"They're here!"
Virt Gold clutched Robert's shoulder and whispered into his ear.
He could keenly sense that from a certain point onwards, this match had started to taste different.
Robert was no longer representing just himself, but the entire male population of the first-year Knight House!
For a long time, the first years of the Noble House had relied on the existence of Dark Demon to suppress the Knight House, and they had even suffered a major blow during the recent Rookie Tournament.
Many people didn't say it out loud, but they remembered it in their hearts.
The students of the Knight House were famous for their martial valor and possessed extremely strong competitiveness; they would attempt things even knowing they were impossible, let alone when there was a visible chance of victory right before their eyes!
Robert's Magic Guide Chess skills were top-tier among the entire first year.
Facing a flash-in-the-pan novice like Dark was like a sixth-year bullying a first-year; no matter how one thought about it, defeat was impossible.
The tactics of Magic Guide Chess were varied; one could not dominate the battlefield relying solely on a single powerful Level 3 piece.
As long as Robert grasped his advantage, the odds of winning were huge!
Robert, upon whom high hopes were placed, suddenly widened his eyes. When he saw the scene of Dark Demon leading a large group of Noble House boys into the classroom, he knew that Dark had encountered a similar situation.
He blinked, wanting to find a sense of shared feeling in Dark's eyes.
But he did not succeed.
Because Dark was happy to see so many people following him.
In order to let the reputation of [Vampire Vlad] spread and break out of his circle.
He not only had to win.
He had to win ruthlessly!
With [Vampire Vlad] as the core, a ruthless victory!
Dark, walking into the classroom, showed no timidity due to the gathering of Knight House students.
He walked straight toward the crowd, pushed aside the students blocking Robert, and said to Robert, "I'm here! When do we start?"
Asked like this by him, Robert's cluttered thoughts suddenly vanished.
His eyes spirited up as he said, "Now."
Dark waved his hand. "That's good, I'm in a hurry."
Being in a hurry was true.
He was still thinking about completing the content of the Arithmetic Class teaching materials within the day.
But hearing it abruptly, it sounded like a provocation.
Robert himself didn't care too much, but the Knight House students behind him exploded in an instant!
Of course, based on the prestige Dark had faintly established among the first years, they didn't get angry at Dark, but instead targeted the Noble House students behind Dark.
The boys of the two houses faced off for who knew the 'nth' time, fire seeming to burn in their eyes. The atmosphere gradually intensified, as if they might engage in hand-to-hand combat at any moment!
Dark moved a stool to one end of the desk, then opened the chess box and took out the folding chessboard placed inside.
Although Robert opposite him also carried a chessboard, upon seeing Dark's chessboard, he couldn't help but dismiss the idea of taking it out.
The price difference between the two parties' chessboards was at least double.
Although Robert had paid a price of nearly five hundred credits to purchase that complete set of Magic Guide Chess, naturally, it couldn't be mentioned in the same breath as the Magic Guide Chessboard used by the two professors.
With this opening.
He had lost a point in momentum right from the start.
Dark asked, "According to the rules you mentioned in the challenge letter, it's best of three, right?"
Robert said cautiously, "Yes."
Regardless of the type of competition, rookie players always had a kind of bafflingly strong luck.
He was determined to win this match. Since he didn't want to capsize in a gutter, he naturally had to increase the number of games to raise the margin for error.
"Alright then." Dark nodded. "No take-backs."
Robert: "No take-backs!"
Thus, both sides set up their formations. Without any nonsense, the confrontation began!
At the same time.
Doron behind Dark and Virt behind Robert also locked eyes.
If the atmosphere weren't too serious at this moment, the two would definitely have started a game on the spot!
Boom!
As the Magic Guide Chessboard was activated by magical power, a small thundercloud emerged above the chessboard, turning the middle section of the grid into a minefield that was impassable under normal circumstances.
Two bridges floated up from the chessboard, penetrating the minefield and connecting the two sides.
On the chessboard, various terrains manifested one after another. The castles of both sides rose up; initially, they were simple castles symbolizing "Level 1".
As the game progressed and players fulfilled specific rules, the castles would automatically upgrade, becoming more majestic.
Dark, handling the pieces with a rookie's technique, took out three Level 1 pieces from the board and placed them in a circle of grids around the castle.
