Mike looked at the scene in front of him and smiled, satisfied. It was a grassland with a tall mountain in the middle. The air temperature was perfect, with little humidity; the sky was clear without any clouds.

It was what one would imagine heaven to look like.

The scene in front of him was fake.

The capital's S-Grade school is the best in the country, with the most advanced and expensive equipment and facilities. The school library contains nearly all books published in the last few centuries. There are magical labs of many different bloodlines, quick access to experimental materials, and more. It is simply one of the best places for talented geniuses. The school has all of those facilities despite the fact that it is not focused on any of those subjects; the S-Grade school of the capital is nearly entirely focused on training battle mages.

The place where Mike stood was one of the most expensive magical formations in the country; it is called Virtual Reality. Its biggest use is to allow magicians to gain battle experience without actually endangering their lives.

In front of him was his history teacher, known as Mage Book Scholar.

After what happened back then, Mike and Mage Book Scholar became very close. Even though Mage Book Scholar is now old, he is still quite powerful. After all, he used to be a soldier in the army and regularly went outside the Great Wall to do missions. Even as an old man, he is still far more powerful than the current Mike.

As magicians age, they lose mental capacity and the ability to cast spells quickly, but their magical abilities remain strong. Aside from being a little slower, the Mage Book Scholar is not much weaker than at his peak. However, if his mental state deteriorates further, he may one day be unable to cast a single spell.

He retired at the age of 80, as is traditional for magicians, not because he was unable to fight but because his expertise and experience were more useful in the school rather than on the battlefield. As an army soldier, Mage Book Scholar was not up to the standard to become a combat teacher at this S-Grade school, but his research in history was well-known, and his combat ability and experience outside the Graet wall helped his selection as the history teacher.

"Mike, you are talented but not yet powerful enough to defeat me!" said the 85-year-old man, looking at the 11-year-old child in front of him with deep eyes. He had already fought Mike a few times. Though he never admitted it, the truth is that he has to be very careful. The difference in their skill has shrunk to the point where he might really lose if he takes the child in front of him as an easy opponent. Of course, in their battles, he would not use his high-level spells; the two fight only using low-level spells; he can easily defeat Mike if he uses high-level spells.

As a much more experienced warrior, he defeated Mike every time, not with overwhelming power but with a better battle strategy. However, Mike has been getting better at an unbelievable speed. The teacher predicts that he will no longer be able to defeat Mike in a few months.

"Self-invisibility," the old man cast his spell and disappeared. His speed was amazing. Basically, the moment he said the "S" of "Self invisibility," he had already disappeared from Mike's sight.

Mike, a transmigrator with extensive experience, was not fazed. He lost a few times, firstly because his total usable Bloodline power was much smaller than that of the old man in front of him. After all, his body is a child, and the demonic bloodline has yet to grow and mature fully. Second, the battles of this world are very different from those of his previous world, so it took a while to adapt.

But during the last few months, thanks to the old man in front of him, he has improved significantly. He has 85% confidence that he can defeat his teacher.

"Enhanced vision," Mike cast. His casting speed was much faster than that of his very experienced teacher. This was not only because Mike was mentally sharper than his teacher but also because his talent was far better; the spell activated before he even said 'E' of 'Enhanced Vision'.

With enhanced vision, Mike finally saw his teacher and a rapidly approaching fireball. Obviously, after his teacher cast self-invisibility, he cast a fireball with the spell invisibility on top of it.

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"Water shield!" Mike cast. Even though the fireball was very close, his casting speed was faster. The water shield appeared in front of him just in time.

Fire and water collided, exploding into a sea of fog. Mike, with his enhanced vision, could see through the mist but didn’t find his teacher.

"360-degree vision," he cast.

After a moment of looking with 360-degree vision, his expression changed. He followed up with another spell.

"Shadow jump," he disappeared and appeared ten meters away. The next moment, a massive rock fell on the exact place he had just been standing.

Unhappy with constantly defending, he cast "Stonewall." Without waiting, he cast another three spells: "Fireball," "Windball," and finally "Merge." It sounds long, but with his talent, Mike cast all these spells nearly instantly.

