As the first light of dawn broke over the horizon, a new day began at the First Magic Academy.
Inside Year Two, Class 10, a rather unconventional pep rally was underway.
Twenty energetic students stood in perfect alignment, staring straight ahead with barely contained, incredibly awkward expressions.
Standing before them was Instructor Drake.
Unfortunately for Drake, his head was still entirely wrapped in thick medical gauze, making him look utterly ridiculous.
Naturally, it was a little hard to project an aura of absolute authority when you looked like a battered mummy.
Drake clearly noticed the subtle twitches of amusement on his students’ faces.
In a flash of anger, he unleashed his full Tier Three, Level Three magic power, letting it crash over the entire classroom.
He might have looked like a disaster, but his injuries were purely cosmetic; his actual magic reserves hadn’t taken a hit.
Under the crushing weight of his aura, the air in the room grew thick and suffocating.
Instantly, the students paled.
Their faces quickly flushed red as they struggled to breathe under the oppressive pressure.
Only the three students standing at the very front managed to weather the storm a bit better, though even they were visibly straining.
Seeing that he had made his point, Drake let out a harsh scoff and pulled back his aura.
“We had a slight…
unexpected incident yesterday, which is why this orientation was delayed until today,” Drake began, his voice cold.
“Let me make one thing perfectly clear.
In my class, raw power is the only thing that matters!
If your magic doesn’t meet my standards, you will be immediately expelled from this prep class.
I refuse to let a single piece of trash ruin our university admission rates!
Do you understand?!”
“Understood,” a few students muttered weakly.
“Did you all skip breakfast?!
Louder!
I can’t hear you!” Drake roared.
“Understood!”
“Louder!”
“Understood!
Understood!
Understood!”
“Good.
Glad we’re on the same page.” A stiff, painful smile stretched across Drake’s bandaged face.
He grabbed a heavy duffel bag and tossed it to the boy standing front and center.
“Pierce.
These are our class’s cultivation resources for the month.
You have absolute priority over them.
Whatever you don’t use goes to Zane and Silas.”
Pierce was the absolute strongest student in the class, boasting a solid C-Class talent, while Zane and Silas were the cream of the crop among the D-Class awakeners.
Catching the heavy bag, Pierce unzipped it.
Seeing the mountain of Tier One Mana Potions inside, his eyes immediately lit up.
“Thank you, Instructor Drake!
Don’t worry, I won’t let you down!
When the class rankings are announced next month, I’ll make sure Class 10 takes the top spot!”
Zane and Silas quickly followed suit.
“We will too, Instructor!”
Pierce, Zane, and Silas were thrilled, but the remaining seventeen students looked absolutely devastated.
Sure, those three had the best talent, but if all the resources went to them, what were the rest of the class supposed to use?
“What are you all looking at?!” Drake snapped, noticing their bitter glares.
“If your cultivation speed meets my expectations, I’ll gladly give you resources too!”
He sounded incredibly domineering, but internally, he was sweating bullets.
The truth was, he physically couldn’t afford to supply all twenty students for the month.
Since Asher had robbed him blind, Drake had been forced to empty his entire personal savings just to scrounge up enough potions to feed Pierce, Zane, and Silas.
Thankfully, the monthly class rankings were determined by a three-on-three student tournament.
If the format required the entire class to fight, he really would have had to take out a crippling bank loan.
He had essentially pushed all his chips to the center of the table.
Everything was riding on next month’s tournament.
If he won, his 300,000 Jewel debt to Asher would vanish, and he could go back to living like a king.
But if he lost…
Drake aggressively shook his head, burying the thought.
A wicked smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.
‘Heh.
How could I possibly lose?
I’ve got a royal flush in my hand.
There’s zero chance of failure!’
Meanwhile…
While Drake was busy holding his high-stakes pep rally, over in Class 18, Asher had just finished answering Luna’s latest questions regarding the Star-Shattering Fist.
“You’re doing great, Luna.
There are no issues with your forms or your mana circulation,” Asher said, fighting back a yawn as he glanced at the early morning sun filtering through the window.
“For the rest of the month, just stick to the training schedule and keep up the heavy meat diet.
