'Rufus... What kind of evaluation did you take last year?' Reiji asked after he saw the difficulty of the first part of the evaluation.

He can see that the three girls with their unique-rank Arcana were quite powerful... They have various Arcane Magic and they even possess outstanding combat ability...

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Although he can't say that they truly mastered their weapons, they appear to have trained them to an advanced level.

Especially the one with the double-handed battle axe, her movement was fluid, and even though the axe's accuracy is low due to its unbalanced structure, she's compensating it with her strength... Each of her strikes was powerful and even if just one of them managed to hit, it will deal a critical blow to the evil beast...

She's only lacking good footwork and various attack patterns. It was the same with the other two as they seemed to have only practiced a few moves.

'It is similar, Master Reiji... The only difference is that we fought alone against a young werewolf...'

'Was it weaker than this Lynx?'

'That's right... However, there was no way to win against an adult werewolf. At most, we'll need to form a group with about 5 or 6 members in it.'

'That strong? Then it must be difficult for those Hunters who doesn't have an Arcana...' Reiji muttered.

He felt quite interested in various types of evil beasts ever since he lived in the jungle for the past two years.

However, he hadn't encountered a werewolf yet since they were only living in this northern part of the kingdom within the border of Losea and Chodora Kingdom.

Clang!

One of the doors to the arena opened as the group that finished last came out.

Finally, after almost half an hour of battle, all the first five teams have completed their evaluation.

A few of them stayed to watch but the rest didn't even bother to glance at the other's battle. They needed to have a good rest for the next evaluation...

"We're going next. Are you ready?" Sidon asked.

"Yes, I'm ready..."

"Alright... Just try not to hold us back. If you're targeted, don't flinch and stop moving. Just run away..." Himilco gave a piece of advice and even showed a warm smile to Rufus.

The latter sighed at this as he already knows what they're thinking.

'Master... You haven't shown your true abilities yet and I only managed to experience a bit of your power in the past three days. I'm sure that you are more powerful than what I can imagine...'

'Mhmm?' Reiji waited for Rufus to continue.

'Master, I want you to show them the difference in our strength... So, can you restrain a bit of your ability until they showed their powers? This way, they'll easily see the gap...'

'Haha! I don't really mind... Alright, instead of quickly finishing off the beast, we'll just conceal ourselves and let them fight the beast first.'

Reiji replied as he knows that it would be impossible for the two to quickly kill the Nightmare Lynx, even the top three trainees barely managed to disable one and make them unable to fight.

"Next group... Enter the third arena." The supervising Arcanist announced.

It was Rufus's team.

"Good luck, Rufus!"

"You can do it!"

"Show them your new Magic Item!"

Rufus's friend cheered for him as he entered the arena... Even though he almost ranked at the bottom due to the absence of his Arcana, a few of his friends never changed and supported him...

It may be due to pity or genuine concern to him.

However, whatever it was, Rufus was thankful to these people so he made sure that he'll make a good performance today.

Rufus waved at them as he entered the arena.

***

"Sven... Lexi's team showed a very good performance... They managed to disable the beast with mid-tier Arcane Magic, Petrification." Kael, one of the Second-Class Arcanist, said after drinking a cup of tea.

Lexi was the one holding the Mace Arcana and also an owner of an Epic-Rank equipment that can remove abnormal status like petrification.

Although they can still fight against the Lynx even without this equipment, they will surely take more time as they have to change their battle style.

"Haha... She's really grown up now... However, they were still lacking a lot... If those three are the strongest in the group, then I'm not expecting too much in these next rounds..."

"Well, you might be right about that... But I heard that we still have a couple of interesting trainees..."

"Ho~ Who are they?"

"They're Nika the Gunner and Rufus the Crazy Magic Item Crafter..."

Kael smiled mysteriously after saying this...

"Ahh... Now that you said... She has a new type of Arcana called a Gun-Type. However, I heard that it has a lot of limitations... How about Rufus?"

"Well, there's a long story... But he's definitely a genius when the subject is all about Crafting... Although he might fail the first and second part of this evaluation, he should be able to give an outstanding result in the third part..."

Kael gave a high expectation to the silver-haired boy which intrigued Sven... The latter has never shown interest in the trainees for the past few years and just continued his research about a forbidden Arcane Magic within the tower...

He only appeared to today's evaluation as his research has already been completed and he can now relax for some time...

"Oh... He came at the right moment... Rufus is the one with the silver hair at the third arena... Don't expect too much in his combat strength since he already lost his Arcana... He'll probably use one of his Magic Items this time..."

"I see... What a pity... Mhmm? There's Nika on the fifth arena... Is that her gun?" Sven caught a glimpse of a young lady holding a weird Arcana...

"Fifth arena?"

Kael looked in the same direction and immediately recognized her.

"Yes, that's her... Look at her weapon. She called it a Revolver and said that it was a Gun-Type Arcana. Interesting, right?"

"Mhmm... Revolver, huh..."

"Yes... I noticed that it has six chambers for bullets in its revolving cylinders. Maybe that was why it's called Revolver... Anyway, I'd like to study it a bit but it's only a Rare-Rank Arcana and it has very low durability..." Kael muttered as he made a wild guess.

Sven nodded at this as he showed some interest in this new type of Arcana...

He's silently hoping that more of this type would show up in this kingdom.

Sven then glanced at Rufus as he tried to see what kind of Magic Item did he make...

His two teammates were using Equipment-Type Arcana, a bracer, and a ring.

Due to this, they have to bring their short sword to assist them in close combat...

"Energy Boost"

"Full Protection Armor."

"Light Steps."

"Enhanced Vision."

"Delayed Haste."

"Active Swiftness"

As expected of equipment type Arcana, they have a lot of assistive Arcane Spells compared to a weapon type. Of course, it was also because their Arcana has already awakened and their only concern was their Spiritual Energy...

After all, even if they have a lot of skills, it wouldn't matter if they can't cast it due to having an empty energy pool.

Sidon used his short sword like a wand and sliced it on the air.

A wave of thick energy came out of the blade and assaulted the Nightmare Lynx that just came out of his den. It seems that they're trying to end it as quickly as possible...

However, the Lynx just growled at the attack and didn't even bother dodging...

"Pah!"

It was the sound of the Arcane Magic thrown at the Lynx. It was obviously ineffective...

However, the two were not surprised as they continued their assault...

"Hmph! Let's see how tough you are..."

***

It seems that Reiji was wrong... He thought that the swords in their hands were meant to be used in close combat, but they are treating it as a bladed wand!

They might as well buy a wand instead of using the short sword!

Unfortunately, the two do not have any sword skills and were only using the blade as a medium to cast their Arcane Magic!

'Haa~ I expected too much from them. What a letdown.'

They weren't even closing their distance to the Nightmare Lynx and just throwing all their range magic...

At the very least, they know how to control their skills and weren't exhausting all of their energy.

Finally, the Lynx who was using a barrier-type Arcane Magic started to move...

Thud! Thud!

Himilco and Sidon immediately backed away as they reached the wall of the arena...

They left Rufus in front.

"Rufus... We need to take a rest for a moment... You have to restrain that beast until our energy comes back!"

"We just need a few minutes... You can do it!"

Reiji realized now why they were doing some flashy skills without using a lot of Spiritual Energy...

That's right, although it appears that they spent a lot of their energy, in truth, they only used about 20% of their reserves and were just planning to find an opening once Rufus engaged in combat...