Chapter 37: Class Competition
After the spar, Ain continued with his usual routine for the rest of the week. He was steadily making progress in both Shield and Spirit Blast.
Since the class competition was approaching, Ain decided to hide some cards and only practiced Shield when he was at home.
On Friday, he finally received his equipment from Liberty Firm. It cost him 60,000 star coins, which included the cost of supplementary materials and the blacksmith’s fee. Ain concluded that he might’ve needed to pay more than twice this amount if he had bought the equipment instead.
After his previous successful trip to the Rocky Region, Ain visited it once again during the weekend.
This time, he spent the entire night there and returned the next day with a bountiful harvest. After subtracting the equipment fee, the cost of a new dagger, and some resources, Ain’s account balance reached 740,000 star coins.
Just like that, it had been a month since the Spirit Awakening Ceremony.
Today was a Monday, and it was a special Monday because today was the class competition.
The entire class was gathered in the training hall as Teacher Turner, who had arrived earlier today, was taking attendance. Other than the students and Teacher Turner, there were two extra figures present in the training hall.
After completing the attendance, Teacher Turner looked at the students gathered in front of him. “As you’re all aware, today is the class competition, so there will be no classes. The competition will take up the entire day, so you’ll also be leaving later than usual.”
“Since participation is mandatory, to make it easier for you, there will be no other spectators. Only the medical staff will be present to treat any injuries.” Teacher Turner gestured toward the medical staff as he said this.
The students looked at the two unfamiliar faces. Ain, who was among the students, also looked over. The medical staff smiled and then nodded at the students.
Teacher Turner continued, “Although this is a competition, you need to fight seriously. As spirit tamers, you cannot stay away from combat. So use this chance to familiarize yourself with it.”
Upon hearing this, the students nodded to express their understanding.
After elaborating a little more on the importance of combat to spirit tamers, Teacher Turner retrieved a device from his pocket and pressed a few buttons.
Soon after, a refreshing and light sensation spread throughout the entire training hall.
The students were surprised when they noticed this phenomenon.
“What is this? Why do I feel relaxed all of a sudden?”
“I think it’s the spirit energy! The spirit energy concentration suddenly increased!”
Soft exclamations rang out from the students.
Ain also noticed the sudden change. He glanced at Hugo next to him, who had a much keener perception.
Noticing Ain’s gaze, Hugo looked at him and replied with some astonishment in his voice, “They’re right, the spirit energy concentration suddenly has begun increasing.”
At this moment, Teacher Turner spoke up again, clearing away the students' doubts. “This training hall has some spell arrays installed in it. From today onwards, the Spirit Gathering Array will be active during our training sessions. I’m sure you can already feel its effects.”
Hearing this, the students had an enlightened look on their faces, even though most of them didn’t even know what spell arrays were. Teacher Turner didn’t want to explain right now either.
‘So it’s a spell array.’ Ain had heard of them before, but he was also clueless about the exact details. It was probably activated to assist the students in recovering their spirit energy in-between matches. Since the teacher didn’t explain it, he didn’t linger on it for too long and brought his attention back to Teacher Turner.
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“Now, let me talk about the rules for the class competition.”
“You will be randomly paired with an opponent, and only the winner will advance to the next round. This competition will only decide the top ten, and there will be no further rankings.”
“You’re all fellow students, so there is no need to be ruthless. You’ll fight until either side admits defeat or until I judge one side to have lost. I also have the right to interfere in the fight if I see something go awry. Any questions?”
Teacher Turner asked and looked at the students. The students looked at each other as well, and no one asked any questions.
“I’ll assume you all agree. Let’s move onto the rewards.”
“The top twenty will all receive a bottle of Essence Heart Pills, as well as 10,000 star coins. The top ten will receive three bottles of Essence Heart Pills, 30,000 star coins, and a ring spell.”
As soon as the rewards were announced, most of the students showed some excitement, but only a few were gulping in astonishment.
Essence Heart Pills!
Essence Heart Pills were rare medicinal pills that could permanently increase the quality of one’s spirit energy. The effect of an individual pill was negligible, but regular, prolonged consumption resulted in an obvious qualitative increase.
At first, Ain wasn’t too amazed at the rewards. Although another ring spell could be helpful for the future, he didn’t lack star coins or medicinal pills. He could purchase them himself if needed.
