The next day.
After several failed attempts at persuasion, Katheryne finally registered Victor Wang's application for promotion to senior adventurer through combat evaluation.
"Please, be extremely careful!"
Senior adventurer was the highest formal rank—though a legendary adventurer tier existed above it, that rank was essentially a ceremonial position created on a whim by the Tsaritsa.
There were two ways to get promoted: either accumulate enough commission completions, or defeat a powerful enemy far above one's current level, under the witness of at least two adventurers who were two ranks higher.
But for an intermediate-ranked adventurer, it was impossible to find even one legendary adventurer—let alone two.
Given the unusual circumstances, the Adventurers' Guild allowed intermediate-ranked adventurers to be evaluated by two senior-ranked witnesses. However, this significantly reduced the safety margin.
The rule about two higher-ranked witnesses wasn't just about fairness. If a promoted adventurer was later found to be lacking the necessary strength, both they and their witnesses would be stripped of their status.
It was also a safeguard: someone two ranks higher could always pull the promotee out alive, no matter the danger.
But intermediate-rank adventurers faced enemies far stronger, and their witnesses were only one rank above, so...
"Please, be extremely careful!" Katheryne warned again.
"Relax! I've prepared thoroughly."
"May the Anemo Archon watch over you."
"You actually believe in the Anemo Archon?" Victor Wang blinked, surprised that this Snezhnayan automaton had such warmth in her heart.
"In the land of the Anemo Archon, what else can I say?" Katheryne smiled faintly.
"Hey, hey! Let's get moving—I've been waiting too long!" came a shout from behind, from none other than Ryan.
Lumine and Ryan were to serve as the official witnesses for this evaluation.
"Hold on, I'll call for a carriage."
"Bah, what's the point? Running is faster! Young man, you ought to exercise more!"
"Eh? You think I called the carriage for me? I was trying to look out for you!"
Ryan scratched his ear with a pinky. "Looking out for me? Don't underestimate this old man. I don't need that."
"If you didn't want to ride, you should've said so earlier! It costs quite a bit of Mora to go outside the city. And they charge by the hour too..."
"You didn't ask, though?"
"…"
Ryan laughed heartily and said to Victor Wang and Lumine, "Let's go! Time to show you young'uns how fast an old man can move!"
He adjusted the greatsword on his back so it was no longer dragging, then bolted toward the city gates, tossing back a challenge: "Last one there is a little pup!"
Paimon zoomed off like a bullet at that. Victor Wang and Lumine exchanged helpless glances and hurried after them.
While still within Mondstadt, Ryan's speed remained reasonable. But as soon as they left the city and saw Victor and Lumine catching up, he kicked it into high gear.
"Sorry! I refuse to be a little pup!" Lumine shouted back as she accelerated.
"...Hey! Wait for me!" Victor Wang was already running fast enough to raise wind at his feet. Thanks to his long-practiced dash technique, he was hitting speeds of 45 km/h. But he was still no match for Lumine, and even further behind Ryan.
Victor suddenly realized: "望尘莫及"—to trail behind someone so far you can only see their dust—literally had his name Wang in it. If Cyno were here, he'd definitely make a lame pun out of that.
"No! Wait for me! I don't wanna be last!"
When Victor had run about four-fifths of the way, Ryan had already reached the upper area above the Cryo Regisvine. Even faster was Paimon.
"Kiddo, you fly real fast!"
"Hehe! You're not bad yourself, old man!"
"Hahaha! Who do you think's gonna be last?"
"Definitely Victor!"
"Same as I thought—I totally set that kid up."
"By the way, old man, you sure laugh a lot!"
"Hey, don't they say cheerful uncles always have good luck?"
When Victor had made it six-sevenths of the way, Lumine arrived as well.
"Victory decided! Hahaha!"
When Victor finally caught up, the first thing he said was, "I never agreed to race you!"
He had sprinted with everything he had, trying to see whether Ryan had used a dash technique—and if so, what elemental type. But Ryan was too fast; he couldn't tell.
Ryan waved him off. "Just messing with ya. Still, you couldn't even outrun this young lady—not looking good."
His speed wasn't something ordinary Vision holders could match. Victor Wang figured: either Ryan was hiding his Vision, or he had reached the realm of the Sword Saint—what the Chief Instructor once described as a pure swordmaster, a prodigy Mondstadt hadn't seen in a hundred years, one who could wield elemental power without a Vision.
Surely he couldn't be like Victor and Lumine—who used elemental power without a Vision at all… right?
They dropped down through the Cryo Regisvine's shattered ceiling. Once Lumine and Ryan had taken cover, Victor Wang stepped forward to awaken it.
