The punching bag tore free from its mount and flew nearly thirteen feet before landing in front of the ceremony hall doors.
Every conversation in the room stopped.
Adrian Vale lowered his leg and stared at the steel hook he had just snapped.
"It was rusty."
"They installed it last week," Evelyn Hart said from one of the benches.
Adrian looked at the broken mount, then at the redhead.
"Then they should ask for a refund."
Laughter spread through the hall. The instructor supervising the warm-up pinched the bridge of his nose but didn’t reprimand him. It wasn’t the first time Adrian had broken something, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
At eighteen, before receiving a class, most students could barely face an F-rank beast with regulation equipment. Adrian had spent the last two years defeating assistant instructors in practice matches and held the highest physical ranking in the region.
Strength, speed, reflexes, technique.
He was the best at all of them.
The only thing he still lacked was a class.
Adrian picked up the bag with one hand and leaned it against the wall. When he turned around, he found thirty young men and women watching him. Some with admiration, others openly eager to see him fail.
That was the problem with holding first place before the Awakening. Everyone wanted to know whether he would become a monster or whether the last few years had only been a temporary advantage.
Evelyn rose from the bench and adjusted her red ponytail.
"Enjoy it while you can. If I awaken a combat class, I’m challenging you again tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Adrian looked her up and down with calculated boldness. "I was planning to invite you to dinner."
"You can invite me after you lose."
"Then we’ll have to eat first."
Evelyn rolled her eyes, though she couldn’t completely hide her smile.
The doors to the main hall opened before she could answer.
"Group Nine, inside," an assistant ordered. "And stop breaking the academy’s equipment."
Several pairs of eyes turned toward Adrian.
He pointed at the bag.
"Structural failure."
"Inside, Vale."
The ceremony hall occupied the center of the academy. Circular stands surrounded a platform constructed from mana-conductive stone. A transparent crystal seven feet tall stood upon it, streaked with lines of blue light.
Behind the crystal, a screen displayed the previous student’s results.
[Kevin Moore]
[Class: Iron Guard]
[Rarity: Rare]
The boy standing before the crystal had tears in his eyes. A rare class didn’t guarantee wealth, but it did guarantee a full scholarship, a place at any combat academy, and guild contracts before graduation.
The principal pinned a silver badge to his uniform while the stands applauded.
Adrian took his place beside Evelyn. Around them, several students clenched their hands or quietly repeated the names of the classes they hoped to awaken.
An Arcane Swordsman.
A Spirit Summoner.
A Combat Medic.
In a world where Rifts vomited monsters and transformed entire cities into hunting grounds, a good class determined a person’s worth before they killed their first beast.
Adrian didn’t look nervous.
Evelyn glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
"Aren’t you at least going to pretend to be worried?"
"I am worried."
"You don’t look like it."
"The examiner hasn’t stopped staring at me. She might ruin my concentration."
The woman standing beside the crystal looked up from her tablet. She appeared to be in her early thirties, with black hair tied back and the golden badge of a senior examiner pinned to her uniform.
"I can hear you, Mr. Vale."
Adrian smiled at her.
"Then I no longer need an excuse to speak to you."
Several people laughed. The examiner remained serious for two seconds before shaking her head.
"If you use that energy to complete the evaluation without causing any damage, we’ll both have a more pleasant afternoon."
"I’ll do my best to please you."
"Adrian," Evelyn muttered.
"What?"
"One day, you’re going to flirt with the wrong person."
"That day hasn’t awakened yet."
The next student was called. Then another.
A young woman received the common Archer class. A boy awakened as an uncommon Alchemist and left the platform surrounded by representatives from three companies. Another received only the Cook class and left the hall before the polite applause had finished.
Each result made the group smaller.
When Evelyn placed her hand on the crystal, the blue light turned turquoise. A radiant line as thin as a blade appeared inside the stone and cut through it from top to bottom.
The screen took several seconds to respond.
[Evelyn Hart]
[Class: Blade Dancer]
[Rarity: Epic]
The hall erupted.
Evelyn slowly exhaled. The class enhanced coordination, speed, and affinity with light weapons. It wasn’t the most destructive of the epic professions, but combined with her years of fencing, it could make her one of the greatest fighters of her generation.