This was until the nearby students began discussing the effects of the Essence Heart Pills.
Only then did Ain find out that there was such a medicinal pill out there. He previously searched for information on suitable medicinal pills on Cyberspace, but it made no mention of the Essence Heart Pills.
Knowing this, Ain was a little eager. He planned to search for the Essence Heart Pills when he returned.
Teacher Turner allowed the students to discuss amongst themselves, while he pressed a few more buttons on the device in his hand. Soon after, a large holographic screen appeared in the training hall, listing the names of all the students in Class B.
When this was done, Teacher Turner explained, “After I begin, you will be paired randomly, and the order of your fights will be displayed. Keep an eye out for your name.”
Then, Teacher Turner pressed a button on the device in his hand, and all the names on the screen were scrambled before they appeared again in pairs. The pairs were then assigned numbers and listed numerically.
The students looked up and stared at the holographic screen, searching for their names.
Ain soon found his name and saw another name, Bart Stockman, next to it. They were listed as number 18, meaning that their fight would be the eighteenth fight in round one.
After a month of listening to the attendance, Ain had already memorized everyone's names, so he searched around the crowd for his opponent.
After a couple of seconds, his gaze landed on a youth with short black hair who was looking back at him with an ugly smile.
“How can I be so unlucky to be paired with this monster?” Bart, Ain’s opponent, muttered as tears threatened to spill from his eyes. Ain was the first to reach Rank-0 and Rank-1, and the first to contract a spirit pet. Everyone already treated him as a monstrous genius.
Ain nodded at him and turned towards the screen to search for Hugo’s name. Hugo’s opponent was a girl, and they were number 54.
After giving the students sufficient time to prepare, Teacher Turner finally announced the start of the class competition.
All the students moved towards the sides to spectate, and two students walked out towards the middle of the training hall, where a rectangular arena was marked on the floor. Both students were visibly nervous, as seen from their stiff walking posture and unnatural expressions.
When they were in place, Teacher Turner shouted, “Begin!”
As soon as his voice fell, the two lights flashed beside the students, and their spirit pets appeared. On the right side was a brown armadillo with sharp claws, and on the left was a gray monkey.
‘An Armored Ground Beast and a Grayback Monkey.’ Ain immediately recognized the two spirit pets. Armor Ground Beasts and Grayback Monkeys were spirit beasts native to this region, and they had been discussed in the Spirit Ecology class.
After the spirit pets appeared, the student on the left loudly commanded the Grayback Monkey, “Use Scratch on the enemy!”
Receiving the command, the Grayback Monkey sprinted towards the Armored Ground Beast with its claws outstretched.
The student on the right was stunned for a second and didn’t know what to do. Watching the approaching enemy, he hurriedly shouted, “Curl up and protect yourself!”
The Armored Ground Beast obeyed and quickly curled up into a ball on the spot, protecting its weaknesses.
The Grayback Monkey’s claw finally struck the Armored Ground Beast, but it was completely blocked by its opponent’s natural armor.
Seeing the unsuccessful attack, the student on the right cheered and praised his spirit pet.
On the other hand, the student on the left didn’t give up and commanded the Grayback Monkey to attack from various angles, trying to damage the opponent. After multiple attempts, the Grayback Monkey failed to damage the Armored Ground Beast. Seeing that his efforts were useless, the student couldn’t help but clench his fists.
On the other hand, the student on the right taunted loudly, “Heh, you can’t even break through my defense, just wait to be exhausted to death!”
His opponent stared at him hatefully, wanting to punch this bastard’s face until it was swollen. As soon as this thought appeared, something suddenly clicked in his mind.
Without wasting any time, he immediately shouted, “Forget the spirit pet, attack that bastard instead!”
Hearing the loud yell, the smile on the smug student’s face suddenly froze. The realization finally struck him, and he turned around in a panic and tried to retreat.
The Armored Ground Beast hadn’t moved since it was summoned, and it was the Grayback Monkey that approached. The distance between the Grayback Monkey and the Armored Ground Beast’s spirit tamer wasn’t that large.
With its high agility, the Grayback Monkey caught up to the student in only a couple of seconds and clawed him in his unguarded back.