Fahna was gritting her teeth as she stomped her way to the second examination grounds.
She knew that Rozenfall liked to change the examination each year regardless of difficulty, but she didn't expect to encounter the one she's most wary of.
The grid maze was infamous for leaving even the strongest entrants hopelessly lost if they lacked enough brains.
Yet two people had somehow gone ahead of her. Her perfect record had been broken once again, even though she had used her speed and observation to their fullest.
Now she came face to face with the two mysterious opponents who had surpassed her.
The first who caught her attention was a girl wearing ornate blue mage robes engraved with lines of runes. She had dark blue hair, bangs covering her forehead, and her face carried a forlorn expression as if she were on the verge of falling asleep.
'The Mage Tower's jewel, Gumin Esolian.' Said to possess a talent never before seen in the history of the Magic Tower. A famous prodigy rumored to herald a new era for magic.
Fahna understood that she was a worthy and formidable opponent. Magic was a tricky power to deal with.
'And the other one…' As someone who maintained her best image at all times, Fahna had researched potential competitors during her spare time. She refused to leave even the smallest possibility of placing second once the academy began.
But she did not recognize him.
Someone with that kind of appearance was bound to stand out and attract attention, perhaps even trouble.
Sharp red eyes, a toned jawline, and short slicked-back red hair with clean faded sides. He was tall and clearly muscular beneath his clothes, which appeared to be a… butler suit? His expression and overall appearance made her feel strangely antagonized.
As if his gaze said, 'What are you looking at?'
"Would you like to team up with us?" While Fahna was observing him, Xian extended the invitation without much thought. Being recognized and leaving an impression on the starting heroines would be ideal for future interactions.
"Team up?" Fahna poked her cheek as she considered Xian's proposal.
Meanwhile, as if she found the situation bothersome, Gumin let out a small sigh.
"Yes. There will be formidable foes inside this labyrinth. If the three of us, the best among the entrants, work together, we can pass simultaneously." Xian knew exactly what would sound appealing to someone like Fahna.
As a player, treating the heroines he had conquered before appropriately came to him as naturally as breathing.
'The best… Simultaneously…' Those words were already echoing in Fahna's mind the moment they left Xian's mouth. Somehow his offer became tempting immediately, but still…
"Sorry but, I can do this my—"
"You can take first place."
Hearing Xian relinquish first place so easily, her mouth stopped midway through the sentence.
"What? Really? What about her?" She pointed toward Gumin, who was already leaning on her staff with half-lidded eyes, completely unconcerned with their conversation.
Noticing their attention shift toward her, Gumin reluctantly gave a response. "Mm… I don't really care either way."
"See?" Xian shrugged at Fahna, showing that neither of them had any real interest in taking first place.
Even though Fahna liked to maintain a perfect persona, she was flexible enough to discard parts of it when necessary. Just like right now. More than being a perfectionist, she was someone who seized opportunities without hesitation.
In the name of being ranked first, or being called the best and eventually, to become truly the best. That was how she had always lived.
"… Alright. Just don't pretend this conversation never happened later, okay?" she said in a relaxed, mask-off tone.
With that settled, Xian had perhaps formed the strongest party he had ever seen. Normally, it was impossible to have both Fahna and Gumin in the same party.
Gumin, being a mage, avoided anyone through invisibility. Meanwhile, Fahna, who had prior training from her clan, did not so much as glance at the protagonist and focused only on claiming the first seat. Furthermore, she could only be encountered during the entrance examination if the protagonist was ahead, as that would cause her to give chase and catch up.
The three of them proceeded through the labyrinth while relying on three different things. Xian relied on his memory. He still remembered the labyrinth clearly and knew which path was correct.
Luckily, the labyrinth itself did not shuffle every exam. That had been a missed opportunity on the developers' side.
Meanwhile, Gumin could see the traces of magic that led to the correct path. Since the examination grounds were partly conjured through magic while also overlapping with real locations, she could determine the right direction through observation.
All she needed to do was focus her eyes, and the path would reveal itself.
As for Fahna… She relied on speed.
Through trial and error that only she could afford. She bolted through the halls like a silver streak, doubling back only when she was certain the path was wrong. With sheer movement alone, she finished third place in the first examination.
"Let's speed this up, shall we?" Xian himself was no slouch when it came to speed. Meanwhile, Gumin levitated slightly above the ground to keep pace. Although she remained low and could not yet fly, it was enough to follow the two of them.
They soon encountered their first unfortunate opponent, a humongous steam golem that creaked and rotated with every heavy lurch it took. Its arms alone could crush a horse in a single blow.
