Early in the morning, Ellie and Luo Fan set off, with Daisy and Xiaoxue following along to see what was going on.
This morning, the selection process was conducted separately for the three grades. There were only two spots for first grade, six for second grade, and ten for third grade.
Looking at the representatives nominated by each class, Ellie was very confident. She was now a level 9 novice mage, which was no worse than some third-year students.
"Ellie, Angela, you two are class representatives, so do your best!" Teacher Monsa led the two of them; the other students, whose levels were not high enough, were naturally not eligible to participate.
"Okay, teacher! I'm sure I'll get a spot," Angela assured her confidently.
Ellie nodded without saying anything, still feeling a little nervous.
The first grade had five classes, with about ten students participating, which looked rather meager. The other two grades had dozens of students participating, and almost all of them had broken through to the intermediate magician level.
Luo Fan looked around for a long time and finally saw Huo Yu in the audience. It seemed that Emil hadn't participated in the selection either.
"The competition among the seniors is indeed fierce. Hey, isn't that Yasuo? He's participating in the selection too?" Luo Fan looked around and spotted some familiar faces standing behind the other teachers.
"I heard that after he lost his title at home, he became very hardworking, and I didn't expect him to reach level 6." Ellie answered quietly, glancing over and finding Yasuo staring at her fiercely.
She had heard about it from Daisy, who loved gossip. After the family tragedy, Yasuo was like a different person; he became very diligent and was often praised by his teachers.
Afterwards, the nine people went to a training ground to compete for the final spots.
"Aili, I challenge you!" Yasuo shouted, seemingly very confident.
Ellie remained silent, waiting for the teacher beside her to give instructions.
"Coward, I'm sure I can beat you this time!" With that, Yasuo stepped aside and summoned a level 23 Wind Serpent.
This snake was larger than the one I saw last time, and it had become quite agile. Its two eyes were bright and piercing, with a kind of innocent foolishness. It casually coiled next to Yasuo, and even had a bit more of an imposing presence, which startled the students next to it, causing them to take a few steps back.
"This time, the ranking will be based on the sum of the mage's level and the pet's level. In case of a tie, the pet's quality will be compared. Then, the 1st place will be compared with the 9th place, the 2nd place with the 8th place, and so on. The 5th place will be skipped. It will be an elimination system, so everyone be prepared."
After the teacher explained the rules, the rankings were quickly compiled. Ellie was in 1st place and Yasuo was in 5th place, so the competition began.
Looking at the levels of his opponent and pet, Luo Fan had absolutely no interest; he couldn't kill the vampire anyway. Besides, the blood of the ice wolf held no appeal for him whatsoever.
Soon, Luo Fan blocked the opponent's ice magic, and then Ai Li completely imprisoned it, causing them to lose the courage to fight.
Angela then easily defeated her opponent and advanced to the second round.
The order remained unchanged, and in the second round, Ellie faced off against Yasuo, and their battle began once again.
"Aili, come on, I won't lose to you this time!" Yasuo stepped forward, accompanied by his serpent.
"Enough talk, let's begin!" Ellie had set up her formation, and Luo Fan was also ready.
"This guy is so confident, does he have something to rely on? Let's wait and see. That little snake is far inferior to the Frost Demon Serpent."
"Wind Poison Breath!" Yasuo took the initiative, directing the snakes to move while he unleashed a whirlwind.
The wind, carrying poison, swept towards Ellie.
Luo Fan jumped over and was knocked away by the whirlwind. After enlarging his body, he stopped the whirlwind's trajectory. Ai Li's Shadow Spike also flew out, while simultaneously gaining a Shadow Shield.
"Accelerate!" The Wind Serpent rushed over at high speed, heading straight for Luo Fan who was still in the air. Then, following the lingering whirlwind, it pounced straight at him.
Yasuo then cast a wind wall to block the incoming attack, and then began to condense wind blades, slashing several wind blades towards Luo Fan's left and right.
"This kid is pretty good; his moves look quite skillful."
"The whirlwind lifted me into the air, the wind poison slowed my movements, the ground pets tore at me, and the wind blades on the left and right were to guard against my clones—what a comprehensive attack!" Luo Fan couldn't help but complain as he transformed into an airplane in mid-air, dodging attacks from all directions.
I didn't expect Yasuo to have changed so much.
Ellie's magic was ready, and she tried to bind the wind serpent, but its slippery body quickly slipped out.
"Aili, I didn't expect you to be so weak, just admit defeat!" Several more wind blades flew directly towards Luo Fan, while the Wind Spirit Serpent pounced on Ai Li.
"Shadow Strike!" Ignoring Yasuo's provocation, Ellie brandished her staff, sending out a series of dark stabs that blocked the giant serpent's path, many of which landed on its body.
"Charge!" Yasuo shouted as he used his Wind Spell on Lofan to prevent it from falling to the ground.
Luo Fan flew towards Yasuo, splitting into two to flank him from both sides.
Despite its bleeding wound, the Wind Serpent approached Ellie.
"Flip!" Yasuo shouted, seemingly already seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Once he defeated her, no one else would be his match.
The students watching were too frightened to speak, and the teacher kept a close eye on them, afraid that something might go wrong. Only Daisy, who was just watching the show, remained completely relaxed.
The Wind Serpent's tail had already rushed towards Ellie.
"Shadow Cloak!"
Through the shadows cast by the sunlight, Ellie disappeared from Yasuo's sight, and the Wind Serpent missed its target.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and searched everywhere for Ellie, but...
"Match over, Airi wins!"
The teacher announced the match result directly. Yasuo hadn't even reacted yet, and his originally ecstatic face instantly turned blank.
Ellie's voice came from behind, her hand gathering magic as she aimed it at Yasuo.
Two slimes in front of him were also ready to spit.
He was surrounded. He lost.
No wonder the teacher was in such a hurry to announce the results; he probably remembered the situation from a long time ago and wanted to save face for him.
Yasuo collapsed to the ground, completely bewildered that the focus of this duel would be Ai Li herself. He had assumed that once he controlled that disgusting slime, victory would be easy.
"Aili, that was a great reaction, thumbs up!" Luo Fan jumped back onto Ai Li's shoulder and praised her.
"Luo Fan, you should be able to get close to Yasuo easily, right?" With Luo Fan's strength, it shouldn't have taken this long.
"Hehe, I just wanted to see what tricks Yasuo had up his sleeve."
"Um, thank you anyway!"
"You're welcome! Yasuo's already working so hard, if you can't keep up, he'll make you look bad!"
"Yes, I'm already learning other magic."
Ellie has worked so hard for so long, she definitely needs a platform to showcase her abilities. As for me, bullying these kids is completely pointless.
As Luo Fan thought this, he saw Yasuo sitting next to him with a dejected look on his face. Poor kid, he'd become Ai Li's background again.
There was no hatred in his eyes. Could it be that he wasn't the one who destroyed Ellie's house before?
Now, suspicion should fall on the Coldwater Mercenary Group. I've heard they've reorganized their adventurer group and are still active in Sacred Heart City.
"Ellie, let's ask Anna about the situation later!"
"Hmm~"
Finally, as expected, Ellie won first place and secured a spot in the first year along with Angela.
"Hehe, Airi, thank you. If you hadn't defeated Yasuo, I probably wouldn't have been able to beat him." Angela gave up on competing with Airi for first place; she knew Luo Fan's true strength.
"You're really strong too. Let's go to the dungeon together sometime."
"Okay!"
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