Between Assessments

After successfully escaping the labyrinth, all the candidates who participated in this year's White Card Examination were given a day of rest. This day served several purposes: it allowed those candidates still trapped in the labyrinth more time to recover; it was also a necessary preparation period for the Examination Institute to set up the examination venue and facilities; and it was to allow the magical girls who had exhausted too much magic power in the labyrinth to recover.

Most candidates chose to use this day to catch up on sleep, making up for the sleep they had missed the previous day while running around in the maze—after all, the first assessment alone had already exhausted them. But not everyone was willing to rest peacefully; considering that there were still three assessment items to go, now was clearly not the time to relax.

Candidates with similar thoughts are making the most of their time: some are practicing extra, some are reviewing their performance, and some are developing strategies for the next assessment. Of course, some candidates are also celebrating with a meal.

"Then, let's raise a toast to Little Brocade for winning first place in this assessment!"

As the Larkspur offered her toast, the Fangting City team members sitting around the table raised their glasses. Under the bright yellow light, the glasses clinked together with a crisp sound.

"Yeah!"

However, Lin Xiaolu's cheers were surprisingly the loudest, an unusual situation that surprised everyone else.

"... What's wrong?"

The subtle expressions on her companions' faces made Lin Xiaolu wonder if she had done something wrong, and she subconsciously withdrew her hand. But after thinking it over carefully, she was sure she hadn't done anything wrong, so she straightened her back and said, "Aren't we celebrating?"

The other three were momentarily speechless. They couldn't very well say, "We thought you'd be upset," could they?

This suspicion is completely unfounded.

Right now, "Who is Little Brocade?" has become a hot topic among this year's candidates for the White Card exam. Some people are curious and amazed by this suddenly emerging number one, while others are naturally dissatisfied with it.

In other words, there are quite a few people outside who are dissatisfied with Xia Liang right now.

Nearly ten hours had passed since the end of the assessment. The vast majority of candidates had either escaped the maze or had voluntarily given up due to feeling lost. It could be said that, with the exception of a very few magical girls who were still trying to scavenge for some bonus points in the maze, all the candidates already knew the results of the maze assessment and had inevitably noticed the code name "Little Brocade".

Xia Liang's escape from the maze was clearly seen by everyone on the viewing platform, so it was no secret at all. Naturally, this became a hot topic of discussion among the candidates. Even many candidates who should still be preparing for the exam and had not yet started their Letter Card participated in the discussion. In no time, the name "Little Brocade" became widely known, and various criticisms of her also arose.

"You, Xia Liang, are my teammate, after all. My teammate got first place, so what's wrong with me being happy for you?"

Perhaps gradually realizing something, Lin Xiaolu quickly turned the conversation to Xia Liang: "Although the way you got first place was a bit... um, weird? But isn't that also your skill?"

"Ha... well, thank you very much."

Xia Liang laugh in response to Lin Xiaolu's "praise," but her smile vanished within seconds, "Sigh, if I had known it would attract so much attention, I should have run a little slower."

"This is just one stage of the assessment; there's no need to worry too much about what others think right now."

Larkspur didn't quite agree with her idea, so she advised, "There are still three more assessments to go. If you can still achieve excellent results, then others will naturally begin to recognize you and see the first assessment as a testament to your uniqueness. If your subsequent results are mediocre and you gradually become ordinary, then they will only make a few sarcastic remarks and will no longer consider you a competitor."

Ultimately, the main reason people criticize you is that they don't understand you yet; they don't know if you're a true dark horse or just a lucky opportunist.

Larkspur swirled the juice in her glass, then gestured towards Xia Liang, saying, "But we, your teammates sitting here, all know your strength. We all believe that this first place is just the beginning of your rise to fame among your peers in magical girls. All the criticism is only temporary and will disappear as others see your true abilities, so this is something to celebrate."

"Your words, junior, make me feel even more pressured, to the point that my stomach hurts..."

Xia Liang gripped the handle of the cup in her hand, looking quite restless. "My two accounts on the Carrier Pigeon are being bombarded with private messages. Besides some gossiping, there are even challenges to a one-on-one duel in the second assessment... What am I going to do?"

"Of course we'll send them all back!" Lin Xiaolu said with a grin.

"You think you can kill me with exhaustion?" Xia Liang rolled her eyes.

The "one-on-one" she mentioned wasn't a private fight started by other candidates, but rather part of the process in the second assessment.

Yes, when most candidates had escaped the maze and the first assessment was about to end, the examiners from the Examination Institute announced the content of the second assessment from the viewing platform.

Unlike the first assessment, the Examination Institute did not conceal the main content of this assessment, but rather stated quite clearly that the evaluation criterion for this assessment was Magic Armament.

This can be considered a routine practice in the Kingdom assessment over the years.

The practical assessment items change every year, and sometimes the theme and format are different from previous years, but the assessment of Magic Armament is the only one that is held every year.

This is unavoidable, since a large part of a magical girl's abilities rely on her Magic Armament, and the power of the Magic Armament is the foundation of many magical girls' combat styles. Therefore, the practical assessment of magical girls is destined to be inseparable from their Magic Armament.

According to the Examination Institute, this year's Magic Armament assessment was divided into two parts.

The first part involves the examiners testing and scoring the magical girls' Magic Armament abilities. The examiners will test the candidates' development and mastery of their Magic Armament abilities from multiple dimensions, and then give the candidates a preliminary rating.

The second part gives candidates who are dissatisfied with their ratings an opportunity to improve them.

The specific manifestation of this opportunity is actually quite simple: if you feel that the examiners have misjudged you and that your Magic Armament is better than they say, then let your performance in actual combat speak for itself.

Candidates can challenge opponents whose Magic Armament rating is one level higher than their own. During the challenge, both sides can only use basic abilities and Magic Armament abilities, and are prohibited from using Spell Formula, Wonderland, or other means.

Based on the outcome of the battle, if a B-rated candidate challenges and wins against an A-rated candidate, her Magic Armament rating will be raised from B to B+, while the A-rated candidate will drop to A-. After that, if the B+ rated candidate challenges and wins against an A-rated candidate, her B+ rating will rise to A.

However, if a candidate with a B rating loses to a candidate with an A rating, half of the points she would normally earn as a B rating will be given to her opponent. And when a candidate loses all her points, she will lose the right to continue challenging for higher ratings.

This is why some candidates challenged Xia Liang to a duel beforehand. After all, in their view, Xia Liang "stole" first place in the maze project by relying on the special abilities of her Magic Armament, and the rating of her Magic Armament was destined to be high. Their way of expressing their dissatisfaction and disapproval was naturally to challenge Xia Liang and lower Xia Liang rating.

Admittedly, Xia Liang could choose not to accept the challenge, but a little thought would reveal that under such Rule, a candidate who doesn't compete with others is destined to have no chance of achieving a particularly good ranking.

Even if a candidate manages to get an A grade right from the start, if they give up with just that score, other candidates who accept the challenge and earn points will climb over them. Among thousands of candidates, there are probably hundreds who can get an A grade, plus those B-grade candidates who are truly skilled and can climb to A grade... In the end, this candidate who gave up with an A grade will probably only rank outside the top 100.

If it were a magical girl with little fame or ambition, managing to get an A rating and rank in the top 100 or 200 would probably be quite satisfactory. But Xia Liang, a figure in the spotlight, just won first place in the first assessment and then completely avoided the second one, which might really make people look down on her.

This is why, when Xia Liang refuted Lin Xiaolu, she only said she would be "exhausted" but completely ignored the fact that she "couldn't beat her."

Clearly, she also defeated several challengers to prove herself.