Vol. 11 - Ch. 520 - Introduction to Interclass Battles format & Drawing a lot!

ARC 11 - Interclass battle—Dungeon Activity style!

—Interclass Battle.

An event meant to assess first year's ability they had honed from the duration of their entrance ceremony to the next half year, and typically, takes place around the December.

It resembled sports day, or athletic festival, and separated between each grade. You could say, it was a festival of sorts.

The Combat Department's event took place in the Arena.

Collection Department, Investigation Department, or Trap Disarmament Departments show off their skill in the dungeon.

As for the Production Department, their classes often don't even go above one digit or, in the worst case scenario, they merely have one class. So their challenge consisted of team battle, and victory was decided by the quality of the product created.

From our guild, Hannah and Alulu from «Production Department», and Nico and Kairi from «Support Department», would be participating in their own department's event, so there wasn't much to tell them, except the advice I could possibly give.

Combat Department's Interclass battles were done in tournament format.

The 127 first-year classes of Combat Department were pull draws which would decide their spot in one of the 16 blocks, each consisting 8 classes.

The duration for the event was 5 days and, obviously, separated by each grade. Third-years would be using the arena 1st to 3rd. Second-years would be using the arena 3rd to 5th. First-years would be using arena 5th to 7th.

Some of the arenas did overlap, but the schedule was such that they would be left unused in the given time slot due to various variables of class count and battles etc. Hence, they were being utilised for different classes in the meantime.

For example, 5th arena would be used by second-years till 1 PM, which would conclude their matches for that day, so it would be then moved for first-years.

The event for the «Combat Department» was «Base Capture»—a race against one's opponent to see who could take down each other's base first. It was in contrast to the «Capture the Castles» in the guild battle, so I was quite excited about the new format. After all, it was the battle royal style tournament, and the last standing class would be the victor.

The battle royal format also occasionally appears in the guild battle, though this usually happened when there was a vacant spot in the C-rank guild ranking, and multiple teams were vying for that spot. This event was most witnessed after the time of graduation, the month of April, when seniors graduate and guilds had to be disbanded, which obviously left the spots open.

——Following were the rules for «Base the Capture».

The main objective was, needless to say, take down the opponent's base to pave path for the victory. Meanwhile, more often than not, the main focus would shift to skirmishes between the classes.

So far, we had only fought 1vs1 format, so battle royal style would be certainly new for most, with eight classes in the same block trying to pull one up against other classes.

The time limit was four hours, and fields, mainly the obstacle terrain like mountains or ponds, would be chosen at random.

Each class would be given the right to decide the location of their base. Basically, in the given map of randomly selected fields, they would have to pinpoint one location of their liking, though once selected, it couldn't be changed.

The order, who gets to choose first, would be determined by the teams with lowest number, so our class was going to be the top batter. Then again, this was also a sort of handicap.

The map wouldn't reveal who had chosen the respective spot for their base, however as long as there's a sign that the place had been taken, the subsequent classes should be able to infer the location of previous classes' base. And as the rule goes, the base couldn't be changed once selected. We would have to search by ourselves. But on the brighter side, the top classes get to hog the advantageous terrain first.

A class would be considered eliminated once they lost their base. How to bring down the base was similar to «Capture the Base», the main castles just changed the name to class's base. At the same time, there was no buffer time or base resurrection, once taken down, elimination was permanent.

The overall ranking was concluded based on the elimination order. The first to eliminate would be ranked last, the 2nd eliminated class would be ranked second to last and so on.

The other notable point aside from them was the point system. The acquired point amount would depend on the strength of the monster defending the base. As a reference, General Bull-Orc was worth 70 points. Though of course, these were measly points compared to the points obtained from taking down someone's base. In that case, the acquired point would be '300P + whatever amount of points the class had.' 300 were the points of the base itself. Another rule about points was One takes All, so even if another class grouped together to do a joint raid on another class's base, the point would belong to the last attacker.

And finally, the winner—No.1 rank, would be deciding based on last class standing, if not then based on the total amount of points until the time up. After all, it wasn't guaranteed that all but one class would surely be eliminated under the time limit. So the 'judgement' based on points was in use for such a situation. Incidentally, if there were more than one class left behind, their ranking would also depend on points.

In all of this, there was one important thing to note however.

Generally, the strength and number of guardian monsters, the one defending the base, was decided by the owner of the bases. Along with that, their placement required «Summon Disk». It was the strategic point about the «Capture Base» format. The more strong the monsters were, the easier it would be to defend the base. However, defeating them would grant plenty of points as well.

So, if a class decided to go through the absolute minimum of monsters count since they would hate to make wedding dresses for others for nothing, this might make their base easy to target in the concentrated fire. Of course, the defender's counterattack would also falter.

This was why their placement was strategically crucial , though it made for a fun little challenge.

The guardian monster's system was simple; after setting them up, they would pop from respective terminals. Since only registered monsters pop out from them, this saves from requiring clairvoyance or information etc. Overall, there were a total of three types of guardian monsters, and up to 10 of them could be summoned. Well, there was the limitation of point and cost as well, but that was an explanation for later.

