Chapter 52: Group Stage (1)

A total of four hundred students advanced to the preliminary round through the elimination rounds, with students from Salonia and Riox accounting for a ratio of one to three.
The competition venue was still in the shallow woods north of the ancient castle, where Riox’s professors built four fighting arenas about thirty yards long and wide, numbered from one to four. All the students were divided into four groups to compete.
The prizes for the competition were announced personally by the old dean the next day. Since this was the first magic exchange competition between the two countries, the prizes were provided directly by the Imperial Royal Magic Association.
All students who reached the finals would receive prizes based on their performance, totaling sixty-four items. Although the specific rewards were not disclosed, there were rumors that to motivate the students from both schools, the old dean and Father Andrew each contributed a legendary magic artifact, which undoubtedly intensified the students’ desire to win.
What are legendary magic artifacts?
Legendary magic artifacts are not so much because of their extraordinary power, but rather because they were once owned by famous magicians in history. This applies to all weapons and equipment.
In the world of magic, if something is considered a legendary artifact, its original owner must have been an outstanding great magician!
For these students who were still apprentices, obtaining a magic artifact once owned by such a great figure was truly wonderful.
Even the usually calm Scott seemed eager after hearing this, let alone Allen and Lavia. On the contrary, perhaps only Jiang Zhe could remain calm despite such tempting rewards.
After all, Jiang Zhe had never considered using auxiliary artifacts to enhance the power of his magic—of course, the tattoo he had always thought about was an exception.
Before the group stage, Allen kept complaining about how the groups would be formed, but after the list was announced, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Perhaps some deity heard his half-hearted prayers. Fortunately, Jiang Zhe, Scott, Allen, and Lavia were all placed in different groups: Jiang Zhe in Group One, Scott in Group Three, Allen in Group Four, and Lavia in Group Two…

To be honest, although Allen’s matches against his two roommates have always been closely contested, it should be noted that the distance in this competition is as much as thirty yards, while Allen’s confidence only holds up within a ten-yard range. Once that distance is exceeded, he has almost no chance of winning under Jiang Zhe’s relentless fireball attacks and Scott’s annoying series of curses. Only when the distance between them is within ten yards does Allen have enough confidence to defeat his two friends—just ten yards! However, Ravia seems dissatisfied with this pairing; perhaps she hopes to face Jiang Zhe, whom she regards as a strong rival, right from the first match, as both of them would still have full stamina and energy then, allowing a true comparison of their abilities. Her eyes, which seemed to burn with fierce flames, put immense pressure on Jiang Zhe. To be honest, after seeing the assigned pairings, Jiang Zhe secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as he had been hesitant about how to deal with Ravia until then. After all, from the beginning, although Ravia claimed to be a strong rival, both Jiang Zhe and Scott and Allen had long regarded her as a companion and friend. Perhaps what Jiang Zhe hoped for now was for Ravia to be “unfortunately” defeated in the group stage… But sadly, he wasn’t a believer in any deity… “…The winner is the second-year Fire Blue Magic class, Ravia Fahualia! Thank you, Ravia, for bringing us such an exciting match!” As a professor’s voice rang out, applause erupted around the arena. It was clear that the students of that grade all had a high opinion of this second-year student, who combined outstanding skills with beautiful looks. “Wow, amazing, Ravia! You actually defeated a fourth-year senior…” Allen said with a smile, clapping his hands as he watched the victorious girl return. “It’s just the first match…” Ravia replied indifferently. From her expression, it seemed she didn’t care about Allen’s praise, and her eyes showed not a hint of pride or satisfaction. After all, Ravia was known among her peers as the “Proud Ravia”… It was a strange phenomenon… “Are you hurt?” As her best roommate, Lisa immediately asked about Ravia’s condition. “No…” “Hehe, then we’re relieved. Congratulations, Avi…”

