"I always wondered why an academy like this was not built back in our world," a "plain" looking man said, addressing Yeon and Anton. "They just handed teenage awakened to guilds and wished for the best."

"You are the son of the equivalent of a president. We should be asking you, Michael." Yes, the "plain" looking man was Michael. He had left the VIP section to sit with the gang.

"I began wondering the moment I knew of this academy, and I was making conversation."

"I don’t care if you were making an abominable creature. Don’t disturb me."

"What a bad egg." Michael turned to Yeon. "Ms. Yeon, what do you think?"

"If you’re talking about this bastard, yes, he’s a bad egg. A rotten egg at that. If you’re talking about the academy, I don’t care."

"Pay her no mind," Anton said. "Her true colors have been exposed. Without Zeke, she does not place us in her eyes. Tsk, tsk."

"Oh, I failed to see Mount Tai." Michael joined in.

"Yes, we’re just toads lusting over swan meat." Anton nodded sagely.

"Your face surely fits the toad tag." Yeon sneered.

---

"Student Aaron Kessler, step into the arena. Your opponent is an SS-ranked monster." The assessment proctor’s voice carried across the grounds.

Aaron nodded and walked into the arena.

---

Shadows wriggled around him as he faced the sole SS-rank orc.

C’mon, boys. Let’s give these people a show.

Nine figures rose from his shadows. Since increasing his rank, he could summon fifteen shadows, but he still stuck with his original nine. He wanted to add better ones, not mere bandits. The abilities and stats of his previous shadows had increased to S rank, with all their stats at the peak of S rank. The expression of their abilities had increased in range and quality.

And now, Aaron would bully an SS-ranked monster.

The orc held a saber and huffed. The nine shadows in front of Aaron reduced to seven. One of them grew larger. A blade appeared in its hand as it rushed toward the orc.

It was a new application of [Shadow Sage] that Aaron sometimes wondered was effective or not. Thanks to [Shadow Sage], he had more freedom using his ability, and during his training he had developed a new application related to the [Umbral Sovereign] part of his ability.

[Shadow Merge]

The idea was merging his shadows with each other—and, in its final form, with himself. A cheat he had developed so he could use different abilities personally. For now, he could only merge shadows with other shadows. He had merged the [Armor], [Berserker], and [Blademaster] shadows. It did not increase their rank, but allowed one shadow to use the abilities of the merged ones. A considerable loss in the number of shadows that could harass an opponent, but Aaron saw it as making one shadow the forefront of the attack, with his long-ranged shadows providing harassment.

In all honesty, the rest of the shadows were not needed. With the boost from the improved [Berserker] ability—seventy percent—the merged shadow had SSS-ranked stats across the board. It was a saint against an ’ant’.

WHOOSH!

The shadow appeared before the orc, using the butt of its blade to send it flying. It appeared in front of the orc as it tried to stabilize itself. The orc roared and swung its own saber. The shadow caught the blade between its fingers. Thanks to [Blademaster], the already boosted shadow received another boost. The shadow gave the equivalent of a laugh as it tilted its head.

CRACK!

The saber shattered.

The shadow formed a fist. The clasp of its hand let out a small sound. As the fist landed, the follow-up hits were simply an adult playing with a child. A punch snapped the orc’s head back. A hand dragged it by the shoulder, slamming its head against the orc’s own skull. Two quick punches raised the orc from the ground. The shadow slipped under it, holding it over its shoulder. Dramatically, it slammed the orc to the ground as if in a wrestling match.

As the orc rose, the shadow twirled dramatically. Mid-twirl, it conjured a blade. Once it faced the orc, it swung.

Beheading in one clean swing.

The shadow placed the blade on its shoulder and raised its head high, staring at the crowd.

CLAP.

Aaron clapped as he turned his back, exiting the arena. Mid-turn, the seven shadows dissipated.

---

"Cool." Khan let out a low whistle. "You didn’t tell me your friend was that cool." He turned to Jude.

Jude rolled his eyes. Did I know he was that cool? I can’t even beat him now.

