Julie was pleasantly surprised at the performance of Azure Sun party.

As its leader was someone she had been keeping a keen eye on, the party duels of it were naturally observed by her with deep interest. Even the top three were not as eye-catching as that Paladin.

Though she had to admit that he still wasn't on par with the top three's performance yet, both individually and in party, however she was sure that as time went on his progress would be similar or rather, exceed them.

She had such a high evaluation of him.

There was just something about that Paladin which made him pleasing to look at. Of course, his looks and demeanor were half of it but the raw radiance that exudes from his presence alone took the other half.

From that point on, she absentmindedly watched other parties at the second format as she subconsciously only looked forward to Azure Sun's performance. This type of bias, if revealed, would surely cause an uproar in the academy.

Thankfully, even she wasn't aware of her changes.

°°°°

Blue's party entered the dome for monster invasion defense.

"Racial differences are still at large here. What we called the myriad race players called it monster race. While now that I am a player and calling myself such, the other two domains would rather call us hunters or gamers. Sometimes I truly wonder why can't we all just stick with one name."

"Like when we talk or think about measurements or the time difference we follow the "metric system" or "twenty four hours system" and while the "365 days annual system" or "0-9 numerical system" are considered the norm in calculation no matter which place. Some other factors are also considered common sense throughout the void."

"One of my small goals in this new life is to generalize many terms, right on the places where my influence reached unrestricted."

He went on a tangent while looking at the Dimensional Gate's simulation in front of him. He truly was curious how some of those things were common no matter the race and place while others differed from region to region.

In his past, after he was born, this question always perplexed him and after asking his peers or seniors about such things they also would express nostalgia about it while saying that once they were also the same but life was hectic so why waste so much time pursuing the reasons behind common senses, might as well focus on more important stuff.

He both agreed and kind of disagreed but that's a different matter as he focused on the present.

The Gate showed intense spatial fluctuations before many figures of all sizes exited from it. There were thirty invaders that appeared for this part of the exam.

Like the case from the entrance test, goblins, hobgoblins and goblin wolf riders were in the same number as earlier while a dozen more of a new species of myriad race was added on the fray.

They were even taller by three heads than hobgoblins, who were an adult human male's average height, their muscles were bulking and their skin was red, a sharp contrast to green skins of the goblins.

They had a pair of horns protruding from the sides of their head and their face resembled a bull while on the back a typical cow's tail was present. They all had melee weapons such as broadsword, warhammer and iron club. They only wore a piece of fabric to hide their crotch similar to the goblins.

"The academy had cranked up the difficulty just a bit by adding minotaurs. Well, except for being good at close range combat they don't even have the goblins versatility. Regardless, for level 1 players they were menacing and tough enough to give them a hard time."

While musing he ordered the party to engage the opponent just like their initial plan.

They had already seen other parties battling these same "monsters" every time, so their defense plan was very refined. Or so other members would think as he wanted them to appear as budding players. He naturally had a hundred plans to literally stream roll those "monsters" but such a thing was a big no considering the image he had painstakingly built up till now.

So he watered down the plan that was "appropriate" for them.

Marcus the Gunslinger fired a lightning bullet at the goblins who had slings and kept downing them while the lightning later turned into serpentine shapes before lashing onto the nearby goblin wolf riders.

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He didn't even need to use a movement or defensive skill as one of the twin Wardens, Johnson, was using skills to assist him seamlessly.

The other Warden, Johansson, was delegated to Karla on guard duty. Her role as the controller was very important to tilt the battle in their favor. The opponent would also constantly target her so this Warden had to step up his game since truthfully the position in front of her was the most dangerous throughout the battlefield.

Karla was taking on the hobgoblins while trying to create opportunities for Luna to deal a fatal blow. The Assassin was also very obedient despite her inner reluctance to work with her love rival, these things can't be hidden from him. Getting her on good terms with Karla was also part of the plan for that side quest.

He, on the other hand, led the Paladins to confront the minotaurs.

As a close-mid range combat class the two Paladins, Matthew and Marlow, shone brilliantly in close combat as they had already taken down two of the minotaurs in five minutes while being surrounded by four others.

