[Author's note: The rank one student in vane academy is "Susan Grey" not "Sarah Grey". I made a mistake and have been using sarah since chapter 122. Sarah is a character in another one of my novels, and I got both of their names mixed up since they both start with "S". I've edited it though, and changed it to "Susan Grey".
***
'I lost… I failed the quest.'
He might have won if he had simply activated [Accelerate], but his pride didn't let him do so. Since he could tell his stats were still higher, he felt that using [Accelerate] and winning with it would be somewhat shameful.
He felt that he had been relying on [Accelerate] too much these days, even back in the beast forest, it was the skill that contributed the most to his wins.
He wanted to try winning with just his stats and since they were higher than Susan's he though that he would defeat her.
What he just didn't expect was for Susan for defeat him, and she did it with only a few moves.
"Hey, aren't you going to get up?" He heard a soft voice say to him.
Harry slowly looked back up, his eyes met that of a blonde haired girl staring down at him her hand stretched out to him.
Harry sighed, realizing that he had been laying on the ground for quite some time. He took Susan's hand and she helped him up—not that he needed it—with a slight smile.
'Probe.' Harry mumbled inwardly while staring at Susan. He walked back to the other two students who kept staring at him as if he was an alien.
Jon and Lin were shocked at what they had just witnessed. While Susan still won at the end, the fact that Harry managed to make her cast her spells was mind boggling.
'Is he really just a stage one Elementalist…?' That was the thought that was going through their minds.
Though all three of them were supposed to fight Susan together, but despite only Harry going up against her, he still managed to hold his ground for a few minutes.
In comparison to when both of them sparred against her where Susan did not use any spell, but they still didn't manage to land a single hit on her, Harry's was very impressive.
Cold sweat dripped from their faces and in their mind, they prayed and wished they never had to go up against those two.
'Monsters…' They mumbled inwardly. They looked at each other and without saying not as much as a single word, each of them understood what the other was thinking.
As for Harry, he didn't even care about what his teammates thought of him and was only focused on the set of tabs in front of him.
——
[Name: Susan Grey]
[Race: Human]
[H/P: 90/100]
[Mana Core: 3rd Stage]
[Mana: 4700/6100]
[Strength: 59]
[Agility: 70]
[Stamina: 68]
[Perception: 73]
[Endurance: 68]
[Intelligence: 83]
[Mental: 79]
[Charm: 73]
——
Seeing her stats, a wry smile appeared on Harry's face. It had increased quite a bit from the last time he scanned her with [Probe].
He finally understood why he lost the fight. Though he had higher stats, he still wasn't able to defeat Susan because of the difference in skill.
It was obvious that Susan was a person who had trained herself, both in the sword and also her physical body from a young age.
Her stats alone spoke lengths of how strong she was and it couldn't be compared to that of the other Elementalist in the academy.
As for him, the only thing he had were his stats and his numerous skills. When it boiled down to actual combat skills, he couldn't compare to Susan.
He hadn't even had the system for up to a year yet, so actual fighting skills and abilities weren't his forte.
Apart from that, he also held back, refraining from using his more powerful skills like [Wind Slash] and [Wind burst].
Since those skills were "tier two spells" in the eyes of others, he couldn't activate them recklessly in front of other Elementalist, so he had to keep them hidden to avoid unnecessary attention.
Though he had already identified the reason he lost, he still pained about the twenty stat points that he lost.
'I really don't like this feeling… losing.' He thought. He felt quite annoyed that he had to hold back his true strength every time, however, he knew this was sure to change in the future.
He would make sure he became so strong that no one would be able to make him feel fear about revealing his true prowess.
Focusing his attention back on what was going on around him, he noticed that Susan was busy giving the other two students tips on where they failed and how they could improve.
When she got to him, her eyes lingered on him for a few seconds before she turned her head away.
The images of their fight kept playing in her mind and she felt somewhat embarrassed about it.
Harry was strong, and that was something she hadn't expected, if she hadn't taken the spar more seriously, she would have lost.
While she didn't use her full strength, due to Jon and Lin who were also in the room, she still used tier two and tier three spells, hereby going against her promise to only use tier one spells.
Although no one said anything about it and she was the only one actually putting too much thought on it, it still made her feel quite embarrassed.
She didn't even bother giving Harry any of the 'tips' she gave the others. His performance was quite good and even she had to admit it.
***
Harry walked around the academy compound that seemed rather livelier than usual.
This wasn't surprising as the drawing competition was definitely shaking up the academy, and keeping the students on edge.
Most of them were either immersed in training or in gossip.
He had already finished his training with Susan and was now on his way back to the lightning hall.
His goal for this ranking competition wasn't to become the rank one student, his plan was to simply secure himself somewhere in the top ten spot.
With his current strength, and the fact that his strength was bound to increase again before the event itself, becoming a elite student shouldn't be too hard for him.
His main goal was the world inter-academy tournament that would begin about four months from now.
Just as the name implied, it was a tournament in which all the best students from every academy in the world, came together in a competition to show whose the best.
The event was conducted once in every five years and it was organized and sponsored by the adventurer mages organization(AMO).
Since it was a tournament in which only the best students in every academy could participate, not just anyone could get into the tournament.
Every academy in the world would bring their best student—their top twenty five students, to represent their school in the competition.
The tournament wasn't just a competition, it was a ground for young, talented Elementalists to showcase their talents and prowess.
Of course, there would also be a lot of big shots from both the AMO and other private adventurer guild, so it was an opportunity—an opportunity for the students to make themselves known and get into the AMO or any other good guild.
It didn't just benefit the students either, it also benefitted the magical academies.
The academies, whose students showed brilliant potential, would gain recognition and even more support and equipments from the AMO.
Harry sighed, he still had a long way to go, and he still had a lot of things to do, however, he would make sure he didn't fail in any of them.
With the help of the system, a path to the top was guaranteed and he was sure to get there.
His eyes kept darting around, staring at the students who gathered around in groups while discussing.
Just then, his ears picked up a familiar name from the conversation going on in a group some distance away from him.
It was a bunch of three girls and two boys, their voices were low as if they didn't want anyone to hear what they were saying and their expressions were eager.
Usually, doing something like this was impossible but due to his perception which was already quite high, he was able to hear what those around him were saying, as long as he focused enough on it.
—"Have you heard about the duel between the top twenty five ranks?"
'A duel… between the elite ranks?'
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