Reading the notification, Alec considered the terrified expressions on the other team's faces. Had they recognized him? Without further ado, he accepted the challenge. His points ticked down to 18.000 and a new notification appeared.

[Beat the other nine teams by getting a higher damage score! The winner will receive 10000 points as a reward!]

[All the slots are full, the challenge is commencing! Hurting other students is strictly FORBIDDEN!]

Mentally nudging away the notifications, Alec looked at his opponents once again. There weren't any noteworthy people amongst them. At least Alec didn't remember their faces.

'That should be an easy 40.000 points,' Alec calculated off the top of his head before brandishing his quarterstaff. Another renewal of his enhancement spells, and he was ready to take on whatever was to come.

The magic circle on the ground shone brightly. It rotated, and out rose a stone pillar in the middle, as thick as a human waist. Then another came out with the noise of stones rubbing into each other. New pillars kept coming out until there was a literal stone forest of them. They all had intricate carvings with running traces on their surfaces.

Those traces lit up with streaming, bright blue. It was mana, coursing through the veins of the pillars like blood. The pillars seemed to become soft, slithering, flowing, bending, and circling around each other like snakes. Finally, they formed into an almost monstrous form. The last added touch was the activation of an illusion. The pillars turned into a five-meter-tall black blob with a veiny, human-sized red eye in the middle.

[Begin!]

Like arrows being launched in an arch, the students started with simple artillery spells. This was a fundamental teaching of the battle theory classes. Probing enemies with low-level spells from relative safety was pretty much a thumb rule. Anything else was an exception.

Alec did the same, albeit in his own way. Daggers floated from behind him and launched forward, slamming and cutting against the monster like a maelstrom. A new number appeared in his interface, indicating his damage for this particular challenge. There was also a timer slowly ticking down.

[1.324]

[4:54]

As the numbers on his score started scrolling into place, each digit ticking slightly slower than the previous one, Alec decided that he had seen enough. The challenge boss seemed to have come to a similar decision as tentacles started shooting out of its body, hurtling toward the students surrounding it from every direction.

Only one had chosen Alec as its target. Holding his quarterstaff like a paddle, Alec slammed it against the tentacle while stepping to the side, deflecting it. The noise from the collision was fleshy. Alec knew that they were probably flowing pillars disguised as tentacles but still...

Dragging his quarterstaff across the tentacle, Alec started running forward at breakneck speed. He lowered his momentum momentarily, jumped up and landed on the tentacle, and kept dashing ahead. He then flexed his leg muscles, dipped into a low squat, and launched up and forward. He could see the fireballs and magic missiles passing by.

Rolling in the air, he extended the quarterstaff over his head and clasped his hands on its lower end. Then, he cast a spell that amplified the strength of gravity between the quarterstaff and the planet. The metal rod became heavy. So heavy in fact that Alec felt his hands groan in pain. Nevertheless, he brought it down with all his might. The metal rod split the air in a whizzing noise and slammed against the monster. Alec, on the other hand, had let go of the quarterstaff just before it collided with the monster. If he had held on, the rebound would have probably broken both his arms.

The collision was intimidating, to say the least. As if a meteor had hit the Earth, the sound resonated across the cave. The monster groaned in pain as its head caved in. The quarterstaff flew off, stabbing into the ceiling like a knife through butter. It had probably been bent out of shape. Still, Alec could salvage it with the pen.

[87.129]

Alec's score displayed on his interface. Frowns emerged on the faces of the students gathered around the challenge area. His move had captured significant attention. While the challengers could not see one another's scores, the impact of the attack highlighted its effectiveness.

As the boss slowly recovered, the students started attacking once more. Alec kept to his flying daggers, increasing his damage counter. He could see what the others were doing, and they were not going to get as many points as him. Not with the way they attacked.

The countdown finally ticked down to zero. The illusion dispersed, revealing the bundle of slithering columns. Alec could clearly see the wounds of his attack. It had destroyed and ripped through a couple of columns, causing a deep wound. Nevertheless, the columns were retracted down into the ground, leaving nothing but the magic circle behind.

[The challenge has concluded!]

[First Place: Alec Greenwood - 120.315]

[Second Place: Team Hartwell - 110.782]

[Third Place: Team...]

Even though that was a bit closer than Alec felt comfortable with, it was pretty acceptable. No matter how strong, he was going solo. There was strength in numbers. Not to mention, he hadn't gone all out. With The Author's Pen, he would have gotten much more.

[58.000]

Alec's points rose. Still, he had a gnawing premonition that Edward was doing something that could best him. While busy checking his interface, Alec didn't notice a student from another group approaching him.

"Did you have to come here?" the student suddenly said. It was some guy with brown hair and a hooked nose. There were acnes covering his face, which was uncharacteristic for a person of this world. Alec's brows rose as he raised his right arm, his palm facing the ceiling. The quarterstaff that had been dug into the ceiling was pulled out. It fell down into his hand gracefully. It had been bent about thirty degrees right in the middle

"I don't know what you mean," Alec answered. He genuinely didn't. Was the guy complaining to Alec because he had beaten them? Certainly not, right?

"We would have gotten the first place if you weren't here!" the guy said, his voice becoming irritatingly high toward the end. Alec responded with a frown.

'He must be from that Hartwell team,' he thought. He looked the guy up and down. The situation gave him an awkward vibe. One that he felt strangely familiar with. The mana brain activated and took a quick look through his memories of the journal. 'Oh. It's this again. When the end of the cycle nears, the anti-meme will become erratic. It will randomly blot out people's memories, making them irrational. And that is followed by...'

Alec dodged the green-colored ball of fire hurtling toward his face by twisting his upper body slightly. A cold gleam in his eyes, he looked around the cave. Many students had already departed. The remaining ones were curiously watching the situation. Though, when the fireball was launched, they had instead become wary. No one had expected a physical altercation to occur, especially when the no-harming rule had been emphasized so heavily.

With a swift motion, Alec stepped forward. He grabbed the student's hand. He pulled, flicked, and pushed down on the guy's back with his free hand. Just like that, it was resolved.

'The rules stated that physical altercations were forbidden. Then why haven't the professors made a move yet?' He thought. He placed just enough strength to stop the student from struggling. However, his thoughts were disrupted by a sizzling pain in his hand.

A green smoke came out of the student's collar and made contact with his skin. It moved as if it was being guided.

'It's the fucking corruption again. I thought that the professors had fixed the problem. Or is it unrelated? Maybe there were two different reasons behind the demonification. Maybe even more.'

He didn't know what to do. The student was struggling under his weight, his protests becoming more guttural by the second. He would probably transform soon.

'Let's see. If it is caused by something external, I should be able to delay his transformation,' Alec mentally calculated. He ripped the student's uniform apart, revealing a blister-ridden skin. Coating his hand with pure mana, he slapped down and started circulating it throughout the student's body. The demonic taint started shriveling under Alec's touch. 'Good! It seems to be working.'

However, Alec's rejoice was short-lasting. The moment his mana stopped fighting against the taint, more surfaced from deep inside the student.

'It's hopeless,' Alec thought with a bitter frown. He looked around. About five people were by their side, three being the team members of the student under restraint. 'It's internal. His emotions have been twisted so severely that it causes constant demonic taint.'

"Hey Alec," one of the guy's team members said with a meek voice. He knew Alec's name, even though they hadn't interacted before. At least Alec didn't remember doing so. "Will he become a demon?"

Alec looked down, his shoulders slumped for a moment.

"No, he won't."

"That's a relie—"

*Crack

Green, gooey blood splattered, pieces of sickly brain matter staining the surroundings, some even hitting Alec's uniform.

"He won't."