The Underground Guild’s primary subterranean vault was not located in the slums, but directly beneath the city’s sparkling Central District, buried miles under the bedrock where even satellite scans could not penetrate.
Julian Cross led the way, his ruined suit already replaced by a pristine, silver-trimmed velvet coat.
The walls of the descending elevator shaft were made of thick, reinforced tungsten-carbide, flashing with intricate blue runes of defensive magic.
Behind them walked Cassandra, her eyes scanning the dark depths with intense focus. The silver glow in her pupils had completely stabilized, vibrating with the latent power of the SSS-Rank forbidden magic resting inside her soul.
"My vault holds the junk that the mainstream guilds are too afraid to touch," Julian explained, his voice echoing in the metallic space as the elevator slowed to a smooth halt.
"Cursed relics dragged from the abyssal rifts. Unidentifiable scraps that drain the mana of anyone who holds them. Items that cannot be sold, traded, or used. If you can truly purify or change them, Ethan... the word ’wealth’ will have to be redefined."
The massive, circular vault doors ground open, releasing a sudden hiss of pressurized, freezing air.
Ethan stepped into the vault, and his eyes immediately adjusted to the dim, emerald light of the chamber.
The room was massive, the size of a commercial hangar. Row after row of iron shelves were packed with thousands of bizarre artifacts.
A shattered black longsword wrapped in heavy iron chains leaked a slow, putrid purple mist. A cracked crimson dragon egg sat frozen in a block of unmelting black ice. A set of rusted, heavy gauntlets vibrated with a faint, screaming sound.
Ethan’s system interface instantly began to hum, faint notifications pinging at the edge of his vision as he approached the first row.
[Detecting low-grade, high-corruption items... System can forcibly override cosmic curses upon transaction processing...]
A dark smile touched Ethan’s lips. To the rest of the world, this was a graveyard of lethal trash. To him, it was a goldmine of cosmic potential.
"Julian," Ethan said, his voice echoing coldly in the massive vault. "Have your most loyal smiths and logistics workers stand in a line at the center of the hall. I need them to receive these items from me directly."
Julian didn’t hesitate. He clapped his hands, and within three minutes, ten of the Underground Guild’s most trusted, oath-bound elite blacksmiths stood in a flawless line, their faces tense but filled with profound curiosity.
They had all heard rumors of the monster who had shattered an SS-Rank spatial shield with a single casual slash.
Ethan walked down the aisles, casually picking up twenty of the most severely corrupted, worthless F-Rank cursed daggers, broken shields, and shattered beast cores.
The items burned with dark energy, trying to eat into his hands, but his SSS-Rank Eternal Domain passive completely neutralized the corrosion, rendering the curses as harmless as lukewarm water.
He walked over to the first blacksmith, an old, bearded dwarf-blooded master named Brokk. Ethan thrust a heavily rusted, leaking black iron sword into the old man’s hands.
"Take it," Ethan commanded. "It’s a gift."
Brokk stumbled back, his hands burning as the weapon’s curse flared violently. But before the curse could damage his veins, the blue system screen exploded in Ethan’s retinas with blinding speed.
[DING! You have sincerely gifted ’Corrupted Black Iron Sword (Trash Grade)’ to an ally.]
[System Rule Override: Cleansing curse structure... Injecting Primordial Void Rules...]
[The Trash-Grade item has undergone an absolute concept ascension!]
[You have received: 1x Primordial Void Executioner’s Blade (SSS-Rank Mythic Greatsword)! Reward deposited into System Space!]
Ethan didn’t stop. He moved down the line like a phantom, tossing broken shields, cracked rings, and dead beast cores into the hands of the ten stunned smiths.
[DING! 4,500x Multiplier triggered! You have received: 1x Aegis of the Starless Night (SS-Rank Growth Shield)!]
[DING! 8,200x Multiplier triggered! You have received: 1x Ring of Infinite Spatial Stash (SS-Rank Utility)!]
[DING! 10,000x Multiplier triggered! You have received: 5x Sovereign Mana Elixirs (SSS-Rank Purity)!]
The notifications cascaded like a digital waterfall. By the time Ethan reached the end of the line, the ten blacksmiths were standing in absolute, paralyzed silence.
They held the perfectly purified, glowing high-tier materials that had evolved right in their palms, while Ethan’s system space was packed to the brim with mythic, world-ending armaments.
Julian Cross stood at the side, his jaw dropping so low it nearly hit the floor. His hands shook violently inside his pockets.
He had witnessed it with his own eyes—Ethan had turned lethal, worthless trash into priceless national treasures in a matter of seconds.
"This..." Julian choked out, his voice trembling. "This is a miracle of creation. You aren’t an Awakener, Ethan... you are a living god of the forge."
Ethan ignored the praise, turning around as his black cloak billowed. He pulled one of the SSS-Rank Sovereign Mana Elixirs from his space and swallowed it down.
BOOM!
A tsunami of liquid cosmic energy exploded in his core. His level indicators flickered violently.
[Host has consumed SSS-Rank Sovereign Mana Elixir!]
