Fairy Tail: You said you were just acting, are you serious?

Will Speaker Crawford Sim show up?

But Rahar did not continue to ask questions; instead, he focused his attention on the speaker.

The examiner nodded and instructed:

"That's right, you should rest in the car and conserve your energy."

Upon hearing the examiner's words, Rahar nodded politely and did not ask any further questions.

Meanwhile, Ron and his two companions inside the carriage had already closed their eyes to rest.

Several hours later, the magic spaceship finally slowed down and slowly landed in a secluded basin surrounded by high mountains.

"We've arrived, everyone get off now."

Led by the proctor, Ron and the others stepped off the spaceship.

When the advanced cultivators blew the dark wooden dam, they all showed expressions of shock.

What Ron saw before him was a magnificent ancient Roman arena.

He was shocked; he had never seen this place in the original story. The closest thing to it was probably the arena from the Grand Magic Games.

"Don't just stand there, come inside with us."

The proctor reminded them to be on time.

After being reminded, Ron and his friends came to their senses and followed the proctors into the arena.

After Ron and his companions followed the proctor into the arena, they saw a spacious hall where many young mages were already standing.

"It seems that people from other test centers have already arrived. You can stay here; we're leaving now."

After giving a brief explanation, the examiners turned and left the hall.

After the proctors left, Ron and his friends were free to move around in the hall.

With nothing else to do, Ron curiously approached the young mages, intending to see if he recognized any of them.

He stepped forward and silently counted. There were now thirteen young mages gathered here, including four from their examination area.

When Ron got closer and saw their faces clearly, his pupils contracted slightly.

He appeared calm on the surface, but in reality, he was still somewhat agitated.

Besides Eric and Azuma, he also found himself recognizing three familiar faces from the Dark Guild.

On the left side of the crowd, a girl with short white hair was playing with the Celestial Spirit Key in her hand with great boredom. She was Angel, Sora, from the Oración Seis!

In the center of the hall stood a effeminate young man with half-closed eyes—the Dark Night, Markbeth, of the Oración Seis!

On the right is a young man wearing glasses leaning against a pillar. He is Lastiros, one of the seven servants of the Devil Heart!

From what he can see, this second phase of the investigation has already infiltrated a full five of the Balam Alliance's associates!

The two dark guilds sent a total of five future core members to infiltrate and investigate; that's quite a luxurious undercover team.

Is it worth it for them to go to such lengths to infiltrate the ERA's (École Nationale des Arts) youth mage examination?

Are they sending people in like this to ensure that at least one of them gets into a high-level position and becomes a council member?

Tap...tap...tap...

Just as Ron was deep in thought, he heard footsteps behind him.

The young mages in the hall all looked over, and Ron also turned his head and found that a new group of people had arrived at the door. Judging from their formation, they must be from another examination area that had arrived late.

As the last wave of young mages approached, Ron focused intently on their faces and made out their features.

He smiled wryly when he saw the black-haired girl at the very back of the line.

This was the second time he had encountered this black-haired girl. Although she had grown her short hair into long black hair, he still recognized her at a glance.

After all, he often encountered her mother, so naturally he wouldn't forget the girl he met by chance in the snow mountain.

Yes, since the goal is to infiltrate the council and become a councilor, how could we leave you out?

Long time no see, Urutia.

Chapter 100 The Second Encounter

As Urtia, cloaked in her robes, entered the hall, her gaze inadvertently sweeping across the crowd.

When she saw Ron, whom she had met once before, standing in the lobby, her previously calm face stiffened for a moment, clearly not expecting to meet him again here.

She quickly regained her composure and casually looked away.

With the arrival of the last group, all sixteen advanced cultivators from the continent of Ishgar were finally present in the hall.

Of the sixteen spots available, the Dark Guild sent six, showing they are determined to secure this judge position.

The invigilator, leading the last group of candidates, walked to the center of the hall and announced loudly:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please wait here for a moment. The senior members of the council will be here shortly."

After saying that, the examiners left the hall.

The atmosphere in the hall relaxed a little. The candidates from the same examination area naturally formed several small groups and began to chat quietly, as if they had known each other before they arrived.

However, Ron's test center was different from the others.

Azuma leaned against a pillar, showing off, while Eric stayed far away, standing on the edge of Ron's group, wandering alone.

After seeing the situation of the other small groups in the examination area, Lahar initially thought of getting closer to them, but then saw that the other two did not have this intention, so he gave up the idea of ​​communicating with them.

He sighed and finally took a step, walking towards Ron's direction.

"Hello, Your Excellency Ron."

Lahar greeted Ron very formally.

He breathed a sigh of relief after Ron responded politely.

"Great! It seems you're the only one in our test area who's willing to communicate."

