A frown covered Lone's face. "I'm not getting any more skill levels..."

Nothing was really happening to him right now besides that fact that he hadn't taken a breath of oxygenated air in over 10-minutes. That and the Grand Aqua Serpent kept coiling around him and biting his body, but neither of those things phased him when he could passively heal most of the damage and cover the rest with MP from the Eternal Mana Crystal.

Hell, the magical monster trying its best to end his life could barely even injure Lone past light physical wounds since he had a 95% resistance towards water magic thanks to the late Seeker Lisa. 

Since he wasn't in any danger, he decided to quickly pull up the information of his newly-levelled up resistances.

Passive Skill: Lightning Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Lightning Magic.

Lightning Magic used on the host will be weakened by 60% [+30%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Expert Level 10

Passive Skill: Air Magic Resistance

A skill that allows the host to resist all forms of Air Magic.

Air Magic used on the host will be weakened by 30% [+15%].

Cost: N/A Mastery: Advanced Level 5

"For so many mages working together, it really didn't level up nearly as much as I was expecting. A rank up is always nice, but I mean, c'mon... To be fair, they're all D to B-rankers working as hard as they can to take down the big bad fox," Lone chuckled to himself as his eyes slowly shifted between the distant green flame and the looming armoured golem.

"Well, I've gotten what I can out of this guy, so it's about time that I dealt with you, huh?" Lone asked the watery construct of magic.

"Now, the question is, how do I destroy you?" Lone asked as he began thinking of what magic would work best against the serpent.

"He thinks he can destroy that?"

"Admittedly, it can't hurt him much, but that has all of our mana in it!"

"Right. Even if he's durable, so is it. Even a double-X-ranker might struggle to deal with it."

"Hah! I'd like to see him try! He'll sooner run out of Mana Points before he'll defeat our Grand Aqua Serpent!"

"It looks like you nature magic, fire magic, and earth magic students won't get a chance to shine. Nor will the other groups. We'll be stopping him right here."

"Shows those arrogant seniors right. Who says freshmen and upperclassmen aren't a force to be reckoned with when we work together?"

"Yeah!"

"That's right!"

Lone hated to end a party, but he'd finally come to a decision. "Dehydration."

"What?!"

"He knows such an advanced water magic spell?!"

"I heard he has a 100% affinity for water magic as well, but to know such a dangerous spell like that... the serpent won't survive that!"

Seconds ticked on by as absolutely nothing happened. If anything, the Grand Aqua Serpent had actually gotten even fiercer and begun squeezing Lone's body even tighter.

"Hahaha! Thank the Primals, I was getting worried over nothing. It must be beginner rank. I thought it would be advanced at the very least considering he's the headmaster's disciple."

"Tch. I was sure our green flame would have had a chance to shine."

"Hey, we all agreed that the fire magic student's flame would be the last thing we'd rely on. Don't complain."

"Whatever. He's gonna run out of mana at this rate. This is boring."

"Right? I did expect a simple Air Domain and a water serpent to be enough to defeat him."

Lone couldn't care less about the relaxing students. He was busy focusing on the blue screens that were appearing in front of his eyes like a torrential wave.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 2.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 10.

Congratulations! the host's active water magic skill [Dehydration] has levelled up! It is now Intermediate Level 1.

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"One minute, one rank!" Lone suddenly yelled, catching every's attention. "Now this is what I'm talkin' about! Let's keep this train-a-chuggin'!"

"W-What?"

"No way..."

"T-The serpent is getting a bit smaller!"

"H-He ranked up a skill so quickly!"

"That's impossible! Even for the most talented water magic genius on the planet, Lady Misha, the Advent of Waves, ranking up a skill like Dehydration took her years!"

"H-He must be lying! T-There's no way he went up an entire rank! He must have already been at the very edge of ranking up!... R-Right?"

"That's right! Anything else is impossible!"

"I was getting worried there... If it's only that, then we can still deal with it. Water mages, focus your minds and channel your MP into the Grand Aqua Serpent! Now isn't the time to be relaxing!"

Suddenly, the air in the entire oxygenless domain became so dry that you could physically see the lacking moisture.

"Hahaha! Another minute, another rank up! You guys might wanna, like, destroy the serpent to get back what little MP you can, 'cause if you don't, I sure as fuck will," Lone declared.

The Grand Aqua Serpent started thrashing about violently as if it were in pain. Large chunks of its body evaporated and it wouldn't be long until the entire magical creature had been utterly destroyed.

"He actually ranked up Dehydration again..."

"T-That's insane!"

"W-What do we do?"

The leader of the water mages frowned. She knit her brow then sighed. "Everyone, quickly put all of your efforts into retracting your MP from the serpent! You have 20-seconds before it's gone! Be quick in cutting your link to it as well!"

'Huh, that's surprisingly sensible,' Lone thought as he watched from within the Air Domain.