This time, he used [Light Spirit] as his opening.
The three Level 1 [Light Spirits] were all of the Priest class, each possessing an exclusive healing-type Ultimate Move.
When they were on the field simultaneously, they would obtain a "Life Share" buff!
The three pieces could share damage; unless they were all crushed, they would not be killed individually.
Once the health line dropped to a certain level, Dark could use the healing-type Ultimate Move that each [Light Spirit] could use once, pulling the health line back up.
These three pieces, mooched from Professor Silf, could be called unkillable cockroaches; within the Level 1 domain, they belonged to a category of extremely high rarity.
Just these three Level 1 pieces made people feel envious.
The students of the Noble House were also seeing Dark use this combination for the first time.
"It's actually a piece combination a large cut stronger than those three Level 1 Goblins..."
Doron, who had played against Dark, couldn't help but twitch his mouth.
He suddenly realized, no wonder Dark was so calm and composed. That was probably the confidence harbored toward wealth sufficient to crush technique...
Damn pay-to-win player!
The students of the Knight House also immediately realized where the problem lay.
Dark Demon had a huge advantage relative to them, which was possessing a massive amount of credits!
The gap in credit limits led to an overall gap in piece quality.
Once this quality gap breached a certain boundary, even a god would have no way to play the game.
They couldn't help but look worriedly at Robert—Robert was not a big credit spender!
Little did they know, Dark was fundamentally a freeloader...
And Robert, looking at Dark's three [Light Spirits], then lowering his head to look at the three Level 1 pieces on his own field, couldn't help but grit his teeth.
In his heart, he just wanted to curse.
If it weren't for so many people watching, he definitely would have cursed out loud.
Too damn bullying!
Who said only Dark's [Vampire Vlad] was overpowered?
These [Light Spirits] couldn't also be pirated copies like [Vampire Vlad], right?
From the start of this game, the originally very confident Knight House students began to have some ominous premonitions.
Meanwhile, the Noble House students, who had actually been secretly worried about Dark's chess strength, puffed out their chests slightly.
So what if he's a pay-to-win player?
The credits that can be used for spending in the academy are all accumulated by the students themselves, bit by bit.
That is also the crystallization of their own efforts, a display of strength!
These pure-blooded nobles had deep family backgrounds, and there was no lack of extremely wealthy individuals among them who were good at crushing people with money.
That was a gift from their family background; using it in this kind of chess competition would be spurned by others.
But the "wealth" inside the academy was ultimately different from the "wealth" outside.
In the academy, having "wealth" was "virtue".
They still didn't know that Dark was a freeloader.
In the ensuing game.
Dark, having used [Ultimate Move · Last Minute Cramming], no longer committed low-level errors repeatedly like a pure newcomer.
Although he didn't have any brilliant strategies, relying on a steady and sure style and sufficiently powerful pieces, he actually managed to slightly suppress Robert in the early phase!
This was already completely different from the scene when he played against Doron.
The Noble House first years who had watched his game against Doron couldn't help but feel surprised.
Doron himself looked even more like a squirrel with a chestnut stuck in its throat, realizing his dream of revenge was likely going to turn into a bubble again.
Is this progress a human can have?
During this period, Dark shouldn't have played against anyone, right?
Could it be he had been in the dormitory the whole time, generating electricity by himself using Little Left and Little Right?
But no matter how surprised they were, the chess skills Dark displayed at this moment were obviously shedding the shell of a novice.
In fact, the strategies and tactics of Magic Guide Chess were interchangeable with Magic Guide Duels to a certain extent.
Just as the Thirty-Six Stratagems could be applied to numerous fields outside of war.
Profound knowledge and broad experience also helped Dark master the way of playing Magic Guide Chess as quickly as possible.
The him of this moment, and the him of a few days ago, could already be called two different people.
When Dark's pieces took the lead in occupying the [Magic Crystal Mine] on the chessboard and stayed for three rounds, his [Castle] suddenly expanded, upgrading from a crude Level 1 castle to a relatively luxurious Level 2 castle!
This meant he could already begin deploying Level 2 pieces.
Whereas Robert had fallen into a disadvantage in the situation.
This was something Robert hadn't expected before the opening.
