Chapter 56: Qualifying Battle (1)
"As always, for a Qualifying Battle, the rules will be the same and will be governed by those of the Tool Creation Department."
"The entire class must participate in creating or restoring the tools."
"Each student must demonstrate that they have the ability to advance to the next rank or remain there."
"The teacher is your personal instructor; he will guide you through the process. But he cannot interfere with the creation of any of the tools." At this point, the teacher serving as referee stared intently at Jake Lakeside.
He seemed to want to give him a stern reprimand, as he believed that Class F’s confidence in advancing stemmed from the fact that Jake was trying to help them more than he should.
Jake scoffed inwardly. ’Dude, you’ve got someone better than any of us on the student team—why are you looking at me? He’s the one cheating with that absurd knowledge!’
If he could have said it, he surely would have. But he chose to remain silent.
"As always, the Qualifying Battle will be divided into three parts. The first part will consist of repairing a magical tool chosen by the roulette wheel. Both of you will repair the same magical tool, with the same damage, to ensure fairness."
"In the second part, you’ll have to create a magical tool from scratch. Once again, the roulette wheel will be used for this."
"Finally, using the same materials used to create the magical tool and to repair the first one, you’ll create a Golem to battle each other. It will be a battle powered by Mana Marks chosen by the Judges."
The students nodded, but one of them had a question, so he decided to ask it—it was Zachary from Class F.
"What will the mana mark for the Golem be? Since it’s a beast-type magical tool, we’ll need to know it in advance so we can create the corresponding partition," he said, voicing a genuine doubt that many were wondering about.
The referee-professor laughed derisively. "You won’t be able to know until you finish the Golem. It’s one of the tests."
Zachary’s eyes widened. "R-really?" He wasn’t the only one who had a similar reaction.
Several students from Class F had the same reaction. Others frowned.
Even Clara and Lucius were a little surprised, though Class E wasn’t.
These rules weren’t widely known, even though the battles are public. In fact, no one other than the contestants, the judges, and the teachers is listening to this conversation right now.
That’s why those who hadn’t participated before didn’t have much of a clue.
Jake knew it, but since it was written in the rules, he couldn’t say anything. That’s why none of them were aware of it.
Although several of the students in Class F took this the wrong way, they didn’t give much away when they noticed the calm expression on their captain’s face.
Lucius didn’t give it much thought. It was just that this was something he had deliberately chosen not to teach his beloved new students.
’I don’t know how the bureaucracy works around here, but I can’t let them stand in the way of my promotion. If one person in Class F could do it, it would be considered very unusual, but it’s possible. On the other hand, if 13 can do it, they’d already be suspicious and put up obstacles,’ he thought.
That’s why he’d decided not to teach them.
All the other rules were within what he’d expected. This Qualifying Battle could be won.
After the referee finished explaining the rules, he directed them to their designated spots. "Take your places. The Qualifying Battle will begin in exactly 5 minutes," he said, pointing to the two rooms made of transparent glass, where a timer had started counting down from 5 minutes.
One for each team.
Inside those rooms made of clear glass was a wide variety of shattered magical materials and tools that were nearly beyond repair. Well, for everyone present except Lucius, none of those tools could be repaired.
However, Lucius found various ways to repair them in the shortest possible time just by glancing at them.
They were in clear metal containers and were not yet usable.
Each class made its way to its classroom.
Class E and Class F were finally going to face off in a Ranking Battle.
Lucius didn’t show Class E even the slightest bit of respect. Since they’d behaved so rudely, he now had only one duty: to make sure they became the new Class F.
He looked at his classmates. "This competition will be easier than I thought. Don’t worry, we’ll move up to Class E without any trouble," he said.
The students, weighed down by the historic event they might witness, smiled at his carefree and tactless words. The pressure in their hearts eased noticeably thanks to Lucius’s words.
Some even laughed. "That’s so typical of you, Young Lord," said Joao.
"I guess only the Young Lord could say something like that, so nonchalantly," laughed another one of them.
Clara agreed. Even though she now had great confidence in her own abilities and firmly believed they could advance, she couldn’t help but feel nervous at that moment.
After that brief exchange, the five minutes were up.
A beep sounded, and the Qualifying Battle officially began.
The referee and other teachers brought out a huge roulette wheel and placed it in the middle of the two glass rooms.
There were many options on that roulette wheel, but all of them involved "repairing" tools. The variety lay in the number of tools that could be repaired.
The wheel spun, and after numerous revolutions, it came to a stop.
-Repair a support-type tool with 70% structural damage.
-It doesn’t matter if the tool ends up being completely different in the end; as long as the restored tool is the same type as the one requested.
It read.
This time, the students weren’t the only ones surprised—even the referee was.
"Wow, what bad luck. The fact that the wheel itself says it doesn’t matter if the tool changes means the judges will be the ones to choose it." He looked at the judges.
The ten of them smiled maliciously.
They were judges; they rarely had to intervene directly. However, whenever they did, they gave it their all.
No one who couldn’t pass the most difficult test determined by the roulette wheel was worthy of advancing to the next level.
That’s why they would always choose the most difficult tools they could afford. And this time would be no exception.
After a brief discussion among themselves, they took out two support-type magic tools and handed them to the two groups of students.
"A magic tool of the type that can cast buffs. Its shape is the most basic: a star," said the judge, continuing.
"The time limit is four hours per test, and although it’s already late, we can stay here until dawn if necessary, so take your time." He laughed before walking away and returning to his seat.
Without another word, the referee took the roulette wheel, and the Battle began without delay.
"Class F will always be the scum of the classes. Today we’ll prove it to the whole audience," the Class E captain exclaimed once again, his words laced with mockery.
Lucius couldn’t understand where this guy got the nerve to spout such taunts.
’Doesn’t he realize he’s practically a Rank F, just with a little bit of steroids?’ Lucius shook his head and refused to fall for his empty rhetoric.
The tool in front of him was a star... or so it seemed. It was almost completely destroyed. With 70% destroyed and 30% intact, it was a complicated tool to repair... for others.
’Even my dear students can fix this,’ he thought, glancing at his classmates.
Indeed, they were beaming with radiant smiles, and all their tension had vanished.
This was so much easier than those hellish days Lucius put them through to teach them how to fix broken tools!
The simple fact that, at a glance, most of them could recognize what kind of tool it was, its function, and even spot some damage that could be repaired brought them great relief.
’At least they aren’t completely wrecked...’ they thought.
"If you’re so happy about it, then let’s get this done quickly," Lucius said with a chuckle.
They looked at him, encouraged. "It’ll be easy!"
"But not so fast." Lucius stopped them. "We’ve been assigned a support-type tool. We have to make some adjustments along the way," he said.
Zachary and Joao looked at each other, confused. "What for?" they asked.
"I see." Clara’s eyes sparkled brightly at that moment. "The tournament rule says we have to use the materials from both tools to create the golem. But if we prepare the tools for that in advance... it speeds up the process. Is that what you want to do?" she asked.
Lucius smiled, pleased with her keen understanding. "You’ve understood me all along. That’s exactly what I want to do." He praised her and looked at his companions.
"This tool is a support type that provides buffs—it’s exactly what we need to make the final golem more powerful. I’ll walk you all through this," Lucius said.
"Using a restored tool during battle to strengthen the final golem..." Joao and the rest of the students chuckled softly. "Only you could come up with something like that." They shook their heads, but agreed with him.
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