"Finally, ladies, gentlemen, esteemed Divines, the moment that you have all been waiting for shall begin shortly! Lone Immortus' challenge!" Muradon announced with vigour.
"We all know who he is and what he's infamous for, now don't we? Of course, I'm referring to his participation in the Ancient Darkness Dragon, Ythmagobla's grand defeat! Not only that but he's also known for his recent small-scale war on the Church of the Primals as well as for his renowned prowess as a soul oracle and as a famous adventurer!" A lot of people didn't like the mention of the church since it was a sore spot for believers.
Unfortunately for them, Muradon's unique skill didn't care. It tried its best to hype up and entrance whoever Muradon was talking to but it was also very steadfast in being truthful and accurate, though it tended to skew the facts when the subject at hand was its wielder himself.
"Unfortunately, only Lone shall be participating. Initially, he and Soph Vladimirovich were supposed to battle together as I mentioned at the start of today's event, however, Soph is a bit under the weather today. As a result, Lone will be fighting all on his lonesome," Muradon explained sadly but with a smile, seemingly happy with his little pun. "We'll be expecting a good show in her place, now won't we, Lone?"
"Hmm?" Lone cracked his neck and shrugged. "My goal is to see as many skills as possible but still to win. My priority isn't to be showy, but I guess we have to wait and see how things go down, huh?"
"Indeed! Quite so, Lone, quite so. As a closing note before the fighting begins, Lone has offered the information that while his magic isn't his strongest area of expertise, he does own a powerful weapon that makes him a threat even to triple-X-rankers, so do be careful, everyone," Muradon said with a cheeky grin.
Lone's original earth magic teacher shook like a leaf up in the stands when he recalled how handily Lone had beaten him while Professor Dana began biting her nails in anticipation to see the lexicon put to use in from of her very own eyes.
"Now, we shall begin the challenge! I must note that several of the present Divines have made private requests to Divine Time to allow the final challenge to be segmented into groups. They do not wish to see Lone surrounded by over 3,000 veteran and rookie mages and warriors alike, it would seem. Their hearts are as big as the sun, quite clearly," Muradon said quite happily.
This was news to Lone. 'There's the Aqua Foxkin Clan and Rangah and her dad, but who are the other grou- ah, They're moving into little crowds on their own now.'
Lone patiently waited and made a note of every gathering of challengers he could identify. 'Freshmen and upperclassmen are together but the seniors formed a separate unit? Okay. That lot there seems to be... a private army? Maybe from one of the royals watching today. Ah, those're adventurers. I bet they'll be an easy bunch to beat. Outside of their official groups I'd wager they have no idea how to fight as a collective force to defeat a juggernaut. Those religious nuts... Why the hell do I see Seeker Bright mixed in there? Trying to stealthily get revenge for your fallen seeker friends? Or maybe just trying to test yourself? It doesn't really matter, I'll beat your ass all the same.'
Besides the ones that Lone had noted, there were an additional 20 or so groups that had between 30 and 50 members each.
'Sheesh. I kind of set this whole thing up to avoid fighting so many at once, yeah, but this is kind of... annoying. I had trained to wipe out a thousand people in one fell sweep, not 3,000 and not one chunk at a time... I'm sure I can adapt, but these damned Divines deciding how I'll fight in my own match... Arrogant arseholes,' Lone spat out mentally towards the watching powerhouses.
Before long, everything had been settled and the first group to face Lone had been decided.
The 300-strong army of freshmen and upperclassmen of The Academy stood in formation, ready to attack at a moment's notice.
Lone smirked as he took out his lexicon. "We're finally ready to get this ball rolling, are we? Let's see what you've got, fellow students of mine!" Meanwhile, he privately thought, 'Yes, is this the skill bank? I'd like to make a withdrawal, please. Give me fuckin' everything!'
Lone took his Eternal Mana Crystal out of his Dimensional Storage and held it tightly in his free hand as he yelled, "Protective Enchantment! Magic Dampening Enchantment!"
His body shimmered for a moment, the telltale sign of magic being applied to his body.
Lone had known Magic Dampening Enchantment for quite some time at this point and it was already at master-level-2, an improvement of 2 entire ranks in less than a month. It was one of the few skills that he had been putting extra effort into outside of his usual daily soul oracle training.
As of now, the skill looked like this.
Active Enchantment Magic Skill: Magic Dampening Enchantment
Creates a 48-hour enchantment that weakens the magic of anyone who touches it that isn't the host by 95%.
Can be used on a person, however, 4x the MP shall be consumed, the effect shall only last for 10-minutes, shall only weaken magic by 50%, and this can only be done once per hour.
Cost: 2,000 MP Mastery: Master Level 2
It was insanely cheap for someone with Lone's MP reserves and it was incredibly powerful now that it worked on a person - namely, himself.
As for Protective Enchantment, that was a new one that Eolande had taught him over the last 7-days. It was still beginner rank, but it gave Lone a small resistance to physical force, which, surprisingly, magic spells still held. Earth magic, in particular, could be a rather meaty magic to endure on the physical side.
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In spite of Lone's enchantments, the army of students ignored him and immediately began chanting in unison. There were apparently five main divisions each of which was chanting a spell from a different magic school.
As far as Lone could tell the magic being collected to be used against him were the main schools, water, fire, air, and earth, but the last one was nature magic, surprisingly.
The foxkin had no plans to stop what they were doing since he was here to reap the rewards of their efforts. He happily stood at the ready as he watched the spells power up and gather energy from the collective chanting.
