Episode 59. Spring Tournament
“Alumnus Adrias Cromwell. Are you inside?”
“yes.”
The morning after the entrance ceremony, someone knocked on the door from the wind.
I had just returned from a morning workout and had taken a shower.
I opened the door, shaking off the water, and there stood the combat magic assistant of the Faculty of Magic.
“Is there a problem?”
“I am here to inform you about the Spring Tournament. My classmates were checked that they did not have a magic tablet, so I came here out of necessity.”
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for
I received an invitation from the other party and listened to the explanation.
“You probably already know about it, but I’ll explain it one more time. First of all, there is no rejection of the tournament because the students have been promoted to the 4th grade this year. As you know, the results of the tournament or the contents of the match are included in the battle magic score, please note that the opponent will be drawn through lottery. Opponents are randomly selected from the Faculty of Knights and the Faculty of Magic, and you can pick one here now.”
The assistant held out a crystal ball.
I had vague memories of doing it before, so I put my hand on the crystal ball and injected mana.
8.
The number came out much earlier than I thought.
About 3000 people participate in this tournament held every year.
It was like another festival where 2,000 members of the Knights Department and 1,000 members of the Magic Department were fighting back and forth.
‘It’s rather good. It’s better to finish quickly and rest than to wait in the waiting area.’
The assistant who checked the number I had drawn wrote my name and number on the tablet she was holding.
“Adrias alumni participation number 8 has been confirmed. The opponent is Aslan, a 2nd year student of the Faculty of Engineering. Do you have any intention to abstain?”
“no.”
“Has confirmed. Adrias, please come to the waiting area of the main stadium of the Faculty of Engineering by 8:00 am next Monday. The entire tournament schedule is 2 weeks, with a total of 2 matches per day in the first week. If we win, we will play 2 matches each on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, then advance to the finals and play the round of 32 from Monday of the 2nd week.”
“yes. All right.”
“Then I hope for good results.”
After the teaching assistant left, I returned to the room and brushed off the remaining wet hair.
In Adrias’ memory, a tournament he participated in when he was a young sophomore came to mind.
‘Eliminated in the first round of the preliminary round.’
A bitter laugh came out.
In the tournament, freshmen who entered this year were not allowed to participate, and students who were promoted to the second year were allowed to participate.
And it was voluntary until the 3rd grade, but it was compulsory participation from the 4th grade.
‘Of course, I can just abstain.’
Starting from the 4th grade, the disadvantage was severe enough to inevitably fail if students abstained.
So even those who hate fighting had no choice but to grit their teeth and try to pass the first game.
As the whole academy participated, the atmosphere was almost on par with the year-end festival.
It was an event that could be a place of opportunity as even prominent figures from various countries came to watch the tournament or scouts from various organizations watched it en masse.
And through this event, freshmen who have just entered the school can also motivate them to practice.
The appearance of strong seniors was a sufficient driving force for training in itself.
‘Just do it in moderation. Just enough to graduate smoothly.’
I have been unlocking my talents and traits for the first time in a while.
―Characteristics: Bowl (Unique) Evolution (Unique) Enlightenment (Epic) Original Sin (??)
―Talent: Black Magic Spirit Class (Superior) Elemental Magic Water Class (Dunjae) Potion Manufacturing Buff Class (Superior) Exercise (Gifted) Combat ( Youngjae) Mana (Sujae)
Compared to the beginning, things have improved a lot.
As for the characteristics, I have never eaten more than two uniques even when I was playing the game, but I already had two, and there were also characteristics of a grade I had never seen before.
‘What is a question mark? A question mark.’
From my point of view, original sin is a bit special, so I put it aside and thought I could slap a tolerable playable a couple of times with just two bowls and evolution.
And the talents that were important enough to be similar to the characteristics were attached to them.
‘Exercise came from learning basic swordsmanship from Nickel, and combat came from breaking the barrier of indolence. The mana talent was really unexpectedly obtained through evolution… ….’
At first, there wasn’t a trash character like me, but looking at it now, it seemed that there were few characters better than me.
When I felt that this was the product of my efforts so far, I felt extraordinary.
“At this level, I won’t kneel anywhere.”
The only problem is that my enemies are too strong.
Of course, there is nothing urgent right now, so you will need to be bold enough to take your time.
‘But do I really need to do it in moderation?’
It was a sudden thought, but I wondered if there was a need to hide my skills.
Even the meeting, which could be regarded as an enemy anyway, received a lot of attention, and it was obvious that the damn emperor was paying attention to me because of the original sin my father had hidden.
The Zefar Church wasn’t scary compared to the two above, but it had already earned enough grudges.
In this situation, hiding my abilities did not seem to mean much.
It didn’t seem too bad to be famous enough not to be touched.
“Isn’t that really bad?”
There is nothing like a tournament to make a spectacular debut, so the timing was right.
In the game, Adrias Cromwell’s emergency was imminent.
* * *
The weekend passed and it was the day of the tournament qualifiers.
