3.22.

The beginning of the new semester. If the first semester served as an introduction to the basics of dungeon exploration, the second semester would focus more on the delicate aspects such as individual skill, teamwork, strategizing, planning, and the different roles in a party.

The itinerary for this semester aims to develop the individual and team coordination rather than combat tactics used in the dungeon itself. So while there would be no big examination for this semester, the student will be judged by the small missions part of the continuous assessments.

Classes in the morning would still be focused on physical and magic training, except that there would be more emphasis on honing their individual abilities. For Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the afternoon classes would be about leadership, teamwork and mercenary etiquettes. Miss Willy was no longer the one in charge of this, instead, it would be Mister Jonnathan, the beastkin.

Tuesday and Thursday afternoon are free periods where the students are advised to practice strengthening themselves.

"It seems this semester will be less busy than the first," Schwii said.

"I know right."

"Likely, to train for self-actualization. I'm sure they'll be cramming a lot into these sessions."

Schwii and Sequencee maintained their position as the class representative, hence they had to organize the miscellaneous things required for the normal functioning of the class.

The first day of the semester, during the daily morning physical exercise routines, the number of laps had increased from ten to fifteen. Though funnily enough, even the weakest of mages in class E2A were able to keep up pace with the rest without a great delay. All the stamina training in the first semester must've helped.

Moving on to magic practice, Judy, Third Grade Mage of the Arcane Magic Ensemble was in charge of educating the students. Her focus for the next two weeks was to have the students successfully perform smooth spell transitions, speedy triple casts, and magic CQC. By the end of it, she'll grade each student for their mastery of these components.

".. Ah, except for Sequencee. Your curriculum is something else," Judy said.

He rolled his eyes.

If he were tested on those three components above right now, he would score near full marks.

"As for now, I'll demonstrate what magic CQC is. Sequencee, may I request you try to fight me?" Judy spun her staff and pointed it downwards.

"You want me to fight you?" Sequencee ask, puzzled.

"Yes. Close quarters."

"Sure thing.."

"Everyone please stand back and watch from a distance."

The setting of the field bubble they were in had emergency protocols on. So neither Sequencee nor Judy would die if they were about to be killed as it would apport them to the med bay nearby.

"Then I'll begin. Feel free to retaliate without reservation, Sequencee," Judy's staff scintillated.

The ground rumbled thunderously as a bulwark of spikes charged from the ground towards Sequencee like a mole's trail.

'That's just wasting mana.. oh well. She's trying to be flashy to the students.'

Sequencee released his own mana and created a counter earth spell. The two structures crashed together with loud crunching sounds as it fused into a tall obelisk.

A magic circle appeared above Sequencee right that moment and a pressure field that caused the ground to crack.

Judy spun her staff as hundreds of rock bullets formed around Sequencee, firing off at once.

'I should get out of here.'

Since it was a demonstration, Sequencee wasn't too keen on using everything he had.

Forcing mana to break the gravity field, a whirlwind broke out around Sequencee to blow the rock bullets. Some that managed to break through were stopped by the magic barrier surrounding him.

Casting another shield to guard himself, Sequencee took the chance to rush towards Judy. He contrived a rock spear and readied a charge strike.

'This should be the way right?'

Magic CQC is normally used against fighters in close quarters, which meant that Sequencee had to assume the position of a weapons master.

A light smile formed on Judy's face as a field of obelisks rose from the ground.

Sequencee deftly maneuvered around each obelisk, twisting himself into pretzels to; closing the distance he imbued mana into the spear and swiped.

A strong wind torrent conjured at the tip of the spear slammed against a bouncy reflection layer, sending Sequencee staggering backwards.

'Yeah. This is the first time seeing such a spell.'

This time, ice obelisks rose from the ground. Alongside that flashes of lights sparked as small explosive orbs drifted towards him. Sequence smashed his spear against the ice obelisks, his spear broke instead.

'Crap!'

A rush of slow, homing orbs chased Sequencee as he weaved through the shiny obelisks. As the ice purposefully melted to form small pools of puddles below. At Judy's command, she had the orbs explode. Water splashed and fragments scattered.

Sequencee contrived another rock spearand and bolted towards Judy who created a gap.

