SAINTESS [Chapter 146: Are you hungry?] (Patreon)

Winnie was also surprised by this. What shocked him was that this senior from the fourth year was actually so much worse than him in strength.

At Carillian Academy, even a single year of seniority created a tremendous gap. Unless a junior possessed an extraordinary talent that could outshine even the academy’s many gifted students, defeating a senior was nearly impossible. The additional year of training and experience gave seniors an overwhelming advantage.

After all, the years spent in Carillian Academy were bound to be the period in every student's life when their strength advanced by leaps and bounds. A single year can open up an enormous gap in the realm, and a gap in the realm is the most direct manifestation of a gap in strength.

Before the fight began, Winnie had assumed that even if this fourth-year senior wasn't one of the top-ranked students, his realm would at least be close to Winnie's. After all, this was a fourth-year senior brother who was about to graduate.

So from the start, Winnie's tactic was to compete on technique and combat experience, and when countering the other's magic, he planned to use the principle of magical cancellation.

What Winnie didn't expect was that when he tried to cancel the spell, one move decided the outcome outright.

The senior's proud magic, along with his weapon, was ruined by him.

“How is this possible? Y-you?!” The senior's eyes went wide, his face full of disbelief. “You… you're really a second-year?!”

He now seriously suspected that the blue-haired guy in front of him was a fourth-year posing as a second-year.

Looking at the fourth-year senior's “I've got nothing left” expression, Winnie fell silent.

This guy was a fourth-year student, right? He didn't have any other trump cards or follow-up moves? That was it? He was out of options?

Or maybe he'd bet everything, every treasure, every move, on his weapon, that huge iron ball. And now that the iron ball couldn't be used, he had nothing.

Had he never considered the possibility that his weapon might become unusable?

At this moment, the fourth-year big brother was even more helpless. At first he'd praised the matchmaking system for favoring him, but now he was cursing it in his heart, what kind of trash matchmaking was this? How did it match him an opponent like this? Was this what you called evenly matched??

“You... you’re not actually a fourth-year student pretending to be a second-year, are you?!” The senior’s thoughts were becoming increasingly confused, and his words grew more absurd by the second. “That’s against the rules!”

“I am a second-year.” Winnie felt a bit speechless. “Otherwise the instructor would've revoked my qualification long ago, right?”

“How… how is that even possible?!” The burly young man looked like he was about to collapse. Back then he'd been a genius too, four years of training in Carillian Academy, yet he'd been casually outclassed by a junior who'd been enrolled for less than two years. Anyone would feel unbalanced.

“You… you're a monster, aren't you?!”

Seeing this, Winnie had no idea that the senior had already been overwhelmed and was barely keeping his composure. Without hesitation, he acted swiftly, cutting through his belt and knocking him out of the trial grounds.

After dealing with the fourth-year senior, Winnie picked up the complete puzzle piece the man had.

If there was ready-made loot, why not pick it up?

Winnie tossed away the puzzle piece in his own hand and took the one the senior had already assembled.

Now he didn't need to collect puzzle pieces anymore. Thanks to that kind-hearted senior, his puzzle was completed.

Winnie wasn't the type who was so bored and overflowing with energy that he had to pick fights to vent. With all the puzzle pieces obtained, he only needed to wait until time was up and he will pass automatically. As long as no one came to provoke him, he couldn't be bothered to go looking for trouble.

Leisurely, Winnie took a piece of white bread from his pack and started eating.

A lot of bread had been blown apart and scattered across the ground, but Winnie already had enough bread and water in his pack to last for several days. Besides the supplies that the third-year senior had “gifted” him, he now had the provisions from the fourth-year senior as well. Since the fourth-year had defeated so many people, his bag contained the most food, giving Winnie more than enough supplies to get through the next few days.

It was halftime break now. Winnie wanted to sit down, drink some water, and eat, but someone had to be tactless and provoke him at exactly this moment.

A scorching heat surged towards him. Winnie had no choice but to lean back. He dodged, but the bread in his hand wasn't so lucky, it was blasted into crumbs by a small fireball.

“Classmate, don't you know that wasting food is shameful?” Winnie said with a cold, forced smile as he turned his gaze toward the direction from which the sneak attack had come.

