"Of course, there are some individually strong students who register as groups to pass this segment. I forgot to mention, but the point system of the quests are like this."

Fina took out a piece of paper and her magic pen and began writing.

Stone rank quests – 0 points Iron rank quests – 1-5 points depending on the stars Bronze rank quests – 6-15 points depending on the stars Silver rank quests – 16-30 points depending on the stars Gold rank quests – 50-200 points depending on the stars Platinum rank quests – 500-1000 points depending on the stars

"Lastly, Diamond rank quests are all worth 5000 points, regardless of how many stars there are."

Fina didn't write the last rank because she thought it wasn't necessary since she didn't believe that there were any students who could possibly be Diamond Rank adventurers. That rank was usually reserved for the powerful old-timers and veterans who were still active as adventurers. Most adventurers retire when they they're in Gold or Platinum rank. Hardly anyway stays active all the way until they get promoted to Diamond rank.

"Of course, the last two ranks are impossible for us students. The highest in our academy is the student council president who's probably at the 5-star gold rank." Ainz said a matter-of-factly.

"Heh~ Gold rank, huh?" Lucia smiled in disdain. She looked at Cecil who was busy eating and smirked.

'Cecil and I are only 2 5-star gold quests away from being able to take our promotions to platinum. Maybe we should go take on the last two quests and promote ourselves to platinum before the tournament starts~'

Fina saw Cecil and Lucia's brief interaction and could somewhat detect the dismissive attitude the two had. Well, Cecil was being dismissive and uncaring from the start, but Lucia's despairing face from earlier had begun to turn smug after the mention of the adventurer rankings.

'Could these two be high ranked adventurers?' Fina thought.

Ainz didn't notice a thing and continued speaking, "Moving on to the next segment, oh and by the way, the scores from all the segments are accumulative, so individuals and small groups can forever kiss good bye any thoughts of miraculously winning the top 10 spots of the tournament."

"What the heck?"

"Hey, I'm just letting you know what everyone else already knows. Anyway, the next segment would be the dungeoneering segment. As the name implies, the participants of the tournament would need to go and explore a dungeon. As for how the scoring will be done, it all depends on how deep one could go inside of a dungeon. As well as clearing the dungeon itself. One floor equals 100 points and clearing a dungeon gives a bonus of 1000 points."

Ainz paused to drink and turned towards Fina, "Hey, aqua brat. Continue."

Fina only looked at him and continued his explanation, "A faction or group can only have a minimum if 1 – 100 people participating in this segment. The academy will provide each participant a device that could track their whereabouts inside of the dungeon. This device is bound to the participant, so you can't take it off which prevents any sort of cheating."

"Another thing to take note of, is that the device is fragile. So if it happens to be destroyed in battle, then the school's faculty will mark the last place the device was active as the place where the participant has ended their dungeon run. You have to be really careful when handling it. Usually, groups that participate in the run just protect a single person with the device while they move deeper and deeper into the dungeon. It's the most effective strategy."

As usual, Fina's explanation was very detailed and extensive. Usually, Lucia would've fallen asleep after hearing such an extensive explanation, but since Fina was cute, Lucia didn't mind it and she didn't fall asleep listening to her. If it was Cecil that was explaining this to her, she probably would've ignored him and just fallen asleep on his lap or something.

After Fina's explanation, Ainz spoke up, "The third, fourth and fifth segments are individualistic. So these segments would be used to determine which top 100 individuals of each faction would have the privilege to use the time formation when the faction won a place in the top 10."

"Ever since the new Student Council President was elected, the student council had always won first. It's not a surprise since they have a couple of 'Kings' or should I say, former 'Kings', in their faction."

Lucia picked up on that term, but before she could ask about it, Ainz had already moved on from the topic.

"The first and second segments lasts 2 months each, but the third and fourth segments lasts only 1 month each. The third segment is the magic games. A month long magical tournament that randomly pits the students against each other. Sometimes even students of the same factions would have to fight each other."

"Oh! Magic games! What're they?!" Upon hearing the word 'magic', Lucia immediately perked up since it was her forte.

"The magic games are a mix between a duel and a race. Once the random encounter happens, two students would then need to race from point A to point B and whoever reaches point B first wins the race."

"Sounds easy."

Ainz smirked disdainfully at Lucia upon hearing her words, "It's supposed to be easy since it's just a race... but, if you're not in a faction then that would make things hard for you."

"Why's that?"

"That's because other members of a faction could directly interfere with your race! Instead of a normal race, it should be more of an obstacle race instead!"

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Lucia grimaced at his words. She then said, "...Let me guess. Since it's a 'magic' race, the other faction members could use magic spells to obstruct the opposing side thus helping their own side win?"

