The moment Rylan turned to look at Lucian and opened his mouth, every single student council member apart from Lucian himself took a step forward at the same time. He blinked.

Really?

It wasn't as if fighting him were some sort of event.

"Everyone is curious about what it would be like to fight someone with your fighting style," Lucian said after a deep sigh. He then looked at Ophelia. "You can't fight. You're our healer right now."

She scowled and threw him a glare before wordlessly taking a step back, reluctance clear in her expression.

"…You better make this up to me," she grumbled under her breath, to which Lucian only nodded.

"Since Leonard has already fought, why don't I step up?" Oliver asked from the side, making Rylan look at him.

Rylan narrowed his eyes, interest bubbling within him. He truly was curious about how skilled Oliver would be.

"Nonsense," Jennifer immediately replied. "I haven't fought yet. Be a gentleman and let me do it."

Oliver scoffed at her.

"Chivalry is dead. You know I'm a skilled fighter."

She threw him a haughty look.

"That's why you've never had a girlfriend, Oliver."

As the two continued to bicker, Rylan looked at Faye. She was silent, but judging from the way she was staring at him, she wanted to fight too. Deep within her eyes was the blaze of competitiveness. He scratched the back of his head.

If I say I can fight all of them one at a time, it'll make me look like I'm not taking this seriously.

As such, the best decision was to remain silent and let them sort it out by themselves. Eventually, after a bit more arguing, Jennifer, Faye, and Oliver formed a small circle and started playing odds or evens. A few seconds later, Oliver let out a triumphant cry. Rylan couldn't help but smile. His opponent had been decided, it seemed.

Oliver turned to look at him with a burning gaze and a smile that made him look like he was baring his teeth.

"Let's do this," Oliver said.

Rylan only nodded, keeping his smile. Together, they walked to the middle of the wide field, which was still in surprisingly good condition after some quick repairs by the others. Oliver was almost running toward the middle of the field, making Rylan shake his head.

Once the young man reached the very center of the field, he quickly turned around as if he were trying to look away from something and faced Rylan, drawing a wand out of his robes. In response, Rylan walked until he was parallel to Oliver, granting the others a good view of the battle, then pulled out his own wand. Still, Oliver's gaze was fixed on the sword on his waist. With a grin, Rylan drew Silver Twilight.

The blade barely made any sound as it dragged against the sheath to emerge in its full glory. The sunlight hit the silver edge, which glowed with a purple hue. The runes carved on the blade's body seemed to shimmer with the colors of dusk.

Oliver blinked and scanned the weapon carefully a few times over, looking progressively more dumbfounded each time.

"…An artifact?" he asked, incredulous.

Rylan nodded and rested the long blade on his shoulder.

"Yeah."

Oliver looked at him as if he were a ghost.

"…How? I've never heard of an artifact that was a sword. Even if they aren't weapons, they're usually magic-related equipment. How did you…?"

Oh, so that's what this is about.

It made sense that in a world of magic, the Dungeons wouldn't ordinarily reward Equipment that wasn't magic-related. No, there might be rings and pieces of armor that increased one's physical stats, since higher-Level Mages understood their importance, but even still, weapons such as swords seemed to be a different matter.

Now that I think about it, I didn't see any staves or wands as rewards from clearing a Dungeon in my past life, either.

Dragging himself out of his thoughts, Rylan shrugged.

"Don't ask me. I just took what the System saw fit to give me."

Oliver slowly nodded, his expression returning to normal, then morphing into a smile.

"Still, that's pretty cool. I guess you're even more unique than I thought. When did you even learn to wield a sword?"

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Rylan smiled back.

"That's a secret, of course. Can't have everyone figuring out my fighting style."

Oliver laughed and took a step back, then raised his wand.

"Oh, shut up. We've talked enough. Are you ready?"

Rylan kept his smile.

"Ready when you are."

Oliver smiled savagely. Rylan's six senses perceived the mana within the young man move and resonate with the world, faster than even Leonard's had.

Looks like he isn't pulling any punches. Well, let's see how strong these student council members are.

Rylan slightly lowered his center of gravity, feeling his muscles tense up, supported by the physical stats he'd acquired through training and Leveling up in the Basilisk Wilds. At the same time, he internally chanted two spells simultaneously. Less than a heartbeat later, he shot forward, his feet upturning the earth behind him. Oliver widened his eyes and flinched. Empowered by his momentum, Rylan kicked at Oliver's torso.

Less than a second before the attack connected, a layer of mana took shape over Oliver's skin. With a loud bang, the kick landed on the Shield head-on. Instead of holding back, Rylan put as much strength as he could within the attack as he could without circulating his mana. Oliver's feet left the ground as he was flung to the side like an arrow, rotating in mid-air. Rylan pointed his wand at his opponent's flying figure.

Water Sphere. Ray of Frost.

