Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)
chapter-4

Chapter 4: Teaming Up

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There was a brief silence.

Gu Xiaoyue picked up on his statement and said with a crisp voice, “That’s why there are hardly any long-distance novice weapons. Truth be told, apart from magic wands, bows and arrows were rarely assigned as well. This is actually how the academy is taking care of us, freshmen.”

Xiao Lin agreed. Bows and magic wands had a grade F attack power evaluation, while short-distance weapons had F- attack power evaluation. This point was validated by everyone else.

However, in the first group of people who charged forward, those who wielded long-distance weapons were the first to die. Although novice weapons like bows came with 10 free arrows, those who knew how to use them would have horrible aim under extreme fear and stress; let alone those who knew nothing about bows and arrows.

Xiao Lin even saw someone with a bow hastily shooting away; one of the arrows eventually hit another player in the butt. The victim fell and died after being cornered by zombies.

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Wand-like weapons were even more useless than bows. Although many were jealous of the ‘energy bomb’ skill, it was a different ballgame in combat.

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The energy bomb’s flight trajectory was not a straight line; it was trickier than arrows. At least people knew some basic principles of aiming when it came to bows and arrows, but when it came to the energy bomb, its trajectory was simply erratic. Based on Xiao Lin’s brief observation, the energy bomb had a higher hit rate at a closer range of ten meters; any further than that, its hit chance was up to luck.

This was not a game where you could just click on the monster with your mouse and hit a shortcut key to use a skill. This was the real world.

“We should go out,” Gu Xiaoyue said all of a sudden. “Most from the first group are dead. Those who stayed back are probably thinking of the same strategies.”

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“How many completed the mission?” Xiao Lin knew that Gu Xiaoyue must have been watching everything closely for the past ten minutes or so; she was an observant girl.

Gu Xiaoyue shook her head. “It’s hard to estimate for the first optional mission, but amidst such a chaotic scene and extreme stress, I don’t think many of them killed five zombies. However, there are about 11 or 12 who got through the field and arrived at the safe area with injuries to complete the compulsory mission. Unfortunately, they killed too few zombies.”

“There are actually over 10 lucky ones!” Xiao Lin thought that the figure was decent; maybe these people had better physique and managed to escape lethal injuries with pure luck. That was probably how they made it through the zombies.

However, when Xiao Lin and Gu Xiaoyue arrived at the entrance of the Academic Building again, Xiao Lin could not help but laugh after silently counting the number of people who stayed back.

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Over 20 people who stayed. This meant that at least 70 people charged forward bravely within the last 20 minutes, but only a seventh of them completed the compulsory mission. This was not a good chance.

A muscular man, in a black tank top, widened his eyes upon seeing Gu Xiaoyue. He walked out of the crowd and extended his hand to the girl. He said with a friendly tone, “Gu Xiaoyue, you’re here. I was just looking for you!”

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Gu Xiaoyue ignored the hand and took two steps back. She lifted her brows. “Who are you?”

The man smiled and left his hand hanging in the air. “I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Wang Dalin. I have 32 basic attribute points; my Strength, Physique, and Agility points are above 10!”

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Wang Dalin went on to glare at Xiao Lin; a hint of irony flashed in his eyes. It was obvious what he meant; three of his attributes were above 10 points, while Xiao Lin’s total attribute points were under 10.

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Thanks to Qin Chuan’s ‘marketing’ during the health screening, everyone knew Xiao Lin as the loser with a horrible physique. That was why Xiao Lin was not surprised that Wang Dalin recognized him right away.

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Gu Xiaoyue lifted her hand slowly, but only to push up her spectacles. She moved away and looked around her before saying, “Are there over 20 people left? There’s quite a lot of them, but that doesn’t matter. Let’s form teams.”

Xiao Lin tried his best to hold in laughter as he watched Wang Dalin withdraw his hand in embarrassment. Although he knew that Gu Xiaoyue was not intentionally defending him — the girl was naturally cold and distant to others — Xiao Lin was still satisfied. He could not help but smugly glance at Wang Dalin; it was obvious that he meant: Did you think you could get a girl so out of your league? Dream on!

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A hint of anger appeared on Wang Dalin’s face. He turned around to avoid Xiao Lin’s gaze and followed Gu Xiaoyue, saying, “You’re wrong, not everyone here wants to team up to complete the mission.”

Teaming up was the obvious answer.

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Since the zombies’ combat power was far below average, they could possibly arrive at the safe area without being harmed as long as they got over their fear and teamed up.

Xiao Lin frowned; the 20 people obviously split themselves up into two sides. He could roughly guess everyone’s answer.

