Iron Blooded Hound

Chapter 179: Academic Arena

It's the midterm season.

At Colosseo Academy, there are two types of exams: final exams and midterms.

The final exam is a competition between students and basically follows the format of a tournament-style martial arts competition.

However, in order to account for the different levels of students, it introduces the concept of "tiers," which means that students of similar levels are grouped together to compete.

In order to determine the tiers for the final exam, it was necessary to validate the student's skills in various ways, which was done through the midterm exam.

The midterm exam consists of three main tests.

Defense and Attack.

There is a group test for 'defense', an individual test for 'offense', and a normal written test.

The written portion of the test is actually not very important—only about 10% of the total score—but the defense and attack portions are 50% and 40%, respectively.

Whether it's a defense or offense test, all students have to fight a battle against a monster.

In this case, the dummy is a clay golem made by the professors of Hot Class, and only the monster's appearance is covered with a hologram.

However, these golems are controlled by the professors themselves, who carefully mimic the movements of the monster, so it is almost like a real battle with a wild monster.

In the defense test, students are placed in an arena in groups of four, and a huge area of hologram magic creates the illusion of being in a real dungeon or monster field.

(In this case, spectators watching from outside the arena can only see a 100-meter-diameter circular arena.).

Students participate in the game wearing black tights that cover their entire bodies, and when they receive a certain amount of shock from magic tools, these tights are quantified on a distant instrument panel.

Students are given "hit points" (HP), which are deducted from them each time they are hit by a monster.

A hard hit takes away a lot of HP; a light hit takes away less. The same goes for being hit in the face.

If this HP reaches zero, they are automatically eliminated, so they have to be careful when dealing with monsters.

Students had to enter the dungeon in groups of four and defend against waves of monsters, and how long they could hold out against these waves would determine their grades.

For example, Dolores, the third-year student council president, formed a party with three classmates to enter the virtual reality dungeon and managed to fend off waves of "killer ants" for most of the first, second, and third phases.

They lasted 20 minutes for Phase 1, 20 minutes for Phase 2, and 18 minutes for Phase 3, for a total of one hour.

They would have gotten a perfect score if they had lasted two more minutes, but they were still the longest of the third year, which is quite an accomplishment.

The second-year vice student council president also faced the "killer ants" in a four-person team and managed to defeat the first and second phases before being retired at the beginning of the third phase.

The time taken was 20 minutes for Phase 1, 20 minutes for Phase 2, and 1 minute for Phase 3, totaling 41 minutes.

This was the best time for a second year.

Most third-years made it through Phase 3 without incident, and most second-years made it through Phase 2 without incident.

And now it was the turn of the freshmen.

* * * *

Thousands of people gathered on the sidelines of the arena.

At Colosseo Academy, the midterm and final exams are like a festival for the entire imperial capital, attracting even ordinary people from the outskirts.

"Dolores! You're doing great this year!"

"Cheer up! Colosseo! Pride of the Imperial Capital!"

"Wow! Mage Tower's midterms, Varangian's midterms, and Temisquira Women's College's midterms are all a mess, but Colosseo's midterms are the best!"

"I'm looking forward to this 'National University League' too!"

Spectators gathered near the stadium in cloud-like crowds, each calling out the names of their favorite students.

Meanwhile, professors, including the principal, were also watching the game.

Several of the Ministry's magical professors, specializing in the summoning of golems and their precise control, were on hand.

Screech!

The muddy golem rose to its feet.

Three crude spheres joined together as a head, chest, and stomach to form a body, with six legs attached to each side.

Tsutsutsutsu...

This lump of clay was coated with illusionary magic.

From a crude lump of clay, it soon took the shape of a killer ant with a sharp exoskeleton, sharp jaws, legs, and stingers.

With a snap of the professors' fingers, these killer ant-like golems crawled around, biting stones with their jaws to crush them or shooting their stingers into the ground.

Each time the fake ants made a stinging motion, a small amount of the poison provided by the Monster Research Institute would spew out, making the battle feel real.

"Wow, it looks like a real monster."

"So, those are all dummies controlled by the professors?"

"All we have to do is stop them; I'm confident!"

The first-year students were giddy with excitement about their first big test.

They had just watched the third- and second-year seniors perform admirably.

Then, a large hologram window appeared in front of the first-year students.

< Map: Killer Ant Colony, 'Filthy Spawning Grounds' >

Join forces with your teammates to defend against the swarming killer ants!

