At the same time when Simon was riding his deimos.
"Phew!"
Meilyn, who had just surfaced after diving to the bottom of the sea, grunted as she climbed onto the platform.
When he surfaced, he replenished his air supply and checked the pads of his tongue.
'Six coins now. I take about two every time I go down.'
The intense initial 'free for all' phase has died down, and everyone is now focused on finding coins.
At this time, some students had already collected ten coins and headed to the outer sea to hunt for points.
'I have to move quickly before all the monsters in the outer seas are eliminated.'
After fully charging her air magic circle, Meilyn jumped back into the sea.
Splash!
He saw a school of fish swimming nearby. The sunlight shining on them reflected off their scales, spreading the light into a beautiful natural wonder.
If it weren't for her exams, Meilyn would have taken more time to enjoy the scenery. But unfortunately, she didn't have time for that.
Using the fins Rick found, Melyn quickly headed to the seabed.
Although it is at the bottom of the sea, fortunately the water is not too deep. Getting there is not the hard part.
The hardest part is being attacked by competitors or sea monsters.
'There's no one there, right?'
After checking her surroundings, Meilyn slowly swam forward, carefully observing the seabed.
Maybe Kizen had done something to the water: he could see clearly in depths that should have been murky.
However, finding the coins buried in the sand was still difficult. He couldn't count how many times he cursed Kizen while searching in the sand.
'Ah.'
Meilyn, who was observing the ground, paused for a moment. There was sand on her side that slowly rose and fell with the current.
'It must be a monster.'
He formed a magic circle on his thigh and brought his hand to it. Then, like drawing a gun, he moved the circle to his hand and activated it.
'Ice Bolt!'
The ice shards shot out like arrows and landed right in the middle of the shaking ground.
The reaction was immediate.
The giant stingray that had been hiding now writhed in pain as it shot out of the sand.
'Good.'
One of the symbols on the magic circle in his hand disappeared, signifying he had used up some of his ammunition. Nine shots left.
'Ice Bolt! Ice Bolt! Ice Bolt!'
Even underwater, the sound of sharp projectiles piercing flesh filled Meilyn's ears. The monster stood no chance.
However, it still takes four shots to kill one creature, so it's a bit inefficient. However, inefficiencies in the marine sector are inevitable. Everyone will struggle with the same thing.
After checking the spots on the pad of her tongue, Meilyn thoroughly scanned the area where the monster was located.
'I know it!'
He screamed in joy. There was a coin on the floor where the monster was hiding.
He took it carefully and held it in front of the tongue pad on his wrist. A tongue came out of the paper and ate it.
Storing coins in your subspace will disqualify you. Students must store them in their tongue pads or keep their own coins.
'I also got points from hunting monsters. Let's do the next one soon!'
Meilyn is generally ranked higher among the masses.
At the start of the exam, while the students were busy fighting, he saved his energy by waiting on the platform.
Then, when the competition between the students died down and they were exhausted, he set off. He quickly moved back and forth between the platform and the sea to grab as many coins as he could.
Her face was still bright red from Jane's harsh criticism after her last BDMAT.
pacing. Speed was key. He was determined not to make the same mistake again.
'I found another one!'
Meilyn saw a coin caught in a patch of seaweed.
Meily quickly headed there, but this time again, there was a monster lurking nearby. A purple squid creature appeared out of nowhere and spat poisonous ink at her.
'Uh! Again?'
Pulp. Level 3 monster.
They are the most common monsters in the sea, but that doesn't make them any less terrifying. Instead of using their ink as a smokescreen, they attack, poisoning fish and humans to make a tasty meal.
But even with poison splattered on her face, Meilyn only aimed with her right hand.
'Ice Bolt!'
Good grief!
The pulp froze as the ice shards stabbed straight into its bulbous head.
Meilyn then swam up to it, grabbed the ice bolt with both hands, and pushed it deeper into her body.
Green blood spurted out, and the monster went limp. When he reached the bottom of the sea, he let out a sigh of relief.
