The Runesmith

Chapter 717 – Suffering From Success.

“What is this? The team from Xandar’s Institute has already found the first treasure, but they aren’t alone. What will happen now? Will they face their opponents or try to escape?”

The announcer continued to shout across the open amphitheater as the crystal orb adjusted its focus, capturing the growing tension inside the artificial forest. High in the viewing stands, Roland watched as Arion flicked his feline ears in amusement. The viewing orb displayed five figures bursting through the dense brush on the opposite side of the clearing.

‘Bad luck right at the start… but I suppose these are the preliminaries, so it’s more likely for them to run into another team.’

While the events here were usually well established, there were still a few problems. One of them was the structure of the event itself. They had crammed far more contenders into the magical grounds than the space was truly designed to accommodate.

There was another bracket with even more contenders later, but at this point, there were already twice as many teams as the magical space was meant to contain. Because of that, it wasn’t strange for Lucienne’s team to encounter another group so soon.

‘Northern Frost Academy…’

Roland noticed the badges on the other group’s robes. They were from a magical school that was fairly reputable, ranking somewhat below Xandar’s Institute, though not by much. However, those rankings were based on the previous convocation, before his runic devices had come into use.

‘This should be a good test to see how their training went.’

Even though he had spent so much time overseeing the students’ training, Roland still wasn’t entirely sure how they would perform against their peers. His golem had managed to win easily, and so had his magical sniper. But this was different. Now it was time for the real test.

*****

“How many?”

Elian asked Lucienne as they prepared for combat.

“Five of them. All coming together from one direction.”

The moment she replied, Leron’s presence grew faint as he silently slipped behind one of the trees, just before their opponents appeared.

“Huh... Someone got here before us, but they still didn’t take the treasure!”

The leader of the approaching group, a tall youth clad in a dark blue robe adorned with ice-themed embroidery, stepped into the clearing with an arrogant smirk. His four teammates, dressed in similar robes, quickly spread out into a fan formation behind him, their staves already glowing with cold blue mana.

“Hand over the treasure.”

The lead student demanded, his voice carrying the calm arrogance typical of students from established academies.

“You saved us the trouble of destroying those guardian golems, so if you leave the orb behind, we might let you leave without a beatdown.”

Elian frowned as he raised his fire-themed wand.

“Why does every single person underestimate us...?”

It was clear that he and the others were still annoyed after repeatedly running into noble-born mages who treated them like commoners and country bumpkins. The five students could clearly see the Xandar Institute emblems on their uniforms, yet they did not seem to care who they were facing. It was as if they were already certain they would win if the competition came down to slinging spells.

Selphie ignored the threat entirely. Her fingers moved efficiently across the glowing base of the pillar. A soft ring echoed through the air as the protective ward dissolved, allowing her to safely lift the blue orb and place it inside her satchel.

“It’s ours now.”

Selphie declared with a bright smile as she adjusted her large hat.

“If you want the points, you’ll have to find your own!”

The lead student’s face flushed with irritation.

“Arrogant fools. Frostbolt!”

He thrust his heavy staff forward. He had been quietly chanting the spell, completing it at the last possible moment. A deep blue bolt of frost mana shot toward them, aimed directly at the person blocking their path, Oxian.

The large young man did not flinch. He slammed his gauntlets together once more, channeling mana into the earth beneath his feet. A slab of solid stone erupted from the soil, forming an angled rampart directly in front of him.

The frost projectile slammed into the barrier with a sharp crack, spreading a spiderweb of ice across the rock face before shattering into tiny, glittering shards. Thanks to the runic wristguards strapped around his arms, the mana cost was barely noticeable, leaving his energy reserves virtually untouched.

“My turn!”

Elian shouted as he thrust his wand forward, fire elemental mana already gathering around its tip. While elemental mana was rare among Tier One mages, it was still possible to wield. Yet this group seemed to consist entirely of rare prodigies capable of doing so.

Elian did not falter. The flames gathering around his wand twisted into a variant of their opponent’s spell.

“Take this, Flamebolt!”

The fiery projectile tore through the chilly air with startling speed, leaving a shimmering red trail in its wake.

The lead student from Northern Frost hurriedly stepped backward. He was unable to cast another spell so soon after completing Frostbolt. However, he was not alone. Two of his teammates stepped forward, raising their staves as they quickly cast a protective spell.

“Lesser Barrier of Frost!”

The fiery projectile slammed straight into the icy wall with a roaring hiss. The fire energy, amplified by the precise runic circuits inside Elian’s wand, proved far too intense for the quickly summoned defense. Steam erupted in a massive cloud, obscuring the Northern Frost mages’ vision as their barrier shattered into dripping fragments.

