With a fast swipe, the sword cut through the air, aiming for Nanya’s neck. She didn’t even flinch, merely pulled her head back and let the dangerously sharp blade pass by without so much as even grazing her delicate skin. With a turn of his wrist, the el’doraw boy changed the course of his sword and brought it down on her again. It was a bit of a difficult move to do and even I could see the decrease in speed and power. Nanya leaned to the left and turned her upper-body clockwise by just a bit. Her eyes were closed and arms still crossed at her chest. The dangerous blade just slid over the tip of her nose and continued its way to the other side. A gush of a wind formed as a result of the slightly inclined flat side of the sword. Nanya’s long, black hair fluttered a bit, but she still didn’t move from her spot.

Everyone was watching the scene with curious eyes and held their breath in suspense. We knew that if we blinked even once, we might risk missing a strike or even the culmination of the duel.

“You…” growled Keltaru.

Nanya ignored him.

Jumping back a few meters, he pointed his hand at her and chanted the spell for [Fireball].

That spell is like the basic of basics in every world, huh? I thought as I remembered how many novels and games used it as the beginner spell for every mage player and character.

Nanya looked at him with a half-opened eye, but didn’t attack him. She waited for the entire duration of the cast. Next to me, Tuberculus let out a sigh.

“He’s taking his sweet time casting it, isn’t he?” I asked as I watched him.

“If you can’t use instant chants or partial chants, it’s better to rely on a vanguard whenever you are about to use it, otherwise, you are easy bait for any opponent.” he explained.

7 seconds lasted the entire chant. In all that time, Nanya could have finished him off countless times. If it was me, I would have charged [Ice Spear] with 5000 Magic Energy Points and then launched it at him right before he finished chanting.

Eh? I forgot to upgrade this one… I should do it when I have the chance… I thought while I watched Keltaru take aim at Nanya and finally released the spell.

It was one of about 100 Magic Energy Points if I were to go by size alone.

The Fireball flew through the air and slammed into Nanya’s forehead. The spell exploded, creating a shock wave of hot air and sending sparks all over the place. Tuberculus put it all out before the entire area caught fire.

Keltaru smirked confidently as if he had just accomplished something great, but Nanya only had her head tilted back a little with no visible damage seen on her body. When the smoke cleared up, he was able to see her as well.

“What? How can that be?” he asked himself.

Ah! The wild typical question appears! I thought in my mind.

Opening her eyes, Nanya looked back at Keltaru and showed him an evil smirk.

“Come on, kid! I’m still waiting for you to get serious! You are seriously wasting my time like this!” she shouted back at him.

The taunt worked and clenching his hand on the hilt of his sword, Keltaru let out a combat yell and dashed towards Nanya. Dust was raised behind his feet, and it was clear no normal human could match him in speed, but she didn’t show even the slightest concern regarding his impending attack.

“YAAA!” shouted the boy.

I watched as he drew close and aimed his sword at her neck.

Move Nanya… I thought.

Indeed, I was worried for her safety, I feared the attack would go through, but for her, it was another story. Without showing even the slightest sign of fear, wearing that defiant smirk on her lips, and looking straight into his eyes, Nanya didn’t move from her spot.

Then, it happened. Keltaru struck…

A loud sound was heard, and everyone froze as they watched the scene unveil before their very eyes. Nanya stood still. The blade passing over her shoulder. Her eyes locked onto the boy’s. Keltaru huffed from the effort, trying to recover the energy he lost during his attack. The sharp sword was stopped at a distance of only 1 cm away from her neck. No blood dripped on Nanya’s small neck. Not even a strand of hair was cut by the blade. She didn’t even budge a single millimeter from her spot.

“Are you done?” she asked and grabbed the sword with her bare hand.

He tried to pull back, but he couldn’t move it.

“H-How?” he asked with a trembling voice.

In front of his attack, Nanya didn’t even dodge, she received it with all of its might, but there was no effect. His attack was completely and utterly useless against her.

I held my breath, we all did.

The blade cracked and shattered under Nanya’s grip. Keltaru froze when he saw this, but it was just the beginning of her merciless onslaught.

“Fufu! My turn!” she said and then opened her fist, the shattered pieces of metal fell on the ground.

With an evil smirk on her lips, she then grabbed Keltaru by his face with her other hand and gave him a powerful kick in the chest. The hit was so powerful, it immediately shattered his Magic Armor and cracked one of his ribs. Letting go of his face, she jumped back by kicking him in the sternum. Another crack was heard while he was launched two meters behind.

“Ugh!” he groaned and grimaced from the terrible pain while his Magic Armor was slowly restoring.

“Oi! Oi! Don’t go soft on me now! You said you wanted a real duel, right? You said you wanted to challenge a Godlike Rank adventurer? Haaa?” she spoke with a tough guy’s accent and then dashed towards him.

