“Alright everyone, gather in pairs, as for you Michael stand back, your level is a bit too high”
Michael and the others were currently gathered inside the training center where he got his sniper.
After yesterday’s events, he wasn’t sure of what kind of position he wanted to take. He is proficient in gunplay, snipers especially.
However, if they were useless in this world, what was the point in satisfying his fantasy?
He would still use guns for now, as at his current level they were still incredibly good.
Michael stood back and watched the others group into pairs, getting ready to fight, however, there was one person who was staring directly at him.
It was Kevin.
He walked up to the teacher and told her something, right after that she walked up to me.
“Do you want to fight Kevin? He does not mind the level difference.”
Michael glanced at Lena and nodded. He didn’t have anything better to do anyway.
They both walked up to the arena and got into their stances, Michael was obviously not going to use his sniper rifle here, and neither was anyone else.
This was pure combat with no weapons, so he could still use his skills.
With Michael’s current buffs and the Shield of Nourishment skill, he was practically unbeatable for those under level 50.
But at the same time, he did not have any attack skills either, making him just a normal guy with above average stats.
Michael was the first to start off the spar, he ran at Kevin and tried performing a leg sweep.
That, however, didn’t go as planned, as in the next moment, darkness descended. Michael was not able to see or feel anything, the only thing he could still do was hear.
Even then, it didn’t prove to be of much use as Kevin’s footsteps were completely silent.
However, Michael had somewhat of a cheat skill, that being Eyes of the Healer. While he couldn’t directly see Kevin, he could still see the HP bar right above his head.
As Michael turned directly towards Kevin, it startled him, causing him to cast another skill on Michael which binded his movement.
The difference in stats was instantly seen as with a small jerk of his foot, Michael was able to escape the shackles of darkness, albeit not intentionally.
Kevin decided to finally face Michael head on, as he began throwing punches everywhere on Michael’s body, however, every time he did so, it felt as if a water barrier blocked his punch.
Michael took this chance while Kevin was still relatively close to him and punched straight at his face.
As the punch was about to connect Kevin once again used his power of shadows, nullifying Michael’s attack, albeit not exactly completely.
Kevin was pushed back a few meters and Michael still had his shield up, even if he couldn’t see or feel, from what he could tell the spar was still in his favor.
‘If only I had some kind of a skill that could remove magic, similar to my Purify..’ Michael thought with slight annoyance, if he wasn’t able to see Kevin’s HP bar, he would have lost in the first few seconds.
The spar continued in the same direction, Kevin attacked, Michael absorbed and hit back, however, none of his attacks landed yet.
With the way this duel was going, it was likely going to be a draw.
Whatever skill Kevin was using, messed up Michael’s senses enough to make the fight equal.
Michael recast the Shield of Nourishment skill on himself every few minutes just to be safe.
After a couple more minutes, Lena’s voice resounded “That’s enough, you guys are each other’s counters, this spar is a draw.”
At her words, Michael’s vision returned, as well as his sense of feeling. His body felt a little numb, possibly due to overexertion.
He glanced at Kevin and saw his face a little roughed up, it seemed even as he was able to negate Michael’s attacks, the damage slowly built up.
He had a sour expression on his face and walked away.
‘Does this guy hate me or something?’ Michael thought. It’s been twice now that he just walked away from him.
I wouldn’t be surprised.
‘I didn’t ask for your opinion’ Michael shot back and sat down, watching the other spars finish up.
He paid the most attention to Chloe and Elizabeth, those 2 girls had impressive skills.
Elizabeth, while only being a simple swordswoman, was able to cut apart magic and attack at very high speeds, with her hands no less.
Michael could only wonder what happens when she uses a sword.
Next up was Chloe and she was especially amazing. She could appear behind her opponent and attack them, or quite literally create a gash in the air and block an attack.
Safe to say, the people Michael took an interest in, were exceptional, even by his current standards.
Cutting magic, teleporting? Those 2 were definitely people he wanted in his party.
And then there was Kevin, he couldn’t gouge his skills as he was quite literally unable to see or feel anything the entire fight.
