The Villainous Young Master Just Wants to Live a Laid-Back Life

Chapter 42: Dark Demon Finds No Joy in the Duel

After explaining some minor rules to keep in mind during the duel, Professor Jones brought out a jar filled with number tags and had the students draw them one by one.

The young mages stepped forward in turn, reaching into the jar to draw their tags.

Surprisingly, out of the four entire classes, only seventy-eight students had completed the creation of their [Magic Beast] within the week.

On average, that was fewer than twenty students per class!

The rest were mostly in the stage of having failed their creations and having to start saving credits to buy material packs.

It felt as though the professors had deliberately set a trap, opening Traveler's Street before teaching the creation of [Magic Beasts] to teach a lesson to the first-years who lacked restraint and squandered their credits.

In any case, whether others learned their lesson or not, Virt and Robert had certainly learned theirs the hard way...

As for whether they would change after this lesson, that was another matter entirely.

...

Dark walked up to the jar and casually drew a tag: ⑦.

"Well, looks like I have a connection with ⑦?"

Diana sidled up to him again: "So, what number did you get?"

Dark: "Number 7. What about you?"

Diana: "77, hehe!"

Rose: "55..."

"Those who have drawn their tags, infuse them with magic, separate them, and hand the blue side to me."

Professor Jones brought out another empty jar to collect the blue tags.

Only then did Dark notice that the tag in his hand was double-sided, red and blue. Infusing it with a trace of magic caused the red and blue sides to lose their magnetism, allowing them to be easily separated.

Following Professor Jones's instructions, Dark handed in the blue tag and quietly waited with the red one in hand.

The central area of the hall had been divided into four equal sections by props, and Professor Jones placed two Magic Spheres in each small section.

Students without [Magic Beasts] were tasked with infusing magic into the Magic Spheres to learn how to activate the Life Barrier.

Professor Jones also selected four students to act as referees.

"The matches will follow a single-elimination format. Winners advance, losers are out. In the world of magical duels, there is only the champion."

Professor Jones casually drew two blue tags from the jar and placed them on one side, then drew two more and placed them on the other side. Repeating this four times, she formed four groups of tags.

She flipped the tags and announced: "The first round: seventy-eight advancing to thirty-nine. Four matches will proceed simultaneously. Numbers 6 and 8, 3 and 28, 66 and 7, 49 and 5, please prepare to enter the arena."

...

"Opening celebration?"

Dark glanced at the red tag numbered 7 in his hand, not particularly concerned.

Diana and Rose, however, seemed more nervous than he was.

"Dark, good luck! I'll always be on your side!"

"Good luck!"

It's not like this was some variety show audition.

Dark walked with a dark expression toward Arena ③.

Eight students entered the arena simultaneously, some nervous, some calm.

Dark glanced over and saw that his opponent in the same arena, the student with tag number 66, was a girl from the Magic Institute. She had twin tails, big eyes, and a somewhat pale complexion.

He casually reassured her: "Don't be nervous, it's just a practice match."

"Okay, yeah." The girl bit her lip and clenched her fingers tightly.

The two took their positions at opposite ends of the arena.

In official matches, there were podiums that allowed players to overlook the entire arena, but here, there were only simple positions marked by white lines.

Dark stood in his position and looked over the arena.

Arena Diagram

The arena for this in-class match was a simplified replica of a real arena, with the 1/6 area closest to the players' positions designated as the Summoning Zone.

This meant that the summoning area for Magic Spirits was restricted, preventing players from summoning Magic Spirits directly in their opponent's face known as a "face summon"!

It is said that originally magic duels did not have this rule, so mages often employed "tactical summoning", making the duels become crude and chaotic.

Some mages even employed "line-of-sight blocking tactics," summoning large Magic Spirits directly in their opponent's face to block their vision...

As the rules were gradually refined, such antics became much rarer.

But human creativity knows no bounds, and there are still countless small tricks played within the rules.

The referee for Arena ③ was Lungen from the Noble House.

"Hi."

Lungen waved at Dark, looking unusually listless.

Well, being a referee was like being publicly executed.

After all, they were the ones who hadn't managed to create a [Magic Beast] within the week.

Dark certainly remembered this classmate who had gone out shopping early on Saturday.

It seemed he had spent all his credits in Traveler's Street, ultimately leaving him with insufficient credits to buy more material packs for experiments.

And his fellow unfortunate, Hewitt, seemed to be right next door...

Dark smiled subtly.

In official duels, the deck had to be placed on the "card table" in the player's podium. The magic projection mechanism would enlarge the Magic Cards for the audience's convenience.

There were also rules like "on-site shuffling," "starting hand of 5 cards," "30 seconds per turn," and "drawing 2 cards per turn."

The duel process was divided into only three phases.

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

② Battle Phase: Drawing cards, summoning, combat (beating)

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

...

Of course, today's duel didn't have so many rules.

The twin-tailed girl from the Magic Institute was already clutching her only [Magic Beast] in her hand, nervously waiting for the referee's whistle.

Dark suddenly worried if she might damage the [Magic Beast] from gripping it too tightly.

Both Magic Spheres had already activated their Life Barriers with a magic value of 500 and were now floating in front of their respective players.

Using magic to remotely control the Magic Sphere was an advanced technique, not covered in the first-year curriculum.

Therefore, the only way to move the Magic Sphere was through physical pushing.

Lungen: "Beep begin preparation."

Dark took out [Magic Beast: Eevee] from his card pouch, holding it between his index and middle fingers, and entered the preparation phase.

Lungen: "Battle countdown, 30s!"

Lungen: "...3, 2, 1, begin!"

The moment the battle phase began.

"My turn! Magic Summon!"

In an instant, Dark raised his Magic Card, and by the 8th second of the battle phase, he had successfully summoned his Magic Beast!

Eevee-chan landed lightly without the slightest hesitation and began running like the wind.

By the 12th second of the battle phase, it had already crossed the 10-meter dueling field and pressed its paw pads against the Magic Sphere floating on the ground!

"Eevee (๑•́ ₃ •̀๑)?"

Tilting its head to look at the girl across the field, Eevee-chan made an adorable expression.

Then, with four consecutive pats, it reduced the Magic Sphere's Life Barrier to a sliver of health.

The twin-tailed girl was utterly overwhelmed by the cuteness, her magic faltering as she frantically began a second summon.

Eevee-chan waited patiently for her to summon her Magic Beast, and then→ delivered the final blow to the Magic Sphere.

"Battle over!"

"Winner: Dark Demon."

Dark sighed, collected his cards, and turned away.

Dull.

Tedious.

...

...

☃

━⊱══➢

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