The boy glared at her and tried to stand up, but she jumped, and with a roundhouse kick struck him in the left cheek. His Magic Armor was shattered again, his bones cracked under the force of the impact, and he was sent him flying into the crowd of students, but before he reached them, Nanya jumped in front of him and stopped him mid-flight by punching him right in the stomach. His body couldn’t handle it and vomited his last meal. A bit of blood dripped from the corners of his mouth, but she had yet to be done with him. Grabbing him by the collar of his clothes, she tossed him back into the ‘ring’. He smashed into the ground quite badly, one of his arms twisted in a weird way.

“Hurk! Ugh… It… It hurts…” he muttered gasping for air and trembling from the shock his body was going through.

“Oi! Oi! Is this all you have? I haven’t even unsealed my power yet!” she said with a smirk as she landed on his back, cracking a few more of his ribs.

“P-Please…” he begged, now with tears in his eyes and barely able to breath.

“Sorry, I can’t hear you! You have dirt in your mouth!” she told him and then stomped on his head, forcing the el’doraw boy to literally eat some dirt.

In the process he broke one of his teeth, cut his upper lip, and broke his nose. His blood tainted the ground in red, but even after all of that, none of the teachers or students dared to stop the fight. It was an official duel, meaning the participants asked for a beating or to beat someone else.

Out of curiosity, I looked through the crowd to see their reaction to the scenes unfolded before them. Most of them were watching seriously. It was a lesson they wouldn’t receive anywhere else. It was a testament of one’s true strength and proof of their own weakness. Very few turned their heads away from the beating Keltaru was receiving from Nanya.

The sweet, 15 years-old looking teacher with a petite body was a real monster when you compared their strength, and they understood that better than ever. As for the one who was the el’doraw’s master, Ayuseya, she was looking unfazed at the battle, but I could see it in the way her hands clenched the frills of her dress, she wanted to put a stop to it, she wanted to save the young guard.

“You lost, kid.” said Nanya calmly as she stepped off of him.

Trembling and spitting blood, the boy tried to get up, but the pain was too much. One of Ayuseya’s guards, a draconian girl who looked rather young but quite tall rushed to his side. Tuberculus let out a sigh and stepped forward to heal the boy as well.

“Listen up you stupid brats!” Nanya shouted loud enough for all of the students there to hear her “What you saw today was a battle between a Superior Godlike Rank Adventurer and a Low Master Ranked Adventurer, actually no, he’s barely a Medium Advanced!” she took one fast glance at him and then at all the students there “Tch! I can see most of you have no idea what I’m talking about.” she clicked her tongue “But just to make things clear.” she nodded and with a commanding voice she said “Illsy, make me two blocks of granite, one 6 meters tall and the other 15 meters.” she pointed at where she wanted them.

Using [Create a Room] advanced version, I raised two blocks of granite of exactly those sizes. They were clean cut and as hard as they could be.

“Good! Now, listen up! I want you all to drill it in your empty noggins before I smash you all into the ground!” she shouted. With the last remark, she threw a glare at Keltaru, who was being healed by Tuberculus. “Ranks as an Adventurer are classified by two things! Your ability to actually cast or use a skill of a certain rank and how strong you are in general!” she turned towards the two blocks of granite I created and tapped with her palm on the side of the first one. “This block is 6 meters tall, 6 meters wide, and 6 meters thick. If you can punch this right in the center of any face and make a crack go all the way to the opposite one, then you can be considered a Lower Master Rank!” she declared.

Doesn’t sound too hard. I think Shanteya could do it… I thought to myself as I looked at it from a few meters away.

Still, if I were to ask a human from Earth to do something like that, he would immediately ask me if I drank too much or ate something bad. In this world, however, magic allowed people to do many impossible things, such as how Nanya and Keltaru fought just a moment ago. It was like watching a real-life anime, but ten times as intense.

“I’ll demonstrate.” Nanya said as she faced the cube.

Stepping back, she clenched her fist and then jumped. Her strike was powerful and precise, right in the center of the cube’s face. A wave of air was pushed away and countless cracks covered the first half of the cube, but on the back, only one crack appeared.

“If you want to be a Lower Emperor Rank, you need to be able to do the same for this cube, here.” Nanya said as she walked over to the big one with a side of 15 meters and patted it.

Stopping right at the middle, she then took a step back and jumped over seven meters in the air. Just as she did with the one before, she punched the face of the cube, right in the center, and I do believe I may have heard a sonic boom. The shock wave spread farther this time. The cracks on the front size were bigger and larger, a small crater even formed in the spot where she struck the block of granite, however, just as it was with the other one, only a single crack managed to reach the other side. Nanya showed to be able to easily crack a 15 meters thick block of granite.

