A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Kira glanced at Mira, who was wearing a gentle smile, and thought to himself, "Is she trying to avenge her defeated younger siblings? 'Older sister' is such a terrifying creature!"

Seemingly noticing her gaze, Mira turned around instantly, her eyes narrowing into slits, her smile widening: "Kira, what's up?"

"No...nothing..."

Kira feigned composure, but inwardly he was panicking: Was it just his imagination? No… it felt like this woman was cursing him! Wait… why did this thought have such a strong sense of déjà vu?! This world is truly turbulent; there's always someone trying to harm me!

Having finished explaining the rules of the assessment, Precito cleared his throat and continued, "There are two additional restrictions this time: First, supporters can only actively attack the opposing team's substitutes and supporters; second, no one can leave the designated testing area."

Upon hearing this additional rule, Dispel's face instantly fell: "Huh? Doesn't that mean I can take this opportunity to have a proper fight with Kira?!"

It's really not a good feeling to be the one who invites a fight.

"There's no need to compete, I'm definitely stronger than you!"

"Huh?! So confident?"

"Of course! Because I know magic, and you live in a world where magic exists!"

Of course, Kira's reasoning was clearly not enough to convince Dispel: "We'll only know who's stronger after a fight..."

"Exactly! Even though you're the same entity, I think Dispel is better!"

Serena chimed in from the sidelines, not because he genuinely thought Dispel was much stronger than Kira, but because he had lost to Dispel but hadn't yet fought Kira.

"Speaking of which, the rules only mentioned that supporters cannot attack anyone other than the target, but they didn't say that substitutes can't, right?"

Precito grinned and nodded, saying, "That's true!"

"That means the candidates can choose who to fight at will!!" Natsu's eyes suddenly lit up as he jumped out to answer, and then turned to look at the remaining candidates.

Lucy stared speechlessly at Natsu, who was seething with anger and about to explode at any moment. Suddenly, she snapped to attention and asked, "Wait! In other words, forming an alliance with the opposing side is also possible, right?!"

"can!"

"However, as you just mentioned, even if we form an alliance now, we will become rivals later, and the alliance offers no guarantee against this separate entry situation!"

Chapter 586 At times like these, one can't help but admire the Dragon Slayer Mage's nose.

As Precito said, this is the test for promotion to S-class mage. Even if you are comrades in the same guild, there is no guarantee of alliance when you are rivals!

This situation is like the prisoner's dilemma; once the two parties are separated, neither can be sure whether the other will keep their original agreement.

In this assessment, supporters can only attack the target candidate, and their strength is not afraid of the candidates joining forces, clearly occupying the 'offensive' position; while the candidates may be attacked by the opposing supporters and all candidates, meaning they are in the 'defensive' position.

You can only attack one player, but you have to defend against eight. That's a huge difference!

So here's the question: given this disparity, when a support player encounters the opposing team's substitute, can they refrain from taking action? The probability is extremely low!

Precito gave a sinister smile and reminded them again, "Candidates can attack not only non-hostile candidates, but also any supporter! And once a supporter is eliminated, they can no longer help the candidate, which means they will be at a disadvantage compared to others in subsequent assessments!"

"Here's a special reminder: if a supporter is eliminated, the replacement can continue to participate in the assessment; however, if a replacement is eliminated, neither of them can continue to participate in the assessment."

This statement is undoubtedly aimed at bridging the gap between offense and defense.

But everyone's faces twitched upon hearing this: Let the candidates attack the supporters? Did they think they were stupid? Did they not even know who these supporters were?! Kira, Dispel, Gildarts, Timaria, Brandish—were they even capable of defeating them? Even Jellal, Erza, and Ultear were stronger than the candidates! Perhaps only Ultear could put up a fight…

Urutia: ? ?

Several foreign mages felt that Precito shouldn't be called an old goblin, but rather an old fox!

He only said that supporters cannot attack anyone other than the target, he didn't say they can't fight back! Of course, even if they can't fight back, no candidate would be stupid enough to use them as punching bags, otherwise, what good would they do after the assessment?

However, they clearly underestimated the audacity of the Fairy Tail mages!

"Oh my god!! The substitutes are eliminating the supporters? That sounds interesting!!"

Are there really people who aren't afraid of death?!

Several outsiders who had joined the battle as friends were all taken aback, their small faces showing great confusion: Are all the mages in this guild this brave?

The warmongers, represented by Natsu, were clearly quite interested in Precht's proposal: "The fact that we can attack the supporters means we can fight them to the death?! I'm fired up!!"

Are you natural gas? You need to burn it every day...

Kira silently scoffed, but that was just Natsu's personality, and there was nothing he could do: 'Anyway, it's Natsu; he shouldn't lose so easily, right?'

Seeing how brave the younger members of the guild were, Precito and Mavis beside him were very pleased: "It seems that the rules we mentioned earlier were somewhat unnecessary..."

But that's okay, as long as it gets you all fired up!

The two didn't say it aloud, but everyone present could feel their anticipation; they were clearly looking forward to a good show!

The chosen battlefield is located in the center of the Darus Mountains, surrounded by three large mountains, two small mountains, and a river. The rest of the area is dense forest, and whether there are any monster hordes is unknown.

"They even enclosed it with four stone walls... Won't you get complaints if you alter the terrain like this?"

