Chapter 394: Advancement test complete.
The reason Serhan wasn’t worried about Blake’s sword was that he was banking on the increased speed granted by the artifact.
If he was faster than Blake, then Ebony and Ivory wouldn’t be a problem because it won’t get to hit him, but things didn’t go as planned.
Not only had he underestimated Blake’s speed but he had no idea that void shift could be used in such a way.
(AN: A little recap for those who had forgotten why Blake is very fast. Blake’s speed is greater than that of normal people mainly because of his 3 elements, more stars and pathways mean more power to his spells. Also, the Raiju breathing technique increases lightning-based spells once used.)
Once Blake grabbed Serhan by the neck everyone knew the fight was over.
“Let’s take this out first.” Blake reaped out the artifact on Serhan’s neck, before slamming him head first on the ground.
Serhan’s vision was disoriented by the slam but it wasn’t as if he could move in the first place.
…..
Every attack that Blake landed on him had sent electric charges to his internal organ, and the only reason he had lasted so long was that electrodes were resistant to lightning.
At this point, it was less of a gift than a curse because it just made his end more painful.
On a normal, Blake would grab people’s faces and electrocute them, but because he was lightning resistant, Blake decided to take him out manually.
“I told you I don’t need a sword to put you in your place.” Blake said as he began stomping on Serhan’s already bloody face, causing the ground to further crack with each stomp until the golden barrier enveloped him. 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘰𝘳𝘨
“Winner of the match is Blake, and he is new rank 1!”
Just as Instructor Zirrack announced the outcome of the match, Blake’s eyes began glowing with orange, and blue lights as the natural mana in the environment became visible and began flooding his body.
“What is happening?”
“Is it me or is he advancing to the Hero realm?”
The spectating students were rooted to the spot as they saw Blake floating.
‘What the…?!’ Zirrack was shocked by the scene going on in front of him. He never expected anyone to advance any time soon, talk less of causing such a scene.
He soon snapped out of it and appeared close to Serhan and Blake.
He opened a spatial tear that warped Serhan to the school clinic where he would be treated, before grabbing on to Blake and warping him to Hoffenheim’s lab.
‘What the fuck is going on?!’
Although Blake’s eyes were glowing with lights he was able to see and hear everything that was going on, but he was unable to talk or move.
[You have completed your test and are Advancing to the hero realm.] The system informed Blake.
Once he appeared, he saw Professor Hoffenheim approach him, but that was when his entire body was flooded with pain.
His body suddenly jerked outward as veins began popping up at all parts of his body.
“Ah!!” Blake screamed in his head as he felt multiple needle-sized objects piercing through every inch of his body as they tried to bore their way out.
‘What… the… hell is… happening?!’ Blake asked the system as the agonizing pain was making it difficult for him to piece words together.
[…]
Blake wasn’t sure of what was going on, but he was unable to hear from the system.
…
“How is he doing?” Professor Gibson asked Hoffenheim as he warped into the laboratory.
“This is a high-level advancement, so large amounts of mana flooding his stars, thus causing the pathways to not only connect to his skin but also expand in size.” Professor Hoffenheim gave a report on Blake’s condition.
A High-level advancement is a result of passing a high-level advancement test.
Just like the system had explained, different individuals had different advancement tests, and so was the difficulty.
The difficulty of an advancement test was mostly dependent on the responsibility of the individual. For example, the difficulty of a normal person’s advancement test wouldn’t be as high as that of King.
The upside to the high-level advancement test was that high risks came with high rewards.
Not only would their mana pathways be permanently bigger than that of others, but they would receive a head start and not begin from 0% progress of the next realm.
“How did he advance so fast? Do you think he knows about the advancement tests?” Professor Gibson asked.
“I am not sure.” Instructor Zirrack answered. “Everything he had done from the beginning of the semester points to that direction, but this is no different from what he does every semester.”
…
3 hours later, Blake who had passed out due to the excruciating pain finally woke up.
“Why does my head hurt?” Once Blake woke up he found out the agonizing pain was over, but for some reason, his head still hurt.
“Oh…” Zultra instantly hid his guilty face.
About 2 hours ago, Professor Gibson and Instructor Zirrack had left him all alone with Blake. So instead of watching over Blake, he continued his research.
As usual, he became engrossed in the research and was only brought back to reality when he heard Blake’s floating body drop on the steel operating table.
“You are finally awake.” Zultra quickly changed the topic.
“How long have I been out?” Blake asked as he caressed his head.
“3 hours and 17mins, just in time for dinner.” Zultra answered as he checked his clock.
“Guess I have to be on my way. Thanks for looking after me.” Blake thanked Zultra as he left his office.
Once Blake was out of the office, he hit the shower before heading to the cafeteria to have dinner and meet his friends.
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