Translator: AnubisTL
It wasn't just the apprentices; even the high-rank wizards standing at the edge of the plaza, responsible for receiving the apprentices and recording their data, cast scrutinizing and curious glances.
Amy and Victor were startled. After carefully observing, they realized the apprentices weren't looking at them, but at Jieming, who stood between them.
Jieming noticed this too. Initially confused, he quickly understood what was happening.
It was the moment after the results had been announced, when apprentices were supposed to come forward to claim their rewards.
According to tradition, to maintain order and efficiency, the apprentices would typically come forward in order of their ranking, starting with the first-place winner.
But at this moment, the vast majority of apprentices remained motionless, refusing to step forward.
They simply stared silently at Jieming, their eyes filled with complex emotions.
These apprentices had personally witnessed Jieming's full-throttle destructive power on the battlefield in Crimson Valley.
Although Jieming's merit point ranking was only thirty-sixth, in the hearts of those who had experienced the Crimson Valley massacre and the aerial slaughter, the figure who had single-handedly crushed the entire Indigenous Allied Forces with an unrelenting torrent of spells was the true, undisputed first-place winner of this trial!
Rankings seemed utterly insignificant in the face of his overwhelming power.
This instinctive awe of his strength compelled even the most arrogant geniuses to fall silent and wait.
They all subconsciously believed that this rule-breaking, formidable presence deserved to be the first to claim his reward.
Even Miss Berta Vera Augusta, the seemingly haughty top-ranked student, stood her ground with a defiant expression.
Jieming saw in her eyes a fierce stubbornness and a challenging glint.
Yet even she didn't dare step forward, tacitly acknowledging, like the other apprentices, that Jieming was the true victor of this trial.
"What did you do?" Amy couldn't resist nudging Jieming gently.
Victor also looked at his classmate with a bewildered expression, sensing that he had somehow overlooked something crucial.
Amy and Victor were among the few apprentices on the plaza who hadn't participated in the Crimson Valley battle, so they remained unaware of the earth-shattering feat Jieming had accomplished.
In reality, the vast majority of logistics apprentices had made the same choice as them.
After all, at this stage, logistics apprentices had typically only independently constructed one or two spells, and those were primarily auxiliary spells, making them less adept at combat.
"It's nothing, just a minor incident," Jieming said, a mix of helplessness and amusement in his voice.
He didn't particularly care about his ranking, but since everyone was frozen in place, he felt compelled to break the silence.
Ignoring the lingering gazes, he walked directly toward the high-rank wizard responsible for distributing the rewards.
Approaching the wizard, Jieming handed over his apprentice badge.
The high-rank wizard accepted the badge expressionlessly, swiped a finger across it to read the stored information, and then injected a faint pulse of energy into the badge to complete the reward distribution.
The reward for 36th place was a mere 1,000 academy points—hardly a significant prize.
While this might be valuable to apprentices who fought tooth and nail for every point, for Jieming, it was less valuable than the rare materials he had collected during the competition.
After Jieming claimed his reward, the other apprentices finally breathed a collective sigh of relief, as if an invisible shackle had been lifted.
The tense atmosphere instantly dissolved, and everyone sprang into action, moving forward according to their rankings—some with excitement, others with composure, and still others with dejection—to receive their rewards from the high-rank wizards.
The square buzzed with renewed chatter, but for Jieming, everything had changed.
Standing among the crowd, he was no longer the obscure, even eccentric loner.
The gazes directed at him now carried awe, curiosity, respect... and even barely concealed fear.
Apprentices whispered among themselves, pointing at him and murmuring about the terrifying power he had displayed in the Greyrock Realm.
The name, the ranking—none of it mattered anymore.
In the minds of every apprentice who had witnessed the bloody final battle in Crimson Valley, Jieming—the guy who had only placed thirty-sixth—was the most dazzling and terrifying genius of this trial.
As for Jieming himself, he calmly retrieved his apprentice badge, picked up his beast-hide bag, and acted as if none of this concerned him.
His mind was now focused solely on refining his rune-imbued magical artifacts and the inspiration for creating new ones.
Back in his academy laboratory, Jieming felt a sense of homecoming.
Instead of resting, he immediately dumped the contents of his large bag onto the workbench.
The materials from the Greyrock Realm were diverse in type and shape, many containing peculiar energy fluctuations that his current level of analysis art couldn't fully decipher.
Satisfied, he carefully sorted and stored these "spoils of war" before turning his attention to the dim, lifeless rune-imbued magical artifacts on his belt.
Of the ten fireball rune-imbued artifacts, only the one he had used for testing had merely a damaged rune. The rest were in appalling condition:
Cracked shells, twisted runes, chaotic core energies...
The flight rune-imbued artifacts fared no better, most pushed beyond their operational limits.
Surprisingly, the defensive rune-imbued artifacts remained in relatively good condition, showing minimal damage.
"What a waste," Jieming murmured, lightly touching the charred shell of a fireball rune-imbued artifact.
Though he possessed alchemy, fully repairing these severely damaged spell artifacts—which involved intricate runes and energy conduction—was beyond his current capabilities.
This trial showcased the rune-imbued magical artifact's formidable offensive power and mobility, but it also revealed some critical weaknesses.
For instance, he lacked the ability to anticipate ambushes from large enemy forces.
In the complex environment of the Greyrock Realm, he lacked effective reconnaissance methods, relying solely on the passive perception provided by his analysis art and alchemy.
Moreover, the effectiveness of these two spells diminished significantly in resource-rich areas.
"Perception, tracking, concealment..." Jieming sat at his desk, unconsciously tapping his fingers on the surface. "The next generation of rune-imbued magical artifacts must focus on these aspects."
The wizard system naturally possessed detection spells, such as the common "magic vision," "life perception," and "energy detection."
However, these spells typically required active casting by the wizard. While they provided real-time results, they lacked continuous reconnaissance capabilities, and their inherent energy fluctuations made them easily detectable or disruptable by enemies.
(End of the Chapter)
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