"What is this Six-Academy Joint Championship?"
Leo did not dwell on having been signed up for the competition. There was no point agonizing over an established fact. Instead, he asked what the championship was about.
"This arose from the Black Skull Wizard Academy seizing the populations of five other academies. Under the mediation of several great Stigmata Wizards, the six academies ultimately decided to hold a championship. Participants must be wizard apprentices, and each academy must send at least ten thousand apprentices. There are no restrictions on killing or the form the competition takes. It will last ten years," Alice said icily.
"Ten thousand wizard apprentices from each academy? And killing is allowed?"
Leo sucked in a breath in shock. Ten thousand from each of six academies meant sixty thousand. Sixty thousand wizard apprentices fighting one another-what were they trying to do?
"What determines the winner?"
"The number of survivors and the number of kills will serve as the final criteria. The more kills a surviving wizard apprentice has, the greater their reward when the ten years end," Alice said coldly, without emotion.
"So that's why you haven't advanced?" Leo asked curiously.
This time, Alice did not answer. She gave Leo an indifferent glance, but he already knew the answer from her silence.
"Then what requirements do the academy's higher-ups have for me?"
"Don't die. Survive to the end," Alice said bluntly.
"All right, then how are we going to get used to working together?" Leo was somewhat speechless. He was still being treated as someone who needed special protection.
Alice fell silent again before finally saying, "Just stay behind me when the time comes."
"..."
Leo blinked. He really wanted to tell Alice that he was very strong now, too, and did not need to hide behind a woman for protection.
But then he looked at the biting chill around Alice, the sound of freezing air ringing ceaselessly in his ears. Fine, he would accept her protection. As long as he did not die, there was no shame in it.
After informing Leo about the championship, Alice had Samatchi arrange somewhere for her to rest. She would not leave Tiyama City before the championship began. That was what the academy's higher-ups required of her.
The moment Alice left, Gru, who had previously said he was going to test qualified wizard apprentices, popped out from behind the door. His face was so full of gossip that even Leo, a human from Earth, could barely stand the sight.
"What did she want with you?" Curiosity was written all over the left side of Gru's face, and "tell me now" over the right. All he lacked was a sign on his forehead declaring that there was something unusual between the two of them.
Leo could not help rolling his eyes. Gru had called him back in such a hurry because Alice had arrived. He could have simply said so. Why be so secretive?
Leo simply told Gru about the Six-Academy Joint Championship, hoping to get some information from him as well. After all, the man before him had lived for over a thousand years. He truly had eaten more salt than Leo had eaten rice.
"Oh, so that's what happened. No wonder the Black Skull Academy's wizards have behaved themselves these past few years and all pulled back. I thought they were afraid of the Purple Flame Academy."
"You don't need to worry about the reason for holding a championship. They hold one every few decades anyway, to select elite wizard apprentices. Of course, if it serves other purposes along the way, all the better."
Gru spoke casually. As a level two body refinement wizard who had lived for over a thousand years, he had seen far too much. Few things could weigh on his mind.
"To select elite wizard apprentices?" Leo asked in confusion. That was not the reason Alice had given him.
"You don't think every wizard apprentice can attempt to reach level one, do you? Raising a peak apprentice takes considerable resources. One apprentice is no big deal; any official wizard can afford that. But every batch at an academy numbers in the tens of thousands. The resources so many apprentices consume would give even those great Stigmata Wizards a headache. So the best approach is to pick the best of the best and focus on nurturing a group of apprentices with the highest chance of reaching level one."
"Then what happens to the remaining apprentices?"
"That's the real purpose of the championship."
"Just throw everyone of roughly similar strength together. If you survive, it proves you're qualified to be nurtured. If you don't, you deserved to die."
"As for grudges between the six academies or seizing civilians, those are merely incidental reasons."
Gru's explanation cleared everything up for Leo. Nurturing wizards truly required enormous resources. Otherwise, the Wizard World would not wage war across myriad worlds. In plain terms, it was still about seizing resources.
And wizard apprentices, as the lowest-ranked beings, were the most numerous, so choosing a reasonable way to reduce wasteful expenditure was understandable.
It was just that Leo had never expected such a cruel method of mutual slaughter.
"Since Alice is suppressing her level for the championship, there's no need to worry about your safety. It's only ten years anyway. Try to get as high a ranking as possible. The final rewards are very tempting."
No matter how casually Gru spoke, Leo could not relax at all. With sixty thousand wizard apprentices fighting and killing one another in a chaotic melee, who could guarantee they would survive?
Although Alice was powerful and surely ranked among the very best in the Purple Flame Academy, this was a melee involving sixty thousand wizard apprentices. Leo suspected that even an official wizard might not emerge from such a battlefield in one piece.
