37.

{3rd PoV}

Argeria went to the viewing hall to watch the group placements of his mentee. Argeria couldn't help but recall the moment Argeria slapped Aegis' shoulder.

'Its like my hand slapped an iron ingot. Interesting.' Argeria thought before looking at the five participants. Of course he didn't know that Aegis' used his body control to compress his shoulder muscles and slightly retaliate against Argeria.

*

{1st PoV Aegis}

I got closer to the examination hall and saw four people in front of the machine that generates the shadow world simulation.

I could see Arman Desir, pushing himself to Romantica Eru. Although I haven't heard what Desir is saying, I know that he's really surprised to see Romantica again.

"Yo, Adjest." I greeted Adjest who's wiping the scabbard of her sword.

"Mm." Adjest greeted me as well. I understand that Adjest didn't want to reveal her true side in front of many people.

"D-D-Duke B-Blackwood?!? W-Why are you here?!" Romantica shouted in surprise.

"Duke Blackwood?" Desir asked, a little confused.

"Hello. A pleasure to meet you." I bowed to her lightly as a sign of courtesy. Even though her title as a noble is bought, she's still a noble, just like Felicia.

"As for why I am here, I am also taking part in the examination." I answered her question and Romantica felt her world crumbling.

'How could I compete against two monsters?! Even if I get the 3rd place, I might not be able to reach the Alpha Class!' Romantica shouted in her mind.

"I-Is that so? Pleased to meet you as well, my name is Romantica Von Eru." Romantica replied and I offered my hand in a handshake.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Romantica." I said and she shook my hand.

"L-likewise." She said and I sat down after that.

Desir leaned beside Romantica and asked her.

"Who's Duke Blackwood?" Desir asked in a low voice.

"How come you didn't know?! Aren't you from the same empire? How could you not have heard of him?! The hero of the masses, The man who repelled the Western Kingdoms' invasion in just one day. He's also a good ruler and he owns the most prosperous territory, even prosperous than the Royal Capital." Romantica said nervously.

"Woah, really? He's quite awesome isn't he?" Desir said with a praise.

"What's the most baffling thing is that, he took over his territory when he was just a child. He joined the war as a child. When I was his age, I was still learning arithmetic from my grandfather." Romantica said which made Desir surprised. He never knew of this story and he kind of had a good memory.

Although they did their best to hush their voices, I could still hear what they are talking about.

[Group D's event has been decided! Group D's event will be the same as the group after Group D! The event is... racing competition in the plains of earnest!

The mission for this objective for this shadow world is to cross the finish line faster than anyone else you are against. The finish line is 8 kilometers away from the starting point. You may also use magic to help yourself or interfere with other competitors.

Due to safety regulations, the pain reception is reduced by 80%. If you forfeit the match or received any critical injuries, you will be perceived as 'dead', and immediately pulled out of the shadow world.

The Gate to the shadow world will open soon. Participants, please line up in front of the gate.] The announcer echoed out in the exam hall. We stood up and lined up in front of the gate.

"We lucked out getting a racing competition for our event. I heard that group B fought against a giant troll. If this is a competitive match does that mean that we have to fight against each other?" Travery, Romantica's acquaintance, said to her.

"Probably, since we have a magic swordsman, a terrifying individual, and a useless commoner in the group, this match is ultimately going to be between the two of us." Romantica declared to him.

"I'm not that scary aren't I?" I asked Desir who's beside me when we lined up.

"Haha. I don't really know you, that well." Desir said with a wry smile. Its his first time meeting me after all.

"Oh, I see. Then Adjest, am I that scary? Since you know me, you could answer it, right?" I asked Adjest who had a cool look on her face.

"Yes. In fact, you're a monster." Adjest replied with a cold voice and it made me squat down in defeat.

"You don't know how frustrating it is to chase after someone only to realise they will always be ahead of you." Adjest muttered under her breath. Desir and I heard her and I couldn't help but smile wryly.

'What can I say, to change the future, I need to react to every kind of situation and had to have the strength to face the enemies who are planning in the dark.' I thought to myself. I already have my plans after entering the academy.