The fourth spell he cast was "Penetrating Light." Its function was to shine and remove all shadows.

The fire and stone merged and formed lava. The wind hit them and splashed them over a wide area. Mike cannot cast any high-grade spell at his age, but using this technique, he, to some extent, made up for his deficiency.

Mage Book Scholar knew he had no chance of dodging such a vast attack, so he cast an "Ice shield" to simply defend against the coming spell.

However, he knew that he could not stay in one place; otherwise, Mike would defeat him. So, he also cast "Dispel" toward the "Penetrating light."

The Mage Book Scholar knew more than ten spells that could be used to immediately 'teleport,' but in this situation, he could only use shadow jump. He had at least two other superior spells, but he didn’t use those. Shadow jump is very accurate and can be cast quickly and with perfect precision. It is good enough.

However, even though he wanted to cast it, he could not cast shadow jump now because Michael's penetrating light spell removed all shadows. That is why he cast dispel on it.

Just as he was casting dispel, a big splash of molten lava hit the ice shield and started melting it at an alarming rate. Fortunately for him, the dispel worked, and shadows returned. The next moment, he cast a shadow jump and ran away.

Mike, who had still kept the enhanced vision and 360-degree spells active, immediately saw where his teacher had run to. He shook his head and cast the "Clone" spell.

Nine other Mikes, all exactly like him, appeared and started running in different directions.

Master Book Scholar was astonished to see how skilled Mike had become. He was nowhere near as good as Mike was when he was 11.

"It looks like I have to get serious!" the old man sighed. He had been fighting on equal ground until now, but now it seemed he would really lose if he didn’t use higher-grade spells.

Demon-borns mature completely by age 20. Before that age, however, one's bloodline is immature, and one cannot cast higher-level spells. As a teacher, it would be counterintuitive to cast higher-grade spells when he is trying to test and improve his students' skills.

But maybe out of selfishness, mage Book Scholar didn’t want to lose. He would defeat his student and later justify it; there are lots of excuses he can use.

So, he cast his high-grade spell.

"Fire dragon breath!" As soon as he cast it, a huge fire, completely dwarfing fireballs, appeared, roaring toward Mike and his clones. At the same time, the old man cast another spell, "Spatial lock," to prevent Mike from running away.

Mike looked at the huge fire closing in, helpless. He didn’t have anything remotely comparable. In the face of such a difference in power, he could only wait for his death; no defensive spell could work against such unimaginable fire.

This is the difference between high-grade spells and other spells. Mike was quite sure he could defeat his teacher this time if his teacher only used the same spell ranks as him. But now, his teacher used a high-grade spell. In effect, his teacher admitted that he couldn’t defeat Mike without resorting to cheating.

The fire hit Mike and his clones, killing them all.

...

"You cheated, teacher!" said Mike, sitting on the chair. The battle was on a virtual field, so no one was really harmed.

"Mike, you are a smart child; let me teach you one thing: in this world, only results are important. I haven’t cheated; I just tricked you into thinking that I would only use low-level spells. It was your mistake to believe it. Why should I not use my biggest advantage? Would a demon handicap itself? We are trying to learn how to fight demons. Nearly all adult demons can use at least one high-grade spell, so without using high-grade spells, our training would have no meaning," the old man advised with a kind smile.

Mike became speechless at his teacher's shamelessness. The two had decided before the battle not to use high-grade spells, yet his teacher acted as if it was some kind of deep lesson. If anything, it taught him that he shouldn’t even trust his teacher's words.

"Of course, teacher! I know I shouldn’t trust demons, and I know demons wouldn’t show any mercy toward me. Still, we decided together only to use low-grade spells! Why did you …"

His teacher interrupted, "You are just trying to make excuses. Mike, in the real world, a loser would not be able to make any excuses."

Mike sighed and decided not to continue this useless debate. Obviously, his teacher knew he would lose, so to save face, he used a high-level spell. After this battle, his teacher would probably not train with him anymore. After all, he wouldn’t want to lose to his own student.

"Alright, teacher! Let's go. We shouldn’t let Master Mage Demonic Hand wait for us too long!" said Mike.

Master Book Scholar nodded. The two stood up and left.