“Must every potential student fight you in the end?” questioned Kane. Winning against a legendary mage while Kane was not even a mage yet seemed to be an impossible feat.

“Nope. They endured an entirely different trial. Since you’re a special case, I can’t think of other ways to test you,” explained the ant.

“But I’ve passed your trials already.”

“How about this? I will teach you completely free of charge for a year, instead of just a month. If you pass the trial, that is.”

“Wait, I thought the school would pay for it,” said Kane.

“Boy, your tiny school won’t be able to pay half of my fee even if they sell their entire property. The demands of people hiring me are very high, you know?” The ant snorted.

Kane was silent as he thought of an answer. He then said, “Bring it on.”

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“Huh?”

“I SAID, I’VE CHANGED MY MIND!” The ant yelled and stopped speaking again for a while. “Ahem, I just have a better idea instead of fighting since you definitely have no chance to win. Are you listening?”

“Yes, I’m listening…” Kane trailed off. It was tiring to hear the ant speaking yet he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Here’s how the third trial will proceed…”

---

They moved to a land where there were no craters or fissures around. Kane and the ant separated quite far. A line of rocks and pebbles was arranged on the ground near the ant.

After taking a deep breath, Kane recounted Maur’s words, “Before we begin, let me get this straight: I must cross the finish line while surviving your assaults.”

“Mn.”

“And if I were to get severely injured, you would come to rescue and give me a top quality health potion that can instantly heal me from your dimensional pocket. But, that means I failed the trial.”

“That’s right. You’re actually a great listener, boy; I thought you were a bit deaf. In addition, I won’t cast any spell above rank 2 as a handicap. Any question?”

“Can I use my ax and other moves besides my spells?”

“By all means, go ahead! I don’t care how you reach the goal, be it with magic or vis like what you’ve demonstrated before. It doesn’t matter.”

“Then, what would you do if I died?”

“Such a trivial matter. I’ll just bring another level 10 kid I know to enroll here as a replacement! You’re not from an important family, aren’t you? I can easily tell.”

Kane could say nothing. The ant’s casual reply was heartless yet compelling. He felt that the ant and he somewhat shared a similar mindset. Was it because they both had reached the pinnacle of power? Or they had lived long enough to see living beings as insignificant matters. Either way, there was something that made no sense. Why did an arrogant ant like him become a tutor for the weak?

“You can chicken out if you want to, but that would be very lame. I would still respect your decision, though,” said the ant.

Kane ignored the remark and kept mulling over the decision he had to make. A moment later, he shouted, “Okay, let’s do it!”

“Are you certain? This is the last chance,” warned him.

“I’ve got little time until the tournament. So, stop asking twice.”

As soon as Kane said that, dozens of spinning magic circles appeared. They were aiming at Kane’s general direction. The ant then said, “Believe me, you’ve made the right decision in case that’s the reason. The third trial begins-”

Judging from the magic circles, all of them are rank 1 spells… He’s underestimating me. Kane took a defensive stance, bracing himself. He knew that for a mage of The Circle, casting rank 1 or 2 spells would practically consume little to nothing. In other words, he could summon thousands of them and the ant would still have full mana.

“-Now.”

From the circles, barrages of human-sized boulders were shot in random intervals. They bounced a couple of times while approaching Kane at high speed. Clutching his ax with both hands, Kane advanced against them. He knocked aside the nearest boulder by swinging his ax, and when another one closed in, he sidestepped, barely avoiding the impact.

Kane once more swatted the third one and dodged the fourth one. The cycle repeated until he was halfway to the goal. Out of nowhere, four boulders were approaching from every side except behind. He stepped back to avoid getting crushed by the boulders in between them.

But then, two boulders from each side clashed with Kane. There was no time to dodge! The devastating impact might flatten anyone like a pancake; however, his weapon prevented Kane from that situation. He held the ax in a perfect horizontal axis, so the boulders would hit the ax's head and the knob instead of him. Wasting no time, Kane dashed toward the ant while repeating the cycle.

“Not bad! Let’s turn up a notch, shall we?” The ant summoned hundreds if not thousands more magic circles. They had different runes from before and were rank 2 spells.

Countless stone spikes pelted at Kane like a violent hailstorm. He kept twirling his ax non-stop as he fend off the hail of spikes while defending himself from the boulders. Just when he thought he got the situation under control, umpteen magic circles were summoned. The spikes gradually began scratching him one at the time.

In just a few moments, Kane was marred by scratch wounds all over his limbs. He knew that if this continued, he would be overrun by the spikes. Therefore, he had no choice but to reveal one of his secret moves. While defending himself, Kane channeled his vis onto the ax.

“[Tornado Advance]!”

Kane rotated his body, stretched forth his ax, and started spinning. Every projectile that came in contact would either bounce away or be sliced in two, including the boulders. Nothing could slip through. He moved forward while maintaining the spin. In just a short amount of time, Kane almost reached the finish line.

