## Chapter 72: Underestimated

Michael found himself genuinely impressed by Jakob. It made him reconsider something he had believed since this whole nightmare started — that spending time training or "raising" other people was a waste of effort, that everyone's ceiling was more or less fixed and not worth the trouble of pushing at. Watching Jakob now, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Jakob hadn't stood out at all in the beginning. He hadn't been one of the handful who'd actually fought at the first portal, and in the battles that followed, he hadn't pulled more weight than anyone else either. If anything, he'd been one of the nervous ones, swinging his spear around wildly without aiming at anything in particular.

*That says a lot about how much talents and classes actually matter* Michael thought. *And that you can't write anyone off. A complete beginner could end up far stronger — or at least have far more potential — than someone with a higher level.*

He let his eyes drift over the battle spread out below him, watching for a while. On one side, he wanted to know if there was anyone else out there as strong as Jakob. On the other side, he wanted to check whether anyone needed help.

*David... that guy who controls gravity. Doesn't look like he's here.* He kept scanning, brow furrowed slightly. A talent like that had almost no downside once you learned to use it properly — no wind-up, no telegraph, nothing an opponent could see coming. *Going by his talent alone, he should be stronger than Jakob.*

His gaze moved on. *That has to be Alina. And over there — Fabian.* He watched Alina for a moment. *So she's got a monster of her own too. Same kind of thing as Julian's ability?*

Her summon had grown — no longer a pup, but a fully grown wolf. It was locked in a fight with a level 5 monster, something scaled and low to the ground, quick on its feet despite the bulk of its armor-plated hide. Alina herself looked different too — harder, more worn down, nothing like the girl who'd been screaming and flailing a few hours earlier. Still, next to Jakob, she was nowhere close to composed.

The lizard had sunk its teeth into the wolf's back, and dark blood ran down through matted fur, dripping onto the pavement. The wolf twisted around and clamped its jaws onto the creature's front leg, and something cracked wetly under the pressure. Alina didn't wait around to see how it would end. She closed the distance in two steps and drove her spear into the monster's side — once, twice, a third time — until it stopped moving and slumped sideways onto the ground, blood pooling beneath it.

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It wasn't clean. It wasn't efficient, and it definitely wasn't professional. But she won. And given that her opponent had been level 5 while her summon was still only level 3, that meant something — Alina herself was already level 7.

*She's got a lot of potential* Michael thought. *Right now, though, it's honestly kind of hard to watch.*

Fabian, a short distance off, had come a long way too. Hours ago, the only strange thing about him had been the cold that radiated off his skin for no clear reason. Now he was actually using it. Michael watched him coat the tip of his spear in a thin sheet of ice before driving it clean through a monster's throat.

A moment later, something else caught his eye. A monster lunged at a student fighting near Fabian — and before it reached him, something struck it from behind and sent it sprawling. A shard of ice, fired clean through the air. Fabian had simply thrown out his hand and launched it.

*Oh. He can fire it too.* Michael tilted his head. *He is not just a fridge anymore. A classic ice mage. Got real potential — unless that's just an ordinary skill out here.*

Nobody else caught his attention after that. *Kind of disappointing* he thought *but at least they're holding their ground. They don't need me at all.* Which meant he was free to go all out on his own. He didn't want to abandon the group completely, but fighting shoulder to shoulder with them wasn't what he wanted either. So he did the same thing Jakob had done — pushed forward, deep into the fighting, leaving the group behind him.

Here and there, fireballs lit up between the buildings. * Are fireballs just standard mage skill? Probably. So Julian’s class is also just a standard one. What a waste* he thought, unimpressed and disappointed. Further along, he noticed something that struck him as odd. A moment ago there had been debris hanging motionless in the air — chunks of rubble, broken glass, torn signage. Now there was nothing. *Hmm.. I guess whoever was doing that ran out of mana. But if it really is telekinesis he is destined to be one of the stronger ones*

He'd taken a look at the fighters around him — the ones he'd bothered to watch, anyway. But whether it was his lack of experience or simply the fact that he'd only glanced at most of them for a few seconds, he missed the ones who actually mattered most.

Rudolf was one of them. Whenever a monster broke through the line, a faint shimmer snapped into place in front of it — solid enough to stop the charge cold, buying the person behind it a second or two that would otherwise have gotten them killed. His barriers didn't look impressive. It just worked, over and over, every time it was needed.

And then there was Konstantin. His talent didn't throw fire or ice or anything else that caught the eye. It simply stopped things and even living beings. For a few seconds at a time, whatever he targeted froze in place completely — mid-swing, mid-step, mid-snarl — utterly helpless while the fight moved on around it.

The only reason Michael hadn't noticed either of them, even though he'd looked right at them, was that neither one looked like much. No visible effects, nothing that drew the eye. But Konstantin had racked up more kills than almost anyone else on the field, and he was already level 10. Lower than Jakob's level, sure. But that didn't mean he was weaker.