Chapter 215: Genius and Madman Combined

Every grade at the St. Aetherwing Magic Academy had a fixed quota of four hundred students.

If a student died from an accident or was expelled mid-semester, replacement students recommended by other academies would be prioritized to fill the spots.

Therefore, this regulated number of 400 people would never change.

The waitlist was posted outside the academic affairs office, replaced every semester, and there had never been a semester without a name crossed off.

Currently, the number of tier-five mages in the entire fourth year still did not exceed twenty.

Aside from the five members of the Eclipse Team from the Anima department, the others were Asaro from the Omnia department, Lomita from the Linnea department, Feno from the Astraea department, and Raphael from the Zenith department.

There were also three people Jeremy wasn’t very familiar with.

Nonati from the Linnea department, Lancel from the Zenith department, and Milo from the Anima department.

However, coincidentally enough, after sparring with Asaro, Jeremy consecutively encountered these three tier-five individuals on the first and second days.

Nonati fought a war of attrition, dragging the match to the twentieth minute before finally leaving the arena. Milo, conversely, went all out right from the first beat, using an excessively consuming skill and exhausting himself. As for Lancel, he was the only one who forced Jeremy to switch cards mid-match, because every wound Jeremy inflicted was patched up by the opponent faster than his attacking speed.

However, all three of them were at tier five, one-star, so in his capacity as a tier five, two-star, Jeremy ultimately secured the victories.

Very quickly, the individual tournament concluded, and Jeremy successfully claimed the top spot on the leaderboard.

Evelyn and Lucius won all their matches on the first day, and on the second day, both of them encountered Raphael, who was in the same realm.

Although Raphael hadn’t chosen to undergo the second Mark awakening, his realm wasn’t low either; he was currently at tier five, two-star.

Ultimately, Evelyn and Lucius narrowly secured their victories thanks to the exclusive skills of their Dual Marks.

Lucius’s match lasted nearly half an hour, and when they left the arena, both sides had to be supported down.

Having defeated Raphael, the subsequent matches naturally left no room for debate.

Ultimately, they ranked third and fourth.

As for second place… it was obviously Asaro.

And in Phoenix and Leon’s matches, they also repeatedly clashed with tier-five members from other departments; Phoenix and Leon were even matched against each other. Leon’s injuries hadn’t fully recovered yet; although he lost to Phoenix, he won all his other challenge matches.

Their rankings were sixth and seventh, respectively.

Lomita ranked eighth, Lancel ninth, and Feno tenth.

In the top 10 leaderboard, the Anima department alone occupied five spots.

Setting aside whether Instructor Griffin felt joyous and proud because of this, regardless, the Anima department head’s face was about to freeze from smiling so much…

The second day after the conclusion of the individual tournament was the team tournament.

Speaking of team capability, if the current overall strength and synergy level of the Eclipse Team claimed second, absolutely no one would dare claim first.

The team tournament naturally lacked any suspense, securing the number one spot.

The final duel concluded within four minutes. Before the opponents could even finish erecting their second defensive line, they were sliced into three clusters, with exactly one person blocking each cluster, and not a single one of them managed to unleash a second skill.

As for the cultural exam… it went without saying even more. This leading position had been firmly held for several consecutive years, and this year naturally was no exception either.

The tournament concluded, and the Eclipse Team became the focal point of the entire academy.

At least seventy percent of the people were discussing how on earth they had awakened Dual Marks, and why their strength could far surpass the level of their peers like that.

But the protagonists at the center of attention did not speak up to answer.

Seeing this, to boost the students’ drive to improve, the Anima department head proactively announced the number of times the Eclipse Team had entered the Wasteland and the total number of magic crystal cores they had submitted.

The statistics sheet was posted right in the middle of the main hall, two pages long, with tiny, densely packed text. The left column was the date, the right column was the number of cores submitted, and the final row was the total—a number larger than the sum of all four other departments combined.

When the fourth-year students saw that the Eclipse Team had repeatedly entered the Wasteland for training right from their first year, even proactively going there during breaks, they collectively plunged into silence.

Someone tried counting the number of holiday days spent entering the Wasteland, counting to the middle of the second page before dropping their pen.

Even the upperclassmen, upon seeing this record, couldn’t believe it. Ultimately… this matter had far exceeded the bounds of normality.

Since then, people stopped discussing, but an additional phrase representing the Eclipse Team circulated within the academy: Genius and madman combined.

The midterm exams concluded perfectly, and the Eclipse Team’s task was considered fulfilled; they no longer needed to worry about being forced to repeat the year.

The group also returned to their daily lives.

Instructor Griffin appeared once after the exams concluded, then disappeared again.

This time, rarely enough, he informed them of his whereabouts.

This time, Instructor Griffin left the school to go to the Monovis clan.

The Monovis clan, in its capacity as a hidden ancient clan, naturally understood matters regarding the Wasteland very well, and this time also participated in researching magical beasts.

Previously, after Jeremy informed the research institute that the Immortal Flower had the ability to reverse the genetic structure of the Ashbloom Flower, granting it a “rebirth” effect, the Monovis clan also received this news in the shortest possible time.

Up until now, rumor had it that through numerous experiments, they had achieved clear results, fusing various medicines together and synthesizing a new type of Restoration Solution.

The new type of Restoration Solution could completely cause polluted and mutated Wasteland magical beasts to regress back to their original forms. Although the drawback was that these creatures couldn’t survive for too long after restoration, they could still rely on secret arts to forcibly extend their lifespans for a period of time.

The reason they currently didn’t dare to affirm whether they could rely on this medicine to thoroughly stop the evolution of magical beasts was that this new medicine still lacked testing on high-star magical beasts.

Conducting experiments on the bodies of magical beasts seven stars and above carried immense risks; just a slight slip-up meant losing one’s life in the Wasteland.

And this time, Instructor Griffin’s trip exactly stemmed from this reason.

At the time when the calamity of fate descends, there are always people who must shoulder the heavy responsibility of moving forward. As the young master, he needed to set an example, leading the clan elders and powerhouses from other factions to jointly enter the Wasteland, seeking out the Destructive Spirits lying in the abyss.

If successful, the magical beasts would be completely purified. Mialans, having turned into the Wasteland, would welcome a revival of vitality, and the living beings on the Sylvanor continent also wouldn’t need to live in anxiety and fear anymore.

If they failed… regardless of whether it was the Wasteland or the Sylvanor continent, both would probably welcome endless destruction.