Chapter 16: Class Competition

A month passed just like that.

The freshmen in each class had more or less grown familiar with one another, and by now, everyone generally knew everyone else.

Melva had even received several unsigned love letters.

Because she was always one step slower than An Xia, every single one ended up with An Xia publicly exposing them.

She was so furious that she directly blasted magic at him.

But An Xia could stay perfectly still one moment and bolt like a mad rabbit the next.

How could such paltry attacks possibly hit him?

So the next morning, the moment he stepped outside, a water ball smashed straight into his face.

After he recovered, An Xia immediately complained to Anders about how unfair Lance Magic Academy was.

Why were boys not allowed to go anywhere near the girls’ dormitory area?

Why were they not even allowed to step onto the road leading there?

And yet girls could wander into the boys’ dorms whenever they pleased.

Anders had no intention of commenting on that, because Melva was holding a water ball aimed directly at him.

The three of them were also earning and spending their Academic Credits with remarkable regularity.

Every day, they spent nine points at the cafeteria, while finishing their homework only earned them ten points.

So whether it was them or the other freshmen, everyone was hoping that a new way to earn Academic Credits would appear.

That opportunity arrived very quickly.

The results of the end-of-month quiz had already come out the day before.

An Xia sat proudly at the very top with a perfect score, while everyone else had only barely managed to pass.

Because of that, Abyss decided to begin the second phase of their studies.

Magical sparring.

The magic a Low-level Mage could learn was not especially powerful.

Even Flame Burst, the highest-damage spell among them, was only about as strong as An Xia’s Fireball Spell.

So Abyss gave each of them a bracelet.

It was the work of one of the academy’s instructors who specialized in crafting magic items.

It recharged automatically, and in a single day, it could block up to fifty hits from magic no higher than Third-level Magic.

Even Fourth-level Magic could be blocked ten times.

A Low-level Mage could not cast a hundred spells in a single day anyway, so with the bracelet on, they could engage in magical sparring without anyone getting hurt.

The bracelet also had an automatic function that could detect the damage from incoming magic, allowing it to serve as a judge during a match.

For example, if you were hit by magic a certain number of times in a sparring match and the accumulated damage reached the threshold for death or crippling injury, the bracelet would automatically announce the result and determine the winner.

The winner of each match would receive three Academic Credits, while the loser would only get one.

After all, once there was motivation, how could there be no pressure to go with it?

However, after what had happened in the Freshman Competition, not a single person wanted to spar with An Xia.

Since that was the case, An Xia decided to take the initiative himself.

The class instantly descended into chaos.

An Xia was like a walking disaster, making every classmate avoid him as though he carried the plague.

The moment anyone recovered, they immediately signed up for another sparring match, just so An Xia would not find a chance to cut in.

In the end, even Abyss could not bear to watch anymore and forcibly set a rule: after every person won two matches, they had to fight An Xia once.

Only then was the farce finally brought to an end.

But An Xia found it even more boring, because when most people were forced to face him, they simply chose to surrender.

How lonely it was to be invincible!

With a sigh, An Xia could only retreat to a corner and practice magic by himself.

The place where they held their magical sparring was a section of ground reinforced by powerful figures from the academy.

Even if it were struck by Seventh-level Magic, it would remain completely unharmed.

So when An Xia practiced magic there, he felt no psychological pressure whatsoever.

After all, he did not need to worry about damaging public property and having to pay compensation.

As a result, their class had developed an extremely strange atmosphere.

On one side, the freshmen were engaged in fierce magical sparring.

On the other, An Xia stood alone, repeatedly casting Fireball Spell out of sheer boredom, the explosions crackling one after another like a string of firecrackers.

That situation did not improve until half a month later.

Because the inter-class competition was about to begin.

If instructors could pressure their students, then naturally the academy could pressure its instructors as well.

From here on, whenever two classes were paired against each other, the academy would allocate ten low-level cultivation rooms.

As for which class would get to use them, that would depend on who won the class competition.

The winning class would not only gain seven days of access to the cultivation rooms, but their mentor’s salary for that month would also rise by thirty percent.

The class competing against An Xia’s was the one Anders belonged to.

Because of that, the burly mentor of Anders’s class had been training them like mad.

Every time Anders returned to the dormitory, he looked half dead.

The first class competition was set to begin three days later.

Although the reward was extremely tempting, from An Xia’s observation, Abyss did not seem to care about it in the slightest.

Their class was still being left to fend for itself.

Melva, however, was taking it very seriously.

She kept dragging the girls in the class into continuous practice.

Sometimes, An Xia would even be called over to serve as a sparring partner.

When the day ended and he was on the way back to the dormitory, someone stopped An Xia.

Melva, who was walking with him, glanced at him once and chose to leave first.

The one who had stopped An Xia was none other than Lang Ning.

“It has been a long time, An Xia,” Lang Ning said calmly and confidently. It was as though he had been completely remade. His entire bearing had taken on a naked sharpness, like an unsheathed sword.

“What do you want?” An Xia could not tell what Lang Ning was after.

“I am no longer the man I was yesterday,” Lang Ning said steadily. “During this past month or so, I have come to understand my own shortcomings and realized why I lost to you back then.”

“That is why I set aside my arrogance, lowered my head, and humbly studied under Mentor Fenno.”

“In the class competition three days from now, I will defeat you and reclaim the glory I lost!”

After saying that, Lang Ning turned and walked away, leaving An Xia with nothing but his back.

“This...”

Only then did An Xia finally realize that Lang Ning was declaring war on him.

As expected, boys that age were always prone to these melodramatic attacks.

But Mentor Fenno... was that not the name of Anders’s class mentor?

So Lang Ning was in that class too.

An Xia had not even noticed.

He should go back and ask Anders about the situation.

Only by knowing both himself and his enemy could he win every battle.

If Lang Ning’s strength had truly advanced by leaps and bounds, then An Xia could not rule out the possibility of surrendering before the fight even began.

When he returned to the dormitory, Anders was indeed already back as well.

“Anders, is Lang Ning in your class?” An Xia asked.

“Yes,” Anders replied.

The moment Lang Ning was mentioned, fear appeared in his eyes.

“That guy simply does not treat himself like a human being!”

“How so?” An Xia was instantly seized by immense curiosity.

“Isn’t magical sparring supposed to be carried out among students?”

“Yeah.”

“But Lang Ning never thinks about fighting us. Every single time, he attacks Mentor Fenno instead!”

An Xia sucked in a cold breath.

This man was terrifying beyond measure! No wonder Anders feared him so much!

Anyone capable of becoming a mentor could not possibly be weak if one gave it even a little thought.

“So every time, Lang Ning gets beaten up horribly?”

“Exactly. Every time Mentor Fenno finished with him, Lang Ning’s face would swell so badly that even his own mother would not recognize him. Fortunately, his family bought him some medicinal potion with excellent healing effects. After applying it, he would recover in half an hour,” Anders said with a sigh.

At once, An Xia’s heart grew heavy.

To be challenged by someone that hardworking truly brought immense pressure.