CHAPTER 12
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Ding! -Dong!
As the bell rang, we were asked to gather in the courtyard of the Dome for our next class.
The next lecturer was Professor Arnold.
Most of the professors in the Dome were 'geniuses' who had once studied here or had achieved many successes.
They all had their own pride and therefore only paid attention to the best students while ignoring the mediocre ones. For example, according to the story, Madame Esther was more interested in Arthur.
Even if they didn't say it directly to our faces, the teacher's expression said it all. "Why should I bother to teach you? Are you worthy?"
They had that kind of expression, and the fact that most of them didn't come from respectable families made it even worse.
I shuddered when I thought of my encounter with Esther yesterday. She'd probably written me up in her black book and decided I was a problem child. That might have led her to make the opposite concessions to me that she had made to Arthur.
Even though I didn't pay much attention to this kind of treatment, I couldn't change the fact that it was wrong in my head.
The lectures about high mana places, monster behavior, and wanted djinns were finally over.
Finally, after 2 hours, I was able to go outside and breathe.
A passerby's conversation caught my attention.
"Make sure you review your grades today. Otherwise you will cry on the exam."
Sofia and Eleine were talking to each other.
"Ugh, it's so frustrating. Why do I have to learn all this? Written exams are so annoying."
Eleine spread both hands and screamed in pain.
-pfft
I laughed lightly.
Eleine turned around and looked at me. She must have heard me laughing. Snipers have sharp senses, after all. I pretended to be calm and buried my head in the ground. Eleine clicked her tongue and looked forward.
The 16th-ranked girl was probably at this level because of her grades. If she had studied a little more theory, she could have made it to the top five. After all, her father was the head of the council and her uncle was one of the Dome's professors. Her grandfather was a legend.
Eleine walked with the shackles of success on her back from the moment she was born.
She was probably looking forward to the next lesson.
Anti-monster combat training. As the name suggests, we were going to fight against monsters.
The monsters were mana puppets, not real, and their power was greatly reduced, but their appearance and destructive power matched the real thing.
They were slightly weaker than their real counterparts, but still had a high chance of injury.
Oh who's going to bother now ...
"Meet me on the field in 20 minutes!"
Shit.
Cursing inwardly, I slowly made my way to change.
These kids had been training for a long time so they were used to this kind of situation. But not me, this was the first time I was going down to a training field and the first time I was going to fight against a monster. Even though it wasn't a real monster, it bothered me to be nervous about it.
After a 20-minute break, everyone from grades 1-5 gathered in the Recruit Area. There were about 20 of us
A few other classes were waiting in the same area as us.
With 200 students, it seemed quite crowded. The wizards shared their nerves and excitement with their friends, but I was left alone.
I was the only one alone.
I never complained because I was somewhat happy about it.
Arnold, the instructor, appeared while I was wallowing in solitude. The class was lined up in 10 columns in front of him.
"Since I'm sure you all know what this class is about, I'm going to start announcing the teams right away. Unless something special happens, your teams will remain the same until the end of the midterms."
A team usually consisted of 4 members.
This was something I wrote about in the book. I needed to get the main characters together from time to time and let them experience personal growth. So the logical thing to do was to form a group and take them on dangerous adventures.
What was the harm in throwing 4 budding wizards into the most dangerous dungeons?
As I was about to experience this for myself, my anger increased even more. Not only did I need to survive, but I also needed to be ranked.
The 4 members were usually divided into close-range mages, long-range mages and support mages. Each team had to have 1 augmenter, one emitter and one emission type. Some groups had specialized mages, as specialized mages in terms of mana type were rare.
In my group I would probably be the only one with long range, in which case I would have to finish off my opponent from far ranges like Estelle or Eleine. It was comforting not to be on the front line.
Maybe Arthur would have come... if he had come, I could have completed this mission very, very easily. In fact, I was tempted by the idea of lying around for a whole year. Sofia wasn't a bad choice either, she was an agile sorceress after all. She was not as good at melee combat as Arthur, but she was no weaker than him.
Of course, there were a couple of people I didn't want, especially Seth and Eleine.
Their characters were absolutely similar and they could have been the most troublesome teammates for wizards like me who don't come from a good lineage.
At the beginning of the book, their characters were not established and they were still thinking childishly. I didn't even expect anything from Seth in the future, he was the epitome of selfishness.
"Team members will be chosen fairly. Lower ranked mages will be paired with higher ranked mages."
Arnold finished his speech and drew lots.
After a while ...
I was left speechless in my appointed team.
Eleine Sunders
Yeon mythe
William young
That girl was on my team.
When we made eye contact, her eyes briefly flashed with disdain.
When I blinked, the negativity disappeared.
She walked towards me with a surprising smile. Her long black hair waved with every step and her lips moved.
"Nice to meet you."
"Uh, well, I'm..."
"Yeon."
It wasn't me he met, and it was my imagination that I locked eyes with him. He was talking to the boy behind me.
"Oh, hi."
"Weren't we on the same team before, at the academy?"
"Yeah? Oh, right, haha."
Yeon broke into a cold sweat after only 2 sentences. She was having the same thoughts as me. I tried hard not to smile, but since this was a situation I was in, crying was a more logical option.
Eleine was difficult to talk to and it wasn't just because of her past or her personality. For me it was the boy Seth. Eleine had a one-sided love for the heir to the Ascendants Guild. No wonder that sadistic Eleine had an effect on his character.
"Ah, there's William."
"Hello..."
The boy William walked over with teary eyes. Eleine looked at him with some displeasure and then spoke.
"Who is the other person?"
"It's me."
I stepped confidently.
Yeon and William rushed towards me.
They probably knew me
"the boy who chose a gun"
When Yeon mentioned it, I checked Eleine's expression. Unexpectedly, she didn't show any emotion, but I found it even more frightening.
She hides her emotions well...
"What are your abilities?"
Eleine asked, looking at Yeon and William.
"I use an axe, I'm a booster type. Yeon uses a sword, she's an emitter."
"I see."
Estelle put her hand on her chin after William's explanation and started to think.
Just then Arnold's voice was heard in the field.
"No time for chatter. You should have the coordinates and information about your target on your smartwatch. Keep going!"
The test consisted of 50 teams. This was not a lesson that applied only to our class, probably other classes were divided into groups.
Our task was to kill the monster at the coordinates. We were ranked according to how fast and safely we completed the task, and I had no intention of finishing early.
The only problem was that Eleine would make me pay if we were too late.
"3.....2.....1..... Start."
as soon as instructor Arnold yells
The monster's name and coordinates were displayed. Eleine spoke briefly.
"A black bull! Here are the coordinates north 54°52.67 west 34°76.98...Let's go. We can talk as we move."