Backed Into a Corner

At this moment, several of Brando's servants were already advancing menacingly.

Brando stood with his hands on his hips, chin raised high, looking down on Duke with an arrogant gaze. He truly wanted to know who had given this ragged commoner the nerve to publicly question his reputation!

Deputy Captain Viri was getting anxious too. "Kid, if there's no other way, I suggest you get on your knees, kowtow, and admit your mistake."

Get on his knees!?

Kowtow!?

Damn! What kind of bullshit was this?

The moment Duke heard that, his lungs nearly exploded with rage. Without realizing it, he had perfectly taken the blame upon himself. As a transmigrator, as a young man educated by modern, enlightened ideas, Duke had never been in the habit of kneeling before anyone.

Uh, perhaps someday, after escaping the single life and getting married, he might kneel once.

That was right! Kneel to heaven. Kneel to earth. Kneel to his parents.

But he would never kneel to a shitty noble like this!

If Duke had initially been somewhat unwilling after being dragged into this by Alleria, then at this moment, he was completely immersed in the role. Besides, he had disliked Brando from the start.

Duke made up his mind. What could a shitty noble like him do to him? He could resurrect anyway. At worst, he would lose a little dignity. Then he would come back and make sure to kill the bastard!

Still, being beaten to death alive would probably hurt a lot.

Duke went all out. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, "So what if you're a noble? If nobles say the sun is black, does that make it black? I refuse to accept this! If you can, turn a fireball into an arrow! The one who killed that boar was the high elf ranger general of Quel'Thalas, Alleria Windrunner. You actually have the nerve to steal her credit!?"

The crowd erupted into an uproar at Duke's words.

Even Brando's scalp began to tingle.

Why had this matter involved those long-eared people who were so arrogant they looked down their noses at everyone? If this went badly, it could become an international dispute.

Humans and high elves were allies, after all, but being allies did not mean they were completely equal. The high elves held an exalted status. Back then, if the high elves had not taught humans magic, humans armed with nothing but swords and blades might not have been able to defeat all kinds of beasts and humanoid tribes like the trolls.

Not everyone present knew who Alleria was, but there were plenty of knowledgeable people.

At that moment, an old man's voice came from behind Duke.

"Well now, young man, would you like to try a mage aptitude test here? If you qualify as a mage apprentice, you'll gain status equal to Sir Brando's."

Duke turned around and saw a crystal ball on a table, along with an old mage who looked like a fortune-teller beckoning him over.

A mage!? Duke's heart skipped a beat. In the game, he had been a genuine mage enthusiast. More accurately, he loved playing mages, warlocks, and priests. As long as it was a cloth-wearing class, he liked it.

But could things from the game really correspond to reality?

Did that mean he only needed to strike Ultraman's right-angle chopping pose to go "pew, pew, pew" and launch huge fireballs?

Though it sounded absurd, Duke still walked over as if possessed.

At that moment, Brando snarled a vicious warning. "Commoner, do you really think becoming a mage apprentice can save you? Do you know what you're doing? You're not only slandering me, Farm Brando—you're provoking the entire Brando family!"

Viri grew anxious as well and spoke quickly in a low voice. "Duke, don't! Mage aptitude is extremely rare. Out of a thousand commoners, there might not even be one mage apprentice, much less a high-ranking mage. To contend with the Brando family, you would at least need to become a court mage of Stormwind..."

Duke gave Viri a grateful look, then turned and walked straight toward the old mage.

Seeing Duke act like this, one of the servants immediately cursed, "You bastard brat, stop right there! You actually dare ignore the Brando—"

Instead, Brando stopped his servant. "Let him go!"

"Young master, but—"

"Haha, do you think anyone can possess mage aptitude? Among lowly commoners who can't even read, there might not be one in a hundred thousand. Hahaha!"

Brando's wild laughter reached the ears of the surrounding crowd.

Every commoner wore an expression of hesitation and unwillingness.

On one hand, they longed for a young hero to appear and prove to these haughty nobles that commoners could produce talented people too—geniuses, even!

On the other hand, they knew that hope was far too slim. Setting aside that utterly unimaginable magical talent, things like runes and magical theory alone were enough to leave them so confused they wanted to die.

One commoner after another wanted to speak but held back, silently watching Duke.

Contempt, mockery, and no one believing in him.

Feeling the pitying gazes around him, Duke's chest filled with an emotion called indignation.

Layer upon layer, piling higher and higher, accumulating more and more, like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

Duke clenched his teeth and asked, one word at a time, "What... do... I... need... to... do?"

Completely ignoring Farm Brando's hostile glare, the old man spoke. "This crystal ball contains the magical formula for the most basic fireball spell. Do you know what a formula is? Uh, never mind. Just sense it with your mind. As long as you can use this crystal ball to produce even a tiny spark, you'll become the lowest, first-rank magic apprentice."

Sense it?

Behind him stood the Brando family's young master, who wanted nothing more than to tear him to pieces, along with his lackeys. With Duke's scrawny body, he definitely could not beat them. Fine, he would treat a dead horse as if it were alive. Duke placed his hand on it.

The instant he did, the system sprite's awful voice rang out again.

"Unknown spell model detected... Comparing with host's knowledge... Thermodynamics and fluid mechanics formulas being imported... Entropy calculations in progress. Improved spell model constructed. Importing thermal energy from the Plane of Fire Elementals..."

Under the old man's terrified gaze, Duke's utterly astonished stare, and the horrified expressions of every onlooker, streams of scarlet, ribbon-like runes suddenly burst from the crystal ball. They wound around Duke's body, forming rings that spun without stop.

The next instant, a blazing fireball as large as a water vat, radiating terrifying heat and thermal energy, shot explosively from the crystal ball with a long flaming tail...

BOOM—

The unimaginably massive explosion made the scalps of nearly a thousand people in the testing grounds go numb, their ears filled with nothing but ringing.

"Oh, Holy Light above."

"What happened!?"

Those nearby could naturally see it, but countless people farther away who had no idea what was happening cried out in alarm.

"Move aside! Everyone, move aside!"

"Evacuate all uninvolved personnel first! We may be under attack!"

It had to be said that Stormwind's guards were fairly well trained. At the sudden sound of the explosion, the guards' first reaction was to hold their posts, while patrols rushed toward the scene. Soldiers who had been resting rushed out of the break rooms and began evacuating the crowd.

Another deputy captain arrived immediately with a fully armed patrol squad of twelve.