The moment the Magus icon after Sorcerer-class finally lit up as well, everyone from students to mentors went wide-eyed.

Very clearly.

Even the mentors hadn’t expected this year’s first-year cohort to have three Magus. What they hadn’t expected even more was that one of them was Vinny—the guy nobody had been optimistic about.

Even though he’d placed top twenty-three in the entrance results, people still carried a heavy stereotype about him. They thought his ranking was mostly luck, that he’d stepped in dog shit.

Yet right when everyone had only contempt and disdain for him, Vinny kept his head down, calmed his heart, endured humiliation, and grew in silence. In the end, he far surpassed everyone who mocked him, racing ahead on the Transcendent path and stepping into the ranks of the strong.

Everyone knew that reaching Magus at this age meant a future without limits. High-tier Magus—the graduation requirement—was only a matter of time.

After the brief shock, once they thought through everything Vinny had gone through on the way here, quite a few mentors looked at him with appreciation and careful scrutiny.

This kid’s road definitely hadn’t been easy. He’d endured all that slander and abuse alone, and turned it into fuel.

In just a few seconds, combining Vinny’s background, several mentors automatically filled in a whole stormy, spectacular, uphill story in their heads.

This boy will accomplish something big!

With Vinny’s effort and stubborn toughness, the mentors felt he could absolutely be listed as a key cultivation target for the academy. One mentor in particular admired him. In his eyes, talent was secondary—what deserved praise most was that unbreakable spirit. He saw his younger self in Vinny, so he took a special liking to him.

Without even thinking, you could tell this kid had put in effort normal people couldn’t imagine, and endured loneliness normal people couldn’t endure.

Who knew how much he’d paid to stand on stage shining like this today??

Meanwhile, the students watching from below didn’t have that kind of experience, so their thinking was much simpler.

They immediately found excuses for themselves.

“If I remember right, Vinny’s Spirit Soul is only one star, right?”

“Yeah, only one star. I think it’s called [Armor Fortress]. It’s an old junk Spirit Soul that got eliminated by the times ages ago.”

“Then that makes sense. I knew it. How could it be otherwise?? A one-star Spirit Soul is that easy to level. Him being Magus in first year is totally normal, right??”

“Yeah, yeah. Which Spirit Soul here isn’t higher grade than his? Which classmate’s Spirit Soul isn’t harder to level? He just took a shortcut by choosing the easiest path. Sooner or later it’ll bite him.”

“Exactly. How strong can a one-star Magus be? His foundation’s unstable. Sure, he’s got some close-quarters tricks, but once it’s Spirit Soul time, the gap opens instantly.” The students all muttered in low voices.

People would always rather believe what they wanted to believe. Nobody would accept the fact of “I’m worse than Vinny,” so they could only keep patching their pride like crazy inside their heads.

Not far away, Aesphyra sat there watching in silence, black stockings crossed.

She’d predicted Vinny’s realm was already around Magus, but still… emotion and reason hadn’t quite synced up.

Vinny—this guy who, in her past life, had been a disaster of a villainous arch-antagonist. He’d built strength through crooked roads, slaughtered countless innocents just to get stronger and satisfy his desires, from slum refugees to nobles. Pure evil, sins piled to the sky, death wouldn’t be enough.

This Vinny of this life was obviously not the same person as the Vinny she’d known before. Both were Vinny, but they were Vinny from different parallel worlds—nothing alike. If she had to say there was something, it was that both had hard mouths and were razor-tongued. But when the Vinny she knew now was sharp-tongued and stubborn, he was cute. She even liked teasing him just to watch him break and keep talking tough. The past-life Vinny’s sharpness and stubbornness only made her sick.

Before she knew it, she couldn’t even remember what past-life Vinny had looked like. That impression had been completely covered and replaced by the Vinny she was familiar with now, to the point that when those two words came up, the first Vinny she pictured made the corners of her lips rise on reflex.

