章 30: I, Super Strong
The Arena had always been a rather expensive facility to maintain, requiring a significant amount of money each year—it was a true money pit. As such, most witch families rarely set up their own and preferred to rent public arenas instead.
However, the Dorothy family did have a private arena at home, a hobby of her stepmother. Though this retired veteran had now shifted her career to a Research Witch, she still often felt the itch and liked to engage in a duel or two. Additionally, as the chief steward of the Moon Sea Territory, she wasn't lacking in funds, so she simply set up a private arena at home.
It was just that Dorothy seldom used it herself—it was usually her stepmother and Alice who did. The mother and daughter would often engage in an affectionate duel to pass the time after tea and meals.
The duel ground was located in the backyard, and as the group made their way from the residence to the backyard, Alice quietly approached Dorothy's side.
"Sister, are you really going to duel with Senior Sophia? Why are you putting yourself through this? Cool down, okay?"
The little witch cautiously whispered to her own sister, her emerald eyes flickering with concern.
"Uh, a Senior? Alice, you know this Sophia as well?"
Dorothy looked at her sister incredulously, then asked with curiosity.
"Is she really that famous?"
It shouldn't be the case. As someone who constantly delved into the Magic Network, a super homebody witch, she should be at the forefront of news. Yet, she had never heard the name of the Angel Witch before—it didn't seem all that famous.
"Of course I know her. Who in Witch Academy wouldn't know Senior Sophia? She's super famous, a Genius Witch who jumped grades, reaching fifth level in the advanced classes in less than ten years after enrollment. She's also the Student Council President. You might even see her giving a speech at tomorrow's opening ceremony, Sister."
The little witch looked up at the Pure White Witch not far behind with a mix of admiration and reverence and then explained to her sister.
Only then did Dorothy come to a realization.
So she was just a school celebrity. No wonder she hadn't heard about her on the Magic Network; her fame was still limited to a small circle. Little celebrities like that rarely made headlines on the Magic Network or entered the public eye.
It's like how most people can't remember the names of their country's top exam scorers.
However, following these clues, Dorothy quickly retrieved some useful information from her memory.
Turns out she had indeed heard of Sophia before but only in passing, never paying special attention, which explained the faint impression.
Now she recalled that a few years back, the Mystic Daily might have had a report claiming a Genius Witch, an Angel Witch, had enrolled in Witch Academy with innate twelve Talents and a Magic Power of 18k—surely that must have been Sophia.
Tsk, she'd known the Angel Witch was a genius, but still, such monstrous Talent was shocking for Dorothy; such giftedness was surely amongst the top ten in the entire history of witches.
If she didn't die young, Sophia's future was guaranteed to reach the Peak Witch level at the very least. With some effort, even a seat among the Thirteen Sages wasn't out of reach.
No good, she couldn't keep thinking this way—the more she thought, the less likely she felt she could win.
Boosting others' morale while dampening her own before a Duel was not a good sign. Dorothy quickly composed herself, stopped her train of thought and began to psych herself up instead.
Although the real Dorothy was just an ordinary witch commonly seen anywhere, with beauty as her only standout feature, within the Magic Network, she still had some influence. Compared to the likes of Sophia, she was on a whole other level.
She rarely engaged in physical duels in reality, always cautious and fearful—afraid of getting hurt, afraid of the pain, afraid of losing face if beaten. But in the Magic Network, there was an option to lower or even completely block the sensation of pain. Plus, everyone was known by their online names; losing a fight did not matter much as they were all strangers from reality who wouldn't recognize each other, so there was no shame. It was just a kind of virtual reality version of a dueling game. As for playing games, Dorothy was never afraid of anyone; she would go all in with a heavy punch.
Okay, it wasn't that hard of a punch. Earlier on, she was just like the newbies, getting slaughtered in various ways by the big shots. However, as a homebody in two lifetimes, probably the only merit Dorothy had was her positive and optimistic attitude. While others might have given up playing after being beaten badly, she always enjoyed the challenge and battled everyone she met. After all, she had played plenty of frustrating games in her previous life and had survived the malice of that old thief.
She was the type that got more excited the harder things got.
It's just a game, why wuss out?
Moreover, this time she had a talent cheat code up her sleeve.
"Diligence Makes Up for Lack of Skill (sr): You're not a genius, but you can narrow the gap between you and a genius through hard work. You have an indomitable will and you never let failure defeat you. Always able to learn from failure and become stronger, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
This was the talent her father Adam had passed on to Dorothy, and it was also why Adam, a mere mortal, had grown to become a High Rank Archmage, a respectable figure even among witches.
Even though it was only an sr-Level talent, sr talents corresponded to the likes of the Silver Race's Elf Mermaids. The fact that Adam, who was even lesser than the Black Iron Race, could produce such a talent was already remarkable.
Adam once revered and aspired to the witches' strength. He studied and imitated their evolution abilities, and eventually came up with a knock-off version of a witch's evolution attribute.
Of course, knock-off was Adam's own assessment. In Dorothy's view, this talent was not some knock-off, but rather a complement to the witches' evolution attribute.
After all, the witches' evolution attributes mostly involved physical hardware upgrades, but they were powerless when it came to aspects of the mind like spirit, will, and experience.
Thus, they often ended up in laughable situations. For instance, some little witches were afraid of mice, so they evolved cat-like attributes. They gained the strength of cats and learned how to catch mice, but they still found mice too disgusting to touch when the time came.
Just like the recent duel between Alice and Isabella. These two little witches kept making mistakes they shouldn't have during the duel. They knew not to make these mistakes, but once they were caught up in the moment, they forgot all about changing them.
In a nutshell, they didn't learn from experience.
Things like the will to win and experiential knowledge can't be mastered in one go, not even for witches. They also need to accumulate, learn, and summarize over a long life before they can truly transform into powerhouses.
Adam's Diligence Makes Up for Lack of Skill talent was an unusual one that could actually influence these softer aspects of the spirit.
Humans aren't physically strong. Their growth and expansion relied on learning from past failures and continuously summarizing that knowledge and experience. This ability was an innate gift shared by all intelligent species.
Adam went a step further by enhancing and elevating this ability into a true talent specialty. Even among witches, few could achieve such a feat. Mind Talent specialties were notoriously difficult to master, so this didn't tarnish his reputation as a genius mage back in the day.
It was just unfortunate that he was a human, not a witch. Being part of a weaker race ultimately held him back. Otherwise, Dorothy thought her father could have potentially qualified as a Sage.
Luckily, the fruit of one's predecessor's labor benefits their successor; Dorothy was fortunate to inherit this talent from her father.
As a result, even though she started off in the Magic Network getting shown up and killed randomly by top players, she always managed to learn a little something from the ones who bested her. Through constant defeat and countless battles, Dorothy the noob grew at a terrifying rate. The improvement in her combat skills was almost visible to the naked eye.
Dorothy started playing Magic Web duels at the age of ten. She didn't win a single match for the first three years, had mixed results in the next two, and this last year went unbeaten, seizing the just concluded Magic Network Youth Group Duel Tournament with a record of uninterrupted victories, earning the hidden achievement and honorable title of Duel King.
Yeah, I'm very strong, super strong.
The young witch who had never been in a real fight in her life psyched herself up. With the continuous mental reinforcement, she seemed to find a bit of that dominating presence she had in the Magic Network, gradually standing tall and proud.
Now, she felt she might really be capable.
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