Continent: Aethelgard Continent
Location: Aethelgard Megacity
District: Central Academy District.
Academy: Aethelgard Academy.
Class: Senior Class III.
The Grand Plaza smelled of expensive incense. Every student in the class was sweating because they were terrified. For David Silver, it mostly smelled like doom! He stood at the edge of the Manifestation Circle and scuffed his boots against the ancient stones. Today was the day he was supposed to show the Imperial recruiters that he was a powerful mage.
"Next! David Silver of House Silver!" the Proctor bellowed.
His voice was amplified by a crystal. David stepped forward and the crowd immediately started laughing. Being a Silver sounded like a big deal until people realized his family was poor. They only owned three acres of rocky soil and a manor that had more ghosts than gold!
In the center of the circle was the Manifestation Monolith. It was a slab of glass that pulsed with a violet light. David placed his palms against the cool surface. He tried to find his Mana Core, but it felt like trying to push a boulder through a straw.
The Monolith hummed and then it sputtered.
The violet light didn’t turn into a sword or a lion. Instead, a dull grey fog appeared inside the stone. A single word appeared on the screen above the circle: [STATIC].
"A Static Core?" a voice drawled from the front row. "I have seen more magic in a bowl of cold porridge!"
The laughter was no longer quiet. It was a roar! David didn’t need to look to know who it was. Sterling Greyjoy stood there leaning against a pillar. He was rich and had golden hair that caught the sunlight perfectly. He was everything David wasn’t. He also had a face that desperately needed to meet a brick!
"Static mana will not move or manifest," Sterling said as he walked toward the circle. The Proctor didn’t stop him because the Greyjoys paid for the school lunch program. "A Static Core is a death sentence, David. It is a stain. I am doing the Empire a favor. The Council should strip your family of their title before you bore the Emperor to death!"
David’s face burned. He pulled his hands away. "It is just a blockage, Sterling. The instructors said—"
"The instructors were being polite," Sterling hissed. He leaned in close so only David could hear him. "By sunset, I will have the petition signed. Your parents will be commoners by next week. Maybe you can find work as a footstool. You are already good at being stepped on!"
David didn’t wait for the Proctor to tell him to leave. He turned and bolted. He pushed through the crowd of mocking students. Their insults stung like wasps! He didn’t stop running until the school walls were far behind him and the salty spray of the Whispering Cliffs hit his face.
The Whispering Cliffs were the edge of the world. It was a jagged drop into the ocean. He stood on a narrow ledge and breathed in ragged gasps.
"Move," David whispered as he clutched his chest. "Just move!"
He tried to move his mana using the Basic Circulation method. He felt the mana inside him. It was a heavy ocean of power but it felt like lead. It would not budge. It sat in his gut like a cold and immovable weight.
David felt desperate. He raised his hand toward the horizon and focused on the simplest spell: Ignis Flare. It was just a spark used to light campfires.
"Ignis Flare!" he screamed. He threw every ounce of his will into the static sludge of his core.
Nothing happened. Not even a puff of smoke appeared!
David collapsed to his knees and rested his forehead against the dirt. "I am done," he laughed bitterly. "I am a noble without a title and a mage without magic. I am just a guy with a broken battery in his chest."
Then, it happened!
A sharp sound rang out directly inside his skull. It was not the wind. It was mechanical and cold.
[Ding! System Awakened!]
David froze. A blue interface appeared in front of his eyes. It flickered against the setting sun.
[Congratulations on Activating The Aeon Catalyst]
════『 100,000x Multiplier System 』════
"What?" David blinked. "A system? Like the ones in those forbidden books my grandfather hid in the cellar?"
He swiped his hand through the air. The interface made a satisfying hum.
┏━━━━━━━[ Profile ]━━━━━━━┓
│ Name: David Silver
│ Core Type: Static Core [Seal Detected - Level 9]
│ Lifeform Level: Tier 1 Novice <0.01%>
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
┏━━━━━━[ Attributes ]━━━━━━┓
│ Strength: [5]
│ Speed: [6]
│ Physique: [4]
│ Mana Capacity: [99,999] (Locked)
│ Mana Output: [1]
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
David stared at the Mana Capacity line. Ninety-nine thousand? A Tier 1 mage usually only had ten! Sterling Greyjoy was a genius for having fifty. But David’s output was only one. He was a lake with a tiny drain!
[New User Detected. Initializing Multiplier...]
[Detection: User attempted to cast ’Ignis Flare’.]
[Passive Multiplier Activated: 100,000x!]
[Skill Evolution Triggered: Ignis Flare ➔ Nova Reach: Star-Eater]
"Wait!" David scrambled backward as his hand began to glow. "Star-Eater? That does not sound like a campfire!"
The heavy sludge in his core didn’t just move. It vanished! It was replaced by a white-hot vacuum. It felt like his arm had been replaced by a solar flare! The Static mana was being dragged through his body with the force of a collapsing star.
The 1 in his Mana Output didn’t change on the screen but the system ignored the rules. The multiplier was multiplying the result of the action!
David’s hand was a conduit. A pillar of blinding blue-white fire erupted from his palm! There was no sound at first. There was only a terrifying silence as the air was incinerated.
The beam hit the far side of the cliffside.
BOOM.
The sound hit a second later. It was a shockwave that nearly blew David off the ledge! He watched with wide eyes as a fifty-foot section of the granite cliff simply ceased to exist. It did not crumble. It vaporized!
The rock didn’t look like stone anymore. The edges of the crater were glowing white. The granite had been cooked into molten glass! The heat was so intense that David could feel his eyebrows singeing from across the bay.
[Ding!]
[Practice of ’Ignis Flare’ (Evolved) detected.]
[Proficiency: 0.01% ➔ 100.00% (MAX)]
[Skill ’Nova Reach: Star-Eater’ has reached Divine Mastery!]
David stared at his hand. It was slightly charred but the system was pulsing a green light over his skin to stop the pain.
"One spark," he whispered. "I just wanted to light a spark."
He looked at the glass crater. If he had done that at the school, Sterling Greyjoy would be soot spread across the kingdom!
David thought of his father. A shaky grin spread across his face. "I think we are going to need a bigger manor. And a very sturdy shield!"
He looked at the status panel again. The multiplier was still there. It was humming with the promise of chaos. Every little spell he knew was now a bomb waiting to go off.
"Sterling said I was a stain on the empire," David said as he stood up. He looked back toward the Academy. "I guess he was right. I am about to wipe the floor with everything they know about magic!"
But as he turned to leave, a new notification blinked.
[Warning: Engine-Mana Pulse Detected by Local Sentinels.]
[Current Status: Hidden (98%).]
[Estimated time until Academy Council arrives at impact site: 4 minutes.]
"Oh, great," David muttered. He started running back toward the sheds. "I get a god-tier system and now I have to play hide and seek. Typical!"
He disappeared into the shadows of the forest. Streaks of violet light began to fly across the sky toward the scorched cliffside. The Static Core was not a defect. It was a reservoir. David Silver had just found the lever to overflow the world!