Wolf observed the speaker who had expressed his desire to discipline him. There wasn’t much to look at. The man was in his mid twenties, kind of decently built, but Wolf still believed he could slap him dead if he felt like it. Also, considering he was provoking him, Wolf placed the Mage in the same category as roadside bandits that taunted him instead of attacking with everything they had. Simply put, in Wolf’s eyes, the man was an idiot.

“That’s nice,” Wolf said after finally figuring out what he should say to an idiot.

Several people in the room laughed loudly, mostly people who clashed with Lord DD, but even the male desk clerk stifled his laugh, masking it with a cough.

Ignoring the snickering crowd, Wolf took back his student card. The diligent desk clerk had already handled the paperwork for him.

Seeing the kid, who was still ignoring them, turn him and his entourage into a laughingstock Lord DD was about to blow his top.

“You brat! You dare shame my Lord in front of me! I challenge you to a duel to the death!” shouted the idiot henchman, who apparently excelled in sucking up.

Wolf stopped and cocked an eyebrow. “Is that even allowed in here?”

He itched to say “Weren’t you the one shaming him by calling him Lord DD in public,” but that would be fanning the flames, as his father used to call it.

“It’s not! But I will beat you silly and leave you toothless,” the man roared with righteous indignation.

“All right, toothless it is. Where’s the nearest dueling ring?” Wolf made the observation without batting an eye before dispassionately asking the question.

“Follow me!” The guy smiled evilly.

He was obviously well versed in taking people over from the Mission Hall to the nearest dueling ring. However Wolf didn’t follow. He turned towards Donald Din instead.

“I challenge you as well. After I’m done with that guy you’re next,” Wolf said.

In his anger, DD’s face turned from red to purple.

“If Paul doesn’t kill you, I’ll turn you into a eunuch,” the washed up noble growled while gritting his teeth.

Wolf nodded matter-of-factly. “Fine, fine, a eunuch it is.”

With those words, Wolf turned around and followed Paul the henchman, all the while thinking how he hated these people who had lived sheltered lives and used their status and money to bully others.

A crowd from the Mission Hall trailed behind them, laughing and talking about how Paul was going to put the new guy in his place.

After walking for a couple of minutes the small crowd reached an open air arena with two rows of seats. The ring was a circle about twenty meters in diameter and as soon as Paul and Wolf entered a membrane surrounded it. Wolf turned around and noticed the runes at the edge of the ring.

Spell Formation scribed to project the Forcefield spell? Wolf hazarded, but he’d need to take some time to confirm his guess.

The ring was big enough to fit group combat and looked sturdy enough. The barrier ensured the safety of onlookers, while allowing them to observe the battle and learn from it.

Paul the henchman was already waiting for Wolf, who looked away from the Spell Formation and towards Donald Din waiting outside the barrier with his arms folded. Behind him was the crowd of students, but also that desk clerk Wolf had spoken to. The woman was surprisingly short, maybe half a head taller than he was.

Wolf’s gaze lingered on the woman and she averted her eyes and blushed. Seeing the size of the crowd, Wolf was surprised. He hadn’t expected there were so many idlers at the Mage Academy. He also hadn’t expected this much attention. He didn’t mind it though.

Paul’s and DD’s fates would be the same regardless of whether there were no spectators or ten thousand people watching.

“Come on, you come in too,” Wolf said to Lord DD, motioning him in with his hand as if he were a child.

Donald Din frowned and moved his thumb across his throat, but he still entered the ring. He was a humiliated former noble. His household in ruins, and he was burdened with restoring the Dins with his own strength and charisma.

There was no way he could tolerate someone who looked like a freaking five-year-old taunt him, especially in public. That would ruin what little credibility and reputation he had built over the last couple of years at Mage Academy.

DD went over to Paul and they both stood there, staring at Wolf.

“You can start whenever you’re ready. I’ll give you a free move,” Wolf said nonchalantly. He intended to smack their faces with a riposte after parrying the two’s attacks, however he’d also added more fuel to the fire.

The two gritted their teeth, but still started chanting their spells.

It was only now that Wolf realized that at Mage Academy duels were settled with magic, not swords and axes. Even though it sounded unbelievable, Wolf was surprised by this turn of events. He’d never fought a Mage before.

However, he did recognize the spells these two were casting. The chants and mudras were kept at the minimum as green caustic blobs formed above their palms. As the spell progressed blobs took the shape of viscous arrows.

A split second after fully forming the arrows flew towards Wolf. Luckily, Acid Arrow wasn’t a target seeking spell. The caster would fling this Third Order spell at the target and hit or miss were up to the caster’s aim and target’s capability to dodge.