While I am thinking about the future, the gate opened up and we arrived at the plains of earnest.

[You have now entered the shadow world's 'Plain of Earnest' racing competition. The race will begin in 3 minutes. Participants, please stand behind the starting line.] The announcer said as we waited for the countdown to start. Before the race started, I stepped back and started doing stretches to warm my muscles up.

"H-hi?" Desir asked Adjest to know if Adjest also returned in time.

"Why did you decide to join the academy with such a low magic level and below average physical level?" Adjest jabbed Desir with a harsh criticism.

"I already know that." Desir replied with a clenched fist.

"No, you don't understand. You see that guy over there?" She pointed towards me who's busy stretching.

"In front of a monster like him, a genius is only worth so much. He didn't even bring his prized spear." Adjest said and stopped talking. Desir looked at me with curious eyes. He never heard of any Duke Blackwood as a prominent figure in the past. He is even wondering if the world slightly changed because of his return.

"What did you guys talk about? Although I'm busy stretching, I could feel you guys pointing at me." I asked Desir who just laughed lightly.

"You're the first noble that I've met who didn't discriminate against commoners like me. No wonder they called you hero of the masses." Desir said lightly which made Adjest frown a little.

"He didn't gain that title by not discriminating the commoners, he created a safe haven for them. A place where they can live without a noble burdening them at their backs." Adjest said and I can't help but smile seeing Adjest being proud about it even though its not her achievement.

Desir had a look of understanding when he heard Adjest's words.

[In 10 seconds, the race will begin] We heard the announcer speak and we got ready in position to run.

[Start!]

When the announcer announced the beginning of the competition, Adjest immediately used her magic.

"<Ice Wall!>" Adjest casted her spell and a big wall of ice stopped us from moving. The three of them were surprised but I sort of knew that Adjest would do that to stall me since I'm the only threat to her.

"Hm, well since there's a wall, I'll just run to the sides. Bye guys, see you at the other side." I said as I ran to the edges of the ice wall. I'm sort of playing around since this is the first competition with those of the same age as I.

I could've just scaled the wall by using <8 Steps> but where's the fun in that?

Travery as a knight, immediately hacked the ice wall and shattered it with force. He immediately ran to the otherside to catch up with Adjest. Romantica and Desir followed up after Travery and entered the same hole that Travery created for himself. Desir then started annoying Romantica with his chatter.

Meanwhile, I reached the end of the wall and was jogging towards the main route.

"Man, Adjest doing that is kind of cheap but I like it. She really wanted to win that badly huh?" I said to myself as the wind started picking up.

"Oh, wind magic? Is Romantica casting a spell?" I said as I used the momentum of the wind to make it easier to control and wrapped it around my feet.

"Well. I guess its time to catch up. <8 Steps, 2nd step>" With the burst of speed, I quickly ran back to the main course and passed by Travery who stabbed his sword into the ground so that he won't be blown away by Romantica's magic.

"Heh~ a heavy armor." I said as I peeked at Travery before changing my sight at the one in front of me. She's cutting the wind with brute force.

'Very Adjest-like, I must say.' I thought and quickly caught up to her. I thought that she would be surprised to see me but she's calm which made me expectant of what she's going to do.

"<Icicle Lance>" Adjest casted a spell. The magic circle instantly crumbled without the spell being completed.

"You know that it won't work again, Adjest." I said with a smile, I stopped using the 8 steps and am currently running with Adjest.

"<Ice Wall>" a magic circle once again appeared but it crumbled once more. I know that Adjest was using the magic spells to delay me. She's only 1 km away from the finish line and she is using all things that she know to stall me and reach the finish line before me.

What I admire about Adjest is her ability to quickly pick up things that she's being taught. I once gave her a tip when she's practicing magic. I gave her an idea on how to cast wordless chanting and she's already using it against me. She started hurling magic spells at me, she wanted to bet that my <Nullification> has a limit.

It has indeed a limit, only after my mana inside the body is used up, only then will I be unable to cast <Nullification>. One of the biggest disadvantage of <Nullification> is that I can only nullify magic that are the same rank as I am. I'm a 3rd circle mage meaning, I could only nullify 3rd circle magic and below.

