Awakening a 10,000x Skill Proficiency Multiplier in the Apocalypse-Chapter 41: []: Midnight Heist, Chrono-Stasis

The moon hanging over the Imperial Magic Academy was a calm and serene silver. It was a stark and depressing contrast to the bleeding and corrupted sky of the real world that Sebastian had witnessed just hours prior.

He stood by the sprawling arched window of his luxury dormitory and stared out at the manicured campus grounds.

"Fucking hate this place," Sebastian muttered, pulling the black leather coat tighter around his shoulders. "It’s too quiet."

He wasn’t here to sleep in a feather bed, and he certainly wasn’t here to study for midterms. He was on a strict timeline. The Grand Magic Tournament was approaching, and the Void was actively tearing down the barriers of reality. He needed an arsenal of conceptual laws to deal with the absolute bullshit the system was about to throw at Earth.

He needed to visit the library.

Sebastian stepped away from the window. He didn’t bother using the door. He tapped into his mana pool and activated his absolute stealth mechanic.

[Skill Activated: Void Walk]

VWOOM.

The lavish colors of his dormitory instantly drained away and were replaced by the muted monochromatic greys and blacks of the parallel dimension. The ambient sounds of the wind and the distant chatter of patrolling guards were sucked into a muffled vacuum.

He stepped directly through the solid stone wall of his room.

The Academy’s security was legendary on the server. The corridors were laced with Tier 4 magical tripwires, invisible mana nets, and patrolling golems that could detect a player’s heartbeat through three feet of solid lead.

To Sebastian, they were just pretty and glowing lights in the grey void.

He walked leisurely through the halls and was completely intangible. A massive and heavily armored Obsidian Golem marched right past him, its glowing red eyes completely failing to register the player standing inches from its face.

Sebastian navigated the labyrinthine architecture until he reached the center of the campus.

The Forbidden Library was a towering spire of dark glass and reinforced iron. The heavy vault doors at the entrance were sealed with complex runic locks that would require a master thief an hour to crack.

Sebastian just walked right through the metal.

He emerged into a massive and cavernous space that held an intense aura of condensed magic. Floating luminescent crystals cast long and eerie shadows across thousands of towering bookshelves. The most dangerous tomes were chained to their pedestals and radiated auras of dark and unstable mana.

He toggled off his [Void Walk].

POP!

Color and sound rushed back in.

"Alright, let’s go shopping," he whispered.

He walked down the central aisle, his eyes scanning the spines of the chained books. He wasn’t looking for epic and legendary tier spells. Those required complex and multi-stage quests just to unlock the first page. He needed the garbage. He needed the absolute basics.

He stopped in front of a dusty and neglected pedestal in the far corner. Resting on it was a thin and fragile book bound in cracked grey leather.

[Basic Chrono-Hex]

[Tier: 0]

[Effect: Slows a target’s movement speed by 1% for 2 seconds.]

It was a pathetic spell. A parlor trick used to annoy low-level mobs.

Sebastian didn’t even bother unchaining the book. He just placed his hand flat against the cover and absorbed the magical data.

[Action Registered: Learn Basic Chrono-Hex]

[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000]

His brain felt like it was being shoved into a centrifuge as the system violently force-fed him the understanding of time itself.

[Basic Chrono-Hex leveled up to 10/10! Max Level Reached!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Basic Chrono-Hex evolves to Tier 1: Time Dilation!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Time Dilation leveled up to 10/10!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Time Dilation evolves to Tier 3: Temporal Stutter!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Temporal Stutter leveled up to 10/10!]

[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Temporal Law Unlocked.]

[Temporal Stutter evolves to Conceptual Law: Chrono-Stasis.]

Sebastian gasped and clutched the edge of the pedestal. The headache was blinding. But when he opened his eyes, the world looked entirely different.

He didn’t just see the library. He saw the mathematical flow of seconds ticking by. He saw the exact and invisible gears of the server’s internal clock. With a single thought, he could jam a wrench into those gears and bring the entire zone to a screeching and absolute halt.

"Beautiful," he rasped, wiping a drop of sweat from his brow.

He moved to the next aisle, his boots clicking softly against the stone floor. He found a section labeled ’Minor Curses.’

He found a book detailing a basic health-drain hex. He placed his hand on it.

BING!

The glitch roared once again.

The minor hex bypassed its standard evolutions and tore through the concept of biological decay until it hit the absolute ceiling of the game’s code.

[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Death Law Unlocked.]

[Evolves to Conceptual Law: Soul Reaping.]

Sebastian flexed his fingers. A cold and terrifying aura of pitch-black mana clung to his skin. He could feel the fragile and invisible tethers connecting the souls of every living thing in the Academy to their physical bodies. With a swipe of his hand, he could sever them all.

"One more," he muttered.

He needed mobility. Absolute flight was great for open areas, but it drained real-world mana too fast, and he needed something for close-quarters evasion.

He found a book in the agility section. [Basic Dash]. It granted a tiny burst of speed.

He touched it. The multiplier did its dark work.

[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Spatial Displacement Law Unlocked.]

[Evolves to Conceptual Law: Heavenly Steps.]

His leg muscles twitched. He suddenly understood how to fold the space between point A and point B. This effectively allowed him to teleport short distances without a cast time or a magical trail.

He had time manipulation, instant death, and flawless teleportation.

Sebastian looked around the silent and ancient library. He had just looted the equivalent of three world-ending superpowers in less than ten minutes.

To test it, he focused on a floating light crystal fifty feet away near the ceiling. He activated [Heavenly Steps].

Fzzt.

He didn’t run. He didn’t jump. He simply ceased to exist on the floor and instantly materialized standing upside down on the vaulted ceiling. His boots were casually anchored to the stone by his gravity manipulation.

He looked down at the library below. A genuine and terrifying smile stretched across his face beneath his mask.

"I am so ready for this tournament," he whispered.

He dropped into the Void Walk and phased right through the roof, leaving the pristine and untouched library behind.