Chapter 14 Rankers

“Give me that kid” The good Duke and his wife stood in front of Miss Harlet. The rest of the VIP room was glued to the screen. Jace, with Beth on his back, shoulder charges the battlefield towards the Warrior’s camp. The rest of the mage army followed closely behind.

What happened just moments ago was such a spectacle that every guest in the VIP room had sent communication back to their respective sects, schools, and organizations. A single mage-in-training razed the entire battlefield full of enemy combatants. It was as if a second Behemoth had appeared. But this time, that beast was a human.

“What was that? Artifact? Runes?” One dwarf pushes the other

“Wasn't it a spell? It was a spell!” One dwarf jumping in place

“No, that was the Death Rune!” One dwarf had his mouth open.

“Duke, the students are not our property. I can't give anyone to you. What about your investigation?” Miss Harlet did not like dealing with this pushy Duke.

“You were right. Little Lee went into the forest by himself, but this is not like him. There is something else going on here.” Duke Feng’s expression was serious.

“Right! Let's focus on that. I will look into it!” Miss Harlet immediately disappeared.

“Damn witch ran away” the duke clicked his tongue.

In another corner of the room, a group of elves have their eyes glued to the screen. Some elves dropped to their knees, praying to something. Some elves have tears running down their faces.

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A cafe in Midland’s capital

The mana net screen shows the scene of the forest being burned to ash by a single mage. When a competitor performs a particularly dazzling power, the screen shows information about that participant. Right now, people from all over the world are looking at the personal information of Jace on the screen

“Wow, that guy is a freshman.” An old man talking to his wife

“Oh my, look at his magic intensity. How was he able to do that?” The old lady looked shocked.

In the kitchen, a certain boy’s eyes are shining with hope.

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“How did you do that?” Louis, a few of his escorts, and the other two leaders of the ally forces are facing off against the combined army of the three magic academies. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't understand how they had annihilated his armies so easily. If they could do that, they would never have been pushed back in the first place.

“Why would I tell you?” Jace made sure that Beth was being guarded by Ruin before turning around. As soon as he got within range of the three opposing leaders, he immediately rushed in. “Everyone let me do this alone. If I lose, you guys take care of them." The mage army spread out and surrounded the four people in the middle.

“Bastard! You dare look down on me?” Lady Mardala’s mana exploded. She looked up at the sky, spread her arms wide, and said a prayer. White wings of mana energy explode from her back, and silver sword and shield point at Jace.

“Brave boy, I commend your courage” The warrior leader collected all of his mana at the end of his giant black axe, ready to strike.

“You overestimate yourself, or you underestimate us. I do not wish to fight a dishonorable battle, but since you look down on us like this. My hands are forced.” Flowing Sword holds one sword in his hand, while the other three are floating in front of him. Louis smiles internally, this is a great chance to kill this guy. An eye witness to his earlier actions, and based on his performance in the competition so far, a dangerous opponent.

Jace felt excited, the earlier test of his new body was not nearly enough to see its limit. Three opponents are on the verge of becoming a masters, this is the real test.

Jace lowers his body and prepares to charge. He could not copy the precise and intricate martial arts taught by Kim, at least not yet, but he has learned enough of the basics to understand how to use his body in a fight.

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Jace charged straight at the warrior first. He was so fast the warrior could not react. Jace shoulder charged the warrior right in the chest, he heard cracking sounds and the warrior flying away into the forest behind him. The army of mages scrambled out of the way.

“What the fuck?” Louise forgot to keep up his appearance. He could see Jace move, but he wasn't sure what Jace had done to send that warrior flying like that.

“He is much more dangerous than I thought. I will pin him down, Sir Flowing Sword please attack during that time” Lady Mardala has lost all of her anger. If the opponent is that powerful, he has the right to challenge all three of them at once.

Lady Mardala sang a hymn and pillar of light came down on top of Jace. He felt his body being tied down by the light pillar, and wondered how other mage could get out of something like this. As for him, he just simply stamps his foot into the ground and punches with his full power.

The light pillar broke like glass. Small shards of broken light fall from the sky. Lady Mardala has a weird smile on her face, her legs are shaking, but she is a true knight, she charges at him with her shield, concentrating almost all of her mana into the charge. Jace was surprised at how slow she was, he side-stepped her charge to punch at her side. Lady Mardala covers her body with the shield, which received Jace’s punch head-on. She was blown away, only recovering her stance in mid-air and landing gracefully a distance away.

The paladin’s silver shield was made from mana steel, it was lighter than natural steel and harder than diamonds by multiple magnitudes. A fist imprint was engraved into the shield that was almost folded in half from the force.

“I surrender.” Lady Mardala looked at her trusty shield and said to the air. She was quickly teleported out, but before the spell took her she turned to Jace and bow. “It was an honor to fight an exceptional warrior.”

Jace smiled at her and looked at his fists.

“Not even a scratch. What the hell is this body? I don't feel like a mage anymore. My body can't process mana, but it could collect mana from other people. Let's test it” Jace looks at his last opponent, the target of his spell practice.

