Two hundred miles southwest of Gudilesi City, the town of Bantem was particularly lively at this time of the year.
The Freshmen Competition — a comprehensive competition aimed at encouraging freshmen to train hard, form healthy competition, and cultivate practical experience and team spirit — had begun. The competition was usually held by each school separately (and many schools chose to hold it jointly). It lasted from March to the end of the year, and the venue was in the underground city next to Bantem.
Although the Siamos Comprehensive Academy did not have a great reputation, its financial situation had always been among the best among all the magic academies. This was something that many people were puzzled about. Like the vast majority of new academies, Siamos had been taking the civilian route all these years. However, the cheap tuition fees collected were clearly far from enough to maintain the operation of such a huge academy. At most, it could only maintain the minimum level of daily operations, so it needed a new source of funds if it wanted to achieve a balance between income and expenditure.
There had always been rumors in Gudilesi City that the founder of the Siamos Comprehensive Academy held shares in one of the richest organizations in the Dawn Continent, the Haifa Chamber of Commerce, and could enjoy a large dividend every year. He had no children, so he left the dividend to the school after his death. However, this rumor was not acknowledged by the Haifa Chamber of Commerce, and Siamos had always remained silent on this issue.
But one thing was certain. The school's previous headmasters had never worried about money. For the sake of this freshmen competition, Siamos had spent a lot of capital, booking the small arena on the third floor that could accommodate 500 people in one go. Moreover, unlike the ten-day freshmen competition of other academies, the freshmen competition planned by Siamos was expected to last as long as a month, which made many small academies that chose to pool money to hold it together envious.
When Rob and the others arrived in Bantem, it was just in time for the Silver Tower to end their freshmen competition. As a well-known school in Siamos, the Silver Tower Academy of Magic's freshmen this year were also full of talents. There were four third-grade magicians and an astonishing seven people with A-grade aptitude. Clearly, their recruitment last year had gone smoothly.
In contrast, Siamos' side was much inferior. Caesar was the only person with A-grade aptitude, and there were pitifully few B-grade aptitudes. The rest were basically all C-grade and D-grade aptitudes, and they were destined to have little success in the future. They seemed to have quite a lot of people, especially when there were several other majors mixed together. However, no matter how one looked at it, it gave off the feeling that they were a ragtag army.
Most of the Silver Tower's students looked down on Siamos' students. Some of Siamos' students approached them to gather some information about the competition, but unless it was a relatively cute girl, most of them were cold and indifferent. Usually, when they met them on the streets, they would basically have their noses in the air, just short of writing "I don't know you" on their faces.
Rob had some impression of this Academy of Magic. Because of a certain incident ten years ago, the Silver Tower and the Royal College of Magic and Magic had formed a grudge. Later, when Rob's fame rose in the north, this Academy of Magic was the first to jump out and question, suspecting that Steins had exaggerated his talent. They had even sent someone from thousands of miles away to challenge him. Naturally, the result was no surprise. Their trump card, who had just advanced to the fifth-grade, was beaten to a pulp by the third-grade Rob, unable to retaliate from start to finish.
After the incident, although the Royal College of Magic and Magic was very kind and did not publicize this matter, many people still saw the challenger's miserable state. This matter was discussed enthusiastically for a long time, and after that, the Silver Tower became completely well-behaved. Because of this matter, they were unable to recruit outstanding newcomers for three or four years, and their ranking in the south fell out of the top ten. It was only in the past two years that they recovered, and they did not expect to meet them here again.
The four-man team did not join in on the fun. Rob was not lacking in money at the moment, and he had basically gathered most of the information he needed from Louys. He had also trained together when he needed to. Now, all they had to do was wait for the competition to begin.
As the arena had just been used by the Silver Tower, it would take two days of maintenance before it could be reopened. Besides the Student Union, who was making use of the time to prepare, the ordinary students had nothing to do. Someone suggested that they walk around Bantam Town.
Similar to the development of Ryan, before the appearance of the nearby dungeon, Bantam Town did not have any special products. It was just an ordinary town with a population of less than two thousand. However, with the continuous influx of adventurers and merchants, Bantam Town now had a permanent population of nearly seventeen thousand. At its peak, this number even exceeded twenty thousand. As the first few levels were cleared, the largest number of low-grade adventurers decreased, and the population also decreased.
The Dungeon in Bantam Town was only one level away from being conquered. At this point, there was no need for ordinary adventurers. Fortunately, the basic infrastructure was still in place, and there was a sufficient population. No matter what, the town could not decline back to its previous state. However, maintaining prosperity was not an easy task. In recent years, Bantam Town had been working hard to transform into a tourism and functional town.
In this aspect, the town had a unique advantage. Besides the Dungeon, the scenery around Bantam Town was great. There were almost no ferocious beasts in the mountains, but there were many rare wild animals and plants. There were also a few hot springs, making it a good place for a vacation. In fact, many nearby nobles would come here every summer to avoid the heat. If time allowed, Rob would not mind staying here for a few more days.
It was a pity that two days passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, it was the day of the competition.
There were a total of 126 registered teams in Siamus, and each team had a maximum of five members. Of course, if you were confident in your strength, you could choose to form a team with only one member. If you made it to the top ten, you would be able to enjoy all the rewards.
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
