Unsealing Emptiness

We have to know that the difference between each rank is not something that numbers could ever overcome!

Even if a Rank-6 was against more than 50 of the Rank-5, it might not be necessary that Rank-6 Mage would lose. And this difference only kept increasing with the Ranks.

To the point where a Rank-9 Mage was generally impossible to be defeated by anyone under Rank-9! How could Rank-8 Mage’s even compare to the sheer destruction brought down by a casual Spell from the former?

Hence the onlookers were surprised that Raven had decided to fight against the judge on a 1v1 battle.

The chances of her getting promoted to Gold Rank sharply reduced since it was almost impossible for a Rank-5 to survive even a single attack from Rank-6 Mage.

Emory and Lucy on the sidelines sneered as they did not think that Raven would even leave a scratch on her opponent.

.....

Lucy was particularly hoping for Raven to miserably lose since she thought that this black-haired girl was the reason that Blaze rejected her so coldly.

She had not even bothered to see Ozul’s face as he barely had any presence. If she did, her thought process would have been totally different.

So Raven entered the training ground unperturbed by the sneers of a couple of spectating people.

“Girl, you should have come at me together. But I guess you won’t understand until you try it yourself.”

The middle-aged man also did not think that Raven alone would be able to make him give her Gold Rank promotion.

“No one knows unless they try, do they?”- From another point of view, she seemed to humble herself, but the middle-aged man saw otherwise when Raven stared at him coldly.

Without the need for any signal, the middle-aged man and Raven quickly put some strengthening Spells without the chanting before the later rushed towards the former.

The middle-aged man stood his ground, allowing Raven the first strike. He watched in interest when black smoke suddenly surrounded her arms, and when it vanished, two long daggers appeared in her hands.

‘Darkness Element?! I will have to report this...’- Emory, who was spectating the fight was stupefied that someone would actually use Darkness Element!

Though Emory had easily identified Raven’s Element after seeing just one Spell, it did not cross anyone else’s mind that this might be the case.

People did not usually judge others’ Element based on the color radiated during Spellcasting since there were many exceptions to this.

Even some of the Fire-based Magical Spells could sometimes produce a dark color, which sometimes appeared to be black.

The middle-aged man did not have the time to think which Element Raven was using since he had made a big mistake.

He had allowed Raven to take the first strike, thinking that he would easily be able to block it. However, he did not even have the time to set up his defenses when Raven was right in front of him.

The middle-aged man did not even know that she was not only a Rank-5 Mage but also a Rank-5 Fighter, which gave her the overall advantage of physical attacks.

Both of them had strengthened their physical body with Spells, but Raven had the upper hand since she was already a Rank-5 Fighter.

The spectators were also surprised since they had imagined the fight to be more of Spells, but Raven closed in on her opponent, which indicated that she was going for the physical battle.

The middle-aged man took a few steps back and chanted the Spell that sent a storm of rocks towards Raven.

*Swhooshh*

Raven barely dodged the attack as some of the rocks were about to hit her, but she deflected them using the daggers.

Both of them were only a meter apart when Raven suddenly jumped in the air, retracting her hands, which indicated that she was about to throw them at her opponent.

‘Hmph! Silly move...’- The middle-aged man thought before creating a big rock in the trajectory of the daggers.

Jumping in the air was a naive mistake that any newbie could make since it would leave them in a vulnerable state if their opponent could dodge or block the attack.

As expected, Raven threw the daggers straight at the middle-aged man who sneered at her foolish move.

Just when the daggers were about to get in contact with his rock shield, he readied another attack that would finish the battle.

However, he was dumbfounded when the daggers which were about to hit his shield suddenly disappeared in black smoke!

He looked at Raven, who had landed on the ground and noticed that she had another pair of daggers in her hands!

This move was the improvement that Raven had done with the Spell. She could just wish the daggers to teleport to her hands whenever she wanted.

The Rank-6 Mage sent the attack that he had prepared towards her, but to his surprise, Raven just sidestepped and dodged the attack like it was nothing.

At this moment, Raven threw one of her daggers at him from the front while she herself moved to attack from the side.

*Clank...*

The Rank-6 Mage blocked the dagger that she had thrown using the shield, but he was a bit too late for dodging her other attack.

From the spectator’s point of view, it seemed as if Raven just passed by her opponent, and the second later, everything came to a standstill.

“... *Sigh*... You passed.”

After a few seconds, the Rank-6 Mage’s voice rang out in the now silent training ground. Lucy did not even know what had suddenly happened, so she looked towards Emory for answers.

“Look closely on her opponent’s face.”- Emory did not explain but gave her a hint.

When Lucy focused on the Rank-6 Mage’s face, she saw a small line of blood on his face!

Even though such a small cut meant nothing in an actual fight, drawing the blood of a Rank-6 Mage while only being a Rank-5 was a great feat!

The battle may have been intense for both Raven and the middle-aged man, but even a minute had not passed and the fight had ended!

“I underestimated you. It was a great fight.”- The Rank-6 Mage, instead of being petty, appreciated the battle.

Raven nodded her head and went back to the stand where Ozul and Blaze waited for her.

The earlier cold face of her vanished as she tiptoed in front of Ozul and started fidgeting with her hands.

No one understood what was happening until Ozul put his hands on her head and started patting her!

“There there.”

Only such simple pats were enough for Raven to gloat in delight. When Lucy and Emory saw this scene, they had to reevaluate their opinion of this kid who did not have even a bit of Mana.

“Congratulations, I can officially register this group of three as Gold Rank, which would let you guys accept even more tasks with better rewards and, of course, risks.”

“But if you guys are working individually, only you would have the privileges of accepting such tasks...”- Emory explained everything to the trio.

He also explained some of the perks that the group would receive, which included discounts and priority when buying things from the Guild.

“However, I would suggest that you also take the test.”- Emory told Blaze.

Naturally, Blaze thought that it would only be a waste of time and was about to refuse it, but Ozul had different plans.

“Of course, he will take the test.”

Blaze smiled wryly at Ozul and also nodded his head.

“...Yes, of course...”

Emory noted the weird interactions between Blaze and the kid in front of him. Together with Raven’s earlier shy attitude, he concluded that Ozul might not be so simple after all.

After everything had settled, everyone went back to their seats as Blaze walked into the training ground.

Raven stood right next to Ozul, still in high heavens since it had been a while since he had shown her some affection.

“Raven, that wasn’t a smart move.”- Ozul shattered all her fantasies with these words. He did not wait for her to reply and explained,

“You took the risk after you thought that your opponent underestimated you... Your opponent was not only stronger than you but also had more experience.”

“It is true that he indeed underestimated you, and you took the risk. But remember this; even when you have everything under control, and you have two options, one with risk and the other without any risk, choose the latter.”

After hearing his advice, Raven contemplated her actions since it was true that she indeed had the option to win without taking the risk.

But she also wanted to finish the match earlier so she could impress Ozul, hence her hasty gamble.

Just as they finished talking, Blaze had entered the training ground where the Rank-6 Mage was standing with a serious look on his face.

Though he was not a petty person who would hold grudges against a kid, it was still humiliating for him to have his blood drawn by a mere Rank-5.