The second round soon began. Now the significance of the team divisions became clear. Each team would challenge the golem in the order they drew lots, and Holly would assign scores based on individual performance. These scores would count as their final grades.
In truth, this was an exceptionally cunning test design, whether regarding the golem's "strength in numbers" mechanic or the scoring system itself.
Because the scoring system was entirely subjective, theoretically Holly could freely assign high scores to those she favored and low scores to those she disliked.
The first group to challenge the golem had a solid composition—three students from Star Court, two elemental Arcana Mages, and one mental Arcana Mage. One of them had even acquired a defensive artifact in the first round, serving as a frontline tank.
For a pure Arcana Mage team, this combination was practically ideal.
Yet, despite their solid formation, the trio's defenses were quickly shattered by the golem.
"Your teamwork is excellent, but this is still a golem," Holly commented cheerfully. "It has an enormous amount of health by default, physical resistance thanks to the Silver-Scale Breastplate, magical protection from Mage Armor, speed boosts, shields, unstoppable charges, and even a mental crown reducing cooldowns and cast times. So tell me—how exactly do you plan to overcome all that?"
In stark contrast to Holly's joyful commentary, the students watching sank into deep despair.
They'd been delighted collecting artifacts in the first round, but now their smiles were completely wiped away.
Only now did they realize what kind of monster they'd unwittingly created.
The golem itself wasn't particularly outstanding—it simply had high health and could fire off a few low-tier Arcana spells. But a golem equipped with the combined artifacts from the entire class in round one was basically a walking war god!
After several teams were defeated by the golem with overwhelming ease, the students' mindset began to shift. Now the advantage of larger teams became apparent. Not that more people had a better chance at victory—rather, the golem might just take longer to kill all of them…
Some students' attitudes soured, turning blame toward Linen:
"If that damned prince hadn't deliberately allowed everyone to pass the first round, this golem probably wouldn't be nearly as terrifying."
"Now he's dug his own grave. His team only has two members, right? They're definitely finishing at the bottom."
Only Kaya, who already assumed she'd failed, watched Linen curiously.
Linen's words had stuck with her. Yet, judging by earlier teams, the golem—loaded with every artifact from the first round—had never shown any ability to disable others' artifacts.
Amid this tense atmosphere, the eagerly anticipated Linen and Elena finally stepped into the arena.
Considering the students were Arcana Mages, the golem wouldn't attack for the first ten seconds, allowing preparation and casting time.
Yet Linen and Elena merely strolled into the center of the arena, showing no intention of preparing anything.
Not only did the students exchange puzzled looks—even the golem tilted its head slightly, seeming oddly human in its confusion. Once the ten-second grace period ended, it didn't immediately attack but raised a faint blue magic shield on its left arm, circling the pair cautiously, slowly closing the distance.
"Ugh, that shameless tactic again," sneered some already-defeated students.
The golem was using a classic heavy-warrior tactic against Arcana Mages—shield-raised-and-roll style.
Holding up the shield, it approached slowly. It would tank spells head-on or tactically roll away from unavoidable attacks, then use its magic-infused sword to finish things once it closed in.
A typical heavy warrior fighting this way would force Arcana Mages to adopt hit-and-run tactics, leading to a prolonged standoff.
But this golem wasn't typical—it didn't use a heavy physical shield, but a lightweight magic barrier. Moreover, thanks to some unfortunate student in the first round who'd provided a speed-boosting magic ring, the golem could accelerate faster than even the stealthiest assassins.
Spotting an opening as Linen prepared an Arcana, the golem suddenly lunged forward!
Linen's Wind Blade harmlessly dissipated against the golem's magic shield. Unimpeded, the golem rapidly closed the distance, lifting its mana sword and thrusting decisively toward Linen's chest.
"That's it?"
Most students looked confused.
Everyone had expected Linen and Elena to lose, but surely not this easily. Some even began suspecting Linen had just come to scam them out of their credits.
However, when the mana sword pierced Linen's chest—and Linen continued calmly smiling at the golem—students quickly realized something wasn't right.
"An Illusion Arcana? Since when?"
