The morning after the Forbidden Archive heist, David Silver felt like his brain had been put through a meat grinder and then loosely packed back into his skull.
Memorizing fifty thousand tomes in three hours was a feat that should have turned his grey matter into soup, but the Aeon Catalyst was currently acting as a very high-end cooling fan.
It was humming in the back of his mind to keep the Static Core from melting down. His face was pale from the mental strain, but his eyes were sharp.
He walked toward the Great Training Hall and blended into a crowd of students. Everyone was buzzing with a nervous and electric energy. Today was the Bi-Annual Grotto Descent. It was one of the most important tests of the year.
"Stay average, David," he whispered to himself. "Aggressively average. Aim for the middle of the pack. Be the guy everyone forgets was even there. Do not do anything stupid."
[System Note: Given that you currently possess the combined knowledge of the Academy’s entire restricted history, ’average’ is going to require some very creative acting. Also, you have a small smudge of blood-ink on your collar. It is very suspicious.]
David frantically rubbed at his collar as he entered the hall. He did not want to be caught because of a laundry mistake. The Great Training Hall was a massive space. It was large enough to house several small villages.
"Everyone, take your places!" Headmaster Hallowell stood on the central podium.
His azure eyes scanned the room like a hawk. He looked tired. He had likely spent the night investigating the breach in the Forbidden Archive. "The Grotto is a place of learning. It is a projection of reality, but the pain you feel is real enough. Do not be careless or you will pay the price."
David stepped into one of the Descent Pods. It was a circular stone room lined with glowing blue runes. As the sequence began, he felt the familiar pull on his consciousness. It felt like being sucked through a straw. The marble walls of the Academy dissolved and were replaced by a humid green mist.
When his vision cleared, he was standing in a jungle that looked like it had been designed by someone who had never seen a real tree but had read a lot of poetry about them.
The leaves were the size of dinner tables and shimmered with an oily sheen. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth. It was a very strange place.
"Alright," David muttered. He looked at his task-bracelet. Objective: Hunt three simulated Jade-Panthers. Rank: Tier 2. "That is doable. I will kill two, struggle with the third, and finish in the bottom forty percent. Perfection. I can do that in my sleep."
He began to trek through the undergrowth. He kept his mana output at a pathetic Tier 1 flicker. He wanted to look like the same loser everyone knew. But as he moved, the Aeon Catalyst began to pulse with a low and vibrating warning in his skull.
[Warning! Corruption Detected in Simulation Sub-Routine.]
[Detection: The ’Jade-Panther’ assets are being overwritten by ’Ancient War’ data-fragments.]
"What? Corruption?" David stopped. His hand went to his hip where he usually kept a knife. "Is this part of the test? Is Hallowell trying to kill us?"
[Negative. This is a technical failure. The Grotto is not a fresh simulation, David. It is a recycled memory of an ancient war, powered by a massive array of Mana-Batteries in the school’s basement. Something in the code is leaking. It is very dangerous.]
Suddenly, the glowing jungle flickered. The colorful green leaves stuttered and turned into grey and ash-covered stumps for a fraction of a second before snapping back. It looked like a glitch in a video game.
From the shadows of a massive fern, a Jade-Panther emerged. But it did not look like the training manual description. Its body was translucent and flickering with static. Instead of eyes, it had two jagged and bleeding voids.
It let out a sound that was not a roar, but a digital scream. It was a high-pitched screech of distorted mana that made David’s ears ring. It was a monstrous thing that did not belong in a school test.
"That is not a Panther," David said. He felt a cold sweat on his back.
The beast lunged. It moved with a strange and unnatural speed. Its claws left trails of grey noise in the air. David pivoted. His Flash-Step instincts kicked in, but he forced himself to move slowly. He tripped over a root on purpose. He rolled into a thicket and tried to look like a scarred student.
The panther-construct spun around. Its body was growing larger as it absorbed data from the surrounding simulation. The ferns around it were being erased and turned into raw mana-code that fed into the creature’s mass. It was becoming a giant of shadow and glass.
[Alert! Construct ’Nightmare Sentinel’ is manifesting. Its power level is scaling past Tier 4. You are in deep trouble.]
"Past Tier 4? I am supposed to be a loser!" David scrambled up. "I cannot fight this without showing off! Everyone is watching!"
Two more glitch beasts came out of the static. They were no longer pretending to be panthers. They were huge creatures with many heavy claws, made of grey smoke and black shards. They were echoes of the war that had broken the Universal Engine centuries ago. They were demons from the depths of hell.
David looked around the sector. Other students were screaming in terror. He saw a group of Tier 3 combatants being pinned down by the static-claws. If he did not do something, the simulation would re-write their brains along with the environment. They would be mindless monsters like the Radiants.
"Fine," David growled. His golden-violet eyes flashed with a dangerous light. "But I am keeping it to one spell. One simple and basic Tier 1 spell. I will be as subtle as a hammer."
He raised his hand toward the glitch-beasts. The air around his palm began to shimmer as he drew in the simulated moisture of the jungle. He could feel the water molecules responding to his will.
"Water Lash," David screamed.
In the Academy curriculum, Water Lash was a joke. It was a thin whip of water used to sting an opponent or put out a small fire. It was the magical equivalent of a wet noodle. No one ever used it in real combat.