[Level Breakthrough: Level 25 -> Level 50!]
[All Core Attributes +2,500! Void Sovereign Talent efficiency increased by 50%!]
Ethan’s raw strength, agility, and intelligence shot past the 3,700 mark. At Level 50, his base statistics were now functionally equivalent to a Level 90 SSS-Rank Apex Vanguard.
His presence alone made the space in the underground vault ripple and distort.
"Keep the items you hold," Ethan said to the trembling blacksmiths, his voice carrying the deep, heavy authority of a true sovereign. "Julian, prepare the auction houses. Next week, after the trial, we begin selling the lower-tier gear. For now... I have an academy to crush."
_ _ _
Seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
The morning of the Global Academy Rift Trial arrived, painting the sky over the Horizon Grand Arena in a vibrant, electric blue.
The arena was a massive, coliseum-like structure capable of holding over a hundred thousand spectators.
Today, it was packed to absolute capacity with top guild scouts, government officials, corporate sponsors, and the families of the graduating class.
Outside the grand gates, thousands of students from the First Horizon Academy stood in tight formations, nervous excitement buzzing through the air.
The trial was simple: students would enter the newly discovered Ashen Abyss Rift, a Rank-C dungeon, and hunt beasts. The higher the kill count and the rarer the beast core retrieved, the higher the student’s final rank and their chances of being recruited by a premier guild. Read the latest chapters at novelping.com.
At the center of the VIP plaza stood Tyler Vance, dressed in heavy, glowing silver armor crafted from premium A-Rank star-iron. A massive blue broadsword was strapped to his back. Surrounding him were the academy elites, all laughing and boasting about their upcoming performances.
"Did you hear?" one of the students whispered, looking around nervously. "That F-Rank trash, Ethan Reed, actually showed up at the outer gates. I thought he would have fled the city after the stunt he pulled at the bazaar last week."
Tyler’s face twisted into an ugly, venomous sneer at the mention of Ethan’s name. The memory of his B-Rank bodyguard being slapped into a coma still burned like hot coals in his chest.
His father, the head of the Vance Corporation, had been furious, but the Underground Guild had mysteriously blocked all of their attempts to assassinate the boy during the week.
"Let the trash come," Tyler spat, his hand gripping the hilt of his broadsword.
"The Underground Guild can protect him in the streets, but they cannot enter the Rift Trial. The moment he steps into that dungeon, the Vance family’s hidden enforcers inside the trial will ensure he never sees the light of day again. He will die a silent, painful death."
"Is that so, Cousin?"
A clear, cold voice sliced through the noisy plaza like a shard of ice.
The crowd instantly parted as two figures walked through the gates.
Cassandra Vance stepped forward, her tattered cloak replaced by a sleek, midnight-blue battle suit that perfectly accentuated her lethal grace. Her silver eyes locked onto Tyler, radiating a freezing aura that caused frost to rapidly form on the stone floor beneath her boots.
But she wasn’t the center of attention. She was walking exactly half a step behind Ethan Reed.
Ethan wore a deep black, high-collared trench coat that seemed to absorb the ambient sunlight. His hands were tucked casually into his pockets, his posture relaxed, and his eyes completely calm, dark abysses.
He didn’t radiate any messy aura like Tyler; his power was completely restrained, compressed into a terrifying singularity of raw force.
"Cassandra?!" Tyler gasped, his eyes widening as he felt the overwhelming, oppressive wave of frost rolling off her. "Your... your mana core! It’s impossible! It was completely shattered!"
"My Lord gave me a new life, Tyler," Cassandra said, her voice dripping with absolute scorn. "And today, I will use that life to drag your entire branch of the family into the dirt."
"You... you crazy bitch!" Tyler roared, his face flushing red with humiliation.
He turned his gaze to Ethan, his eyes filled with pure malice. "Ethan Reed! You think you’re safe because you found a way to fix a cripple? The principal and the proctors are all closely aligned with my family. You entered this plaza, but I will personally ensure you are barred from the exam for using illegal, untraceable external relics to assault academy bodyguards!"
Two Level 45 A-Rank Academy Enforcers stepped forward from the shadows of the VIP tent, their heavy spears humming with gold energy, blocking Ethan’s path to the dungeon portal.
"Ethan Reed," the lead enforcer barked. "By order of the Vice-Principal, you are under suspicion of cheating and illegal relic usage. Step down and submit to a mana-drain search immediately, or you will be executed on the spot for treason against the academy rules!"
The thousands of students in the plaza held their breath. Tyler Vance smirked maliciously, waiting for Ethan to panic.
Ethan stopped. He looked at the two A-Rank enforcers, then at Tyler, and finally at the massive, spinning purple vortex of the Rift Portal fifty yards away.
A slow, terrifying smile spread across Ethan’s face. He slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets, the air around him beginning to violently vibrate as his Level 50 Void Sovereign attributes began to leak out, crushing the gravity of the entire plaza.
"Submit?" Ethan whispered, his voice echoing across the arena like a dark prophecy. "You think a couple of dogs wearing academy badges can block my path?"