I could only gulp when I saw her strength and that was just the Lower Emperor Rank, meaning that all the teachers at the Academy were powerful enough to at least do that.

Are they actually monsters? I asked myself.

“Now, Illsy. Make another cube with a side of 6 meters or repair that one.” she told me.

“Alright.” I replied and after erasing the cube, I created another on exactly the same. My repair skills could repair only the walls, meaning that the inside would have remained cracked.

“Tuberculus, did you heal the boy?” asked Nanya.

“He still needs to rest.”

“Can he walk and talk?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Good. Keltaru!” she shouted.

“Y-Yes.” came the boy’s weak reply.

“Tell us all right now! Can you come here and crack this thing?” she asked knocking on the freshly made block of granite.

Keltaru looked down and clenched his fists.

“N-No… but I can use [Lightning Dash]…” he replied.

“Big deal! Boy, if you can’t even crack this, you have no right to call yourself a Master Rank! Actually, you won’t even call yourself an Advanced Rank from now on! Until you can crack this thing open in one strike without using a skill or buff, you are just a Higher Intermediary Rank! Do you understand, Keltaru Dowesyl?! That’s what I want from you as a result of losing this official duel!” Nanya demanded without remorse.

“Yes…” he replied looking down and ashamed to have lost both the duel and his rank.

“Good! Now, let me tell you something. When the guild and ranks were made, they usually used big blocks of granite to test out initiates. Now, we use enchanted walls. Usually, breaking one of these things sets you at the Lower Rank, but it’s never wise to assume it even if you can. Many Adventurers do and when they end up facing Mediums or Highers of the same rank, they lose! They die!” she said as she jumped on top of the 6 meters tall block and took a seat on the edge. “A few generations after the introduction of ranks, someone came up with the idea of setting points of strength to differentiate between individuals. Special magical items in any guild can tell you your exact number. So, if a regular human has around 10 points of strength, how much do you think a Lower Beginner Rank needs to have?” she asked raising an eyebrow.

Nobody answered, they just looked at one another and tried to guess, but none dared to speak up.

“Sigh… 25! Yes, 25 means the Lower Beginner Rank! After that, we have Intermediary at 50, Advanced at 100, Master at 175, Emperor at 300, Godlike at 500, and Supreme at 800.” she explained and they all began to whisper among each other, trying to figure out how many points they had or maybe even guess Nanya’s.

So, Shanteya is close to a lower Godlike, but past Emperor because of my boost. Hm, does that mean that if I continue to level up and add points in strength as well as give her the 50% boost, she will be able to reach Supreme values? I asked myself while trying to do a bit of basic math in my mind, however, it hit me then. The values of my own stats when compared to what Nanya just said. Wait a second… WHAAAT?! I’m over nine… I mean I’m over 1000! I shouted in my mind, a bit baffled by what I realized.

“By the way, my current points in strength, unbuffed, are set at 886.” she told them.

Keltaru gulped when he realized the astonishing difference between them, and that was without taking into consideration other skills or combat experience.

“You all know what Magic Armor is, right? You infuse your own body with magic and gain protection against enemy attacks or even allow your body to perform otherwise impossible tasks. Well, once you go past Master Rank, the defensive power of your Magic Armor reaches ridiculous values. That was why I didn’t even need to move when he attacked me earlier. Even if he used [Lightning Dash], I still wouldn’t have had a need to do so! A Master Rank alone is needed to wipe you all out! An Emperor is overkill… As for me, well… let’s be serious, I’m a Superior Godlike.” she told them in a harsh and cold tone of voice.

A heart clenching silence fell among the students. Nobody dared to say another word, and Keltaru certainly learned his lesson the hard way. On the other hand, I was wondering if I was stronger than Nanya or weaker. Going by what she just told us, I was stronger, but stats weren’t everything. If I were to go by skill rank alone, I was Advanced, and she was Godlike. Actually, I had no idea how an Advanced Rank skill differed from a Master Rank skill and then a Emperor Rank one, let alone a Godlike Rank skill.

“Princess Ayuseya, I need to have a word with you regarding your guard’s foolish behavior.” Nanya said as she jumped down from the block.

“Wait! Whatever I did, there’s no point in…” Keltaru spoke out, but Nanya only needed to throw him a glare to force him to shut up.

“Keltaru, you should have learned by now that when you are under the employ of a master, your actions are thought as your master’s actions. Your failure is thought as your master’s failure.” explained Tuberculus as he placed his hand on his shoulder to stop him from running over.

“Ku…” he clenched his fist and looked ashamed at the ground.

Poor lad… I thought.

Looking over, I saw Ayuseya writing something on her blackboard.

‘As you wish, teacher Nanya.’