“Heh, it’s nothing…”
“Huh? Avi, are you really fine? I feel…”
Glancing at Jiang Zhe, Lavia smiled and said, “I feel great, really great!”
I feel terrible…
It seemed as if he could see that terrifying flame of fighting spirit in Lavia’s eyes, and Jiang Zhe sighed inwardly.
She seems to be in excellent form today…
Does she really want to fight against him again?
How awful!
Glancing at Lavia several times secretly, Jiang Zhe had to admit that this girl seemed a bit unfamiliar—no, it wasn’t unfamiliarness; he had seen her before…
At the school anniversary competition a year ago, right here in this open area…
That incredibly strong, proud, and unyielding girl…
“…The second match in Field 4 begins. Xisi Baorqin from the fourth-grade Earth Magic class versus Alfonso Eames from the fifth-grade Summoning class. Please have these two contestants enter the field immediately…”
“…The third match in Field 3 begins. Aji Manton from the third-grade Enchantment class versus Alister from the fifth-grade Wind Magic class. Please have these two contestants enter the field immediately…”
The matches continued. Allen and Scott seemed to be guessing which side would win, but Lavia and Jiang Zhe remained silent.
It wasn’t that Jiang Zhe wanted to stay silent; rather, he really didn’t know what to say about Lavia today.
Compared to the arrogant noble lady of before, he preferred the current Lavia more, um…
“Do you want to say something?” As if noticing the gaze from beside her, Lavia asked softly.
“Uh, no.” Jiang Zhe was momentarily stunned before shaking his head and looking toward the field.
By then, the match in Field 1 seemed to have ended. The professor, acting as the referee, held up the list of contestants and shouted loudly, “The third match in Field 1 begins. Sos from the second-grade Fire Magic class versus Bobby Divi from the fourth-grade Curse Magic class. Please have these two contestants enter the field immediately. Repeat that…”
It was finally his turn…
“Huh!” Taking a deep breath, Jiang Zhe was about to turn and head toward Field 1 when suddenly a small hand pulled at his sleeve.
“Absolutely… don’t lose!”
Heh, what a troublesome kind of encouragement…
With a wry smile and a shake of his head, Jiang Zhe nodded and said, “Um!”

“Go ahead, buddy!” Allen said with a smile as he pushed Jiang Zhe’s back. “Hurry up and get beaten by your opponent! I really don’t want to face you in the finals, hahaha!”
“A curse?” Scott muttered with a frown, whispering a reminder, “Thors, the strength of curse magic isn’t in causing damage, but in gradually weakening the opponent. Don’t give them time to cast spells—use fireballs to disrupt them as much as possible! Also, from what I know, curse magic users usually combine it with illusion spells, so don’t slack off mentally!”
“Mm! Thanks, Scott…” Jiang Zhe nodded at Scott, glanced at the smiling Allen, then at Ravia who seemed to be watching the match, before walking toward Arena No. 1.
“Hey! A second-year kid? Can a second-year brat even make it into the group stage?”
“Probably just luck…”
“Too bad this kid’s luck only goes this far. How can a second-year kid compete with a fourth-year like Bobby Di… Di, what was that fourth-year guy’s name again?”
“Bobby Divi! But I don’t think that Thors guy made it into the group stage by luck!”
“Thors? That name sounds familiar…”
“Hey, isn’t that one of the three idiots who got zero points in second-year Ancient Magic History? Haha, can someone like that even make it into the group stage?”
“Hahaha, isn’t that interesting? Hey, second-year kid, you need to beat that fourth-year guy! We’ll be rooting for you!”
“Haha, how could I possibly win…”
Amidst a series of noises—laughing, sneers, mockery, and teasing—Jiang Zhe stood calmly on the arena, as if he hadn’t heard any of it at all.
“Ugh, what a second-year brat,” the boy on the other side said, rubbing his forehead in frustration. He shrugged apologetically and added, “Your name is Thors, right? I’m sorry, junior Thors. Could you please admit defeat?”
Jiang Zhe glanced at his opponent and shook his head, saying calmly, “I’m sorry…”
“Heh,” the boy named Bobby Divi shrugged and said self-deprecatingly, “I figured that would be the answer.” Then he took out a yellowish wooden wand from his robe and said apologetically, “Well, let’s begin. I’ll try not to hurt you!”
The professor acting as the referee glanced at Jiang Zhe, then at Bobby Divi, and raised his hand to shout, “Start!”
“Go ahead, second-year kid!”
“Hahaha, you’ve got to win!”

