A pillar of pale blue light shot into the sky.
The Neutral Core had been secured.
One by one, the rewards materialized before us.
Crates of preserved food.
Bundles of arrows.
Healing potions.
Mana crystals.
A rolled parchment bearing the academy's seal.
"Alright," I said, clapping my hands. "Pile everything over there."
...
...
Iris raised a hand.
"Where, exactly?"
I pointed.
"...There."
She blinked.
"I don't see anything."
"You... can't?"
"No."
...
I really need to visit a casino after this.
I grabbed one of the supply crates and tossed it forward.
It vanished into thin air.
"That."
I pointed at the empty space.
"Just throw everything in there."
Iris's eyes widened.
"How are you doing that?"
"Innate ability."
"Oh, tsk."
She looked oddly disappointed.
Finn blinked.
"That is the most unfairly convenient ability I've ever seen."
"I know."
One crate disappeared.
Then another.
And another.
Soon the entire pile was gone.
Iris glanced toward the forest.
"They're getting close."
"Let them."
I reached for the final crate.
Footsteps.
Lots of footsteps.
Branches rustled.
A second team burst from the trees.
Five people.
Weapons already drawn.
Their confident expressions immediately froze.
They looked at the empty capture point.
Then at me.
Standing beside absolutely nothing.
The last crate vanished into my inventory with a soft...
Pop.
I gave them a friendly wave.
"Yo."
Silence.
I dusted off my hands.
"...Sorry."
I gestured toward the now-inactive Neutral Core.
"But this location is currently out of stock."
The apparent leader stared at me.
"...Out of stock?"
"Yep."
"We already claimed it."
Another student looked around in confusion.
"But..."
"Where are the supplies?"
I patted my chest.
"Securely stored."
"...In your backpack?"
"My inventory."
The team leader slowly pinched the bridge of his nose.
"So..."
"We sprinted through a forest for twenty minutes..."
"...and arrived five seconds too late?"
I gave him a sympathetic nod.
"That's rough buddy."
Finn leaned closer.
"...Shouldn't we leave?"
"Probably."
The opposing team's mage immediately leveled her staff.
"You're not leaving with all of it!"
I tilted my head.
"Counterargument."
I pointed at the now-dark crystal.
"We absolutely are."
The atmosphere instantly grew heavy.
Weapons were raised.
Mana gathered.
My teammates quietly spread into formation.
Finn let out a tired sigh.
"There goes the peaceful solution."
I rolled my shoulders.
"What~, I was just following our team strategy."
"Yeah but we could've gotten them offguard first."
Rhea laughed
"Where's the fun in that?."
I reached into my inventory.
The battlefield fell silent.
One of the beastkin blinked.
"...What is that?"
I rested the bat on my shoulder.
"This?"
"It's the thing that's about to break your neko neko kneecaps."
The cat beastkin instinctively took a step back.
"I'M NOT EVEN A CAT!"
"Oh."
I looked him over.
"I apologize."
I pointed the bat at him.
"Your unspecified kneecaps, then."
The team leader slowly drew his sword.
Why did everyone use swords?
Fantasy had hundreds of weapons.
Axes.
Spears.
Halberds.
Warhammers.
Someone out there invented a magical shovel.
Yet somehow...
It always came back to swords.
Balin uses sword, Hjördis uses sword, Noah uses sword, Hans Uses sword.
For the love of god, stop using swords.
"Last chance."
"Hand over the supplies, we don't want to fight."
I smiled politely.
"Wonderful, neither do we."
Hope briefly appeared on his face.
I continued.
"So we'll be leaving now."
I took exactly one step backward.
The opposing team took one step forward.
"..."
"..."
Nobody moved.
Then...
Rhea finally snapped.
"OH, FOR THE LOVE OF-"
She marched past me, planting her massive axe into the ground with a thunderous BOOM that shook loose leaves from the surrounding trees.
The earth cracked beneath the blade.
She pointed straight at the opposing team.
"ARE WE FIGHTING OR NOT?!"
"I HAVE BEEN STANDING HERE FOR FIVE MINUTES WHILE YOU TWO NEGOTIATE LIKE MERCHANTS BUYING CABBAGES!"
She swung the axe back onto her shoulder.
"IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT, THEN FIGHT!"
"IF YOU WANT TO TALK, THEN TALK!"
"BUT PICK ONE BEFORE I GROW OLD!"
"That rhymes" notes Dorian.
"It did not" finn argued.
I looked at the opposing leader.
He looked at me.
I sighed.
"Fair enough."
I casually twirled the bat once before resting it on my shoulder again.
"Rock, paper, scissors to decide the winner?"
"..."
The opposing leader exploded.
"ATTACK THEM!"
The opposing team moved all at once.
The mage was the quickest.
A circle of crimson mana blossomed beneath her feet.
"Fire Lance!"
Three blazing spears tore through the air.
"Iris."
"I know."
She calmly raised a hand.
Blue mana rippled outward.
The incoming fire twisted, stopped, before simply steaming into the air.
