As Lucia was heading out to train her new technique that she would be using against Cecil, the boy in question had leisurely made his way out of the campus grounds undetected.

Cecil was on his way to the Ironforge Smithy to go have a look at Silver. It's been a while since he's separated from Silver so Cecil grew a little worried. When he finally arrived, the smithy was just as bustling as ever. Cecil made his way to the back of the smithy into the housing area. He didn't see Radon or his wife anywhere, so Cecil just went ahead towards Silver's small house.

When Cecil went through the door, he found a large ball of fur sprawled on the ground lazily snoozing away without a care. Cecil's mouth twitched a bit seeing the lazy Silver and he walked over and shook him, "Oi, wake up Silv. What are you doing acting so lazy like this..."

Silver didn't respond and instead kept on snoozing away. Cecil walked over to him and began nudging the large wolf's head.

"Oi, wake up already. Don't make me use mana bolt to wake you."

Silver's ear twitched a little and he slowly opened his eyes. He was clearly still a little too sleepy since he only blankly stared and yawned when he saw Cecil. It took another few seconds for Silver to wake up and see that it was his owner that was standing in front of him. The big wolf got up and began licking his owner's face slobbering it a little with his saliva.

Cecil wiped it off and began petting Silver, "Wanna head out and roam a bit?"

"Rawr!" Silver gave an affirmative and stretched his body.

The duo was just about to head out before bumping into Radon and his wife, they seemed to have just gotten back from grocery shopping. Radon was surprised seeing the boy and quickly greeted him, "Hey sonny, what brings you here?"

"Not much, I just wanted to see Silver," Cecil greeted back and began taking the groceries from Mrs. Ironforge.

After bringing it in, Radon pulled Cecil to the side and whispered to him, "Boy, I got your spear finished. Wanna take a look?"

"It's done? Let me see it!"

"Come 'ere."

Radon led Cecil into his private smithy room. He took down a long cloth that was hanging on the wall and placed it down onto a table. He began unwrapping the cloth and revealed what was hidden underneath.

"Here it is boy! I must say, that this is my best piece yet! It's even better than the sword I forged for you!"

Cecil grabbed the 3-meter long azure-tinted spear, and examined it. The body was hard, but when he flexed it around, the spear would bend ever so slightly. It was hard, but had a little elasticity. It greatly pleased Cecil when he found this property on such a sturdy-looking spear. He activated his Mana Eyes and began examining the spear in detail. He saw a natural mana array inside the interior and couldn't help but widen his eyes when he saw it.

Seeing the astonishment in his eyes, Radon was immensely pleased.

"Hahahaha! How is it boy? My best piece yet, right?" He said while laughing uproariously.

"Yes, it is. I can't believe a natural array had even formed in the body's interior."

"Exactly! I can only say that it was a stroke of luck!"

Cecil once again examined his weapon. He could see small runic patterns decorating the body of the spear. These runes were something that was naturally formed after the array had fully formed on the body of the spear. The blade of the spear was sharp and had a long triangular shape. It was about 30 centimeters in length and there was a slight grove running along the middle of the blade.

He smiled in delight and began channeling his mana into the spear. His mana flowed into the array and quickly activated it. Right as the array activated, a pale golden storm of mana began raging around the body of the spear.

Radon couldn't help but step back a little in astonishment. The golden mana storm gave off a feeling that it was unusually sharp and Radon feared that it might even cut him if he got too close.

Cecil, however, was curious after seeing this. The mana storm had no effect on him seeing that his hands that were holding the spear weren't damaged from it, but he still felt the storm give off an incredibly sharp feeling. He very much wanted to swing the spear around and test the power of its array, but upon remembering where he was, he could only reluctantly deactivate the array.

"It's great Radon! I can't thank you enough for this!"

"Heh, don't mention it, boy! It also pleases me to be able to create such a fine weapon! Not every blacksmith out there can be as lucky as me!"

Cecil chuckled and kept the spear. He asked if there was a case for it, but Radon said that he was still in the process of creating one. He had just finished making it last night so he was exhausted and decided to do it later. He was in a good mood since the morning so he gladly took the opportunity to accompany his wife out shopping only to return now, so the case still hadn't been made just yet.

"I'll leave this here then. I'll come back again to take it along with its completed sheath."

"Alright, but shouldn't you still be in class? You shouldn't go out and play hooky!"

"Nah, I'm not ditching class or anything. It's just our magic combat assessment that's taking too long so I decided to head out for a bit. My turn isn't until tomorrow anyway."

"What? Then aren't you just playing hooky then?!"