August was in charge of enclosing this area. A single rock spell easily solved the problem. Thick, tall stone walls on all four sides separated a square battlefield, the area of ​​which was larger than Magnolia.

The sixteen candidates and their supporters were evenly distributed among the four stone walls, each several kilometers apart. When the green signal flare exploded in the air, everyone set off at the same time, heading straight into the examination room.

As for those who did not participate in the assessment, they observed the battle from a high peak within the examination hall.

According to the draw, the matchups and positions of the four teams are as follows:

Natsu (East), Kira (South) vs. Gajeel (North), Dispel (West)

Wendy (North), Timalia (South) vs Gray (West), Urutia (East)

Lucy (South), Brandtish (North) vs. Juvia (East), Gildas (West)

Abba Greene (South), Erza (East) VS Fred (West), Gerald (North)

Everyone only knew their opponents, but not the location of their teammates entering the examination room. So, except for teams that were directionally challenged or had made prior preparations, at the beginning of the assessment, everyone basically ran towards the center of the examination room.

"It's started! So... who will be the first to be eliminated?"

……

The winter sun felt warmer than usual, its golden rays pouring down and illuminating this remote mountain range.

Kira strolled through the dense forest, enjoying a moment of leisure.

The fragrance of nature was so wonderful, even more refreshing than the scent of a girl. After taking several deep breaths, Kira felt a sense of comfort in his chest, and his life was filled with happiness and beauty.

When it was almost time, he randomly chose a direction to move forward.

During this assessment, all contestants are not allowed to leave the examination room. This rule was specifically mentioned by Precito before departure, and the specific boundaries of the examination room were also defined. In addition to the four stone walls, there was also a side in the sky that divided this area.

Simply put, it means that it cannot fly above a certain altitude.

This is mainly because several people in this assessment have the ability to fly. If they fly too high, their reconnaissance field of vision will be wide, but their detailed observation ability will decrease, thus losing the meaning of 'finding people' in the test question.

If yesterday's first test was the candidates' judgment, then today's test is their tracking skills and ability to infiltrate.

The purpose of this assessment is to find one's target in such a vast mountain forest, conceal one's position, and make use of the pristine terrain and the changing dynamics between oneself and other contestants to engage in continuous offensive and defensive battles.

The most crucial step is pinpointing the location of your target. However, for several of them, this step wasn't particularly difficult.

"At times like these, one can't help but admire the Dragon Slayer Mage's nose!"

Kira muttered to himself as he walked, "This testing ground isn't very big. Natsu, Gajeel, and Wendy should have already spotted their teammates and are starting to regroup. I guess I should hurry up too?"

"Magic perception!!"

Om-! !

With the flow of abundant magical power, Kira extended his perception abilities outward. Centered on his location, the range of his perception expanded outward at an astonishing speed, capturing every change in every blade of grass and tree. In less than half a minute, it covered the entire examination hall and a large area outside the examination hall—although this area was not important.

"Let me see... familiar properties and magical energy. All the contestants' magical energy is very scattered! Those who have nothing to do are gathered together... on that mountain over there?"

Kira looked up at the mountain peaks in front of him.

This mountain, located in the center of the examination area, is the highest of the five mountains within the area and their gathering point for today. Everyone will assemble there at the end of the competition at sunset, and before that, no examinee is allowed to climb the mountain.

"Judging from the location of the magic, the closest ones to me are Timaria, Freed, Gildarts, Lucy... Natsu's location... is one of the furthest from me."

Kira entered from the far left of the south, while Natsu entered from the far top of the east, almost diagonally opposite each other.

"No, no... Natsu can wait, I should find Gajeel first! Gajeel is..."

Kira shook his head and began searching for Gajeel's magical energy within his senses. Then...

"Directly opposite?!"

"Isn't this a coincidence?"

Gajeel is located on the far right in the north, closest to Natsu; while Dispel is at the far top in the west, opposite Natsu.

Logically speaking, Dispel was closer to Natsu and Gajeel than Killer, so he should have been able to get there faster than Killer, but... he didn't have a mini-map!

"Hahaha!!"

Kira's face lit up with joy, and he burst into laughter: "Natsu and Gajeel have dog noses that can smell things, and I have magical perception, so you won't be able to find me, Dispel!!"

"Hmph! All you do is show off all day. So what if you can wield a sword? Everyone's practiced before. What's so great about that!"

"This time I'll make you admit defeat fair and square!"

Chapter 587 In the Examination Hall

"This Kira, he only knows a couple of spells, right? Everyone's practiced them, yet he's always showing off!"

"What a great thing!"

As if sensing something, while Kira was overjoyed, Dispel, walking through the forest, was also cursing, "Mystogan can become an S-class with just a magic wand, let alone me?"

"This time, you'll lose without any regrets!"

As he spoke, Dispel pulled a round metal device from his pocket. In the center of the device was a green grid screen with names and red dots on it.

"Kira definitely doesn't know that I got a magic tracking device from Silver back in the Western Continent! Did he think I didn't have any means of reconnaissance? How naive!! Hahahaha!!"

"It's this way!"

Glancing at the direction indicated on the map, Dispel felt an indescribable sense of pride and strode straight ahead!

……

"This is bad...this is really bad..."