Chapter 387
Chapter 387
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 387
Chapter Title: One-Man Team (3)
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As the monsters in the sky, on the ground, and underground were annihilated almost simultaneously, an announcement came from Zone 2000.
“Whew.”
Shirone wiped the sweat from his brow and looked back at the electronic scoreboard.
“Wow! We did pretty well, huh?”
Team 5 was ranked an impressive second place. First place went to Team 2, which included Fermi.
Team 2's completion time was 3 minutes and 15 seconds.
It was a shame to lose by only 13 seconds, but considering that everyone in Team 2 was part of Fermi's group, it was a decent result.
‘Well, we are just a makeshift party.’
Closer seemed to be in a bad mood.
“Tch, Fermi again? How do those guys always manage to climb the ranks together?”
Dante said.
“It just shows how experienced they are at managing their scores. Anyway, second place for our team isn't bad. It means we're in the top 10 overall. As long as we stay in the top 10 for each evaluation, we'll eventually graduate.”
Dante was satisfied with the fact that three groups who had never worked together before had taken second place. In terms of party contribution, you could say everyone had scored a 1.
Iruki was thinking the same thing. However, his thoughts were a bit more specific.
‘If this were the graduation exam, it would be Dante 1.01, Closer 0.99, Shirone 1, Canis 1.02, and me 0.98, I guess.’
The best player of Team 5, by a narrow margin, was Canis. Wiping out the underground monsters by himself was a major factor.
‘To increase party contribution, choosing the right enemy based on affinity is important. The gap will be much wider in the graduation exam.’
In the meantime, Team 1 was listed in third place. Their time was a bit further behind, at 4 minutes and 18 seconds.
“Anyway, let's head down. I want to watch the other teams too.”
Dante led his team members down from Zone 2000. He then immediately disbanded the team.
“Shirone, good work. You too, Iruki and Canis.”
Shirone also replied in good spirits.
“Yeah, you worked hard too. Let's team up again if we get the chance.”
Fourth place was decided, followed by the fifth-place team completing the annihilation mission. Their respective times were 4 minutes and 24 seconds, and 4 minutes and 28 seconds.
“Wow, it's really close this week too.”
Although Shirone's team had taken second place, the monster tiers weren't that high yet, so the luck of the party composition had played a big part.
Taking that into account, the other teams' skills were also formidable.
Iruki said.
“This trend will likely continue up to Tier 8. It's impossible to face them alone, but mages become incredibly powerful when they group up. Of course, this is only possible because we're at an academy.”
Being at a magic academy, everyone you met was a mage, but even the 30 students in the graduating class were high-level personnel who would scatter across the world after graduation, making it hard to ever see each other again.
As a profession that made up less than 0.0001 percent of the population, only organizations on the level of the Royal Guard, the Capital Guard, or the Border Defense Force could afford to have mages in unit formations.
In reality, even if about 20 third-rate mages who wandered from guild to guild gathered, their firepower was immense.
If each one cast a Fireball every 10 seconds, a simple calculation meant they could unleash a staggering 1,200 shots in 10 minutes.
Even for such mages, their fees were so high that there were almost no quests that were profitable for a group of 20.
And even if there were, they would usually go to higher-ranked mages.
An exception was terrorism, but in the face of the public authority known as the Red Line, they were nothing more than mice before a cat.
The combat power of an official Red Line unit—that is, a certified mage unit—was on a completely different level from third-rate mages.
When non-tier monsters, such as demons, appeared, the Magic Association, with the king's approval, formed a large, elite party composed of certified Grade 4 to Grade 6 mages. This was called a ‘Cage.’
The name meant to lock them in a cage and beat them down. It was said that when about 20 mages, considered the most talented in their respective fields, gathered, they could produce enough power to be described as a walking legion.
From Grade 3 Archmages onward, the numbers dropped drastically across the entire continent, so experts believed that unless a world-class disaster struck, the Cage was the strongest type of party.
‘Once I go out into the world, I probably won't have the chance to form parties with such diverse people. I should learn as much as I can from this opportunity.’
The operation of Zone 2000 came to a halt.
“Team 4 evaluation complete. The last team to perform the mission, Team 4, has received 0 points.”
Shirone watched Team 4 with a sense of pity. Of all teams, the one with Amy in it had come in last.
‘Balance really is important. Even with an incredible damage dealer like Amy, it wasn't enough.’
Team 4 couldn't hide their bitter expressions.
It wasn't a situation where you could single out one person and blame them.
In fact, led by Screamer, they had ravaged the enemy lines with dazzling and varied attacks. It's just that their lack of balance made their annihilation time longer than the other teams'.
‘I should have been the one to receive the buffs instead.’
Amy found that point deeply regrettable.
The Fist Master's ultimate strategy granted one person combat power that was overwhelming for their class, but the mission for the 6th week was annihilation.
It was bound to reveal its weakness in a mission that required the detail of a unified team definitively eliminating enemies.
‘Can't be helped. I'll just have to aim for next week.’
Amy coolly accepted the 0 points. After all, the team leader was the stubborn Screamer, and she had no choice but to follow his orders.
If you couldn't accept it, you just had to raise your rank and become the team leader yourself. That was the irrefutable rule of the graduating class.
‘Ah, damn it. This is so frustrating.’
Screamer, on the other hand, couldn't accept the result.
How could they possibly come in last? He had never received 0 points for strategy and tactics, not even in last year's graduating class.
‘This is all your fault.’
Unable to contain his explosive anger, Screamer shouted at Maya.
“You idiot!”
The students turned to look at Screamer, hearing a shout that was rarely heard in the graduating class of the magic academy.
