Chapter 63 - The Year Long Tournament

"Of course, there are some individually strong students who register as groups to pass this segment. I forgot to mention, but the point system of the quests are like this."

Fina took out a piece of paper and her magic pen and began writing.

Stone rank quests – 0. Iron rank quests – 1-5 depending on the stars. Bronze rank quests – 6-15. Silver rank quests – 16-30. Gold rank quests – 50-200. Platinum rank quests – 500-1000.

"Lastly, Diamond rank quests are 5000 points." Fina didn't write the last rank because she thought it wasn't necessary.

"Of course, the last two ranks are impossible for us students. The highest in our academy is the student council president who's probably at the 5-star gold rank." Ainz said a matter-of-factly.

"Heh~ Gold rank huh..." Lucia smiled in disdain. She looked at Cecil who was busy eating and smirked.

'Cecil and I are only 2 5-star gold quests away from being able to take our promotions to platinum. Maybe we should go take on the last two quests and promote ourselves to platinum before the tournament starts~'

Fina saw Cecil's and Lucia's brief interaction and could somewhat detect the dismissive attitude the two had.

Well, Cecil was being dismissive and uncaring from the start, but Lucia's despairing face from earlier had begun to turn smug after the mention of rankings.

'Could these two be high ranked adventurers?' Fina thought.

Ainz didn't notice a thing and continued speaking.

"Moving on to the next segment, oh and by the way, the scores from all the segments are acc.u.mulative, so individuals and small groups can forever kiss good bye any thoughts of miraculously winning the top 10 spots of the tournament."

"Anyway, the next segment would be the dungeoneering segment. As the name implies, the participants of the tournament would need to go and explore a dungeon. As for how the scoring will be done, it all depends on how deep one could go inside of a dungeon. As well as clearing the dungeon itself. One floor equals 100 points and clearing a dungeon gives a bonus of 1000 points."

Ainz paused to drink and turned towards Fina, "Hey, aqua brat. Continue."

Fina only looked at him and continued his explanation.

"A faction or group can only consist of a minimum if 1 – 100 people. No individual or faction can have more than one group."

"The academy will also give a faction or group a locater that would track the person carrying the locater in real time. This way the school's faculty would be able to track the whereabouts of the locater when inside a dungeon. Also this locater would only stay active if the mana signature of the person bound to the locater was nearby. So you can't cheat by sending a stealth-type familiar or pet deep into the dungeon while holding the locater."

"Another thing to take note of, is that the locater is fragile. So if it happens to be destroyed in battle, then the school's faculty will only take note of what floor the party was on before it was destroyed, if a group or faction kept on going deeper into the dungeon without the locater then it would all be for nothing since the score will not improve due to the absence of the locater."

As usual, Fina's explanation was very detailed and extensive. But she was cute, so Lucia didn't mind and she didn't fall asleep listening to her as she would when Cecil explained anything too detailed to her.

After Fina's explanation, Ainz spoke up.

"The third, fourth and fifth segments are individualistic. So these segments would be used to determine which top 100 individuals of each faction would have the privilege to use the time formation when the faction won a place in the top 10."

"Ever since the new President was elected, the student council had always won first. It's not a surprise since they have a couple of 'Kings' or should I say former 'Kings' in their faction."

Lucia picked up on that term, but before she could ask Ainz continued.

"The second segment lasts for 2 months, but the third and fourth segments last 1 month each. The third segment is the magic games. A month long, magical tournament that randomly pits the students against each other, sometimes even students of the same factions would have to fight each other."

"Oh! Magic games! What're they?!" Upon hearing the word 'magic' Lucia immediately perked up since it was her forte.

"The magic games are a mix between a duel and a race. Once the random encounter happens, two students would then need to race from point A to point B and whoever reaches point B first wins the race."

"Sounds easy."

Ainz smirked disdainfully at Lucia upon hearing her words.

"It's supposed to be easy since it's just a race... but, if you're not in a faction then that would make things hard for you."

"Why's that?"