True enough, one of the girls, who was dressed more fashionably, cautiously raised her hand and forced a laugh. “I won’t be teaming up with you guys, I’ve thought about it. I’ll just wait it out here.”

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Quite a few people immediately agreed with what the girl said. One of them even waved his arm vigorously to conceal his fear before saying, “Since there isn’t a punishment for failing the mission, there’s no point risking it!”

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Xiao Lin did a count; there were 26 of them, including Gu Xiaoyue and himself. 14 of them were too afraid to go out, and most of them were girls. As such, Xiao Lin subconsciously stared at Gu Xiaoyue for a few seconds; she seemed calmer than ever.

“That’s more than enough!” Wang Dalin patted the sword he was holding and said loudly, “Since my basic attribute points are above 30, Gu Xiaoyue and I are strong enough to face the zombies! What’s there to be afraid of!”

Even the girls who stayed back could not help but roll their eyes. It was the umpteenth time Wang Dalin showed off his attribute points. Although it was true — their total attribute points were between 10 and 20 at most — that was the normal standard for ordinary people. Only two people had above 30 points; Wang Dalin and Gu Xiaoyue.

Even though Wang Dalin was showing off again by dragging Gu Xiaoyue into his antics, she did not care much for it. She pushed her glasses up her nose out of habit and said, “Arriving at the safe area and killing five zombies are easy, but the harder mission is killing the zombie king. I don’t think that can be easily achieved with just the both of us or even a dozen of us.”

Wang Dalin’s expression froze. He rebutted, “The zombie king is just an optional mission. Moreover, has anyone seen where the zombie king is? I’ve been observing and I haven’t seen anything that looked like a zombie king on the field…”

Xiao Lin cut him short and said, “Obviously, the zombie king only appears if some mechanism is triggered. Judging from the current situation, there are only a few possible triggers; time, the death toll of zombies, and the number of survivors!”

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Gu Xiaoyue looked at Xiao Lin and said, “Time is impossible; it’s been nearly half an hour. Judging from the zombie king’s potential difficulty, it’s impossible to give us such little time to fight it. The number of survivors would be impossible as well; there’s only a fifth of us here. The only possibility is the death toll of zombies.”

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“The people who rushed out first did not kill too many zombies, so that’s possible. It’s just that we don’t know the exact number.” Some people were a little convinced by now, but there was still doubt.

Xiao Lin added, “Isn’t the first optional mission to kill at least five zombies per person? Since there’s half an hour to go and we’re not rushing to the safe area, why don’t we kill a few more zombies? It’ll be great if the zombie king comes out, but if he doesn’t, we can still reach the safe area in the last few minutes. It’ll still work!”

A great number of people agreed to this. Those who stayed back wanted credits and redemption points as well. The mission’s instructions were clear; there were no punishments for failing the admission test. This also meant that there would never be such a good deal again. No one wanted to miss such a great opportunity to be rewarded for winning, nor face any consequences for losing.

The zombie king’s strength was still an unknown factor, but it did not matter. Even if the zombie king did appear, everyone was ready to fight it if they could and run if they could not.

Everyone finally reached an agreement. Wang Dalin was not resigned to being rejected; he blurted, “There are 12 of us, eight of us can do close-range combat, and four of us can do long-range combat. Among the long-range ones, there are two with bows and two with magic wands. Why don’t we move in a circle formation? The long-ranged combatants can stay in the inner circle to better carry out long-range attacks.”

Xiao Lin could not bother listening to this guy further. He had a good rest while the discussion went on; he got up immediately and began waving his dagger. He was 10XP away from leveling up; he wanted to achieve it before they went out.

Wang Dalin seemed displeased with Xiao Lin. He sneered, “What’s the use of doing that last minute? Before I came to Dawn Academy, I worked out consistently, every day. Without that, how could I have my 32 attribute points?”

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Everyone had grown immune to his arrogance. Just as they ignored Wang Dalin, a clear voice said, “The zombies’ attack and defense abilities are weak, so higher or lower basic attribute points won’t make much of a difference here. Moreover, 32 attribute points mean that you’re just a little better than the average person.”

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Wang Dalin was annoyed when the girl put him in his place. He could not help but ask, “What’s the total of your basic attribute points?”

“46.”

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There was silence.

Everyone’s eyes widened as if they had seen a monster, while Wang Dalin’s mouth hung open in surprise. Xiao Lin’s dagger was also suspended in the air as he stared at the nonchalant girl in disbelief.

Although everyone knew that Gu Xiaoyue’s attribute points were the highest among them, the instructor did not mention her actual figure. As most of them had between 10 and 20 points, while Wang Dalin had 32 points, they assumed that Gu Xiaoyue’s points would be within that range, however high hers were.

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