'I'm fine even though I was poisoned. I guess it's all thanks to Professor Belya, huh?'
Having to consume poison was confusing at times, but now, not only Meilyn but everyone saw the effects on their bodies.
In fact, every student who took Professor Belya's Poison Alchemy class was unharmed by the pulp poison. Students who were in other professors' Poison Alchemy classes were not so lucky, many of whom desperately swam to the surface to create an antidote.
Meilyn realized that she felt bad for hating Belya.
'After I got a good score on this test, I have to thank him.
The search continues.
It took a while, but he found another coin, and now he had nine.
He only needed to find one more coin to continue to the outer sea, but when he checked the remaining number of air magic circles he had drawn on his diving suit, he realized that he would have to resurface.
'Ah~ But it's a shame to go up like this. Is there anything near here?
That's when he searched the floor at the last minute.
Soooooooo.
A group of colorful fish suddenly swam past her. Meilyn turned around, wondering what was going on.
"!"
Behind the fleeing fish, a monster twice its size appeared.
It was a gamban, a level 4 shark monster. Protruding from its mouth was a leg, probably belonging to a Kizen student it had swallowed.
"…!"
Meilyn was so shocked that she froze. Soon, the student's barrier meter ran out, and she was transported somewhere.
The monster devoured the empty space in anger as its prey suddenly disappeared. Then it saw Meilyn standing stiffly nearby and attacked her.
'Kuh!'
He quickly swam away, but there was no way a human could outrun the gamban in the sea.
'I have to fight!'
Determined, he checked his remaining ammo for ice bolts.
After dealing with a few more pulps on the way, he only had two shots left.
Turning to face the beast, he looked through the gaps in his fingers to direct his spell. The gallows was coming straight for him, and it had already opened its mouth ready to sink its teeth into its new prey.
'Ice Bolt!'
The two ice bolts shot forward and hit the shaft of the gamban, but only drew a little blood and made him even angrier.
'Argh!'
Gamban's sharp teeth bit his right arm.
His barrier meter dropped rapidly, changing from green to yellow.
'I-I'm going to be eliminated!'
He punched the statue as hard as he could with his free arm, but the statue didn't even flinch.
The barrier meter, the only thing separating him from victory and expulsion, was now below half. He couldn't afford to lose all his coins and points like this.
'S-Someone!'
Thumping!
Unlucky!
Just when he was completely cornered, a strange green whip came down from above and wrapped around Gamban like a snake.
As Meilyn looked up in surprise, she saw a familiar woman with her arms spread wide as a magic circle activated in front of her.
He is none other than…
'Claudia!'
* * *
* * *
The green-whipped Gamban writhed in pain. Unable to withstand the poison that entered it, the strength of the shark's jaws began to weaken.
Meilyn could see Claudia signaling Meilyn with her eyes.
'I'm not really sure what happened, but…!'
Meilyn gathered her courage.
It was the perfect opportunity to pull his arm!
So instead, he pushed it deeper into the gamban's mouth, activating the most basic spell in his hand.
{Freeze}
The shark's insides began to cool rapidly, and its writhing increased.
Species that live in warm waters like these are sensitive to sudden changes in temperature.
'There's no way it can withstand being frozen from the inside out!'
The poison is combined with a lethal dose of ice…
It died in seconds.
'Gotcha!'
When the monster is killed, the points on each of their tongue pads increase. The 1,000 points for killing the gamban are split between the two, giving them 500 points each.
Meilyn had managed to defeat the creature, but she wasn't ready to let her guard down yet.
He looked up again, this time warily looking at Claudia.
'What is he planning? If he's after my coins…'
But Claudia didn't do anything aggressive. Instead, she smiled and pointed upwards.
Bubble!
Meilyn's air reserves were almost empty. With no other choice, Meilyn swam, and Claudia followed her.
Quick…
"Gaaaasssspp!"
Meilyn took in as much air as she could after breaking through the surface. She was almost dead.
Claudia also aired next to him.