As it neared Xian, the construct raised one of its arms and swung a massive fist toward him.
He did not flinch as a barrier activated.
It cracked under the impact, but he remained in place with one hand pressed against its steel arm as the blow lost momentum.
He breathed in and pulled back his other arm, his muscles swelling as he swung the hammer he had brought earlier toward its knee.
Crack!
A deep metallic snap rang out as the golem's leg buckled inward, its joints clattering from the force of that single hit.
Fahna's mouth fell open at the sight, but she quickly recovered and took her stance, lifting her rapier. She dashed forward and leaped into the air, striking every exposed node and carving glowing lines across the golem's body with speed and precision.
Meanwhile, Gumin raised her staff and, with a quiet incantation, reshaped the spell around Xian's body. The barrier reformed, and a second spell rippled outward, an enchantment that rendered the golem's metal brittle and vulnerable to blunt impact.
Just like that, Xian shattered its other limb and delivered a heavy blow to its chest, causing dents and cracks to spread across its body. Fahna delivered the finishing strike, thrusting her rapier through the cracks Xian had made, the tip piercing the golem's core.
The golem released one final huff of steam... then collapsed.
…
Beyond the examination grounds was an area where professors observed each entrant through individual screens. An entire room was dedicated to each category of entrants, and it just so happened that Aleandro was in charge of monitoring Xian's party at the same time.
Behind him, Serika and Lucinelle had finished speaking with Celine, who had several monitors in front of her. They were watching other entrants take the exam while reminiscing about their own student days.
There was also a maid he did not recognize, looking around with an anxious expression. Probably the sole servant the duke had sent to accompany his daughter.
The academy had its own staff who handled housekeeping matters and attended to students of special background. Even though the academy boasted equality within its grounds, inevitably some figures still received special treatment.
But that didn't mean the academy was a pushover.
It had proven more than willing to retaliate fiercely against those who tried to push the limits of its rules. Because of this, students were allowed to bring at most three servants into the dormitories, but no more than that.
'They did find a way around it by subordinating lower nobles though…'
The children of their parents' vassals would always end up at the mercy of their lords' children inside the academy. And often even after leaving it. Almost as if the academy mirrored the same society their parents came from.
It was like a rotten fruit that the academy was simply unable to rid of.
Surprisingly, the daughter of his sister and that madman had arrived with servants around her own age. Former students with quite the potential even.
He did not know what Renedon was thinking, allowing such an ill-natured girl into the academy. The same could be said of the headmaster who accepted her.
'That kid is quite powerful.' Aleandro watched as Xian pummeled through the steam golems the academy no longer had any use for. They were constructs made by second-year students and originally meant to be disposed of, but were instead placed inside the labyrinth for the entrance examination.
The other two were not bad either. Fahna, the descendant of the Sword Saint, flashed with unreal speed for an entrant. Even among higher years, her speed would already be a lethal weapon capable of taking lives on the battlefield.
Next was the one he was most curious about. The young mage proclaimed by those obnoxious old wizards to be a genius who appeared once in a millennium. If those claims were even half true, she was almost guaranteed to reach the level higher than an Arcmage. But a new arcmage hasn't appeared in the last sixty years.
As a mage himself, Aleandro wanted to witness that potential in action.
Meanwhile, his attention shifted to another commotion occurring in the grid maze.
'Carmillia…' He muttered the name quietly as he watched the girl standing comfortably while a naive entrant protected her.
…
"Please wait! Why are you doing this?"
Adrian Wylert cried out desperately as he blocked a blow that nearly tore the sword from his grip.
As weak as his arms were, he still managed to parry another strike from his opponent.
They had encountered a slightly short girl with a brown ponytail, carrying a sword and shield while cutting down small monsters. She had initially been cheerful upon seeing fellow entrants and ran toward them, speaking in that strange, theatrical way.
But the moment his companion introduced herself, the girl's innocence and cheerfulness vanished.
Her expression turned cold and unsettling, sending a shiver down Adrian's spine.
No… perhaps it was not directed at him. Perhaps it was meant for the woman standing behind him. Someone he had only just met, yet had kindly agreed to explore the maze with.
"…" She simply stood there in silence, watching the two of them fight. Adrian clenched his teeth, thinking perhaps she had no ability to help.
'Even so!'
Another shield bash came from the girl with effortless force, launching Adrian into the air.
"Gah!" He crashed onto his back, his arms numb from the impact. The simple sword slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the ground.
"How futile. Why defend evil and stop justice from being delivered?" The girl spoke almost in a whisper before stepping forward and kicking Adrian in the head, knocking him unconscious.