As she stepped down from the platform, she stopped in front of Adrian.
"Dinner can wait until after your defeat."
"Congratulations."
"That’s it?"
"I’m saving the good compliments for our date."
Evelyn punched him in the shoulder as she passed. The blow was faster than before, but Adrian tilted his body and avoided it without taking his eyes off her.
The screen registered the movement.
[Anomalous physical response detected.]
The examiner looked at Adrian and then at Evelyn’s result.
"Mr. Vale."
The murmuring vanished.
Adrian stepped onto the platform beneath hundreds of watching eyes. Representatives from academies, guilds, and Awakened families occupied the upper boxes. Some had come specifically to see him.
His records appeared on the side screens.
[Adrian Vale]
[Pre-Awakening Physical Ranking: 1st in the Region]
[Unarmed Combat: 1st]
[Tactical Evaluation: 2nd]
[Mana Compatibility: Pending]
Adrian stopped in front of the crystal.
Examiner Bennett raised her tablet.
"Place your right hand against the surface. Once the connection begins, do not attempt to resist the flow of mana. You may experience cold, pressure in your chest, or a brief loss of orientation."
"Is there a chance I might also experience receiving your contact information?"
Evelyn covered her face with one hand.
The examiner stared at him.
"Place your hand on the crystal."
"That sounded like a ’maybe.’"
Adrian obeyed.
The surface was colder than he expected. Nothing happened during the first second. Then a pulse pierced his palm, traveled up his arm, and spread throughout his body.
The crystal lit up.
Blue.
Gold.
Red.
The three colors collided within the stone, multiplying until they filled the entire platform. The lights in the hall flickered. The technicians rose from their consoles.
"The mana flow has exceeded the epic range," one of them said.
"Legendary?" another asked.
Examiner Bennett stopped smiling.
Hundreds of symbols appeared within the crystal. Swords, staffs, shields, bows, grimoires, and the silhouettes of creatures formed for fractions of a second before shattering and being replaced by others.
The screen attempted to display a result.
[Class: Swordsman]
The text vanished.
[Class: Martial Artist]
That disappeared too.
[Mage]
[Summoner]
[Necromancer]
[Guardian]
The professions appeared faster and faster until they became impossible to read. An alarm began blaring from the evaluation console.
Adrian felt the crystal attempting to imprison something too vast inside a single form.
Then the stone turned black.
It didn’t crack.
It didn’t explode.
It simply absorbed all the light in the hall.
For an instant, Adrian found himself suspended in a space without ground or sky. Countless concentric rings appeared before him. Each contained symbols belonging to a different profession, but every one of them was empty.
An invisible presence seemed to observe him.
Then the outermost ring opened.
[Unique Class awakened: Infinite Sovereign.]
[Class limit removed.]
[Current registered classes: 0.]
The words remained suspended before his eyes.
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
Zero classes.
That might have been disappointing if his body hadn’t begun to change.
Intense heat surged through his muscles. His bones vibrated. His heartbeat became so heavy he could hear it, but he felt no pain. It was as if a force contained for years had finally found room to expand.
New messages appeared.
[Infinite Sovereign has reconstructed the vessel.]
[All base physical attributes have increased.]
[Strength increased.]
[Agility increased.]
[Endurance increased.]
[Perception increased.]
[Class Archive unlocked.]
[You may register an unlimited number of classes.]
[Registered classes may be equipped through Class Synchronization.]
[Current registered classes: 0.]
The darkness disappeared.
Adrian returned to the hall with his hand still pressed against the crystal.
A wave of pressure erupted from his body and swept across the platform. The air whipped Examiner Bennett’s clothes. Several sheets of paper flew from the technicians’ tables.
Every symbol inside the crystal compressed into a crown surrounded by empty rings.
The main screen displayed the result.
[Adrian Vale]
[Class: Infinite Sovereign]
[Rarity: Unique]
[Combat Skills: 0]
[Registered Classes: 0]
No one applauded.
The word "Unique" had stopped any immediate reaction, but the two zeros beneath it created a contradiction no one knew how to interpret.
Examiner Bennett was the first to recover her voice.
"I’ve never seen that class before."
"That makes two of us."
"It doesn’t exist in the global database."
"Then you can name it after me."