Four rows of ice spikes chased after him. At the last moment, he shifted his weight to one side, dodging the attack.
During training with the Knights, he'd thought lateral dodges required body turning. Now he knew better. In the game, the character faces the dodge direction, but in reality, you could sidestep without fully turning your body.
Still, there were no invincibility frames. You couldn't dodge into an attack.
The Regisvine attacked again, blasting horizontal cold beams with its pseudo-arms.
"Perfect chance!"
Victor lunged forward, Wind Blade in his left hand, a Fire elemental mote in his right. He struck the glowing core at the plant's root. A burst of steam surged up—the core seemed like it was melting—but Cryo light pulsed through, instantly restoring it.
The Regisvine slammed its face down at him, casting a massive shadow. But thanks to his quick movement, the relatively light petals folded backward like shuttlecock feathers and didn't land until he'd dodged clear.
"Whew, thought I was gonna get steamrolled…"
It came at him again—this time with the Flail attack, trying to force him out of melee range.
Once he found another opening, Victor noticed the core—though briefly dimmed—was already regenerating.
The round core pulsed, visible through his Elemental Sight. It was absorbing Cryo energy.
"Looks like I need to speed this up."
This time he used both Gale Blade and Palm Vortex. The latter turned red after release, channeling energy into the former. The dual strike melted half the core at once, and the regeneration slowed significantly.
The Regisvine panicked, sweeping its face along the ground, whipping its vine-arms at him like whips.
Victor hesitated—should he try severing the "arms"? They were quite thin—only about as thick as Eula's thigh.
Better to break one finger than bruise ten!
He gritted his teeth, swung his sword upward in a block—but clang!—the arm's hardness rivaled ancient ice.
Using the impact, he slid backward and waited patiently for another opening.
After four more attacks, the root core was completely destroyed—reduced to a pit. The Regisvine collapsed.
Victor was about to slam an Erosion Blast into the crater, but the plant's face just happened to fall in the way.
"Fine. The face is a weak spot too."
Layered, rotating wind blades gathered in his palm, forming a flowing jade-colored orb. Once he infused a Fire mote, it turned blazing red. He hurled it at the Regisvine's face.
Technically "face" meant the central stamen, a chunk of dense ice. But the moment it touched, Victor knew something was wrong.
"Why's this so hard? Didn't it already lose its defenses?"
The blade ground against it like a chainsaw on steel—sparks flying. There was progress, but slow.
"Wait—don't tell me this face is literally the Cryo Crystal Chunk?! No wonder it can survive faceplanting the floor!"
"This won't do…"
He slid the blade down to the junction of the face and petals. The ice there was thinner—sure enough, it corroded easily.
Once he'd severed all four petals and both arms, and saw the Regisvine stirring again, he drove the Erosion Blast into its neck. With half the blade buried, he retreated and gradually loosened control over the fire-infused blade.
With a dull explosion, the plant's rising head was blasted in half. And it realized… it was bald.
From its roots up, it now had only bare vines and a heavy face dangling from the stump.
"Damn, kid's a beast!" Ryan yelled from behind a rock.
"I didn't want to be! Its face was just too hard—and it blocked the core!"
The Regisvine stiffened, as if howling at the sky. But lacking vocal cords, and with no arms left to lift, its tilted, hanging face just looked comical.
Its expression flickered like a glitchy lamp, then suddenly flared bright. It sprayed Cryo energy skyward—bingbingbing!—which then rained down in massive beams, forming ice pillars that exploded and layered the ground in slowing frost.
Victor dodged in time and wasn't hit directly—but the high-frequency, wide-area attack slowed him down anyway.
Now, the Regisvine was using its whole body like a whip, flailing at him. Luckily, its reduced mass also shrank its range. Victor managed to dodge by a hair each time.
"Something's off—why isn't it charging energy in the corolla anymore?"
And his movements were becoming sluggish—the slowing effect felt endless. He switched to Elemental Sight and saw Cryo energy spewing from the stump of its neck.
It wasn't choosing not to charge—it was leaking.
That seemingly endless Cryo energy was saturating the battlefield.
"I can't let this drag on… If it's drawing energy from the ley lines, it could be infinite. I'll freeze to death!"
Now berserk, the Regisvine flailed nonstop. Gone were the fancy attacks—it simply smashed its massive face around, much faster now.
The cratered root core was completely exposed.
I can do this—just like before. Get the Erosion Blastinto that pit.
The second blade formed. Victor dashed toward the Regisvine's swings—dodging left, then right.
Smack! One frenzied blow slammed him to the ground.
"Yaaah!"
Paimon, hovering in the distance, raised both hands to her mouth in alarm.