30 observed Mikael closely, stunned by his ability to withstand a to the attack. ‘An F- ranker, and he killed 31? Even if it was a surprise attack, that’s impossible. And now he’s holding his ground against me, a D+ ranker?’ The assassin tightened his grip on his sword, more on guard than ever. Wheiced the grin on Mikael’s face, his wariness only deepened.

  ‘Should I retreat and e back with reinforts?’ His mind screamed yes, but knowing he would be punished for returning without results, he decided, ‘I’ll try to kill him. If I see that he’s to, I’ll retreat, punishment be damned!’

  This decision by the assassin saved Mikael from signifit trouble. After all, the assassin was faster than him, even with his footwork skill, so if he had chosen to run, Mikael wouldn’t have been able to catch him.

  The situation remained a tealemate, the two fighters silently sizing each other up before Mikael suddenly rushed forward, swords in hand, his eyes cold aermined.

  30 reacted instantly, sending half a meter wide aura sshes toward Mikael. Mikael rolled to evade the first attack, then jumped to the side to avoid another flying ssh.

  While dodging, Mikael tio close the distaween himself and the assassin. Soon, he was near enough to strike, but the assassin’s ck of retreat made him cautious, expeg a sudden terattack.

  30 didn’t disappoint. As Mikael approached, the assassin trated a high amount of aura into his bde and sneered. “Be proud you forced me to use this move!” he said before unleashing a massive ssh.

  A multi-meter-wide aura ssh, far rger and dehan the previous ones, surged toward Mikael, radiating a palpable sense of danger. Feeling the threat to his life, Mikael used Bde Tempest to slow the attack. While it reduced the ssh’s momentum, it didn’t stop it.

  Pushing his body to the limit, Mikael forced more aura into his sword teiques and strained his muscles to swing faster. This bination allowed him to hold the aura ssh in a tenuous stalemate before it could reach him.

  The assassin was shocked that Mikael mao block a ssh taining 15% of his total aura. However, he smirked and said, “Impressive. But you handle another one?” Without hesitation, he sshed again, sending a sed enormous aura bde hurtling toward Mikael.

  Now faced with two devastating attacks, Mikael was forced to split his efforts. Even as he gave it his all, to the point of breaking his arm muscles and make them bleeding profusely, it wasn’t enough. The aura sshes inched closer, and the worst part was that he couldn’t move. If he stopped using Bde Tempest for even a moment, the bdes would kill him before he could dodge.

  Despite the thrill of the battle, Mikael wasn’t looking to die. Quickly, he began tize. Whewo aura sshes drew perilously close, he devised a pn. He created multiple thin, nearly invisible aura threads from his bad anchored them to the ground.

  With a sudden burst of strength, he pulled himself backward just in time. The aura bdes, unobstructed, tiheir trajectory and smashed into the ground.

  “BOOM!”

  The impact created massive craters, but Mikael didn’t care. He was already on the move, terattag.

  “What?” he excimed instinctively, momentarily distracted by the explosions caused by his attacks.

  In that split sed, Mikael vanished from the assassin’s view. When he refocused, two flying swords were hurtling toward his legs.

  Reag instinctively, the assassin shifted his stao avoid the attack, but he wasn’t fast enough. One sword missed harmlessly, but the sed pierced his right knee.

  “Argh!” he let out a pained groan, quickly suppressing it. He turned his attention baikael, who had followed up with a punch aimed at him.

  30 instinctively sshed at Mikael, but the form of the attack was sloppy due to the current situation. This allowed Mikael to easily evade the strike and deliver a powerful blow to the assassin's sword-wielding hand, f him to drop his on.

  Mikael unched another punch, but the assassin raised his arms to block it. The force of the impact, however, drove the assassin backward. With the sword still lodged in his leg, he stumbled and nearly fell, barely managing to steady himself by shifting his weight onto his left leg.

  Mikael didn’t relent. He tinued his assault, overwhelming the assassin, whled to defend himself with only one funal leg. Though stronger and faster than Mikael, the assassin’s disadvantage reversed the tide of the battle.

  Realizing the dire situation, the assassin thought, ‘I o retreat and bring reinforts. I ’t defeat this monster alone!’

  But Mikael gave him e, ung relentless utacks. The assassin, distracted by the onsught, failed to notice the previously ‘harmless’ sword on the ground.

  As the battle dragged on and the assassin’s position worsened, Mikael’s fiwitched almost imperceptibly.

  “Squeltch” a sword pierg flesh sound resounded in the surrondings.

  Some blood spttered aikael's face before he heard 30 say, “I—”

  The assassin didn’t finish his sentence as he colpsed to the ground with a heavy thud, killed by a surprise sword strike that pierced his head.

  Mikael didn’t have time to celebrate his victory. A wave of exhaustion washed over him, and he colpsed to his knees. A violent fit of coughing overtook him.

  “Cough, cough!”

  He raised a trembling hand to his mouth and saw blood on his palm. He winced. ‘And now I’m coughing up blood… This fight really pushed me to my absolute limits. I had to overexert myself, and now I’ve got internal injuries to deal with.’