Cecil smiled cheekily and went for the door, "Alright, I'll head back now!"

"Mhm, bring little Lucia out to play the next time you decide to play hooky. Tell her that her uncle and aunt miss her."

"What's this? So its okay for Lucia to play hooky and not me? Playing favorites now are we?"

"Hmph. Go already! Head back to class!" Radon harrumphed and shooed away Cecil from his smithy.

Cecil smiled and walked out of the smithy. He met back with Silver on the ground floor and they bade farewell to Mrs. Ironforge before heading out. He looked up to the sky and saw that it was still early in the afternoon and decided to head out of the city with Silver.

"Silv, let's go on a short walk outside the city!"

"Rawr!" Silver spiritedly barked and he lowered his body a bit. Cecil immediately jumped onto his back and the duo shot straight for the city's gates.

Back in the academy grounds, Lucia was currently inside one of the mage combat buildings' empty training rooms. Right now, most of the people who would usually be using the rooms were out, so it was just Lucia herself in the room. Inside, she was currently testing out the new spell she developed in order to fight against Cecil.

A large, dark purple spell formation was spread out on the ground in front of her and she yelled, "MELTDOWN!"

An ear piercing screech rang in the room before a large explosion ensued. Thankfully, the protection arrays inside of the training rooms were much more powerful than the ones in the stadium, so even if Lucia went wild with her spells, nothing in the room would be broken or destroyed. Despite the devastating effects her spell had created, Lucia didn't seemed satisfied with it.

"Tsk... this isn't what I want..." Lucia muttered in disappointment. She was just about to begin another round of experimentations before a clap rang out in the training room.

Lucia immediately became alert and spun around to look at the source of the clapping. She frowned when she saw a teenaged boy with golden hair and dark horns leaning on the wall near the entrance of the room. He was there all by himself and Lucia didn't like the way he was looking at her as if he was appraising her worth.

She raised a hand and a scarlet magic formation appeared in the air as she asked, "Who're you? Don't you know it's impolite to barge in someone's training room?"

The person stopped clapping and raised both his hands in surrender before saying, "Sorry, sorry. I was just curious as to how our freshman year's rank 1 was like. Do accept my apologies."

The handsome boy placed a hand on his chest and courteously bowed in apology. Lucia narrowed her eyes and didn't say anything. She kept a vigilant watch of him continued to aim her spell at the boy.

"Get out."

"Now, now. Let's not get impatient shall we? Don't you want to question why I rudely barged in on your training?"

"I don't care. Get out." Lucia uttered coldly.

"My, you really are just as fiery as the rumors say."

BANG

Lucia fired a Lava Bullet just to the side of the boy's face, narrowly missing him. She was really short-tempered, so roundabout way of speaking was really getting on her nerves.

"Get out. Don't make me say this again."

"...now it's not nice to do that Lucia." The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously and he abruptly dashed forward to Lucia.

Lucia was already on guard so she made a quick response. As the boy dashed forward, Lucia had quickly jumped backwards and slammed her hand on the ground. Nothing happened at first which puzzled the intruder, so he didn't pay it any mind and kept dashing forward.

Lucia's eyes glinted coldly as she thought, 'Hmph, you're slower than Cel and you think you can get close to me?'

Lucia waved her hand and numerous crimson magic arrays appeared in the air. The intruder widen his eyes in surprise as he playfully let out, "Uh oh~"

"Die."

With a snap of her fingers, Lava Bullets poured out from the magic arrays, heading straight for the golden haired boy. As the Lava Bullets beared down on him, the boy didn't panic and only backed away calmly, but before he could take another step backwards, the ground behind him had abnormally started to heat up. This time the nonchalant and complacent smile on his face finally wavered a little.

Geysers erupted from behind him and Lava Bullets were heading towards him from the front. Seeing no way out, the boy could only brace himself to endure the devastating attack. Seeing the intruder being engulfed in her spells, Lucia scoffed and placed her hands on her hips.

After the bombardment subsided Lucia finally spoke out, "Don't play dead. I limited the strength of my spells so that you won't die."

A light chuckle rang through the room. Once the steam and dust settled, Lucia was a little startled to see the boy emerge from the smoke completely unharmed. The golden haired intruder had 2 pairs of wings protruding out of his back and these wings were what protected him from Lucia's spells. She could see that the intruder had enchanted defensive spells onto his wings and had successfully endured the magical bombardment.

Although Lucia was somewhat surprised, she didn't let her guard down and began preparing her next spell, only to stop when the intruder raised his hands once again in surrender.