HP: 100/100

Kill point: ?

Assist point: ?

The real midterms have begun.

* * *

Piggy was furiously writing down notes outside the arena.

It was the test scores of the second- and third-year students from last time.

Since fourth-year seniors don't take midterms or finals, it's actually the third-year students who perform best.

And among those third years, it's Dolores, the student council president, who remains at the top of the list.

She had assembled a solid party of healers, buffers, supporters, and defensive, offensive, and hybrid mages, and the result was a 58-minute run across three phases.

Piggy analyzed the seniors' performance data.

"Usually third-year students make it to Phase 3 and sophomores make it to Phase 2, so freshmen only need to make it through 20 minutes of Phase 1. Even if they can only last 10 minutes, they're halfway there."

Piggy was strong on the written portion of the entrance exam, ranking third in the class, but not so strong on the practical portion.

Also, Piggy doesn't have the connections to form a group.

The best friends form groups with people they know or with whom they have a mutual interest, but none of them needed Piggy.

'...What should I do?'

Piggy was fiddling in his mind.

Tuck!

A hand tapped Piggy on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't just go halfway. If you're going to take the test, you should see the end."

It was Tudor. Next to him, Sancho stood with his arms crossed.

Then Piggy said it in a creepy voice.

"You're Tudor, and you're so good at it, you could probably last the whole 20 minutes... But I'm not like that; I'm a real jam. So I don't even know who I'm going to line up with, actually. I'm wondering if there's a group of kids who would be willing to take me on..."

"What do you mean?"

Tudor's eyes widened at Piggy's words.

"I thought you were already in our group."

"Huh?"

"What do you mean, were you trying to be disloyal and get into a group with the other kids?"

Tudor chuckled, and Piggy's dazed expression instantly turned to tears.

"My, I was afraid I'd be a nuisance... I'm weak and..."

"There's no such thing as that, friends, is there, Sancho?"

"Well, of course, and you're smarter than us. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses."

Tudor and Sancho nodded in agreement. Piggy quickly pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes.

Tudor turned his head to look at him.

"No. But where the hell did he go? We need to get some breakfast."

He looked for Vikir.

But Vikir was somewhere else, a little farther away.

@@@@@Party Member Wanted@@@@@Expert Advanced/Shield Warrior@@@@@

Looking for two [fire, poison] mages. Current party members (2/4) #####

Party Wanted))) I'm an Expert Advanced Melee Dealer~~!! I'll carry you!!

Tank one person, please~~!!!! Expert Intermediate and above~~!!! Current party members (3/4)

1 Healer on a first-come, first-served basis (female only)

.

.

Vikir walks leisurely through the outskirts of the stadium, past numerous signs.

Spotting Vikir walking across the field, Tudor, Sancho, and Piggy walked toward him and clapped their hands together.

"Hey, Vikir, come on, let's get a group together; it's almost time for registration!"

But a similar shout came from their side.

"Hey, Vikir, does anyone want to join us for the group test?"

Waving was Sinclair, the head of the hot class. Next to him was Bianca, whom he'd gotten to know quickly.

Tudor, Sancho, and Piggy. And Sinclair and Bianca.

Divided into groups, they fight over Vikir.

This was especially true for Tudor and Bianca, who are usually at odds with each other.

"Vikir is in the same group as us."

"What do you mean? He's been walking around on his own ever since I saw him, so I'm guessing you guys picked him."

"What are you talking about? Of course, Vikir is with us. He's our best friend; he's been with us the longest; he's got the best hands and feet."

"I'm not hand-in-hand with weaklings. He's an archer, so we have chemistry."

"Two archers in one party? You don't even know the divisions of the party?"

"I'm playing. If there are two archers of his level and me, we can easily combine them."

They chatted for a while, then turned to Vikir.

"Vikir, which group are you going to join?"

But.

"I'm sorry, but I've already decided on the group I'll be in. I have a prior agreement."

Vikir's answer was unexpected.

Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, and Sinclair all narrowed their eyes.

They hadn't seen Vikir with anyone but them since they enrolled.

Just then.

Three faces popped out from behind Vikir.

"Why, do you have a problem?"

"Do you have a problem?"

"Do you?"

Three men with cynical questions directed at Tudor, Sancho, Piggy, Bianca, and Sinclair.

Highbrow, midbrow, and lowbrow.

The triplets are infamously known in the Cold Class as the "Trident of Baskerville.".

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