Amidst the half-hearted cheers in Arena 1, a girl dressed in a white magic robe frowned and whispered, “It’s too much. They’re not really cheering for him…” She glanced at Allen and the others, puzzled, and said, “Those are his friends, right? Why aren’t they cheering for him either?”
As soon as she finished speaking, a boy with a monocle beside her said calmly, “Do cheers make the magic more powerful?”
“Exactly. I think it’s fine this way. You won’t lose face if you lose, hahaha…”
Glancing at the arena, the girl turned back and frowned, “Gayer, Gert, you’re going too far…”
Before she could finish, a hand reached out and patted her shoulder as someone said softly, “I won’t comment on Gayer’s words, but Gert is right. Cheers can’t make magic more powerful! As for his companions… well, if I entered the competition, would you cheer for me?”
“Of course!” Katerina nodded.
“Tch. Who would cheer for you? I’d be thrilled if you lost!” Gayer snapped, turning his head away.
“I see…” The boy named Gert adjusted his monocle on his nose and said expressionlessly, “His companions aren’t not cheering for him; they just think it’s unnecessary…”
“Tch. How is that possible?” Gayer crossed his arms, looking skeptical.
“Impossible?” Eddie, seemingly the leader of the group, stared intently at the arena and murmured, “Although I can sense the fire element around him, still… Let me see this second-year kid who can put Katerina under pressure…”
Meanwhile, in Arena 1!
As soon as the professor’s hand dropped, Jiang Zhe’s opponent, Bobby Devi, spent just a few seconds casting a series of curses—blindness, weakness, restraint—and even used a magic spell that could only be learned in the fourth year: [Mana Drain].
This was the basic procedure for using spells against magic, with only [Aging] missing.
Being able to cast four spells in such a short time showed that this fourth-year senior named Bobby was indeed strong, and he was also very cautious, not holding back just because his opponent was a second-year student.

But then again, if he hadn’t taken the initiative first, even if it weren’t Jiang Zhe but some other second-year student, they might not have had zero chance of winning—after all, the damage dealt by curse magic was truly astonishing.
“He didn’t strike first? That second-year kid is too stupid!”
“Even if he wanted to strike first, what could he do? Blue magic has the slowest casting speed among all magics—how could it compare to curses?”
“Tch, wasted my effort cheering for him… No chance now!”
“Mm, no chance…”
Glancing angrily at the students watching from the sidelines, Lavia sneered and whispered, “Just watch quietly, you bunch of fools!”
“…” Looking at Lavia in surprise, Lisa quietly said to Allen, “Evi… seems angry…”
“Hmph,” Allen laughed oddly twice, glanced at the battlefield, shrugged, and said with schadenfreude, “She’s not angry yet… If that guy Sos loses, hehe!”
“He can’t lose. As long as he focuses…” Scott adjusted his glasses and said calmly, “At least I can’t do it… And that fourth-year student either!”
“Oh… It’s unlikely, but I really hope that guy loses. At least I won’t have to face him in the finals, hehe…”
“Hmph!”
At this moment, Jiang Zhe could be said to have lost his vision, but his hearing remained intact, so he heard his opponent’s words.
“Aren’t you admitting defeat, junior Sos?”
“I can’t. Losing would cause trouble… Watch out, I’m counterattacking!” Shaking his head and with his eyes closed, Jiang Zhe raised his right hand, and a fiery red vortex slowly appeared in his palm.
Counterattack?
Bobby on the other side was stunned, feeling somewhat amused, while the surrounding students erupted in laughter.
“Counterattack? Haha? How can you counterattack when you’re blind?”
“Can your fireball hit your opponent? Don’t hit the professors, hahaha!”
“You need to use your intuition, second-year kid. Don’t forget you’ve been afflicted with mana loss…”
But the next second, the laughter stopped abruptly, replaced by gasps of surprise.
“Almost… He almost hit him. Doesn’t that kid have the curse of blindness?”
“How is that possible! Even if he doesn’t have the curse of blindness, didn’t you see? That kid has his eyes closed!”
“Perception… Has that second-year kid already mastered the skill of sensing an opponent’s mana? It’s unbelievable!”