“What in the world was that spell power?” 

The opposing leader shouted, coughing through the warm vapor.

“He completed that spell way too quickly!”

Before the confused students could readjust their positions, Lucienne’s calm voice rang out. Her clairvoyance pinpointed the exact locations of their remaining opponents, and she made sure to inform their missing team member where he needed to attack.

“Leron, there. Aim at where I’m showing you.”

Lucienne had a special runic wand of her own. While she could only create basic mana bolts as a tier one mage, the wand allowed her to fulfill other roles. Her specialized pathfinding magic could place a beacon wherever she desired. Since her teammates were attuned to her mana signature, they knew exactly where to aim even when their vision was obstructed by the mist.

Leron moved like a specter through the turquoise forest, his twin wands glowing with a subtle violet light. Guided by the precise beacon Lucienne had planted on the two young mages, he knew exactly where they were hiding.

He appeared directly behind them, catching the two mages by surprise. They had been preparing to cast an attack spell, but before they could complete it, Leron quick cast two simple mana bolts to disarm them.

The spell had reduced power, but thanks to its simplified form and the additional boost provided by the runic wands, the bolts could be cast rapidly and repeatedly. The strikes hit the unsuspecting mages directly on their wrists, shattering their spell focus and numbing their arms before they could even turn around.

Their wands clattered onto the strange purple grass. Before either of them could recover, Leron swept their feet out from under them with a swift kick, sending both opposing students tumbling to the ground.

“Behind us! How did he get behind us!?”

One of the fallen mages shouted in panic as he scrambled away through the damp dirt.

The steam began to clear, revealing the leader of Northern Frost standing alone. The two mages who had created the protective barrier were nowhere to be seen. Oxian was keeping them occupied elsewhere.

“You don’t happen to have any treasure you could trade for your lives, do you?”

Selphie spoke with a smug tone. The situation was clearly under control. The two mages Oxian was holding were incapacitated, and the same could be said for the other two.

Elian already had a fire spell prepared, aimed directly at the leader. It almost seemed as though he was simply waiting for permission to fire.

“How would we have any treasure? The competition just started…”

The young man spoke as panic began to settle in.

“Oh... that’s right. Then you’ll have to retire early. Sorry, it’s nothing personal.”

Selphie said this before looking toward Elian and giving him a nod. Elian gathered a large amount of mana. With the help of his runic wand, he condensed the energy into a concentrated fire arrow.

It was a spell that a tier one class holder should not have been capable of casting more than once or twice before their mana was completely drained. Yet Elian had already prepared it. And now, he was ready to fire.

“N-no wait!”

The young ice mage shouted, fumbling for his staff, but it was already too late. He was unable to avoid the attacking spell. As soon as the spell struck his body, a barrier of mana shone around him. It was an enchantment placed on every participant as they passed through the dimensional doors.

The enchantment was triggered whenever a participant sustained a certain amount of damage, enough to gravely injure them. When that happened, the protective barrier would activate, and the participant would be ejected from the pocket dimension entirely.

A flash of blinding blue light enveloped the lead student before his body dissolved into spatial particles, leaving behind a small cube.

“Oh, it really came out!”

Lucienne pointed at the cube, which was five centimeters in diameter and covered with a runic symbol.

“It really did. Those are supposed to count for three points for the leader and two for every other member.”

Elian commented as he watched the two young students Oxian was holding get ejected from the event. Oxian had produced two earthly spikes and was attempting to impale them.

“Ack…”

Selphie closed her eyes as she watched it play out, finding the whole thing a little too brutal for her liking.

“It’s fine, Selphie. We can’t really pierce those wards and enchantments with our level of magic.”

Lucienne reassured her as the two boys were transformed into smaller cubes, each bearing a different runic symbol. With that, only two of the mages who had attacked them remained. Unfortunately, when Leron returned, he had no cubes in his hands.

“What happened?”

“They ran away…”

“Oh…”

The group had not expected them to simply run away and abandon their leader, but it did not matter much. They now had a large treasure orb and a bunch of cubes from the battle.

“That’s fine. I don’t think they will be a problem anymore. I heard that as long as one member remains, you can still continue competing.”

Elian tried to cheer the others up after they had lost a few points by allowing the two young mages to escape.

“It should be fine. Only two of them remain. They will probably have to hide for the rest of the competition, or one of the other teams will take care of them.”

Selphie straightened herself up as she analyzed the situation.

