Duel Exam

Nia's entrance exam was about to begin. Vincent created a 1v1 lobby and Nia joined in. Since Nia seemed to be uncomfortable with people around her, everybody gave her space and huddled behind Vincent to watch the game unfold.

"With so many eyes on my monitor, I feel like I'm the one being tested here," Vincent said. "I can feel the nerves kicking in."

"No need to worry," Kai said. "Go ahead and perform horribly. That'll make Nia look good."

"And, you'd be satisfied with that kind of result?"

"Of course not," Kai said. "But, maybe that'll at least calm her down a little. I mean, look at her."

"Yeah..." Yuel didn't even know what to say. Nia curled into a ball on top of the chair as if she wanted to become a hairball. Was she that nervous? Or, was it some sort of ritual before the match? And, why did she put her legs on the chair like? Also, how come her parents never bothered to take care of her messy spaghetti hair? So many mysteries.

In a proper Ranked Duel, each player was allowed to ban three classes, similar to the first round of banning in Ranked MOBA. However, to make life easier, Kai convinced everybody to let Nia skip this part for the exam.

[Unfortunate, but oh well.] Yuel shook his head. There was a lot of information to be extracted from how one handled the drafting phase but knowing how to draft was way more advanced than just knowing how to play. Lars was the definitive example of that. That goof had zero drafting ability but insane in-game skill. One of those cases when a book couldn't be judged by its cover.

With no banning phase, each player was allowed to pick any class they wanted.

[Alrighty, what do I go for?] Vincent stroked his chin. [I like me some Viking in Duel, but I feel that might be too aggressive for a test. The girl already looks nervous enough. I don't want to bully her.]

In the end, Vincent went for Knight, the solid all-rounder. It should be good enough to pose a challenge for properly testing Nia's mettle without making her sweat bullets.

Meanwhile, Nia picked Rogue.

"Rogue, huh," Yuel wore a difficult expression.

"Hey," Luke exclaimed. "Before you start trash-talking my boi Rogue again, just so you know: it's not a meme in 1v1."

"Yeah," Kai tuned in. "I wouldn't call it 'high tier' but it's definitely up there in Duel."

"I didn't even say anything yet," Yuel made a face. Though, admittedly, thoughts like that did cross his mind at first. "I'm more surprised it's an assassin pick. They're not easy in 1v1."

"That's true," Kai frowned and crossed her arms. "I hope Nia knows what she's doing. What are her most played classes?"

"Nobody knows," Yuel said. "She set most of her info to private."

"Oh, right," Kai sighed.

"So," Vincent started. "Knight is considered a tough matchup for Rogue, right?"

"I'd say so," Luke was the first to answer. He probably considered himself the No.1 Rogue expert in the group. "Assassin vs. Bruiser is always rough. Like, when you're an assassin and can't kill your target fast, then WTF you're even supposed to do there, amirite?"

"Maybe we should ask if she wants to change classes," Kai suggested.

"She must have picked Rogue because she's confident in it," Yuel argued. "A big part of being good in Duel is being able to adapt to any type of opponent. If she says nothing about this matchup, then I say we let her play. Worst case, if she loses because of the bad matchup, we'll take that into consideration."

"Fair enough," Kai agreed but she was tapping her foot rapidly. Somebody was clearly nervous about the whole thing.

Frankly, even Yuel thought the odds weren't in Nia's favor. In the few Ranked Duels he played, he always picked a bruiser and felt his easiest matchups were assassins. He didn't win every such matchup but his win ratio against them was definitely higher than against other roles.

Assassins were usually solid counters to marksmen and mages and those. in turn, countered bruisers. It was a rock-paper-scissors relationship and sometimes victory was decided all the way back on the selection screen.

However, an advantage was nothing more than just that, an advantage. It didn't dictate the entire outcome of the match. The players who were truly good at 1v1 were expected to adapt and handle their bad matchups smartly.

Yuel didn't invest enough time into Duel to reach that level but Nia has been primarily a 1v1 player according to her stats. Therefore, she had to be able to handle an assassin vs. bruiser matchup. Otherwise, it'd put her adaptation skills into question.

[Knight? What a pain.] Nia pouted. [Drat, they're doing it on purpose. They must've found out I play assassins and picked a bruiser to bully me. Didn't I leave my stats on private? They must have hacked my account somehow! The internet is truly a scary place.]

[Maybe I should just slip away?] Nia eyed the door. [I bet they won't even notice. I'll just go outside and disappear. It's better than being publicly executed like this. I bet they also pit me against their strongest Duelist just to make it a pain. Gufu...]

