Both fighters coated their bodies in aura, and Amelia began the fight by ung a wooden arrow imbued with her aura at Mikael.

  The arrow flew fast, but not fast enough that Mikael couldn’t dodge. It whistled past his ear as he charged toward her through a hail of arrows.

  He dodged most of her arrows with ease until, uedly, one of the arrows curved mid-air and hit him from the side.

  “Argh!” he grunted as the impact sent him flying. Fortunately, he’d sehe threat just in time and increased his aura output before the arrow hit, but even so, he was thrown back several meters.

  He skidded along the ground befaining his footing, only to see three arrows already hurtling toward him—aimed at his head, chest, and legs. He quickly ducked his head, sshed the arrow aimed at his torso, and used his aura-coated leg to kick the st arrow away.

  Even with his defenses, Amelia’s arrows—enhanced by her higher E- rank—still packed a punch, and he was knocked back agaie the impact, the force was far more manageable this time.

  Dodging her arrows, he charged at her, weaving through the projectiles. Within moments, he was close enough to strike, sending a vertical ssh toward her. She calmly raised her bow to block, and the two wooden ons cshed with a loud “Thwack!”

  But Mikael didn’t stop there. The moment she raised her bow, he aimed a swift kick at her ribs. He wasn’t the novice who’d just started training with Kiara—his unarmed bat skills were solid.

  “Ugh,” she grunted in pain and surprise as his kick ected, briefly disrupting her focus. Mikael seized the opportunity to thropercut with his left hand.

  Amelia saw the puning at the st sed and tried to pull her head back, but it wasn’t enough.

  “Wham!” Mikael’s fist struck her jaw, sending her flying back. It almost looked like something out of a movie, except this was all too real. She nded on her back with a loud “Thud.” Before she could rise, she felt the point of his on at her throat.

  In the moment, the barrier enveloped her, signaling her defeat. Amelia sighed and looked up at Mikael with a determined glint in her eyes. “I lost. Well pyed, but ime I’ll wi—”

  Before she could finish, she was teleported away.

  Uanding her unfinished words, Mikael thought to himself, ‘Well pyed, huh? Holy, this small area favored close-bat fighters over an archer like her. If I hadn’t won, I’d really be trash.’

  Mikael’s thoughts were interrupted by a voice from his bracelet. “gratutions. You are the st oanding in the sed test. You’ll be teleported shortly.”

  [The quest "Aim for the Top" has been pleted. Rewards: 3K LP]

  As soon as he read the notifiikael was surrounded by the familiar blue barrier and then teleported out.

  As the teleportation began, he once again found himself in what seemed like space, moving at an inprehensible speed before he finally touched dowumbled slightly but quickly regained his footing, already adjusting to the teleportation and feeling less nauseous.

  Just as he was about to take in his surroundings, a foul odor hit him. "Ugh!" he muttered, wrinkling his nose. "What is that smell?" He looked around and noticed traces of vomit on the ground a few meters away.

  ‘Seriously, some people actually threw up? Well, I ’t bme them—teleportation is ing, and it’s probably worse for those with weaker bodies.’

  Returning to his thoughts, he took a more detailed look at his surroundings and noticed Amelia croug nearby, looking sick.

  He took a step baot particurly ied in beiarget if she was about to vomit… However, she seemed to just be queasy rather than that sick, and she quickly stood up, a trace of blood at the er of her mouth from the strong uppercut she had received.

  As she rose, she noticed him and looked momentarily stunned before turning to head toward the infirmary, clutg her sore ribs.

  Just as she was about to leave, a voiterrupted, “Miss Amelia, gratutions on your win!”

  The speaker was a refined young man dressed in luxurious blue clothing that showed no signs of having just been in a forest battle. With bck hair and brown hair, he was retively handsome and was apanied by several other young men who looked like his ckeys.

  Amelia gave him an irritated look and sighed. “Wernon… I didn’t win. He did,” she replied, nodding toward Mikael.

  Wernon took it as a joke and said, "Surely you jest. How could a oner beat you, the proud heir of the Mournsky family, one of the two Duke families?"

  Hearing his words, Amelia grew doubly irritated and replied dryly, "If I say I lost, it means I lost!"

  Amelia was about to leave, but wheiced Wernon’s expression ge from stuo angry, she warned him, "Oh, and I don’t want you causing any problems for him just because he beat me! I lost, and that’s all there is to it. But ime, I’ll be stronger and I’ll win."

  After saying her piece, Amelia turned and walked toward the infirmary. The noble Wernon shot a murderous gre at Mikael but didn’t dare do more than that. Obeying Amelia’s orders, he left without causing a otion.

  Mikael, who had been quietly the se, found his opinion of Amelia rising a notch after seeing her as. He thought, 'She doesn’t seem to be the spoiled ype. pared to the two other nobles I’ve entered so far, she’s... different.'

  'The first one, Eriething, caused a otion by abusing his status just five minutes after the vice principal explicitly forbade it. A true dispy of high intelligence. And the sed? A supreme simp for Amelia, angry at me for winning fair and square just because I was better? What would have made him happy? If I iionally lost? That’s ridiculous.'

  Just as Mikael was about to leave, a s dispying the test scores appeared on the wall, drawing the attention of the remaining groups of people.

