The Bragging He Brought Upon Himself

He had seen rich people before.

But never anyone this rich!

Not only rich, but a little crazy too.

The administrator was an old man who looked like he was about to kick the bucket. Despite his face being covered in wrinkles, making him look like a Shar-Pei, Duke could clearly sense the abundant arcane energy within the old man's body.

The system sprite had also rated the old man's strength as a "crimson skull"! In other words, this old man, who looked as though swallowing wrong might choke him to death, was actually a boss-level existence whose strength far surpassed Duke's?

Duke's face twitched awkwardly.

Did this prove that Stormwind truly deserved to be called the second-strongest human sanctuary of magic after Dalaran?

"Young man, I know you possess outstanding talent, but no matter how great one's talent is, no one can master the entire ocean of magic. The magic here can be divided into nine major schools alone: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, and so on. Take evocation, the school you handle most easily. Evocation is the shaping of energy, and it is further divided into smaller branches such as fire, frost, and arcane."

"Uh, I know that."

"Then, knowing there are so many schools, you still dream of studying them all? Do you know that even if you could learn every second-level spell available to an Earth Mage, learning so many spells would make your beard grow another inch at the very least!"

"How could it be that exaggerated?" Duke looked utterly unconcerned about second-level magic, repeatedly claiming that magic was actually easy to learn. He even smugly declared himself a genius with ninth-tier talent.

In truth, he was only trying to conceal the fact that his system allowed him to learn magic instantly.

As he spoke, in order to prove he was not lying, Duke casually picked out a second-level spell, [Ice Armor], and demonstrated it for the old man.

He instantly connected to the Plane of Ice Elements, drawing vast quantities of frigid energy from the void and condensing it over his body. Cold white light surged from his arms and rapidly covered both of them at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Not only his arms, but his legs and torso also shimmered with cold white streams of light across their surfaces. The white light flowed over Duke's body and limbs in sleek lines.

For an ordinary mage to learn a spell the instant they came into contact with its formula was almost impossible. Even if a Dawn Mage encountered a second-level spell they had never seen before, not everyone could learn and apply it on the spot.

Other people's Ice Armor would be considered decent if it merely took the shape of armor and covered a mage's vital areas.

But Duke?

He had actually turned a mere Ice Armor spell into something fancy.

A full set of royal plate armor—no, a full set of Stormwind guard armor—appeared right before the old man.

Layered, orderly shoulder plates, a gleaming breastplate, sturdy waist guards... Being able to create those with Ice Armor was already impressive enough.

But did they know what Duke had made?

He had even formed chainmail to protect his upper arms, with tiny metal rings linked together one by one. Naturally, he had not omitted the majestic lion-head engravings on the belt and bracers either.

Other than lacking color and being made of ice, it was practically the standard issue armor of a Stormwind soldier!

The moment the old man saw it, he no longer had any doubts about Duke's talent or ability.

All that remained in his heart was shock... and resentment.

Was magic really that easy to cultivate?

If it were truly that easy, the Stormwind Royal Academy of Arcane Arts would not need to send out huge numbers of people every year to select apprentices from across the kingdom, or even across all seven human nations. Tens of thousands of youths took the tests in a good year, and several thousand in a bad one, yet only a few dozen would actually prove to possess magical aptitude.

Among those few dozen, most had insufficient talent. The academy only reluctantly admitted them with the mindset that, even if they could not be trained into formal mages, it would still be useful to have some apprentices around to do odd jobs.

They would grind away over time, becoming formal Earth Mages before the age of forty and then joining the mage corps as combat strength.

Thus, apprentices in their forties or fifties were not uncommon at the academy. At Duke's age, he was exceptionally young not only among formal mages, but even among apprentices.

When Duke had given up becoming Medivh's disciple, the old man had felt resentful. Such a fine seedling had been ruined just like that.

But how long had it been?

A month, perhaps.

In merely one month, Duke's strength had advanced from a first-rank Earth Mage to the fifth rank.

For any other mage, such rapid progress would have caused problems long ago—disordered magic circuits, or damaged circuits from excessive development that reduced their potential.

But Duke?

The old man could clearly sense elemental power circulating slowly and methodically within Duke's body. The incomparably gentle elements concealed unimaginable violence. So long as Duke wished it, those elements could transform at any time into the fiercest flames or frost and strike at his enemies.

And this was only one month!

Was one month a generous amount of time?

Even if Duke had begun training from the start as Medivh's core disciple, one month would not have been enough for such terrifying yet solid progress.

Even Medivh, the Guardian praised as possessing the greatest talent, had progressed no faster than this in his youth. One had to know that, as a child, Medivh had constantly received careful guidance from the strongest mage in Azeroth at the time—his mother, Aegwynn!

As for the old man himself, advancing from a first-rank Earth Mage to the fifth rank had taken him a full year and a half of study.

And that had been in the Stormwind Kingdom, the human nation with the second-strongest mage presence after Dalaran.

For wandering mages from small places who could not receive formal magical education, making this much progress within five years through self-study alone would already be an event worth the entire town celebrating.

Before Duke, the old man was completely speechless.

Such astonishing progress in one month, with such a solid foundation—it was not merely shocking to him.

More than that, it was a blow!

Comparisons really could make a person furious!

Was ninth-tier talent truly this terrifying and astounding?

The old man had suffered a severe blow to his heart.

Glancing once more at Duke, who looked as though it were only natural and showed not the slightest hint of self-satisfaction, the old man muttered inwardly, Even among the High Elves, this kid would still be a monster.

Duke had no time to concern himself with the old man's thoughts.

He had been stunned by the spell list of the Royal Academy of Arcane Arts.

He truly could not figure out whether mages' spells had been deliberately cut down in the original game, turning them into a purely offensive and crowd-control spellcasting class, or whether Azeroth had always possessed so many spells.

Conjuration spells like [Grease] and [Concealing Mist]...

Divination spells like [Identify]...

Enchantment spells like [Hypnotism]...

When the old man brought over a huge stack of individual spellbooks, piled as high as a small mountain, and gave him a teasing look, Duke's scalp truly started to tingle.

But since he had already talked so big, he had to learn them!

Once you talked yourself up, you had to keep it up through tears.