Touching the puddle on the floor with her staff, powerful jolts of electricity shot through.

Sequencee's pushed his legs and hoped to the sky.

Judy manipulated the water doused in electrical current to chase after him, but his magic barrier warded off any possible chances.

Descending, Sequencee struck down. The protective membrane Judy had surrounding her was torn into by the anti-magic enchanted spear, and with the next twirl, he attempted a killing blow.

"Stop!!"

An explosive shockwave blew outwards with Judy in the center, sending Sequencee bouncing a couple times before he stabilized himself.

"..."

"Thank you Sequencee, it was a great fight.." Judy calmed her breathing, "Now, this is an example of what magic CQC is. Even if you aren't as fast as those that train in the sword, mages still have the capability of defending themselves, not limited to being backline support. Got that?"

'Ouch. She probably learnt that from mom.'

It was a nostalgic feeling. In the past, whenever Sequencee got close enough to pull a strike on his mother, she would always create these extreme outbursts of wind. It was like slamming into expanding concrete. Even now, Sequencee could feel his sore chest and possible cracked bones screaming in pain.

"Sequencee, are you sure you're alright?" Judy asked.

"I'm fine. Just a little hazy," Sequencee staggered as he got up.

'Probably a little bit of internal bleeding.. though I'm not vomiting blood so..'

"Go to the med bay and have the priest there check on your condition. That blow would've normally caused a concussion."

With Schwii's company, Sequencee went to the infirmary nearby to have the priest check on his condition. No abnormalities were found, which was itself an abnormality.

===

As usual, Sequencee's additional assignments would be only given after the class. He followed Judy to the corner patio of the main enforcer building which overlooked the field plains stretching towards the lotus filled lake.

"Are you really going to leave the hero's party?" Judy asked.

"I already have," Sequencee expected this somewhat. So he was not surprised.

"Why? Because they're not up to your standard?"

"I just gave up on revenge. That's why."

"Mn.. that makes sense. But that isn't a reason why you would leave a party though? I hope it's not because of a grudge between the members of the party?"

"No. It's nothing like that. I just want to stop getting directly involved, because I have my own life to live too."

"So it's a selfish reason then, not because of conflict, yes?"

"Mostly, yes."

"As long as it's not because you fought. To be honest, I may have overestimated the hero's strength. We often hear stories of the amazing feats Hero Rika had done in the past, glossing over the suffering and hardships she had to go through to earn that. I'm sure the current hero will reach that level someday. For now at least, they'll have to keep training."

"True. Thinking that they're amazing right out of the box is foolish.. well, they're improving at a monstrous rate. So it wouldn't come as a surprise that they'll surpass the orthodox threshold and really hold the power worthy of a hero. Both of them."

"Whoops, I think we've gone out of topic there; onto your assignment," Judy held out filed documents to Sequencee.

"???"

He opened it up and read the contents.

"Magic concert?"

"Yup. I know that you're a soloist, but if paired together with an ensemble, I think you can really blow things up!" Judy exclaimed with enthusiasm.

'Right.. Judy is from the Empire's Magic Ensemble. Go figure.'

The assignment was to join the magic concert as the star soloist. To Sequencee who didn't know a lot about the field of magic concert, the basic idea was that he had to join a group of mages to coordinate a defensive spell that negates disaster-sized attacks, or generate bombardment spells that could end an entire city.

'It's just a barrier spell expanded over a wide region and a nuke spell, right?'

"I'm sure you know how to at least read magic formulas, right?"

"Why this assignment?"

"You're my important student. I'm training you in case you one day take a position in Arcane's Magic Ensemble. Even if you didn't, it'll help you better plan your magic, which is your current weakness."

"Hm.. sure thing then."

Sequencee checked the other details such as the deadline, base knowledge requirements, and student numbers in the ensemble. Sequencee was not going to be the orchestra manager for his own writing, but he'll have to liaise with the conductor of the group.

There was also a document outlining the fundamentals of what it means to play for an orchestra. The entire thing was personally written out by Judy, which included diagrams, charts and configurations of the ensemble.

"I have till.. huh? So this is why?"

Sequencee's eyes widened a little upon seeing the paper tucked at the very back of the file– a competition list.