"…"
There was an awkward silence between the two girls for a moment.
Meilyn covered her mouth and pretended to look away, but she couldn't stay silent for long.
"Hey, thanks for saving me..."
"Sorry about that, Meilyn."
Meilyn's eyes widened when she heard what Claudia said.
"…You know, when I tried to do your thing about grades and stuff. I wasn't really sure if you'd take this or not, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Finally able to get this off her chest, Claudia felt her heart lighten.
Realizing that Claudia's recent overly sensitive argument had ended, Meilyn laughed inwardly.
"Forget it! Why are you doing things that are so contrary to your character? I've heard of people dying when they suddenly act differently."
"Even apologizing is a problem now huh?!!"
Claudia shouted back with a red face, then looked up at the sky with a serious face.
"I decided to stop the boycott."
"After all that ranting about student rights?"
"Ugh!! I don't know, I must have gone crazy for a moment. I was so embarrassed, and…"
Claudia opened her palm. The magic circle for the Poison Whip she had just used pulsed.
"I think I misunderstood Professor Belya."
"Hmm…"
As Meilyn began to grin, another student approached from behind them, silently preparing a curse.
Just as he was about to fire his curse, they both turned around simultaneously, releasing the spells they had prepared in an instant.
{Ice Bolt}
{Poison Whip}
A barrage of poison and ice hit the boy's barrier.
In an instant, his size dropped to zero, and he was teleported away before he could fire his curse.
"Annoyed."
Meilyn started laughing out loud.
Claudia laughed along with him. Then, she pursed her lips for a moment and gathered the courage to come up with an idea.
"Meilyn, will you cooperate for this test?"
Meilyn thought for a moment, stroked her hair, and nodded slightly.
He had already apologized and made peace, so there was no reason to refuse.
The two held hands in unity.
* * *
'There!'
'There's another coin there!'
A group of students in wet suits are exploring the seabed in teams of three.
'Finally, I got—!'
Good grief!
Suddenly, something passed along with the flood of bubbles, and the coin at the bottom disappeared. The students' eyes turned to the rapidly disappearing figure who caught it.
'W-What was that?
'Someone riding a skeleton? In the sea?'
While other students swim up and down repeatedly to slowly collect coins, only Simon runs across the ocean at breakneck speed, collecting coins in one motion.
'Did he take the same test as us?'
"He is in a different genre."
He paused for a moment to search the ocean floor and then picked up his tenth coin.
He has met the minimum requirements.
'Deimos! Let's go to the surface.'
The heads of the deimos turned upwards, and then soared at lightning speed. The students who were swimming alone looked at the scene with envy.
Good grief!
In an instant, he was on the surface. Simon pointed to a nearby platform, and the deimos led him there.
"That's a good framework."
As he landed on the platform, Simon patted the whale's head. Seemingly liking it, the skeleton pressed its head against Simon's palm.
When Simon turned around, he saw two stiff-faced boys. He smiled and asked,
"Do you want to fight?"
The students looked back and forth between the deimos and Simon, shook their heads in disbelief, and dove into the water to escape.
"Hm? I didn't mean to chase you two away… Sorry!"
Simon took a moment to recharge his air magic circle and sat back down to check his points.
First – Elissa: 2,500 points (10 coins)
Second – Aun: 1,540 points (0 coins)
3rd Place – Hector: 1,100 Points (10 coins)
4 – Chatelle: 980 Points (10 coins)
The points gap had grown quite large as he relaxed. All of these students were heading to the outer seas.
The second ranked student, Aun, seemed to have given up on the coins and went to the outer sea to collect points first.
(Kuhehe!! Are you sure you'll be okay?? First place has already reached 2,500 points.)
'It doesn't matter.'
Simon folded his fingers as if he was counting something.
'I think I'll be there in the next 10 minutes.'
(What??!)
Pier's astonished voice was almost drowned out by the sea of thoughts running through Simon's mind.
(Kuhehe! Crazy bastard. What are you doing right now?)