Ethan casually flicked his twin blades, shaking off the residual black mist as the system notifications rang in his mind.
The remaining four Vance enforcers lay motionless on the scorched earth, their mana entirely drained by the void.
[DING! You have eliminated 5x Vance Family Elite Enforcers (Level 62)!]
[You have gained: 450,000 Experience Points!]
[You have collected: 5x High-Grade Assassin Daggers (B-Rank)!]
Ethan didn’t care about the B-rank daggers. He turned his attention back to the true prize sitting in his System Space: the Glacial Empress Heart (SSS-Rank).
He looked at Cassandra, who was keeping a vigilant guard at the edge of the clearing, her silver eyes scanning the thick fog.
"Cassandra," Ethan called out, his voice smooth and commanding. "Come here."
She immediately turned and walked over, kneeling before him without a single shred of hesitation. "Yes, My Lord?"
"Your current S-Rank talent is sufficient for this city, but it is far too weak for the cosmic rifts we will face in the future," Ethan said flatly.
He reached into his space and pulled out the Glacial Empress Heart.
The moment it appeared, the ambient temperature of the Ashen Abyss plummeted. The boiling sulfur air froze solid, and large, crystalline snowflakes began to fall from the crimson sky.
The item looked like a beautifully sculpted diamond heart, pulsing with a blinding, absolute-zero blue energy.
Cassandra’s breath caught in her throat. Her S-rank Frost Empress talent throbbed violently in response, practically begging her to absorb it. "My Lord... this is... a divine treasure..."
"Take it," Ethan said, pressing the diamond heart directly into her hands. "Show me your true potential."
[DING! You have sincerely invested ’Glacial Empress Heart (SSS-Rank)’ into your loyal follower: Cassandra Vance.]
[Triggering Return Multiplier... Calculating... CONGRATULATIONS! You have triggered a 5,000x Multiplier!]
[Due to the target already reaching the absolute peak of mortal potential, the return is manifested as a Cosmic Law Upgrade!]
[You have received: 1x Primordial Void Core (SSS-Rank Divine Evolution Material)!]
[Cassandra Vance’s talent has undergone an Absolute Evolution: S-Rank [Frost Empress] -> SSS-Rank [Primordial Glacial Divinity]!]
BOOM!
A cataclysmic shockwave of absolute-zero ice exploded from Cassandra’s body. The ash-gray fog across a five-mile radius was instantly frozen into sparkling solid ice crystals, shattering and falling to the ground, completely clearing the vision of the entire dungeon. Find the original chapter at novelping . com.
Cassandra floated a few inches off the ground, her hair turning entirely snow-white, her eyes shining like twin silver stars.
The ancient runes of frost divinity etched themselves onto her soul, pushing her raw combat power into a realm that defied the laws of the academy.
Meanwhile, a beam of pure black void energy shot from the system into Ethan’s chest as the passive feedback synced.
[Follower Evolution complete! Host receives 100% attribute synchronization!]
[Level Breakthrough: Level 50 -> Level 60!]
[All Core Attributes +3,000! Current Base Attributes: 6,700+]
At Level 60, Ethan’s raw physical and magical statistics now matched a Level 100 SSS-Rank Apex Legend. Space itself bent slightly around his shoulders just from his passive breathing.
"Thank you, My Lord," Cassandra whispered, dropping back to the earth and bowing low, the ground beneath her freezing into intricate ice lotuses. "I will not fail you."
"Good," Ethan smirked, looking toward the center of the dungeon where the clearing of the fog had revealed a massive, volcanic crater. "Let’s go. It looks like your cousin is currently busy."
_ _ _
At the center of the Ashen Abyss, inside a massive volcanic amphitheater, a desperate battle was taking place.
Unknown to the students, the Academy Vice-Principal had opened a live, high-definition mana broadcast to the hundred thousand spectators in the Horizon Grand Arena.
He wanted to showcase Tyler Vance’s absolute dominance to the top corporate sponsors.
Currently, the giant screens in the arena showed Tyler Vance, bloodied and gasping for air, leading a group of thirty elite academy students against the dungeon’s final boss: the Ashen Demon King (Level 50 Boss).
The Demon King stood twenty feet tall, its body composed of molten slag and black obsidian armor, swinging a massive flaming greatsword that forced the students back with every strike.
"Hold the line!" Tyler screamed, his premium silver star-iron armor cracked and smoking from a direct hit. "My Vance family enforcers should have already dealt with the trash outside! Once we kill this boss, the ultimate reward is ours!"
In the Grand Arena outside, the crowd watched with bated breath.
"Young Master Tyler is incredible! To hold out against a Level 50 Boss at his age!" a corporate scout praised.
But right at that moment, the broadcast screen flickered. Two figures walked calmly into the volcanic crater, completely ignoring the chaotic battle.
Ethan Reed and Cassandra Vance had arrived.
The hundred thousand spectators in the arena gasped as they saw Ethan, his hands still casually in his trench coat pockets, walking right past the defensive perimeter of the students.
"Ethan Reed?!" Tyler shrieked, spitting out a mouthful of blood as he backed away from the Demon King’s fiery slash. "How are you alive?! My enforcers—" New chapters come out on novelping . com first.
"Your enforcers were weak, Tyler," Ethan said, his voice carrying perfectly through the area and right into the arena’s broadcast system.
The Ashen Demon King noticed the new intruders and let out a deafening, earth-shattering roar. It turned away from the battered students, raising its massive flaming greatsword high into the air, and bringing it down directly onto Ethan’s head with enough force to split the volcanic crater in half.
"Watch out!" several students screamed.
Tyler smiled maniacally. "Die, you trash!"
Ethan didn’t even look up. He didn’t draw his twin blades. He simply extended his left hand from his pocket and raised a single index finger to meet the falling mountain of flame.
CLANG!!!!!
A sound like a nuclear detonation echoed through the rift and the stadium broadcast. The massive, twenty-foot flaming sword was stopped dead in its tracks, resting perfectly against the tip of Ethan’s single, unprotected index finger.
The shockwave didn’t even ruffle Ethan’s hair. Thanks to his Eternal Domain, 90% of the damage vanished into the void, and the remaining 10% was completely ignored by his 6,700+ defensive attributes.
Absolute, dead silence fell over the Ashen Abyss and the entire hundred thousand-seat Grand Arena. People stood up from their seats, their eyes wide, their jaws dropping in absolute, paralyzed horror.
A Level 50 Boss’s full-power strike... blocked by a single finger from the academy’s "F-Rank trash"?
"Is this the best this dungeon can do?" Ethan muttered, his eyes dissolving into a pitch-black abyss.
He lightly flicked his finger upward.
BOOM!!!
A massive pillar of pure void gravity erupted from the point of contact, tearing through the Demon King’s flaming sword, shattering it into a million pieces, and continuing straight up through the monster’s chest.
The twenty-foot Ashen Demon King didn’t even have time to scream before its entire upper body was completely erased from existence, leaving nothing but a massive, glowing S-Rank Boss Core floating in the empty air.
[DING! You have instantly slaughtered the Ashen Demon King (Level 50 Boss)!]
[Dungeon Record Shattered! Clear Time: 0.01 seconds!]
Ethan casually caught the glowing S-rank boss core, turning his cold, bottomless gaze toward the trembling, blood-soaked Tyler Vance.
"Now," Ethan whispered, the gravity in the crater instantly dropping to a suffocating level. "Let’s talk about those enforcers you sent."