Shane's first fight merely lasted for 10 seconds, an interval that most students would require, to only carefully approach their opponent. However, Shane wasn't one to take it slow. He preferred to clash head-on with his opponent without wasting any time. This resulted in the fight ending in the blink of an eye.

After Shane and his opponent left the arena, the next pair was immediately called up, while a bunch of students that observed his battle looked at him in a mix of awe and newfound respect.

'What did he do?! Was his opponent not a peak Mortal stage...how could he have been pushed back just like that?'

Even if several questions tormented their mind, Shane wouldn't answer them.It wasn't worth his effort or time.

The answer to all their doubts was rather a simple-his physique was stronger!

Additionally, he liked to play mind games with his opponents by distracting their focus and turning it on something less important, before he would approach them in a different way in order to win.

This could only be perceived by his opponent directly. The other students monitoring his fight, merely saw him stab out with his straight dagger as if nothing out of ordinary happened.

Closing his eyes after he sat down on the empty seat, Shane immediately exerted his mana gathering technique to replenish the marginal amount of mana he used up before his next fight would begin.

In the end, Shane doubted if it was necessary, but it was better to be careful than think about all Mortal stages as pushovers.

When Shane entered the arena for his second fight, he noticed that his opponent was a girl who looked rather shy. She took out a large battle axe, causing the students around them to murmur.

Even Shane's eyes widened seeing the shy-looking girl hold a ridiculously gigantic battle axe in her hands, as the AI initiated the start of their battle.

As with the previous fight, Shane charged straight towards the girl, however, he was surprised to see her wield the battle axe with ease. He was already impressed with the girl by the time he appeared in front of her.

Shane circulated mana within his lower body and instantly felt his steps become light. The battle axe came crashing down on him as he leaned further down, but he quickly twisted his body and escaped the blow.

The girl he thought to be shy was turning aggressive with her attacks and she effortlessly jumped back, before initiating a second attack on Shane.

Annoyed that she used the same attack twice in a row, he believed that his opponent would change something if he were to evade it again.

However, was that really necessary?

Breaking off his charge towards her, he immediately halted in his tracks, which caused his ankles to hurt quite a bit, even if he enveloped them into a thick mana membrane, only for the girl's attack to miss him yet again.

However, instead of letting her escape this time, he kicked out towards the heavy battle axe with all his might, in addition to a thick enveloped mana membrane around his foot.

The battle axe flung away, torn out of the shy, yet strong girl's hands, as he initiated his charge, 'killing' the girl by thrusting his dagger into her throat.

In the end, the second fight was more interesting than the first, yet it was still not enough to give him an adrenaline rush.

In the next two hours, he won another three fights, and the last battle he wanted to attend, started with a bulky youth standing in front of him.

'He worked out really hard, huh?' Shane thought It was quite obvious, which path the youth in front of him wanted to choose, once he accepted his occupation.

With the youth's sturdy physique, he was perfectly suited to be a warrior, guardian, paladin or similar close combat occupations. Such people were proficient in being a human shield, protecting their team by shielding them with their own body if necessary.

Seeing that the bulky youth in front of him didn't take out a weapon, Shane did the same, because he wanted to figure out how far he could go with his physique, and his eyes began to gleam vibrantly.

WIth the start signal of the AI, both began to charge at each other, without any weapon. Nearly every student imagined that Shane was about to be beaten up into a pulp if the five previous fights hadn't already been shocking enough to look at.

Shane overwhelmed everyone and somehow, the students and even the teachers felt sorry for the bulky youth, when Shane twisted his body, in order to evade the first punch, only to land a solid punch straight in his opponent's solar plexus.

Before the bulky youth couldn't even react to the first punch, Shane gave his opponent a clean uppercut with his second fist.

Unintentionally spitting out his saliva, the bulky youth couldn't believe what was going on. He could already hardly move around, and laid on the ground, twitching a bit.

However, the AI hadn't determined the winner yet, causing Shane to frown. e He pounced on the bulky youth who lay on the ground, only to throw him around, twisting his shoulder by firmly locking his arm with his legs, before he finally pulled the bulky youth's arms towards him.

The youth shrieked, uttering a painful cry that caused Shane to stop almost immediately.

In the heat of the moment, Shane had almost forgotten that the fights were supposed to be a friendly spar, even if it was to determine the ranking. He heard the AI analyze the battle and clearly announce the winner.

Loosening his legs, he rolled back, while pushing himself from the ground in order to stand up.

Helping up the bulky youth from the ground, he muttered a short apology. He then slowly walked towards the teachers supervising the whole Mortal state combat ranking and spoke nonchalantly.

"I've already won 6 matches. I'll go now!"

Turning away from the teachers without waiting for an answer, he left the colosseum straight for the refining capsules that seemed to await him.

Meanwhile, the students and teacher who noticed Shane's behavior were speechless, as they witnessed the youth's strength either first hand or perceived it by his seemingly simple ways to defeat his opponents.

Even if the teachers Shane spoke to were dissatisfied, in the end, he would just lose the fights he didn't participate in, without any punishment.

Not knowing what to say, most students decided to disregard the problem, called Shane, as they turned their attention to the next pair entering the combat arena.

Meanwhile, Shane had already left the elevator in order to enter one of the large academy buildings, surrounding the colosseum. He took the next elevator to finally arrive at the floor with the refining capsule placed in the big hall.

Taking off his combat suit in the changing room, he decided to wear trunks, instead of normal boxers in order to feel more comfortable, as he assessed the closest refining capsule next to him, by paying 30 silver coins.

Putting 20 [Tier-1 (Trash)] mana stones and three of his remaining [Tier-1 (Trash)] nutrition solutions into the box attached to the refining capsule, Shane entered it without any delay..

Closing the glass door, he started the whole refining procedure by pressing the green button.

With the nutrition solution dissolving into the warm water and mana filling the capsule, Shane immediately started exerting his [Mythic] body refining technique, without wasting any time.

It was 2 am, when Shane finally opened his eyes, before stopping the refining capsule.

With the water draining out of it, he dried his wet body, before he changed into dry and clean clothes.

'The remaining 15 mana stones and 2 nutrition solutions should be enough...if I only had a few more hours time, I could have finished my perfect mortal physique, before the final rounds of the mortal ranking'

However, considering his opponents the day before and what he witnessed from the other mortal states, Shane felt disappointed beyond measure and he was only expectant of the last two rounds, where he hoped to clash with more powerful opponents.

'Well, my physique is now definitely comparable to an Apprentice physique, while my mana pool is even slightly larger than a normal 1st Apprentice…'

Smiling, Shane couldn't help but feel proud of himself. Reaching the Mortal stage, with a physique and mana pool comparable to a stage above him, caused him to chuckle lightly, as he left the hall where all the capsules were situated.

There were still approximately six hours left until the Combat rankings would continue and Shane decided to continue his journey through the Academy grounds, which were obstructed because of the tranquil forest.

Now with enough time left, Shane thought he might as well jog while searching for other hidden treasures.

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