Ainz smirked and nodded, "That's basically it! Of course, you can't use any imprisonment type magic spells, but everything else goes. Do you see now, brat? You can't win without joining a faction!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever...so, what's the next segment?"

"The fourth segment is... the academic segment."

"... okay?"

"Well, basically, this is just the academy wide exams."

"Wow... something a little bit normal."

"NORMAL? HAH! I think not!"

"..." Cecil, who had kept his mouth and hands busy all this time, was quietly thinking. 'What the heck? Are all schools like this? Even the ones back on Earth? Damn you father! I missed out on all the exciting school activities!'

He was having his own misconceptions about the term 'school' because he's never actually been to one. Only the schools on Altera were this 'exciting'. The schools on Earth were rather...boring, but at least it was 'normal'.

"It's just a test, what's not gonna be normal about that?!" Lucia complained after hearing Ainz say that the exams weren't normal at all.

Ainz put his arms on the table and crossed his hands over his mouth and said seriously, "Listen well... the exams..."

Lucia gulped and Cecil, who was on the side, also gulped...down his food.

"The exams... are magically locked so you need a key to open them."

"What?"

'What the heck?'

"The academy would give you the key a month before the exams and that's during the 3rd segment of the tournament. The key needs to be analyzed to decipher the incantation that draws out the magic spell needed to open the lock on the exams. If you were to do this individually then you wouldn't be able to make it, but with a faction, the tasks are divided. The ones that don't have a race going on would either help the racer or study the key. When the faction members get the incantation from their keys, they would then distribute the incantation to the rest of their members. It's not something small groups or solos have the luxury of doing while still participating in the 3rd segment."

"So... what happens to the ones that can't take the test because they don't have the incantation from the key, or even the key itself for that matter?"

"They fail of course."

"But that's the academy exams! Isn't it supposed to be separated from the tournament?"

Fina, who was quietly sipping her drink, finally spoke up, "The key itself is also part of the test, Lulu. Just obtaining the incantation from it gets you a lot of points and if you can answer just one question right on the exam, you can easily pass the 4th segment with a lot of points! For those who can't figure out the key, or even get it, then there really is no point in taking the exam because the questions on it are rumored to be so difficult that even some of the professors can't answer them."

"...my gosh."

"By the way, if you fail the academy's exam then you'll have to take a separate exam. This exam won't count towards your points in the academy tournament though and if you fail that test, you'll get expelled."

'What a harsh system...' Cecil thought.

Fina then continued, "The last segment I already mentioned at the start."

"...the tournament segment, the dueling part."

"Yup, that's the easiest part since even the factions can't intervene in an individual's match. You can only rely on yourself in this segment."

"Finally... something normal..." Lucia sighed in relief.

"Like I said Lulu, you should really consider joining one of the factions. A girl with your talent would be welcomed by any one of the 10 factions, so you don't need to worry one bit! All you need to do is choose!"

"...Yeah."

Lucia turned to look at Cecil who still didn't seem to be moved by the thought of joining a faction. Even though he wanted to win the top spot so he could use the time magic formation for 1 month, the thought of doing it with the help of other people instead of his own individual efforts seemed a bit off to him. It was good to get help from others, but then again, not everyone could go into the time formation.

He would have to trample on other people's efforts regardless if they were his enemy or ally. If he wanted to trample on anyone, then he'd rather have them be his enemy and not a person who has helped him out.

"I'll join whatever Cel's joining~" Lucia said while leaning on Cecil.

Cecil finally finished his dinner once the talks was over and he happily patted his belly. He turned to look at Lucia who was happily leaning on him and patted her head before drinking a glass of water and then asking Ainz, "Ainz, you said that there are also groups joining the tournaments that aren't a part of the factions. Have there been any groups in the past that have successfully clinched a spot in the top 10?"

"Hah, you must be kidding, Cecil! There's been no–"

Fina quickly cut Ainz off and exclaimed, "There was one!"

Cecil turned towards Fina and inquired further.

"Really? When was it?"

"I think it was... 4 or 5 decades ago. Long before any of us were born. There was a group of students who were all individually powerful. They were led by a very talented young woman if I recall. Their small group of 10 was able to clinch first place for 4 consecutive years up until their leader graduated. Apparently, it was the only record in the academy's history where a group of people consistently won first place in the academy's tournament for multiple consecutive years."

"Wow... now that's something~" Cecil said with a laid back smile.

"The leader eventually became the headmaster of the academy. She was the headmaster just before our current headmaster, and because of her, the academy had welcomed a new era, the era of 'Kings'."

"Yeah, you guys said that word before. 'Kings', what are they?"