Heaven's Greatest Professor

Warden confronted the monster, devoid of any ounce of energy within him. Thankfully, his blade retained its sharpness, allowing him to cut through the adversary. However, lacking void energy, the blade lost much of its power to cleanly behead the creature.

The regenerative abilities of the wolves added to the challenge. Warden grappled with each one before successfully driving his sword deep into a wolf's head.

25 down. 7 more to go.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on his body, making the remaining seven a formidable task, unlike the previous rounds. A wolf managed to bite into his leg, sending a sharp pain that assaulted his mind. Warden responded by gritting his teeth and stomping his knee onto its neck, nearly immobilizing it to thrust his blade through. Warm, hot blood gushed out, spraying onto his lower body.

Six more to go.

While he focused on killing one wolf, the rest didn't stand idly by. They lunged at him from all directions, attempting to take a bite. They managed to bite into his limbs at multiple places, but Warden was too preoccupied to count.

He swung his blade to injure and fend off their biting maw. More blood flowed, but not all of it came from the wolves. Warden managed to stand up, his awareness keeping up with their tracks.

He hadn't used [Void Shroud] even once in this battle, as it burned a lot of energy. Now, he sorely missed that ability; with [Void Shroud], his defence would have been beyond reproach.

But it was what it was.

[The Divider] pierced through the paw of a wolf, plunging into its head. Warden hadn't yet managed to kill it when two other wolves thrust into him. He had to abandon this one and dodge their attack.

With their regenerative powers doing wonders and Warden's exhaustion running deep, the battle continued for a prolonged time.

On the other side, nobody had left their tasks, wholly engrossed in the desperate battle progression on the screen.

"This guy is insane," the young girl exclaimed.

The others agreed, acknowledging that most people would give up upon realizing the wolves were regenerating the wounds left by their weapons. However, Warden humbled himself to rely solely on his movements and swordsmanship to persist.

He finally managed to kill another wolf a quarter of an hour later with the little amount of energy he had recovered during the battle.

Five more to go.

"The next two kills will be crucial," Jess said. "If he can manage that without getting injured or exhausted to death, he'll make it."

With two more wolves defeated, only three remained, alleviating most of the pressure.

Throughout the fight, Warden still appeared as someone capable of taking on two foes even without the aid of his energy.

Jason bit his lips as he observed. While he might give this fellow a run for his skill in a confrontation, he lacked the drive to persist. He wondered about the point of it all when he could retake the test after training and strategizing.

However, Warden seemed to live for the battle as he killed another of his prey. Even outnumbered, he played the role of the predator.

Jason couldn't imagine that the rough-looking guy he met in a clothing store would leave such a deep impression on him. Although he recognized Warden as an elite through his aura, something like this was unprecedented.

As Jess had mentioned, with each slain enemy, the pressure on him was reduced. Despite his sluggish movements after fighting for so long, he fought like someone with years of experience in this kind of battle. Soon, it became one against two, and a delightful grin spread across Warden's bloody face.

He kicked the wolf in front and faced the one to his side. Letting it pounce on him, the beast was unaware that the man was far from powerless. Before it could bite into him, his blade gouged its head, digging through its eye socket to kill it.

One more to go

Warden stood up slowly, leaning on his blade. The lone wolf howled at him defiantly as it charged. With a smile on his lips, Warden held his blade and swung it in a full arc, putting his everything into it. The blade bit through the neck, lacking only about a quarter more strength to behead it completely. But the wolf was already on the ground, and Warden was on top of it.

He twisted his blade to ensure the job was done and withdrew it.

Warden panted with all his might.

And then the next round began.

***

He woke up from the virtual reality with a scream, the jolting pain of death still sharp in his mind, even though he hardly managed to see what had challenged him. Jason handed him a bottle of water as he got out of the capsule.

"It was fun," he said, gulping down the water, "until the death."

No joke, Warden still had goosebumps on his arms.

"The augmented virtual world needs to have a deep connection to showcase rankers' powers," Jess explained. "Although its safety mechanism does not leave any trauma, the pain of death is always a price."

Warden nodded. "So, how did I do?"

"Look at it yourself."

Warden turned to the screen and found a golden [A] in it.

"Just for the record, this doesn't mean you can take on hundreds of iron-rank creatures on your own," Jess reminded, as most people needed a reminder. There was a fair share of rankers who'd challenge their next dungeon without any preparation after becoming contented with their result.

"My performance will be a lot better in the real world," Warden returned.

He wasn't simply joking there. The beast he slayed in the virtual realm didn't give him any benefit, much less how he could recover his energy by eating the heart of cursed rank creatures.

"If it was real world, I probably would have made it to the next round," Warden muttered. Besides, he probably would have gained, 10 odd attribute points out of it.

Still, it wasn't all lost because:

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the title, Indomitable.]

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