My Level Zero System

The next morning.

Even though it was still early in the morning, the students had already left their dormitories one by one. Following the signal, they would be gathered at the first square they had entered on the opening day several months ago.

Here, Kain also met his four teammates.

"Ready?"

Kain said, they all nodded.

At this time, a large crowd had gathered in the square, and within them, there were large groups consisting of first-year students, second-year students, and third-year students. Because the new objective was to enter the Tower of Magus, the second-year students and third-year students all showed wary looks. As for the first-year students, the teams still maintained a certain distance.

Kain even saw Faith's team, Faith also turned to look at him, waved and smiled friendly.

"Kain, there are quite a few teams looking at us."

Mera whispered in his ear.

Kain nodded slightly in response, he felt the same way.

"Just hope we get to the middle zone..."

Myra sighed, clearly seeing the situation as not too optimistic.

"Don't worry everyone, the situation isn't that bad."

Kain's encouraging voice rang out, causing the team's morale to rise slightly.

Suddenly, a voice appeared, although not loud, but miraculously transmitted into everyone's ears.

"Hello, all students."

"Seeing you all so enthusiastic, I am very happy and honored to have you as a part of this academy."

"The all-grade tournament represents the highest honor of a student, so fight your best, warriors!"

As soon as the principal's words fell, all the students felt a sense of confusion envelop them. As this moment happened, Kain felt as if the entire space was frozen.

No, not "as if", space has actually frozen!

On a huge range with ultimate control!

"Is this the power of a grand-class Magus?"

Kain could not help but let out such an exclamation.

When his consciousness returned, Kain found himself and his companions standing in a desert.

Although he had never seen a real desert, he had a concept of this type of terrain made entirely of sand dunes in his mind.

Kain scooped up a handful of sand, the tiny grains quickly escaping through his fingers, returning to the desert.

"I read in a book that this type of environment is very common in the south."

Katie said, unable to help but shield her forehead from the bright sunlight.

While the girls were still admiring the strangeness of this environment, Kain became serious.

"There is a big problem."

"With this kind of terrain that is so similar everywhere, it's hard to tell where the middle ground is."

Kain's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over them.

"So... then we..."

"It's not that desperate. We're in this situation, other teams are probably not far behind."

Kain quickly reassured.

Then he began to look around, as if trying to find some clue.

One moment he held up his finger to determine the wind direction, another moment he poked his finger into the sand.

The girls didn't understand what Kain was going to do, so they could only stand and watch.

After a moment, Kain turned to Mera.

"Mera, can you feel the vibrations inside the sand?"

"I think... yes? This thing looks like dirt no matter how you look at it."

Mera then experimented with using [Earth Magic] on the sand. The result was that the sand was easier to control than normal soil, but it didn't have much power, since it was relatively loose.

"As for the shockwaves... they're very chaotic. Compared to stable ground, these tiny things are always moving."

After hearing Mera say that, Kain understood.

"Thank you Mera, I got it."

He said in a firm tone.

The girls didn't understand either, Myra quickly asked.

"Kain, what is going on?"

"I know where the flag is hidden. And the method by which we can safely retrieve the flag."

Everyone's eyes lit up. Kain explains it simply.

"If this were a rugged mountainous terrain, there would be a lot of options when choosing a specific place to hide the flag. But here, there's only sand."

"You mean they hid the flag in the sand?"

"Below, to be exact, but not by much."

Kain edited a bit, then continued.

"Thanks to Mera's [Earth Magic], we can continuously conduct wide-area reconnaissance. These sand grains are scattered and are always pushed by the wind, but the flag is not. Looking for the flag is like looking for a black ink stain on a white sheet of paper."

Suddenly, Katie wondered.

"Wait, if it's a flag, I think it would make more sense to plant it in the sand?"

"Katie, even though these rolling dunes are not flat, planting a flag behind a dune is not an ideal hiding place."

"Besides, you have to consider one thing, which is whether the flag is really a flag."

What Kain said made the girls all have question marks.

They were stunned, not understanding what Kain was trying to say.

"I know, the flag in your perception is something made up of a long stick with a piece of cloth attached to the top. But the flag here is not necessarily like that."

"Imagine, a tool like that, if it's too small it's unnecessarily difficult to find, if it's too big it's very cumbersome, even without considering the problem of damage in combat."

"So the flag is more of a label. Describing the concept of something will give the owner a clear criterion. I suspect that the real flag we need to find is something that makes us appear to be a sign that makes us attractive to other teams."

"This... isn't it too absurd? We struggled so much to get a flag, but that very flag puts us in opposition to the other teams."

Myra said tremblingly. But Kain reassured her again.

"That's in a situation where we don't think about it, don't you have me here?"

Kain, is confidence.

"As for the reason, if the academy went to the trouble of creating this round, then they definitely wouldn't let it end boringly by finding the flag and hiding it."

"Okay, we have to act fast. Before…"

"Before what?"

"Before the first flag appears, there must be an unlucky guy."