(Heartfelt thanks to 'cka2006' for the 4,364 reward, and to 'Book Friend from Wanwan', 'Pokémon', 'Yu Library', and 'Snow Fox Rain Abandon' for their rewards!)
When Noah emerged from the passage, three teams had already arrived.
Elfman and Lisanna's team.
Juvia and Levy's team.
And Kana and Lucy's team.
All three teams smiled at Noah as he stepped out of the passage.
"Just as expected, there was no way Noah would fail," Lucy said with a smile.
"I thought you might have run into Miss Mira and deliberately thrown the match."
"Yoho, Noah." Levy waved at Noah as well, her face full of smiles.
"We made it through too."
"A real man!" Elfman gave Noah a thumbs-up.
"A real man should pass the first stage of the trial!"
As for Juvia and Kana, although they did not greet Noah, they were clearly delighted to have passed the first stage. The joy on their faces could not be hidden.
"Everyone?" Wendy cried out in surprise.
"Did everyone already pass?"
It was not just Wendy. Even Noah was somewhat surprised.
Setting aside which of the three teams thrown together for a free-for-all had ultimately won, among the three teams present that had passed the first stage, two of them must have encountered active S-Class Mages.
And since they had made it here, that meant two of those three teams had broken through the obstacles posed by S-Class Mages to pass the first stage.
Which two teams had the ability to break past an S-Class Mage guarding the route?
Extremely curious, Noah spoke directly.
"What kinds of passages did you choose? What kind of opponents did you run into?"
At that, the successful candidates exchanged glances and smiled.
Then, their reports surprised Noah once again.
"We chose the free-for-all passage," Lucy said, flashing