He lowered his head and couldn't help the corners of his mouth from lifting.
But after last night's experience, he quickly forced his lips straight. He repeated a few lines of "The Memorial on Sending a Troop to War" to himself before bending down to pick up the Flower Card.
Love's Ten Thousand Mile Silk. The pure white Mandala was a soft love flower; whoever saw it would be cleansed of evil.
Dark sent a wisp of magic power into the Flower Card. The little Eevee on its face gave him the best morning greeting.
Another day to feel fresh and full of energy.
With Magical Beasts not yet on the timetable, Friday had only one Dueling Class.
That said, Dueling Class had been deliberately scheduled for Friday morning so the professor could drag it out as long as she liked...
Today's class was still shared by all four houses.
It was held in Battle Hall No. 2.
It wasn't yet eight, but nearly all the first-years had already arrived at the dueling hall. Most were eager to get started, brimming with anticipation for their first-ever duel.
Even if this so-called Elite Mode was only a watered-down version of a real duel, nobody cared!
As long as they could take the field and shout, "My turn!" the first-years would be happy for ages.
Of course, not everyone was happy.
After all, not everyone could finish making a Magic Phantom Beast within a week.
In yesterday's Magic Guidance class, quite a few students had lost points for failing to finish their creations.
Without Victor's generous help, Robert would have been one of them.
Since class hadn't started yet, Dark found a bench and sat down.
Before long, Diana squeezed her way over with Rose.
"Dark, who do you think will win today?" Diana asked cheerfully.
Dark smiled. "It's just a classroom match."
"Ha!" Diana smacked her thigh, bouncing in place. "My Big White Bear can hardly wait to get out there!"
Rose hurriedly tugged at Diana's sleeve and whispered, "Tone it down. Didn't you say last night you wanted to act a little more like a girl?"
Diana: (,, ,,).
"Ding-a-ling!"
The bell rang, filling everyone with anticipation.
The students stopped chatting and obediently lined up in the middle of the hall.
Professor Jones arrived about half a minute late, hauling in a whole pile of things.
"Lovely weather today. Let's run a lap to warm up."
Professor Jones was as spirited as ever, and just as merciless when handing out assignments.
The students, who had been so excited moments before, wilted at once.
"I thought we wouldn't have to run today..."
They grumbled, but under the professor's authority, they eventually started running.
Robert knew that earning this extra point wouldn't help much, so he didn't push himself.
He kept pace beside Victor and finally couldn't help asking, "By the way, Victor, where did you go last night? I was going to ask you to play a round at nine."
Victor opened his mouth, but it took him a while to answer. "Robert, I don't have your stamina. Can we talk after the run?"
Robert: "All right."
After two laps, all the first-years from the four houses were exhausted, apart from a few exceptions.
Robert had been about to keep asking, but Professor Jones called out, "Anyone who still has energy, come help over here."
With no choice, Robert went with a few other students who were in good shape to help Professor Jones set up the area.
By the time they finished, about ten minutes had passed.
The students had recovered some of their energy and gathered in the center of the hall.
A little later, Professor Jones took a metal sphere with three holes, like a bowling ball, out of a basket and walked over, gripping it in one hand.
She glanced at the students from all four houses and casually asked, "Does anyone know what I'm holding?"
The Little Magisters glanced at one another, then more than half of them immediately raised their hands!
Even Victor and Robert raised their hands this time!
Professor Jones picked a student at random.
The student answered excitedly, "It's a Magitech Ball, Professor!"
Professor Jones nodded in approval. "That's right. It's a Magitech Ball, the core of Magitech dueling."
She put her thumb, index finger, and middle finger into the three holes and continued, "A Magitech Ball is also called a Dueling Ball or a Life Ball. Just send magic power into it like this, and it will create a 360-degree Life Barrier with no blind spots. Swati, tell us about the different levels of Life Barriers."
"Yes, Professor."
Sara Swati immediately stepped forward. Her wheat-colored skin was as striking as ever today.
"Life Barriers created by Magitech Balls are generally divided into five levels, each with a different strength. A Level One Life Barrier has a magic power value of 1,000 points; Level Two has 2,000 points; Level Three has 4,000 points; Level Four has 8,000 points; and Level Five has 16,000 points! In a Magitech duel, you win only if you completely break your opponent's Life Barrier, or if they surrender or run out of Magitech Cards."
"Five points for Swati."
Professor Jones poured magic power into the Magitech Ball, and a spherical barrier made of numerous hexagons expanded around it.
