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nIt is now eight in the evening and the opening ceremony for the competition is about to begin.

nThe reception hall in the hotel can be seen to be divided by 12 groups representing 12 participating academies in the competition.

nA stage is in the northern part of the hall and from here, there are tables arranged in four rows.

nThe first row has three tables, each for Skywalker, Stoneheimer, and Eternal Fey Academy.

nThe second row consisted of tables for Leonhearts, Isolde and Phoenix Academy.

nIt is to be noted that if Stoneheimer is an all-male academy, in contrast, the Isolde Academy is an all-female one.

nThe third row is for Mystic Gate, Sacred Peak, and Abuxorth Academy. The last row of tables would be for Odrexelts, Honeysuckle and Neon Academy.

nAs the ceremony begins, the emcee introduced a middle-age man representing the Ministry of Magic Education, the organizer of the event.

nIt is Hayden Fraser, one of movers and shakers in the industry of magic. He walked and stood at the center stage and observed the crowd for a moment before starting his speech.

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"Good evening students of the twelve prestigious magic academies of our country.

"

nAll the students including Wallace looked at the new speaker on the stage upon hearing the name that was called out, most of them weren't aware of the man's appearance but surely as a magician, they were aware of the name Hayden Fraser.

nHe is the first and oldest enneadic magician or someone who could use 9 mana artifacts at the same time. He alone could fight an army with this ability as not only his capability to use nine mana artifacts was outstanding but also his abundant mana pool that could sustain such a draining number of mana artifacts.

nHayden Fraser continued his speech as the students gawked at his presence.

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"It is wonderful to see you all tonight! I know that many of you have struggled very hard in order to make it here and neither storm nor distance could stop you. I am not surprised. You are magicians and you can't be stopped. You made it because you are strong enough!

nThis event that has been ongoing for 17 years will help you establish useful connections, which is not our only goal. By providing this extensive match on magic engineering and combat, we want you to learn a lot more about the things that the academy could not teach you. I hope that after this competition you will be able to build even better mana artifacts or appreciate every single artifact being created for its usefulness, be involved more in combat training, or upgrade your existing magic combat strategy.

"

nAs the students listened to Hayden, comments from some students are being softly whispered as they appreciated his presence.

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"To think that I'd meet such a legendary magician here. I'm really lucky.

"

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"He doesn't look to be in his fifties, he looked just like my father.

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"What? I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Anyway with such abundant mana pool nurturing his body, he'll maybe live for hundreds of years.

"

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"Haha... As if.

"

nApparently, it wasn't every time that such an amazing figure would do the opening ceremony speech in this competition. Hayden continued on his speech.

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"Today the Twelve Magic Academies Competition had some changes in its rules. We have developed better management as the quality of education improved and students have grown faster individually. We grow together and we must never forget that it is good to win a trophy but what is much greater is to make friends.

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"That's right, there will be rivalry, but keep in mind that although you arrived here as competitors, you will leave as friends.

nI hereby, on behalf of the Ministry of Magic Education, invite the Bailiff of Cavalen, Ms. Aurelia Powell to officially open the Twelve Magic Academies Competition.

"

nAfter this, everyone had their meal eaten and aimed to socialize with other students after. Friends and rivals met at this gathering. Most 3rd years here were already old participants as they could be seen associating with different academies.

nWallace with some other first-year is just seated on their table, he was actually tempted to activate Divine Sense when Hayden Fraser was speaking but stopped himself as he was worried that it will be detected by the latter.

nIn his previous experimentation on this skill, a powerful magician could detect his analyzing skill or Divine Sense but could not pinpoint where it was coming from. He was worried that if he tried it to Hayden, he'll be detected and won't be able to explain.

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"I'll probably have to create some other detecting tool. Ahh.. right, there should be something similar to it that has already been created.

"

nWallace murmured on his seat and Tracy heard a part of it.

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"What would you use that for? You have plans on peeking to someone?

"

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"No, don't put it like I plan on doing something bad.

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"Oh, Wallace... You have some devious plan again? Your plan or strategy in this artifact forging competition is already quite underhanded, so you have thought another plan?

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nRoss butted in the conversation though not fully aware of Tracy and Wallace's conversation.

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"Hey, don't call those devious. That's strategy and we won't even know if it will be effective in the competition.

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nWallace defended himself from Ross's accusation. As he noticed that the instructors of academies left and gone to their own reception leaving students on their own device, he started scanning all the students in the room.

nAs he started scanning everyone, he noted some remarkable mana fluctuations. Apparently, with his activation of Divine Sense, there's only 7 people who have felt something on their end and tried looking where those scanning magic came from.

nThe seven people felt the Divine Sense but took a while before noticing. The quickest one to notice is Kyla Rogers from the Mystic Gate Academy. Then another female, Avery Marshall from Isolde followed by Hector Newman from Stoneheimer.

nThose first 3 students only took between 5-8 seconds before noticing Divine Sense. After the three was Aria Scott and Vanessa White that is both from Skywalker Academy.

nThe last two would be Nyla Lawson from Odrexelts Academy and surprisingly Hilda Calem from Leonhearts Academy.

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"To think that Hilda has improved a lot in the month of training prior to the competition.

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nWallace was analyzing all the information that his Divine Sense returned to him.

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"Hmm... Although she took more than 10 seconds to notice, it was such an amazing improvement compared to before. Also, Hilda's mana fluctuation is still way stronger than the six, the only problem is that it seems that she will be having difficulty in controlling this mana unlike those other six who has such a refined mana fluctuations.

"

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