Arcane Academy: The Divine Extraction Legacy

"W-what?" Professor Stella was shocked as she didn't expect that Maya would be so against the duel that she'd rather injure herself.

As she was about to scold her student, she heard Zara's voice inside her head.

'Stella, how's her condition?' Zara asked worriedly.

'Not good… Her life strands went down for sure.' Stella answered as she started inspecting Maya's body.

'I see... Don't worry too much. She's from the Featherstar Family. They have a way of increasing life strands a lot faster than others as long as they haven't reached their twenties yet. Maya must be aware of this, so she's not too worried.' Zara explained.

'That's good to hear.' Stella heaved a sigh of relief after hearing this. She then carried Maya to bring her to the infirmary and let her get some rest.

Maya's friends hurriedly went over as well, but after Stella assured them that Maya was safe, they could only return and wait for the final part of the Examination.

Since the Examination has already ended, Zara can replace Stella to take care of the duel that is about to happen.

"Not good… We're planning to have Maya and Vale fight. Now that she's injured, who's going to deal with that student?" Cyrus asked with a weak voice.

"Philip might be able to do it. There's also Leo, who has learned a decent set of Dark Spells." Mark replied while looking at the students.

"Let's not worry about that for now. First, let's announce the students who will receive the 2 Contribution Points for their performance." Zara suggested.

Mark and Cyrus looked at each before agreeing to Zara.

The three then stood in front of everybody and announced the 30 students who would receive the contribution points.

Everyone in the class turned silent as they waited for their names to be called. They were hoping that they would also learn their ranking in this Examination.

Unfortunately, Zara explained that the names to be called out weren't in a specific order but completely random.

The excited students immediately calmed down because of this.

Soon, the top scorers were called.

The top 30 had mostly come from Class 1…

To be exact, 15 students from Class 1 were included in the top 30.

"As expected… Everyone in Class 1 came from the core families of the Dark Arts Faction."

"Indeed… It would be more embarrassing if they failed to dominate here."

"I heard that some of them already learned the Darkness Manipulation Spell before entering the Academy."

"That's not true… However, they learned much earlier about the Spell Models and the existence of Dark Energy."

Vale listened to them silently while he congratulated his classmates who had been included in the list like him. They were Dalton, Warren, Leonore, Lisa, and Aubrey…

"If you're unconvinced with your result, we are giving you a chance to duel against Vale Chambers… If you win against him, you will receive 2 Contribution Points. We are doing this as we know you're holding your grudges after Vale affected you with his Moonlight Curse. Instead of keeping it inside you, I recommend that you challenge Vale to let it out."

Zara announced as she tried to make it sound like it was really Vale's fault for having this duel segment in the Examination today.

One of the students immediately took this opportunity as he shouted.

"Allow me! I challenge Vale to a duel!" The one who spoke was Leo Blaze.

Vale didn't feel pressured as he looked at Leo calmly…

"He used Dark Flame a while ago. It's a Tier 2 Dark Spell. Be careful, Vale." Aubrey reminded me as she looked at Leo.

Lisa hesitated for a moment before she spoke. "I heard that Leo has Mystical Items that protect him from Curses and any Corruption-Type Spells… Avoid using these spells when facing him."

Lisa and Leo were both members of the Library Committee, so it wasn't that surprising if she knew a thing or two about him.

Vale thanked the two for their words as he went to the stage. He then looked at Zara and used his ESP Spell's Telepathy to ask her a question.

'Professor Zara, I can accept more than five challengers. So if you like, you can find more challengers. It didn't matter if they were third year or fourth year. However, I should get access to more corpses.'

As Vale said this, Zara looked at Vale looking stunned.

Vale wasn't sure what she was thinking, but he could make a guess.

Zara hesitated for a moment before passing the message to Professor Mark and Cyrus.

The other two didn't like Vale's confidence as they looked at him with scorn…

After some time, Zara replied.

"Very well, defeat Leo and the others first, then we'll set a schedule with your fight with other students in the higher years. The two professors may not like your guts, but I'm the opposite. I like your confidence, Vale. If you were selected to attend the Twelve Academies Competition, you must have this confidence, or you'll just die there…"

As she said this, Zara cut off their connection, and Vale could no longer speak to her using telepathy. It seems that she used a spell to block off any Telepathy Ability pointed at her.

'What? I could die in that competition… Why? Isn't that a friendly competition between the twelve academies?' Vale was a bit speechless, but he didn't have the time to clarify her words.

In the meantime, Leo was ready to be in a battle as he stood opposite Vale, waiting for the announcement to start the duel.

Cyrus stood at their center and looked at the two students before announcing the rules of the duel.

"You can use any Dark Spells and Mystical Items that you have. However, any help from the outside would result in disqualification… Moving off the stage will also disqualify you." He paused for a moment and waited to see their reaction.

Seeing that they don't seem to care, he continued.

"Any questions?" Cyrus asked one last time.

"Ah, yes! I have a question!" Leo raised his voice as he seemed to have recalled something and pointed at Vale. "Vale has a Dark Spirit Summon. Can he use it?"

"Yes… If you have a summon, you can use it as well." Cyrus answered without hesitation.

"Don't worry. I won't send out my Dark Spirit." Vale said with a smile.

"Tch…" Leo just grunted at this since there was no way he would believe his opponent.

Seeing that there were no more questions, Cyrus no longer wasted time as he announced the start of the duel.