With two years left until the championship, Leo took the opportunity to exchange all the treasures he had obtained in the wilderness over the years and stored in his Shadow Space for ingredients. Then he brewed them into potions, sold some to Samatchi, and took all the rest back to the academy, where he found Skye and sold the entire lot to him.
Nine hundred and seventy thousand Wizard Coins!
That was the total Leo made after clearing out his Shadow Space!
"Do you have any good equipment? Bring it out and let me see. I'll be taking part in the championship soon." Money made him king. Wealth was written all over Leo's face; he all but told Skye outright to hurry up and fleece him.
Having just completed a major deal with Leo, Skye's smile was brighter than a blooming flower. He loved times like these most. These wizard apprentices would spend every last Wizard Coin they had. "Because of the championship, I recently brought in a batch of fine equipment from headquarters. This is the perfect opportunity to show you, Master Leo."
A full suit of heavy armor covered in runes, a warhammer weighing over three hundred kilograms, a greataxe taller than Leo, a set of javelins embedded with crystal fragments, several energy crystals, a bottle of Black Pearl Potion...
Leo's brow twitched as he looked at the items Skye laid out. This equipment was clearly meant for body refinement wizard apprentices, and the Purple Flame Wizard Academy had only one body refinement wizard apprentice: him.
Skye had clearly brought in this equipment specifically for him!
Wasn't he being a little too obvious about sharpening his knife to fleece him?!
"Master Leo, this suit of heavy armor can ignore attacks below eighty points. It comes with self-repair and a weight-reduction spell, so it only weighs two hundred kilograms when worn. This weapon is inscribed with a reinforcement array..."
Faced with Skye's endless chatter, Leo frowned and immediately stopped him. He picked up the three energy crystals. "I'll take these three energy crystals. Get me a wizard robe and a wizard staff that boosts lightning attacks as well."
"A wizard robe and a wizard staff?"
Skye stared at Leo for a moment. Weren't those things equipment for elemental wizards? As a body refinement wizard, shouldn't Leo be charging into battle in heavy armor?
What kind of body refinement wizard charged into battle wearing a wizard robe and carrying a staff?
"Do you have them or not? If not, I'll go to the Green Cottage." Leo sounded somewhat annoyed. How could Skye be so narrow-minded? Could body refinement wizards not use spells? Had he never heard of elemental body refinement wizards?
"Yes, yes, yes. Of course I do."
Skye immediately stopped Leo. As long as Leo was willing to pay, what couldn't he provide?
With almost teleportation-like speed, he put away the equipment he had just taken out, then brought out the wizard robe and wizard staff Leo wanted and laid them before him.
The gray wizard robe was of the most common style, nothing eye-catching, but rows of runic arrays were inscribed inside it. Even without mana activating them, it was clear that this robe was extraordinary.
As for the wizard staff, its head was an energy crystal flashing with blue electrical arcs. The staff, nearly a meter long, radiated the oppressive might of lightning.
"Master Leo, this wizard robe is made from the hide of a level one hunting falcon. It increases your total mana by ten percent and has three runic arrays inscribed on it. One is defensive and can ignore attacks below sixty points. Another creates phantoms, producing three duplicates with no actual strength to confuse enemies. The last boosts attacks, increasing elemental attack power by five percent, up to a maximum increase of fifty points."
"As for this staff, its head is a level one hunting falcon's crystal, and its shaft is the heartwood of the lightning tree where the falcon nested. Its function is very simple: it increases lightning attacks by ten percent, up to a maximum increase of one hundred points."
"As you've probably realized, Master Leo, these two pieces belong to the same set, so their enhancements can stack completely. In other words, these two pieces of equipment can boost lightning attacks by up to one hundred and fifty points. A peak wizard apprentice capable of unleashing ten times their mental power would reach six hundred and fifty points of attack power outright with this equipment."
"That much attack power can instantly kill any wizard apprentice!!!"
"How much?"
Leo's eyes lit up. The wizard robe provided a five-percent boost, and the wizard staff ten percent. If a lightning elemental spell had only three hundred points of attack power, wearing this equipment would instantly raise it to three hundred and forty-five.
That was already a very substantial boost, nearly approaching the level of an advanced wizard apprentice!
As for why he used a three-hundred-point lightning elemental spell as his example, that was because the strongest elemental spell Leo could currently cast had three hundred points of attack power, putting it at the intermediate elemental wizard apprentice level.
"Including those three energy crystals from earlier, exactly one million Wizard Coins." Skye smiled, a smile that seemed to reveal he could see precisely how many Wizard Coins were in Leo's Shadow Space, without being off by a single coin.
"Heh."
Leo smiled without warmth. In that instant, he had no idea how many times he cursed Skye inwardly. He had just sold his goods for nine hundred and seventy thousand Wizard Coins. Added to the thirty thousand Wizard Coins he had previously kept in reserve, that came to exactly one million.
If he had not known Skye, Leo would have suspected that he could see into his Shadow Space.