On the other side, Laxus and Freed had run into trouble.
At the beginning, when the two of them boarded the ship, Laxus was full of confidence, thinking he could easily take care of the sea monster.
The sea monster attacked as expected, but it turned out to have extremely high resistance to magic. After being injured, it immediately fled into the deep sea.
Later, even when Laxus hired many merchant ships as bait, the sea monster didn't appear.
The mission target hid in the deep sea and wouldn't come out, causing Laxus's progress to stagnate.
In this situation, giving up was impossible. Laxus's pride wouldn't allow him to fail any mission.
Especially since this was the S-Class Mage Promotion Exam—failure was absolutely not an option.
This setback was due to his carelessness earlier. This time, he had to be fully prepared.
For the next period, Laxus and Freed dove into the sea every day to search for the monster's traces. Once they found it, Freed would set up Jutsu Shiki to ensure the monster could never escape again.
Meanwhile, Lucas and Erza had returned to the guild. When Makarov announced that they had completed the S-Class quest and Lucas had successfully been promoted to S-Class Mage, the guild instantly boiled over.
Fairy Tail hadn't produced a new S-Class Mage in over twenty years.
This showed just how difficult it was to become one.
Now that Lucas had been promoted, everyone was naturally very excited.
A guild with only one S-Class Mage was completely different from a guild with two.
S-Class Mages were the ace mages of a guild, representing its face. Every S-Class Mage was a monster-level powerhouse.
They were symbols of hard power.
It was like the difference between a gaming guild having two super-whales versus one.
The stronger the guild, the greater its fame, and naturally, the prouder its members felt.
At the same time, the greater the guild's fame, the more resources it would obtain, which was directly related to every mage's personal interests.
As peers, mage guilds competed with each other. Who wouldn't want to be looked at with respect when people heard they were from Fairy Tail? So, everyone strove to make the guild stronger.
Then, Makarov announced a banquet to celebrate the birth of the new S-Class Mage.
Hearing about the banquet, the guild members became even more excited.
In the blink of an eye, a month was about to pass. There was less than a day left until the end of the S-Class exam.
Guild members were discussing it.
"Looks like Laxus failed his promotion quest."
"Yeah! S-Class quests aren't that easy to complete."
S-Class quests were commissions that only S-Class Mages in the guild could take, but that didn't mean S-Class Mages could definitely complete them.
Even for S-Class Mages, most S-Class quests were life-threatening, so they generally weren't willing to take them either.
The only one in the guild who treated S-Class quests like play was Gildarts. But Gildarts had a free-spirited personality and loved to wander. When he went out on a quest, no one knew when he would return.
Seeing the sun about to set, Makarov took a deep drag from his pipe and exhaled slowly.
Honestly, he hadn't intended to give Laxus the qualification to participate in the S-Class exam this time because Laxus's personality was too rebellious.
But Gildarts had persuaded him that Laxus would grow up eventually, and suppression would only lead to greater rebellion. That was why he allowed Laxus to participate.
Lucas had good character and personality, powerful magic, and unmatched talent for learning magic.
So he set such a difficult exam, intending to humble both of them, to make them understand that there are always people better than you.
Unexpectedly, Lucas, that little monster, not only completed the request but did so beautifully. That was when he realized just how strong Lucas truly was.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed someone could reach this level of strength in just half a year.
Watching the sun about to set—once it dipped below the horizon, the exam time would officially end.
"Did he fail? That's fine too."
Although Laxus was his grandson, he hoped Laxus could grow through this exam.
At the very last moment before sunset.
Two figures appeared at the entrance of the Fairy Tail guild.
"Laxus and Freed!!"
Both were covered in injuries, but their eyes were spirited. Everyone in the guild looked at them.
Laxus raised his fist and shouted excitedly, "I... I completed the S-Class quest! I'm promoted to S-Class Mage!!"
"Ooooooh!!!"
Hearing this, everyone in the guild cheered.
Although Laxus was somewhat arrogant in the guild usually, he wasn't yet calling Fairy Tail members "trash" or "weaklings" like he would in the future.
On the contrary, Laxus was Makarov's grandson, raised in Fairy Tail since childhood—a true "red root and upright seedling."
Many felt that when the Master retired in the future, Laxus would definitely inherit the position.
On another note, Laxus's success meant Fairy Tail had birthed two S-Class Mages at once.
And not through some ordinary exam—these were mages who had completed actual S-Class quests. Such an achievement contained absolutely no fluff.
Having two more S-Class Mages in the guild was incredibly uplifting news.
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