"Hey, let's not be a little hasty, okay? I didn't come here bearing any ill-will. At least listen to what I have to say."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"..."

Seeing her stay silent, the winged intruder opened his mouth once again.

"My name's Zephyr Arks and I am the student council's President."

Lucia narrowed her eyes after seeing her intruder's introduction and she asked coldly, "What do you want?"

"Oh? Do you feel like talking now?"

"..." Lucia's response was a dense array of magic circles encircling the golden haired boy.

"Calm down now, just let me finish speaking."

"..."

Seeing as how Lucia continued to remain silent while still having the magic circles threateningly hovering in the air; Zephyr could only shrug helplessly.

"I'm here on behalf of the student council, and we'd like for you to jo–"

"No thanks, get out."

"A clear-cut rejection huh."

"..."

Zephyr continued to prattle on about the benefits of joining the student council, but was only met with Lucia's silence to which he could only sigh at.

"Well, now that you know the benefits, don't you think it–"

"Don't care. Get out."

"..."

Lucia grew pissed at the president's lack of response to her requests and she strengthened the might of her spells, causing the magic circles in the air to tremble a little as the air immediately grew hot.

Zephyr only smiled at this and said, "You'll know the benefits of joining a faction soon enough. If you change your mind by then, come find me. The Student Council will gladly welcome you with open arms."

After saying his piece, Zephyr turned on his heel and sauntered out of the room. After seeing him walk out, Lucia lowered her arm and dispersed the magic circles. Her mood was ruined and she had no desire to continue training, so she started meditating for a while before heading back to her dorm. She then eventually return a little bit later to continue training again after she calmed down though.

The next day finally arrived and the first year classes had once again gathered inside the stadium. After yesterday's session, there were only 20 pairs of students left that haven't had their matches yet. Once the headmaster arrived and the rest of the faculty, the second day assessment matches immediately began. At the instructor's command, the first 5 pairs quickly got up into the rings and immediately started battling.

To Cecil's surprise, the first 5 pairs' fighting style and methods had a complete change from yesterday's boring and mindless slugfest.

"Oh! Now this is good!"

This was a change that happened from yesterday when the rankings had gradually made its way up into the 50-60 range. He wasn't there when it started, so he was quite surprised at the change.

Cecil was impressed and began to seriously observe their combat methods. It wasn't anything impressive and it was still crude, but at least the way they fought wasn't as blind as the previous fights.

Soon enough, the 5 ongoing matches quickly wrapped up. The ones that used their brains and had a semblance of martial art mixed in with their actions were the ones that won. 3 out of the 5 matches had lower ranked students defeating their higher ranked counterpart. It wasn't that the higher ranked students were weaker, but it was just that the combat prowess of the 3 pairs were so close to each other, that in the end, the student who prepared more was the one who won.

If this was a tournament instead of an assessment, then Cecil could say for certain that the 3 lower ranked winners wouldn't be able to continue on with their next matches because they had sustained quite a bit of injuries. He wasn't impressed with how they won since they had to sacrifice their bodies and get injured in order to mete out a close victory, but nevertheless, it just goes to show how tempting the assessment's reward was.

Although he wasn't impressed, Cecil had to give props to the 3 winners since in the end they still won. The next 5 pairs went up and they had combat techniques that were much more refined than the previous five. The assessment continued on until it was finally time for S class's students to step up.

The students in S class that were ranked 16-25 walked up to their rings and not long after the leading instructor announced for them to start, spell arrays of all colors and forms began blossoming on each of the 5 rings. Each student from S class was magically and physically adept, so they had to empower the arrays a little bit.

Adrenaline inducing fights happened in all 5 rings, and the performances from all 5 pairs of students caused many of the instructors to nod their heads in approval while the students of all the other classes admitted that S class was in a league of their own.

Cecil smiled brightly looking at how awesome the techniques his fellow classmates were using. It wasn't just their magical techniques, but even their combat techniques had him grinning in satisfaction. He glanced towards Eli who was his first opponent and inwardly cheered. He was greatly anticipating what kind of battle this golden haired girl was going to give him later.

Soon enough, it was Ainz's turn and unlike usual, he was very silent when he made his way up to the ring. He was facing their 8th ranked student, Sor'ak Minur, a large red-skinned giant. He was a rare flame giant, who was adept in fire and lightning magic. Although his combat rating was the same as Ainz, his unique lightning element was what placed him a rank ahead of Ainz.

Once he made his way on to the ring, he focused himself and glared at his opponent. This side of Ainz surprised Cecil, but before he could mentally improve his impression of Ainz, his friend said something that completely stopped him from doing so.