Looking back now, that past life felt like a dream—like a dream that hadn’t actually happened. In this life, Aesphyra had seen all of Vinny’s experiences with her own eyes. She knew how many times he’d fallen into danger, teetering on the edge of life and death, crawling and struggling forward. In the end, through his own effort, he climbed to Magus and slapped every slanderer in the face with reality.

All «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» of it was what he deserved.

Aesphyra couldn’t even say what she was feeling now. Relief and joy at Vinny’s growth? Or a sigh at the contrast between the past life and this one?

Probably both.

Now Vinny was right on her heels—no matter what, she couldn’t shake him off anymore~.

[Virtue +60]

[Current Virtue: 4844]

Isatia was watching Vinny too. Just like Aesphyra, she’d already guessed he’d advanced to Magus. After all, she’d seen his performance in the Deeply Buried Secret Realm (Marsmo) with her own eyes. Even without using bloodline power, he’d solo-killed the King of Marsmo multiple times.

Strength like that was enough to crush the vast majority of first years. Even plenty of upper-year seniors weren’t his match.

Vinny now proved in every way that he was someone who could stand beside her.

And.

Thinking back to what Vinny had said to her in the Secret Realm—that he’d prove the power of ordinary people to her, that he’d show her warmth and light she could see the moment she opened her eyes—

She didn’t have to keep enduring endless exhaustion and a skyless darkness anymore. That scorching hope within reach was something Vinny had given her.

A tiny curve slipped onto Isatia’s lips.

As for a certain golden-elf goblin girl, it hit her even harder. She’d always thought she was definitely stronger than this annoying blue-haired guy. Last time had just been him taking a cheap shortcut. If they really fought, she was absolutely sure she could chase him down and beat him up—no way she’d lose.

And now? Even her realm had been left far behind by him.

High-tier Sorcerer-class and Junior Magus looked like they were only one realm apart, but that gap was a huge watershed. People without much talent got stuck at high-tier Sorcerer-class for life, unable to go up or down. People with outstanding talent could cross into Magus.

And once you reached Magus, every stage inside it produced a massive gap. It wasn’t like Sorcerer and Apprentice where people kept clowning around with leapfrog kills. A mid-tier Magus beating a Junior Magus was effortless. The gap only grew bigger as realms rose.

Milian was furious about it, but all she could do was accept that Vinny really had pulled ahead.

Still, she was one of the Destiny Heroines. That only made her realize she’d been slack lately. From now on she’d work harder, instead of patching her pride like everyone else.

Once the mentors finished recording, Vinny stepped down. Waiting for him were Shicodale’s tiny worshipful eyes.

“Vinny, that was really amazing!”

[Virtue +30]

[Current Virtue: 4874]

“Yeah, yeah,” Vinny said casually. At a time like this, he wasn’t about to throw out some show-off line like “this is basically automatic.”

Then he waited in place for Shicodale to finish testing so they could go back together.

He could still feel a lot of eyes on him, but he didn’t bother calling it out. Let them look. Looking today was free. If it were any other day, staring at a handsome guy this closely would cost money.

Soon enough, Shicodale stepped onto the test platform too. His result was high-tier Sorcerer-class—same as Milian.

“Still couldn’t advance to Magus,” Shicodale said sadly.

“It’s fine. Don’t get discouraged, Dale. Your talent’s way better than mine. With your talent, advancing to Magus is only a matter of time,” Vinny nodded.

“Not true. Vinny, your talent and strength are way better than mine,” Shicodale shot back.

Vinny didn’t argue.

Didn’t he know what his own talent was like?

He used a one-star Spirit Soul. But because his compatibility was too high, raising realms was hard for him too. The reason he’d jumped so fast was entirely because he was also running a tiny cheat—once he had enough Virtue, he just had to tap the button to advance. That was the only reason it was so convenient.

Yeah. A small cheat doesn’t count as cheating. A big cheat like Aesphyra’s is what counts.