You don’t need to report to the classroom every single day.”
Even though his Tier Three physique meant he could go a full week without sleep and be perfectly fine, he still despised waking up early.
“Master!” Luna panicked, her eyes widening.
“Did I do something wrong?”
“No, no, you misunderstood,” Asher chuckled, waving a hand to calm her down.
“I’m saying you don’t need to come to the classroom because you have a much better place to be.”
Reaching into his bag, he pulled out a sleek, transparent card and handed it to her.
“From now on, you’ll be training here.
It will rapidly accelerate your physical conditioning.”
“A Tier One Gravity Room Pass?” Luna instantly recognized the item, but her elegant brows quickly pulled together in a slight frown.
“But…
this card only has ten hours loaded onto it.”
It was true that Gravity Rooms were incredible for pushing a mage’s physical limits, but the time limit was far too strict.
Spread across a whole month, ten hours averaged out to less than twenty minutes a day.
It wasn’t nearly enough time for a proper, sustained training session.
Instead of explaining, Asher simply unzipped his heavy duffel bag and tossed it onto her desk.
“What if you add these?”
Luna instinctively looked inside.
The moment she registered what was staring back at her, she slapped both hands over her mouth and gasped.
“Oh my god!
Master, why do you have so many Gravity Room passes?!”
The bag was stuffed to the brim with dozens of identical transparent cards.
“There’s enough hours in there for you to train in the Gravity Room for over twenty straight days,” Asher laughed softly.
“Use them without holding back.
They were all generously donated by a very kind Samaritan.”
That “Samaritan,” of course, being Drake, who had unwittingly surrendered all the resources designated for his massive twenty-student roster.
“But…”
Luna tried to protest, but Asher waved her off.
“Listen to me.
The stronger you get, the more it benefits me.
Start today—no, go right now.”
He wasn’t just saying that to sound inspiring; it was the absolute truth.
A Tier One Gravity Room was completely useless to a Tier Three mage like him, but it was a massive boon for Luna.
Every tiny bit of progress she made passively multiplied and fed directly back to him, saving him weeks, if not months, of grueling meditation.
After a moment of heavy silence, Luna’s eyes shimmered with deep, overwhelming gratitude.
She gave a firm, solemn nod.
“I understand, Master.
I won’t let you down!”
Later that night.
Inside Asher’s dorm room.
Just as Asher finished his daily meditation and prepared to go to sleep, the crisp voice of the system suddenly rang in his ears.
“Ding!
Detected that Luna’s trust level in the Host has increased.”
“Ding!
Detected that Personal Disciple [Luna] has broken through from Tier 1, Level 3 to Tier 1, Level 4!
Cultivation Return triggered!
Drawing multiplier…”
“Ding!
Congratulations, Host!
You have drawn a 10x Return Multiplier!
Transferring cultivation…”
As a massive surge of pure ethernano flooded his mana veins, Asher’s eyes widened in sheer shock.
“Holy crap, she broke through again?!”
He knew her potential was monstrous, but this speed was completely unprecedented.
It had only been two days since the semester began, and she had already shot from Tier One, Level One straight to Level Four.
She was leveling up faster than a rocket!
But after thinking about it for a second, it made perfect sense.
An SSS-Class dormant talent, a high-tier monster meat diet, the brutal Extreme Compression Breathing Technique, and unlimited access to a Gravity Room…
Stacking that many insane buffs together could turn a literal pig into a flying magic beast, let alone a girl with Luna’s terrifying comprehension speed.
Phew…
Taking a deep breath, Asher couldn’t help but sigh in genuine awe.
“It really is true what they say.
Genius is one percent talent and ninety-nine percent perspiration…
but that one percent of talent is infinitely more important than all the sweat in the world!”
His philosophical moment lasted exactly two seconds before a wicked, shameless grin spread across his face.
“But I’m different.
My success is entirely built on my own grueling hard work!”
The very next second.
“Ding!
Detected that Personal Disciple [Luna] has increased her cultivation.
Cultivation Return triggered!
Drawing multiplier…”
“Ding!
Congratulations, Host!
You have drawn a 5x Return Multiplier!
Transferring cultivation…”