Compared to Skill Analysis that can reverse engineer higher ranked spells, <Nullification> sounds kinda weak, right? No, <Nullification> shines when the user is a higher rank mage because of the methods that are available to you after reaching a higher rank.

Adjest's spell was destroyed and there's only 200 meters between us and the finish line when Desir suddenly came flying straight at us.

"Sorry, man. But this is between me and Adjest." I said in apology as I nullified the spells casted by Desir in his body, like grease and slippery road.

Desir immediately slowed down and he was shocked. He never had the time to react when Grease and Slippery road was gone just like that. He started casting it again and found out that every time he's casting the spell, the spell would be gone as if it never existed. He thought that I was analyzing his spell and tried to use his own skill analysis to counter me. To his shock once again, skill analysis cannot reverse engineer the spell that I'm using.

With Desir out of the way, I changed my focus to Adjest who pulled out her sword and tried to attack me.

"Wrong answer, Adjest." I activated <8 Steps, 3rd Step> and immediately passed the finish line followed by Adjest, and Desir.

[You have cleared the Shadow World] The voice of the announcer entered our ears and I smiled happily.

We got thrown out of the Shadow World and sent to the Exam hall.

"I knew you could do it." Argeria praised me as he placed his arms around my shoulder.

I removed his arm and sat down to rest. I need some time to analyze the battle that just happened. Seeing me deep in thoughts, Argeria shook his head and left. He was sure that I would be admitted and didn't have to worry about me.

Adjest looked at me before sighing. She sat down beside me because she wanted to ask me something.

Desir received the most shock and he couldn't understand what happened just now so he waited for me. Adjest and Desir's mentor, Elheim and Radoria came to pick them up but after seeing me, their face showed respect.

After analyzing my fight with Adjest, I compiled the things that I could've done better in my head and opened my eyes.

"Oh, Miss Dorich, Sir Triquincy." I greeted the two of them with a smile. Radoria's family is one of our allies and Elheim's family is an influential noble so courtesy is needed.

"Duke Blackwood. A pleasure to meet you." Elheim bowed and greeted me.

"Its been a while, Duke Blackwood." Radoria bowed her head and greeted me as well.

"May I know why you're here?" I asked the two of them even though I know that they are the mentor of the two beside me.

"We are here to pick up our mentee." Radoria said as she pulled Desir but Desir was stubborn.

"Duke Blackwood, how did you remove the spells I casted in my body?" Desir asked in a final attempt before Radoria dragged him with her strength.

"I simply nullified it." I said with a smile. Desir still didn't get it but Radoria's pull become stronger.

'What a fiery woman. Is her temper related to her strength?' I thought as I looked at Desir being pulled like a luggage.

"What did you mean by wrong move?" Adjest asked me and I turned to Elheim and wanted to see if he's going to drag Adjest like what Radoria did but it seems like he's interested at what I'm going to say.

"You think a lot when you fight, yeah?" I asked her and she nodded.

"Is it a bad thing?" She asked me.

"Its not necessarily bad. Thinking a lot in battle is good but you need to reduce the hesitations or remove them completely. When you were near the finish line, you're thinking if you want to turn around and face me or continue running.

You thought that if you just continued running, you would still lose since I could just use my technique and burst through and win. You've decided to turn around and face me but its too late.

If you've realized that you won't win if you continue running and immediately turned around, you might've stalled me for a long enough time to run to the finish line." I explained why it was a wrong move for Adjest. Her hesitation always gets the better of her. If she was decisive in turning around, she may win it since my attention was occupied by Desir who's trying to cast spells to his body.

"I see. Thank you for your advice." Adjest bowed her head to me. I just smiled at her. Triquincy left with Adjest and I can't see Romantica nor Travery either.

"Oh well. I'll just go home. I'm hungry and I fulfilled my promise to Felicia." I said as I walked out of the Academy, I've studied in the academy before so I know the layout of the academy already and I didn't have to explore it like a newbie.

I entered the carriage and Idom brought me to the Blackwood Manor to rest and eat.