“Vinny, hold on a moment.” Just as both of them finished testing and Vinny yawned, about to leave with Shicodale and go home to make up sleep, a mentor’s voice stopped him.

“Huh? Mentor, is there something else?” Vinny asked, confused.

“Hehe. Kid, did you forget something?” The mentor asked kindly.

“Forget what?” Vinny didn’t get it.

“Last time, your final exam ran into an unexpected danger. The academy said it would compensate and reward you. This time as well. You were trapped in the Deeply Buried Secret Realm (Marsmo) and stayed calm under pressure. The academy also said it would compensate and reward you. But you never come to collect it.” The mentor teased.

“Ohh.” Vinny scratched his head. Right, that did sound like a thing.

“Then… you mean you can give me the rewards now?” The moment the word “reward” came up, Vinny instantly woke up. His eyes lit.

“Not give. You have to pick them yourself.” The mentor looked helpless at Vinny’s dramatic attitude shift. “Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

“Well, haha… I’ve never claimed a reward before, so of course I didn’t know. Mentor, where do I go to claim it?” Vinny rubbed his hands together.

“No rush. I saw how tired you were earlier. You’ve been overworking these days, haven’t slept well, right?” the mentor smiled.

“Yeah. I’ve been busy lately.” Vinny nodded.

“Mhm.” The mentor looked at him with satisfaction. “Busy is busy, but don’t push yourself that hard. I know what you’re thinking, but if you want others to acknowledge you, you have to acknowledge yourself first. You have to recognize your own worth.”

“Remember to balance work and rest. Don’t wreck your body, understand?”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, yeah.” Vinny nodded.

“You know where the Teaching Hall is, right? Behind the Teaching Hall there’s an intersection. Keep going left and you’ll reach a domed treasure hall. It’s in the northwest part of the Order Spire. That’s the Academy Treasure Vault.”

“Go there and explain your purpose to the mentors inside. They’ll take you to choose your rewards from both rounds,” the mentor said, stroking his beard.

“Oh! Got it, got it! I’ll go right now!” Vinny waved at Shicodale. “Dale, you go back first. I’ve got something to do. I’ll be right back!”

That sprinting pace was so fast there wasn’t a trace of his earlier exhaustion.

“Eh? E-eh?! Vinny, didn’t you just say you were really sleepy…?” Shicodale stood there in a daze for a long while, watching Vinny disappear like a gust.

Vinny cut through the Teaching Hall and reached the place where you picked weapons—a domed palace with a round-arched roof.

He walked up to the entrance of that distinctive building and found a magic device set at the doorway. It looked like you needed identity verification before they’d let you in.

Vinny thought a bit, pulled out his Carillian Student Card, and swiped it.

Three seconds passed. Nothing happened.

Fine. Looks like students didn’t have enough clearance to enter.

“Student, what business do you have here?”

That sudden voice startled Vinny so hard he jumped. He spun around and saw that at some point, a tall old man in white robes had appeared behind him.

The old man looked fierce as hell. Even his eyebrows slanted like blades. His eyes were wide as copper bells. One glance and you knew he was absolutely a hard-core ruthless type.

Was he the person in charge here?

“Uh… Teacher, I’m here to collect a reward,” Vinny explained.

“Collect a reward? Show your proof.” The old man said without hesitation.

“Proof? I don’t have any. I’m Vinny. The academy promised me rewards.”

“Oh? You’re Vinny?” The old man sized up the blue-haired young man in front of him. “Pretty ordinary looking.”

That instantly pissed Vinny off. Same rule as always—you can attack his character, but don’t attack his face. That was his livelihood!

“So what are you even looking at, old man? Checking if I’m Vinny? You don’t even know me.” Vinny frowned.

“Nothing much. Just wanted to see what the unlucky brat who keeps getting dragged into accidents looks like.” The old man didn’t hide it at all, standing ramrod straight.

For fuck’s sake.

Vinny laughed out of irritation.

This old bastard was really unlikeable, huh??

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep