Konoha: Naruto will win no matter what choice he makes! Chapter 042

After explaining some small rules to pay attention to during duels.

Professor Jones took out a jar full of numbered plates and had the students draw them one by one.

The little mages came out one after another, reaching into the jar to draw their numbered plates.

Surprisingly, out of four classes, only seventy-eight students truly completed the production of their [Magical Beasts] within this week.

On average, there were even less than twenty people per class!

Most of the remaining people were in the stage of failed production and had to start accumulating credits to buy material packs.

It felt as if the professors had deliberately set a trap, opening Traveler’s Street before teaching [Magical Beast] production, to give some first-year students who didn’t know how to control themselves and spent credits recklessly a lesson.

Anyway, whether others learned their lesson or not, Vite and Robert were thoroughly taught…

As for whether they would change after learning their lesson, that was another matter.

…

Dark walked to the jar and casually grabbed a numbered plate: ⑦.

“Goodness, I’m destined to be with ⑦?”

Diana leaned over again: “Hey, what number are you?”

Dark: “Number 7, how about you?”

Diana: “ 77, hehe!”

Rose: “ 55…”

“Those who have obtained a numbered plate, inject magic power into it, separate the plate, and hand me the blue side.”

Professor Jones took out an empty jar again to collect the blue numbered plates.

Dark then noticed that the numbered plate in his hand was red and blue on both sides. With a trace of magic power injected, the red and blue plates would lose their magnetic force and could be easily separated.

Following Professor Jones’s instructions, after handing in the blue numbered plate, Dark held the red numbered plate and waited quietly.

The central area of the arena was divided into four equal parts by props. Professor Jones placed two magic orbs in each small area.

Students without [Magical Beasts] needed to be responsible for infusing magic into the magic orbs and learning how to deploy a life barrier.

Professor Jones also selected four people to be referees.

“The competition will adopt a single-elimination system. Winners advance, losers retire. In the world of magic duels, there is only a champion.”

Professor Jones casually grabbed two blue numbered plates from the jar and placed them aside, then grabbed two more blue numbered plates and placed them aside. Repeating this four times, he had four sets of numbered plates.

She flipped over the numbered plates and read: “The first round is 78 into 39, with four groups proceeding simultaneously. Numbers 6 and 8, 3 and 28, 66 and 7, 49 and 5, prepare to enter the arena.”

…

“Opening celebration?”

Dark looked at the red number 7 plate in his hand, not caring much.

Instead, Diana and Rose seemed more nervous than him.

“Dark, good luck! I’m always on your side!”

“Good luck!”

It’s not like going to a variety show audition.

Dark walked towards arena number ③ with a dark expression.

A total of eight people entered the arena simultaneously, some nervous, some calm.

Dark glanced over and saw that the number 66 contestant, walking towards the same arena as him, was a girl from the Academy of Magic, with twin ponytails, large eyes, and a slightly pale complexion.

He casually comforted her: “Don’t be nervous, it’s just an exercise.”

“Okay, mhm.” The girl bit her lip and tightened her grip on her fingers.

The two arrived at their respective player positions at opposite ends of the arena.

Formal competitions have player stands, allowing players to overlook the arena from above, but here, of course, there are only simple player positions marked by white lines.

Dark stood ready at his player position and looked at the arena.

The arena for this in-class competition simply replicated the rules of a real arena, dividing the 1/6 area closest to the player position as the summoning zone.

This meant limiting the summoning area of magic spirits, preventing them from being summoned directly onto the opponent’s face—that is, face-rushing summons!

It is said that the initial magic duels did not have this rule, and mages often performed “tactical summons,” making duel matches rough and chaotic.

Some mages would even use “visual interference tactics,” directly summoning large magic spirits onto the opponent’s face, blocking their vision…

Later, as rules gradually improved, such farces became much less common.

However, human ingenuity has no limits, and there are still countless small tricks under the rules.

The referee for arena number ③ was Röntgen from the Noble Academy.

“Hi.”

Röntgen waved at Dark, looking unusually dejected.

There was no helping it; serving as a referee was tantamount to public execution.

Why couldn’t they produce their [Magical Beasts] within a week?

Dark, of course, remembered this classmate who went shopping early on Saturday.

It seemed he had spent all his credits on Traveler’s Street, which eventually led to insufficient credits and thus inability to buy more material packs for experiments.

And his fellow sufferer, Sievert, seemed to be next door…

Dark smiled subtly.

A formal duel requires placing the deck on the “card table” in the player stand, and the magic projection mechanism will enlarge the magic cards for the audience to see.

There are also rules such as “live shuffling,” “ 5 cards in hand,” “ 30 seconds per turn,” and “draw 2 cards per turn.”

The duel process is divided into three stages.

① Preparation Phase: Shuffling, communication (taunting), starting hand.

② Battle Phase: Drawing cards, summoning, combat (attacking).

③ End Phase: Communication (taunting), collecting cards, declaration.

…

Of course, today’s duel didn’t have that many rules.

The twin-tailed girl from the Academy of Magic over there even held her only [Magical Beast] in her hand, nervously awaiting the referee’s whistle.

Dark suddenly felt a little worried that she might crush her [Magical Beast]?

Both sides’ magic orbs had already deployed life barriers with 500 magic power, now floating in front of each of them.

Manipulating magic orbs remotely with magic power was an advanced technique, not within the scope of first-year students’ lessons.

Therefore, to move the magic orbs, one could only push them physically.

Röntgen: “Beep—begin preparations.”

Dark took out [Magical Beast: Eevee] from his card pack, held it between his index and middle fingers, and entered the preparation phase.

Röntgen: “Battle countdown, 30s!”

Röntgen: “…3, 2, 1, start!”

The moment the battle phase began.

“My turn! Magic Summon!”

Dark instantly raised his magic card, and on the 8th second of the battle phase, he successfully summoned his Magical Beast!

Eevee-chan landed lightly without any hesitation, running like the wind.

On the 12th second of the battle phase, it had already run across the mere 10-meter battle arena and pressed its paw pad onto the magic orb floating on the ground!

“Boo-ee |ω・`)?”

Tilting its head and looking at the young lady opposite, Eevee-chan showed an adorable expression.

Then it patted four times consecutively, turning the magic orb’s life barrier into critical health.

The twin-tailed girl was literally charmed to bleeding, her magic interrupted, and she hastily began her second summon.

Eevee-chan waited gently for her to summon her Magical Beast, and then → delivered the final blow to the magic orb.

“Battle end!”

“Winner: Dark Dimon.”

Dark sighed, collected his card, and turned around.

Boring.

Tedious.

…