Mana coalesced into liquid as it flowed toward Oliver, keeping up with his movement and coming from all sides. A sphere of blue light took shape at the tip of Rylan's wand, but instead of flying forward in the shape of a beam, it merely hovered in place. Oliver straightened his body just as he was about to land, but couldn't react in time to avoid having the water firmly grasp the Magic Shield around his legs. It flowed upward, quickly trying to encase his entire body. It was then that Rylan let the Ray of Frost shoot forward. The beam of frosty light landed straight on the layer of water around Oliver's torso. Naturally, it caused virtually no damage to the Shield, since it was only a First Circle spell.

However, that was not to say that there was no change.

The water around Oliver started to freeze in real time, starting from the point where the Ray of Frost had hit it. The ice crawled over itself as it consumed the liquid. Oliver's expression changed as he seemingly realized the situation he was in. Even though he was protected by his Magic Shield, if he did nothing, he would find himself encased inside a solid block of magical ice, completely at Rylan's mercy. Rylan threw him a calm look and started running again.

He'll cast a fire spell.

There were two options here. First, Oliver could cast a fire spell to melt the ice and evaporate the water before it froze fully, freeing himself. The second was to let the ice take shape around him, then shatter it with an earth spell or something like it. The reason why Rylan believed Oliver would pick the first one was simple.

He's surprised.

Oliver had been caught off-guard from the moment that Rylan's speed had surpassed his expectations. In this state of mind, he would choose to deal with the situation he was in 'as quickly as possible.' The fire spell became the only possibility, and fire spells were the ones Rylan was most familiar with because of his father. He shot toward Oliver, raising his sword.

As expected, the air around Oliver ignited and touched the ice, immediately starting to melt through it. However, because Oliver had needed to keep his Magic Shield up, it was a single spell and not a combination. It seemed to be a variation of Fireball, one that Oliver had forced to detonate before it had even moved away from him.

Meanwhile, Rylan closed the distance between them in less than three seconds, even though he wasn't pushing himself. The moment the ice melted off completely and Oliver was utterly surrounded by fire, much like Hayden in his own battle, Silver Twilight descended. Rylan slashed vertically while only holding the hilt with one hand. The blade unceremoniously forced the flames to part because of its sheer speed and landed square on Oliver's Shield. The impact forced the young man to his knees, then on his back as the Shield crushed the earth underneath him to create a hole.

A hole was created in the previously pristine field, but Rylan didn't even give it a second glance. The flames quickly closing in around him were a clear reminder that this battle wasn't over. Instead of worrying about them, he simply waved his wand.

Magic Shield.

Supported by his three Circles, the layer of blue mana took shape around him. The flames crashed against it a moment later, but they didn't manage to get through his defenses, despite the continuous damage to his Shield, which hadn't extended itself to Silver Twilight. For a few seconds, Rylan merely put strength on the blade, making it so that Oliver couldn't even move, much less get up. For a few seconds, they only stared at each other. Rylan could see the disbelief in the young man's eyes.

"…How many fucking Free Points did you put into your physical stats?" Oliver suddenly groaned out, sounding like he was holding a heavy object in place.

In stark contrast, Rylan only gave his opponent a relaxed smile.

"Enough."

Oliver smiled while gritting his teeth at the same time.

"Now this is more fun."

The fire around Rylan disappeared. Rylan blinked. The ground to his right shifted. Rylan realized his opponent's intentions in an instant.

Is it similar to Leonard's earth pillars?

Soon, a burst of stone would try and force him away from his opponent by hitting him head-on.

I could simply take the hit, but…

He did not believe that the spell would be able to force him too far away, given his Strength stat, but he also wanted to see what Oliver was truly capable of.

As such, he lightened the pressure he was applying on Oliver. A block of stone that was bigger than a troll rose out of the earth and shot toward Rylan, moving quicker than an ordinary Magic Missile. In response, Rylan merely jumped backward and widened the distance between himself and Oliver, making the oversized block hit nothing but air.

Instead of closing the distance between them, Rylan started casting two other spells. Oliver quickly rose to his feet and looked at Rylan, looking like he had just been slapped.

"You," Oliver suddenly said, making Rylan tilt his head. "How did you become so much stronger than you were in the tournament? Having reached the Third Circle has nothing to do with your strength and speed. You… what's your Level?"

Rylan shook his head.

"I had to go fight in a Dungeon, so I Leveled up a bit."

Oliver blinked twice.

"…A Dungeon? The Open Dungeon close to Cantavega? You actually went in?"

He sounded progressively more dumbfounded as he spoke. By the end of his sentence, he was sounding like he was talking about having seen a Dragon.

Rylan only nodded.

"I had to."

"But the professors who went with you— no, never mind. Shit, okay," Oliver took a deep breath. "I'm going to try my hardest, so don't hold back."

Mentally wincing, Rylan nodded again.

The moment Oliver lifted his wand and his Magic Shield disappeared, there was a change.

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