Chapter 106: Haven't Even Left the Starter Zone, and Already Getting Stomped by a Pro
Viktor, floating in midair, fully mobilized his natural energy. The red patterns on his coat blazed suddenly alight.
Ten thousand plants transford as though scorched into silent, withered deadwood—the towering trees' branches glowing as if burned red.
White ash swirled upward through the air on the screaming cold wind.
Green leaves turned charred and crimson, throwing off flickering sparks.
The sky was completely blotted out by the black smoke rising from the burning of ten thousand trees. The few traces of yellow sunlight could no longer pierce through the thick darkness.
Erika looked at Viktor—like so god of destruction—and felt the overwhelming natural energy crashing toward her like a flood unleashed.
She could feel it clearly: comparing her own ager magical power to Professor Viktor's boundless natural energy—it was like a gently trickling stream eting a fathomless, endless ocean.
Her mind went completely blank in an instant, looping endlessly over the only thought left in it—
This was a god.
Viktor's hands, coiled with 2 streams of natural energy, moved like sothing between supplication and summoning, as his lips began slowly reciting an obscure incantation.
The lush green earth began to crack apart. Flas rose into the air through the fissures in the rock, and streams of lava swept across the vegetation.
A colossal flower burst through the molten rock, twisting its way toward the sky—and after several dozen ters, the tattered petals split open to reveal flowing, rolling streaks of blazing fla patterns.
The enormous flower blood toward the sky in an instant. From between its pistils erupted not a trace of sweet fragrance—only a terrifying blaze carrying ash.
A pillar of fla like sothing that could swallow the heavens drove straight through heaven and earth, piercing the entire world.
At that mont, under the impact of such overwhelming natural energy, the illusory sky shattered—like a mirror with no way to be repaired, fracturing piece by piece.
The towering pillar of fla consud the flower in an instant. The green and red streams of energy coiled together and transford into an enormous white light that surged outward in every direction, devouring all things, stretching on without end.
The world fell suddenly, completely silent.
Erika watched quietly as the white light gradually swallowed her whole—and she was powerless to resist.
She opened her mouth, but she couldn't even hear her own voice.
It was only then that Erika understood—in the face of Viktor's overwhelming power, there wasn't even ti to feel a mont of fear.
BOOM—
The white light slowly faded, and sound returned to this shattered world.
All things around had sunk into boundless stillness—even the crackling and popping of the burning flas no longer existed.
Only the solitary wisps of smoke drifted away, as ash settled slowly into the bottomless cracks in the earth.
In an instant, a light rain began to fall from the overcast sky.
It pattered down onto Erika's dazed and frozen body.
The cold sensation brought all 5 of her senses back to her. She blinked, as though she could barely believe she was still alive.
The rain fell like a blessing. Erika felt as though she were back at that fearso volcano.
But this ti, she could quietly feel the completely comforting rain calling her back to herself.
After this battle—or perhaps more accurately, this one-sided annihilation—she had felt Viktor's devastating power firsthand.
And she had co to clearly understand the gap between herself and Viktor.
Like an unbridgeable chasm.
Viktor's figure had long since disappeared, leaving only the remains of this dreamlike illusion continuing to crumble.
But the shock that lingered in Erika's heart could not fade for a long, long ti.
***
Inside Viktor's Mage Tower.
The leaderboard at the edge of the scroll finally began to ripple slowly, as though the na of the 1st student to pass with a perfect score was about to appear.
The students surged forward in a swarm, staring in bewildernt at the na that appeared.
"Erika du Chloe."
They couldn't even manage to pass, and yet Erika had already achieved a perfect score!?
But seeing Erika's na appear up there—sohow it almost seed to make sense.
If even the Top-ranked Freshman couldn't achieve a perfect score, who else could possibly do it in Professor Viktor's exam?
Before long, Erika's silhouette appeared out of the Teleportation Formation.
Her body was unsteady, and she appeared dazed and lost.
Quite a few students pressed forward eagerly, asking:
"Miss Erika, how on earth did you manage a perfect score?"
"Miss Erika! The 3rd encounter battle—how did you clear it?"
"Miss Erika......"
The students launched every question they had at her all at once, but Erika paid none of them any mind.
Her eyes were faintly glazed and vacant, as though she had just lived through a catastrophe of world-ending proportions.
Only Heni smiled and said a single sentence to her:
"Congratulations, Erika. You are the 1st student to achieve a perfect score."
"Your result will be recorded in your overall grade imdiately. You're free to proceed to another examination venue to sit for other assessnts now."
Erika slowly raised her head, ca back to herself, and nodded in a daze.
She dragged herself toward the Mage Tower entrance, dissolving into threads of green light and vanishing from that space.
Many students watched the vacant-eyed Erika leave, standing there in mild bewildernt.
No one knew what Erika had actually experienced.
It had been an image capable of tearing their entire worldview apart.
In a certain sense, for students who had never encountered Viktor—they were the lucky ones.
But they still had to remain in this examination venue for so ti yet.
In that regard, they were the unfortunate ones.
***
The 3-day examination was still ongoing, and today was the final day.
By the 3rd day of an examination period, Professors generally no longer needed to maintain the examination venues the way they had at the start.