The monsters took 20 minutes to re-pop once defeated, so timing for when to move one's force was another crucial point. And since items like «Summon Disk» were allowed, we could bring in «Item Bag (small)» with ourselves, unlike the bare minimum of potion etc in the «Capture the Castle» format. A class could bring a total 10 of such Item Bags.

◇　◇　◇

The «Duke's Castle Dungeon»—alternatively known as «Central Castle», the place where the Academy Dean resides.

Amidst the whole hustle bustle that had caught the castle in its rhythm, the lone old man—Duke Vandom, the academy's dean, was currently waiting in the topmost room of the castle.

"It's the time, Dean."

"Umu."

Vandom calmly nodded at the call of a man, dressed in a sharp office suit-like dress, and walked in the direction of the balcony. A device resembling a mic stand was installed there.

It was specifically set up just for this occasion, since it was a special day. By no means make it a mistake to assume the balcony was Dean’s personal karaoke space.

Starting today, the Interclass battle would begin its run for the next five days. And as the main institute among the list of various National Dungeon and Exploration Support academies, it was an event too important.

And there hadn't been any important event ever which would miss out on the top gun's speech! So obviously, Dean's speech would be the signal to kick off the interclass battle event. But with how vast the academy and member count was, it was just not physically possible to assemble in a small space, and hence, this karaoke—I mean, mic had been set up. It would relay his speech to every corner of the academy.

Dean took his position in front of mike.

"Let's begin it. —«Academy Broadcast»!"

Dean activated his skill, and sparked the skill effect into the mick. This skill would make it possible for his voice to reach every building in the academy.

Soon, Dean started with his appreciative words for this day.

"And today's weather couldn't have been any better to start off the Interclass Battle, my dear students. Hereby, I announce the start of the tournam—!"

—Let's gooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

A huge cheer broke out from all over the academy in a moment, which... down the words of Dean that had still been continuing.

And in this way, the academy welcomed its sudden, yet eventful interclass battle days.

◇　◇　◇

The location was the fifth arena.

"The teachers of the academy! Let's pledge to make create an environments of sportsmanship for———"

Wrapped in an atmosphere of boiling excitement, the entire 3810 first-years of «Combat Department» took their oath of sportsmanship while Dean continued with his speech on one corner.

It's not as if we had ignored Dean's speech, it was just getting harder to hear it amongst the cheerful noise. Though no one really cared about that, except the teachers.

Well, I could understand why everyone wanted to hurriedly jump into the main event.

By the time we had finished our oath, Dean's speech also came to an end. We briefly had a short interlude over the block division.

As the leader of our class, I had been one to draw our lots.

"Make sure to pull a good draw, Zephyr!"

"What's even a good draw here, but I got you!" Sёarch* The novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

I responded with a thumbs up in response to the mysterious order of Lana, and climbed on the stage meant for class representatives.

I thought Lana finally understood my point, but then continued 'Well, not that there's anyone comparable to Zephyr in battle' and got an affirmation from the rest of the classmates. Saturn and team had only given a short nod, but it was quite funny to see them in their study-or-die getup.

"Now then, a good draw huh, a good one...... Uh, I can't even recall what would be good."

Lana did put her expectation, but I just couldn't get any idea no matter how hard I think about it. All I could do was... pray to «Sachineko-sama».

On the stage, a box with space enough for an arm to enter was there, filled with billiard ball's like balls with numbers written on them. What do they call them? Hmm... whatever.

I quietly closed my eyes.

—O' great Sachineko-sama, I once again asked for your blessing!

Then, I grabbed whatever got in my hands and pulled it out.

The number written in it was——1.

It was a fantastic draw for the Class-1. Yup, this definitely was the blessing of Sachineko-sama!

The staff swiftly confirmed that, and the next instant, Mukai-sensei fiddled with the tablet in hand, and soon, the giant screen in the air showed the name of Class-1 setting into the first block.

Wow, they sure were doing everything grandly. Now, I was getting even more hyped!

Afterward, rest of class representatives pulled their draw, and finalised the list for 16 blocks.

To reiterate, the order of tournament would be like following—

In the preliminary, eight teams of each block would be fighting in a battle royal, scrambling for points while trying to stay as the last one remaining. The top two classes of each division, overall 32 classes, would then move to the semi-final.

Again, the said 32 classes would be split into four blocks, reiterating the same battle royal events from preliminary. Following the same pattern, the top two ranking classes from each block would shift up.

At the end, we would be left with 8 teams for the grand royal battle finale. The winner of this match would get the crown to be top class.

Overall, a class who made it to the final would go through three matches.

Anyway, our opponents had been finally decided.

—First Block—«Class 1-1»«Class 1-2»«Class 1-15»«Class 1-24»«Class 1-45»«Class 1-58»«Class 1-99»«Class 1-116»

On this topic, jogging through the details of the entrance ceremony, Classes 1 to 50 had been composed of high-ranking jobs. Class 51-115 consisted of mid-ranking jobs. Class-116-127 consisted of low-ranking jobs.

With five classes consisting of high-ranking jobs in it, one could already smell the gunpowder drifting in the air!