The duel was going on for fifteen minutes without either of them landing a blow on the other. As the minutes passed by, Diego gradually started to lose his stamina and breathed heavily. Tiredness was visible on his face and his moves. His fighting technique became more chaotic and less finesse. It was logical, any fighter who couldn't touch his opponent would lose their mind and become somewhat of a wild fighter.

Finally, Michael started to feel bored of evading the punches and kicks. He noticed the fall in badass points so he decided to spice up the fight.

"You really think less of alchemists right?" Michael questioned Diego while simply evading another one of Diego's punches. He made dodging punches look so much easier.

"When your jaw is dislocated" a millisecond after these words reached everyone's ears, they saw Michael grab Diego's fist. Diego quickly used his other hand and tried to punch Michael only to get caught by him once again.

Bang!

Holding Diego's two fists, Michael headbutted him with enough force to dislocate his jaw as said. The jaw bone let out a crackling sound

"Ribs are broken"

Michael pulled Diego closer without even giving Diego any time to scream in pain. Following the headbutt, Michael sent his knee to Diego's ribcage.

"Grrr!" Diego growled, immediately coughing out dark blood.

"Nose broken" Michael bent him down before sending his knee to Diego's nose. The crunching sound emanated from Diego's face,

"Ouch" Gilrine couldn't help raising his brows,

At this point, Diego's body almost gave up. His ribs were broken, his jaw was dislocated and blood was gushing out of his broken nose,

Diego's vision blurred, it took everything in him to stand on his feet. His body and mind screamed at him to give up and the only thing that prevented him from giving up was Bethany who was watching the duel horrified. Even Deacon who had no good things to say about Diego somewhat felt pity for him. Some students thought the duel went far enough and wanted the professor to intervene, only to see Professor Steinmeyer enjoying the brutal fight with cookies.

"You want some?" asked Gaya looking at Gilrine. In normal situations, Gilrine would have taken the delicious buttery cookies in her hand. Considering it was not the case and shocked to see a professor act so cool instead of putting an end to the duel, he had no appetite. In fact, he lost his appetite for the ale he wanted to drink afterward.

"Professor, shouldn't you stop the duel?" meekly asked Gilrine

"Suffering from severe concussion"

The students noticed Michael finally let go of Diego and wondered what he was going to do next. After hearing what he just said, they started to have some ideas. At this moment, Diego was breathing heavily, drooling blood.

One single 540 kickthat was all it took to knock the light out of Diego. The kick was elegant, fast and powerful. The kick literally sent Diego flying for a few meters before he crashed onto the ground.

"You will need an Alchemist and a healing potion" his voice was crystal clear. It was a statement directed to every single student who thought less of Alchemy and alchemists.

Even though Michael planned to specialize in every single specialization there was, he had a special place for Alchemy in his heart. After all, Alchemy was his first specialization and the first things would always take a special place in people's hearts.

After everything was said and done, Michael adjusted his collars. A duel with a bully like Diego may have been cringe yet it earned him enough points to settle the debt to the system.

"Now I can stop the duel" Stuffing the last cookie in her mouth, she informed Gilrine. Then, she slowly descended near Diego. Bethany was standing in the front waiting for Gaya to conclude the battle.

"Pathetic" Gaya disappointedly shook her head looking at Diego's unconscious body,

"This is what reality looks like students except he would have been dead right now" Before concluding the battle, she spoke to the students around her.

"You all take so much pride in being a warrior. But let me tell you something, out there, in the real world, you're just another young master and young miss. If you value your lives, I'd recommend you not to piss off any real warrior" she emphasized the word 'real warrior' to shame the rest of them. To be honest, the students couldn't rebuke. Many knew that if they went against Diego, they would have lost the battle with or without Arch energy.

Her words formed a crack in their pride and ego.

"He wins" Gaya simply pointed at Michael and said. Then she poked Diego with her toe,

"And take him away"

As soon as Gaya said this, Bethany rushed to Diego and placed his head on her lap. She gently opened his lips, pouring the healing potion into his mouth.

"Case in point" the smile that emerged on Michael's face made some Alchemists proud while almost all the warriors hated him and saw the smile as a snicker.

