"I cast..." The green-haired mage muttered, his left hand reaching toward the deck in his right. It was a monotone day, even for the normal student. The second year was much more flexible compared to the first and they had synced their lessons to make sure they had the same day free. Maybe they would do stuff around the academy? Try and hang out with girls?
Well...
"I cast Alec's Thunderbolt!" Alexei shouted as the card left his hand. His mana drained immediately, causing his face to go pale. However, once the card flew forward and faced toward Thomas' playing field. The air in the room seemed to go stale for a moment.
With a sharp crackle and a loud thump noise, a bright white lightning arced forward, first hitting one of the cards, then jumping toward the others. Most of the lower-level unit cards died, the unprotected spell cards were disabled, and the ones who barely managed to keep going were paralyzed temporarily; giving Alexei the opportunity to make one more move against Thomas.
Of course, he would have done so if he had the mana. Instead, he sat there with a stupid smile in satisfaction. A disgusted frown appeared on Thomas' face.
"Really? You are going to use up all your mana for a single spell?" he couldn't help but ask. Once Thomas' cards were unparalyzed, Alexei simply did not have any actions left to take.
"Rule of cool, was it? Alec was the one to say it, not me. I might have sacrificed a perfectly winnable match but I managed to finally use this thing," he said while caressing the newly bought card.
Apparently, Magikards was a game that closely followed the magical academia. As soon as Alec's atomic model was released and Professor Howard developed the spell Alec's Thunderbolt, they went on to release a new pack. The new pack contained a bunch of spells and units that had been on hold for a long time, some new ones that came along because of the atomic model, and the spell made in a mere student's name, Alec's Thunderbolt.
"Sure. Whatever you say," Thomas replied without much care before unleashing the full might of his deck on Thomas. In a short few seconds, Thomas had been completely beaten to the ground and lost the game.
"I did say he was going to do something stupid, didn't I?" Evan said while holding his student card out. With a deep sigh, Alec touched his own card to Evan's and transferred the money.
"This is not fair, you have known them for longer than I have," Alec muttered under his breath. Evan, on the other hand, didn't even bat an eye at Alec's complaints. Every bet was fair as long as he was the one to win.
Just as Evan was stepping forward to challenge Thomas, a buzzing noise assaulted their ears. This was no new occurrence. The academy's announcement arrays were slightly older than they should have been. It was inevitable for there to be such artifacts in the voice.
"Attention, attention... bzzt— The Grand Illusory Array has been activated for its usage in the final exams. Until then, anyone who wants can use the training ground passage to access the underground illusory training rooms. For further details, please gather in the training ground in one hour. I repeat, please gather on the training grounds in one hour."
As the announcement came to an end, the last word echoing far away into the distance, an eerie silence covered the academy grounds. Alec, Evan, Alexei, and Thomas looked at each other before nodding. They all readied themselves as quickly as possible and left the dorms.
After a short walk, they reached the training grounds, which was slowly becoming more crowded. As minutes passed, more and more students made their way. This wasn't the first time Alec had seen this many students side by side, but it was definitely the first time he saw them this excited. Maybe because he lacked some core memories, he couldn't be that enthusiastic.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The rest of the wait went by as Alec and his friends chatted about mundane topics. Occasionally, a couple of students would give Alec some weird or curious looks. After all, he had become quite the celebrity after the whole 'atomic model' ordeal. The only other students who attracted as much attention were Edward and Zac. It was an interesting coincidence that there was one central figure for each grade level. There was Zac for the freshman, Alec for the sophomores, and Edward for the seniors.
Finally, Professor Howard came out and erected a platform with the shape of a semicylinder on one side of the training grounds. The stone platform was thick, probably with a radius and height of five meters. While the circular part of the platform had a rough surface, the rest was smooth.
Standing on the platform, the man started talking.
"Greetings, students. As you know, The Grand Illusory Array will be used for the final exams of this semester," he said. Gauging the reactions of the students and noticing it to be mostly neutral for now, he continued. "Before I announce the details, I would like to inform you of the training grounds' new section, the illusory array training area."
Suddenly, the crowd seemed to get more animated. It seemed like what intrigued the students most was this. And Alec couldn't exactly say he wasn't one of those interested. Since arriving in this world, he hadn't gotten to properly test his fighting prowess other than that one time.
"After you create your groups, which will be detailed later, you will have the chance to use the illusory training area once a day. You will have to complete what we call 'runs' to achieve a score in the training area," Professor Howard went on to explain. "During a 'run', you will have to kill as many monsters as possible in the given time. Once the timer is over, you will be given a new timer and a practically indestructible training dummy. You will have to inflict as much damage as you can before the second timer runs out. Then, taking that information, the illusory training area will calculate you a score, and display it here!"
As Professor Howard finished speaking, he pointed his finger downward, toward the semicylinder platform's smooth surface. On there, a blank list written with golden glowing lines appeared. While the left row was labeled 'groups', the right row was called 'points'.
"I'm sure many of you are curious what this is for. After all, why would there be a score calculator if this is just training? Simple! It's because there will be rewards for the highest rankers!"
As soon as Professor Howard mentioned the word 'reward', the entire student body suddenly started cheering.
"The training period will end fifteen days before the exam starts for the illusory array to charge up. According to the rank you get in the training, you will get a certain percentage of your points as credits equally distributed between your members," Professor Howard said. The cheers seemed to get stronger, but they couldn't suppress his magically-enhanced voice.
"The first place will get 10% of their points as credits! The second will get 8%, the third 6%..."
"Ranks 4-10 will get 3%, 10-50 will get 1.5%, and the rest will get 1% of their points as reward."
'I can't believe this,' Alec couldn't help but think amidst all the shouts and chatters. 'Is this a fucking exam arc? Finally! Something normal happens in this goddamn academy! What is it? Will a dark organization amp up the illusions to make them capable of harming the students? Will one of the students attack the others? Whatever it is, let it be something cliché! I'm ready to deal with whatever, just please...'
While Alec was busy scouring his mind for what would happen in a generic academy story, the students were slowly calming down, letting Professor Howard continue the announcement.
"I would like all the students here to get their durability tested. As the monsters you are facing are illusions, we will have to give you all numerical health values depending on your body condition. Without it, you won't be able to attend the exam or the training."
"As for the final exams, the format will be announced later. Though, you can expect it to be somewhat similar to the training version. What I want to touch on is the rewards."
"As this is the first time in a long while, the rewards for the exam will be different than the usual."
"The first-place reward is the chance to go into the headmaster's magic office and choose a reward from there!" Professor Howard said. This caused the entire audience to go silent. After all, how big of a reward was that? Wouldn't there be unimaginable treasures in there?
However, on one side of the training grounds, Alec found his heart to skip a beat.
'That's it... If I go there, I might be able to figure out something about the anti-meme!'