Preparation

Instructor Jake is a full-time instructor in the academy and one of the combat magician experts stationed to teach 3rd years for some practical combat techniques. He is a retired veteran from the military that has found joy in teaching these budding magicians.

He has black hair, tanned skin with a very fine build that could be recognized even if he's wearing a coat.

Instructor Jake stood in front of the students as his keen black eyes swiftly glanced at each of them. After having a look at them, he started to explain the rules of the competition.

"I believe you are aware of last year's competition... or some of you."

He looked at the 8 first-year students on the latter part of his words, as they may not specifically aware of the rules last year.

Upon noticing this, the first-year students nodded maybe to indicate that they know the rules last year or indeed not. Instructor Jake continued.

"Last year, the competition for combat magicians and mana technicians is a separated round-robin between the 12 Academies, but this time, the organizers decided to merge both of them."

The students reacted at this as they doubted what they've just heard.

"Merge? Will we be fighting alongside technicians?

A female third-year student from Sun Class asked. She has long black hair, pale skin and her almond eyes were staring back at the instructor. She is Vera, one of the outstanding combat magician who participated in the competition since her 1st year.

"Well, in a sense, yes. Unlike last year, the two classes will have to cooperate now to win the competition. The competition will start with mana technicians creating a mana artifact. They could only use the available resources provided by the organizers. So these mana technician has to have a wide range of knowledge in their field or they should be someone who could improvise with whatever resources they could get."

The students in Sun Class looked at the Moon Class students. They seem to be aware of the next words of instructor Jake. If that is indeed the case, their combat strength will be greatly affected depending on the abilities of the mana technicians who will be making their mana artifact. Instructor Jake continued in his explanation.

"Then the 5 combat magicians would have to use the artifact they created. Of course, you should be aware that the selected mana technicians have the capability to provide you suitable mana artifact. They just have to at least be aware of your quirks or compatibility so they could make considerations when making an artifact."

It was indeed what they have thought. There were still several rules in the competition and after about half an hour of explanation, Instructor Jake ended his part.

"That's all the rules you have to keep in mind. Any more questions?"

Another female student raised her hand asked a question, but this time, it was Mei.

"Why the change?"

She asked this because it seems that it has gotten complicated with these new rules. The competition before was more straight forward after all.

Instructor Jake nodded at this, it seems he expected that someone would ask this eventually.

"One of the reasons that I'm aware of is because of evaluation difficulty. The created mana artifact by the talented mana technicians are getting harder and harder to evaluate it's potential or value."

The students indeed remembered the disputes in the decision that has been occurring in the past competitions. Although the organizers were still able to hold their ground on their decisions, with the changes of the rules this year, they would be able to perfectly address these concerns.

After confirming that no more questions about the competition. Instructor Jake looked at another instructor in the back as he gestured for her to take the stage. It is another combat magician and instructor in the school. The headmaster already left long ago, as he left the 5 instructors in the room to guide the students.

"Some of you already knew me, but for the sake of others, I'll introduce myself first. I'm Eve Luxford, I'll help you guys during the month of preparation before the date of the competition."

She was referring to Moon Class students as most of them were only aware of instructors related to their class, including Wallace. She has short black hair and blue eyes, her instructor's uniform couldn't hide her beautiful curves as she stands in front of everyone.

***

After about 2 hours of briefing in the Training Room A, Wallace said his goodbye with his classmates and made his way to the student council office.

He was told to visit here to do his part as an officer.

"Wallace, good thing you've already arrived. Here, take a look at this."

It is Aaron Schmidt, the student council president who greeted him. He saw Jenny on the side busy on tapping the computer's keyboard in front of her.

Wallace took the paper that the president handed over to him. He took a look at it and noticed that it was a list of mana artifacts that other magic academy students created. It seems that Wallace and Ross wasn't the only one who was able to create an original mana artifact.

'I see, this would be helpful. As long as we are somewhat aware of other academy's strengths, we could make an amount of preparation.'

Wallace thought as he noticed some creative mana artifacts made by some students especially the one in the Mystic Gate Academy.

"Hmm... Those are only some of the information we got through our channels, we still require your help to acquire more of these and of course, as a mana technician who will be participating in the competition we'll be needing some of your opinions on it as well."

Aaron explained as he noticed Wallace who was lost in thought as he browsed the information regarding the other 11 Magic Academies.

"Of course, I'll do my best to help."

Wallace agreed to help and continued by asking questions.

"I believe Gary and Humphrey, the two ethics officer can be selected as a participant in the competition. How come they weren't selected?"

He had already made enough research on some outstanding 3rd-year combat magicians and that duo was certainly included.

After this question was voiced out, Wallace noticed that Jenny, who was busy typing on the keyboard stopped for a few seconds before quickly continuing whatever she was doing.

"Oh, the ethics committee is a part of the student council and we have some task to do as well. Participating in TMAC will coincide with it... so we can't participate, we could only help by gathering information and making plans before the competition."

Aaron then took a sip of his warm tea placed on the table and smiled mysteriously on Wallace.