"You should be honored to face me, Sor'ak!"

"..." The giant only tilted his head in confusion at Ainz's arrogant remark.

"Know that you will lose, but don't be ashamed. Since, after all, you are facing the glorious ME!"

"..." Cecil, who was in the stands, could only facepalm while shaking his head. Next to him, Lucia was laughing uproariously after Ainz's early victory declaration.

Fina was embarrassed and started burying her face into her hands, but her red ears told everyone that she was ashamed to call that boastful lizardkin down there her friend. Eli, to everyone's surprise, only nodded her head, seemingly agreeing with Ainz's statement.

"Less talk! More fight, small man!" With an annoyed battle cry, Sor'ak's red muscular body began burning with orange flames. He dashed forward at an unbelievable speed contrary to his bulky size.

Ainz wasn't surprised. He calmly waved his wand and 8 magic circles of 4 different colors corresponding to their individual elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, quickly formed in the air in front of the charging giant.

"Did he just octa-cast?" One of the students in their class asked.

Elizabeth quickly rebutted that and said, "No, he can only quadra-cast."

"Quadra-cast? But how come there's 8 magic circles?"

"That's one of his family's techniques."

"I-I see..."

Ainz had a better understanding of magic than even Elizabeth, so he was able to quadra-cast spells which was quite amazing. Everyone in class wondered just how that arrogant could only rank 9th when he was capable of doing something that the princess couldn't. However, everyone missed the fact that Ainz had seemingly casted all those spells without chanting at all which was an even greater feat in Cecil's opinion.

He didn't see his friend chanting and first thought that the spells he conjured were original spells, but after he took a closer look, he could see that Ainz's lips were trembling very quickly.

"...speed chanting?"

"Ah, you noticed Cecil? You're right about that, Ainz is speed chanting," Elizabeth said after overhearing Cecil mumbling. "He's still not at the level of creating original spells, but his family's technique "Hyper Incantation" & "Parallel Invocation" respectively helps with the speed of his spell's activation and doubles the amount of spells that is created."

Her explanation cleared up the questions that everyone in class, including Cecil and Lucia, were wondering about. Hyper Incantation was just like its name, a technique that allowed the near-instantaneous completion of a spell's chant that made it seem chant-less, while Parallel Invocation allowed the user to double the amount of spells he created right on the spot.

"Oh! So it's his clan's technique! I see...that sure looks interesting!"

"Of course, as a no– I mean, as someone who comes from the Bernstein clan this much at least is expected of him."

"Are they a clan known for their mages?"

"Yes, they're a renowned family that produces excellent mages that are able to expertly use all 4 basic elements and their secret mage techniques are all incredible."

"Hoohh... I guess it wasn't just Ainz being arrogant and learning all 4 elements then."

"Of course, he has the skill to back up his arrogance! I can vouch for that since I'm his childhood friend!" Eli declared.

Cecil turned his focus back to his roommate's match. Sure enough, Ainz did indeed have the skills to back up his arrogance. After delaying his opponent's charge with the 8 spells he conjured at the start of the match, he had already invoked a body enhancing spell that he used to move quickly around the battlefield while he conjured more spells to attack his opponent.

If this was a game, then Ainz was using the 'kiting' strategy. While keeping his distance, Ainz kept on firing spells of different elements at the large flaming giant. He refrained from using too many wind spells and opted on using more water and earth spells to counteract his opponent's main element, fire.

Sor'ak wasn't stupid, and seeing as Ainz was leading him by the nose around the ring, he stopped in place and quickly chanted a lightning element spell. Ainz smirked upon seeing this and began casting multiple earth walls in front of him and began a long chant for an intermediate rank spell.

Sor'ak saw the earth walls rise up in front of Ainz and without stopping his incantation, he dashed towards the walls of earth and began crushing them with his fists and the large battle hammer in his hands.

When he finally crushed the last earth wall, his lightning spell's incantation had also finished, he raised his hands to target Ainz, but he couldn't see where his opponent was. He quickly looked around, but still couldn't find Ainz. Just as he was about to take a step back, a large force had suddenly pushed against his back knocking him forwards.

The impact of the spell only caused him to grunt in pain so he was able to quickly turn around, but to his astonishment, he saw a large, 4-colored magic array appear in his line of vision with his opponent calmly standing behind it.

"Rejoice! For you will now witness the grand technique of Bernstein family's Flaming Winds Torrential Mountain Magus!"

"RAHHHH!! Lightni–"

"Quadra Element: Flash Flare!"