If the team lost, there was no need to question individual abilities. But how many weeks had it been since their strategy and tactics evaluation was ruined because of her?
As Screamer strode toward her, Maya's eyebrows drooped and her expression stiffened.
“The monsters got more violent because of you!”
The Rhapsody of Agitation induced anxiety.
While it was a strategically useful spell, in a case like annihilation, it felt like it took more time because the enemies went berserk.
“No, they didn't get more violent, it was just a commotion…”
“Shut up! You're just making sounds like a squealing pig! You call that sound magic? Now what are you going to do?”
Maya looked wronged for a moment, then lowered her head.
“I'm sorry…”
No one stopped Screamer.
Maya had no talent for sound magic, and Screamer was the second-ranked student among the graduation candidates. Needlessly stepping in and making an enemy of him could lead to bad results in the future.
“What the hell do you even do? You've been in the graduating class longer than me, you should at least have some experience, right? Do you just do whatever you're told? When the werewolves appeared, wasn't the answer obvious?”
“I'm sorry. Sorry…”
Maya just kept repeating that she was sorry. There was nothing else she could say.
“This is why commoners are useless. If you have no talent, you should just drop out. You're just causing trouble for everyone else by pathetically hanging on, trying to make it big as a mage.”
Maya's shoulders trembled. Tears dripped down from her face, hidden by her hair.
‘So Maya was a commoner…’
Shirone glared at Screamer.
He had never heard that Maya was a commoner, but that didn't matter. To insult someone's specialization by calling it a squealing pig's sound.
Maya's tone was actually clear and pure compared to more combative sound magic, which did make it feel less effective.
It was a personal attack. If she hadn't been overweight, she never would have had to hear such words.
“Sorry… *sob*! I'm sorry…”
Screamer grew even more irritated.
A mage who broke down crying just from being yelled at. And in the graduating class, no less.
This evaluation was a life-or-death matter for everyone. And here she was, making him look like the bad guy for no reason.
“Enough, get lost! And please, if you don't have the skill, just voluntarily drop down. Don't you feel sorry for everyone else, hanging on just because you got lucky and your rank went up a bit?”
Screamer turned coldly and walked away. Shirone followed him and called out.
“Hey.”
Screamer turned back, lifting his chin.
“What?”
“Apologize to Maya.”
Screamer's eyes widened in disbelief.
Not only was there no reason to apologize, but interfering like this was by no means a wise move in the graduating class.
‘Look at this guy. Is he acting reckless just because he's on Fermi's bad side?’
Even when Shirone had made his declaration to fight to the death, Screamer had just snorted at it.
Magic or whatever, if he smashed them with one hit outside, they'd all be on their knees. And they dared to challenge him inside the academy.
‘No, maybe this is actually a good thing?’
Screamer was by no means stupid. If he crushed Shirone, who had passed the 7th stage of the survival evaluation, his own stock would rise.
‘Should I poke him a little first?’
Screamer deliberately provoked Shirone.
“Come to think of it, you were a commoner too, right? No, were you royalty? Ah, you thought you were royalty but got knocked back down to a commoner. Hahaha!”
It had already been several months since the trip to Kazura, so the students were accepting Shirone's commoner status as fact.
“It doesn't matter if I'm a commoner or not. Take back everything you said to Maya and give her a sincere apology.”
“I don't want to. Why should I? I did my part. Coming in last is Maya's fault.”
“No, it's a shared responsibility. And if someone absolutely has to take the blame, it's you, the team leader.”
“What nonsense is this? Don't you know about party contribution? Do you have any idea how many monsters I took down?”
Nade joined the conversation.
“Isn't it embarrassing to talk so big when you went all-in on utility buffs?”
Screamer's face flushed with anger. As if Shirone wasn't enough, now even gnats were buzzing around him.
Iruki added a word.
“You were the main damage dealer, but there wasn't much difference between you and the sub-dealer, was there? Do you really think the Fist Master's ultimate strategy is suited for an annihilation operation? The fact that you got 0 points in the end means it was the team leader's misjudgment.”
Screamer scowled.
“Third parties sure have a lot to say. My judgment was correct. There was just a weak link in the team. Since we had Maya, I had no choice but to take a risk. Who does an evaluation to get just 1 or 2 points? I even raised my contribution to 1.4.”
“That's your limit. Thinking about party contribution before the results even came out is proof you don't trust your teammates. Maya is an official member of the graduating class too. There must have been plenty of ways to score points including her.”
“Hahaha! Really? If you had been in Team 4 instead of me, would you still be able to say that?”
“Of course. If I were the team leader, we would have placed in the top three at least.”
“Hah.”
Screamer let out a sigh.
This was why he hated newcomers. Guys who just spouted whatever came to mind without experiencing it themselves.
Maya was a lost cause. Skills aside, she absolutely did not have the personality to be a mage.
“Getting a high score with Maya on the team? Do you really think that's possible?”
Amy said.
“It would have been higher than a team with a leader like you, at least.”
Screamer looked behind him. Amy was standing with her arms crossed, tapping her foot.
“Are you talking to me now?”
It was standard practice in the graduating class to avoid conflict with potential rivals you might clash with in the future, unlike someone like Maya who wasn't even considered a competitor.
This was to avoid getting caught up in a pointless war of attrition and giving an advantage to others.
Of course, Amy knew this well. No, she had learned it the hard way from failing last year.
But this year would be different. Unlike with Seriel, where she had been cautious about causing harm to each other, she now had allies she could trust and rely on for everything.
Amy strode forward. Iruki and Nade stepped aside with grim expressions. Her confidence soared, boosted by the supporting fire of comrades, not just strategic allies.