76: You're sending pharmacists into the water?

Li Yi didn't seem at all disheartened by the initial defeat; instead, he gently applauded with a smile.

Zhu Ming noticed Li Yi's gaze, glanced back expressionlessly, and offered no response.

The Consultant politely nodded before returning to the ranks.

According to the previous rules, after Jiang Cen and Jin Teng stood at the front and exchanged a few pleasantries, the first day's competition concluded.

The students who had watched the entire competition came forward to the Consultant and Zhu Ming, happily offering their congratulations.

Even some of the older students who also participated in the competition expressed their admiration for the Consultant and Zhu Ming's final coordinated attack.

But Zhu Ming remained cold and aloof; after politely exchanging a few words, he left the venue.

The Consultant didn't particularly enjoy being surrounded by so many people, so he didn't linger either, finding an opportunity to slip back to his dormitory.

Through today's first round of competition, the Consultant had roughly figured it out.

This inter-academy competition wasn't merely a contest between students; it was also a clandestine rivalry between the two deans.

The rules for the subsequent matches would definitely change based on the strength of the deans on both sides.

Neither of them is reliable.

The Consultant sighed.

The most important thing now was the Slime's digestion.

Only when the Slime had fully digested the magical beast crystal core could the Consultant recover to his full strength.

He thought about it, then couldn't help but check the time again using the system.

[Your Slime still needs 2 days to complete digestion. Please continue with auxiliary cultivation.]

It seemed there wouldn't be enough time for the second match.

He could only hope it would speed up a bit; perhaps it could make it for the third match.

But after much thought, the Consultant realized that all he could do was continue taking the Slime to the bell tower at night to bathe in the moonlight.

The next day, accompanied by the academy-wide ringing of bells, the Consultant slowly awoke.

As a participant, no one disturbed his rest; even Zuo Dao hadn't appeared again.

The Consultant washed up, ate breakfast, and then strolled towards the plaza.

Along the way, many students who had watched yesterday's competition greeted the Consultant enthusiastically, treating him like a big star.

The Consultant was unaccustomed to getting too close to strangers, so he awkwardly responded a few times before quickening his pace towards the plaza.

At this time, a large crowd had already gathered in the plaza to watch the competition, even more numerous than yesterday!

As soon as the Consultant arrived, the enthusiastic senior student who had explained various questions to him before pulled him into the participating team.

Beside them were still the five students from Shuoshu Awakening Academy.

Jiang Cen and Jin Teng stood side-by-side at the front of the two teams, and after a boring opening speech, they finally got to the main topic.

But this time, it was Jin Teng, not Jiang Cen, who announced the rules of the competition.

Holding a short staff, he stood in the center of the plaza, scanned the surrounding students, and slowly began:

"Welcome everyone to the second round of the Academy Competition."

"Yesterday, Dean Jiang and I thoroughly discussed the rules for this competition, and we have finally decided as follows..."

At this point, Jin Teng paused slightly, then raised his staff and gently waved it.

As purple magic flowed, a giant mirror appeared behind Jin Teng and Dean Jiang.

This mirror rippled like water, then gradually calmed down after a few seconds, reflecting the scene within it.

It was a vast lake.

Occasionally, some turbulence would occur in the lake, as if something was lurking within.

After casting the spell, Jin Teng turned to look at Dean Jiang.

Dean Jiang smiled slightly, raised his staff, and conjured a palm-sized stone from a corner of the plaza.

This was just an ordinary, common stone.

Dean Jiang held the stone in his hand, waved his staff again, and blue magic swiftly transformed into a stream of light, injecting into the stone.

In an instant, this originally plain stone emitted a blue fluorescence, and strange patterns flickered across its surface.

Next, Dean Jiang casually tossed the magic-infused stone towards the mirror.

Buzz!

The moment the stone touched the mirror, it made a soft sound, and then, it actually merged into it!

Everyone saw clearly that the stone passed through the mirror and fell into the lake.

The blue magic only flickered for an instant before being submerged by the lake water, returning to calm.

Jin Teng waited a few seconds before speaking again:

"Everyone saw it, right? The stone Dean Jiang threw into the lake is the objective of this competition!"

"Each academy will send four students through the magic mirror to search for that stone in the lake."

"When either side obtains the stone, the other side can use any method to snatch it."

"The academy represented by the student who first leaves the lake with the stone will win this victory!"

The rules for this round were not difficult to understand, but many people showed expressions of shock!

"Searching for a stone in such a large lake?"

"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I wonder who came up with such a brilliant idea?"

"This is simply making things difficult!"

"The contestants from both academies are the same, so it's not really making things difficult, but the choice of lineup will need some consideration!"

Some of the smarter individuals immediately saw the difficulty of this competition.

Compared to just entering the lake to find the stone, the greater challenge in this competition was the team composition!

A four-person team, with the battleground beneath the lake.

This meant that among the four, at least one had to be a support-type Awakened One capable of granting teammates underwater breathing or a breath-holding spell.

Furthermore, there was a high chance of underwater combat in this competition, so the other three individuals must all possess combat capabilities.

And because the ultimate winning condition was to leave the water with the stone, an Awakened profession that could move quickly even underwater was also required... "Then, it will still be our Shuoshu Awakening Academy that selects the participants first!"

Jin Teng didn't give the audience much reaction time; after speaking, he immediately raised his hand and pointed to four people in the team before him.

The two who participated in yesterday's competition were once again chosen as participants.

Additionally, there were two others who had long been eager to try.

Only their ace, Li Yi, was left out.

"So confident, huh? Does he think they're guaranteed to win the second round, so he wants to preserve strength?"

The Consultant couldn't help but wonder as he observed Jin Teng's personnel selection.

He used his system ability to observe the four chosen individuals.

They were a Warrior, a Knight, a Monk, and... an Apothecary?

Upon seeing the last person, the Consultant suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment.

An Apothecary? Why an Apothecary?

In this kind of situation, an Apothecary was definitely not a good choice.

Even if an Apothecary had the ability to create some underwater breathing potions, their combat ability itself was too weak, making it essentially impossible to provide any effective assistance to teammates.

Generally speaking, an Apothecary is not suitable for this competition at all; they are more suited for logistics.

In formal competitions, support-type professions should generally choose Clerics or Scholars.

But why... would Jin Teng choose an Apothecary?