He got no reply. That student seemed to realize that with his position exposed, he was definitely no match for Winnie, and wanted to flee immediately.

But in his panic, all his footsteps were exposed.

The student had just turned to slip away when he saw a familiar face, smiling, appear before him. He was so startled he almost jumped.

“Oh?” Winnie's brows lifted slightly when he saw the man's face.

So that's who it was. Not a stranger, an old acquaintance.

Very familiar. A classmate, even.

That's right, Pop, that greasy fellow from Winnie's class.

He was still quite young, yet his appearance made him look like a greasy man in his thirties or forties. His personality seemed to match his appearance perfectly. At the academy, he was always surrounded by a group of followers and appeared to have connections in just about every circle.

Winnie couldn't bring himself to like this kind of person. What he disliked most were people who acted like sworn brothers to your face, yet waited to stab you in the back, two-faced snakes.

Of course, whether Winnie liked someone or not, he simply didn't interact with people he disliked. That was all.

If this guy didn't go harass Shikondell, Winnie could still coexist with him in peace.

Looking at Pop sitting on the ground, scared and scooting backward, Winnie laughed.

“Does this young master look that terrifying? Is it necessary?”

“O-oh, oh ho ho… so it's you, Winnie.” Pop forced out a smile. “Didn't expect you joined the competition too. What a coincidence?”

“Hm? It hasn't been that long since we last met, already forgot what your classmate looks like?” Winnie teased.

“No, no. It's just, just now I didn't know it was you, Winnie!” Pop hurriedly waved his hands.

“Oh? So you mean you didn't see clearly that it was me?”

“Yeah, yeah. Otherwise why would I attack? We're classmates, after all.” Pop laughed awkwardly as he explained.

“Really? Pop, with your personality, you've probably squatted in this fortress for quite some time, haven't you? The commotion from my fight with that senior was huge, you should've seen it, right? Don't tell me you didn't.” Winnie tilted his head.

“How interesting, Pop. You really know how to bide your time. You caught your chance too, almost took me out while I was eating,?”

“No, no, you misunderstood!” Pop desperately explained. “I just got here, just got here! I really didn't know it was you, Winnie! Winnie, for the sake of our past friendship, let's not fight, okay? We're classmates, see each other every day.”

“Past friendship? You're calling that past friendship?” Winnie was amused.

If Pop hadn't brought it up, fine. But once he did, all the little tricks Pop had pulled on Winnie in everyday life came rushing back.

“Uh, uh… we're classmates in the end, aren't we…?” Pop also realized he'd said the wrong thing. What “past friendship”? Did the two of them have any friendship to speak of?

He hadn't become open enemies with Winnie, but he'd talked plenty of trash behind Winnie's back. Many of the rumors about Winnie had Pop fanning the flames behind the scenes.

Once, Winnie had even caught him red-handed.

Naturally, Winnie wasn't going to give him any pleasant expression.

Indeed, there was no friendship to speak of. From the very beginning, Pop had looked down on Winnie from the bones.

“Sorry, Pop. The Chosen One Contest has clear rules, no teaming up. Besides, you attack me just now. If I don't attack you back, it doesn't make sense.” Winnie lifted up [Frost Fang].

“Alright. I've already talked to you this much, that's me being very considerate of our classmates' ties. Now I'm going to make my move.” As he spoke, Winnie raised the ice spear.

“H-hey, wait, wait, wait!” Pop was unwilling and still wanted to rely on his mouth to stall.

“Winnie, you just want my puzzle piece, right? Fine, fine! I'll give it to you! Is that enough? Then there's no reason for us to keep fighting, right??” Pop hurriedly said.

“Pop, at this point, you still won't even raise your weapon and fight me fair and square?” Winnie mocked.

“T-this… don't joke around, okay?” Pop forced a bitter smile.

Winnie's guess was completely right. Pop had indeed been hiding in this abandoned fortress for a long time. This was his spawn point. His keen sense of smell immediately noticed this was an extremely hidden place, good for hiding, convenient for ambushes, perfectly suited to his soul armament.

