Mystic Gate Academy's waiting room.

"So Arial, due to the changes in this year's rules, our first years weren't able to maximize their ability. Is that right?"

"That's true, but it doesn't mean that we already lost since other academies should have the same concerns."

"Right, Dylan and Arial, the competition still relies on the result of the battle between the magicians. I believe that our first years have created a mana artifact suitable for their five combat magicians... We can only wait now for the battle for tomorrow.

For now, let's focus on our own battle."

The two nodded. It was Sheryl who lastly voiced out her opinion and both Dylan and Arial have a deep respect for her due to her recent achievements even as a transferred student.

Sheryl has also noticed that the first years from her academy weren't able to utilize their real ability due to the insufficient materials they acquired. But luckily, since the 3 of them have a wide range of knowledge in mana artifact and magic structures, they were able to find a way and was still able to create acceptable 5th gen mana artifacts.

Of course, other teams did their best as well even with a lack of materials, but their Mystic Gate Academy is known for its Artifact Forging. They have a highly trained and experienced magic engineers as teachers, top-level facility and during the competition related to creating mana artifacts, they always got the best results. So, they were actually expected to somehow top the contest in Artifact Forging.

This was also the reason why Sheryl transferred to this Academy.

"The difficulty of the match with the 2nd year students would be higher. Either there will be a high number of fakes or a low number of genuine materials will be present. But as you saw, as long as we calm down and analyze the materials quickly we can definitely acquire enough materials for our plans."

Sheryl said before they head out to the arena as the match between the 2nd years were about to start.

***

Wallace, Tracy, and Ross stood at the forging place designated for their academy. Due to the mana barrier, the sounds outside coming from the audience and announcer was actually being filtered. There isn't any noise so mana technicians could focus on their forging process.

Wallace glanced a bit at the audience area and noticed his classmates that seem to be cheering for them. It was Gilbert, Ericka, Kazimir and the others. Although they weren't participants, students of the magic academies could always watch and support their fellow magicians. It was even encouraged by the academy to let them learn something from this match.

"The competition between the sophomores of each academy is now about to start! The rules for 2nd year is still the same but the number of selections of materials increased! This will increase the number of fake materials but the genuine ones would be the same. Good luck everyone!"

It was still Felicia who was announcing the battle.

"Ok, let's go as planned. Wallace will tell what to pick as only 5 minutes is allotted for this selection."

Tracy now wore a serious expression as the competition is about to start.

Both Tracy and Ross weren't specifically aware of how Wallace can do it but during the month of exercises and training, he was able to always tell fake from genuine and even it's level of impurities in forging materials.

Of course, they weren't aware of Wallace's Divine Sense allowing him to see through the materials and about his other mana artifact given by pathfinder.

As soon as the sound of the start rang up, all twelve groups proceeded to the center of the arena to begin the selection.

Wallace approached the first shelves of materials and with his activated Divine Sense, he started scanning each material within his 300 meters of radius.

The first year only has 8,000 materials in the display before, but with the 2nd year, it increased to 10,000 materials instead.

With Wallace's skill, he could have just taken 60 materials alone but due to the rules that each of the students could only touch 20 materials, he had to take Tracy and Ross with him.

The two also have an amazing ability in analyzing materials but their success rate is only 85% to 90% and time-consuming. Unlike Wallace who has 100% and with a very fast record at that. This was something that was proven during the month of preparation.

The audience and announcer noticed again this abnormality. The Leonhearts Academy team was briskly walking as Wallace lead them and he is pointing his fingers from time to time where the other two will abruptly touch the materials without any hesitation to let the standby automatons take those materials and deliver it at their forging area.

Then after a quick while, they were already heading back. The automatons were hurriedly going back and forth as they tried to quickly deliver all the materials selected.

"It was less than 5 minutes?! The students of Leonhearts Academy seem to have sufficiently prepared since they were able to immediately select 60 materials! Is the contest that easy? Or the guy pointing his hand randomly is really just a genius?"

Felicia commented a bit about Wallace's action before shifting her view on the other academy teams.

"The Mystic Gate seems to be almost done as well. The 3 of them actually separated and collected on their own. It seems that the 3 students were fairly confident in their own ability to judge the materials."

"Hmmm.. Also, look at the Honeysuckle's young mana technicians, he seems to be having trouble with their selections. The three were stuck discussing something about the material in front of them. They are hesitating to pick it? Do they have time?"

The other announcer asked in the end. As they saw them not moving in front of a certain material.

"Oh well, maybe part of the plan? After all, a maximum of 20 materials for selection is just some limitation given to not abuse selecting materials. Mana artifact could normally be created by just 2 to 4 materials. So maybe, they really are looking for specific materials for the mana artifact they planned to create for their combatants whatever the cost."

"Probably, but this could be a bane for them."

***

It is prohibited to bring a Mana Artifact during the competition. So Wallace was actually worried about the necklace he received from the Pathfinder, but luckily, this was resolve by its other function.

[ Any objects given by the Pathfinder tool can be hidden as long as it touches the body of the user. ]

Wallace wasn't aware of it until he asked the pathfinder weeks ago and felt that he still had a lot to learn about the pathfinder.

As soon as the mana formation and array were infused in the Artifact Forging Box, Wallace activated the ability of his necklace.

[ Necklace of Clarity

Increases the user's concentration, memory and reaction speed.

Ability : Glimpse of the Mind ]

[ Glimpse of the Mind

Allows the user to see the flaw in any material upon receiving enough mana

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 3 days ]