“I have been injured during the big battle before.” Louise fell to one knee and coughed out blood. “Regretfully I cannot be your opponent at the moment, however, I have already defeated more than 10 opponents. I request for my wounds to be treated so I could fight you at my full strength in the tournament” a face full of regret, indignation, and determination. In another life, a career in performance art would be his calling.

“This guy is way too slippery. Too dangerous and calculating. Since we have already become enemies of someone like this, we have to find opportunities to get rid of him. But not now, I can't kill someone that can't fight back in front of all these people” Jace thought and felt impressed with himself. He is also learning the political games of the magic world.

“Lady Harlet? Did you have fun watching it? I think everyone left must have defeated several times more opponents than the required number. Could we end the test now?” Yulin said to the air. She has been in the academy for a long time, she was more familiar with their head mistress’s personality. Rules or logic doesn't matter to the witch, only what is interesting.

“Fine! It was interesting. The Preliminary Test will end and the result will be posted. The ranking will determine the tournament’s placement tomorrow. Good night kids!” Miss Harlet’s smug face appears and disappears just as quickly.

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VIP Room

Most of the guests have grouped up to discuss the test performance and students that they have taken an interest in. Duke Feng and Lealatha are still sitting in one of the cacoon private booths by themselves.

The dwarfs have somehow captured Miss Wanders and a few magic researchers. They are sitting at a giant round table and seem to be seriously discussing something.

“So it was a spell?” One of the dwarfs asks a magic researcher.

“Yes, from what we could tell, that is the same spell that he has recently submitted to the public library. I am sure you have also seen it as well, that monstrous spell.” The magic researcher connects to the mana net and sends the page to everyone at the table.

“Ah, that spell. Only useful for someone who has a low magic intensity, to begin with. But how did he achieve that level of power?” Another researcher said while looking around the table

“ If we look at the aftermath of the spell, we can see that the heat from the spell is so intense that it turns an entire section of the forest to ash.” Miss Wanders points to the burned land on the screen. “But if we take a closer look here. We can see that the heat didn't come from the spell effects. It came from the mana” She pointed to the video of the test.

Jace can be seen compressing a mana stone into a bullet, but the mana that coats the bullet is not his own. That mana contains inherent flames. Mana that burns other mana just coming near it. Heavenly Flames, dragonic mana.

“How was he able to do this? Slight manipulation of other people’s mana is possible, but taking control of someone else’s mana? What is this? Can anyone explain?” Every magic researcher in the room is standing up, arguing, and pointing at the screen heatedly. Miss Wanders keeps rewinding the scene and rewatching it.

“Ok, looks like no one can agree on this. Let's look at the next scene.” One of the dwarfs that seems to be much older than the other said.

The next scene shows Jace with Beth on his back charging through the battlefield, shrugging off spells and physical attacks with his bare body. Then the scene changes to Jace punching Lady Mardala’s shield and almost folding it in half.

“What is this? Is he a mage? Aura Master? Warrior? Rune Master? A monster? What?” The old dwarf smiles widely and points at the screen excitedly

“He is using mana. So he can't be an Aura Master, but his body is way too strong to be a mage.” One researcher said

“Look at the way he fights, his body is unfathomably strong but he doesn't know how to fight at all. Without his speed and body, he would have immediately died in a fight with pure skill.” A dwarf that seems to be a warrior said

“He is undoubtedly a mage, at least he started as one. But what he is now, I am not sure” Miss Wanders said.

“Nothing seems to work on his body. Not even Paladin’s sanctuary spell. Do you see this? He was able to punch light.” One researcher keeps smacking the screen over and over from frustration.

“What the hell is he?” in the end, they all had only one thought

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Greylight Academy Cafeteria

A group of Aura Warriors have piled up fruits into mini fruit mountains on the table. They are wearing black robes that cover their entire body, even their face cannot be seen. Each of their badges has a number two on it.

“Senior brother, isn't that school much better than our sect? The food and the facilities are so much nicer” the voice of a young girl came from one of the hooded figures.

“Junior sister, that is insulting to our sect. Please don't say such things. Our master works very hard to build our sect” the voice of a young man

“........you say that but you didn't deny it” the young girl's voice pouted.

“Everyone, the ranking of the test and tournament placement came out. Check the tournament mana net” another hooded figure said

“More than a thousand people passed? Even after that huge battle? No wonder they needed to weed out the weak with that test.” The young girl said

“Look at the ranking. Numbers 1 to 10 will be our main competitor, especially that mage that razed a quarter of the forest to ash. What was his name? I assumed he was number 1?” Senior brother said

“you will be surprised,” the young girl said

“What?” The rest of the group was confused

“There seem to be a lot of monsters in this competition, most of them are not as flashy as Jace.” The young girl said

“This might be a lot harder than we expected” The young man looked at the list.

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Preliminary Test Ranking

1. Chisato Qin, Moonlight

2. Indra Das, Black Sun

3. Arnold Vogt, Iron Steward

4. Beth Meridius, Peerless

5. Yamada Ito, Iron Fist

6. Jessica Roma, Nightshade

7. Rika Holmes, Golden Sun

8. Cadreal Varnus, Green Hands

9. Diego Smithfield, Wind Blade

10. Yulia Lee, Kingpin

16. Jace Farsea, Berserker