Several students suddenly understood: Linen and Elena hadn't neglected preparation—they'd hidden themselves with Illusion Arcana from the start.
The golem also appeared to recognize Linen's trick. Pulling back its sword, it scanned the arena carefully, eventually focusing on a slight distortion in the air near a corner.
An opening—fleeting but unmistakable!
It charged forward again, even retracting its Mage Armor shield for extra speed. The shimmering veil and the object behind it were instantly pierced—but disappointingly, there was still no Linen. Just a simple chair.
"Another illusion?!"
The first illusion was a common tactic, but this second maneuver was impressively clever, deliberately leaving a gap to mislead the golem's attack.
"A classic misdirection," Headmaster Sorgana commented proudly from her office. "Pointy-ears, seems your golem's intelligence system still needs improvement."
Holly shook her head calmly:
"As an examiner, I'd award Elena a decent score. The first illusion utilized an artifact, the second used Arcana directly—an excellent combination. Against most enemies, that would have worked wonders."
"But unfortunately, against our golem, these little tricks only buy a brief advantage. It's not her fault—the golem is simply unbeatable when armed to the teeth like this."
Sorgana pursed her lips but didn't argue.
Just as Holly had predicted, upon realizing for the second time that it had been tricked, the golem finally responded.
Among the three necklaces hanging around its neck, one suddenly flashed brightly.
Artifact Pendant–Dispel Illusion!
Just as Holly had mentioned earlier, this golem had absolutely no weaknesses—even illusions weren't effective against it.
Across the arena, Linen and Elena's figures instantly appeared out of thin air. Elena's face was pale, clearly affected by the backlash of her illusion being forcibly dispelled.
Just as she clenched her teeth, preparing to cast another illusion, Linen's confident voice rang out calmly from behind her:
"That's enough. Good job, Elena. You've done your part."
Linen raised his hand, revealing a palm-sized silver box resting in his left palm, while in his right hand he held a tiny stone chip.
Seeing Linen's movements, the golem seemed to detect an imminent danger. It charged forward at high speed—but Linen simply smiled coldly.
Too late to panic now.
The stone chip was swiftly placed inside the silver box. A dazzling flash burst forth, causing everyone watching to instinctively shield their eyes.
"What happened?"
"Is he trying to blind the golem with a flash of light?"
As the brilliance faded, the golem's longsword halted mere inches from the silver box in Linen's hands—but Linen knew it was already over.
The golem remained fixed in mid-thrust, frozen as though someone had pressed pause. Linen casually pushed the tip of the sword aside and gently nudged the golem with a single finger.
Creaaaak—BOOM!
Under everyone's astonished and puzzled gaze, the fearsome golem toppled heavily to the ground. Elena exhaled deeply in relief.
Without question, this fight was over.
"Pointy-ears, what's the meaning of this? Aren't you letting them win way too obviously?"
Sorgana cast a suspicious glance at Holly.
Holly's expression wasn't particularly good either, but eventually she sighed softly.
"I didn't hold back. I just didn't expect that cunning little brat to exploit such a loophole. It's my golem that's been defeated."
Facing Sorgana and the Empress's questioning gazes, Holly reluctantly explained Linen's actions, gesturing at the silver box in his hands:
"That artifact is called Pandora's Box—one of my better creations, yet utterly useless under normal circumstances."
"It's a sealing-type artifact. By placing a part of the target's body inside, it imposes a curse that seals a certain attribute of the target."
Sorgana nodded in understanding. No wonder the golem hadn't used it earlier; in battles easily won through brute force, there was no need for a tricky artifact.
Not to mention, the conditions for using the artifact were extremely demanding—requiring something like hair, nails, limbs, or even internal organs. Hair and nails were easily destroyed mid-battle, and if you managed to cut off someone's limb or rip out their heart, using a curse afterward was typically pointless.
Unfortunately, the examiner this time wasn't human—it was a golem.
Throughout the earlier battles, although the golem had easily defeated every team, it had inevitably suffered minor damage.
Had it been severely damaged, Holly would have repaired it immediately. Yet the previous students' desperate struggles had only chipped off insignificant stone fragments, not worth repairing at all.