"All you had to do was to not stand in the way, pitiful weakling." Words that would never have come from her usual self spilled from her mouth one after another.
Ruminaria, her once cheerful and valiant persona gone, walked toward Carmillia.
"It's you. The evil that descended to our village…" She muttered in a low and strained voice towards her.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Once again, it was a sin she neither knew nor remembered. Like always. Yet there was a faint tinge of pity and amusement in her tone, which made Ruminaria grit her teeth.
"Lies are useless." She dashed toward Carmillia with a smooth step, sword raised while her shield guarded her charge.
'Entangling vines.' Dark whips resembling twisted vines burst from the ground around Carmillia. At the same time, another cluster erupted beneath Ruminaria, nearly striking her exposed legs and stomach. She twisted her body sideways to dodge.
The vines followed her movements relentlessly, forcing her to cut them apart as they pursued. All the while, Carmillia had been spreading her magic beneath the ground. She had accumulated enough power to gradually wear down the opponent before her.
The girl reminded her of Serika and Lucinelle, who fought with the same level of focus, though she was far weaker.
But Carmillia had a gut feeling this girl was more dangerous than her two subordinates despite that difference in strength.
She prepared another spell, casting silently through her 'Mind's Voice'. A technique that allowed a mage to perform incantations through thought rather than spoken words, preventing enemies from predicting the next spell and hastening the chant.
With enough practice, some mages could complete their incantations almost instantaneously this way. The mind and body simply needed to remember the sequence.
And Carmillia had been blessed to learn magic from an early age, nurtured under her mother's guidance.
'Dark surge!'
She held the spell and waited for the right moment to strike, allowing Ruminaria to search for an opening among the field of vines her magic had created.
"There!" Ruminaria shouted as she tore through multiple vines and closed in on Carmillia, only for a magic circle to appear in her path.
Seeing that, she still brought down her sword in a desperate attempt. But instead of striking Carmillia, the blade collided with a barrier. Her expression contorted with rage as she realized she had fallen into a trap.
Darkness rained from above as Ruminaria let out a horrid scream, blood beginning to seep out from her orifices.
"AAARRGH!" Instead of falling down, she stood her ground and hurled the sword towards Carmillia who had widened the distance between them.
Just as the blade was about to reach Carmillia, a figure flashed into place and caught it midair.
"That's enough. Killing within the examination grounds is forbidden. You will be disqualified for attempting to take another entrant's life." An instructor had arrived just in time to stop the sword from striking Carmillia and spoke firmly toward Ruminaria.
But her unfocused gaze showed that she heard none of it as she collapsed to the ground.
"Tsk, tsk. The rules were clearly stated." He shook his head, lamenting the failure of a talented entrant before turning to Carmillia. "What about you? Can you still continue?", Knowing how arrogant some of these students could be, he deliberately spoke in a harsh and annoyed tone.
But no answer came.
"Hey!" As he nudged Carmillia's shoulder lightly, she fell just like Ruminaria.
"Hm. I suppose you're exhausted and out of mana." He moved to lift her body, but a hot stream of liquid spread across his hands.
"Blood? But since when?" The instructor immediately poured a potion into her mouth and searched for the wound. A dagger had pierced her back. It was one of the weapons given to the entrants at the start of the exam.
He tapped the device in his ear and transmitted urgently. "We have a wounded entrant in the sixth room variation layer of the Grid Maze. I need a priest here immediately. One entrant is in critical condition!"
Unfortunately, the potion did nothing to save her life. A figure watched the entire scene from afar, unseen even by the instructor. As though it was never present, it faded into nothingness and left behind only Carmillia's dying body.
…
Everything had been going smoothly, and Xian was finally nearing the exit of the second examination.
A silhouette slowly formed upon an empty throne, its shape coalescing into a shape made of blue wisps of flame.
A humanoid with a bull's head and a man's body sat before them, a giant axe embedded in the ground beside him. Xian was thrilled to finally face a lethal opponent apart from Serika. The other enemies they had encountered were man made scrap golems that granted no experience.
'But this monster does.' Unlike the others, this summon possessed a certain level of strength already. It could be considered a true monster in its own right.
A mimicked Minotaur warrior. Xian remembered that only at this point would the level-up and stat functions finally appear for the player.
Then in the third examination, there would be a demonstration of strength against an instructor. That was why he had intended to conserve his stamina, though he had enjoyed himself far more than usual along the way.
'Oh well. Let's finish this.'
Just as he took his first step forward, he felt that familiar force pulling him back once again.
'Shit. Really?' He felt like an idiot, still surprised that something went wrong, somewhere he couldn't see.
And that was his Sixth Regression.
REGRESSION COUNTER: 6