Return to Stormwind City

Stepping out of Antonidas's home, Karen thought to himself, I certainly can't compete with you on who reaches Master rank first.

We High Elf are a long-lived race with much deeper foundations, which means it takes more time to accumulate the base required for advancement.

That is why High Elf advancement takes so long; even my brother Kael'thas took two hundred years to reach the Hero rank.

Humans, on the other hand, reach the Hero rank in just a few decades.

I probably won't be able to catch up to you at the Master rank.

But I possess so many talents, and even my brother says I will have a great advantage when advancing to Hero, so I'll just have to compete with you on who reaches the Hero rank first.

No sooner had he stepped out of Antonidas's home than he "ran into" Vereesa, just as expected.

Reunited with his good friend and fueled by a new competitive drive, Karen was in high spirits.

He took Vereesa out for a round of food, and by the time they returned, her mouth wouldn't stop moving.

Vereesa said goodbye to Karen happily and skipped away.

Karen felt that if he did this a few more times, he would successfully bribe this little one and turn her into his eyes and ears.

In her heart, he had surely transformed from a bad guy into a great one.

It just goes to show that daughters must be raised with abundance and shouldn't be managed too strictly.

Otherwise, they'll be easily led astray by others.

Back at his residence, with only himself left, Karen began calling for Drew.

"Drew, do you think we can advance to Hero before Antonidas?" Ever since Karen learned his talent was extraordinary, his confidence had returned.

Naturally, he wanted to contest such a thing.

"That is hard to say. After all, my database contains no information regarding the rules for advancing to the Hero rank, so I cannot perform a specific analysis. The help I can provide you is very limited."

"Furthermore, based on the analysis of advancing to the Master rank, you definitely won't be faster than him. It is like a small pond versus a small lake; the difference in the volume of water required to reach the same depth is immense."

"Compared to the small pond of human foundations, the foundation of a High Elf is like a small lake. Even a talented human like Antonidas only has a foundation equivalent to a large pond, but there is still a gap compared to a lake. It takes a lot of time to fill this lake." Drew provided a negative answer.

Karen had known this answer all along, but he still asked, unwilling to give up.

"By 'filling it up,' you mean the perfection of magical comprehension, which then leads to advancing to the Master rank, correct?"

"Correct. According to my analysis, that is the case."

"There are only a few decades left before the Dark Portal opens and the Orc invasion begins. By that time, Antonidas will certainly have advanced to Hero; after all, he will have become the Chief Councilor of Dalaran by then, perhaps even an Epic Hero."

"After all, one cannot become the Chief Councilor of the Kirin Tor Council in Dalaran without strength. This means I must reach the Master rank within these few decades and quickly comprehend the power of rules to advance to the Hero rank in order to win, or perhaps even advance to Epic Hero. Tell me, can I do it?" Analyzing this far, Karen began to doubt himself.

"Based on data analysis and the historical time comparison of High Elf advancing from Advanced to Hero rank, the probability of the host advancing to the Hero rank in a short time is 0.54%." Drew gave his conclusion honestly.

"Yeah, even a genius like my brother took one hundred and fifty years to go from Advanced to Hero. It is indeed difficult to achieve that in a third of the time or less."

"But even if it's difficult, I have to work hard. If I can't advance to Hero by then, it will be too late. Without strength, I cannot change the future. I need to possess strength to help my brother save the future of the High Elf. Drew, you have to help me."

"The system will naturally support the host's request with all its power, but the system's understanding of the magical realm is still insufficient. My capabilities are limited, and I require the host to provide more data."

"Alright, let's work hard together in the future."

Over the next two months, Karen asked Kael'thas to put him through an intensive training regimen.

With Drew's help and analysis, Karen made significant progress.

Kael'thas constantly praised Karen for his high aptitude, noting that he often understood things with a single hint; in reality, this was all thanks to Drew.

The existence of a powerful analysis and processing system greatly saved Karen's time. He shared his senses directly with Drew—one was responsible for constantly absorbing knowledge, while the other continuously processed, analyzed, summarized, and compared that knowledge.

Therefore, the time between learning something and applying it effectively was very short.

Kael'thas remarked that in these two months, Karen had learned what he had previously learned in thirty years.

He believed Karen had learned enough for now and that he needed to return to consolidate and digest it for a period of time for the best results.

During this period, Karen and Drew discussed issues regarding actual combat.

"Drew, can you provide me with support during combat?"

"That goes without saying."

"Can you be like a cheat in a game?"

"I can scan the surrounding situation for you, identifying enemy magical power (I have not yet mastered the power of rules, so I am unsure if I can identify that), direction, angle, and so on," Drew replied.

"Can you digitize the enemy's magical damage and my own shields? Just like in a game. Take this small fireball in my hand as an example; let's use this as a base damage of 1." Karen condensed the weakest possible fireball in his hand.

"That might be a bit difficult. The damage caused by the same amount of magical energy varies.

Different angles and shapes also result in different damage upon impact.

Furthermore, there are talent bonuses.

Talent is also a manifestation of rules, which I am unable to detect."

"Fine. In future combat, just point out to me where energy is gathering, where energy is attacking me, the angle, and the direction. Besides, you should be able to provide the magnitude of the energy, right?"

"I can do that. The rest will require the host to judge for himself."

"No problem. It really is different once you reach the advanced level. It was simpler at the primary and intermediate levels; as long as you knew what the magic was, you could accurately determine the damage just by judging the magic's energy.

Once you reach the advanced level, the existence of talents makes things different," Karen muttered to himself.

The Alchemist Tournament ended over a month ago.

Even the rewards for outstanding contestants and the study grants following the competition had concluded twenty days ago.

The contestants had all used the teleportation arrays to return to their respective branches.

The contestants led by Karen from the Stormwind City Alchemist Association branch had long since returned to Stormwind City, leaving only Karen behind in Dalaran.

During this Alchemist Tournament, although Karen had not fulfilled his duties as a team leader and had left everything to the contestants themselves, the pre-competition training he had organized previously had served a very good purpose.

In terms of overall results, the performance of the Stormwind City Alchemist Association branch this time was about the same as before.

However, there were many highlights regarding certain individuals, with performances that caught many people's eyes. These individuals were the five who had passed the intensive training.

In the final free-competition segment, they had all successfully crafted potions of excellent or superior quality using Karen's optimized formulas. They won the matches and earned some rewards and honors.

President Pierre was quite satisfied with the results of this competition.

It was time to go back.