Blue was single handedly engaging six minotaurs. Naturally he showed an intense struggle but because the total time was also being counted he had to resort to "growing while fighting" tactic to perfectly fool them.

Thus after taking down his part he went to assist the Paladins who had two more minotaurs left. He didn't have to bother with the goblins as the other five had finished up just a bit earlier than them.

With that the first part of the second format ended with just minor wounds on them.

"Everybody, drink a health potion and stamina potion. The next part would require us to be in top shape. We got ten minutes so catch your breath and we will come up with a plan after seeing the Gate type."

Upon his orders everybody didn't bother with conserving potions as they also agreed that Gate raiding needed one to be in their best form. The Gate type was a nightmare if a player party didn't have a specific class on their midst to tackle the situation inside it.

After ten minutes, the previous simulation of the Dimensional Gate kept giving off spatial fluctuations that increased by the second.

"The Gate Break phenomena is closing in so let us hurry now."

Upon his urging the party got into a standard battle formation and then entered the Gate in caution.

Inside, the scenery was different from the flat battlefield they were on earlier as they found themselves in front of a tower similar to a candlestick but just that it was dark in color while showing signs of rust on it. There were no windows on the tower so the fresh wind from the grassland it was on couldn't enter inside.

However the matter of ventilation was the least of their concern as the entire party's face became gloomy. Even Blue was similarly gloomy and for once, it wasn't acting.

"A tower-type Gate, sigh… Though our luck is down, let us still be optimistic. We can't feel too dejected over it lest our clearing time is affected. Here's the plan…"

He cheered them up before telling them a "good" battle plan which was obviously just a standard one. The party got into a new battle formation before they entered the tower that reeked horrendous inside.

If not for the fact that they were able to turn off any of the five senses after much guidance from the academy they would have vomited from the first waft. Still the visuals inside filled with blood, organs, feces and weird fluids sprinkled everywhere was disgusting enough to make the two girls have goosebumps on their body. The males weren't doing any good either.

Blue also showed a frowning expression while advancing cautiously.

There was a reason why everyone was gloomy earlier. A Gate could be many types depending on the place the myriad race's species had entered the Dimensional Gate from. How could those weaklings have such a long distance teleportation portal? That's a whole different matter with many explanations and Blue also put a stop on the stray thoughts as he reviewed the information on tower-type Gate.

The type actually suggested the place where those species had their settlements in. A settlement inside a tower with plural species coexisting together was tough and time consuming to clear. First of all the narrow terrain didn't favor the player parties with a habit of overwhelming others with numbers.

Secondly, a tower had many floors that could be above and even downwards. If one had the misfortune to even have to clear the underground floors that may exist then there was a chance of being pincered from the other floors direction they avoided before.

This gamble, especially on the exam that even counted the total time of clearance, was very disadvantageous.

By the way, there was a reason why clearing out the settlement would cause the Gate to close shortly after. Such information was only known to nobilities or those in higher positions such as him in his past life as a top powerhouse.

When the teleportation portal opened, it used the lifespan of the settlers to stay open so with them eliminated it would close for not having the energy to operate itself.

Such a vicious method would obviously force the settlers to invade the other side where they would be free from getting drained.

This, on the other hand, made them clash with players as their domain was being invaded and if they don't eliminate the invaders along with the entire settlement on the other side then Gate Break phenomena would occur where the Dimensional Gate which was still kept open entered into a self-preservation state that will keep connecting to other nearest settlements to keep itself functioning.

The settlers can't even run away from their settlements to escape the influence as the space is locked down for at least a kilometer when the Dimensional Gate opens. This range depending on the Gate's hazard rank will vary but what mattered was that the settlers could either keep invading to save their life or stay cooped up while hoping that those who went ahead had cleared a place for them to move in later. Of course, what awaited such folks was what his party was about to unleash on them.

Why was such a sinister method used to keep harming both sides? There's a long history but now wasn't the suitable time to review such things. After all, the matter at hand was more attention worthy.

The Azure Sun party thus engaged the "monsters" who were nothing but a victim.