The majority of students had essentially finished. Only a small number of candidates would still be pushing through, or continuing to sit exams on the final day in order to collect all possible assessnt approvals and rack up more marks.
The sole exception was beneath Viktor's Mage Tower, which was still surrounded by an even larger crowd than before, packed to the point where no one could squeeze through.
The dia reporters were more nurous than at the start as well.
In the sweltering heat, even the mosquitoes were reluctant to enter the crowd—afraid of being crushed to pieces by the sea of people at any mont.
Large numbers of students still filled the interior of the Mage Tower.
Just as the 1st student to erge from the exam venue after completing the assessnt had said—the pass rate for Professor Viktor's exam was climbing higher and higher.
No one could quite pinpoint when it had started, but after the 2nd passing student appeared, it was as though so secret passageway had been thrown open.
Passing students began sprouting up one after another like mushrooms after rain.
Reporters surrounded Viktor's Mage Tower and interviewed every student who ca out.
But their answers were all the sa—and their expressions, without exception, were all animated with excitent.
Through patience, through endless repetition, and through that inexplicable white-hot obsession—that's right. The thing that had driven these students to succeed was Viktor's baffling exam rule of all things.
Students could retake the exam as many tis as they wanted, right up until ti ran out.
And yet this seemingly tedious rule had sohow made countless students willing to stay inside the Mage Tower and keep trying!
Didn't they get bored? Weren't they exhausted?
The dia reporters simply could not comprehend it.
But what baffled them most of all was this: these students had clearly already passed.
And yet they kept going back, again and again, as though addicted!
At last, the bell signaling the final day rang—marking the end of the exam.
Inside the Mage Tower, every student still participating in the assessnt, whether they had succeeded or failed, was swept out all at once.
So students forced a smile. So beat their chests in frustration.
And another portion wore their pride openly, satisfaction overflowing from their faces.
"Ugh, so close—if those last 2 Magical Creatures had given just a little more ti, I could have gotten a perfect score."
"But at least I passed the exam."
The students couldn't help but sigh.
Heni swept both hands through the air, and the scroll gradually rolled itself up. The Teleportation Formations inside the Mage Tower vanished at the sa instant.
"The examination period has ended. All candidates may now leave the Mage Tower."
So students couldn't help but ask:
"Professor Heni! Will there be another exam like this in the future?"
This innovative assessnt had left an indescribable feeling behind.
It had given every candidate a rush unlike anything else.
They loved it.
Heni bead at them with her characteristically warm smile and gave a nod.
Getting the answer they were hoping for, the candidates all felt a surge of delight.
"Yes!"
"I really want to take classes in Professor Viktor's class."
"Oh no—I already graduated!"
"I heard Professor Viktor's Public Lecture is happening in a few days. I'm already looking forward to it."
The students left the Mage Tower in a mix of excitent, regret, and every other emotion imaginable.
Once they had all filed out in an orderly manner, Heni remained where she stood.
She felt the vast magical power inside her body—like an ocean.
No one knew what she was thinking at that mont.
Heni tentatively raised her arm, and in an instant, a 2nd-Tier Magic Formation took shape in the air.
The process of constructing the magic was smooth and effortless.
Heni stood frozen in place.
A light breeze swept across her face, and a familiar hand was placed on her shoulder.
The familiar scent from behind made Heni spin around in delighted surprise.
"Professor!"
"A solid improvent."
Viktor replied calmly.
In his gaze, Heni's level showed a staggering change.
LV21—
How long had it taken Heni to beco a Mage?
It seed it hadn't even been half a month.
If word of this got out, it would be nothing short of world-shaking.
Over the 3-day End-of-Term Exam, virtually every student in the Academy had participated in the assessnt.
This unreasonably difficult exam, combined with the relentless torrent of anger generated by the candidates—had given the Demon of Wrath residing within Heni a feast.
And every emotion the demon consud was converted entirely into Heni's source of Magic Power.
Her level had rocketed upward like a firework, and she had beco a 2nd-Tier Mage in 1 fell swoop.
"Keep going, Heni."
"I'll be waiting up ahead."
The mont those words fell, Viktor took 2 steps toward the Mage Tower exit.
The next instant, a fierce gust of wind erupted inside the space. Heni's robes were caught up in the blast, and she instinctively bowed her head and raised both hands to shield herself.
By the ti the wind died down and Heni looked up—
Viktor's figure had already vanished without a trace.
"Professor......"
Gazing forward, Heni fell into a daze for a mont.
She understood where every last drop of her magical power had co from.
She had received far too much help from the Professor.
It had always been the Professor helping her—and she had nothing to offer in return.
Before long, Heni pulled herself back together. She set her gaze firmly in the direction Viktor had left.
"It's not enough. Still not enough."
Just as the Professor had once said—she was still too weak.
"At the very least, I need to reach 3rd Tier."
When a certain longing rises within a person's heart, that longing transforms into boundless, inexhaustible drive.
For Heni, from beginning to end, she had always been striving toward that one goal.
A flash of red gradually erged from Heni's body, and a small crocodile perched atop her head and gave a yawn.
What rich, concentrated longing.
'What a pity—this sort of longing isn't the kind I like to eat.'
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