"Jude might just be the strongest of the three of us now." Kai gave a wry smile.

Jude sneered. You guys think I’m dumb? You have the ability to give a buff that raises your stats by one rank. Who knows how much it has improved, and you want me to believe that? Heh. He took one step away from Kai.

"Hey, I mean it. I’m not even that strong." I’m not lying, Kai thought. Compared to demigods, I’m not that strong. He shrugged.

---

"Not only is your ward a lot more handsome than he was months ago, he’s incomparably stronger." Beckett’s insufferable smile remained. "He has to be the strongest out of the three, barring rank. That shadow of his is amazing."

"As expected of the students Mr. Elio took an interest in." Camille nodded. "He did beat one of the Twin Stars of Destruction back then."

Beckett and Zeke gave her a look of disdain. Must you glaze Elio?

"Lovestruck professor, this is not how you win a man." Zeke lectured.

Beckett nodded sagely.

Camille shot them a death stare. They turned their heads, finding something interesting in different parts of the pit.

---

[Sol Invictus] 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Jude raised a hand, pulling thermal energy from the upper atmosphere. Air pressure dropped instantly, creating a vacuum that pulled loose debris toward him.

"From the cold void, I borrow the spark. Turn day into cinder, turn light into dark. Fall, dying star, and let the heavens bleed—Sol Invictus!"

THWOOMP.

The sky bruised into a deep twilight as gravity warped. A blinding, white-hot miniature star condensed above Jude’s hand, humming with a sound that vibrated through the teeth.

He hurled it onto the SS-rank ogre. Upon impact, it did not simply explode. It collapsed inward for a split second before expanding into a blinding shockwave of white fire.

CRACK-BOOM.

The deafening roar faded, replaced by an eerie, sizzling hiss. Where the ogre had stood, there was nothing. No ash, no bones, no armor. The monster had been instantly vaporized at the molecular level, its atoms scattered into superheated air. In its place lay a perfect, smooth crater spanning fifty yards. The stone had not just been blasted away; it had melted. The crater’s surface glowed with a fierce, angry orange, rapidly cooling into a jagged bowl of smooth, black volcanic glass. Wisps of toxic white smoke curled off the rim as the surrounding atmosphere rushed back in to fill the vacuum, creating a hot, violent wind that whipped Jude’s clothes against his skin.

Jude almost dropped to the ground in exhaustion but held himself, his departure from the arena would restore his condition. One of the reasons he had positioned himself at the edge. [Sol Invictus] was a spell he had created, one that would eventually level up to Grandmaster and then to saint rank. For now, it was a pseudo-Grandmaster spell, allowing him to finish off a higher-ranked opponent with ease. He wanted to leave with swag, not engage in an all-out brawl. Normally, the spell would drain his reserves. The only way to use it properly was with SSS Magic Power, but then he would have improved the spell. The ultimate goal was simply growing stronger.

---

"How do you feel, a combat student using magic?" Aldric’s expression was smug.

"What are you on about?" Elio sneered. "Do you even understand what the combat field is about? Everything is a means to an end. Magic, abilities, all artforms—a means to an end. Combat. Survival. Victory. Your thought process needs an awakening."

"What he said." Zeke nodded sagely.

"It’s actually surprising how he has developed a pseudo-Grandmaster spell." Camille mused. "If he had dedicated training with a decent mage, he might have achieved more. Maybe I was wrong to wait for his performance in the assessment. Although, he has already gotten my attention."

"Aldric’s position as the third most talented mage in the academy just keeps going down the drain." Beckett snickered.

"So much for nobility perks." Zeke joined in.

---

Khan moved. To the naked eye, he did not simply run—he ceased to exist at his starting point, leaving behind a vacuum of displaced air. He flickered through the perimeter of the five SS-ranked silverback gorillas like a ghost.

Chink. Chink. Chink.

The sound of his katana barely leaving the scabbard rang out in disjointed micro-seconds. He did not hack or cleave; he merely grazed their monolithic hides, tapping the earth beneath their massive paws, injecting concentrated packets of volatile, negative ionic mana deep into their nervous systems and the ground.