"Welcome to the yearly School Prowess Competition."
The old man had a strange presence, it wasn't normal for all the students to be so quiet even when the teacher was talking. Even Lucas felt compelled to not speak in such a presence, but he couldn't put it into words.
"If you're going to take part in this year's competition, please take a number at the reception. Once you have your number, go take the tests. When most of the test have been completed by everyone we'll start with the main event, duels. Good luck."
And with that he disappeared into thin air, like his body wasn't even ever there to begin with. Lucas felt inclined to check his surroundings with Magic Vision, but nothing popped up. The old man didn't even say that much and barely explained anything. It was more a formality for him to be there than anything, the other teachers had to fill in the blank spaces.
"Damn, the director is quite an old bag of bones isn't he?"
"Dude, shut up, if the teachers hear you're done for!"
'I think everyone can hear you dumbasses.'
'It's thanks to them we now know who that man was, a force not to be reckoned with.'
'No kidding.'
One of the head teachers took up the empty space left by the director to guide the students.
"Everyone line up! Take your number and go do the tests in order. They are labeled so don't worry. For each test, points will be given depending on your achievements. The top 50 for each test gets 5 points. The top 10 participants get 15 point and the person who ranks first gets 25 points. The duels will be explained later. At the end of this competition the top 50 will get to participate in the national competition. Do your best students, for there will be prizes given at the end as well. You can check the possible rewards on the scoreboard."
The students were all excitedly looking at the prices, some low-grade artifacts were even on the lists of possible rewards. But there were also items that not everyone knew what to do with, certain ingredients or plants only the most knowledgeable would know about. Still, the uproar of the students continued while they were waiting for their number, the prizes were very attractive for some.
Lucas didn't care all that much since he wouldn't be aiming for first place, but rather try to get average scores that would still place him among the top 50. If he garnered too much attention he would most likely get in trouble with Eliot, although that was bound to happen at one point.
Lining up he was careful to stay away from Eliot. He was still avidly looking around in search of Lucas. He couldn't imagine what would happen if he got found out, all the attention and a possible fight was something to be avoided. Furthermore, he thought the teachers might step in to help him out, but comparing Eliot's reputation and his own, there was bound to be bias.
Eliot was the star of Vires's class, a student who mastered his element and was known in many circles, and then you had Lucas, or Conrad as he was registered. Someone with barely any background information, has Gilbert and Elam as his teachers and is known to have killed someone just to follow his classes. A noble and a commoner couldn't be compared.
Lucas had a feeling he could probably win if he played a bit dirty, because Eliot was indeed a star in Vires's class. Of all the students only a few felt like they had the power to overpower all the other students.
Finally getting to the reception desk he had to jot down his name and would receive a little pin with a number on it. Next to the board that had the prices there was a list of names created in light that displayed the name and the corresponding amount of points. Lucas got very interested in how the magic worked, but seeing a teacher constantly standing next to the board simply drawing the names in lines of light with his hand, he lost interest.
Some names already had a few points, with the names changing occasionally. The strange thing was that the teacher didn't do anything to the names that were already written, they would periodically update the correct amount of points. Since the teacher didn't do anything, Lucas could only assume it had something to do with the pin in his hands.
Looking at the board, he could see at the top Eliot with a few points already and his own name at the very bottom.
'Let's get this over with.'
Lucas went to the first test, one of physical strength. Once again there was a list of names and numbers next to one of the teachers. The ranking didn't interest Lucas all that much, but seeing that the ones from the Martial Class surpassed Eliot in strength did surprise him.
"The rules are very simply, hit this rock as hard as you can. The use of artifacts is forbidden, but magic is allowed. Depending on the force you can display a number will be calculated which will decide your ranking."
Since Lucas had to wait for a bit he could do some quick calculations.
'Those weird guys are at the top with 129 points, how are those calculated?'
'Perhaps the impact can be measured in kilo's or something else?'
Lucas wasn't sure, but if he wanted to be at least in the top 50, he needed a score that was high enough while simultaneously average. The more he could surprise his opponents in the later stages the better. If everyone thought he was weak, the big shots wouldn't bother with him here or in the national competition.
