Chapter 28: 28. I Am Super Strong
Gladiator Arenas have always been quite expensive facilities, requiring significant funds for maintenance each year, making them true money pits. Therefore, few Witch families bother to set them up themselves, preferring to rent public Gladiator Arenas.
However, Dorothy's family does have a private Gladiator Arena. This is her stepmother's hobby. Although this retired battlefield veteran has now transitioned into a Research Witch, she still often feels the urge to play a few duels. Additionally, as the Haiyue Territory's chief steward, she isn't short on money, so she simply set up this private Gladiator Arena at home.
It's just that Dorothy rarely uses it; it's usually her stepmother and Alice who do. This mother-daughter pair often engages in "motherly kindness and filial piety" duels when they're bored after meals.
The Gladiator Arena is located in the backyard. As the group walked from the residence towards the backyard, Alice quietly sidled up to Dorothy.
"Sister, are you really going to duel with Senior Sophia? Why are you being so rash? Calm down."
The Little Witch softly asked her sister with caution, her emerald eyes shimmering with worry.
"Uh, Senior? Alice, you know this Sophia too?"
Dorothy looked at her sister in surprise, then asked with a hint of curiosity.
"Is she very famous?"
That can't be. As a super shut-in who spends all her time on the Magic Net, she should theoretically be at the forefront of news, but she truly hadn't heard of the Angel Witch before. She isn't that famous, is she?
"Of course I know her! Who in the entire Witch Academy doesn't know Senior Sophia? She's super famous! A genius Witch who skipped grades all the way, she's already in her fifth year of advanced studies after less than ten years of enrollment, and she's also the Student Council President. At tomorrow's opening ceremony, Sister, you'll probably even see her give a speech."
The Little Witch looked at the Pure White Witch not far behind her with a mix of admiration and awe, then introduced her to her sister.
Dorothy then understood.
So she's just a school celebrity. That explains it. No wonder she hadn't heard of her on the Magic Net before. This kind of minor celebrity, whose fame is temporarily limited to a small circle, finds it difficult to make Magic Net headlines and enter the public eye.
It's like how most people in her previous life wouldn't remember the name of the top scorer on the college entrance exam.
However, by following these clues and searching her memory, Dorothy quickly found some useful information.
It turned out she had indeed heard of Sophia before, but it was always a fleeting glance when reading other news, and she hadn't paid special attention, which is why the impression wasn't very deep.
Now she remembered. A few years ago, the Mysterious Daily seemed to have reported that a genius Angel Witch with innate twelve talents and 18,000 magic power had newly enrolled in the Witch Academy that year. This was probably Sophia.
Tsk, although she already knew the Angel Witch was a genius, being so monstrous still shocked Dorothy a bit. This talent is absolutely among the top ten in the entire history of Witches.
As long as she doesn't die prematurely, Sophia is guaranteed to become an Apex Witch in the future. With a little more effort, a seat among the Thirteen Sages might not be out of reach.
No, I can't keep thinking like this. The more I think, the more I feel like I can't win.
Before a duel, boosting the opponent's morale and dampening one's own is not a good thing. Dorothy quickly reined in her thoughts, no longer pondering, and instead began to cheer herself on.
Although in reality, Dorothy is just an ordinary Witch found everywhere, with nothing special about her except her beauty, on the Magic Net, she does have some influence, far surpassing the likes of Sophia.
In reality, she rarely duels, always hesitant, fearing injury, pain, and the embarrassment of losing. But on the Magic Net, one can choose to lower the pain sensation or even block it completely. Moreover, everyone uses online aliases, so losing doesn't matter. After all, they're just internet friends unknown in reality, so there's no fear of embarrassment. What's there to be afraid of then? It's just a virtual reality version of a duel game. Dorothy has never been afraid of anyone when playing games; she goes in for the kill.
