"Knight... Applicant Number 099, you have passed the preliminary energy screening. Please proceed to Examination Grounds 4!"
The female staff member's voice trembled slightly as she handed the black identification card to Knight. It wasn't exciting; it was because the results displayed on the energy meter just moments ago were so irregular she had to scan him three times.
Knight took the card without making eye contact and walked past the group of students who had previously mocked him. Now, those people stood in silence. The disdain in their eyes had been replaced by a wary confusion that defied words as if they had been looking at a stray dog they used to kick for sport, only to realize it wasn't a dog at all, but a creature they had never encountered before.
Knight didn't care.
He walked straight toward Examination Grounds 4, a gargantuan dome looming at the end of the wide corridor. The curved walls were made of a semi-transparent material that glowed with a faint blue light, as if something alive resided within. High-tech equipment lined the interior walls, and giant monitors displayed real-time statistics and coordinates. The floor, crafted from dark carbon composite, bore deep, unyielding scorch marks from previous bouts as if the ground itself were remembering every ounce of pain that had ever occurred upon it.
"Alright, scholarship applicants!"
The instructor's voice boomed, seemingly reflecting off every wall simultaneously. A middle-aged man in a dark gray uniform stood in the center of the arena, arms crossed. His eyes swept over every applicant like a craftsman inspecting raw materials evaluating, judging, and ranking them in his head all at once.
"Being a 'Pioneer' isn't about luck; it's about raw instinct and survival! The first trial is to defeat simulated monsters within 3 minutes. The more you take down, the higher your score! But if anyone is hit until their defense system breaks..."
He paused, a one-sided smirk tugging at his mouth.
"...You fail. Go wait in the lobby."
Knight looked toward the center of the arena.
Soft white laser beams began to weave upward from the ground, like creatures waking from a dream. The threads of light twisted and tangled until they took shape, mass, and weight finally becoming a dozen 'Blood-Fang Wolves' standing firmly on the arena floor.
They weren't truly alive, but the energy threads were packed so densely into matter that they emitted a pressure no different from the real thing. Those glowing red fangs could shred a first-layer defense shield in half a second, and a direct bite without resistance would trigger sensory stimulation intense enough to knock an applicant unconscious.
"Begin!"
The signal flared.
The arena exploded into immediate chaos. The other students around Knight summoned weapons from their 'Boxes' simultaneously. Some pulled out humming light-swords; others held staves with fierce lightning coiling around the tips, or activated energy shields that instantly erected blue barriers. The sounds of explosions, roaring flames, and clashing steel filled the dome.
But Knight stood still.
His left hand tightly gripped the hilt of the crude, cloth-wrapped sword. He closed his eyes, regulating his breath, letting the silver aura he had recently forged circulate slowly through his body like water seeping into the earth. Not rushing, not forcing, but reaching everywhere.
'Cold... and razor-sharp.'
That was how Knight defined his own power.
Two Blood-Fang Wolves lunged at him from behind. They were silent, no warning, no growl. They simply streaked toward the target that stood still like a fool.
But Knight felt the shift in the air currents without needing to turn. He perceived their positions, their speed, and the angles of their descent. All of this happened in a span of time shorter than a blink.
Knight didn't retreat.
He shifted his body by a mere centimeter, just enough for the fangs to miss his neck, and swung the still-sheathed sword in his left hand, slamming the scabbard into the wolf's head with surgical precision. The energy packed within the scabbard vibrated violently upon contact with the simulated matter, and the wolf dissolved into white light.
The second wolf lunged from the side, faster. Knight spun, letting it pass, and slammed the scabbard into its flank while it was still airborne. Both dissipated within three seconds.
"That weapon... he hasn't even drawn it?"
An exclamation came softly from the judges' stand, but in that brief silence, everyone nearby heard it.
Knight began to move.
He didn't rush the monsters blindly, nor did he swing his sword frantically like those in a panic. Every step was fluid, like a flickering shadow in candlelight rhythmic, weighted, and purposeful.
Four more Blood-Fang Wolves surrounded him. They were smarter than they looked; the behavioral simulation for monsters of this level was designed for pack hunting, isolating the prey, flanking, and attacking from multiple directions simultaneously.
Knight didn't care how many directions there were. He read their movements, sensing which would strike first, which was the decoy, and which was the true threat hidden behind the vanguard. It was as if he had seen this scene countless times before.
The white-wrapped scabbard struck the vital point of the first monster. The faint silver aura coating the sword allowed the blacksmith's subpar iron to slice through energy threads as if they were paper. The second, third, and fourth monsters vanished one by one. Knight didn't move more than necessary. No jumping, no shouting, no wasted energy. It looked as if he were simply... walking through them.
He owed this to the brutal trials of the golden box containing Uriel's soul. Although he couldn't use her skills directly, the memories forged in those trials were valuable enough to allow him to leap forward in strength in just a week. He could adapt those hollow memories to suit himself in a way no teacher ever could.
Only 90 seconds had passed.
