My System Just Exploded, And You Ask Me to Become a God?-Chapter 62 --The Unusual Magic Array

With a fierce shout from Clark, the pale-blue magic array surrounding his body suddenly surged—and then, to the crowd’s astonishment, a second, smaller array emerged from within the first one.

Compared to the outer layer, this inner array was clearly denser, more focused, and brimming with concentrated mana.

"Wait... is that—?! A double-layer magic array?!"

"Unbelievable! That’s an extremely advanced technique, even among array mages!"

"Clark, sir, have you been hiding your true strength all this time?"

Voices of awe rippled through the crowd. All around, envious eyes began to gather, locking onto Clark with admiration and disbelief.

Clark drank in the praise, feeling a swell of pride wash over him.

As one of the top students at Pearl Array Academy, he had already achieved a mana affinity level of 5 in the most recent assessment.

In fact, his instructors had hinted that he was close—very close—to reaching level 6.

On paper, those achievements seemed impressive enough to match the legendary Leit.

Unfortunately for Clark, the real world wasn’t built on paper.

Too many factors influenced victory. Stats and numbers were just the surface—they didn’t tell the whole story.

"It’s not over yet!" Clark gritted his teeth, sweat pouring down his face.

He funneled more and more mana into his magic array, pushing his body to its limit.

And then—right at the center of the double-layer array—another array began to take shape.

It was ethereal, half-formed, flickering between reality and illusion. A third layer was slowly coalescing.

"By the Goddess of Magic... Is that a tri-layered magic array?!"

"Clark can pull that off?! Just how strong is he?"

"Wait! Look—what’s Leit doing?"

Just as awe spread through the crowd at Clark’s performance, someone suddenly pointed toward the center of the seven-layered magic array.

"Look! He’s standing up! And he turned his back to us!"

"What the hell?! Is he seriously turning away in the middle of a battle?!"

"That’s an insult! Exposing your back during combat is the ultimate disrespect among array mages!"

Fury surged among the onlookers. Even Clark’s face darkened.

He had poured everything into crafting a tri-layered array—and yet Leit hadn’t even deigned to glance at him.

To Clark, that said only one thing: Leit didn’t see him as a threat.

Didn’t even find his effort worth watching.

Clark’s mind filled with imagined sneers. In his head, Leit was surely laughing, smug and dismissive, back turned in utter contempt.

And just as that imagined insult festered in his thoughts—

Joad’s voice rang out again, sharp and mocking.

"Clark, right?" he snickered. "I’d suggest you stop wasting your mana. Senior Leit doesn’t even think you’re worth a second look. And you’re out here turning red in the face trying to squeeze out a tri-layered array. Careful, all that straining might break something inside."

"Shut your mouth!" Clark snapped coldly.

No longer willing to delay, he charged forward, his newly formed tri-layered magic array glowing around him as he stepped directly into Leit’s seven-layered array.

As soon as he entered, the magical beast’s phantom—previously drifting near the perimeter—reappeared without a sound.

Its sharp, mana-infused claws slashed toward Clark’s exposed neck.

But this time, the tri-layered magic array around Clark lit up in defense, intercepting the attack just in time.

The light from the array pulsed brightly—then dimmed.

Clark staggered slightly, his face pale and lips faintly stained with blood.

That phantom beast’s strike had come very close to breaking through. Even with three layers of protection, the clash had nearly overwhelmed him.

Still, he’d succeeded.

Clark had broken through the red layer—the outermost defense of Leit’s formation.

Wiping the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, he stared grimly ahead and moved toward the orange layer. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

BOOM!

The moment his foot touched the second layer, the ground in front of him suddenly cracked open. A large pit had formed, as if something enormous had stomped down with overwhelming force.

Startled, Clark froze.

Then—BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.—three more pits appeared in quick succession around him.

But he saw... nothing.

Nothing at all.

Terror crept into his heart.

He turned instinctively, intending to retreat—but somehow, the space between the red and orange layers had stretched. The way back seemed farther now, distorted, unreachable.

And worse—the unseen force that had created those craters was still approaching, slowly, steadily closing in.

Clark had no choice.

He curled into a defensive position, hiding behind his tri-layered magic array like a frightened child behind a blanket.

Around him, the once-hopeful onlookers began murmuring in disappointment.

Was this really Clark—the pride of Pearl Array Academy?

He looked so small, so powerless.

And this... was only the second layer of Leit’s array.

"Is this real? How did Clark end up like that so fast?"

"Leit didn’t even move! That was just an automatic defense mechanism! Is his array really that powerful?!"

"What kind of monster are we dealing with?"

Belzebuth’s voice cut through the confusion. "Enough guessing!"

"Sure, Leit’s standing at the center of that array—but who’s to say he actually made it?"

"If even someone like Clark—trained at the best array academy in the kingdom—can’t get past the second layer, then this can’t possibly be Leit’s doing!"

The crowd fell silent, considering his words.

It was true... they had simply assumed the array belonged to Leit, because he stood at its heart.

But what if they were wrong?

What if he had merely found the array, and was using it to mislead them?

The more they thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.

"Yeah! Even if Leit’s strong, there’s no way he’s that strong. We can’t even get close to him."

"What if this is some ancient array he stumbled across? Something left behind by a long-dead grandmaster?"

"Exactly! I heard House Rima often acquires weird magical goods. Maybe they dumped one of those relics here on the back hill, and Leit just happened to find it!"

Just as the group eagerly rationalized their previous failures, Joad rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please," he scoffed. "So now that you can’t win, you’re blaming the array? Come on—just admit you lost!"

"I’ll tell you flat out—that seven-layered array? Senior Leit made it himself."

"Don’t believe me? Go ask House Rima yourself. They’ve got nothing planted back here. No magic relics. No constructs. Nothing."

Prince Baphomet nodded in agreement. "I already checked on the way here. Joad’s right—there’s no trace of any mana on this hill. Nothing but Leit’s array."

He even flashed Belzebuth a cheeky grin as he spoke.

The First Prince’s expression immediately darkened—and the surrounding youths didn’t look too happy either.

"Tch! Enough of this!" Belzebuth finally lost his composure. He stepped forward, entering the seven-layered array without hesitation.

The young elites of the Luminous Pearl Kingdom scrambled after him, following in his footsteps.

But it wasn’t just pride that pushed Belzebuth forward.

He wasn’t acting merely because Joad had riled him up.

More than anything, he was worried about Clark.

If he didn’t pull him out of that array soon, and Clark ended up as wrecked as Count Greypine’s son... it would be very hard to explain things to the higher-ups at the Pearl Array Academy.

Especially if word got out that their rising star had been crushed by a student from Ilan.