"Dean Snowcrest, should we stop them?"
"No, this is bound to happen and Crowley must defend his spot. If he couldn't even defend his spot against someone less talented than him, then perhaps it is indeed a bit too early for him to be the substitute representative."
On the highest floor of the warrior course building, Instructor Fienna and Dean Snowcrest were having a conversation while observing everything that was happening between Shye and the second-year students.
They already knew that Shye would receive a challenge from the unconvinced students.
However, Dean Snowcrest decided that they should give a chance to the sophomores because he felt a bit guilty regarding their decision to give up on them.
The generation of the second-year and third-year students was a bit lacking when it came to talent so the deans didn't believe that they could achieve a high ranking in the Adventurer Academy Competition.
Hence, the deans decided to focus on grooming Shye's generation.
In addition to this reason, Dean Snowcrest knew that a warrior must be courageous and defiant in the face of strong adversaries so if Shye didn't even dare to accept the duel, Dean Snowcrest would be incredibly disappointed.
Fortunately, Shye didn't let him down and accepted the duel.
Meanwhile, Havan and the other sophomores led Shye towards the dueling stage and they purposefully spread the word regarding the duel to destroy Shye's reputation once he lost to Havan.
"Hey! Did you hear about it? Havan challenged the freshman who was selected as the substitute representative to a duel!"
"What?! This is big! Where are they fighting?"
"They're headed towards the Colzen dueling stage! Let's go! I don't want to miss this action."
One of Shye's classmates heard the conversations of the other second-year students and he was shocked upon hearing that their captain was challenged to a duel by the top second-year student.
He hurriedly gathered all of their classmates including Shirley and Anthony to cheer for Shye.
Upon arriving at the Colzen dueling stage, their eyes widened after seeing the unfamiliar scene. Their captain, Shye Crowley, was being beaten to a pulp by Havan.
"Captain!"
"Crowley!"
After hearing his classmates call out to him worriedly, Shye clicked his tongue.
"How did these guys learn about the duel so fast…Shit…I look so uncool right now…" Shye muttered to himself as he struggled to stand up.
However, there wasn't a hint of panic on his face as if everything that was happening was under his control.
It's the truth though because after experiencing Havan's raw strength, he was…a bit disappointed.
Shye understood that scouts mostly train their agility and dexterity but who would've thought that the top second-year student would be so weak?
If the two of them were fighting with real weapons, he might have a chance against Shye but they were using wooden weapons for the duel so although Shye was getting thrashed around, he wasn't really hurt.
It's just that…he looked so pathetic right now.
On the contrary, Shye decided to use this chance to improve his vitality attribute and after forty-five minutes of a one-sided beatdown, Shye earned three points in vitality.
Upgrading his attributes cost quite a lot of points now so getting three free points in vitality is huge for him.
"Hahahahaha! Is this the best first-year student?! Pathetic!"
On the other hand, Havan was having a great time beating Shye up while showing off to the crowd who was starting to feel bad for Shye.
Of course, some people were laughing at his "misfortune" and they openly mocked him saying words such as "He deserves it for being so arrogant!" and "That's what you get for not knowing your place!"
Shye didn't care about their insults at all though because he was satisfied after earning three points in vitality which now costs 150 points per upgrade. Due to the beatdown, Shye was able to save a whopping 450 points.
However, he also noticed that his body was starting to ache so Shye decided to finish the match and take the 5000 silver coins for himself.
He quickly used his killer combo of [Stoic Lv.2] + [Power Slash Lv.2] but it seems that Havan was already aware of his skills and had some counter skills prepared to defeat Shye.
Havan expected that Shye would willingly receive his [Bloody Stab Lv.2] skill using his [Stoic Lv.2] skill before catching him off guard with a [Power Slash Lv.2].
However, Havan quickly activated his skill [Parry Lv.2] to deflect Shye's [Power Slash Lv.2] before falling back and laughing.
"Hahahaha! Now that you don't have your skill, [Power Slash Lv.2], how will you defeat m–?!"
While Havan was talking shit, Shye quickly activated his [Dash Lv.2] skill and followed it up with one of his new skills, [Destructive Chop Lv.1].
Although he was quite arrogant and a blabbermouth, Havan was still the top-ranked second-year student so he was able to react on time and narrowly avoid Shye's unexpected combination by using the trump card that he was hiding, [Sparrow Step Lv.1].
Havan's skill allowed him to quickly step back and narrowly dodge Shye's [Destructive Chop Lv.1].
"Hahahaha! I admit that you almost got me there, howev–?!"
*BANG*
Havan thought that he had already escaped from Shye's clutches but who would've known that he had another skill?
Shye used his new skill, [Rush Stab Lv.1], to quickly close the gap and send Havan flying out of the stage, unconscious.
The mages and archer students gulped upon seeing Shye stick to his opponent like glue.
As archers and mages, they had to keep their distance for them to win but could they escape against such a warrior who suddenly dashed two times in a row?
Even his teammates who watched the match, Kiin Wujin, David Houdini, and Harry Copperfield broke out in a cold sweat after seeing his full power.
If they were in Havan's situation, they believed that they wouldn't be able to escape from him as well.
[Congratulations! You've earned 450 points!]
Meanwhile, Shye, the victor of the duel, simply took the huge sack containing 5000 silver coins and happily walked back towards his dormitory leaving a dumbstruck audience.