Michael couldn't care less about the students' opinions of him. As far as he was concerned, this day was extremely fruitful. He trained, earned badass points, lured an arrogant asshole into his trap, earned badass points, beat the crap out of him, and earned badass points.

He walked away from the training grounds like nothing happened, leaving the crowd stunned. Victoria wasn't impressed by the result of the fight because she knew Diego had no chance against Ghost. However she liked the fact that Ghost did not take any crap from Diego, he was ruthless, humiliated his opponent to leave a permanent scar thus breaking the opponent's spirit, and left the area like a badass instead of showing off and boasting.

What he just witnessed really made Elliot question whether he did the right thing or not by getting professor Steinmeyer fired. To be honest, he never expected Diego to be completely trashed by the alchemist student. Diego should have at least put up a decent fight yet what happened was the complete opposite.

Elliot wondered where the alchemist student hailed from and who was his mentor. What he displayed wasn't enough for anyone to fully comprehend or figure out what kind of fighting technique he mastered. Elliot however was able to tell that it was an extremely powerful and deadly fighting technique.

The following days were pretty much uneventful. As one would expect, all the warrior students viewed Michael as their number one enemy while some alchemists tried to be his friend. Some students went another step and asked Michael to marry them. Michael politely refused their proposals.

Those who asked to be his friend however received that blessing. He would refuse marriage proposals but not friendships. Connections were just as important as gold coins, Michael knew this.

To summarize, Michael made quite a lot of friends in the Alchemy house, and through Elidyr, he also made connections with runemasters though he failed to make any friends from the house of blacksmiths.

**********************************

In a blink of an eye, two months had passed. During these two months, Gaya continued teaching the students the art of combat. Everything was just a pretense to keep her job and make her look like a great professor. The last thing she would do is teach her potential enemies to be stronger.

Nightmare reached the Core Formation level 8 from level 5. In addition, he also learned a few battle tactics from Gilrine and the magical beasts professor.

Meanwhile, Michael spent almost all of his time in the Alchemy classroom with Professor Lane. During the classes, Professor Lane almost ignored the others and took a special interest in Michael. Professor Lane would often give the other students the task of concocting a pill or brewing a potion while giving Michael the toughest assignments which Michael did with ease.

The other students were jealous but they would rather be ignored by Professor Lane than spend their time with him like Michael. Right at the moment, Michael and Lane were alone in the Alchemy classroom as usual. They lost track of time and failed to notice the hour hand and the minute hand pointing at 12 in the clock.

"Use Chimera Strand, it will increase the potency and the purity"

Professor Lane instructed Michael,

"But it'll make the potion unstable. We could use Kelpie's hair. It's common, and doesn't smell like rotten eggs" Michael counter-argued with Professor Lane which only a few had the guts and knowledge to do so.

Michael had grown to like their exchange of knowledge. At first, Michael thought Professor Lane was just a 5-star Alchemist and he had nothing new to teach him. However, he soon learned that he was completely wrong. Professor Lane was a 6-Star Alchemist. Only a few in Mazeroth knew this.

Professor Lane was the reason for Michael to decide to stay in Mazeroth until graduation without leaving Akilan Realm. Knowledge was power and he was learning much more from Lane every day.

Hearing his argument, Professor Lane approached the table with a bluish vial. He placed the vial on the table before him,

"That's why anyone with a brain should use a newt vial. It will make the potion stable"

As usual, Professor Lane triumphed over Michael with his knowledge yet again. Everything he was learning from Lane was included in the next Alchemy book the system recommended him to buy. The system required him to reach Star level 6 if he wanted to absorb the knowledge from that book. Since he preferred not to spend 500,000 badass points on the Elven Rune, he couldn't become a 6-Star Alchemist. Nonetheless, he was learning so much from Lane without spending a dime.

Moreover, he was getting close to Lane, thus, making him another powerful ally. If he could make Lane his subordinate, he would have a powerful subordinate under him even though Michael knew the odds of doing so were extremely slim.

With a flick of his wrist, Lane took a crate of newt vials from his space ring. The crate materialized on the table,

"You can use them in the upcoming talent exhibition" Professor Lane reminded Michael of the Mazeroth version of the tournament. Fortunately, Michael didn't have to battle young masters but to show his skills in Alchemy.