  Sed Test Leaderboards:

  1st Mikael Angelini - 11569 Pts

  2nd Amelia Mournsky - 5321 Pts

  3th Lucas Henker - 3200 Pts

  …

  34th Wernon Dirgeglide

  …

  58th Eric Saurdane

  "Is there a noble family named Angelini, or is he a oner?"

  "There’s no noble family with that name. He’s a oner!"

  "Damn, the top scorer is a oner! I’m posting this on social media. The views I’ll get..."

  Hearing the chatter around him, Mikael smiled internally. And why wouldn’t he? This was a step toward being more famous or, at the very least, better known—progress on his quest to achieve widespread reition. Additionally, fame offered a yer of prote against assassination attempts. After all, it’s much easier to kill a nobody than someone in the public eye.

  Ign the rest of the chatter, Mikael turned his focus inward. After assessing his dition, he decided to walk home. His injuries were superficial; nothing was broken. At most, he had some small cuts and an ag body, nothing more.

  He removed his bracelet and ha back to a staff member, making sure to state his name so the Academy would know he had retur. He did the same with the wooden sword before leaving.

  Mikael exited the Academy by following the clearly marked signs and passed uhe still-impressive arched gateway. He walked home aered his house. Onside, he took a quick shower. After all, he had been fighting in a forest for hours, and his clothes were dirty.

  Afterward, he ged into grey sportswear that inally beloo 'him' in this world. Once dressed, he checked the time and saw it was July 5, 23:12. Knowing he o be at the tral Academy by 10 AM the day, he still had plenty of time.

  Havily gained 3K LP, Mikael decided to purchase the Skill Evolution System, as it would be extremely useful for various purposes, such as upgrading his swordsmanship skill to the ier by potentially incorporating aura into it.

  "Records, I’d like to buy the Skill Evolution System."

  [Request possible for a small fee of 100 LP]

  Seeing the response, he sighed. 'I was half-expeg this, but I’d rather take the small detour of leaving this world to save those 100 LP.'

  Having made his decision, he waited the ary five minutes before leaving this world. He reappeared in the Hub, where he immediately searched for the desired system upgrade.

  [Skill Evolution System. Requirements: Skill System, Skill Leveling SystemYour skills evolve when they reach the maximum level of their tier. Price: 3K]

  He purchased it, redug his total LP to 1170. Ohe transa was firmed, Mikael wasted no time and quickly re-ehe world of Dirarnia.

  He appeared in the bedroom where he had left the world. Once back, he prepared to retire the limiter on his stats but paused, thinking, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t remove the limiter. I’ll o hold ba most situations, and I ’t predict when I might o push myself to my absolute limit. Under pressure, I might even exceed what should be physically possible, and that could draw suspi.’

  ‘Hmm, yeah, it would be safer to keep the limiter for moments like those. But what if I get ambushed? In that case, I could just and the Records to remove the limiter on the spot. It’s not perfect, but it’s the best solution I think of.’

  After he fihinking he decided to sleep aed for the wo hours. After this short ‘nap,’ he no longer felt eveely tired. While he still had some light injuries, they had signifitly improved during his rest.

  Once awake, he noticed it was a little before 2 AM and decided to train until the Academy officially began. Moving from his bedroom to the training room, he prepared himself.

  The training room was a rge space with a floor covered in bck carpeting, desigo cushion falls and prevent injuries. The room was divided into two parts: the first resembled a modern-day gym, equipped with all the necessary maes.

  This se also tained a safe holding his mid-tier gravity ring. Oher side of the room was a rge open spaext to which stood a rack holding multiple wooden swords and a training dummy.

  Mikael headed toward the open area. Ohere, he began to reflect.

  ‘Today—or was it yesterday? I’ll just call it today—I realized I’m seriously g in le options. Against Amelia, I had to close the distaween us, which left me wide open to all her attacks… Yeah, not the most effit solution.’

  ‘But how I create a le attack? Amelia was using a bow and crafting aura arrows. Could I make something simir using my aura? Let’s give it a try!’

  He begaing his aura outward, though he wasn’t particurly skilled at it. During his week of training, he had focused more on redug the time it took to trol his aura rather than expanding its range.

  trating, he created a thread made from his aura and attached it to his finger. He theehe thread to its maximum length. However, as the thread reached beyond teers, his trol began to weaken, so he stopped at that distance.

  ‘Teers isn’t amazing, but it’s definitely better than the range of my sword. It could serve as a mid-raion. Now, the question is, what I use it for?’

  ‘Hmm, maybe I could use a thread to trol my sword and turn it into a mid-range on. But if I do that, I’d wo swords—one for my right hand and another ected to the thread from my left hand. Using the thread, I could extend my attack rao teers, and when my trol improves, even further.’

  He approached the rad picked up two training short swords. Pg one on the ground, he created another aura thread, this time linking it to the index finger of his left hand. The thread extended and ected to the sword.

  He lifted the sword into the air, but it wobbled unsteadily. Even as he tried to hold it still, it wriggled under his trol. Despite this, Mikael remained focused, gradually learning how to ma.

  When he raised his fihe sword followed. When he lowered his fihe sword obeyed.

  “Nice. Pretty sick,” he murmured, genuinely impressed by what he was achieving.

  “Swish, swish.” The sword moved through the air under his trol at a slow but steady pace. It wasn’t fast, but it worked—and that was what mattered most.