Nia broke out of her curled posture and lowered her feet to the floor. However, she stopped herself midway.

[Am I going to run away again?] Nia trembled. There she was, undertaking an entrance exam for joining a club. Somehow, she already got this far. So, shouldn't she try just a little harder until the end?

The exam was shaping up to be a mean one with that Knight pick but it wasn't like she didn't have a chance at all. She has fought many Knights before and beat some of them. It was a wack matchup but not a hopeless one.

[I-I'll give it a try.] Nia nodded to herself. This was a rare opportunity that might never come again. Back in elementary school, she never joined a club even though it was supposed to mandatory. It wasn't mandatory so nobody forced her into anything. Everybody forgot she even existed and she herself was too timid to reach out to anybody.

But, this time was different. The people from this club noticed her and even found her in her classroom. How? It was like magic. They must have had some sort of secret weapon their side. Maybe some sort of magical human tracking machine that reported Nia's position in real-time via GPS. The horror of super technology!

[No, no, no.] Nia shook her head. It's okay. They just happened to notice her when she was applying to the club. And, they just happened to find her in her class because they searched very hard. There wasn't any kind of demonic neo technology involved in the process, right? Right?

『READY?』

『FIGHT!』

The match began.

[No idea how they find me every time, but...] Nia curled back into a ball on top of the chair. [This is a chance to join a club for once. So, even though this matchup is a pain, I gotta win somehow.]

[Um, what do I pick here, again?] Nia browsed the shop. She needed a good starting item to deal with a bruiser, the pesky type of opponent who won't quickly die from burst damage.

[Can I check real quick?] Nia sneakily glanced at the group on the other side of the room. Good, nobody was paying attention to her. This called for a stealth mission!

She sneakily took out her phone and booted the Tipmancer app. Then, she inputted the matchup between Rogue and Knight for Duel mode. The app suggested building Muramasa as the first item for the Rogue player.

[Ok.] Nia nodded and purchased Muramasa right away. It had about everything she needed: attack power, attack speed, penetration, and defense stealing. This should let her contest the Knight at close quarters.

With an Lv.3 Muramasa and a Smite utility skill, Nia set out of the base. Where should she start off? The blue buff or the red buff? Naturally, blue was the only safe option. Walking all the way to the Ogre Camp in the center of the map was too risky. She never did that despite always entertaining the idea for a moment before shooting it down.

[Are they gonna invade?] Nia cautiously approached the Wraith Camp. Invasions were such a pain to deal with so, hopefully, this examiner won't bully her. It was already rough enough that she'll have to deal with a Knight this match.

[Ok, looks clear.] Nia nodded to herself and proceeded to clear the Wraith Camp. This was the part where Rogue kinda sucked and needed help. That's why she bought the Smite utility skill, which dealt heavy damage to one minion and then unleashed a weaker AoE shockwave which hit other minions in range.

She hammered the Supreme Wraith with Smite and the shockwave hit the rest of the wraiths. That deleted over 80% of the boss's HP right away and reduced the other wraiths to half health. Nia wrapped things up by with a couple more basic attacks.

[OK, done.] She collected the blue buff and proceeded to the lane. Her opponent arrived on the lane at around the same time as her, also sporting a blue buff.

[That's quite the getup.] Nia made a face. The enemy Knight was wearing an expensive black demonic skin with flame effects erupting from every part of its body. He almost looked like a Dark Knight, except even more evil and infernal.

It was... really cool, actually. Though, the guy had to be loaded to allow himself that kind of stuff. This skin was quite expensive compared to the usual ones. Maybe it was one of those cases when the child bought a skin with his parents' credit card without their knowledge? So, maybe he was stealing money from his own family to buy skins!? There were many such stories floating around the internet. Scary how far some people would go.

[Interesting customization.] Vincent processed the Rogue's looks with his amazing Skin Analyzer ability. Everybody thought he was just the Arbiter of Talents, but nay! He was also the Detective of Customization! By analyzing how players customized their characters, Vincent could deduce everything about his opponents! It was elementary!

Alright, not really. Vincent was sure it's possible to learn many things about a player by looking at their customization, but his Skin Analyzer personal skill wasn't high level enough to yield any useful results.

All he could tell was that Nia edited the default Rogue skin quite a bit. The Rogue's default black robe was painted in light brown, making it blended well with the desert-themed environment of the 1v1 map. Similarly, the black hair was painted blonde and the dark eyes were changed into bright silver.

