CHAPTER 148: CHAPTER 148 PROGRESS

"Did you think I got stronger because of Evelyn? We were friends in the academy, and since the academy days, I have been stronger. I was rank 1 all the way to class 3." Victoria replied with a smile on her face.

"Rank 1?" Roman asked, he had no idea what she meant by that.

"You don’t know about the academy rankings, After the first month of training, you’ll be required to duel with your fellow students and establish a ranking system, You’ll receive bonuses depending on the ranking and a headstart in the kingdom tournament"

"After the first month, so I have to win the Queen’s tournament to get there" Roman muttered.

"Yes, but back to your question, I was ranked 1 and I dueled with Evelyn severally, all of which I won, but then we got to the battlefield in front of actual demons and I found myself taking orders from Evelyn"

"But that wasn’t the turning point, it was when I almost lost my life because of a demon, It’s the reason my hair is covering part of my face"

"You got injured?" Roman asked.

"Injured is a small word. You can heal an injury, but this... After that I managed to survive, Reinforcement arrived and we were sent back home to rest before we returned to the Frontline"

"When I got home, I was so angry at myself. I trained to the extent that my body was shutting itself down. Once I trained so hard that I fainted and was taken to my sister, a healer," Victoria mused as she remembered the incident.

"For a month it was just me training. After that, I got so strong I couldn’t even recognize myself," Victoria said with a chuckle.

"I didn’t try actual combat after training till I got to the frontline and when I did, I was unstoppable, but someone was right behind me, Turns out I wasn’t the only one who was training to death, Evelyn was too, That’s how I got strong"

"What I’m basically saying is that you need that kind of conviction to actually break through, There’ll come a time you’ll get stuck, that’s when you’ll know if you have what it takes to be as powerful"

"What if I train as hard as you?" Roman replied.

"You can’t to be honest, I can’t advise anyone to train as hard as I did, even Evelyn didn’t train as hard as I did, not all S-ranks would reach the same height, just like we’re the strongest mages in the world, doesn’t mean we’re the only S-rank" Victoria laughed as she finished speaking.

After she said the word strongest, the incident in the cave came to her mind. That was the reason the capital was under alert, but nothing had happened since then, so she wasn’t that worried.

Still, the leader of the Blood Fang obtaining that sort of power wasn’t something she thought about. If it came down to it, she and Evelyn would fight to the death to protect Avalon.

"Do you think I could be as strong or even stronger than both of you, a male like me?" Roman asked with a smile.

"Normally I can predict how strong a mage can become, but for you I can’t, maybe because you’re a male, or maybe you’ll be much stronger than me, or maybe you won’t amount to anything"

"But that shouldn’t be your focus for now; you should think of winning against the 9 strongest students in your class," Victoria replied.

"9 strongest?"

"We already made arrangements for the tournament. It’ll be announced at the end of the week, where Evelyn and I will make our first appearance to the new students officially," Victoria spoke.

"Ohh, do you know who I’m going to face?" Roman asked.

"The tournament would start a week before the actual tournament, here in the academy. All the class 1 students except you would duel, and the 9 strongest, along with you, would then participate in the Queen’s tournament in the Royal Palace," Victoria replied with a smirk.

"Shit, if I’m facing one of the strongest, what if I lost the first match?"

"Then you’re done, it’s knockout. Once you lose, it’s over... Are you getting scared?" Victoria chuckled.

"A little. What if I face Ava in the first round? There’s no way she would want to lose when I’m sure her family would attend, and the princess, too, and the rest of the other 9." Roman spoke.

"The Queen is also preparing a huge prize for first place, a prize that would make everyone think only about themselves, Good luck"

Victoria stood up and stretched her arms.

"I have somewhere to be. Train on your own. It’s the only chance you have of catching up. 1 hour of training isn’t going to make up for years of hard work," she said.

Roman nodded as he looked up at her.

She gave him one last glance. "Don’t forget what I said, train...when the week is over, you’ll start learning flame spells, it’s the element with the most spells created in the world"

Then she turned and walked away. She walked slowly till she got to the door and pushed it open. Roman watched her leave until she disappeared behind the doors.

Silence returned to the building as he was now alone.

Roman let out a deep breath and walked slowly toward the wall. His legs felt heavy, and his body still ached from the training earlier. He sat down with his back against the wall and slid to the ground.

He was tired.

Not just his body... even his thoughts felt tired. Yesterday was just him trying to reach Victoria, but today he had to make split-second decisions and take beatings for not doing the right thing.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

Victoria’s words echoed in his mind. Roman wasn’t just in the academy so he could get stronger and fight in the Frontlines; he was aiming for the demon lord.

Roman couldn’t tell how strong Victoria really was, but he had to be stronger than her, much stronger than her to attempt something like that.

The biggest issue wasn’t training and all, but how was he supposed to meet the demon lord? The demon lord wasn’t someone he could find just like that. No one had really seen the demon lord.

Roman smiled a little.

This wasn’t even the start of his journey. First, he had a boulder in front of him, which was the tournament, before thinking about this.

Roman rested inside the building for around 30 minutes before standing up. This time, he wasn’t heading back to the dorm; instead, he was going to the library.

He wanted to test something.

Now that he could control his Mana better, he was going to make Neia show him an illusion spell circle so he could try to copy and replicate it.

She wouldn’t think anything about it so it was perfect.

Roman exited the building and walked towards the library. He pushed the door open and walked in, and this time Neia wasn’t behind a book.

She was walking around the library looking at books, probably finding what to read.

Roman walked towards her without saying anything. he could only spot a few students in the library, and they were all busy with books.

Roman walked up behind Neia quietly, and when he was behind her, he tapped her shoulders.

Neia flinched and quickly turned around to see Roman with a smile on his face.

"Why did you do that? Also, I wasn’t scared; I was just surprised." Neia spoke the next moment, and Roman chuckled.

"So what brings you here, If it was books you wouldn’t have tried to scare me"

"Can’t I just visit you" Roman spoke.

"You came to visit me?" Neia replied with a smile.

"Yeah," Roman said. " But I also came to ask you something."

Neia tilted her head. She knew he would just come to see her. "What is it?"

"I want you to show me an illusion spell circle, any spell, preferably a low-level spell"

She gave him a suspicious look. "Why?"

"Just curious. You made it look easy, and I’m trying to understand how spell circles are built. I’m having trouble holding it without activating the spell, so I want something I can’t do," Roman replied.

Neia stared at him for a second. This was just reinforcing her theory that Roman was an illusion mage.

"Fine. But don’t try anything weird. Illusion magic isn’t as easy as it looks, Also it’ll be better if I draw it"

She left where she was and walked back to the counter where she got a paper to draw on with ink.

A few seconds later, she sketched the illusion spell circle.

The markings were clean and complex, but Roman focused. His eyes followed every line, every curve.

"This is a basic spell called conceal, It’s used to hide things, things hidden with their spell can’t be seen, Also it doesn’t work on a human, only objects"