She gave it a gentle push, and the all-metal Magitech Ball floated slowly forward.
It circled once over the students' heads, then returned to Professor Jones's hand.
She said, "In official duels, learning how to maneuver the Magitech Ball to avoid your opponent's attacks is also an essential skill. Of course, our duels today won't have so many requirements. We'll be using retired practice Magitech Balls, and the Life Barriers' magic power values will be set to 500."
Chapter 32: Dark Demon Couldn't Experience the Joy of Dueling
After explaining a few more minor rules to keep in mind during duels,
Professor Jones took out a jar full of numbered tags and had the students draw from it one by one.
The Little Magisters stepped forward in turn, reaching into the jar to draw a tag.
Surprisingly, across all four classes, only seventy-eight students had finished making a Magic Phantom Beast within the week.
That meant fewer than twenty students per class, on average!
Most of the rest had failed to make one and had to start saving points to buy material kits.
It felt as though the professors had deliberately set a trap: they opened Traveler Street before teaching the students how to make Magic Phantom Beasts, teaching a lesson to first-years who lacked restraint and wasted their points.
Whether the others had learned their lesson was anyone's guess, but Victor and Robert had certainly learned theirs...
Whether they would change after learning that lesson was another matter.
Dark walked up to the jar and casually drew a tag: 7.
"Well, would you look at that? I must have a connection with the number seven."
Diana leaned over again. "Hey, what number did you get?"
Dark: "Seven. You?"
Diana: "Seventy-seven! Hehe!"
Rose: "Fifty-five..."
"Send magic power into your tags and take them apart. Hand me the blue halves."
Professor Jones took out an empty jar to collect the blue tags.
Dark then noticed that his tag was red on one side and blue on the other. With a wisp of magic power, the red and blue halves lost their magnetic force and came apart easily.
After handing over the blue half as instructed, Dark waited quietly with the red one.
The area in the middle of the hall had been divided into four sections using props. Professor Jones had placed two Magitech Balls in each section.
Students without Magic Phantom Beasts were responsible for supplying magic power to the Magitech Balls and learning how to form a Life Barrier.
Professor Jones also picked four students to act as referees.
"The matches will use a single-elimination format. Winners advance, losers leave. In the world of Magitech dueling, there's only one champion."
Professor Jones took two blue tags from the jar and set them aside, then took another two and set them aside. She repeated the process four times, making four pairs of tags.
She turned the tags over and read them aloud: "The first round will narrow seventy-eight contestants down to thirty-nine, with four matches held at once. Number 6 and number 8, number 66 and number 7, number 49 and number 5—get ready to take the field."
"An opening-round win?"
Dark glanced at the red tag marked 7 in his hand, unconcerned.
Diana and Rose seemed far more nervous than he was.
"Dark, good luck! I'm always on your side!"
"Good luck!"
He wasn't competing in a variety show audition.
Dark walked toward Court 3 with a dark expression.
Eight students took the field at once, some nervous and some calm.
Dark glanced at the number 66 contestant heading toward the same court. She was a girl from Magister House with twin ponytails, big eyes, and a pale face.
He casually tried to reassure her. "Don't be nervous. It's just practice."
"Okay... Mm." The girl gritted her teeth and clenched her fingers.
The two of them took their positions at opposite ends of the court.
Official matches had Duelist Platforms, allowing contestants to survey the field from above, but
here they had only simple positions marked out with white lines.
Dark took his place and looked over the court.
The layout for this classroom match merely reproduced the rules of a real match on a smaller scale. The one-sixth of the field nearest each contestant's position was designated as the summoning zone.
This restricted where Magic Spirits could be summoned, preventing anyone from summoning one right in their opponent's face—in other words, a point-blank summon!
Apparently, the earliest Magitech duels had no such rule, so Magisters often used "tactical summons," making the matches crude and chaotic.
Some Magisters even used "line-of-sight interference tactics," summoning a large Magic Spirit right in front of their opponent to block their view...
As the rules gradually improved, there were fewer such farces.
But human ingenuity knew no bounds, and all sorts of underhanded tricks still found their way around the rules.
The referee for Court 3 was Roentgen of Noble House.
"Hey."
Roentgen waved to Dark, looking utterly dejected.
He couldn't help it. Being a referee was like being publicly put on trial.
Who could blame him when he hadn't managed to make a Magic Phantom Beast within a week?
Dark remembered that Roentgen was one of the classmates who had gone out shopping first thing Saturday morning.
It looked as if he'd spent all his points on Traveler Street and ended up unable to afford more material kits for experiments.
Before you continue