Zane left the lecture hall and hurried back to his dorm. As usual, he exchanged notes with Tom Nguyen before they began discussing the content of the True Math Society's lecture or activity. Well, discussion might not be the best word; it's more like Zane asked Tom about things he didn't understand, and the latter explained them to him. This study session is one reason Zane has made such rapid progress in the analytic club. He was a math genius himself, and having someone even more gifted with numbers than he was, and who was his peer, to teach him proved to be an excellent learning environment.
After the study session, Zane and Tom Nguyen separated to do their own things. Zane rushed to the Virtual Lab for a quick lesson before continuing to read in the library until his second training session. Everybody reunited for the Elite Class before ending the day in their respective dorm rooms. Tonight's schedule involved a bit of coding and reading a book called [Two Sides of a Coin: The Brain and Mental Energy]. Zane had paid a lot of money to rent this book so he could create a better plan for achieving the [Flow State].
Most of the week was uneventful, with the only noteworthy news being the fact that Professor Malida was correct: Kofo stopped attending the lectures. That is, until Friday, Day 35, during the Elite Class. Zane started displaying the performance of a lifetime. In ten straight battles, he won all ten of them. After a brief pause, he started another round and lost only once; he did a third round, and it was the same; in the fourth round, he lost twice, but in the fifth, he achieved another perfect victory.
"Stop!" Instructor Seiya said, and Zane did not initiate the sixth round.
"You've been training your [Projection Casting], right? Show me."
"Hmm, alright," Zane nodded. He raised his hand to project his mana. In five seconds, he completed the prime directive before proceeding to the runes and secondary directives. Unfortunately, before he could complete the Water Condensing Spell, the projected mana collapsed. "I still haven't completed a spell yet, but it should be soon."
"You didn't rely on your mental energy and focused on training your mana control — Excellent," Instructor Seiya nodded. "You're ready now for a Stage 3 Orc."
"What's Stage 3?" Zane asked with a serious expression.
"An Orc Knight with basic military training and the ability for basic strategy."
Zane's face became somber. One of the weaknesses of the Stage 2 Orc was how predictable it was. The latter had no strategic ability and relied more on its instinct, high physical stats, and fighting experience to win. But Stage 3 had all these advantages plus the ability to strategize.
"Are you confident?"
"Not really," Zane replied truthfully.
"Don't worry. I'll allow you to use your arcane focus."
Zane's eyes shone with a brilliant light. With his magic staff, his casting speed will be faster and more efficient; even [Motion Casting] will be more effortless since he doesn't have to constantly be engraving runes with his hand while evading or moving around.
"Alright, let's start. Everybody can take a break to watch this match."
Zane glanced at the orc opposite him, dressed in leather armor, with knives on his waist, and holding a long spear. His eyes focused on the weapon; they were only 20 meters apart, but with a spear, he — as a mage — had lost the range advantage. So, as soon as the countdown reached zero, Zane jumped backward while using his staff to cast.
The orc seemed to have anticipated this move and rushed toward him with immense speed, stabbing with the spear. Zane's worst fear had come true: he had lost the advantage of long-range attacks. Before the battle started, Zane had already enhanced his focus, perception, and reflexes, allowing him to evade three stabs before he finished the last words of his incantation.
Pow! Pow! Pow!
Zane rained down magic bullets toward the orc, but to his horror, the latter casually blocked each shot with a simple flicker of his spears. No matter which part of the orc's body the magic bullets targeted, the latter blocked them as if he were an impenetrable fortress. Zane swiftly realized that he needed a different tactic. So, while his right hand held his staff, he used his left hand to engrave another spell.
A semi-transparent, rectangular barrier appeared in front of Zane, and with a thought, it rushed toward the orc, acting like a military battering ram. A spear thrust instantly stopped the barrier in its tracks, draining much of Zane's mana in the process. However, this was a calculated loss. The orc didn't break through his defense in the first attack, which meant he had bought himself time to cast another spell.
Bang!
The magic barrier disintegrated after the third thrust, but by then, Zane's third spell was ready. A blue line or rope flew from the tip of his staff and wrapped around the spear. Zane pulled. Instant regret. The orc's strength was beyond his calculation. Even after channeling more than 30% of his mana reserve into his muscles and bones, he couldn't move the spear an inch. The orc yanked, and Zane almost flew toward him. Luckily, he reacted swiftly enough by adding even more mana to his channeling. But that didn't solve his problem; it only kept it from getting worse.
The orc continued pulling with one hand, but his other hand quietly reached for his knife before throwing it. Zane was in an intense state of focus and heightened senses, so he noticed the knife. He moved his head to evade, but what happened next baffled him and everybody else watching. The orc threw a second knife, and Zane instinctively evaded again. But what he failed to notice was that the second knife somehow caught up to the first, ricocheting from it before hitting him in the back of his head.
Zane knelt on the floor, holding his head in pain. However, the pain was the least of his worry. If this were a normal fight, that knife would have instantly killed him. The worst part was that he had no idea where the final blow came from. Zane found that unacceptable; he always treated these sessions as if they were a real battle, and now, he not only lost (died), but he didn't even know what had happened.