If he had to guess, it’s either something related to mind magic, however, he was not 100% sure.
After about an hour of sparring, they were all exhausted.
Lena clapped her hands a few times to get everyone’s attention “That is enough, everyone head back to class, I still have a few things to discuss with you all.”
Michael was the first to leave, he was by no means tired, the numbness he felt earlier had gone away pretty fast.
Navigating through the halls, he was able to see quite a lot of people there, it seemed it was break time for others as well.
He walked past the group of people, only some paying attention to him, others seemed disinterested.
‘How are the adults so fanatical about the Saint but the kids don’t even acknowledge my existence’ Michael thought with a small frown.
He didn’t exactly mind it that much, he just didn’t understand why they were all ignoring him.
He arrived at class and waited a couple of minutes for the others to arrive, followed by Lena herself.
Everyone took their seats and Lena began explaining.
“The thing I wanted to tell you all is related to the clubs, starting this year, every single person in the academy must be a part of a club, no exceptions.”
She proceeded to walk around and give us a few stacks of paper with all different kinds of clubs written down.
Michael read through them all, however, didn’t notice any that were too outstanding.
Just as he was about to pick a random one, his eyes landed on the ‘Mana Control’ club.
The description said they were people who didn’t think skills mattered so they began attempting to manipulate mana.
However, from what Michael could see, they were not successful. Not passing a single inspection of progress.
They would also be closed down if no one joined them this year, which thankfully for them, Michael intended to sign up.
He scribbled his name right next to the Mana Control club and gave the piece of paper back to Lena.
She glanced at the paper, her eyes slightly narrowing “Are you sure?”
Michael nodded and she took the paper back to the podium, placing it on her makeshift desk.
After a couple more minutes, everyone had already finished handing their papers in.
“Good, I will inform the clubs of your choices, you can go there tomorrow after classes are finished. You can go now” Lena picked up the stack of papers and carried it out through the door.
Michael stayed behind for a moment, he wanted to try channeling mana after everyone left.
However, one person stayed, it was Chloe.
Michael paid no mind to her, she was just reading some sort of book with a bored expression.
‘Any tips?’ He asked the system and tried manipulating mana.
Focus on the feeling you get when you cast a skill, I won’t give you any more freebies until you show progress.
Michael put on a smile on his face ‘I didn’t expect you to actually help, thank you.’
Michael began casting skills on himself, trying to feel some kind of a connection, however, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t feel a thing.
An hour later and one empty mana pool later, he was still unable to feel anything.
‘Are you sure your advice is not some kind of a scam? I have been trying for the last hour and I couldn’t feel a thing.’ Michael complained to the system.
It is not my fault you are stupid, just keep trying until you get it.
Michael took a deep breath and calmed down, he was not going to let the system irritate him further.
He decided to try a little bit more, just after recovering a bit of his mana.
His current mana regeneration rate was at 384 points per hour, which meant he could cast Purify every 5 minutes, it was his cheapest skill after all.
And so he did, for the next couple of hours, until eventually he passed out on his desk.
—–
‘Ugh.. fuck’ Michael opened his eyes, a massive headache assaulting him.
Congratulations, it took 13 mana exhaustions to finally knock you out.
‘What are you even talking about’ Michael said as he stood up from his chair, noticing it was already dark outside.
As he looked around the classroom, he noticed something was on his back, it was some kind of a blanket.
‘Did Lena come back? How sweet of her’ Michael thought and headed back home, his driver waiting for him as always.
You were pretty close to getting it, a few more weeks and you might finally be able to control mana.
‘Right..about that, what happens when I do, will it register as some kind of a skill?’
No, it’s one of the prerequisites of obtaining a mana core, therefore it won’t count as a skill. Furthermore, getting skills will become exponentially harder once you reach level 200, so make sure to combine everything you can and get the highest rarity skills.
‘Sure, that’s what I planned on doing anyway, I still have 14 more skills I can gain and combining them should earn me at least a couple of legendary skills’ Michael expressed his thoughts and leaned back in the back seat.
He was planning on practicing mana control for the entire night.
