Chapter 30 - Admission

“Are you seeing me for the first time?”

Fang shook his head and quickly tore his eyes away. “Ah, it’s just that I’ve never seen you wear something else.”

Valeria replied, “It’s been a long time since I’ve worn this. How does it look?”

“It looks good,” Fang said honestly.

She smiled; no woman wouldn’t like to be complimented.

Seeing that Valeria was the only one in the practice room, Fang tentatively asked, “Valeria, where’s the trainer for today?”

“What do you think?”

“Eh?” Fang suddenly remembered what Blue had said. “Could it be that you are…”

“What, am I not qualified to be your training partner?”

“No, of course not!” A 5th-grade expert was still a high level of power, even though she couldn’t advance any further. It was a large gap compared to his level, and if she couldn’t be his trainer, then his requirements would be too high. Fang was surprised; although becoming a trainer wasn’t a bad occupation, he didn’t expect to train with Valeria.

Interrupting his thoughts, Valeria said, “It’ll be alright. It’s been a while since I’ve used my energy. I’m just taking the chance to exercise.” She gestured towards Fang. “Come on, use everything you’ve got and fight me without any reservations!”

Valeria’s determination was clear, so Fang tossed aside any doubts. Energy started to pour out from his body, forming a condensed ball on his palm.

---

This grade of energy for his level is extremely strong—I’ve rarely seen someone with such density.

She quickly evaluated and then lowered her own energy to the same level as Fang but with a striking difference: the hint of color was present.

Darkness property!

Even though her energy was lowered, her body had been ingrained with darkness, making the amount of this element that appeared intense—more so than even Durin’s earth property.

On her wrist appeared a pitch-black ball.

1st grade yellow skill – Energy Ball!

However, it wasn’t the typical ball of energy. It contained a characteristic dark property that drastically differentiated it from the regular Energy Ball.

Two missiles in the air collided, but no sound resonated at all. A small ring echoed throughout the room as the darkness slowly devoured Fang’s Energy Ball. Instead of reducing in size, the swirling darkness continued to sail towards Fang.

Assimilation, the characteristic of the darkness element.

The darkness property had an innate ability infused into each of its attacks, absorbing other elements into itself. Because of this, when facing someone proficient in darkness, it was difficult to cope with the strange phenomena that would occur due to the fusion. Moreover, darkness itself had a strong resistance to assimilation, and only certain other types would naturally counter it. The most obvious was the light property, which was completely immune and restrained the darkness ability to absorb energy.

Valeria’s relinquished body had completely rooted the darkness into her energy, so it was no surprise that Fang’s Energy Ball wasn’t strong enough to resist the assimilation.

Rapidly, Fang responded with another Energy Ball. Still, it was absorbed, and the dark energy crept towards him. It was only meters away when Fang managed to use a third Energy Ball. He knew the specific properties of each element, as the ten elders were specialized in each one—the weakness of the darkness element was precisely its ability. Other than having energy that was immune to absorption, if the darkness was overloaded, it would disintegrate.

And following his predictions, the dark shell broke, the flying debris dodged, and instant parries ensued. Fang couldn’t help but be shocked by this first exchange.

With a single 1st grade yellow skill, Valeria had this level of strength at the same level as Fang. It took three Energy Balls to resolve this; she was on an utterly different level than anyone he had fought before.

Valeria wasn’t in a rush and leaned back idly. The fight would’ve been over with just two Energy Balls, but she wanted to test his ability.

Looking at the situation, Fang realized that in long-range combat, he was helpless. So, there was only one thing to do.

He shot out two Energy Balls as they met the dark energy again, but under that cover, he had already gotten close. Energy expanded into a ray as it cut down—the same technique that won him the earlier fight. Even if she was stronger at range, it didn’t account for much if he could get in melee, as he learned from Garret’s actions.

Valeria was a little surprised. In less than twenty days, he had learned Energy Devour?

Bang!

Like before, the darkness lost its absorption properties after the two collisions, and the ray had broken through, slicing towards Valeria. There was no time to create another Energy Ball; instead, light condensed into a dark claw.

3rd grade yellow skill – Energy Claw!

The same strength and melee skills should’ve resulted in a stalemate, but Valeria’s technique was also covered in darkness and tore through his energy like butter. Just before it was about to cut into his body, it stopped a breath away.

“I’ve lost completely; you’re too strong!” With little effort, Fang was utterly defeated. She didn’t have to resort to anything higher to win.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad. Good considering that your energy doesn’t display any properties,” Valeria tried to cheer him up. “Fang, the amount of energy you have is powerful and could be considered special, but your experience is really too lacking. It’s the same skills over and over again, and you don’t move during your attacks. Choreographed, your opponents will easily exploit that. You’ll need a lot more practice to utilize that potential of yours.”

She pointed out Fang’s weaknesses acutely—they weren’t wrong. He had relied mostly on his unusual energy efficiency to stall out his fights until the other side ran out. And since his family was all dead, there was no one to teach him actual combat. Until now, the fights he had were all victories, but with this exchange, he was just lucky. After all, everything he had learned were theories, and he never had the chance to accumulate experience.

“Yes!”

---

After receiving some additional training, Fang returned to the camp and, in a couple of days, reached the 2nd grade intermediate rank. But the good news came with bad news.

The letters containing offers of admission had arrived.

Previously, this wouldn’t have been bad news. Fang had applied to a total of six places, all located within the country’s main cities and renowned for their quality.

There was one problem—the acceptance for the best college in Minuet City wasn’t among them.

Yesterday, Mii had received her admission notices; Minuet City was one of them. The oldest institution of magic, best in the country. Because magic was rare, talented magic users were rarer. At this age, Mii had fully grasped some of the complex magic theories that others couldn’t even start to comprehend due to the perspective that Fang offered. Her exams had all received perfect scores, so the university in Minuet City offered her a full scholarship should she come.

Moreover, throughout the country, there weren’t very many places dealing with magic. Out of all the places Fang was accepted at, none of them were located near any magic universities.

The two who had been together for their entire lives would be separated.