Chapter 5: Entrance Ceremony 3
Throughout her entire life, Aria Le Fay had never once known defeat.
Daughter of the strongest elf king in history, Galadrian, she believed it was her destiny to succeed and surpass her father.
From a young age, spirits resonated with her, with her being able to contract a king class spirit before reaching her adulthood as an elf, which would be around 100 years old in human years.
Such a feat was unheard of.
But right now, she was in a state of anger.
'Who exactly does this idiot think he is?'
She grit her teeth and observed him as soon as he called her name to challenge her.
His appearance, albeit handsome, was nothing special.
He did not hold the bearings of someone who had trained with a weapon for their whole life.
Nor did he radiate the mana that a genius mage would have.
Her long ears even picked up some rumors of him being a failure from the surrounding humans.
'He's probably just suicidal, father did tell me such humans existed.'
She sighed and calmed herself, deciding that she would simply knock him out, ending the fight quickly.
Upon hearing his declaration of "Nah, I'd win," she fell into a rage.
Throughout her entire life, not once had anyone made such a ridiculous declaration about her.
At that moment, her golden eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
She would teach him a lesson to remember.
As soon as the duel began, she called upon her spirit.
"Voltaire! With me!"
The spirit king of thunder, Voltaire, covered her rapier with powerful sparks.
For some reason Voltaire seemed to be more responsive than usual, providing more power than he had ever given before.
'Guess he wants to see him lose as well, huh?' She smirked in satisfaction.
She dashed without any fear or hesitation towards Ares.
Yet suddenly, something felt terribly wrong.
Her world started spinning, and her attack completely missed.
She looked towards Ares, confused at what just happened.
Yet even after her attack had finished, she still felt immense nausea.
"Aria, to the left!" She heard her contracted spirit scream at her to move.
She dodged right, not doubting Voltaire for a second, yet as soon as she did so...
Bang!
A mana bolt hit her square in the face.
Smack!
She then got punched in the stomach.
She coughed and immediately felt like vomiting.
She dashed back, taking a moment to regain her composure....
But she couldn't, instead, she only felt worse.
She saw the human coming at her from her right, intending to hit her stomach again.
Aria thrust her rapier at the human... only for him to disappear?
She tripped, as her rapier thrust had not hit anything, and as soon as she began to fall to the floor,
Wham!
She got kneed straight in the stomach, coughing up blood.
Hyek!
She vomited, and felt like passing out.
"T-t-that's it... I don't know what you did to me, but I'll go all out n-now." She panted in between her words.
She heard Voltaire speak to her through her mind.
'Aria, this human, he's not normal. My connection to you is getting cut, just focus for a moment and release an attack to destroy him instantly'
Without hesitation, she followed her spirit's command, and began to cast her strongest spell.
"Storm Surge!"
Yet what came out of her hands was not the magnificent thunderous dragon that she had expected, but a weak spark.
Shlink!
"W-w-what!?" She screamed in pain.
She had been stabbed from behind... but her opponent had no weapon?!
Was there a sneak attack? What had just happened?
She turned around, seeing nothing except a confused crowd of spectators.
She felt a hand on her shoulder, instantly turning around to pierce the heart of her opponent.
Yet when she turned around, she saw dozens of copies of her opponent, all making a terrifying expression.
'What kind of skill is this? W-what's happening?'
'Voltaire! Guide me, please!' She begged her spirit, confused by the fight that she was in.
Yet her spirit was unable to respond to her call.
The stab wound from before pained immensely, she felt all of the copies of her opponent attack her at once.
They came together, and only a huge fist remained, threatening to crush her into nothingness.
'I've..... los-'
Yet the moment before it made contact, her world regained clarity, and she realized it was just one small punch.
But before she could make a counter, she was knocked out.
'Ah, I don't really like using such cowardly tactics... But it was quite successful'
My plan of continuously applying confusion stacks upon her worked amazingly.
'Seriously though, if she didn't fall into [Breakdown] I don't think I would've won.'
He looked at her, splayed across the floor, her green hair awry.
There was a huge stab wound in her chest, how it came there, nobody except Ares would know.
He took a moment to look around, seeing the utterly shocked faces of the crowd.
A few seconds later, the healers ran towards Aria, healing her injury.
"W-Winner, Ares von Castellan! He has been promoted to class A!" Naviron sputtered out in shock of what he had just seen.
I smiled in satisfaction of my victory.
[Main Quest Complete!
Class Placement Test
Rewards Earnt : Upon returning home, + Reputation with family, + Fame in the Academy, 50 Credits
Host beat the strongest opponent!
Bonus Rewards Earnt: 200 Credits, ++Reputation with Family, +++Fame in the Academy]
'Oh? A bonus reward as well? Not half bad.'
