The night air over Aethelgard Academy was loud. It was filled with the sound of heavy engines and the shouting of the elite guards. High above the trees, three figures in silver armor floated on wind disks. Their eyes were fixed on the glowing hole in the coast.
Headmaster Hallowell stood at the edge of the crater. His grey robes flapped in the wind. He was an Arch Mage of the Seventh Tier. He had seen cities destroyed and dragons breathe fire. But as he looked at the glass crater, his hands were shaking!
"Report," Hallowell commanded. His voice was low but reached everyone’s ears.
"Sir, the readings are impossible," a young teacher said. He was kneeling by the molten glass. He held a brass device that was smoking. "The heat needed to melt granite like this is too high. It is not Tier 5 or Tier 6. This is Sage level output. Maybe even higher!"
"A Sage tier mage is in our backyard?" another teacher whispered. Her face was very pale. "If they wanted to attack us, we would not have time to scream. Why did they hit a cliff?"
Hallowell did not answer. He stepped onto the glass and his boots made a crunching sound. He closed his eyes to feel the mana. It felt strange and dense. It was completely alien to him.
"This was not an attack," Hallowell muttered. He opened his eyes. "There is no ritual residue. This was an accident. It was a discharge. It is like someone tried to sneeze and blew up a mountain by mistake!"
"An accident?" the teacher gasped. "Headmaster, that is worse! It means a Sage is losing control of their core here. We must tell the Capital. We need the Inquisitors."
"No," Hallowell snapped. "If the Inquisitors come, they will lock down the Academy. We will find this Sage ourselves. We must be quiet."
He looked back at the school towers. Somewhere among the students, a monster was hiding.
Two miles away, inside a small shed that smelled like damp wood, the monster was having a heart attack!
David Silver was scrubbing his arm with cold water. The Star Eater spell had vaporized the cliff, but it left a glow on his skin. It looked like starlight whenever he breathed too hard.
"Come on! Go away!" David hissed. His voice cracked with panic. "I am a Static Core loser. I am a poor noble. I should not glow in the dark!"
Every time an engine roared outside, his heart pounded against his ribs. He knew the Council. If they found a student who could turn a mountain into glass, they would not be happy. They would take him to the White Laboratory and strap him to a table. They would harvest his core to see how it worked! To David, power was not a gift. It was a reason to be experimented on.
He scrubbed until his skin was red. Finally, the glow faded. David collapsed onto his thin mattress and stared at the ceiling.
"System," he whispered. "Talk to me. I am terrified."
The blue interface appeared and filled the room with light.
[Status Update: User is currently in ’High Stress’ state. Suggesting deep breathing or chocolate.]
"I do not have chocolate. I only have an explosion," David muttered. "Why is my core Static? Sterling said it was a defect. But that blast was not a defect."
[Analyzing ’Static Core’ anomaly...]
[Scanning Meridians... Scanning Genetic Markers...]
A new window popped up. Red text appeared like a warning.
[Alert! Dread-Seal Detected!]
[Classification: Level 9 - Soul-Lock Hierarchy]
[Origin: External Source (Manual Application at infancy)]
[Function: To suppress mana flow and prevent core maturation.]
David sat up quickly. The mattress made a groaning noise. "A seal? Someone locked my magic when I was a baby?"
[Correct. The ’Static Core’ is not a defect. It is a dam. Your mana was never ’immovable’; it was being held back by a barrier designed to starve your core.]
"But why?" David felt cold. "My family is nobody. We are minor nobles with no money. Who would use a Level 9 Soul Lock on me?"
[Insufficient data. However, the 100,000x Multiplier has begun the ’Cracking’ process. By multiplying your output to such an extreme degree, you have brute-forced a microscopic fissure in the Dread-Seal.]
David looked at his hand. He understood what happened at the cliff. He did not just cast a spell. He forced 100,000 times the energy through a tiny hole in the seal. His mana was like a pressurized ocean. He had cracked the dam!
"So if I use the system, the seal gets weaker?"
[Precisely. Once the seal reaches 0%, your true core will manifest. Warning: The mana release of a Level 9 Seal breaking may result in the total destruction of Aethelgard Academy and surrounding provinces.]
"Great. I am a ticking time bomb," David said. His voice was very high. "This is fine. Everything is fine."
He had to hide. He needed to be the most pathetic student in school. If he showed any improvement, the Council would catch him.
The next morning, the Academy was full of rumors. David walked through the courtyard with his head down. He made his hair messy and put dirt on his face to look extra poor.
"Did you hear?" a girl whispered as David walked by. "They found Sage glass at the cliffs! The Headmaster was out there all night!"
"I heard it was a dragon," a boy replied. "A Void Dragon! My dad says they eat souls!"
David wanted to snort. A soul eating dragon would be easier to explain than his own power.
"Hey! Footstool!"
David stiffened. expensive boots appeared in front of him. It was Sterling Greyjoy. He was with his bullies and looked very smug.
"I saw your parents’ carriage this morning, Silver," Sterling sneered. He blocked David’s path. "They looked stressed. They heard about your failure at the Monolith. It is a shame. My father’s petition is on the High Table. Soon, you will not even be allowed to sweep the floors."
David looked at Sterling. Yesterday, these words would have made him cry. But today? David looked at Sterling and saw a boy who thought he was a lion. Sterling did not know David had a supernova in his pocket!
It was so funny that David could not help it. He laughed.
Sterling’s smile disappeared. "What is so funny, trash?"
"Nothing, Sterling," David said. His voice was calm. "I just realized you are right. I am unremarkable. I am so unremarkable that you should not talk to me. It might be contagious."
Sterling’s face turned red with anger. He stepped forward. His hand caught fire with a Tier 3 spell. "You think you can laugh at me? Give me one reason why I should not burn your face right now."
[Warning: Hostile Mana Detected.]
[System Suggestion: Activate ’Basic Reflect’ (Tier 1). Multiplier will trigger.]
No! David thought. If I reflect him with the multiplier, he will hit the next continent!
"I am not laughing! I have a nervous tick!" David stammered. He put on a terrified face. He tripped over his own feet and fell into the dirt. "Look! I am pathetic! No magic here! I cannot even stand up!"
Sterling looked down at David with disgust. He put out his fire. "Pathetic. You are not worth the mana."
He stepped over David and his friends laughed as they walked away.
David sat in the dirt and breathed a sigh of relief. That was too close! He needed to leave the Academy. He needed a place to practice without making a crater.
He remembered his grandfather’s stories. The Below Floors! It was an underground fighting circle in the slums. Everyone wore masks and no one cared about your family. It was dangerous and full of scum.
It was perfect.
"System," David whispered as he stood up and brushed his pants. "Can you help me hide my mana?"
[Confirmed. ’Void-Shimmer’ passive mask can be maintained. Cost: 1 Mana point per hour.]
"Good," David said. His eyes were hard. "I need to see what this multiplier can do. If I have to beat up some thugs to find out, I will do it."
David did not see the man watching him from the tower. Headmaster Hallowell stood there. He was watching the boy who just tripped.
"Strange," Hallowell whispered. "The boy has a Static Core. But for a second, his mana did not feel static. It felt like a predator waiting to strike."
Hallowell looked at the crystal in his hand. It was cracked.
"Watch the Silver boy," the Headmaster told the shadows. "I want to know every move he makes."
David Silver did not know it, but his old life was over. The crack in the seal was getting wider. The world was not ready for what was inside him.