Iris noted.
"Why would you announce your attack?, don't you know that the Magnium winner Barry, No not you" iris pointed at me.
"It's a common name, don't worry about it."
"As I was saying the legendary winner of the Magnium, barry invented reverse casting?, I mean that was Centuries ago, and somehow you didn't know?."
The enemy mage
"What?, Huh?, I- I thought it was cool."
"It's mediciore that's what it is."
Clutching his chest he looked visibly in pain.
The beastkin who is not a cat charged.
A hulking man wielding twin axes lowered his shoulders.
Rhea grinned.
"Finally."
She met him head-on.
The collision echoed through the clearing.
BOOM.
Neither moved.
The beastkin's confident grin slowly disappeared.
"You're kidding."
Rhea smiled wider.
"No."
She twisted her axe.
Using nothing but brute force, she shoved him backward several meters before kicking him square in the chest.
He flew through two bushes.
Another swordsman slipped around the side.
Fast.
Very fast.
He never reached me.
A spear intercepted him.
Clang.
Dorian stepped forward with practiced precision.
One thrust.
Blocked.
Second thrust.
Forced the swordsman backward.
Third thrust.
Knocked the sword clean out of his hand.
The weapon spun through the air before embedding itself in a tree.
The swordsman stared at his empty hand.
"Guys, I might be done for.."
Meanwhile...
"So uh like do you wanna fight?."
"Me?."
"Yes, you."
"No?."
"Ok." Finn gives her a thumps up.
They awkwardly began circling each other, neither entirely certain what to do.
Which left...
Me.
The opposing leader stepped forward.
Sword raised.
His stance was disciplined.
Solid footing.
At least one of them knew what they were doing.
He narrowed his eyes.
"You're the leader."
"I drew the short straw."
I shrugged
He took a breath, deciding that talking to me, isn't worth the effort.
Mana gathered around his blade.
He vanished.
Fast.
The sword cut toward my neck.
I casually leaned an inch to the side.
The blade sliced through empty air.
His eyes widened.
Too slow.
He immediately reversed the swing.
Vertical slash.
I stepped backward.
Miss.
Thrust.
I turned my shoulders.
Miss.
Horizontal cut.
Duck.
Miss.
"..."
"..."
His attacks became faster.
Cleaner.
Sharper.
And more wrong, usually you'll have to establish balance, Rotate and initiate body's movement, transfer that rotation out ward, but all of that get skipped, via repulsion.
He's pretty creative at using gravity magic at moving his body, it's like a no telegraphed punch, but with sword, pretty neat.
But I guess that's all of it, he limits himself to only using repulsion on himself.
Each one hit absolutely nothing.
The bat rested lazily on my shoulder the entire time.
"Impossible."
He gritted his teeth.
"Stand still!"
"I am."
His eye twitched.
He roared and committed.
One enormous overhead strike.
There.
I finally moved.
The bat came off my shoulder.
Bonk.
...
The metal bat gently tapped the top of his head.
Not hard.
Just enough to make a hollow...
Tok.
He froze.
"Did you just..."
I nodded.
"Yep."
His face turned bright red.
"You!-"
Before the sentence finished
THUD.
The end of the bat drove cleanly into the side of his stomach.
All the air left his lungs.
His eyes bulged.
"...Gh"
The sword slipped from his fingers.
He folded around the bat.
Then
"BLEGH!"
He dropped to both knees, violently coughing and retching.
The emergency barrier surrounding him shimmered for just a moment before deciding he wasn't injured enough to trigger a teleport.
I crouched beside him.
"Ugh-"
"You okay?"
"..."
"..."
"No."
"Figures."
I patted him on the shoulder.
"You should lie down, i think your organs are not so okay right now."
The opposing leader stared up me with watery eyes.
"What..."
"...are you?"
I tilted my head.
"A concerned fellow student."
I looked around the battlefield.
...
I wasn't doing anything.
Rhea had already flattened the guy.
Dorian had disarmed his opponent, making him surrender.
Iris...
I finally got a proper look at her magic.
Blue mana gathered around her fingertips like flowing water.
She flicked her wrist.
Dozens of translucent water like ribbons spiraled through the air, weaving around incoming spells before unraveling them into harmless particles of light.
Another gesture.
The ribbons condensed into razor-thin blades that curved around trees instead of through them, forcing her opponents to surrender without drawing a drop of blood.
"So..."
I scratched my cheek.
"This is what magic actually looks like."
Frankly it's beautiful.
"I'm honestly jealous."
Knowing I could never throw a Rasengan...
A Finger Gun...
Or a Kamehameha...
Somehow made me a little depressed.
I looked down at my bat.
"You and me against the world, buddy."
The bat remained emotionally unavailable.
Anyway.
I started reading the stats displayed before me, or to be exact the one that caught my attention.
Iris Asteria.
[Stats]
Mana - 99
A mana bordering tier two.
[Skills]
Water String: Sever
Water String: Guillotine
Water String: Decapitation Line
Water String: Razor Thread
Water String: Thousand Cuts
Water String: Execution Thread
Water String: Crescent Slice
...