At the very end of the fight, I had used my ultimate ability [Winning Streak].
Throughout the fight, I continuously confused her more and completely drove her to a wall.
I had picked Aria as my opponent knowing her personality from the game.
She was someone who had never known defeat her entire life, so putting her in a scenario in which she was getting pummeled so brutally would have been shocking and confusing to her.
If she had been able to compose herself, reducing the confusion stacks, I would've lost, but as per my expectations, she only panicked more.
She was the easiest one to take advantage of and use [Winning Streak] on.
I viewed my status window to see my gains.
[Name : Ares Von Castellan
Class : The Joker
Overall Rating: C+
Stats:
Strength : D+- ---> Reduced to D- [Cursed Affliction]
Vitality : D+- ---> Reduced to D- [Cursed Affliction]
Agility : C-
Intelligence: B
Wisdom: B+
Charisma : A+
Jack : F- ]
All of my stats had increased significantly, with my overall rating increasing from C- to C+.
Since Aria was so much stronger than me, having multiple S rank stats, I made a significant gain from defeating her.
I closed my status window and noticed something.
All eyes were on me.
Before, people looked at me as if I was pathetic, only suppressing it due to my status as the son of a duke.
But now, thanks to my overwhelming victory...
They were confused and fearful.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
I was notified for every confusion stack building up on the crowd around me, closing the windows with a thought.
"You... how on earth did you do that!"
Her crimson hair became more pronounced under the sunlight.
"Ah, you wanna know?" I responded teasingly.
"Of course, how on earth could a wastrel like you defeat her?" She responded in anger, not forgetting to insult me.
"It's pretty simple. I'm stronger than her."
Iris went silent from that, her green eyes widening in astonishment from my sheer arrogance.
Well, I wouldn't call it arrogance, after all, I did beat Aria.
"Hmph! Look, I don't know what kind of dirty trick you used to defeat the Elf Princess like that, but I'll warn you now, you won't survive a day in class A, so you should just forget about joining it altogether!"
She shouted at me, and I grew annoyed by her incessant scolding.
I didn't respond, and instead stared at her for a moment. My blue eyes met her green, and I could see her blazing spirit.
'Well.. In the past I was pretty cruel to her... hopefully I can salvage the situation later on. But right now, I don't feel like it.'
I ruffled my silver hair back and simply left the ceremony, walking away in silence.
'250 Credits huh? Wonder if that can buy me anything good'
[System Shop
Current Credits: 250]
[Apple Juice - 20 Credits
Load of Bread - 50 Credits
Sturdy Rope - 150 Credits
.....
Archmage Staff - 500,000 Credits
Bottle of Styx - 750,000 Credits
....
Ancient Dragon Heart - 5,000,000 Credits
Random Divine Armament - 10,000,000 Credits
Corpse of a God - 100,000,000 Credits]
As I scrolled through the list, I felt immense disappointment.
250 Credits could buy me 5 loaves of bread... anything actually worth buying would require an unimaginably high quantity.
Well... I did manage to increase my stats from that fight, so I can't complain much.
I saved the credits for later, hoping to save them up and buy something actually useful later on.
I entered my classroom, reminiscent of a college lecture theatre.
I took a seat in one of the middle rows.
The other students were still outside watching the duels, so I took a moment to doze off.
Slam!
I woke up in a stupor, seeing a green haired girl slam her hand on my desk.
"How.... on earth..... No... what did you even do!??" Aria screamed at me.
The healers did a good job taking care of her, seeing she no longer had a stab wound or bruises remaining from my fists.
"Ah, shouldn't it be obvious? I beat you. Nice fight by the way!" I replied merrily.
I extended my hand in a show of peace, but Aria was having none of it.
Well... even in the game, she was known for being prideful. Upon her first loss, she would sulk for a while.
She slapped my hand away.
"Don't joke with me, I know you dominated that fight, so just answer me, how did you do it!"
"There's no need to raise your voice that much, and anyway, a magician never tells his secrets, nor does a gambler show their hand."
My reply only seemed to irritate her more.
"Fine. Just one thing then, tell me your name."
"My name? I'm Ares von Castellan."
Upon my answer, she repeated my name a few times and sat elsewhere. I could see her pouting off in a corner.
I almost laughed at the scenario. Eventually, she'd become so powerful with spirits that she was considered a natural disaster, bringing raging storms to any battlefield she visited.
But now, she was a girl who was upset upon losing for the first time.
Yet behind her sadness, there was a steeled resolve to improve herself.
A few other notable class A students observed our interaction.
'All jokes aside... If I hadn't cheated and continuously applied confusion stacks beforehand, she'd have beat my ass. That lightning rapier looked nasty, one hit and I'd have been out.'
I grimaced over one of the possible outcomes of the duel.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone