Chapter 143 Hell Maze
On Maximus' Stand:
The 382 grade one student received their reward medal and returned to their parents.
Soon, Luke and his siblings returned to their stand.
"Congratulations on passing!" Maximus said, seeing his children come.
"Brother, you're awesome," Max praised Luke and Sam.
"It's all thanks to Neo," Luke said, patting Neo on the shoulders.
While they were talking and praising each other, the grade two test began.
"For all the grade two students, please come to the platform..." Elara, the event organizer, announced.
"It's our turn," Liam muttered.
"Good luck!" Maximus cheered.
"Brothers, you must win!"
"Sisters, stay safe."
The group cheered as Liam, Lily, Max, Nathan, Lyla, and Lydia walked out.
...
"It's time for the test," Max muttered as he stretched his body.
"I wonder what kind of test we will take," Lyla wondered.
"It should be fighting, then it would be easy," Max guessed.
"It's kind of barbaric, it should be like the grade one test with some twists," Lily said.
"I hope it's not too hard..." Lydia prayed.
While they were talking, the other grade two students came to the platform, waiting.
"For the grade two test, it will be a hell maze..."
As Elara's voice dropped, the place began to morph again.
Towering walls appeared, forming a complex maze.
Inside, all kinds of monsters appeared beside a chest.
"For this test, you only need to walk out of the maze before the time limit."
"However, to leave the maze, you need enough points."
"You can only get points from monsters."
"However, you are welcome to steal points from your classmates by defeating them."
"The test begins!"
Just as they were about to process what Teacher Elara was saying.
The Students disappeared and randomly teleported into the maze.
...
"Huh?" Liam muttered as he looked around.
"It seems that we are separated..."
"Exit Maze... Points...." Liam pondered as he looked at the huge hologram above.
[99 minutes...]
"What about the points?"
"Oh, it's here," Liam saw words on his wrist.
[Liam Shadowcrest: 0/1,000]
"I wonder how points are counted."
"It seems that I need to fight monsters."
Without delaying any further, he walked around towering walls, hoping to find anything.
"There it is!" Liam saw a huge snake hissing.
"It seems that it's not so hard to find a monster."
Snap*
With a slap of his palm, the snake monster went dizzy for a while and fought back.
"Huh! Close!" Liam hurriedly retreated, seeing the snake monsters attack back.
"Peak Tier 1? This test is a bit hard," Liam sighed.
You know grade two students are forced to consolidate themselves.
Without advancing to grade three, you cannot advance to tier 2.
This is done so you can build a solid foundation.
With this, passing the Origin Arcana Institute trial before a hundred years old is no longer a dream.
"Time to get serious..." Liam muttered.
"Elemental endurance!"
"Reflex Boost!"
"Nova Burst!"
"Feral Agility"
Liam activated all his tier 1 boosting spells on his body.
Laying the foundation means training both soul and body, so Liam was both a knight and a mage.
However, Liam's preferred fighting style is that of a knight.
"Time to fight!"
A fist, covered with mana, came through the head of the snake monster as if it had a tracker.
Bang*
Without letting the snake react, Liam followed through with a barrage of never-ending punches and kicks.
Although the snake monster tried to fight back.
Liam's overwhelming speed and reflexes prevented the snake monster from even touching his clothes.
Thud*
The giant snake collapsed as it evaporated, giving Liam 30 points.
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
"Hah!"
"The burden on my body is not small," Liam muttered, catching his breath.
"It's too little..." After a while, seeing he only got 30 points, he smiled wryly.
"Huh?, What is this?"
"A treasure chest?"
Curious, he opened the treasure chest that spawned after he defeated the monster.
Glitter*
The treasure chest shone, revealing a breastplate.
"Armor?"
After Liam tried on that armor, he felt mana pervading his body, strengthening it.
"A tier 1 armor?"
"This should be a way to pass this trial," Liam muttered with a gleam in his eyes.
Liam noticed earlier that he was only a virtual body.
Meaning all his belongings are pretty much useless.
But now, with the treasure, his chance of passing the test has gone up by a few percent.
"There should be more..." Liam thought as he began finding monsters.
...
[65 minutes...]
[Lily Shadowcrest: 195/1,000]
"Sigh, I wonder if I can pass this test."
Lily had been unlucky from the beginning, she could hardly find any monsters.
"Hehe, what an unlucky beauty," a man laughed lewdly.
"It's just a little girl," his partner said.
"What do you know? You don't have any aesthetics!"