She ignored the comment and examined the reading.
"You possess no active skills. You don’t have any identifiable elemental affinity either."
A murmur spread through the stands.
"A unique class without any skills?"
"Maybe it’s incomplete."
"How can he have zero classes if his class is Infinite Sovereign?"
Adrian removed his hand from the crystal. The movement was too fast.
Not just fast to everyone else.
Fast to him.
He closed his fingers. His joints responded with a newfound lightness, and the platform suddenly seemed smaller. He could hear the conversations in the front rows, the hum of the mana conductors beneath the stone, and the scratching of a representative’s pen in the upper box.
The examiner noticed it too.
"Hit the meter."
An impact-testing device emerged beside the crystal. Adrian positioned himself in front of its padded plate.
"How hard?"
"We need a complete reading."
"You asked for it."
Adrian threw a straight punch.
He didn’t rotate his hips or step forward. It was a short punch delivered almost from a standstill.
The plate caved in.
The metal support tore free from its base and crashed into the platform’s protective barrier. The meter’s reading climbed beyond its maximum limit before the device shut down.
[Maximum measurable force exceeded.]
This time, the silence was absolute.
Adrian studied his knuckles. He felt no pain.
Evelyn was the first person in the stands to smile.
"Show-off."
He turned toward her.
"Same time tomorrow."
Examiner Bennett stared at the destroyed device.
"You just awakened a class no one understands, you have no registered skills, and you already want to fight?"
"I was doing that before I had it."
"You’ll have to undergo additional testing."
"If you’re conducting the tests, I’ll arrive early."
The woman exhaled slowly.
"Get off the platform before you break anything else."
Adrian obeyed amid murmurs, stares, and several offers that began arriving on his communicator before he had even left the hall.
He didn’t accept any of them.
A unique class wasn’t automatically powerful. In fact, Infinite Sovereign had yet to grant him a single combat skill.
But Adrian didn’t need a screen to teach him how to fight.
And if he could truly register any profession he encountered, zero wasn’t a weakness.
It was only the starting point of a collection without limits.
That night, Adrian remained awake until after midnight.
He had repeated every physical test he could perform in his bedroom without destroying it. He was faster, stronger, and capable of perceiving details that would have escaped him before. However, his class interface offered no instructions on how to register a profession.
It only displayed a series of empty slots that never ended, no matter how far he scrolled.
[Class Archive]
[Registered Classes: 0]
[Available Capacity: ∞]
"Very useful," he muttered. "Thanks for the manual."
He received no answer.
Adrian closed the interface and lay back. The lights of vehicles traveling through the city reflected across his bedroom ceiling.
Tomorrow, he would have to return to the academy, repeat the evaluation, and probably reject contracts written by people who understood his class no better than he did.
He closed his eyes.
Sleep came instantly.
The impact against the ground woke him.
Adrian rolled over one shoulder, planted a hand on the ground, and rose into a fighting stance before realizing he was no longer in his bedroom.
A ruined avenue stretched before him.
The buildings he recognized were still there, but their facades had vanished. Towers covered in black roots leaned against one another. Rusted vehicles lay piled beneath layers of ash, and a skyscraper had been severed in half by something so enormous that the cut extended through twenty floors.
There was no electricity.
No voices.
A violet sky crossed by glowing fractures hung above the city.
Adrian remained motionless for three seconds, listening.
Nothing.
Then a window appeared before his eyes.
[Temporal connection established.]
[Location confirmed: Earth.]
[Temporal distance: 10,000 years.]
Adrian read the message twice.
"That explains the poor maintenance."
The air smelled of metal, dust, and old flesh.
Dozens of corpses covered the avenue. Some belonged to creatures with too many limbs. Others retained human forms and wore unfamiliar uniforms, light armor, or robes marked with class symbols.
Directly in front of Adrian, one of the bodies wore the black uniform of a martial artist. It remained kneeling among the dead, head bowed and both fists resting against the pavement.
A new window appeared.
[Compatible class source detected.]
[Class Archive reacting.]
Adrian took one step toward the figure.
The corpse moved one finger.
Then another.
Its fists clenched against the ground.
Adrian stopped.
Slowly, the dead martial artist raised his head. Blue light burned inside his empty eye sockets.
Then he stood.