“Daneel, choose your own path. You just need to know that if you choose to walk the Path of a Paragon, you must be willing to accept that you might burn brighter than everyone, but when you pass away, they might still be alive. You must choose between living longer and living stronger. Good luck with the remaining spars, although I expect they won’t be much of a problem. I’ll come meet you later once the spars are done.”

Daneel simply nodded, struggling to get up and lean against the tree. His body felt tired, as if he really had been crushed by that boulder above him before.

Hearing his name being called, he took a deep breath and ran towards the sparring area.

The next 3 matches moved smoothly, with 2 directly conceding and the other trying to run towards Daneel almost like the puppet. And like the puppet, his face became planted in the ground soon after. That kid was even part of the nobility, so Daneel wondered just what his objective had been.

Regardless, the final fight soon approached. Either through co incidence or luck, Laravel and Daneel hadn’t faced each other yet. Now, they would finally fight in the finals.

The winner was supposed to be awarded a gift by the King himself to encourage mages in training, but Daneel honestly didn’t even want any gift from the arrogant King. The best gift he could give was the throne, but that, Daneel would have to take himself.

Soon, the two of them stood opposite each other, while the crowd watched with bated breath. So far, only Daneel’s matches had had the most cheers, because the rest seemed relatively quite boring.

Laravel stood there, smiling at Daneel while a lightning bolt like the one that had hit the puppet formed in front of him.

Daneel shrugged and connected with the air elementary particles near Laravel’s legs, aiming to defeat him in the same way he had defeated the others. It would be fitting to show that he was nothing special.

Yet, it seemed that the prince had already thought of this. Unnoticed, his feet had been buried in the ground and he stood firmly in his place. Although Daneel tried twice, he didn’t even budge.

Of course, Daneel had a lot of other tricks up his sleeve, but he wondered whether to show them here, in front of so many people. A dagger hidden was much more effective than one out in the open, after all.

Remembering the King’s words, a burst of anger inundated Daneel. No! He did not want to lose!

Making his decision, Daneel started running toward Laravel. As he did so, a wide, cunning smile appeared on Laravel’s face, which he hastily tried to control.

Sensing something was amiss, Daneel suddenly jumped to the side hearing the system’s message:

[Explosion trinket activated in host’s vicinity!]

“BOOOOM”

An explosion rocked the sparring ground, with plumes of dust rising into the air. The spectators were thoroughly shocked, craning their necks to see the aftermath. “Was the prince so powerful as to cause such an explosion?:, they wondered.

Busy with trying to control his smile, Laravel hadn’t managed to notice Daneel jumping away at the last moment. Still, he kept forming his thunderbolt, just in case his opponent was unharmed. He did not want to take any chances in such an important match, where he could impress his father with his performance.

As the dust slowly faded, a hole in the ground 2 feet wide and 5 feet deep started to become visible. It just so happened to be at the exact spot that the kid from before had fallen down. Daneel was no where to be seen, as if he had become ash from the explosion.

Suddenly, Laravel started to shake where he stood as if he were being electrocuted. Struggling to turn around, he was shocked to see a smirking Daneel behind him, putting a hand on his back and sending waves of electricity and fire into him.

The judge immediately teleported Laravel out seeing this scene. Only, the damage had already been done. He looked pathetic, with hair half standing up and clothes almost completely burnt. Daneel had used the combination of electricity and fire to do the most damage.

Laravel now had fear on his face, gazing at Daneel standing on the ground, unharmed. He had actually teleported behind him! A Human Mage-0 who could teleport! Such a thing was simply unheard of.

The crowd and the dignitaries had their jaws wide open after seeing Daneel appear out of thin air behind Laravel and hitting him with a tiny ball of lightning and fire. It was truly as the legends stated. A Paragon stood unmatched, even in front of those above his level.

The rest of the students needed time to even form a small fireball, and Daneel was already capable of teleporting behind an opponent and hitting them with such a destructive attack. The disparity was simply too much. The rest of the candidates felt awkward, not knowing where to look as they tried not to compare themselves with this monster.

“Daneel wins!”, came the announcement, prompting the crowd to stand up simultaneously and start cheering. It seemed that there would be no comment on the trinket. Either the judge had not noticed it, or had simply chosen to ignore it.

“Daneel! Daneel! Daneel!”

A chant started, which grew louder and louder with time. The King, who had an ugly and disapproving expression seeing Laravel being teleported out of the match, had vanished instantly with the court mage after giving Daneel a pensive look.

Feeling the showers of praises raining down on him, Daneel felt that it had all been worth it. The days and days of time spent in solitude perfecting each individual spell, the pain from falling down repeatedly when practicing short-range teleportation, the constant suffering from repeatedly having his Mageroot stimulated and developed throughout the year; they had all led up to this moment.

In the crowd, he could see Elanev, jumping with joy seeing Daneel’s excellent performance. All this time, he had always been constantly visiting, encouraging Daneel and occasionally even helping with practice.

He could see his parents crying tears of joy as they saw their son being applauded by so many people. They felt like they were drowning in pride, and thanked the heavens for gifting them with such an incredible son.

Even Faxul who was often stoic was smiling and clapping as hard as he could. He was his only friend who had stood by him despite the spoiled brat’s warnings.

Although the message that he heard from the system startled him, it was simply the icing on the cake, making him smile even broader as he spread his arms, welcoming all of the praise and applause.

[Achievement: “People’s Admiration-1” obtained.

People’s Admiration-1: By showing your capabilities at the First Year Assessment in the National Magic Academy of Lanthanor, you have won the people’s admiration and your name will now be remembered by them and spread to many. Congratulations on becoming a figure that will be talked about by numerous people, aiding your journey to becoming a World Dominator!

500 EXP Awarded.

3 Achievements have been obtained. Secret conditions met. System store has been opened in advance for host’s perusal.]