"Number 43, it's your turn, go ahead and strike this rock."
Someone in front of him had to go, using Magic Vision, Lucas analyzed the student's attack. It was a simple muscle enhancement, something he was also planning on doing.
BAM
The force of the strike was loud enough for the onlookers to hear. Not long after the number in the list gained a number - 68
"Great, next please.", the line started to move up, but Lucas was almost frozen stiff. He also used muscle enhancement in the same way, which should give him a similar score, but the ones at the top had almost double of his strength.
'Shit, we're screwed, if we get a similar score we'll barely make the top 50!'
'Calm down, we have a stronger core in general that should have some kind of effect on the result!'
The next candidate was another one of the Martial Class. He silently stepped towards the rock. Pulling his fist back he turned his whole body to give his swing a boost;
BAM
Once again, the number appeared not long after - 112
Lucas had been using Magic Vision to gain some kind of insight, but.
'What the fuck, he didn't even use magic!'
'So we're not the only ones hiding their power, or well, that idea goes out the window.'
If he wanted to at least get in the top 50 he would have to conjure all his power since the Martial Class already had plenty of students that would get the top scores. After a few more students it was his turn.
"Number 83, please come try."
'Right, let's do this. When it comes to explosive power, you should control it this time.'
'Fine, I'll take control for a second, but then I'll give it back like we agreed.'
'Good, go ahead.'
"Let's do this bitch.", Lucas spoke to the rock while the teacher and surrounding students looked at him with strange looks. Especially the teacher didn't like his cursing.
His core started to release a bunch of magicules, some without any element, others with an earth element. Part of Lucas didn't know what he was planning, but had complete confidence when it came to his explosive capabilities, although he might have to patch himself up later.
Lucas kept gathering his energy, to the point that the other students were getting tired of waiting, most didn't take this long to take the test. But that was because Lucas was doing something different from normal muscle strengthening.
'Normal muscle strengthening requires you to gently put magic in your muscles, but what would happen if your entire arm gets forcefully enhanced with magic?'
'Hmm? Wouldn't it explode...WAIT STOP RIGHT NOW!'
BAM!
The punch was strong enough to be heard by the students at the other tests. The list of names changed a bit later - Number 83 - Conrad - 147
"HAHAHA, I knew I didn't lose my touch, good luck surpassing that jackass!"
'Alright that's enough, switch with me!'
'Fine'
Lucas was wondering if he should've created a quick story that he simply made a bet and that's why he was so excited and aggressive, but he was too tired to care. If they labeled him as crazy, so be it, at least then they would avoid him somewhat. The problem was that Eliot would find him pretty soon since that his name was at the top and everyone would've remembered how he looked.
Even the students from the Martial Class gathered to take a good look at the one that surpassed their physical strength.
'Goodness, how did you even achieve that?'
'Simple, overload your arm with magic but keep it stable enough with earth magicules. Look at our arm.'
'Yeah, good job making us waste even more energy on patching ourselves up.'
He gave a quick glance and could see tiny pieces of stone lodged in his skin, which kept his arm intact after such an outburst of magic. Looking back at the test the following students all tried to do the same.
Since almost every student gets taught Magic Vision it wasn't difficult for them to replicate his idea. The only issue was that nobody had his unique physique. Only Lucas was capable of this stupid idea to use your arm as an explosive. Still, that didn't stop anybody from trying.
"Hah, what an idiot, giving away such an awesome technique.", the next student was a pretty high ranking noble. Looking at his appearance it didn't look like he ever got in a fight. He looked pretty normal except for his excessive lavish hair and rings on his fingers.
"First, gather energy at your center, let it mix with some earth magicules and then...AAH"
BOOM
His arm exploded in a cloud of dust and stone. The teacher sighed before healing him on the spot, completely regenerating his arm. The noble looked drained from his energy, but at least he got his limbs back.
"Never copy a spell you don't know enough about. If you think it would be so easy to copy spells why would you have to study runes and magic in general so thoroughly? Please don't make this mistake again in the future and come up with your own spells."
The student could barely nod before eating a strange pill that brought him back to his earlier self, filled with energy. "Uhm, can I try again?"
"No. Next!"