Instructor Seiya saw his confusion and waved his hand, manifesting a hologram in front of him. Zane was instantly speechless. How skilled must someone be to ricochet one knife off the other with such perfect accuracy? No, this was not just a matter of skill; the orc probably used some kind of Battle Skill.
"Do you know what the Elite Class's purpose is?" Instructor Seiya asked. "When facing a horde of demons, you can use military tactics to deal with them: whether it's mass bombardment, manipulating the environment, using alchemical weapons, or other methods, there are ways to deal with them. However, that is not enough.
"All hordes or Demonic Legions have a commanding chain — a leader, if you will. And I can tell you now that those leaders are often too powerful, too cunning, or too skilled to be killed using normal tactics. Usually, the best way to eliminate them is to have someone of equal power or skill to annihilate them. And that's where you come from.
"It's in the name: Elite. Your objective will be to deal with some of the most gifted individuals of the demon's race. So, you must not only be the best among your peers, but be better than a race that has mastered the art of war and conquest. If you want to have a chance of fulfilling such a momentous task, you must be perfect: whether it's your physical body, magical skill, mind, willpower, or tactical abilities — you must hone them to the limit and beyond. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," the class responded.
"Good. Zane, take a break. Everybody else, let's go."
Zane spent a few minutes using mental channeling to relieve the pain. Ms. Luna approached him and cast a few healing spells, which helped immensely. And as soon as he felt he was ready, he returned to the ring, so to speak. Trying to fight the orc knight with the limited spells he knew proved to be a challenge, but Zane saw it as an opportunity to improve his strategic thinking. In the future, having more spells will not guarantee he'll win, but having the skill to concoct a plan with the resources at hand will probably get him far in the program.
For the rest of the class, Zane suffered beating after beating. The orc knight was a walking Terminator, programmed for trickery. No matter how he approached the situation, the latter seemed to have a counter tactic. The worst part is that there were no patterns to learn from. Still, Zane didn't give up. He challenged it again and again, pushing himself to his limit. The pain would not last long, but the rapid improvement would benefit him for the rest of his life. As for the others? Well, a fire was lit underneath them after seeing someone had already reached the next level of training; that was even more evident for the champion, Keesha, and the extremely competitive Tom Nguyen.
Zane ignored these ambitious hyenas and focused on his training. Even after class ended, his mind stayed on the previous battle; he reviewed his experience and failures, trying to find a way to improve. Success always came at a price, and dedication was just the minimum requirement.
"Instructor, can I ask for your advice?"
"Go ahead."
"Do you think it would help me if I learned how to use my magic staff as a weapon?"
Zane asked. After analyzing the situation, the best answer Zane could think of was to assist his spellcasting with weapon mastery of some kind. The staff can be sturdy enough, and with mana channeling, he can also acquire monstrous strength.
Instructor Seiya looked him up and down. "So, that's how it feels teaching people who are too smart? I don't think I like it."
"What?"
"I already plan to switch your physical training to staff and spear training."
"So, you think it's a good solution?"
"No, at least at this stage, it's not." Instructor Seiya shook his head. "Right now, you shouldn't distract yourself or add more to your plate — especially since there is a better way."
"What do you mean?"
"Just pay for a knowledge transmission in the Virtual Learning Lab. Then, spend a bit of time to turn what you've learned into muscle memory."
"Indeed, a better way," Zane nodded. "But does the Virtual Lab teach martial arts?"
"It can teach anything if you have the money."
Zane resisted the urge to roll his eyes. It's always about money.
"Anyway, keep exercising and improving your life energy. Wait until it at least reaches 1.0 and then use the Virtual Lab."
"I understand. Thank you."
Zane joined the others as they walked home.
"Hey, Zane, do you have any suggestions to guarantee victory?" Keesha asked, and the others immediately looked at him.
"It's all about pattern," Zane said. Pattern recognition has always been one of his strong suits. "The most challenging thing about fighting him is to keep a distance to limit his hand-to-hand combat. Once you do, he'll default to two attack patterns. First, he'll throw his ax, then a knife, or he'll throw his first knife, then the second.
"If he throws the ax first, it means he wants to stop your casting. If it's the knife, he wants to close the distance and end you with a devastating kick. He'll repeat this tactic for the first few minutes of the stage before switching things up; that change is usually noticeable after he uses a roar attack.
"In the second state, he'll throw everything at you, sometimes all at once; his purpose is to overwhelm your mind and senses. Stay calm and keep attacking. Finally, if all these fail, he'll use what I call suicide mode. He'll ignore all your attacks and rush ahead, with the sole purpose of taking you down at all costs."
Keesha and the others looked thoughtful. Now that Zane had mentioned it, they began to notice the pattern too, and he was right. In the end, while that orc was powerful, at its essence, it was still a program designed to train people. That's why Zane lost the second champion match even though his progress was the fastest in the class; a program couldn't compare to a human who could strategize.
"By the way, Keesha, do you know a tattoo artist? Well, a tattoo designer."
"Why? Are you trying to get one?"
"Yes, I want someone to help me design an Anansi tattoo."
"Anansi?"
"It's the African God of Trickery and Wisdom."
"I see." Keesha nodded. "I know a friend I can ask, but it will probably take some time — I'm talking Earth time."
"It's fine. I'm not in a hurry," Zane said. "And I can pay."
"Don't worry about it; it's on me."
"Alright."