Endless Leveling Done Right!

Chapter 657: What You All Lack Is Real Battle Experience

After being chased out of the Music Hall, Alex had no choice but to go to the Training Grounds.

There, Prince Edward’s team was already fighting against Alex’s Dream Team, which was composed of Renard, Charles, Chuck, Nessia, and Fran.

This was an all-star line-up very hard to beat. Thanks to Professor Gareth’s recommendation, as well as the recommendation of the other fighting professors, the five of them were exempted from classes.

On top of that, they would also be rewarded with merit points, as well as gold coins, from being training partners for the First, Second, and Third Year divisions.

Although it was a bit frustrating and humiliating for the candidates to be beaten by these kids, their seniors quickly accepted reality and took their training seriously.

Truth be told, Alex had another reason for pushing the five of them to fight together.

For one, if the academy were to be invaded by the Demon Worshipers or any other underground groups that wished to harm their fellow students, his Dream Team would be able to handle them just fine.

It was a good way to train their teamwork for real battles, which would be very helpful in the future.

For these sparring matches, Nessia took great care and prepared artifacts imbued with Rune Magic in advance.

Of course, the young lady didn’t hold back and inscribed Rune Magic on her teammates’ weapons and equipment, further enhancing their fighting capabilities.

Chuck, on the other hand, was starting to grow more confident about himself. It all started after his mother had been relocated to the city of Harmonia and hired to work part time in the Sunveil Orphanage.

The kids loved Lady Dorothy, and she felt right at home being surrounded by children.

She was also recovering from the withering disease just fine. Lady Dorothy now looked much younger since the last time Alex saw her.

Renard had also greatly improved when it came to teamwork and had learned to rely on his teammates for support.

Back then, he was a lone wolf and would charge at the enemy’s ranks on his own. Now, he coordinated his attacks with his teammates. His combo with Fran was incredibly deadly, serving as their team’s vanguard.

Charles was probably the one who benefited the most from this arrangement. The power of the Void Touched was a power that broke the laws of the world, which was both a good and bad thing.

In order to master that power, he had to dive inside dungeons, risking his life on the line to absorb its dungeon core.

However, that was only one of the many things he needed to do in order to master his powers. What Charles truly needed was control over it.

After all, aside from being able to summon Dungeon Monsters, Charles also had the ability to use their powers as his own.

In fact, he could even transform into these monsters as long as he had full control of the Dungeon Core he had absorbed.

Right now, Charles could summon Ant-type Monsters thanks to the dungeon core he had absorbed way back when Alex first met him.

There were many variations for this power. First, he could wrap himself in an obsidian carapace that was as hard as steel, increasing his defense.

Second, he could also increase his strength exponentially, similar to how an ant could carry things that weighed more than its body size. However, Charles’ ability wasn’t that exaggerated.

Even then, it was more than enough to give him an overwhelming advantage in close combat.

’They are completely demolishing their opponents,’ Alex thought as he sat at the audience stands to observe the battle. ’Aside from Fran, none of them are holding back.’

Renard and the others took the battles seriously. Meanwhile, Fran had limited her strength to that of a Rank 4 Dwarvern Berserker.

They were overwhelming their opponents with brute strength and magical techniques, which caused the matches to end in less than two minutes.

”How about you guys represent our academy instead?” Prince Edward sighed as he propped himself up from the ground. ”The way I see it, you guys can easily win the tournament by yourselves.”

”Sorry, but we won’t join the tournament,” Fran replied. ”Alex told us that it’s your team, Your Highness, who should represent the academy.”

As if sensing Alex’s presence, Fran looked in the direction of her lover and waved in his direction.

Alex waved back at his cute lover, who was now gaining more admirers because of how strong she was in battle.

”Okay. Can you guys still fight?” Professor Gareth asked Nessia, whom Alex had designated as the team leader of the Dream Team.

”Yes, Professor,” Nessia replied. ”We were just warming up.”

”Ugh...”

”Ouch...”

”The truth hurts...”

”Mom...”

Prince Edward’s teammates were heartbroken after hearing that they only served as warmups for their opponents.

The Prince could only smile wryly as he walked toward Alex, who was sitting by the audience stand. He was hoping the young man could give them some advice on how to get better.

”What you all lack is real battle experience.”

That was the answer that Alex gave Prince Edward’s team when they asked for his advice.

”All of you have experience in fighting, but those battles are merely spars,” Alex added. ”You have yet to experience a life and death battle. This is why you can’t win against your opponents.”

”Real life battles?” One of Prince Edward’s teammates frowned. ”Do you mean we should look for bandits to subjugate so that we can gain some battle experience?”

”Well, that’s one way to put it. But if you actually try to hunt bandits, there is a big chance that you will lose against them,” Alex said in a serious tone. ”They have mastered the arts of fighting people. Some of them also fight dirty. You guys don’t stand a chance against such fighters.”

”Then what should we do?” Prince Edward asked.

”Go on a dungeon expedition,” Alex answered. ”However, you shouldn’t challenge ordinary dungeons. You should challenge dungeons that spawn humanoid monsters like Goblins and Lizardmen.

”Higher ranking goblins like Hobgoblins and Goblin Leaders fight similarly to humans. They will be good opponents for all of you. As for Lizardmen, they are also very fierce fighters.

”But just as I’ve mentioned before, it is very dangerous to fight them. I doubt the academy will allow you to challenge these dungeons without supervision.”

Prince Edward pondered for a bit before running toward Professor Gareth to ask him about something.

The two chatted for a while before the Professor reluctantly agreed to the prince’s proposal.

”What did you talk about?” Alex asked as soon as Prince Edward returned to his side.

”I asked him to let us go into the dungeons that you mentioned,” Prince Edward replied. ”However, Professor Gareth said that he will need to convince the Headmaster first to give us permission.”

Alex nodded in understanding. ”I hope he agrees.”

The young man didn’t know if Professor Rowan would agree to this kind of request that would put his students in danger.

But knowing the Headmaster, he would probably use one of his special domains to recreate a dungeon that was filled with humanoid monsters.

That way, the Prince and his teammates would not be at any risk of dying, even if they were to be killed inside of it.

Of course, the Headmaster would probably not tell them that even if they died inside the domain, they wouldn’t really die.

They needed to feel the sense of crisis, fear, and anxiety to gain real combat experience.

Several minutes later, Nessia’s team had finally finished sparring with the Second and Third Year students.

They won all their matches, which served as a good experience for their opponents.

Just as Alex was about to leave, someone called out to him, which made him look behind his back.

There, the third and final main heroine of ELO, and Lapiz’s older sister, Aeris, walked up to him with a serious expression on her beautiful face.