Dizziness

"You! You come up here and try it."

Silence fell everywhere until a low snicker escaped someone's mouth. Slowly it turned into an orchestra of smirks and sneers.

Valerie seemed to have heard or seen nothing. She was obviously she was pretending, as teachers usually did.

In her opinion, Zavier deserved all that because he was weak and pathetic, so she didn't stop anyone from snickering.

Zavier kept thinking that Valerie really was a poisonous snake that bit its own without sparing a thought.

He was about to refuse her kind invitation when a familiar ding* changed his mind.

Zavier stood up with great defiance and looked Valerie straight in the eyes as if telling her that he wasn't afraid of her challenge.

The students in the class had varying opinions about this drama; some thought that Zavier was quite pitiful for being targeted like that. Of course these were the ones who weren't any good themselves.

Others remained neutral and had no opinion while the remaining ones thought that Zavier deserved to be humiliated for not being able to even sense magic. These were the high and mighty bullies of course.

As for Zavier himself, he was cheering on the inside because the system message that he had just received was:

[User's Mesmer rank has increased to level 2]

This message was followed by a series of ding*s that Zavier didn't have the time to read because he wanted to make use of this opportunity.

He had never anticipated that he would be able to increase his Mesmer rank so easily in the span of a single day.

His clone had been meditating all this time and the result was an increase in rank in such a short period of time.

According to his memories, illusionist was the rarest of all professions in this world. Although, mages could also imitate low level illusion skills with the help of magic, these weren't the authentic illusions. In front of a true Mesmer these illusions would collapse like a paper tiger.

An illusionist was sometimes considered to be weak in terms of power but that was something only those who hadn't truly seen the offensive power of an illusionist could have said.

For example, a powerful illusionist could trap a person in an eternal illusion with a flick of a finger and some mental strength, depriving them of all mental faculties until they become a human vegetable or someone else breaks the illusion.

They could also induce so much fear into their targets that they would commit suicide at the spot.

Zavier knew that Valerie had a huge reservoir of mana and a plethora of strong magic skills but the one thing that she lacked was mental strength.

Not that her mental strength was weak, it was just above average. But when it came to a monster like her whose every stat was almost perfect, an above average score could also be considered a weak point.

This gave him some hope as he had just gained a level in the very field that Valerie was weak in.

He hadn't yet accepted or denied the opportunity that Valerie had offered him. Since he had been targeted by Valerie specifically to humiliate him, he wanted to slap her in the face and at the same time make something out of this situation because he was sure that Valerie wouldn't back out of it if he suggested a wager.

Zavier raised his voice: "I will give it a try if you insist but there must be something to make it more worthwhile for me. Don't you think that there isn't enough motivation?"

This dumbfounded not only the entire hall but also the teacher. She began to seethe on the inside followed by his remark.

If it had been anyone else she might not have shown such contempt but an absolute failure was trying to act cocky in front of her, and that made her want to retort.

But she calmed down a little when the whole crowd started jeering at the top of their voice. This was not only an insult for the teacher but also for them who had tried so hard and had still failed at it previously.

Seeing this, Valerie let out a smile that hid thorns and contempt before generously replying, "Since you have asked, how about…I will promise you one thing regardless of what you want at the time IF you manage to pull it off?"

This was what he wanted to hear. Zavier nodded slightly in her direction with a smile on his face indicating that the reward was to his liking and he would continue playing.

Alissa her desk mate sneakily pulled on his clothes and murmurred to him in a low voice: "Hey! What are you doing? She is just trying to bully you. Everyone here knows that you cannot do any magic like me, why did she still choose you? Obviously, she is just trying to humiliate you. Don't fall for it."

Alissa was pulling him back down just to stop him from getting dragged into a play in which the ending was pre-decided.

Zavier gave her a reassuring smile that bamboozled her a little. He patted her shoulder and started walking towards the center of the hall to exhibit his skills in front of the whole class.

Zavier took his sweet time approaching the center of the hall because he was busy going through all the messages of the system.

[User's Mesmer rank has increased to level 2]

[Mental strength has increased slightly.]

[Congratulations, you can now use low level illusion skills.]

[Your illusions will be harder to see through from now on.]

[Successful skill completion probability has increased slightly.]

[Mana sense proficiency has increased to 21.01%]

[Resistance to low level illusions has increased marginally. Illusions below rank 2 will have no effect on the user.]

[You have learnt a new level 2 Mesmer skill, 'Dizziness']

[Those who are targeted by 'Dizziness' will have their senses affected for a certain period of time delaying their reaction time. The duration for which the target will be affected will increase with increase in skill proficiency and mental strength.

Conditions of use: The target has to look into the eyes of the caster for the skill to be successful.

Skill proficiency is currently at 0.01%. Skill proficiency can be increased by increasing mental strength or through repetitive practice.]

Another reason that his confidence was soaring and the reason why he was willing to take up Valerie's challenge was the new skill that became available to him with his rank up, Dizziness.

Before this, the only status effecting skill he had was Hypnosis which was too low levelled to have an effect on a genius like Valerie. As such he had pinned his hopes on this level 2 skill.

Zavier reached the center and stood as proud as a swan in the middle of the hall, his eyes kept staring at Valerie throughout as if declaring his defiance of her.

Valerie wasn't one to back out of a challenge. His attitude irritated her and she refused to look away from his penetrating gaze. Therefore, both of them were locked in a staring contest.

Unknown to her Zavier at that moment was constantly trying to cast Dizziness, hoping that she would continue to stare back at him.

The level 2 skill had a lower success rate since his skill proficiency was too low. He had to keep trying until he succeeded. This was the very reason that Zavier was reluctant to break eye contact with her until he successfully cast Dizziness.

[Skill activation failed.]

[Skill activation failed.]

To keep her from looking away, Zavier provoked her with his words: "Are you ready?"

[Skill activation failed.]

[Skill activation failed.]

[Skill activation failed.]

Valerie scoffed in contempt as if ahe needed to get ready to defend herself against someone like him. She opened her mouth to retort.

[Skill activation failed.]

"Uhh…"

Before she could have said anything, the opportunity that Zavier had been waiting to exploit, fell right in front of him.

[User has successfully cast Dizziness on the target. The target will be restricted for a short period of time.]

[Dizziness skill proficiency has increased to 0.05%]

Zavier could see her pupils dilate, rather it would be more pertinent to say that he could feel her pupils dilate and her body shake slightly as if she was having difficulty standing.

Zavier knew these were the effects of Dizziness, so he took it as a signal and moved on to the next spell.

Zavier didn't miss the opportunity at hand and cast Float on Valerie without any reservation.

Without any suspense, Valerie was lifted into the air completely like a piece of dead wood.