Knight stood in the center of a cleared space, while the other applicants around him began to pant with exhaustion. Some were backed into corners; others were wounded by fangs that had breached their defenses. His monsters were almost entirely gone.
The instructor monitored the screen, narrowed his eyes, and nodded to the assistant beside him.
"Increase the difficulty. Release the Boss-level for Number 099."
"B-but sir... that level is..."
"I know what level it is."
The ground shook.
It wasn't the fine vibration from before, but a heavy, weighted thud that forced nearby students to take several steps back to keep their balance. Energy threads converged from all directions, spiraling and condensing into a massive mass until a gargantuan 'Stone Giant' nearly ten meters tall stood towering over the arena.
It was a simulated boss designed for experienced mid-level Welders. Its chest was wide enough to sweep ten students off the floor with a single strike, and its fists made of stone-like energy threads were heavy enough to leave craters in the carbon composite.
"Hey! Isn't that difficulty level too high?" a fellow applicant shouted in shock.
"Instructor! The rules forbid releasing a boss of this level during the exam!"
"Silence."
The instructor's voice was short and heavy enough to cut off all further protests.
The Stone Giant didn't wait. It raised a fist and slammed it down at Knight faster than a creature of that size should have been able to. The impact sent out a shockwave of air that forced nearby applicants to brace themselves. Dust and debris scattered in every direction.
But Knight was no longer there.
He had stepped half a pace to the left. That was all. The giant's fist slammed into the spot where he had just stood with a thunderous roar, spider-webbing the reinforced floor.
Knight looked up at the Stone Giant. Memories of fighting the Red Cross General flashed in his mind the dozens of stone giants that stood in the darkness, and how they were systematically dismantled. Whether those were his memories or someone else's, he wasn't entirely sure.
'...It's just a rock.'
The Stone Giant roared and raised its other fist. This time it changed tactics, not slamming down but sweeping horizontally like swatting an insect. The force was enough to demolish a half-meter-thick concrete wall.
Knight ducked low, the sweep whistling sharply over his head. But he didn't retreat; he lunged forward instead.
He entered the close-range zone the distance where the Stone Giant was at a disadvantage. Its long arms required a wide swinging area, and at this range, its massive size became a weakness rather than a strength.
Knight gripped the hilt. This time, he didn't use just the scabbard.
He slowly drew the chipped iron sword. The sound of the blade sliding against the sheath was unnervingly quiet, as if it moved not by force but by coldness. The silver aura that had been faint began to thicken, radiating from the blade and flowing down to the ground around his feet.
The floor beneath him turned to frost, the polar opposite of Uriel's white flames that incinerated all impurities. Tiny ice crystals sprouted from the cracks in the composite floor, shimmering silently under the dome's lights.
The Stone Giant looked down. Perhaps because the simulation sensed the change in the environment, it raised its leg to stomp, with enough force to shatter an ordinary person's bones just from the vibration.
Knight didn't move. The silver aura thickened further. The chill began to spread until even the nearby applicants felt it, and the heat rising from the friction of the surrounding battles faded within a ten-meter radius of him.
The Stone Giant stepped in. And Knight stepped out.
Shing!
The sound of the sword slicing through the air rang out just once. It was the simplest strike imaginable, no special stance, no complex technique, no jumping or spinning. Just a straightforward slash.
But the silver aura embedded in the blade was different.
The cut began at the center of the Stone Giant's chest, slicing through the energy mass as if there were no resistance at all. The intricately woven energy threads were severed one by one, layer by layer, with a precision that shouldn't have been possible from such a battered sword. The sharpness of the silver aura was so intense the cut was as smooth as a mirror.
The Stone Giant stood still for a moment, as if it didn't yet realize what had happened. Then, its body slowly split into two halves, gracefully, before both pieces exploded into white light particles that scattered across the arena.
Silence fell over Examination Grounds 4.
The constant noise, the explosions, the shouting, the clashing ceased all at once, as if someone had flipped a switch. Every pair of eyes was fixed on the disheveled boy who was calmly sheathing his junk sword. No blood, no wounds, not a single mark of battle on his body. The white cloth on his scabbard swayed gently in the cold air lingering around him.
"Is it over?"
Knight turned to ask the instructor, who stood agape behind the control console. The instructor's finger was still hovering over the panel, as if he were trying to figure out what to press next.
The instructor didn't answer. He simply stared at the screen displaying Applicant Number 099's score, which had rocketed far past the red line the system defined as the 'Maximum Expected Level.'
Far off on the glass balcony overlooking the entire arena, Freya smirked. She slowly set down her glass and traced its rim with her finger, her eyes locked on the boy in the arena below.
'Cold and razor-sharp...' Freya felt a surge of motivation she hadn't felt in a long time. As a genius who had spent decades being number one in everything despite having no 'Box' at all, contrary to what others believed she was intrigued.
"This is getting fun... Maybe it's time to tell everyone the truth?" A playful smile played on her lips, replacing her usual expression of indifference and boredom. It was as if someone had finally reignited her fire.
She summoned a pitch-black Box, a stark contrast to her goddess-like image. "Still as ugly as ever..."