The duo arrived at the Tier-9 Student Ground.
There were tens of Tier-10 students sitting cross-legged in meditation or resting.
On the other side of the river, the houses ascended in rows with stone pathways and arrays of trees beautifully arranged all over.
The other thirteen who gained admission today were over there, looking at the houses and mulling over who to challenge.
Rudrean and Aelira went towards the Layer 2 houses.
Made entirely of exotic wood and braided vine, it was clear these houses were made with magic.
The air here was also fresh, and the smell of nature was great.
After looking around, Aelira said, "This house has a good spot. We won't stay as Tier-9 students for long, so let's just go for this one."
"Alright." Rudrean nodded.
Arriving in front of the door, Aelira knocked.
"Coming!"
A female voice rang from inside, and shortly, the door opened.
"Who is it, babe? Challengers?"
A male voice came from behind her.
Both of them arrived at the door. They looked in their early twenties, older than Rudrean and Aelira.
The girl wore a sports bra and tights, while the boy had a bare upper body, muscled and defined, and shorts.
Clearly, they were a couple.
"Hi, we would like this house. So, can we proceed with the challenge right away?" Aelira asked.
"Hmmm, sure. But if you want to do the challenge right away, then we'll do it quickly." The girl said. "Let's do a Tug of Magic competition. 2v2. This will be over in seconds."
"Tug of Magic?" Rudrean blinked.
Aelira knew what it was, so she explained. "Tug of Magic is basically Tug of War, where two people create a rope of mana and attach, and then shorten the rope. The one who can pull the opponent by shortening their Magic Rope wins. But if one of the parties breaks the rope due to control loss, the other party would win by default."
Grinning, she nodded at the duo. "Sure. Let's do Magic Pull."
'We are bound to win this, darling!' Aelira relayed to Rudrean. 'They can't win unless one of them has Magic at S+ like you, hehe.'
Soon, both pairs faced each other in the small training ground next to the house.
Rudrean created a rope of mana and attached it to the opponent's rope of mana.
Aelira stood behind Rudrean and attached her rope to Rudrean's mana rope.
'Darling, just infuse mana and control it to shorten the rope without disconnecting it. This doesn't test physical strength, but tests one's magic control and magic potency.'
And so, the game began.
The opponents saw Rudrean's magic rope and knew he had a higher stat of Magic than them, so they instantly shortened their rope, trying to quickly pull them.
But when they did, Rudrean's rope didn't even budge from its initial position. Instead, their rope was about to disconnect, forcing them to quickly adjust.
'This is bad. We might lose.' The boy looked at his girlfriend as he planted his feet on the ground. 'Dig in. We have to anchor ourselves.'
The moment he finished relaying with Magic Whisper, Rudrean shrank the rope's size, and both opponents were pulled with their feet dragging on the ground, their faces dumbfounded.
"Bro, what is your magic stat?" the bare-chested young man asked in shock.
"It's S plus, heh," Aelira answered with a prideful grin before Rudrean could.
"S… plus?" The girl's eyes widened.
"No wonder…" The boy wryly smiled. "That's like those prodigious Tier-1 students' magic stat, comparable to the strongest teachers."
"I think those Tier-1 students are even stronger than some head teachers." The girl shook her head. "Talk about having insane talents."
"Anyway, give us a minute. We'll pack our stuff in the storage ring and leave. We were about to challenge a house in Tier-8 Student Ground anyway since we are ready to become Tier-8 students." She added.
"When you are there, don't challenge us again." The boy said with a chuckle. "With your Magic stat, as long as you have sufficient spells and some combat sense, you can easily become a higher-tier student."
Aelira and Rudrean looked at each other.
"Are you saying we can directly challenge Tier-5 rank and get it if we win?" Rudrean asked.
"Naturally." The girl nodded and chuckled. "Why, you want to go up already?"
Aelira blinked. "If we can challenge a higher-tier rank right away, then we'll do just that. I just want to ask, I have a B+ in magic, and I know how to fight, so can you tell me up to which student rank we can aim for?"
"One with S+ and one with B+… and up to what rank of spells and techniques can you use?" the girl asked.
"We know multiple S-rank spells, and many other spells of lower rank."
"…"
"…"
'They know S-rank spells… and we don't know any…'
"Then you should start at Tier-5. There are a total of fifty houses in Tier-5 Student Ground, and if you do Tug of Magic against one of them, you're bound to win, though I doubt they'd accept Tug of War as a challenge, so you should prepare to fight."
"Alright, then we'll go there right away." Aelira grinned as she locked her arms with Rudrean. "Let's go, darling."
"Mhm." Rudrean nodded.
…
Tier-5 Student Ground was more polished. It had more exotic and better houses, made with not just wood, but also crystal. Naturally, they were woven into construction through magic.
A small river flowed across all houses, providing water.
Each house had a large personal training ground and a small garden with a patch of identical plants that aided in meditation.
Not only that, the air here was different. Aside from being fresh, it was energetic.
Rudrean instantly felt it due to his weak E-rank body.
Taking a deep breath, he felt energetic. "This place is good."
"They have a magic array here!" Aelira's eyes glinted. "It provides refined magic energy that our body can easily absorb and gain benefits. I think just by meditating daily and breathing here, your physical stats will reach D rank!"
"Oh, that's great."
There were people here, mostly those in their early to mid-twenties, training in the grounds of their respective houses.
And there were no challengers here, so seeing two eighteen-year-old younglings coming here was a surprise.
The duo looked at the houses from afar as they decided to pick their target from here, where they could get a broad view of this place.
"That one's good. Let's go there. The two people there are both in the training ground meditating."
They moved towards the area of Layer 2 houses and went straight towards the two men meditating.
"Hi…"
Both of them opened their eyes, their aura bursting towards the duo deliberately.
Aelira felt a slight tremor in her body as her magic clashed, but Rudrean didn't even feel anything as his mana was far superior. Against him, it was like a couple of ants trying to push an elephant.
Both young men frowned as their eyes bore onto Rudrean.
Standing up, one of them went inside the house, and the other one approached Rudrean and Aelira.
"Don't know why you are challenging Tier-5 when you should be higher, but doesn't matter. My brother is packing stuff. This house is yours."
Rudrean blinked. "No challenge?"
"We already did. Your girlfriend is equally strong as us, and you are way stronger. Instead of wasting time with you two, we'll challenge the other house here since we know two others who are weaker than us."
The brother emerged from the house. "Let's go."
"Enjoy."
Both of them quietly and quickly left, heading towards another house.
Aelira and Rudrean looked at each other before laughing.
"Well, this went easier than we expected." Rudrean smiled.
"Yep. Let's go in and see the house. This one's far better than the one in Tier-9 Student Ground."