With his senses awakened to a fifth, Wolf knew where the arrows would land as soon as they’d formed. Both Paul and his boss aimed at the abdomen. It would result in a grievous wound, but the person in charge of observing the duels would have enough time to administer a healing potion.

Unfortunately for the duo, Wolf simply pivoted, easily dodging the attack. Then he started loudly casting Swiftness. He wasn’t really casting the spell, rather going through the motions and the chant to make the people think he’d increased his speed with magic.

Wolf planned on relying on the explosive strength of his physical body. The way he was now, Wolf needed fifteen Least Energy Recovery to recover from being completely drained. He believed using Internal Energy or Soul Force to defeat these two would’ve been an act of hubris. There was no need to rely on the supernatural, when he could simply pummel them.

Seeing Wolf’s minimalistic move, Paul and Donald faltered for a moment. They were certain acid would splash all over the kid’s abdomen, inflicting both horrible pain and permanent scarring. However, their attacks were easily dodged. They hurriedly started chanting Magic Dart, but they were a step behind Wolf, who cheated anyway.

Wolf kicked off the ground and burst towards his enemies as soon as he’d finished casting his “spell”. The coiled muscles of his thighs and calves propelled him forward almost as quickly as Swiftness would. He could emulate the spell, at least for short distance runs.

While running Wolf was also chanting in Arcana, but this time it was clearly gibberish name-calling. Only the elderly arena overseer understood Wolf’s words and blinked in disbelief.

“Impotence Kick!” Wolf exclaimed in Arcana as he viciously slammed his foot into Donald Din’s family jewels.

The strike was so hard, the washed up noble flew up into the air and somersaulted before tumbling down to the ground. The man clutched his crotch in a silent scream, his eyes bulging and tears running down his face. Onlookers grit their teeth and bent a bit to protect themselves in empathic reflex.

Paul wasn’t doing any better. Seeing his lord suffer such fate caused him to falter with his spell-casting.

He was bigger and stronger than Wolf. He was ready for a physical showdown, but then a tiny fist slammed into his guts with all the force of a battering ram. The man doubled over, about to heave, when a palm smacked his face.

*Pa!*

“Myriad Bitchslaps!” Wolf once again exclaimed in Arcana, obviously greatly amused with the joke only he and the old man watching over the arena understood.

*Pa! Pa! Pa!*

Wolf landed four rapid slaps. The two backhands and two forehands landed in perfect rhythm, sending blood and teeth flying.

Wolf didn’t pull his punches, and the force behind each seemingly light slap was extremely brutal. After the final slap Paul was toothless. The man spun around before falling down on the ground heavily, completely out cold.

DD was still conscious, with silent tears streaming down his cheeks as he lamented the loss of his offspring and the end of his lineage.

Wolf stood above the two prone men and clapped his hands, as if cleaning them after handling something dirty. He tried to look imposing and heroic, but his childish outward appearance worked against him.

The crowd watched in confusion as Wolf left the ring, not believing their eyes for a moment. A kid had just beat up two grown men. Out of everyone present only one person had a different reaction.

Mandy, the desk clerk who’d issued Wolf’s mission, seemed visibly relieved. The woman approached Wolf as soon as he’d left the dueling ground.

“Hey, my name is Mandy,” she said while approaching him. “You’re Wolf, right? Those were some awesome combat spells! Never saw anything like them before.”

The woman smiled charmingly and winked playfully. Wolf was confused for a moment. He wasn’t sure whether the woman was speaking honestly or teasing him.

“Um, thanks?” the youth replied weakly.

Mandy awakened her senses as much as she could. She noticed Wolf’s faint blush and confusion. She took it as signs of something else and felt like she had a chance.

She quickly suppressed her senses to that of a normal person, to avoid a dizzy spell, and then she spoke, “I’m on my lunch break now. How about we go and grab a bite to eat?”

Wolf panicked as he slowly connected the dots. He looked at Mandy with surprise. She was pretty, but not as pretty as Anna. Her body on the other hand was very much like the bodies of women Wolf had seen in his visions. She was even close to his height, more or less. Closer than Anna was anyway.

But what about Anna? Wolf wondered, then drove the thought away. There was nothing between him and Anna. They were just friends. Yes, just friends. A moment later, Wolf came up with a way out of this situation.

He shook his head. “Sorry. I have a prior arrangement.”

Mandy was obviously disappointed, and obviously didn’t believe Wolf, but after a moment she bit her lip as if she had made up her mind.

“I live in the servant quarters on campus,” she said. “District five, apartment building twenty-three, apartment seven. If you ever feel like… talking… you can come over for a visit. I’m always home after dark.”

Mandy said and winked. Her face was flushed a bit, and after saying what she had to say, the young woman actually ran away.