Initially, Holly had taken pride in this, believing it demonstrated her golem's durability.
But clearly, even this detail had been part of Linen's meticulous plan.
He'd deliberately allowed many students to pass in round one, making the golem overwhelmingly powerful and nearly unbeatable—yet simultaneously ensuring it wouldn't sustain heavy damage.
Then, during the battle's preparation phase, Linen had Elena use illusions to stall while he calmly collected stone fragments from the arena. Finally, using Pandora's Box, he'd sealed the golem's mana flow.
Indeed, the heavily armed golem was nearly invincible.
Magic was ineffective. Physical attacks barely left a scratch. Even mental attacks were meaningless.
But sealing its mana flow was entirely different.
For a human, sealing mana would simply restrict their Arcana—but for a golem, mana was its lifeblood.
Without mana flowing through it, the golem couldn't move at all.
"Truly… such a cunning man."
Watching Linen on screen, calmly explaining his tactics to an astonished Kaya, Holly felt an involuntary spark of interest.
Realizing this, her expression immediately twisted into panic.
No way—did I just feel a flicker of curiosity toward a man? What's wrong with me?
Suppressing this unexpected emotion, Holly turned her attention back to the testing grounds.
Although Elena had performed well, compared to Linen—who had orchestrated the entire scenario—her performance was merely adequate. No matter how much Holly wanted to favor Elena, choosing her as a disciple now would appear unjustifiable.
Besides, it wasn't just Holly watching—Sorgana and the Empress were here as well.
Thinking about this, Holly felt a headache creeping in.
Maybe another student could perform better? Or at least adequately enough, so she wouldn't have to pick Linen…
…Unfortunately, reality was often disappointing.
Every team that followed was mercilessly crushed by the golem.
Forget defeating it—later teams counted merely surviving past a single attack as a success.
By comparison, Linen's team—which had decisively defeated the golem—emerged unquestionably as the best-performing duo.
Once every student had completed the test, Holly had no choice but to announce the results reluctantly through the crystal orb.
Despite lingering dissatisfaction among a few students, most chose to offer Linen congratulations.
After all, Linen had helped them secure excellent artifacts; it was difficult to truly dislike him, and some even felt genuinely thankful.
...
A few minutes later, Linen's graceful figure appeared in Holly's crystal orb as he sat alone in a private office.
Following proper procedure, Holly was expected to appear in person and officially accept Linen as her disciple.
Yet, out of her deep-rooted aversion toward males, Holly simply couldn't make herself take that step. An uneasy stalemate thus persisted between them.
But oddly, the more Holly looked at Linen, the stranger she felt. She even found him increasingly… appealing?
Horrified, Holly shook her head vigorously. No—this couldn't continue!
Perhaps it was better to openly inform him of her extreme dislike for men and let him voluntarily withdraw.
Steeling herself, she activated a teleportation Arcana and entered the office.
...
Inside, Linen reclined comfortably on the only sofa, sipping tea elegantly.
He'd been waiting half an hour for Holly now. Any ordinary person might have grown nervous or uncertain by being stood up, but Linen—intimately familiar with Master Holly's character—felt no such worries.
He could even guess precisely how Holly was spying on him now, and exactly what she was struggling with internally.
Linen calmly opened his eyes, glancing down toward the virtual status bar at the corner of his vision—particularly, at the title he'd activated earlier:
[A Protagonist Who Exists Because of You]:Significantly increases the affection level of members of the opposite sex toward you. The longer their attention stays on you, the faster affection rises. Title refreshes upon deactivation.
Linen closed his eyes again, sipping his tea leisurely.
He'd equipped this particular title the moment he'd stepped into the classroom earlier.
Conquering Holly through normal means was impossible. Only magic could defeat magic.
But he couldn't help but wonder—what would happen when this title, capable of boosting affection from the opposite sex, clashed with a woman who despised men so intensely?
She's been spying on me for quite a while now…
Hey, Master Holly. You've definitely been peeking, haven't you?
At precisely that moment, a Spatial Gate opened directly before Linen…