The baton pass to the third runners seems to be much smoother than the first pass. Though it’s only natural; since the first runner was climbing upwards while the second one was waiting on that pass, the second pass should be miles easier than the first one.

As the participants passed their batons without any accidents or changes to the positions, they moved on to the fifth stage, the wasteland area. This place is a vast desolate prairie with several withered trees growing by themselves. Seeing the obstacles that have appeared so far, the runners appear to be confused by this empty space.

The obstacle on the first forest stage was the forest itself, falling rocks at the second mountain stage, while it was the crystals and bats at the third cave stage; so all the stages have had various obstacles prepared. Among these, only the fourth desert area is the only one that would blow sand up and make obstacles appear, so it seems that everyone is limiting their magic and observing the area out of worry that something might actually come out in this area too.

『And now! The fifth stage, the desolate wasteland area! So far there doesn’t seem to be anything on the horizon, so let’s take this opportunity to see the placements of the participants! First, the one leading the race is team C’s Kerry! It’s not flashy, but his solid control of magic has a high assessment from Lady Lily, he’s an inconspicuous yet capable individual. Chasing behind him by a narrow margin is team B’s Kiara! Will she show her hidden power!?1 That’s something to watch out for! Lagging slightly behind is team A’s Suzy! It’s been said that there are many degenera-……. I mean, eccentrics among alchemic attribute holders, but I honestly didn’t expect her to be at that level! I beg of you, please stop rubbing your cheeks against the board while flying it! Ehem! And chasing after these three is team D’s Magnus. Kut was low in magic power, so it appears that the race isn’t going smoothly as they planned, but do they perhaps have a plan to turn things around from here on!?』

As Sharl described, team D is having a bit of a rough time. Or rather, Suzy, why are you flying in that position? It does show her amazing sense of balance and magic power control though, in a sense……

Now then, as half of them passed the fifth stage’s midpoint, we’re finally at the real part of this stage. Well, yeah, I was also conflicted about it, about what obstacles I could put. Should I let them be attacked by beasts as it would be in the wilderness? Or should we have readied treants that would diguese as withered trees? Those really don’t click with me. Like, this one! Or so. Oh, it should be getting visible now.

『Whaat!? There seem to be some mysterious figures standing before the parti-…… Wait? Are these scarecrows? Those are scarecrows! A multitude of scarecrows are welcoming our participants. Oh? The scarecrows seem to be holding something. I wonder what those are?』

!On Kerry’s face, which looked just as confused as Sharl’s, the pellet shot by the scarecrow landed a clean hit on his forehead. Not passing up how Kerry was involuntarily thrown backwards, Kiara jumped to the lead but immediately Kiara’s forehead was also shot by a pellet, so she couldn’t gain speed. That’s right, the obstacle in this wasteland area are these scarecrow gunmen. Since there aren’t any guns in this world, they don’t know what the scarecrows are shooting. Naturally, these aren’t lead shots, these are rubber pellets shot not by gunpowder but by magic. They’re pretty painful, but only about as painful as a flick to the forehead. Even so, it can have the same power as a real firearm with little adjustments.

The runners seem to have noticed that they are being hit by actual physical objects instead of magic, as they created shields with magic and have decided to endure the barrage. Naturally, they’re forestalled because they can’t pick up speed. The gap between the runners quickly closed up and the coming end result is still far from unpredictable.

…… Why is Suzy holding one of the scarecrow gunmen’s revolver? When did she find the time to snatch it……

Continuing onwards, the third runners advance to the sixth stage. The sixth stage is the tropical rainforest area. The vines hang from the tall trees, which naturally block the runners’ path. On this stage, the four runners roughly simultaneously…- no, Suzy is lagging behind just a bit, Oh, wait, it’s fairly obvious considering the revolver in her hand, but anyway, they all entered roughly at the same time and began accelerating with their respective magic.

『Now then, the sixth stage is a tropical forest! Everyone! Please watch out for insects and snakes~!』Sharl knows her thing. When speaking of rainforests, one needs to be careful about reptiles like crocodiles and snakes, insects, and spiders. Oh, look, see the thin long thing that just fell on Kiara’s head……

「!? ???」

That’s quite the unlady-like shriek…… What fell on top of her head was a long and thin snake… not, it’s a long and thin tentacle. It’s Lil Shoggo’s body split. Unlike snakes, it doesn’t bite but making use of its slippery body, it slithers inside her clothes.

These mini-Shoggo raining down on all the runners are difficult to block with magic, and they coil and grab on once touched to hinder advancement, quite the unpleasant obstacles they are to the runners.

※Excluding Suzy that is. Why is she petting the mini-Shoggo so happily? The mini-Shoggo doesn’t seem to be any displeased, but Suzy seems especially pleased. Putting the actual result of the race aside, if I had to choose who won amongst the third runners, it’s unmistakably Suzy.2 Lyly: Kek, why does everyone know she’s hiding her strength? Well, if I had to say, she might just not want to show her power before next year, since it’s been said that things get really duel-ly on the second year.Lyly: Honestly, they can stop the magic fest here, Suzy already won lol.