I woke up early in the morning.
For a moment, I just lay there, staring at the ceiling. The quiet felt different today.
…The academy.
I raised my hand slightly, and the familiar panel appeared before me.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ STATUS ]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Rio Valen
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Core & Energy
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mana Core: SSS− (Unstable)
Mana Capacity: B+
Mana Control: C+
Core Stability: B−
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Physical Attributes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Strength: B+
Agility: A-
Endurance: C+
Vitality: B+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Mental Attributes
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Intelligence: C-
Perception: B−
Willpower: B+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Affinities
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Fire — SS+
Water — SS+
Ice — SS+
Lightning — SS+
Light — S+
Darkness — S+
Space — SSS−
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Combat
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sword Styles: Heavenfall Execution, Lumen Quietus
Adaptability: SS-
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Traits
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Artificial Core Host]
[Multi-Affinity Vessel]
[Unstable Existence]
The panel disappeared.
"My stats… really improved."
I clenched my fist slightly.
"I think I can take on even a B+ ranker now."
Not confidently.
But not helpless either.
I stood up and walked toward the mirror.
My silver hair had grown longer, falling softly around my face. It made my features look… softer than I liked.
A small frown appeared.
"…Don't I look like a girl?"
I stared for a second.
Then shook my head.
"Whatever. I'll cut it later."
I got ready properly—took a shower, wore the pristine academy uniform, adjusted it neatly, and took one last look.
Crimson eyes stared back.
Calm.
I stepped out.
Leon was already waiting outside.
He was on a call.
"Yes—yes, boss, I'll tell him not to stand out too much."
I paused.
"…?"
He cut the call just as I approached.
"Yo, kid. All ready?"
"Yeah."
He grinned.
"Alright, here's the plan. The guildmaster expects you to place rank one… and humiliate those heirs of the great families."
I stared at him.
"…I swear I heard her say not to stand out."
Leon burst out laughing.
"Baahah—you heard wrong."
"…Right."
We started moving.
The academy gates were packed.
Parents everywhere, screens floating in the air broadcasting updates about the entrance exam.
I walked straight through and stopped in front of a woman at the checkpoint.
She didn't look up.
"Name?"
"Noctis."
She began verifying—
Then froze.
Slowly, she raised her head.
Her eyes met mine.
And for a moment, she just stared.
"…Ah—"
Her expression faltered slightly.
"Y-you may proceed."
"…Understood."
As I walked past, I could feel her gaze linger.
And not just hers.
Others nearby had started looking too.
I exhaled quietly.
"…Maybe the mask would've been better."
From above—
"Good luck, brat!"
I looked up.
Leon hovered lazily in the sky.
I gave a small wave.
The passage led into a massive hall.
It wasn't the academy itself—the real structure floated high above—but this place alone was enormous. Marble floors reflected light from above, pillars stretched endlessly, and the entire space felt… deliberate.
I took a seat at the back.
And waited.
Soon—
They began arriving.
A boy with messy red hair walked in.
Samuel.
He carried himself with natural confidence, not forced, not exaggerated—just… steady.
Beside him walked a girl with brown hair and sharp green eyes.
Selena Thorne.
Her gaze held no interest in the crowd.
Only awareness.
They sat down.
Then—
A shift.
A boy with black hair and cold blue eyes entered.
Silver Ryker.
His presence was quiet—but heavy. Not loud, not aggressive. Just enough to make people aware of him without understanding why.
He sat down without a word.
Then—
A girl walked in holding a pillow.
Alyssa Croft.
She looked half asleep.
Completely uninterested in everything around her.
She sat down.
Curled slightly.
And almost went back to sleep.
Then—
Reina Emberheart.
Her entrance wasn't subtle.
Her red hair flowed like fire itself, and her molten eyes scanned the room with clear arrogance.
She noticed Alyssa.
Walked over.
And stopped in front of her.
"…Hey."
No response.
Alyssa was already half asleep again.
Reina's eyebrow twitched.
"Hey. Why the hell are you even here?"
Alyssa shifted slightly.
"…Mom told me to…"
Her voice was barely audible.
And just like that—
She went back to sleep.
Reina stared at her.
"…What?"
A small pause.
"…You came all the way here… to sleep?"
No response.
Alyssa didn't even move.
Reina clicked her tongue.
"…Unbelievable."
Nearby—
Yelena Zephyr approached.
Her movements calm, her presence controlled.
"It's good to see you, Reina."
Reina glanced at her.
Then gave a small nod.
"…You too, Yelena."
The contrast between them was clear.
Fire.
And restraint.
Then—
A boy with messy golden hair entered.
Hands in his pockets.
A lazy grin on his face.
Reinheart Verilian.
He walked straight toward Silver and Samuel.
"Hello, boys. Good seeing you two here."
Silver didn't even look at him.
Samuel nodded slightly.
"Good to see you again your highness."
Reinheart sighed dramatically.