As soon as I got up and got ready, I arrived at the waiting room of the stadium, where students were full of students warming up or getting ready.
‘My opponent is Aslan, a sophomore in the Knights Faculty. I think I’ve heard of it.’
Because there were so many students, I didn’t know about them except for a few important people or unusual people who caused incidents.
That meant that there would be a 99% chance that my opponent in the first match would be a mediocre guy.
For now, since it was a preliminaries, I didn’t bother to pull out my sword, and I was planning to compete only with magic.
If it was like before, it would have been dangerous, but now I was confident enough to have all kinds of talents, especially mana and combat talent.
“Participants 1 through 20 will come out!”
An assistant from the Faculty of Engineering, who was in charge of hosting, entered the waiting room and called the players.
As I followed him outside, I noticed the still empty stands.
‘Still, there’s a little bit.’
Students who looked like freshmen were sitting in one of the seats that seemed empty.
As they had just entered the school, most of the new students wanted to enjoy the romantic academy life rather than focusing on training, but there seemed to be no playable among them.
‘No. There is one.’
I saw Lucia Everlast sitting with Vivian and popcorn.
Did you not participate? He was still in the third grade, and his personality seemed plausible enough.
‘I thought Vivian would participate… ….’
Lucia, who saw me then, waved her hand.
“female! senior! Adrias! Here here!”
I have no manners with my seniors.
Now they just call me by name.
When I looked over there, he smiled broadly and waved his arms.
Next to her, Vivian waved her hand a little.
At that time, a professor from the Faculty of Engineering in the middle of the stadium shouted.
“Now, please line them up on the field in numerical order.”
The Great Stadium boasted a wide size to match its name, but a total of 10 simple stadiums were created by dividing the districts into small pieces.
And at each arena, two teaching assistants were placed just in case.
‘Tolman is also with me.’
Tolman Venuel, a professor of combat magic, just stood there in silence.
I know that he was suspended from punishment last time, but it seems that he was released a little early.
Still, nice to see you again.
Coincidentally, the stadium I was assigned to was also near where Tolman was standing.
“Everyone knows the rules, but I will explain it again. Murder is unconditional expulsion, and attacking a helpless opponent is also expelled. Attacking an opponent who has withdrawn is a disqualification. For other unavoidable injuries that leave a handicap, the severity of the crime will be determined by the judgment of the teaching assistant and professor.”
I saw the engineering department student in front of me.
Since he is now in his second year, he seemed full of speculation and passion rather than skill.
‘Twice a day, that’s not the end of the day.’
I felt the need to manage my stamina.
“Going out of the field is also a disqualification, and even if there is no intention to withdraw, the teaching assistant and professor can stop the game and decide the winner or loser at their discretion. Then, when the gong rings, we will begin.”
A tense air swept through the arena.
It wasn’t even a fight to kill each other, but the atmosphere that became serious was a little funny, so I laughed without knowing it.
“Smile?”
Aslan on the other side frowned and said.
“sorry. I thought it was a bit funny. Isn’t that too much to say to a senior in a disrespectful way?”
“I don’t see anyone weaker than me as a senior.”
“okay? Then I’ll make you respectful.”
When only the sound of our conversation echoed in the silence, the teaching assistant raised his hand.
“No small talk.”
“yes. sorry.”
As I lowered my head with an embarrassing smile, Aslan chuckled to the end.
“Let’s see how long it lasts.”
No, but that has been my habit since before… ….
Ding!
The ball rang.
I tried to finish it all at once to arrange my stamina, but it just couldn’t be done.
‘You need some education. I can’t.’
If it was a strategic provocation, I’d dare to say it was a success.
“Ahhh!”
As expected, the opponent rushed with a rigid movement with a lot of excitement.
No matter how outstanding Rodelene’s talent is, he’s only a sophomore at the academy.
It took a long time to become skilled.
‘Greece.’
After using the most basic grease, the opponent noticed the magic and ran left and right to avoid the grease.
I predicted the opponent’s movements and cast magic in advance.
‘Earth Shield.’
Fuck!
Aim for the movement of the opponent who was running left and right, and summoned an earth shield when the opponent jumped sideways.
Then, a picture was created as if the person himself had rammed his body into an earth shield rising from the ground.
“Keugh. Leftovers… …!”
Aslan, enraged after being beaten, straightened himself up and raised his head, and I was already standing there.
The distance was as short as the stadium was divided into 10 equal parts, so when he came to his senses, I had already arrived right in front of him.
“hi?”
puck!
I slammed the opponent’s chin, but I stretched out my fist in succession.
The fist of justice rained down on the unconscious opponent.
* * *
Tolman Venueel watched the entire match, and his eyes widened at the sudden beating.
While trying to find out why the assistant referee did not stop the beatings that were so ruthless, he soon discovered something strange.
‘Robe?’
At first I thought I was looking at it wrong, but I soon noticed that the student who was beating was wearing a wizard’s robe.
The student being beaten is, ironically, a student from the Faculty of Engineering.
‘How did this happen?’
something something… ….
Something was happening at the stadium.