As she left, Mandy thought that becoming a wife of a common born Mage was much better than being a plaything for a noble. She was already twenty-one and only a Second Order Mage. She wasn’t getting any younger, and with her family gone, she’d either end up wasting her life away at Mage Academy or struggling outside on her own.

If only I wasn’t so stupid and desperate, I might have reached the Fourth Order and become a tutor, she thought with regret, as she went back to her work station, since she’d already used up her lunch break.

The students who watched this scene unfold were still busy picking up their jaws from the ground. First, this random ten-year-old boy beat up the two of the strongest thugs among them in a matter of seconds. But that wasn’t all.

Next, as soon as he got out of the ring, a babe from the Mission Hall invited him on a date. But the kid blew her off with a half-baked excuse without batting an eye. Then he got an even more direct invitation and even then the boy stayed cool.

Wolf, completely confused with what happened, believing people were looking at him because he’d beat up the two clowns, went back to his room.

He wanted Wayde to explain the situation to him, but his roommate was still in class. Not having anything better to do, Wolf decided to wait a bit and then leave for his mission tomorrow. The mission had no time limit and it was estimated it would take two weeks to complete, mostly because of how long it took to get to the site and find the bandits.

While waiting for Wayde, Wolf took the Energy Expanding potion he’d bought and drank it. He seated himself comfortably and started meditating. The potion still had a decent effect. Especially considering that it was the second one of its kind Wolf drank.

Unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough for Wolf to advance his Sword-Sage Order. Also, compared with Monster Cores, potions had an obvious downside. While they increased Wolf’s capacity for Internal Energy, they didn’t change the amount of Internal Energy Wolf had. So, once he was done, Wolf would have to drink potions to recover the missing Internal Energy.

Consuming Monster Cores on the other hand expanded the capacity by overfilling the vessel, causing it to grow naturally.

Inspecting his body Wolf noticed that the tolerance of his body for Internal Energy had stopped increasing.

The potion is used up. Now, for the second phase of the test. Wolf took out a Sixth Order Monster Core from his Ring of Holding and popped it into his mouth. He focused on the flow of energy, and it was as he’d expected. The Monster Core first replenished his Internal Energy and only then went on to expand his capacity, unfortunately it made no impact.

The process of energy recovery was slower, but considerably cheaper than using potions. Wolf frowned. If I can’t use lower Order Monster Cores to advance, why can I use them to recover–

*Cough! Cough! Pu!*

Deep in thought, Wolf swallowed his spit, choking on the dregs of the Monster Core. By the time he’d finished spitting it out, the thought escaped him.

Instead the youth took out the allegedly haunted Monster Core he’d bought from Johns and Josh. After gazing at it for a moment Wolf decided it was too late in the day and that he had no idea how long it would take to absorb it.

Instead he went back to refining his Mind Hall. Before Wolf even noticed it it was dinner time. Thankfully, there was someone willing to remind him.

“Hey Wolf! Let’s go eat! It's my treat again,” Wayde shouted while loudly banging on Wolf’s door. “Come on, Anna is waiting for us in the hallway!”

Unlike before, the Duke without a land kept increasing his volume. Better that, than to barge into a crying man’s room.

Wolf smiled and got up. He could feel that the breakthrough to the Tenth Order spells was just around the corner. Soon enough he would be a proper Archmage and True-Namer. Which would ironically make him ready for graduation and eligible for the title of a Count.

With that thought Wolf opened his bedroom door, his smile even wider than Wayde’s.

“Look at you! If your smile was any bigger the top of your head would fall off.” Wayde laughed at Wolf’s stupid mug. “What were you up to today?”

“Nothing much,” Wolf said. “I went to the Mission hall. Took a mission. Then some guys challenged me, so I slapped them around. After that the lady working there asked me out for lunch. When I refused she invited me to go to her place so that we could have a talk. I don’t think there’s much for us to talk about. She looked like she grew up in the city, living a sheltered life, meaning she probably doesn’t know much about anything.”

You’re the one that lived a sheltered life and doesn’t know much about anything! Wayde didn’t really try to hide his thoughts. He looked at Wolf as if looking at an idiot. “Are you serious?”

“I am. So, tell me. What common conversation topic could that woman and I have?” Wolf asked seriously.

“She wasn’t– She didn’t– Never mind… I think you’ll understand one day, when you’re ready. But, I feel that day might not be any time soon. What kind of mission did you take?” Wayde was exasperated, so he steered the conversation towards Wolf’s area of expertise.

“Exterminating bandits, nothing flashy,” Wolf answered. “I’ll tell you guys all about it while we eat. How was your day today? Did they teach you guys anything useful?”