Competition

Wallace was now in his room with three other male students. They were about to sleep as tomorrow morning would be the start of the competition as well as the arrival of students from each academy to cheer their representatives.

The competition is also open to the public as long as they can afford the admission ticket. But the first day of competition is for mana technicians, so the audience in this boring event is obviously low and would only be watched by those with the same interest. The arena would certainly be filled on its second day.

The event will be held at the near Zairus IV Arena and has only about 10,000 seating capacity so organizers are clearly aware that these seats will be easily filled.

Wallace slept soundly as they had already done their best on their preparation, so there is no more need to feel nervous. He woke up in the morning and as he was prepared to join Ross and others to the venue, he received notification from the Pathfinder.

[ The competition begins today! Make your presence known once more!

Mission : Achieve an overall rank. Reach at least the 3rd rank in the event that you will be participating in.

Mission Reward :

Rank 1 : Aeon Guardian

Rank 2 : Large Potion of Divine Sense

Rank 3 : Random Memory Crystal of a Lost Technology. ]

Wallace was dazed at the possible rewards he could get. There is this Aeon Guardian which he was curious about since it's something new from the rewards that the pathfinder had offered him before. Unfortunately, no description whatsoever can be seen on each of them.

The large potion of Divine Sense is obviously just an enhanced version of what he had consumed before.

"Hmm... This divine sense had been helpful in these past few days. Especially whenever I design a mana artifact. It shouldn't be bad to receive it instead."

Wallace planned to create a mana artifact capable of scanning, surveying, and analyzing any object just like his Divine Sense.

He was planning to use it as a camouflage in case that someone has successfully backtracked the activation of his skill. After all, there is no way for magicians here in this world to use that kind of skill without using a mana artifact. Wallace won't be able to explain his scanning ability if he was detected.

But if in case that he received a large potion of Divine Sense, he may not have to create a mana artifact at all since he expected that after enhancing the skill, no one would be able to trace his usage of Divine Sense.

Wallace gazed at the third option.

"Lost Technology... It is one of this world's mystery. Only vague records could be found about this topic."

He was lost in thought as he remembered the mysterious disappearance of Aeolia Schien's body after his supposed death.

Before his possibly faked death, he left some words that triggered the whole magician's community and those were all about this Lost Technology.

Wallace was curious about this but not entirely sure how it could help him. Anyway, he would try to do his best in the competition. Whatever free reward he will get, he'll gladly accept it.

***

Zairus IV Arena. Cavalen City.

"Hello everyone! I'm Felicia, the announcer for today's competition! I'd like for the match to start immediately and see how the amazing mana technicians make their magic on their designs. So, the first part of the competition will be a battle between the elite mana technicians of 12 different academies! Let us welcome all the participants from each Academy."

A female announcer at the side of the arena is announcing the event that is taking place.

The first part of the event is for the 1st year mana technicians and that would take 3 hours of time. For 2nd years, it's 2 hours and 30 minutes. Lastly are for 3rd years, which will only have 2 hours to be given in the competition.

The competition would start for these mana technicians to create mana artifacts that the combat magicians will be using in their battles for tomorrow.

"As we can see, the twelve groups of students here were in a circled position surrounding the bunch of materials at the very center. As the match begins, they could take any materials they could get from the center and use it to create their desired mana artifact.

"If you think that it's simple and easy, then worry not! From this mountain of materials, only 20% of these are genuine, another 10% were materials that are filled with impurities. How about the other 70%? They are amazingly fake copies of materials! They will look genuine outside but they might be just a dud inside!"

It was the same girl who was announcing the competition proper for the audiences. Her beautiful and energetic voice could attract the listener.

The participants are already aware of the rules. Included in these rules was a ban in bringing other mana artifacts in the venue.

The emcee continued explaining the rules for the audience.

"In these thousands of material collection, only 20 can be picked by each student. Once the participant touched a material, it will automatically be added on his list. You can't take it back anymore!

"Also my dear audience, remember this! There were only 3 mana technicians for each team and they even have to create mana artifacts for 5 students! Isn't that thrilling? What would happen if only 2 or 3 were created? How awful would it be for the combatants?!"

"Haha, Felicia. It seems you are much more excited than our participants. Anyway, all of them have the same problem. Let's just see who would have enough skill and experience that could withstand this hurdle."

Another male announcer beside Felicia butted in as he felt that the latter had taken all the script.

Escanor, Alice, and Samantha was now standing in their position as they look at the mountain of materials about 50 meters away from their position. They had been trained by their instructors for this and even received some tips and guidance from Wallace.

As each team had the same distance from the mountain of materials, they all intensely gaze at these objects as if trying to look for something.

In their position, there is also a readied three artifact forging box for each of them but without mana stabilization array and mana gathering formation.

"Alice and Samantha. Let's just stick to the plan and we'll certainly get good results."

Escanor said softly to the two but he only received a nod as a reply.