Chapter 29: Arena Challenge Level One
With a loud explosion, the fireball and the dummy disappeared as a number appeared in the air.
"70... C's get degrees. It's not even that bad." Alex murmured as he tried to comfort himself.
After recovering most of his mana, Alex began walking down the path again until he saw another straw dummy ahead of him.
This time, the dummy had a sign that said 'Water me."
With the same process as earlier, a ball of water appeared above Alex's head as he focused all his mana toward his head.
Feeling the size was about right, he redirected it right at the dummy, causing it to break in half as another score appeared.
"Only 63? Fuck..."
Alex began slowly walking towards the next destination, recharging his mana along the way as he could feel his body a little burnt out.
Each spell was draining almost all of his mana. But the biggest issue was his mana regeneration, which was becoming slower and slower.
The third dummy ahead of him was to use the wind element, which he did with a wind blade.
This time, it was a much higher score, giving him an 80.
But knowing he had reached his limit, Alex sat down and started meditating, recharging his mana at a much faster pace.
After feeling fully charged, he finally stood back up and continued down his path.
However, this time, it wasn't a dummy standing in front of the path before him.
Instead, it was some sort of rock golem walking closer and closer to him.
Not wasting any time, Alex immediately took a few steps back before beginning to cast his fireball.
As the fireball reached half its size, he was forced to stop and direct it to the golem, which was getting way too close.
There was only a small scratch as the fireball disappeared after hitting the golem, causing Alex to run further back to give himself more time.
"There has to be a way to beat this... What element counters rocks?"
With time ticking past, Alex suddenly had an idea as he cast a water spell this time.
Rather than making it into a ball shape, he shot it straight toward the golem as a water beam out of a hose.
It did zero damage to the golem, performing even worse than the fireball that was thrown earlier.
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But with the entire golem covered in water, Alex started using his mana to cast an ice spell.
"Come on, please work..."
As Alex prayed in his head, the ice spell he performed actually worked as the water started freezing.
Almost all the wet floors were starting to have a layer of ice, as Alex's spell wasn't to create an ice projectile.
Instead, it was just to lower the temperature of the surrounding area, creating a small ice zone.
"Shit!"
Just as the water on the golem started to freeze, the newly formed ice quickly shattered into pieces, causing him to run back again.
This time, he almost slips on the ice he had just created before readjusting himself to run far away enough to think.
"There got to be a way to beat this stupid golem... wait!"
Alex suddenly got an idea as he noticed the golem's two short legs that were used to walk toward him.
With not much time to consider, Alex quickly burnt half of the mana he just recovered, putting it all into an Earth spell.
A large hole appeared before him, and one of the golem's legs walked right into it just as it was about to reach Alex.
The golem seemed to realize it was stuck as it started hitting the ground to push itself up, pushing itself higher and higher.
But Alex wasn't just going to let the golem free itself as he quickly began to use the rest of his mana to cause dirt to pile up onto his legs.
Trapping the golem's leg further and further with dirt, it soon became completely immobilized underneath.
The dirt had completely trapped both of its legs as it slammed the ground in anger, packing the dirt into an even more solid.
"Whew, that was a close one."
Alex quickly sat back down and began to meditate, catching up with his mana as the ground continued to shake from all the hits.
After he fully recovered his mana, he began casting more and more small fireballs at the golem until the dent slowly transformed into a crack.
Just as he was about to cast a water ball to expand inside the golem, it suddenly disappeared as a score appeared.
"10? Are you joking? I spent all that effort just to get a 10. You can't be serious."
In complete disbelief, Alex angrily sat back down to meditate on all his mana before walking down the path.
Rather than another obstacle course, it was the end as a leaderboard appeared before him.
Almost the entire leaderboard was 100, with the only difference that ranked them was the time differences.
Not a single person's name was recognizable except Justin, who managed to get 10th place.
"Rigged machines..." Alex murmured as a light appeared before his eyes.
When he could see again, he was back in the arena with half of the class, who was also finished.
"Hey Justin, how do you get 10th place?" Alex curiously asked.
"It's just a burst test. You have to shoot a big enough projectile to have it do enough damage.
Then, the only other thing to consider is time... I already fought that thing hundreds of times, so I already know how to speedrun it."
Alex noted it in his head as he sat down at a nearby bench and began waiting for more of his classmates to come out.
But seeing Sophia and Mary still not coming out yet, he got a little worried.
"Miss Amy, how long does this test usually take?" Alex curiously asked.
"About ten to twenty minutes for the first time like you all... But there is a hard cap of thirty minutes if they don't finish in time.
And don't worry about your classmates. There have been zero cases of death, at least for the first twenty levels."
"Thank you."
Wait more and more, other students began to appear, some of whom looked a little bruised.
But nobody had any severe or permanent injuries, just like Miss Amy had described.
"Hey Alex, what's your score?" A female voice appeared from behind.
As he turned around, Camille was right behind him, with her three other friends next to her.
"My score? It's not that good." Alex replied as he turned back to the entrance.
"Camille, you idiot, I told you not to ask that," Evelyn murmured before dragging Camille to the side.
After the two whispered something to each other, Camille immediately ran back to Alex before bowing down.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to ask that earlier."
Seeing Camille apologizing in front of him, Alex was a little surprised. But he didn't mind it at all.
"Don't worry about it... I'm going to get used to it sooner or later." Alex murmured the last part to himself.
With the timer ticking short and short, Mary was the first one to come out.
There was dirt all over her knee skirts and leggings, but she looked mostly fine as she excitedly ran over to Alex.
"Brother! I beat the golem!" Mary excitedly yelled as she ran into his arm.
"Nice, that's good to hear... Is your leg okay?" Alex quietly asked.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine..."
Mary blushed a little as her leg still felt a small little bit of cramps from the period.
"What score did you get?" Alex softly asked, unable to help but gently pat her head as she rested her head on his belly.
"I got 80, 80, 80 and 50!" Mary replied nervously, looking a little down as if she was ashamed of the low score at the end.
"That's amazing! You got almost twice my total, Mary."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I really mean it... Ahem, let's go sit down and wait for Sophia."
The two headed back to the bench to meet back up with Sophia's friends, whose faces looked a little jealous.
"Mary, you really got that score?" Luna curiously asked.
"Yeah, what did you guys get?" Mary curiously asked back.
"I got——"
Before Luna could answer, Sophia was finally out of the challenge with a minute remaining.
Unlike everyone whose clothes looked a little messed up or covered with dirt, Sophia's clothes were completely unscratched.
"Sophia! What did you get?" Mary excitedly asked as she ran over to her, with Alex and her friends following behind.
"Just 82, 82, 80, 80. What did you all get?" Sophia curiously asked as she gently patted Mary's head.
"40, 40, 40, 90," Camille replied first.
"70, 60, 80, 80," Evelynn replied.
"78, 78, 40, 70," Luna replied.
"95, 95, 100, 100," Chloe replied last.
"Two 100? How did you beat the golem that fast?" Sophia asked in shock, with Mary and Alex looking just as shocked.
Even the other three girls looked shocked as if they hadn't expected her to get that high of a score compared to everyone else.