"Ahh… come on, Silver. We haven't met in so long~."
No response.
"Talk to me~."
Still nothing.
Reinheart leaned closer.
"I'm starting to feel hurt."
"…Shut the fuck up," Silver replied flatly.
Reinheart placed a hand on his chest.
"…That's cold."
He turned slightly.
"Samuel, tell him to speak to me."
Samuel hesitated.
"Uh…"
Silver's eyes shifted toward him.
"Samuel."
His tone alone was enough.
"If you're aiming to be the apex of this generation…"
A pause.
"Don't."
Samuel's eyes sharpened slightly.
"…Apologies, but I will lead this generation."
For a moment—
The air tightened.
Silver looked at him.
Then spoke simply.
"…You won't."
Reinheart clapped once.
"Wow, this is getting tense."
Then grinned.
"I like it."
From the back—
I watched everything.
A small smile on my face.
"…Thankfully they all are present here ."
Then—
Everything went silent.
A woman stepped forward.
Her black hair flowed flawlessly behind her. Her beauty wasn't just striking—it felt distant, almost unreal. Every feature perfect, every movement measured.
But her eyes—
Were empty.
Not cold.
Not kind.
Just empty.
Looking into them didn't feel like being judged.
It felt like not existing at all.
And that—
Made fear settle deep.
Aurelia Lioren.
The headmistress.
The strongest mage in the academy.
The only known space affinity user.
Even the heirs reacted.
Samuel spoke quietly,
"…She's strong."
Selena's voice was tense.
"…Is s-she stronger than father?"
Reinheart's grin faded slightly.
"…Interesting."
Yelena, Reina—even Alyssa, half-asleep—
Were paying attention now.
And just like that—
The real beginning had arrived.
---
Aurelia let the silence settle before she spoke.
Her presence alone was enough to steady the entire hall. No one whispered. No one shifted. Even the air seemed to wait.
"There are over five thousand of you present here today."
Her voice was calm. Measured. Unhurried.
"And out of those five thousand—only two hundred will enter this academy."
No emphasis. No theatrics.
Just a fact.
"If you are searching for fairness, you are in the wrong place. If you are searching for mercy, you are in the wrong era."
Her gaze moved across the hall, those empty eyes passing over each student without lingering—yet somehow feeling as though they saw everything.
"We do not cultivate potential."
A brief pause.
"We select it."
A faint tension spread through the crowd.
"You will be tested on two fronts. Survival… and intellect."
She turned slightly, her silver attire catching the light as if the room itself adjusted to her movement.
"The first phase will be a survival examination."
A low murmur almost formed—
And died instantly when her eyes shifted.
"You will be placed within a controlled virtual environment."
My expression tightened slightly.
"A simulated domain populated with Void-Borns… and other mythical entities."
My eyes narrowed.
Void-Borns.
Erratic. grotesque. violent creatures that existed only to consume and destroy.
"Their ranks will vary from E to C−," she continued. "Lower entities will grant fewer points. Higher ones will grant more."
The system was simple.
Kill. Survive. Earn.
A hand rose.
Silver Ryker.
His voice was steady.
"Will we be allowed to attack other participants?"
A pause.
"And if so… will their points transfer to us?"
Aurelia looked at him directly.
"Yes. That is correct, Ryker."
A ripple of tension spread.
"This examination is not merely about survival against creatures."
Her voice remained unchanged.
"It is a measure of how you survive… against each other."
Another hand rose.
Reinheart.
He didn't stand straight like the others. One hand rested lazily behind his head, a faint grin on his face.
"And what rank would these 'mythical creatures' be?"
Aurelia's gaze shifted.
"They will range from B+… to A−."
This time—
The reaction couldn't be contained.
Shock spread through the hall. Even those from powerful families stiffened slightly.
Aurelia spoke again, cutting through it instantly.
"Relax."
The word alone silenced everyone.
"We do not expect you to fight them."
A pause.
"We expect you to survive."
Her eyes swept across the room once more.
"And to ensure you do not stand in their path."
From the back—
I raised my hand.
Thousands of eyes turned.
Aurelia's gaze followed.
"And if we do defeat them?"
For the first time—
Her eyes seemed to narrow slightly.
"How many points would we receive?"
Silence fell.
Heavy.
Measured.
Then—
"You would receive the maximum allocation."
Her voice remained calm.
"One hundred thousand points."
A faint murmur trembled through the hall.
I spoke again, just enough for her to hear.
"So if I kill one…"
A small pause.
"I instantly rank first?"
Aurelia didn't look away.
"Yes."
No hesitation.
No doubt.
She continued as if nothing had happened.
"That concludes the first phase."
"The second phase will be a written examination. Your comprehension, decision-making, and analytical ability will be evaluated."
A girl from the front raised her hand.
"…When do these exams begin, ma'am?"
Aurelia brought her hands together.
And clapped once.
The sound echoed across the entire hall—
Sharp.
Final.
"Now."