The freshmen and upperclassmen under the girl's command did as they were told and expertly drained the Grand Aqua Serpent of the power they had used to create it. Of course, they only got a fraction back due to Lone's vicious Dehydration.

"Well, next comes the vines and the big guy, right?" Lone said as he stretched his whole body lightly then he cracked both his back and his neck. "Okay, you guys, I'm about to leave the Air Domain, 'kay? If you air mages could kindly muster up your remaining power to cast a few spells at me, I'd be very thankful."

He turned his attention to the nature mages next. "I'm expecting big things from you guys! Remember that I'm a triple-S-ranker. I only just started learning magic seriously, so you might not know but my stats are actually pretty weighted into the physical ones, so I hope whoever's controlling the vines has a good eye and excellent control. I'd rather not stand still just so they can hit me if they, like, attack automatically."

"He wants to get hit by them?"

"Why's he giving us information?"

"Is he looking down on us?"

"I am," Lone happily replied to that last comment before he stared at the 20-foot-tall golem wrapped in armour. "And you! You're made out of earth and metal magic, right? Then I'll only use earth and metal magic to beat you. I did the same with the serpent, so it seems only fair."

"Hoh, you're studying all three of the earth magic schools, aren't you, Student Lone?" the leader of the earth mages asked.

He was a tall young man with a stocky build, though he looked tiny when compared to the likes of Grand Guildmaster Sarah or Professor Ruairidh. Regardless, he was still twice Lone's size. His staff looked to be a carved stalagmite and actually looked pretty cool in Lone's opinion.

"Yup, sure am. You controlling this guy?" Lone asked as he slowly started walking through the Air Domain.

"That I am. I don't wanna kill you like a lot of the other people here though, but I do plan on breaking a lot of your bones. No hard feelings yeah? It's just some training, hahaha," the leader shouted with vigour.

Lone grinned. "If you can break 'em, I'll give you a kiss. My bones are known to be pretty damned tough."

To the side, the leader of the nature magic mages frowned deeply. 'Are they ignoring my vines? He's as arrogant as they say. I'll kill him the second he leaves that flimsy domain. That way, I can court Miss Sophie in peace... Headmaster Erion shouldn't hold a grudge, right? He's the one that allowed the killing of The Wanderers, after all...'

As Lone and the leader of the earth mages were conversing, the leader of the fire mages simply kept a knowing smile on her face as she maintained the green flame with the help of her juniors.

"Ah, would you look at that. I'm at the edge of the Air Domain already. I was enjoying our conversation. You're a pretty cool guy, Mr Earth Leader," Lone said wistfully.

"Haha, my name's Darius Foldheim mus Crodavio, not Mr Earth Leader," the bulky young man responded as he tightened his posture and fully took control of the colossus from his fellow earth mages.

"Christ, and people call me arrogant. That name's way too long," Lone joked as he stretched his legs and did some calculations with his eyes. "Darius it is. I've recently learned a new earth magic skill in class, so I kind of want to test it out. Don't pass out immediately, yeah? I can tell that you're mentally linked to this thing, so grit your teeth, okay?"

No one really knew what he was going on about. Everyone knew that the very first spell that was taught in the beginner earth magic class was the very simple and very weak Crude Stone FIst.

"And you, Mr Nature Leader. I'm gonna leave the Air Domain in three, two, one." A vortex of wind and dust was kicked up from where Lone was once standing.

A loud noise clapped the air and assaulted everyone's ears. Before anyone could process what had happened, Lone's voice sounded out from easily 20-feet away from where he was just standing.

"Stone Fist!" Nobody could see him quite yet, only hear him. Not a second later, the whole arena began rumbling as it trembled fiercely.

The next thing that happened was truly shocking. The armoured colossus collapsed, resulting in a massive sandstorm kicking up.

When the sand and dust had finally settled down enough, the mages, awaiting challengers, as well as all of the spectators, they could clearly see a massive fist imprint on the golem's chest while Lone stood at its feet with a grin on his face.

he had strapped the Eternal Mana Crystal to his waist. In his left hand hovered his lexicon as it peacefully spun, his right hand, however, was surrounded by a thick and cracked fist made entirely out of stone. The fist was easily the same size as Lone's entire torso.

"W-What on Altros?!"

"T-That h-has to be a subskill!"

"There's no way a Stone Fist can be so large!"

Clearly, the students were so panicked that they were simply forgetting about the earlier stated fact that Lone's weapon could amplify all of his magic by a whopping three times.

"I know you're not beat yet, right?" Lone teased as he patiently watched Darius struggle to get his colossus to stand again, though with the help of his fellow mages, get it to stand he did. "And you, Mr Nature Leader, c'mon. Sure, I went fast enough to break the sound barrier, but can you really not keep up with me like that? I'll have you know, I was even holding back my speed for your sake."

The man's face heated up in embarrassment. "T-That was holding back?"

Everyone had to agree. Just how fast could this SSS-ranker move? Clearly, his power had still been underestimated despite the rumours and stories about him being more than public knowledge.