All in all, it didn't look like Nia used any premium customization parts but she sure repainted everything she could get her hands on. It was an oddly bright take on Rogue, a class normally associated with sneaking around in the darkness. Though, in its own odd way, this bright skin actually blended with the environment like a chameleon; it made the Rogue look more sneaky than ever. Instead of hiding in the darkness, this one was hiding in plain sight!

[So, I'll be dealing with a Rogue, eh.] Vincent naturally jerked. Anybody who played Classmancers had more than a couple of bitter experiences against Rogue for it was the "noob stomper" class until a certain skill level. Once players learned to buy Stealth Wards against Rogue, its effectiveness dropped drastically and it was reduced to a meme.

However, that was only as far as the MOBA mode was concerned. In Duel, Rogue apparently wasn't that bad. Vincent was no expert by any means, but if Kai vouched for a Rogue pick in Duel then it had to be rather effective.

How should Vincent approach this? Unlike in the MOBA mode, he hasn't met that many Rogues in Duel so his matchup knowledge was lacking and rusty. Even by tapping into the boundless knowledge stored in his Information Blackhole, he couldn't draw out a solid answer. But, it wasn't like his Information Blackhole didn't store such info or anything. It's just that Vincent was too rusty at the moment and therefore unqualified to access such information.

His first instinct was to buy a Stealth Ward to counter the Rogue but then he realized it was rather pointless. Stealth Ward was a counter to Rogue in the MOBA mode because the map was big and it was hard to tell where the Rogue will strike from. But, in 1v1, there was only one opponent to keep tabs on, so it was much easier to keep the Rogue in check at all times.

"I'm surprised you didn't buy Stealth Wards," Yuel said.

"Kukuku," Vincent smirked. "For the one who possesses boundless knowledge and the ability to absorb all information, Stealth Wards are unnecessary! I shall expose the Rogue with the powers of my third eye!"

"He's right," Kai said. "It's a waste to buy Stealth Wards in Duel. Better spend that cash on finishing your build faster. It's not like 5v5 where there are lots of things to keep track of."

"Is that so," Yuel crossed his arms. "I usually buy a Stealth Ward and place it on the lane to make the Rogue's life harder. Am I the only one who does that?"

"I don't do that stuff," Lars shrugged.

"Me neither," Kai agreed.

"I see," Yuel pursed his lips. If the two best Duelists here didn't do that, then maybe it was truly a misplay and Vincent was actually playing correctly right now. Yuel made a mental note to research this topic later.

The laning phase began and minions from both sides clashed in the middle of the map. This was going to be the tough part for Nia due to Knight's Chivalry passive. Vincent's minions had superior defense so they were going to overwhelm Nia's minions. What counter did she have for this matchup?

"What item did she start with?" Yuel asked.

"Let's see," Vincent brought up the status screen. "Whew, Muramasa. Somebody is planning to go all-in against me."

"Looks decent," Kai said.

[Does Kai even play assassins/bruisers in Duel to know enough about this matchup?] Yuel wondered. [But, I have to agree. A Muramasa start seems solid. That's probably what I'd pick as well in this situation.]

Muramasa didn't have any particular strong points but it provided all the stats Rogue wanted against a bruiser: attack power, attack speed, penetration, and a passive that stole some of the target's defenses with every hit. It should give Nia just enough power to contest the lane and it'll also be a great tool for the eventual 1v1 against a Knight.

But, Vincent didn't make it easy. He went straight for Mistmail as his first Lv.3 item. Its passive lowered the attack speed of all nearby enemies, which was a great tool for reducing Rogue's effectiveness in close quarters. If a Rogue couldn't land multiple fast hits in succession on the target's back, it was difficult for it to seal the deal. Especially, against a tanky opponent.

On top of that, it put Nia in a sticky situation during laning. Rogue was a melee class so it had to advance to the frontline to clear minions, just like Vincent. However, if they both get to the frontline, the aura effect of Mistmail will reach Nia and lower her attack speed, which will slow down down her ability to clear the minions. If Vincent clears the wave first and then catches Nia isolated in the middle of the lane, she'll have a very bad time.

[I hope this doesn't come across as bullying.] Vincent smiled wryly. When it came to countering his lane opponent, Vincent had plenty of experience as a Top Laner. So, at least in that area, he'll give Nia some challenge. Countering his lane opponent was the only way somebody as untalented as him could possibly defeat opponents so it was the only way he knew how to play.

[Welp,] Vincent smiled wryly. [Worst case, if it gets too difficult for her, I'll just lower my level a little. Though, it's going to be a challenge to sneak that past the Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception. Eh, I'll figure something out. Probably.]

So, how will Nia deal with this challenge? How will she contest Vincent during the laning phase despite her numerous disadvantages? This was shaping up to be a tough exam...