  [D+ Rae Human killed: 200K XP received x2]

  Struggling, Mikael forced himself to his feet, ign the notification. His mind raced as he quickly assessed his options. There was no time to heal here. He o return to the Academy as quickly as possible before another wave of stronger assassins showed up.

  He cast a quick ing spell on himself to appear more presentable, therieved his swords and stored them in his ring. Gng at the bodies of his attackers, he wished he could make them disappear but knew he didn’t have the time.

  Without hesitation, Mikael broke into a run toward Adresia City. Each step sent sharp jolts of pain through his body, but he gritted his teeth and pressed on, ting Minor Heal on himself repeatedly as he ran.

  The stant casting of the weak healing spell offset the damage his movements were causing. It even mao heal him a little, though not much, as Minor Heal was the weakest of all healing spells. The only reason it had any noticeable effect was due to his high vitality, which greatly enhanced his body’s natural recovery.

  After what felt like ay, Mikael finally caught sight of the city gates. Slowing his pace, he merged into the flow of people entering and leaving the city. In this way, he slipped ihout drawing attention to himself. Ohiy walls, he made a beeline for the tral Academy’s teleportation hall.

  Entering the grand building, he ighe receptionist entirely, too exhausted and in too much pain to care about formalities. His focus was solely on the small teleportation rooms at the back, each taining a funing array.

  Just before paying the required credits, Mikael remembered to adjust his limiter. Spending 100 LP, he figured his physical stats to cap at 150, except for vitality, which he left untouched. He also set his SPI to 100 but left his INT unged.

  Ohe limiter was in pce, he paid the fee and stepped into the teleportation room. Standing on the glowing blue circle, he felt the familiar log sensation before his visio dark. Moments ter, solid grouurned beh his feet.

  Opening the door in front of him, Mikael stepped into the bustling teleportation hall of the tral Academy. Relief surged through him as he thought, ‘Finally… safe.’

  He took some steps outside of the teleportation rooms walking amistd the nearby students, his stannasuming of the pain behind. He was quietly leaving the teleportation hall.

  Not far from him, someone was in shock—a young man with brown hair and eyes, and a retively handsome appearance. He stared at Mikael with wide eyes.

  ‘How the fuck isn’t he dead? Jacob said he left the Academy and that two D+ rank assassins were sent after him. HOW DID HE ESCAPE?’ he thought, rage boiling inside him. ‘Were they so inpetent that an F- rank mao survive and escape? No, this won’t do. He’ll keep getting in my way of winning over Amelia Mournsky and the Duke’s family bag. If I quer her, their influence will be mine,’ he thought with growing greed.

  But seeing Mikael alive and seemingly well made him feel like the obstacle he thought he had removed had returned. Frustrated, he stormed off toward his dormitory with an angry expression, pnning to speak with his butler about the assassins’ ‘inpetence.’

  Meanwhile, Mikael, pletely unaware of Wernon iurmoil—and holy too draio care—finally reached his dormitory room. He unlocked the door using his bracelet aered, setting the “Do Not Disturb” mode before colpsing onto the bed.

  There were questions he wao ask the Records and tasks he o address, but his body felt too weak. Instead, he y on the bed and began spamming the Minor Heal spell.

  Thanks to his new mage talent and his increased INT stat of 500, his proficy with the spell and magi general rose at an astonishing rate. The length of the t gradually shortened, and by the time he had nearly drained his mana, he could already cast the spell silently by reg only a portion of the t in his mind.

  But this wasn’t his main goal—it was merely a sedary be. His focus was on healing his arms, which had suffered the most damage from the repeated use of Bde Tempest. After numerous healing casts, he mao restore his arms to the same level of injury as the rest of his body—a signifit improvement pared to their previous dition.

  Exhausted and pletely drained of mana, Mikael didn’t resist the pull of sleep a cim him.

  ***

  Hours ter, Mikael, who had been lying on his bed, had his fiwitch.

  “Argh,” he grunted, sitting up. He was momentarily disoriented, feeling the lingering aches in his body before the memories returned. ‘Ah, right. I was attacked by assassierday and had to push past my limits, which left me injured.’

  After recalling the events, he got out of bed, cast a quick spell on himself, did some light stretg, and then made his way to the kit. Ohere, he prepared a light breakfast and ate it leisurely while scrolling through his pho the table.

  When he finished his meal, a cold glint passed through his eyes. ‘Now that the rest is over…’

  “Records, who issiohe attack against me?”

  [Question answerable for 100 LP! Do you want to pay? Yes/No?]

  “So, 200 LP total... Fine, I’ll pay.”

  [Transa firmed. Ahe person who ordered the assassination of Mikael Angelini was Wernon Digeglide. His butler, Jacob, then hired the two assassins who tried to kill you.]

  ‘Wernon? Who the hell is that?’ Mikael pondered before a memory resurfaced. ‘ht. That guy roached Amelia after the sed test and made a fool of himself, gratuting her on her “win.” I fot about him—he’s pletely fettable. But this? Sending assassins after me?’

  He frowned, his expression turning ptive. ‘It’s probably some petty jealousy over my closeness with Amelia. Holy, I expected something like this. With her beauty aatus as the heir of a duke’s family, she’s the ideal woman in the eyes of many. My as were bound to ruffle some feathers.’