"That's because other members of a faction could directly interfere with your race! Instead of a race, it should be more of an obstacle race!"

Lucia grimaced at his words. She then said.

"...Let me guess... since it's a 'magic' race the other faction members could only use magic spells to obstruct the opposing side thus helping their own side win the race?"

Ainz smirked and nodded.

"That's basically it! Of course, you can't use any imprisonment type magic spells, but everything else goes. See now brat? You can't win without joining a faction. That's just how important factions are!"

"Yeah, yeah. So what's the next segment?"

"The fourth segment is... the academic segment."

"... okay?"

"Well, basically this is just the academy wide exams."

"Wow... something a little bit normal."

"NORMAL? HAH! I think not!"

"..." Cecil who had kept his mouth and hands busy was quietly thinking.

'What the heck? Are all schools like this? Even the ones back on Earth? Damn you father! I missed out on all the exciting school activities!'

He was having his own misconceptions about the term 'school'.

"It's just a test, what's not gonna be normal about that?!" Lucia complained.

Ainz put his arms on the table and crossed his hands over his mouth and said seriously.

"Listen well... the exams..."

Lucia gulped and Cecil who was on the side also gulped... down his food.

"The exams... are magically locked so you need a key to open them."

"What?"

'What the heck?' Cecil thought.

"The academy would give you the key a month before the exams and that's during the 3rd segment of the tournament. The key needs to be analyzed to decipher the incantation that draws out the magic spell needed to open the lock on the exams. If you were to do this individually then you wouldn't be able to make it. But with a faction, the tasks are divided. The ones that don't have a race going on would either help the racer or study the key. When the faction members get the incantation from the key, they would then distribute the incantation to the rest of their members. Not something small groups or solos have the luxury of doing, while still participating in the 3rd segment."

"So... what happens to the ones that can't take the test because they don't have the key?"

"They fail of course."

"But, that's the academy exams! Isn't it supposed to be separate from the tournament?"

Fina who was quietly sipping her drink finally spoke up.

"The key itself is also part of the test, Lulu. For those who can't figure out the key would fail to even answer one question on the exams anyway, so why not just prevent them from even taking the test of they're just bound to fail."

"... makes sense, I guess."

"By the way, if you fail the academy's test then you'll have to take on a separate test and if you fail that test, you'll get expelled from the academy."

'What a harsh system...' Cecil thought.

Fina then continued,

"The last segment I already mentioned at the start."

"...the tournament segment, the dueling part."

"Yup, that's the easiest part. Since even the factions can't intervene in an individual's match. You can only rely on yourself in this segment."

"Finally... something normal..." Lucia sighed in relief.

"Like I said Lulu, you should really consider joining one of the factions. A girl with your talent would be welcomed by any one of the 10 factions! So you don't need to worry one bit! All you need to do is choose!"

"...Yeah." Lucia turned to look at Cecil who still didn't seem to be moved by the thought of joining a faction, even though he himself wanted to win the top spot so he could use the time magic formation for 1 month.

"I'll join whatever Cel's joining~" Lucia said while leaning on Cecil.

Cecil had finally finished his dinner. After he drank a glass of water he then asked Ainz.

"Ainz, you said that there are also groups joining the tournaments that aren't a part of the factions. Have there been any groups in the past that have successfully clinched a spot in the top 10?"

"Hah, you must be kidding Cecil! There's been no–"

Fina quickly cut Ainz off, "There was one!"

Cecil turned towards Fina and inquired further.

"Really? When was it?"

"I think it was... 3 decades ago. Long before any of us were born. There was a group of students who were individually powerful. They were led by a very talented young woman. Their small group of 10 was able to clinch first place for 4 consecutive years, up until the leader of that group graduated."

"Wow... now that's something~" Cecil said with a laid back smile.

"The leader eventually became the headmaster of the academy. She was the headmaster just before our current headmaster and because of her the academy had welcomed a new era, the era of 'Kings'."

"Yeah, you guys said that word before. 'Kings', what are they?"