“I think the orb should be worth five points, and with those, we have twelve points now. That’s pretty good!”

The others nodded as their first encounter came to an end. However, the competition had only just started, so they had no idea how the other teams were doing or how many points they needed to qualify for the next round. All they could do was regroup around Lucienne and have her find their next point of interest.

“Oh, and remember what the Deputy said…”

Elian reminded the others as he recalled being told not to show all their cards too soon and to avoid standing out too much.

“Ah, right… but I’m not sure if that’s going to be possible now…”

Lucienne remembered her brother saying that. Of everyone here, she knew him best, and he was someone who preferred to keep his secrets hidden. For this part of the competition, that strategy would be smart, since they only needed to outperform two-thirds of the other group to qualify for the next round.

“As long as we are not in first place, then it should be fine, right?” 

Selphie said as she moved over to Lucienne, adjusting her hat.

“That’s easier said than done. What if these mages were just incredibly weak and we won’t be able to get many more points?” 

Elian pointed out. The group did not really know how they compared to the other teams. It was pointless to use the previous Convocation competition as a reference, since every competition was unique and each one had its own scoring system.

They also could not be sure whether the other teams had already found their second treasure orb and were fighting somewhere else. Perhaps it was better to try harder and see how far they could get instead of hiding what they had learned. Even if they lasted until time ran out, they would still be disqualified if they did not have enough points.

“You might be right... Should we hurry up, then?”

Selphie held her hat tightly as she began to panic. The thought of not making it through the preliminaries suddenly seemed very real. All of them had spent half a year training hard to get here, and they did not want to waste all that time or disappoint the teachers who had helped them reach this point.

“Lucienne, where is our next target? We need to go!”

The girl grabbed Lucienne by the shoulders and began shaking her.

“Ah... calm down, Selphie. Give me a moment.”

Lucienne took a deep breath and raised her glowing wand, focusing her mana. A faint halo of blue light shimmered around her pupils as her clairvoyance expanded through the thick forest. The mana signatures in the surrounding area mapped themselves into her mind, allowing her to sense everything within a hundred-meter radius.

“I can’t feel anything specific... but the mana is stronger in that direction.”

She had not detected any enemies or treasures, but she could faintly sense a pull toward one particular direction. There could be people there, a treasure, or perhaps some constructs guarding something. Either way, it was their best chance of finding something.

“Okay, you heard her. Let’s go!”

Selphie raised her fist into the air, and the other teenage mages smiled. Soon, the group was back to the treasure hunt, eager to showcase their skills and earn more points as they rushed forward.

******

“What is this? What an upheaval! Xandar’s Institute has taken first place already! How did they find the first hidden treasure so quickly? What is their secret tracking magic?”

The announcer’s excited voice rang out as Roland and the others watched the event unfold on the giant orb.

‘This is... exactly what I told them not to do.’

Roland covered his helmeted face with one hand as he watched the young mages move at an astonishing pace, far faster than he had expected from them or any of the other teams. All attention was now focused on them, while the other teams were falling far behind.

“Oh, how exciting! Isn’t it, Professor Wayland? Our students are doing so well!”

While Roland was not particularly happy about the situation, Arion was quite elated. His ears stood at attention, and his large catlike eyes were glued to the main orb displaying the entire event.

Because of how well their students were performing, their team was being shown on the central orb while many of the other groups could only be seen on the smaller orbs floating around it.

“They are moving entirely too fast... Did they forget that they only need enough points to qualify for the next round?”

Roland mumbled to himself as he watched in horror while Lucienne and her group moved through the event as if they already knew the entire place. With her clairvoyance and magic, Lucienne was practically a magical GPS, capable of revealing the location of anything and anyone hidden throughout the area. None of the other students possessed strong enough magic to conceal their presence, so to Lucienne and her group, the entire event was practically an open buffet.

He watched as they ambushed several other groups while avoiding others whenever their mana reserves ran low. More and more cubes fell into their hands, along with numerous hidden orbs that were sometimes buried deep underground or protected by powerful magical constructs.

Across the VIP balcony, several headmasters from rival academies cast sharp glances in their direction. Whispers spread among the noble sponsors, many of whom had already noticed the abnormal casting speeds and remarkably low mana strain displayed by the students from Xandar’s Institute. The intricate runic circuitry embedded within their wands and wrist guards was performing far beyond what anyone would normally expect from tier one mages.

‘I guess the cat is out of the bag now...’

Roland let out a sigh before settling back into his seat. There was nothing left to do but watch as Lucienne and her group continued to dominate the competition.