'Syncing a chant like that takes a lot of skill... One mistake and everyone involved suffers a backlash. I guess some of the upperclassmen are pretty amazing, huh?' Lone thought as he licked his lips in anticipation.
The small division of guarding mages gulped in worry upon seeing Lone's confident face. The fact that he wasn't reacting at all or attacking them yet sent chills up some people's spines.
However, given half a minute, the spells were ready. The water mages had created a serpent of pure water that rivalled a whale in size. It roared furiously as it charged towards Lone.
The fire mages had actually managed to pool their knowledge and power to successfully conjure up a wisp of green flame that was only as big as a house cat but it held enough power to decimate an army of 1,000 with ease.
The earth mages on the other hand apparently had several metal mages in their group and had managed to successfully create an armoured colossus of stone which immediately began barrelling towards Lone, though it stopped shy of him by a few dozen feet.
The air mages had done something completely different from the other three main magic schools. They had come together to create a domain around Lone that was free of oxygen. The golem was stood just outside of this domain, waiting for the foxkin to just step out of it in order to crush him.
The nature magic students seemed to have worked in coordination with the air mages as they had set up a defensive array of deadly vines that would try to end Lone's life should he step out of the oxygen-deprived domain alongside the golem.
"Now this is more like it," Lone chuckled, acting completely unaffected by the now poisonous air that was entered his lungs.
For a start, Basic Regeneration was powerful enough to heal any damage being denied the intake of oxygen would do to his body. Not only that but he was already immune to carbon monoxide poisoning from his experiences with harsh fires in Milindo, rendering the risk of passing out as moot.
Poison Resistance really was a useful skill which Lone wasn't sure when, exactly, it would display its worth but whenever it did it came in spades.
The host has developed the air magic skill: Air Domain.
Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Air Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 6.
As the second went by his Air Magic Resistance continued to level up, forcing a big grin to spread across Lone's lips. "Hahaha! This is what I was fuckin' waiting for!"
The water serpent rushed into the domain, unimpeded by the nature vines or the golem. It roared dangerously as it coiled around Lone's body and then bit deeply into his neck.
The host has developed the water magic skill: Grand Aqua Serpent.
An angry look overcame Lone's expression. "What? No resistance. Well, now you're just useless to me, aren't you? Actually... You're made of water, so maybe I can hurt myself a little bit using you?" he said loudly enough for everyone to hear him.
Lone then - while still bound and profusely bleeding from the neck - launched a skill through his lexicon. "Lightning Wave."
The powerful skill of his own creation was bolstered 3-times over thanks to the lexicon. It coursed through the serpent, only making it even more powerful. Water conducted electricity magnificently, after all.
All of Lone's tails, as well as his hair, stood on end as his body violently spasmed but his grin never left his face as he stood still and endured it all. "Hahaha! With enough MP I'm fuckin' invincible!"
Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Lighting Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 10.
Congratulations! the host's passive skill [Lighting Magic Resistance] has levelled up! It is now Expert Level 1.
The resistance kept levelling up until it had reached a staggering expert-level-8. Surprisingly, the armoured golem hadn't entered the Air Domain yet to join the fray. Perhaps whoever was its primary controller felt it wasn't necessary yet since the serpent seemed to be doing well on its own.
Lone had half expected its controller to get impatient and join in on the fun like a typical racist nobleman would, but perhaps they had more than two brain cells to work with after all.
"I-Is he insane?"
"N-No wonder he killed those seekers... He's nuts..."
"To think he made the serpent stronger, not attempt to defeat it... Just what is he doing? Is he a masochist?"
"M-Mum, I'm scared..."
"Don't look at him, Honey. He's clearly a madman."
Anyone with even a lick of skill or power was carefully observing Lone and studying his every action and questioning his every move. Meanwhile, the normal civilians that had just come to watch a show were horrified by Lone's display of apparent raw insanity.
Soph was sitting in a chair that Lone had summoned for her before he went to fight. The girl could barely keep her eyes open from her headaches, but she still managed a wry smile. "Lone's so addicted to getting new skills..."
Eolande was next to her protecting her and she sighed deeply before commenting, "No kidding, right? It's been a while since I last heard that crazed laugh of his. Does he even know how creepy it is?"
Archon Milos, on the other hand, was using powerful utility magic to prevent himself from needing to blink. He didn't want to miss even a millisecond of this fight. "How utterly incredible. How is his body healing so quickly? That's even faster than a Troll King's regenerative speed. Not to mention the strength of that crude magic... Wait, not crude, self-created? Such potential!"
Suffice to say the Divines were more than interested in Lone's Basic Regeneration and his two artefacts as well, particularly the Eternal Mana Crystal.
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Divine Oracle sat upon her throne with a frown on her face. "What tremendous holy power... How did he obtain such an artefact?"
She was staring fixedly at the Eternal Mana Crystal as she spoke to herself. "So much Elphodicmalondal Stone should be impossible to obtain. The Church only has a fistful itself and that took generations upon generations to gather..."
Her lips trembled at the thought of the Eternal Mana Crystal's true value. "that must be at least the size of a child's head... Not to mention the sheer number of grandmasters in so many separate fields that would need to gather to create such an item... It's impossible that it coming into creation would have gone unnoticed by the church's information network..."
She raised one of her delicate hands to her mouth then bit on her index finger in frustration. "And that healing... Such a thing is impossible! Even unique skills have limits, why, however, do I feel that skill is only being used at a fraction of its full potential? How vexing! He must die! I cannot wait for that fool Sigmund to come here to finish him off himself..."
Clearly, not all of the present Divines were interested or impressed by Lone.