After the attacks were stopped, Blake didn't waste time to reach the 25th-meter mark, but that was when he began sensing a huge amount of mana was gathering in front of him.
Blake's plan was to never stop moving forward, if there was anything blocking his way Blake was to pierce through. Because if he didn't and moved to the side he might get stuck in a chain of combo he couldn't free himself from.
Professor Gibson saw through his plan and began gathering a huge amount of mana to form a mana bomb that was 3 feet wide and tall.
"What the hell! Are we supposed to pass the exercise?" The students watching were shocked by the size of the mana bomb that had appeared, but something else shocked them more.
They saw a large amount of mana gathering around Blake as he continued dashing towards the mana bomb.
"Even multiple shockwaves of mana can't counter that! Is he crazy?!"
'At this point, I am not sure that the difficulty is still at my power level.' Blake thought as he continued to approach the mana bomb, but he soon shot out a mana chain from his right hand, into the ground meters away.
[Of course, it isn't, if not you wouldn't improve. If he said it would be above their level most would give up and not try their best.] The system said.
On seeing the chain, Professor Gibson knew what he was planning and made the mana bomb explode before contact.
"Shit!" Blake cursed as he controlled the mana chain to pull him at an insane speed, but even at that, it wasn't enough.
'This would have been easier with my elements.' Just before the force of the explosion could touch him, Blake used part of the charged-up mana to send out a shockwave from his left hand.
Boom!
The shockwave combined with the pulling effect of the mana chain was able to pull him away from the explosion range just at the last moment.
'Just as expected.' Blake said to himself when he landed and saw multiple arcane spells coming towards him, but he was already prepared.
Using the remaining charged-up energy, Blake encased his body in mana as he released a powerful mana blast that shot him forward past the 2nd line.
'He really is meant to be the rank 1.' Professor Gibson couldn't help but admit. 'Let's see how he does in the 2nd round.'
Once Blake went past the 2nd line, he didn't waste any time in putting up a mana dome to protect himself. The main problem of the second stage was the inability to see where the attacks were coming from.
Ding! Ding!
It didn't even take up to a second before invisible attacks began raining on the dome, but it only confirmed his suspicion.
"Just like I thought, the rate of attacks had reduced." When Blake had watched the replay of Ansgar's attempt he had noticed that although the attacks couldn't be seen or sensed, their speed and number had reduced based on his reactions.
His penetration tactic had proven to be efficient. It looked as if he had spent more mana than the others that took it slow, but the truth is that he had saved 20% more mana.
When Ansgar had gotten to the 2nd line he only had 20% of his mana left, but Blake had 40% of his mana left.
Blake went ahead to heighten his senses to the max, but it only confirmed his suspicion. He could neither see nor sense the attacks.
'This is an arcane class, so he is using invisible arcane spells, but too bad I don't have mana vision to see them!' Blake began racking his head to find his next course of action because he couldn't just stay in the dome till his mana was exhausted.
'I always knew the system's detection skill is divine but seems I never realized how heavenly it truly is.' Blake thought.
During fights or normal situations, Blake never had to worry about being taken by surprise due to the system's ability to detect even those under the veil of darkbringer. But right now he was kind of regretting telling the system not to help him.
'Wait a minute… speaking of the system's detection skill.' Blake began remembering how the system had explained its detection ability.
According to the system's explanation, the environment was just like the still water of a pound and once anything was to enter the range of detection, the water would form a detailed outline of the object. Using its knowledge and the amount of disturbance the object caused, it was able to know the power range and what the object was.
'This should work.' Blake closed his eyes to imagine the area around him to be a still body of water, and instead of looking out for the spells, he focused on the environment.
Whenever Professor Gibson formed a spell, as the mana gathered to form the spell, he would make it invisible. So, what Blake did was to guess what the spell was by checking the shape the ripple formed when they clashed with those of other spells in the area.
'Please work.' Blake began praying as he sent our mana blades of his own to the guessed location.
Ding! Ding!
Everyone including Professor Gibson was shocked when the mana blades had stopped and produced sounds of things crashing into each other.
"Time to keep going." Once he had tried it out a few more times and had gotten the hang of it, Blake made the dome explode outward before dashing forward.
"Is he running with his eyes closed?" The students were confused when they saw Blake running forward with his eyes closed.
'It's not as if I enjoy not seeing, but I have no other choice it is way better for me." Blake thought to himself.
(AN: It's just like in the movies where the mc gets blind, but after remembering his master's training he closes his eyes and relies on his senses to beat the boss.)