..
+153
What the hell?.
[Mastery]
Mana Efficiency - 5
Mana Control - 5
Mana output - 5
.....
Dorian Hart.
[Mastery]
Spear Mastery - 3
Sword Mastery - 3
Shield Mastery - 3
Halberd Mastery - 3
Polearm Mastery - 3
Lance Mastery - 3
Axe Mastery - 3
Dagger Mastery - 3
Quarterstaff Mastery - 3
Unarmed Combat Mastery - 3
Throwing Weapon Mastery - 3
Improvised Weapon Mastery - 3
A jack of all trades, I looked at the [Skills]
Despite not knowing what he's natural affinity is.
A skill is still present in it, beacuse tier one magic is what the world call intuition tier, you don't need to have an understanding to use it, only the knowledge that you have it.
I should tell him when I have the chance, I do need every allies i can get in the late part of the story.
And Rhea trait, was comparable of that of Hans.
A genetic freak I tell you,
If I were to fight her, it would be like fighting that guy on earth, all over again.
My gaze drifted toward Finn, he was sitting next to me with the enemy he was suppose to be fighting.
"Finn, how did you manage to recruit these three powerhouses..."
"Beacuse of you?."
Before I could say another word, enemy leader suddenly moved out of nowhere looking toward the crystal strapped around his wrist.
"Wait."
His face paled.
"No."
I followed his gaze.
"Oh."
Right.
I tapped the blue crystal with the tip of my bat.
"My bad."
Crack.
A single fracture spread across its surface.
The opposing team collectively froze.
"..."
"..."
The crack widened.
Then
SHATTER.
The Crystal Core burst into countless motes of light.
Five pillars of mana engulfed the opposing team.
The leader reached toward us one last time.
"You-."
Pop.
Silence.
I rested the bat on my shoulder.
"That was easier than expected."
Finn slowly looked at the empty battlefield.
"...We just committed organized bullying."
Maybe beacuse I've done this a hundred thousand time, I got bored so I'll summarize it.
After that...
Chaos.
Absolute chaos.
Another team tried to ambush us.
They got ambushed instead.
....
"They're behind us!"
"I know."
"Shouldn't we panic?!"
"I'm considering it."
A rogue swordsman charged.
Rhea caught him by the collar.
"Wrong direction."
She threw him back toward his own teammates.
...
A team of archer attempted a surprise attack.
Dorian calmly redirected every arrow with his spear before politely asking,
"Would you like to surrender?"
"Yes!." they unitedly ahouted.
....
Iris sighed.
"Your mana signature is visible."
She pointed "they're there."
"We are so done for."
.....
At one point...
Three different teams accidentally started fighting each other because everyone thought everyone else had started it first.
We quietly waited for our turn
....
An hour later...
Another Crystal Core exploded.
Then another.
Then another.
Wherever our team appeared...
Someone's examination became significantly worse.
If I'm in a story right now, I would be the most boring character to read, well it's only natural I got prior knowledge of everything after all.
....
By sunset...
The battlefield had become suspiciously quiet.
The four of us stood atop a hill overlooking the forest.
Another pillar of light rose in the distance.
Rhea watched it disappear beyond the trees.
"Our leader's scary."
"Agreed," Dorian said.
Finn nodded.
"I've been saying that since the hole."
Iris adjusted her glasses.
"Im beginning to understand why he resorts to violence first."
Silence.
Finn frowned as he looked over the battlefield below.
"Can I ask something?"
"Go ahead," Dorian replied.
"Doesn't this whole trial feel..."
He searched for the word.
"too easy?"
Nobody answered.
Because everyone had been thinking the exact same thing.
They'd crossed ravines, ambushed stronger teams, stolen supplies, dismantled traps, and eliminated opponent after opponent.
Not once had they been cornered.
Not once had they been forced into a desperate fight.
Finn absentmindedly unclipped a small metal canister from his belt.
He turned it over in his hand.
"Did anyone use these?"
He turned the pouch upside down.
The emergency flare, healing potion, smoke bomb, all dropped neatly into his hand.
Rhea looked down at her own pouch.
"No."
Dorian checked his.
Iris quietly opened hers.
Every item sat exactly where they had packed them.
She closed it again.
"Not even once."
Finn let out a dry laugh.
"We carried all this extra weight for nothing."
Nobody laughed with him.
Finn frowned.
"Whenever I thought to suggest where to go."
"he'd already started walking somewhere uncharted."
"Then we'd have ambushed someone five minutes later"
Dorian broke the silence.
"The river."
Rhea nodded.
"The ridge."
"The cave."
Finn counted on his fingers.
"The supply cache."
"That cliff."
"The bridge."
His hand slowly lowered.
"I'm starting to see how ridiculous this is."
Rhea chimed in
"How can someone with such an innocent face be so scary?."
And out of nowhere, Barry pops out.
"What are you all whispering about?"
...
"..Nothing."
"Nothing at all."