[Passive Multiplier Activated: 100,000x!]
The Static Core in David’s chest did not just vibrate. It hummed with the power of a tidal wave! The 100,000x multiplier did not just make the water lash bigger. It increased the pressure and the velocity until the water was harder than steel. It was no longer a liquid; it was a weapon of mass destruction.
The Water Lash transformed in his hand.
[Skill Evolution: Water Lash ➔ Hydro-Cutter: Tsunami Edge]
A blade of water erupted from David’s hand. It was so thin it was almost invisible to the naked eye. It did not splash or drip. It let out a sonic boom that shattered every simulated leaf within a hundred yards! The air itself was sliced apart by the pressure.
David swung his arm in a wide and horizontal arc. He did not hold back.
The Tsunami Edge sliced through the first Nightmare Sentinel. It did not just cut it; it deleted the data! The monster’s static-body was cleaved in half and the inverted mana of the blade neutralized the corruption instantly. The blade continued its path. It sliced through the second and third horrors like they were made of wet paper.
But it did not stop there. The water-blade was moving at such a high frequency that it began to slice through the code of the Grotto itself.
SKREEEEEE!
The simulation screeched in agony. David watched as the neon jungle was literally unzipped! A fifty-foot-wide line of absolute blackness appeared where the blade had passed. It cut through trees and mountains. It even cut through the sky of the projection. It was a void in the world.
"Wait! Too much! Stop!" David yelled. He pulled his hand back in horror.
But the momentum of 100,000x was a terrifying thing. The Tsunami Edge struck the Master-Construct at the heart of the sector. This was a giant and invisible pillar that acted as the anchor for the magical projection. It was the heart of the machine.
[Warning! Critical Hit on Simulation Anchor.]
[Detection: The blade is penetrating the physical floor of the Academy.]
[Direct hit on Mana-Battery Array. Oh boy, here we go!]
David felt the ground beneath his simulated boots shake with a violent force. A white-hot flare of light erupted from the black line he had cut into the world. It was blinding!
In the real world, in the basement of Aethelgard Academy, the massive array of Tier 6 Mana-Batteries registered a 100,000x surge in consumption. They were the power source for the entire school. The crystalline batteries did not just drain their energy. They shattered into a million pieces!
POP! POP! POP!
Back in the Great Training Hall, the Descent Pods suddenly sparked with violet electricity. Students were thrown from their seats as the machines died.
David felt the simulation dissolve instantly. He did not fade out like a normal exit. He was dropped back into his pod with a bone-jarring thud. BAM! He hit the stone floor and groaned in pain. He blinked and saw the jungle was gone. It was replaced by the dark and smoky interior of the Training Hall.
But it was not just his pod that was broken.
The entire Academy was plunged into absolute darkness! The glowing mana-lamps in the halls flickered and died. The defensive wards over the towers vanished into thin air. The rhythmic hum of the school’s power grid simply stopped. It had been a constant for a thousand years, and now it was gone.
Silence fell over the hall. It was broken only by the sound of students coughing in the smoke and the distant and frantic shouting of instructors. It was a scene of total chaos.
David sat in his pod. His heart was hammering a frantic in his chest. He looked at his hand. It was still slightly damp from the water lash. He felt like a criminal.
"Relatable humor, David," he whispered. His voice was trembling with shock. "You did not just stay average. You just turned off the entire school. Your parents are going to be so proud of your academic achievement."
[System Note: Technically, you did not just turn it off. You ’Overclocked’ the batteries until they committed suicide. They could not handle your wet noodle. On the bright side, no one can check the simulation logs because the logs no longer exist. They were vaporized.]
"Small favors," David muttered. He tried to hide his damp hand in his cloak.
A few seconds later, Headmaster Hallowell’s voice echoed through the dark hall. He was using a handheld wind-charm to amplify his voice. "Stay calm! Do not leave your pods! We are experiencing a minor technical difficulty with the mana-grid! Everything is under control!"
’Minor,’ David thought. He hid his face in his hood. ’He is going to be so mad when he sees the basement. The batteries are just glass dust now.’
Through the chaos, David caught a glimpse of Rachel. Even in the dark, her Spirit-Sense made her eyes glow with a faint and silvery light. She was looking directly toward his pod.
Her expression was a mix of sheer shock and a terrifying realization. She had felt the surge of power. She knew the Vessel had just flexed a muscle. She was watching him like a predator watches its prey.
David ducked his head lower. He tried to look as scared and confused as everyone else in the room.
"Oh, man," he said loudly to a nearby student. "What happened? I was just about to find a panther! I hope I do not fail because the lights went out! This is so unfair!"
[System Note: Your acting is still Tier 0. You look like a suspicious cabbage. But in this darkness, maybe even a cabbage can hide.]
David sat in the smoking ruins of his pod. The Static Core was finally cooling down. He had tried to be average, and instead, he had accidentally crippled the Academy’s power grid. He was no longer just a Wraith or an Apprentice. He was a person who could break the world’s rules with a Tier 1 spell.
As the Inquisitors began to swarm into the hall with glowing mana-torches, David Silver knew that the Simulated Grotto was only the beginning. The real jungle was just getting started. He had a hundred thousand reasons to be worried!