"Tsk, surrender now, and give us your points if you don't want to get hurt!"
"Oh, another prey," Lily muttered, rolling her eyes.
"Although I can't find monsters, you will suffice," Lily laughed a little.
She had truly been unlucky; she had only found one monster so far.
But the rate of other students passing by her was so frequent that she had nearly reached 200 points.
"I wonder how many points you have," Lily licked her lips.
The student earlier only had tens of points, so she didn't earn much.
Now over half an hour had passed by, there should be more points.
"Little beauty, you're craz-"
Before one of them finished speaking, Lily lunged forward.
"Tsk, a little tender," one of the two mocked.
Lily didn't hear what they were saying as she was preparing to cast a spell.
"Ice lance," Lily cast silently.
Luckily, the two reacted quickly and dodged the spell.
However, this was within Lily's calculation.
Now their distance was less than a meter, which was within her range.
Snap*
A lightning kick covered with thorns snapped toward one of them through the neck.
"Impossi-" The man didn't finish speaking as he disintegrated, being kicked off the platform.
Seeing his companion died quickly, he hurriedly retreated, hoping to have a little breathing time.
Unfortunately for him, the ice lance that Lily had cast earlier was tied with a metal wire, allowing Lily to control it.
Splat*
The ice lance turned back, catching him off guard as it pierced through his neck, killing him.
"Thank you for the points..." Lily smiled innocently as the student disintegrated.
...
[50 minutes...]
[Lyla Shadowcrest: 350/1,000 points]
[Lydia Shadowcrest: 350/1,000 points]
"Sister, we can't pass the test like this," Lydia said to Lyla.
The two were lucky as they met within the first few minutes.
With their teamwork, they bulldozed all the monsters they found.
"How about we fight other students for points?" Lyla suggested.
"But that's bad."
"How can that be bad? We're just borrowing points," Lyla reasoned.
"Borrowing? How is it borrowing?"
"We are going to borrow and never pay it back," Lyla grinned.
"Isn't that just robbing?"
"Hehe, quit asking and get to work."
"A-alright."
Without delay, the two sisters geared up and scoured the maze looking for a target.
...
[40 minutes...]
[Nathan Shadowcrest: 750/1,000]
Slash*
A student disappeared as he held his neck from being slashed.
"Another point..." Nathan muttered as he disappeared into the shadows.
"It's really efficient to hunt students."
Nathan didn't bother hunting any monsters since he arrived here.
Hunting monsters is tiring and prone to ambush and danger.
Assassinating students, on the other hand, is safe and efficient.
"Another one and I could get out of this maze..."
Looking at his points, Nathan thought of the next plan.
[Nathan Shadowcrest: 950/1,000]
"I should find the exit while I hunt..."
...
[35 minutes...]
[Max Shadowcrest: 550/1,000]
"Hey, another monster!" Max smiled happily as he spotted an alligator monster.
Without wasting time, Max blessed himself with a spell as he clashed with the monster using his pure body.
As for the armor he got from the treasure chest or something, they were all thrown out.
Max didn't treat this as a test at all, but instead, a training ground to refine his fighting skills.
Bam!*
After less than a minute of fighting, the alligator monster disintegrated like smoke.
"Ha! Not enough!"
"I can't defeat that witch Ella like this!" Max turned serious as he thought of his ultimate rival.
All this suffering is so that one day he can defeat Ella.
"What witch?"
Like a time spell, Max's face froze as he slowly turned to his back.
"Y-You!" Max nervously said.
"What, me? The witch?" Ella's smile sent shivers down Max's spine.
"N-No, this is a misunderstanding," Max hurriedly apologized.
"What misunderstanding?" Ella still smiled.
"This, I-I didn't say anything," Max quickly shut his mouth.
"Hmph, I forgive you this time," Ella didn't pursue it any further.
"By the way, what are you doing here?" Max asked.
"I'm just wandering, and I saw you."
"How about your points?"
"Oh, it's alright, a thousand points," Ella said proudly.
"What?! So fast?"
"Hehe, with this little lady, nothing is impossible."
"Then you should find the exit quickly. Bye!" Max hurriedly said, hoping to escape.
"Wait!" Ella held onto Max's clothes.
"What?"
"L-let me join you," Ella said with a blush.
"Are you sure? But you already finished collecting points."
"Don't you want to be with this lady?" Ella said, making a pitiful expression.
"That's... fine. But don't hold me back."
"Who are you looking down on? Come, let's go!"
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