid attention to him.

Even those who did only glanced briefly before looking away.

Soon, An Xia saw the colorful elements.

He mobilized all of his mental power, and instantly, it felt as if a flood surged through his mind.

If others were gently guiding elements with their mental power, then An Xia was forcefully sweeping them into his body!

In an instant, the elements around him erupted into turmoil.

But just as quickly, the disturbance was suppressed and formed into a vortex.

Countless elements vanished into the invisible whirlpool, disappearing without a trace.

The freshmen who sensed this were thrown into panic, completely unaware of what was happening.

Seeing that the situation was turning bad, Anders quickly called An Xia awake.

The elements were no longer being devoured, and within a few seconds, everything returned to normal.

An Xia also realized how massive the aftereffects of his element absorption had been.

He pretended, like the other freshmen, to search for the source of the disturbance.

Melva was slightly stunned.

She had discovered a serious problem.

The commotion An Xia caused while drawing in elements was greater than that of her elders at home!

No—not just greater. The disturbance caused by her elders was not even one-tenth of An Xia’s!

“What kind of monster are you?” Melva poked An Xia with her finger.

“I have no idea,” An “playing dumb” Xia replied.

The disturbance clearly attracted an instructor, but the instructor arrived too late and failed to find the cause, ultimately attributing it to a natural elemental fluctuation.

For safety reasons, the instructor relocated the freshmen to another area.

As time passed, the instructors assigned to teach the freshmen gradually gathered.

Sezer also arrived.

He said nothing, but mental power surged from his body as he cast a mental marking spell.

Soon, every freshman had a number appear on them.

Then, an instructor proficient in earth-element magic stepped forward.

With a raise of both hands, An Xia felt the ground beneath his feet tremble.

Immediately after, three enormous arenas rose from the earth.

Such a spectacular scene flushed many freshmen’s faces with excitement.

Sezer stood on an amplification magic array, holding a list as he announced, “The freshman competition will begin shortly. Please give it your all and strive for a good result. There are a total of one hundred and twenty-one freshmen. The top three will receive between one thousand and six hundred Academic Credits. The top ten will receive four hundred credits, the top twenty will receive two hundred credits, and all remaining participants will receive fifty credits.”

After speaking, Sezer looked at the students. “Now, the freshman competition begins! Students numbered 1 to 6, please step onto the stage!”

An Xia glanced down at his own number—it was 67. He turned to look at the others. Anders was 45, and Melva was 52.

It seemed they would not encounter each other immediately.

Six freshmen stepped onto the three arenas—some arrogant, some dejected, and some calm.

Each arena measured fifty meters in both length and width, providing ample space for the freshmen to display their abilities.

After all, no matter how talented they were, at their age, they would at most be early Level Two Mages. Even prodigies would only barely reach Level Three.

Levels One to Three were collectively known as low-level mages.