Vlad rubbed his eyes and focused on the quest’s description again. No way he had read that correctly.

Yet even after reading it several times, the content remained the same.

"Are you even listening to yourself?" Vlad muttered at the screen, pressing his temples between his fingers and thumb. "No way I’m accepting such a ridiculous dem—"

"Stop muttering to yourself," Dorin called out, already rounding the table to where Vlad stood. "Will you accept my challenge or not?"

"What do I need to do?" Vlad asked, his annoyance sharpening at Dorin’s tone.

A faint smile appeared on Dorin’s face as he said, "We will have a duel. I will use only a one-ring spell. If you manage to touch even a strand of my hair, you win, and I will accept your application and give you this artifact."

He held up a metallic ring on his finger, its surface engraved with runes.

"But if you lose, you will leave this place without a word of objection."

The reason for Dorin’s sudden generosity was simple. By making Vlad accept the challenge, Dorin could not be blamed once the boy lost, even if he truly had been recommended by Lucas Cendral. On top of that, he could punish him to his heart’s content for trying to enroll in the academy through connections despite being a low-ranked commoner.

"Professor Dorin, your challenge is completely illogical. How can a child who hasn’t even formed a core yet hope to defeat you in a duel?" Victor said in a sharp tone, clearly seeing through Dorin’s scheming.

"Think about it realistically, Professor Victor," Dorin snapped back, his voice harsh. "The academy’s reputation will take a critical hit when word spreads that we enrolled a talentless commoner. Every parent of the noble children we turned away for failing to reach C-Rank will raise objections, even if this boy was recommended by Pyro Tyrant himself. He needs to have at least one quality to justify his enrollment."

Victor had no argument against Dorin’s words. Harsh as they were, everything he had said was true.

"And here I thought this year had gone smoothly," Victor sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"I accept your challenge, sir," Vlad declared from the other side. He had trained his body until every fiber screamed for rest, ten years without relenting. If he couldn’t face a challenge as simple as this one, all of his efforts would amount to nothing.

Besides, he had already defeated a two-ringed mage. A one-ring should be more manageable than that.

Victor scratched the back of his head for a moment, then drew a sword from his waist and tossed it toward Vlad.

"Use this. You can’t possibly face Professor Dorin empty-handed."

Vlad caught the sword by the hilt, his eyes tracing the sharp, gleaming blade.

"It’s heavy," he whispered, tightening his grip around the hilt. It was the first time Vlad had held a real sword.

They took their positions for the spar at the centre of the room, standing face to face.

"Begin," Victor said in a tired tone. He had no interest in watching a child get beaten to a pulp. In the back of his mind, he also wanted Vlad to lose and turn back. There was a reason the academy demanded such strict qualifications for enrollment. For Vlad, actually joining would do him more harm than good.

As soon as he gave the command, Vlad bolted forward, his blade coming down at Dorin in a vertical slash. From his fight against Ronald, Vlad had learned that although mages could cast powerful spells, they could be overwhelmed in close-range combat.

However, he hadn’t considered one thing. Unlike a street thug like Ronald, Dorin was a professor at an academy that had literally produced the finest geniuses of their generation.

"Densura," Dorin whispered, his voice low, the air around him stirring.

As the blade descended, its speed reduced sharply, as though invisible pressure was resisting the sword’s path.

Vlad pulled back and swung again, this time aiming for the neck. Dorin whispered the same word. The air around his body stirred once more and the blade slowed again.

Vlad unleashed several strikes, yet he couldn’t manage to touch Dorin’s skin even once.

’He is slowing the blade by increasing the density of air around his body,’ Vlad realised, finally understanding what Dorin’s spell was doing.

"Now it’s my turn," Dorin said, a mocking smirk settling on his face.

His arms moved in rapid arcs, the air in the room shifting along with them.

With a horizontal swing of his arm, he announced, "Wind Blade!"

Vlad couldn’t see anything before him, but instinct told him something dangerous was coming, the same instinct he had sharpened over years of hunting wild animals in the forest.

On instinct alone, he turned sideways. Something brushed past him, leaving a shallow cut on his forearm, barely deep enough to draw a single drop of blood.

’I aimed for his arm and he still dodged it?’ Dorin gasped inwardly, his eyebrows twitching in annoyance.

In rapid succession, he moved his arm in the same pattern, releasing a barrage of invisible wind blades forward.

Vlad avoided fatal injury, but since he couldn’t see the attacks, he suffered several shallow slashes across his torso. The jacket he wore was reduced to little more than strips of hanging cloth.

"It’s clear that the boy is lost," Victor said, attempting to put a stop to the duel, which had begun to look more like a torture session.

Inwardly, however, he was impressed.

’This is actually surprising. How did this kid manage to avoid every fatal strike? Even the attacks that landed barely caused any real injury. He has the instincts and body of an animal. If only his talent wasn’t this lo—’

"I’m not finished," Vlad announced, cutting Victor’s thoughts short.

In a sudden motion, he sprinted toward the large table positioned before Victor and dropped low behind it, using it as cover.

"Hah! What does a swordsman gain by hiding behind a table?" Dorin laughed, slowly advancing.

Then something unexpected happened.

The table, which weighed well over a ton, tore free from the ground and hurtled through the air toward Dorin like a meteor.

"D-did he just throw the entire table at me?" Dorin gasped, his eyes going wide.

One-ring spells wouldn’t be enough to cut through wood that thick, but using higher-level spells would be the same as admitting defeat. With a rapid series of hand movements, he manipulated the wind around his feet and burst sideways.

"Tailwind Steps!"

He rode the compressed air beneath him, barely clearing the table’s path before it crashed into the far wall.

But from the corner of that same flying table, the tip of Vlad’s sword emerged, driving straight toward Dorin’s face.

"Hah! I knew you’d attack from there!" Dorin laughed, releasing a barrage of wind blades at the incoming sword.

What his spells struck was only the blade itself. There was no one behind it.

"He threw the sword too. Where has he go—"

His words died in his throat as a blurry shape filled his vision, fingers appearing before his eyes, far too close to focus on.

The room echoed with a loud crack as Vlad’s palm connected with Dorin’s face from behind, the impact sending him crashing sideways to the ground, shoulder hitting first.

Ding...

[You have finished the side quest: Dorin’s Test

{Claim the reward}]

"This is my admission form," Vlad announced, tucking the document into Dorin’s pocket and running a hand through his messy hair.