The ant then said, “Great job for coming this far. But…”

A large magic circle flashed in front of him. A long stone block sprung forth toward the spinning Kane.

“Try harder. Take this spell, boy!”

The block hit Kane directly, pushing him away. It was impossible to deflect due to its weight, but that alone was not enough to stop him. Still spinning, he latched the ax onto the block, used the momentum to do a flip, and then landed with both feet. He immediately sprinted on the moving platform and continued racing toward the finish line without his ax; he had no time to pull it out because it was stuck quite deep.

Almost there! Kane gritted his teeth.

“I won’t let you!” The ant cast another dozens of earth spikes.

Kane kept running as the spikes tore his skin. When he saw a boulder was rolling down on the platform, he threw a [Lesser Firebomb] spell. The explosion caused the boulder to stray from the path. He reached the end of the block and jumped as far as he could.

Another magic circle appeared under him. A second stone block manifested and hit Kane’s belly. He was thrown skyward. While in the air, a boulder shoved against him toward the opposite of the finish line. Kane propelled backward, fell, and skipped the ground a couple of times. Seeing the ax near him, he quickly grabbed the shaft with both hands, preventing him from flying further. He clutched it so hard, the skin of his palm peeled due to the friction.

When Kane finally stopped the force, he tugged the ax until it came off. Panting heavily, he kneeled to catch his breath. Something was rising up from his stomach; Kane threw up all of the lunch. The previous blow from the block had affected him severely despite having enveloped his body with vis aura because a rank 2 spell was too powerful for him. He wiped the puke residue from his mouth and stood up.

That was… unpleasant. Kane measured how much of his vis was left by sensing it; only less than half was remaining. He could barely feel his arms after grabbing the ax.

The magic circles had disappeared for a while as though he was given time for a break. The ant then said with a concerned tone, “Ugh, that’s nasty. You probably shouldn’t have eaten beforehand.”

“Reynar told me to,” replied Kane weakly.

“Pft! You trust him too much, boy. Even though he was my student once, I felt like I haven’t known him well enough.” Maur snickered. “In terms of skill, you’re the best amongst all students that I’ve seen. You even almost caught me off guard with your fancy moves. But that alone is enough! I want to see a much more important thing in you. I won’t spoil it—”

“Perseverance?” interrupted Kane.

“Tch, you ruined it. But yes, the goal is mainly to test your limits, not your skills. Now let’s stop talking and continue before you get too comfy.” The magic circles manifested and assaulted Kane with barrages of spells once again.

I shouldn’t waste any more time and start getting serious! Kane took a deep breath and heaved it back. He shut his eyes despite the raging earth spikes and boulders. Vis in his body circulated from his abdomen to his entire body and back to his abdomen. In a blink of an eye, the cycle had repeated ten times.

Kane glowed under vis aura brighter than usual. With a sharp gaze, he advanced forward through the chaos. When a boulder was approaching towards him, he simply swung his ax from a distance. The boulder was split into a half. His fiery aura protected Kane from the earth spikes. Once again, he almost reached the goal.

“Let’s see how you deal with this!” The ant summoned five earth blocks at Kane.

The ax clashed against the spells. Kane was slowly repelled despite exerting all of his strength. His hands began to tremble as he began losing his stamina. The earth blocks were relentlessly pressuring Kane. It was a stalemate. Clenching his teeth, he transferred most of his vis into his hands, then to his ax. A small crack appeared on the block and then expanded into a wide one. With a single push, Kane swung a big arc as he screamed.

The violent vis blast obliterated all of them in an instant. It traveled even further, approaching the ant. The strong wind blew him away to a distant area despite already having a barrier.

The ax crumbled into dust before the gust swept them.

Kane dragged his feet as he struggled to keep his eyes open. His mind told him to lay down, rest, and sleep immediately, but he understood that he must march toward the goal. Taking a step felt as though a heavy steel ball was strapped on his foot. As he progressed, the energy within him disappeared until it was gone.

Just… a little bit… more… Kane collapsed. His vision turned darker, darker until he plotzed.

“Hey!”

A cold liquid seeped into Kane’s mouth. It was as sweet as honey. Reinvigorated, he slowly opened his eyes, raised his body, and looked around. The ant was there, on the shoulder of a human-shaped golem that stood menacingly. Kane then asked, “How much time has passed?”

“Since you closed your eyes? Literally a minute. Be sure to thank me for rescuing you. If not for my superior flight magic, you would’ve probably died from exhaustion.”

“Really?” Kane was certain that he’d saved a tiny bit of vis so he wouldn’t die.

“I lied. You did look like you were going to, though.”

“...”

“Can’t you show at least the slightest gratitude? I sacrificed my precious potion and just to be hit with questions,” the ant spat.

“I get it already.” Kane scratched his head. “Thanks for saving me.”

“Now that’s what I want to hear. With that aside, I have something to say regarding your third trial.”