After leaving Antonidas's house, Karen thought, I definitely can't compete with you over who reaches the Master tier first.
We High Elves are long-lived, so our foundations are much deeper. That means we need more time to build the groundwork for advancement.
That's why it takes High Elves longer to advance. My brother Kael'thas, for example, took two hundred years to reach the Hero tier.
Humans only take a few decades to reach the Hero tier.
I probably can't catch up with you on reaching the Master tier.
But I have so many talents, and my brother said I'll have a big advantage when I advance to Hero. So I can only compete with you over who reaches Hero first.
Sure enough, as soon as Karen left Antonidas's house, she "ran into" Vereesa again.
Reuniting with her close friend and having a new goal to strive for made Karen very happy.
So she took Vereesa on another round of eating, until Vereesa could barely close her mouth.
Vereesa happily said goodbye to Karen, then skipped away.
Karen figured that if she did this a few more times, she'd successfully bribe the little one into becoming her informant.
Right now, in Vereesa's eyes, Karen had definitely gone from a bad person to a very good one.
That was why you had to spoil your daughter a little. You couldn't be too strict with her.
Otherwise, someone else might easily lure her away.
Once she was back at her lodgings and alone, Karen began calling for Drew.
"Drew, do you think we can reach Hero before Antonidas?" Now that Karen knew how incredible her talents were, her confidence had returned.
Of course she wanted to compete for it.
"That's hard to say.
"There's no information in my database about the rules for advancing to Hero, so I can't provide a detailed analysis.
"I can offer you very limited help.
"Also, based on my analysis of advancement to Master, you definitely won't be faster than him.
"It's like the difference between a small pond and a small lake. The amount of water needed to reach the same depth is vastly different.
"Compared to the small pond that is a human's foundation, a High Elf's foundation is like a small lake.
"Even a talented human like Antonidas has a foundation that's more like a large pond, but there's still a difference between it and a lake.
"It takes a lot of time to fill that lake." Drew gave her a negative answer.
Karen had already known what the answer would be. She had only asked because she still wasn't ready to give up.
"When you say 'fill it,' you mean achieving complete mastery of magic, then advancing to Master, right?"
"Correct. That's what my analysis indicates."
"There are only a few decades left before the Dark Portal opens and the orcs invade.
"By then, Antonidas will definitely have advanced to Hero. After all, he'll have become Dalaran's chief councilor by then. He might even be a Mythic Hero.
"There's no way someone without strength could become the chief councilor of Dalaran's Kirin Tor Council.
"So I'll have to reach Master within these few decades, then quickly comprehend the power of the rules and advance to Hero if I want to win. I might even need to become a Mythic Hero.
"Do you think I can do it?" By the time she'd finished analyzing the situation, Karen had begun to doubt herself.
"Based on the available data and comparisons with how long it has taken High Elves to advance from Advanced to Hero, the probability of the host advancing to Hero in a short period is 0.54%." Drew gave her an honest answer.
"That's true. Even a genius like my brother took a hundred and fifty years to advance from Advanced to Hero.
"Doing it in a third of that time, or less, would be difficult.
"But I still have to work hard, no matter how difficult it is. If I can't advance to Hero by then, it'll be too late.
"Without strength, I can't change the future. I need strength so I can help my brother save the future of the High Elves.
"Drew, you have to help me."
"The system will naturally give its full support to the host's request. However, the system's understanding of the field of magic is still insufficient.
"My capabilities are limited. I'll need the host to provide more data."
"Okay. We'll work hard together."
Over the next two months, Karen had Kael'thas put her through an intensive training program.
With Drew's help analyzing things, Karen made tremendous progress.
Kael'thas constantly praised Karen for her exceptional understanding. She often grasped things as soon as they were explained. In truth, all the credit belonged to Drew.
The powerful analysis system saved Karen a great deal of time. They shared their senses directly: one of them kept absorbing knowledge, while the other processed it, analyzing, organizing, summarizing, and comparing everything she learned.
As a result, it took very little time for Karen to put what she learned into practice.
Kael'thas said Karen had learned in two months what had taken him thirty years to learn.
He thought Karen had learned enough for now, and that she'd benefit most from returning home to digest and consolidate her knowledge for a while.
During this time, Karen and Drew discussed practical combat.
"Drew, can you support me during actual combat?"
"Of course."
"Can you do it like a cheat in a game?"
"I can scan the surroundings and identify hostile magical energy—though I haven't mastered the power of the rules, so I can't be sure whether I'll be able to identify that—along with its direction, angle, and so on," Drew replied.
"Can you quantify the enemy's magic damage and our shields, like in a game? Let's use this little fireball in my hand as an example, and set its damage as one." Karen conjured the weakest little fireball in her palm.
"That may be a little difficult. The same amount of magical energy can cause different amounts of damage.
"The damage also varies depending on the angle and form of the attack.
"On top of that, there are talent bonuses.
"Talents are also an expression of the rules, and I can't detect those."
"Okay. During combat, just tell me where energy is gathering, where energy is attacking me from, and its angle and direction. You should be able to tell me how strong the energy is, too, right?"
"Yes. You'll have to judge everything else yourself."
"No problem. Things really are different at the Advanced tier. The Basic and Intermediate tiers are simpler. You only have to know what the spell is and be skilled at judging its magical energy to determine its damage precisely.
"But things are different at the Advanced tier, with talents in the mix." Karen murmured to herself.
The Alchemist Tournament had ended more than a month ago.
The awards for outstanding contestants and the study rewards after the competition had also concluded twenty days earlier.
The contestants had all used the teleportation array to return to their respective branches.
The contestants from the Stormwind City branch of the Alchemist Association, whom Karen had led, had returned to Stormwind City long ago. Karen was the only one who had stayed behind in Dalaran.
Although Karen hadn't fulfilled her responsibilities as their leader during the Alchemist Tournament and had left the contestants to handle everything themselves, the training camp she'd arranged beforehand had still been very effective.
Overall, the Stormwind City branch of the Alchemist Association had performed about as well as in previous tournaments.
But several individuals had stood out, impressing many people. They were the five who had gone through the training camp.
In the final free competition, they had used Karen's optimized formulas to produce potions of Excellent or Outstanding quality. They had won the competition and earned awards and recognition.
President Pierre was fairly satisfied with the results.
It was time to go back.
Before you continue