But his high cultivation in Magic Guide Chess kept him calm throughout; he was not shaken by a temporary disadvantage.
Immediately after, Robert maneuvered a piece to actively jump into the minefield, causing the piece to reach the specified value in "damage sustained", and his castle gained a passive upgrade because of it!
This decisive move of "self-harm" caused the little magisters to discuss animatedly.
Robert's high level in Magic Guide Chess began to reveal itself step by step from this point.
The disadvantage in piece strength was made up for by his positioning and utilization of the chessboard terrain.
In the confrontation of Level 2 pieces.
Although Dark's piece strength still held the advantage, the situation gradually became unfavorable, until it was reversed!
Robert's style of play wasn't the type with wide opening and closing moves, but a delicate type completely opposite to his personality, gradually encroaching on the opponent through bit-by-bit operations.
Avoidance.
Trading pieces.
Leveraging momentum.
Striking the strong with the weak.
Only those who had played against him could know just how high his level was.
For a first-year student to hone their Magic Guide Chess skills to this degree, besides hard work and love, obviously also required talent above the baseline.
If he could spare a little of the diligence used in studying Magic Guide Chess for his studies, he wouldn't have been at the bottom of the class last semester.
Going a step further.
If he could apply his understanding and techniques of Magic Guide Chess to the level of reality, instead of stopping at armchair strategies, he might even be able to transform from a "witless" character into a "tactician" character!
Dark felt surprised.
As the situation on the chessboard was gradually controlled, that feeling became increasingly obvious.
This best-of-three match might completely overturn his subjective impression of Robert as a person!
Robert had a brain.
The match proceeded to the latter half.
Dark likewise began to arrange his troops.
He continuously used meat-shield type Magic Guide Chess pieces to block Robert's pieces, thereby stacking "damage sustained".
Although the rule of relying on "total damage sustained" reaching a quota to upgrade the castle from Lv2 to Lv3 existed, it wasn't easy to achieve.
And at the same time, the opponent would also upgrade their castle from Lv2 to Lv3 because their "total damage dealt" reached the quota.
However, before that.
Robert had already upgraded his castle from Lv2 to Lv3 by the method of "simultaneously occupying three [Magic Crystal Mines] for three consecutive rounds"!
He began to deploy Level 3 pieces one step ahead.
At this time, Robert encountered resistance.
According to his calculations, in order to avoid the appearance of the cheating piece [Vampire Vlad], he needed to occupy and destroy Dark's [Castle] before it upgraded from Lv2 to Lv3!
So he had to avoid Dark's pieces and attack them as little as possible unnecessarily, to avoid causing his "total damage sustained" to reach the specified value.
However, Dark displayed extremely high skill in arranging his troops—indeed so for a student of this age group—making it impossible for him to advance smoothly.
Leaving aside various well-known military strategies, Dark was after all an enthusiast of Xiangqi and Junqi, originally possessing considerable attainments, which he was now simply gradually adapting to Magic Guide Chess.
Relying purely on piece strength had limitations.
Only by improving chess skills as quickly as possible could it be done.
As Dark's "total damage sustained" gradually accumulated, it was impossible for Robert to always take a beating without fighting back.
Finally, after a period of stalemate.
Robert slew a portion of Dark's pieces and finally broke through to the front of his [Castle].
However, if he raised his hand and dropped the blade, the damage sustained by the [Castle] would still be calculated into the "piece damage sustained", and Dark's "total damage sustained" was only a hair's breadth away from allowing the castle to upgrade again!
"This slash, do I make it, or not?"
Robert looked at the [Gnoll Axeman] standing horizontally with a great blade in front of the [Castle], unable to give the order for a long time!
The little magisters who had rushed over to join the fun also couldn't help but hold their breath.
The classroom was so quiet that only Robert's slightly rapid breathing remained.
"Slash it!"
A Knight House student couldn't help but let out a voice.
"Slash!"
The valor in Robert's bones caused a rebellious reaction.
The [Gnoll Axeman], upon his command, raised the great blade high and slashed down abruptly!
With this slash, the [Castle] was at half health!
But Dark revealed a smile.
[Vampire Vlad], enter!
In that instant, a tinge of blood surged from the bottom of Robert's eyes.
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