“What about the fireball he used? That speed… I really doubt my spell was a fireball…”
“Could there be such a large fireball? Besides, fireballs can’t explode. But that kid’s fireball was strange—after exploding, it spread flames…”
The students outside were far less surprised than Bobby Divi, who was right in the middle of it all.
He had thought the phrase “counterattack” was just a joke, but when the opponent’s fireball hit him perfectly, Bobby was stunned speechless.
The reason he advised the sophomore opposite him to surrender was that sophomores hadn’t yet learned the skill of “perception.” The gap between those who mastered perception and those who didn’t couldn’t be measured by grade at all.
At least, the curse of blindness was wasted…
“I’m so surprised, Junior Sos…” Bobby Divi said in amazement after narrowly avoiding the incoming fireball. “It seems I really underestimated you… But are you really just a sophomore?”
“Yes!” With his eyes closed, Jiang Zhe calmly gathered a fireball in front of him. The steaming fireball traced an incredible arc and hit his opponent perfectly, exploding with a loud boom.
“Hey, getting hit by that would be terrible.” Bobby held onto his magic hat to prevent it from being blown away by the blast, narrowly avoiding one fireball after another. He found it hard to believe.
Originally, the combat style of curse casters was to gradually weaken the opponent, slowly draining their magic and stamina. But now, a fourth-year student learning curses was being forced to scramble around the field by a sophomore learning fire-based blue magic.
This… this is too absurd!
Wait, if he remembered correctly, the junior in front of him had already used his sixth fireball spell, right? Although casting fireballs didn’t consume much magic, he was already suffering from mana depletion. How… could his mana not be exhausted yet?
And he wasn’t the only one with this question…
Glancing at some stunned students watching from the sidelines, Ravia sneered arrogantly.
Idiots!
So what if he’s suffering from mana depletion?
He only casts a fireball every two seconds or so. With such minimal mana consumption, even by morning, he won’t be unable to cast magic.

Although he had lost the meditation ability that the mage considered essential to his life, he possessed a special ability to constantly restore his stamina and magic as compensation… A prolonged battle was not an option for him! The longer it dragged on, the worse things would get for him…
“Huh!” Taking a soft breath, Ravia turned around and walked toward the castle with a serious expression.
“Avi? Are you leaving? Not going to watch anymore?” Lisa asked in confusion.
“Hmm, there’s no need to watch anymore. If I lose to such an opponent, I’ll never forgive myself! I’m going back first. I need time to think carefully about future matches…”
“Oh…” Looking at Ravia’s retreating figure with a puzzled expression, Lisa tugged at Allen’s sleeve and said, “Avi seems a bit off…”
“What’s wrong with her?” Allen glanced behind him and chuckled. “Don’t worry, Lisa. Her condition is probably the best among us. Well, she’s the most determined right now…”
“Is that so…”
“That’s exactly it!”
As they were talking, something incredible happened on the battlefield…
In everyone’s eyes, fourth-grade student Bobby Divi, after dodging several fireballs, suddenly stood up straight. His expression and gaze suggested he was about to cast some magic, but the next second, he collapsed right in front of everyone’s eyes.
Fortunately, Jiang Zhe noticed something was wrong in time and redirected the fireballs away from him. Otherwise, if they had hit him, he would have been burned, even if not disfigured.
“What happened?”
“How did he collapse out of nowhere?”
“Could it be that second-grade kid used some special magic?”
“That’s impossible. That kid has been using fireballs all along…”
As the referee, the professor rushed to Bobby Divi’s side and knelt down to check his condition. After examining him for over a minute, the professor stood up and waved his hand, saying, “It’s fine, he’s just unconscious!” Then he nodded at Jiang Zhe, seemingly praising him for quickly redirecting the fireballs.
“Third match in Arena One: winner, second-grade student, Thos!”
“The opponent suddenly collapsed into a coma. This kid is really lucky!”
“Although it’s luck, this kid is quite skilled too. At least he has perception skills, and he managed to cast so many fireball spells despite losing magic power…”
“Hmm… But it’s still luck…”

“Luck?” Eddie said solemnly from a corner of the arena. “If I’m not mistaken, the magic that fourth-grader used last was mental magic… Surprising—the one who cast mental magic collapsed, while the one affected by it remained unharmed… Katerina, that kid named Thors has extremely strong mental power…”
“Tch, boring match!!” Gayer crossed his arms, scratched his head, and snapped, “It’s just because that fourth-grader was careless. And why not use aging magic?”
“Aging magic would cause severe damage to living beings—it’s a restricted magic in the competition!” Gert reminded his companion expressionlessly.
“Ultimately, it’s still that kid who’s lucky—he faced an opponent who only knows how to cast curses. If it were me, huh!”
Meanwhile, in another corner of the arena…
Vincent Flores glanced indifferently at the arena, snorted coldly, then turned and headed toward the castle.
“Luck? Indeed, it’s luck. If they run into me in the upcoming group matches… Huh!”