I walked past them, completely ignoring me, as if I didn't exist.

Ron smiled and replied:

"It's okay, if they don't want to communicate, then don't force them."

After all, they're here to do something important, so it's normal for them to be busy.

Ron observed that the six of them seemed to be keeping their distance from each other, deliberately avoiding standing together, as if they were all spies in their respective guilds.

If the mages didn't know them, they might think they were all people, strangers to each other, so they were a little afraid to look at the mages' faces.

But in Ron's eyes, their deliberate concealment and pretense of not knowing each other was actually quite funny.

Squeak!

Just then, the wooden door directly in front of the hall slowly opened to both sides.

The young mages who had been talking fell silent, and all their eyes turned to the direction of the gate.

Buzz!

Suddenly, streaks of eerie blue light appeared in mid-air above the gate, and more than a dozen magic circles lit up simultaneously.

Led by Crawford Him, the president of the Magic Council, the members of the council projected their thoughts onto the high platform directly above the hall.

As they ascended the platform, they would occasionally glance in the direction of the advanced individuals, trying to see what they looked like.

"Are these the top sixteen in the first stage?"

"They are indeed all promising young talents."

"It looks like there are 10 students from the magic academy, and the other 6 are from a regular guild."

Ron's gaze swept over the council's thought entities, and he quickly noticed two familiar figures.

One was Yajima, who would occasionally come to see Chairman Makarov, and the other was Councilor Tochi Anderba, whom he had previously helped.

When the two old men's gazes fell on Ron, they both smiled kindly.

Ron then smiled and nodded in response.

Then, Ron noticed that an old man's gaze seemed to be fixed on him, which made him look over in confusion.

This serious-looking commentator looks familiar. Have I met him somewhere before?

After making eye contact with him, the former actually waved to the latter.

Ron paused for a moment, then waved back.

Once all the mental images of the councilors were firmly planted on the platform, they began their declaration.

Speaker Crawford Heem, with his large pregnant belly, took three more steps forward.

"Welcome to the ERA's private arena, young mages of Ishgar."

Speaker Crawford looked down at them, his voice ringing out throughout the hall.

"The fact that you are standing here means that you have passed the most basic written test, but remember, the second stage is the most important practical selection for you!"

You can all see this arena now, right? The format for the upcoming matches is very simple: a one-on-one elimination tournament!

Ron had an "I knew it" look on his face; in the end, it would have to be an elimination round.

The few dark guild members who infiltrated pretended to be surprised, as if they had never heard of the rules.

Lahar and the other mages present all showed confident expressions when they heard about the elimination rounds.

Then Speaker Crawford changed the subject, sneering:

"However, don't think that you can just win the knockout stage and get first place. In this assessment, we will still use performance points to determine the top three spots."

In the battles to come, your performance will be scored by all the judges present.

This means that even if you lose the game, as long as you leave a deep impression on us, you may still be eligible for special admission!

Conversely, if the win is too embarrassing, the performance score will be greatly reduced, and it's possible that the player won't even make it into the top three.

These words immediately caused an uproar in the hall, and most of the qualifiers frowned at the new competition format.

Ron listened to the rules with a calm expression and a smile.

This competition format is exactly the same as the Chunin Selection, I'm very familiar with it.

Even so, this scoring system still benefits the best players, since the more matches they play, the more points the judges will give them.

They really made it to the finals. The judges couldn't possibly ignore the two finalists as the chairman said. At most, they would just recruit other potential contestants who were eliminated.

Speaker Crawford waited for the commotion below to subside before continuing:

"Did you understand the rules? You can rest as much as you like in the living area tonight. Everything is prepared and you can use it as you please."

If there is anything that is not taken care of properly, please let the proctors know.

Before we adjourn, let's draw up the matchups for tomorrow's first round so you can prepare well tonight!

Chapter 101 Secret Meeting

Buzz!

As soon as the speaker finished speaking, the crystal ball embedded in the high platform lit up instantly, revealing a magical light screen in mid-air in the hall.

The names of the sixteen advanced participants were written on it, and then they were enlarged and began to rotate wildly.

A few seconds later, the sixteen names stopped scrolling and transformed into two lists of eight people each, displayed on the left and right sides of the light screen.

The mages in the hall all focused their gazes on the light screen, searching for their names.

Ron looked up and saw that he was in the first row, which meant that it was the first match of the official selection tomorrow.

[The First ERA Junior Mage Examination]

Ron White vs. Eric

Ron raised an eyebrow and gave a subtle smile. What a small world!

On the other side, Eric couldn't help but shudder and gasp when he saw the match list.

He then looked down and thought for a moment, and realized that the reason he was afraid of Ron was because he had suffered a great loss at Ron's hands during the written test, but this was a real battle.