However, before he could even begin to show off, the sight of the enormous iron ball that had crushed everyone else immediately silenced and intimidated him.

The gap between a fourth-year and a second-year, at that moment it was displayed vividly. There had been more than a dozen second-years spawned in the abandoned fortress at first, and in the blink of an eye they were all wiped out by that flying flaming iron ball.

Then Winnie appeared, one spear stopping and freezing that arrogant blazing iron ball, one spear sending the fourth-year back to the academy.

Pop was stopped.

He knew he wasn't Winnie's match head-on, but he'd never imagined Winnie had become this strong.

By normal logic, Pop should have avoided this plague god, waiting until he leaves before coming out. At the very least, he shouldn't have tried to ambush him.

But at that moment, Pop’s gambler’s mentality took over. He was already frustrated from repeatedly losing to Winnie, and deep down, he had always looked down on him. Now that Winnie had become strong enough to easily overpower him, all of Pop’s pent-up resentment and sense of imbalance finally erupted.

In the end, this guy was just a counterfeit with an empty title of Varelis. Why should that fraudster brat be able to press him down?

Unwilling to accept it, and seeing Winnie eating, thinking there was an opening; coupled with his greed for the puzzle piece in Winnie's hand, Pop made his move.

And the result?

With his two or three tricks, how could he possibly be a match for Winnie, who often crossed hands with the Demon God Pillar's kin?

Let him fight Winnie? Seriously? Was this a joke?

“Huh? What did you say?” Winnie looked astonished. “Pop, you're hungry? You want to go back and eat?”

“Alright, alright, I understand. Since that's the case, I'll give you a hand.” As he spoke, Winnie lightly swung his ice spear, and Pop watched his belt shatter across the ground.

“AAAAAH!” In a wave of spatial distortion, when Pop opened his eyes again, he found himself already on the academy plaza.

“Ah, damn it!” Pop cursed furiously. “So heartless. Just like a bastard orphan counterfeit, no conscience at all!”

Anyway Winnie wasn't here, so he could vent and curse as he pleased.

After dealing with Pop, Winnie looked at the ruined, chaotic abandoned fortress before him.

There probably weren't any students left here. The fighting was more or less over.

Winnie thought for a moment, then put his ice spear over his shoulder, grabbed his cloth sack, and casually found a still-decent-looking bastion, intending to stay there for a few days before going out.

After searching around and confirming no one was inside, he found a chair and sat down.

With all the puzzle pieces collected, he couldn't be bothered to go out and stir up trouble. He'd just stay here. But if someone was blind enough to come look for him, then there was nothing to be done.

Based on his previous trial experience, Winnie guessed the preliminaries were split into several war zones. Most of the eliminated people hadn't even left their own zone, like this ruined fortress where he was.

That meant the most intense battles would take place right at the beginning. As the trial progressed into the second and even third day, conflicts would gradually become fewer and less frequent.

And just as Winnie expected, aside from a few intruders he disposed of on the first day, he saw basically no one on the second and third days.

Winnie was perfectly content with the peace and quiet. He had no desire to go hunting down the other competitors, so he spent the entire day lounging around from morning until night.

Being relaxed was certainly comfortable, but it was also unbearably dull. Winnie sat inside the fortress, clutching his spear while yawning lazily.

If only, at a time like this, someone could play a round of Cards with him.

Thus the preliminaries passed in this utterly relaxed state.

On the evening of the third day, Winnie sat before the fire, one hand bracing his spear, the other propping his cheek.

In an instant, when he opened his eyes again, the fire in front of him was gone.

The scenery around him had changed as well.

Winnie realized that at some point, he'd returned to the seats in front of the hall.

And many people were seated around him.

Still, compared to the number of participants at the beginning, there were clearly far fewer people left now. The numbers had dropped dramatically in a short time.

Once he realized he'd come out of the trial grounds, the others were the same as him, scanning left and right with wary, guarded eyes.

“Alright, everyone. The preliminary round is over. Congratulations on making it through and officially advancing to the first battle of the main tournament.” An instructor dressed in the robes of a high-ranking teacher approached while applauding, encouraging the successful students to relax and not feel nervous.