Well, actually, it's not that much of a kill. Earlier, she, like other novices, was brutally slaughtered in various ways by the pros. However, as a shut-in for two lifetimes, Dorothy's only real advantage is probably her positive and optimistic mindset. Others might quickly quit after being badly beaten, but she has always enjoyed it, fighting everyone she met. After all, in her previous life, she played many torturous games, and she also endured the malice of a certain old villain.
She's the type of person who gets more addicted the higher the difficulty.
It's just a game, don't be a coward.
Besides, she also has a talent cheat this time.
Diligence Can Make Up for Weakness (SR): You are not a genius, but you can narrow the gap with geniuses through effort. Unyielding, you possess an indomitable will. Failure cannot defeat you; you always gain experience and lessons from failure to become stronger. Whatever doesn't kill you will only make you stronger.
This was the talent her father, Adam, passed on to Dorothy, and it was also why Adam, a mere mortal, could grow to become a high-level archmage, even considered mid-tier among Witches today.
Although this is only an SR-level talent, an SR talent corresponds to silver race like elves and mermaids. It's already remarkable that Adam, a mere mortal inferior even to the black iron race, could condense such a talent.
Adam once believed in and yearned for the power of Witches. He studied and imitated the Witches' evolutionary abilities, ultimately concocting this inferior pirated talent of a Witch evolutionary characteristic.
Of course, "inferior pirated" was Adam's own assessment. In Dorothy's view, this talent was not some inferior pirated product, but rather a completion of the Witch evolutionary characteristic.
After all, Witches' evolutionary characteristics are more about physical, hardware evolution, but they are powerless when it comes to aspects of the mind, will, and experience—those at the thought level.
Therefore, some ridiculous situations often arise. For example, some Little Witches are afraid of mice, so they evolve cat characteristics. As a result, they gain the strength of a cat and the skill to catch mice, but when facing mice, they still find them disgusting and can't bring themselves to act.
It's also like the duel between Alice and Isabella earlier. These two Little Witches always make some mistakes they shouldn't during duels. They themselves know those mistakes shouldn't be made, but they just forget to correct them when they get carried away.
In short, they don't learn their lesson.
Things like a strong will and experience in handling affairs cannot be achieved instantly, even by powerful Witches. They also need to accumulate, learn, and summarize them little by little over a long life before finally transforming into true powerhouses.
And this Diligence Can Make Up for Weakness talent that Adam concocted is a rare spiritual talent that can affect these mental "software" aspects.
Human bodies are not strong; their growth and development rely on the knowledge and experience repeatedly summarized and deduced from past failures. This ability is an innate talent possessed by all intelligent races.
Adam, however, further strengthened and sublimated this innate ability into a true talent specialty. Even among Witches, few can achieve such an exaggerated feat, as spiritual talent specialties are notoriously difficult to cultivate. To accomplish something so remarkable, Adamtruly lived up to his reputation as a genius mage back then.
It's just a pity that he was only human, not a Witch. His weak race ultimately held him back; otherwise, Dorothy believes her father might have had the potential to be a Sage.
Fortunately, the predecessors planted the trees for the later generations to enjoy the shade. Dorothy was lucky enough to inherit her father's talent.
Therefore, although she was initially overwhelmed and repeatedly defeated by pros on the Magic Net, after each crushing defeat, she could always secretly learn a little trick from the pros who beat her. And through continuous failures accumulated day by day, and thousands upon thousands of battles, the novice Dorothy grew at a terrifying speed. The improvement in her combat skills was almost visible to the naked eye.
Dorothy started playing Magic Net Duels when she was ten. For the first three years, she didn't win a single match. In the next two years, she had wins and losses. This past year, she won every single match, crushing her opponents with a hundred-percent win streak to claim the recently concluded Magic Net Youth Duel Tournament, earning the hidden achievement title "Duel King."
Hmm, I'm very strong, super strong.
The young Witch, who was always hesitant in reality and had never fought, cheered herself on mentally. Under constant self-suggestion, she seemed to have found a little bit of that feeling of dominating the Magic Net, gradually raising her head and puffing out her chest.
Now she felt like she might actually be able to do it.