In The Endless Sea, on an isolated, mist-shrouded island.
Helge Nollaig tore through the dense jungle canopy, relying purely on brute physical force as he clashed with a sprawling sea monster.
Since stepping into the ranks of the evolutionaries, his physical capabilities had soared, his power and speed vastly surpassing those of an ordinary human.
After a fierce, grueling exchange, the sea monster hit the rocky earth with a heavy thud, its vitality utterly extinguished.
“That makes the ninth,” Helge muttered.
Bending down, he pried a glowing red crystal from the monster’s shattered head and swallowed it without hesitation.
Raw, surging energy circulated through his internal organs, nourishing his muscles and bones.
Once again, his physical prowess shot upward at an astonishing pace.
Yet, he shook his head, dissatisfied.
“Still too slow,” he murmured, wiping sweat from his brow.
“There are at least two people in our academy faster than me, let alone the competition outside!”
With nine sea monsters slain, his score should sit at ninety points.
Even so, he knew that in the global standings, ninety points barely scraped the top fifty.
Time was bleeding away.
If he wanted to secure a spot at the top, he had to hunt harder, faster, and more relentlessly.
In the Valley View Academy Observation Room, giant holographic screens flickered with real-time feeds.
“Principal, today marks the second day of the assessment,” a senior mentor reported, bowing slightly toward Meinhard Janek.
“So far, 235 from our academy have successfully completed their evolution.”
“Among them,” another mentor added, pointing at a high-ranking name on the floating board, “Rudyard Wilf is leading our cohort.
He has slain eleven sea monsters and currently holds fourteenth place overall.
He is our only student inside the top twenty.”
“Helge Nollaig is close behind,” the mentor continued.
“With nine kills, he ranks fifty-first, sitting right on the threshold of the top fifty.
Meanwhile, Anna Julianne has claimed eight monsters, holding fifty-ninth place.”
Meinhard Janek stood with his hands folded behind his back, his brow furrowed in a tight knot.
On paper, Rudyard’s fourteenth-place standing was commendable.
But looking at the collective performance of the class, Meinhard could not hide his disappointment.
“The disparity in our students’ strength is far too severe this year,” Meinhard said, his voice echoing with a grim, heavy tone.
“Only six made it into the top one hundred, and barely one managed to break into the top twenty.” Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Compared to previous graduating classes, this cohort lacked both foundational depth and elite peak strength.
To make matters worse, their rival institution, Cypress Institute, was dominating the ranks.
Their star student, Hanna Raelene, had already slain seventeen sea monsters, firmly locking down the number one spot on the leaderboard.
Even more embarrassing for Valley View, the top three spots in the entire standings belonged exclusively to Cypress Institute.
“This year’s class…
really is lacking,” several mentors sighed softly, exchanging helpless, bitter glances.
Hard physical strength was something that couldn’t be faked, and losing out on pure power was the most frustrating feeling of all.
“Wait, everyone, look at the scoreboard!” a mentor suddenly yelled, his finger trembling as he pointed at the central display.
“The board just refreshed, what the hell?!
Am I seeing things?!”
The room fell quiet as the instructors instinctively turned their attention back to the rank list.
The page flickered, re-sorting the names in real-time.
Rank one remained unchanged: Hanna Raelene from Cypress Institute.
However, the second-place spot, previously held by another prodigy from Cypress Institute, had been brutally overwritten.
Rank 2: Reed Newt | Valley View Academy | Kills: 16 | Points: 160
Silence descended upon the observation room.
The air felt thick, so quiet that the heavy breathing of the stunned mentors was the only audible sound.
A leap like this wasn’t just impressive; it defied logic.
“He…
he…” A mentor stumbled over his words, looking around in utter bewilderment.
“Can anyone tell me what just happened?!”
“Calm down,” Meinhard Janek snapped, though his own jaw was set firm.
Waving his hand across the control panel, Meinhard bypassed thousands of individual island streams, pulling up the live visual feed directly tied to Reed Newt’s coordinates.
The screen flashed, resolving into a clear view of Reed standing quietly at the edge of a colossal, smoldering black crater.
Deep inside the pit lay the charred, pulverized remains of sea monsters, blown so thoroughly to pieces that they were nearly unrecognizable.
Counting the remains, there were exactly fifteen carcasses inside the crater.
Added to the single monster Reed had killed earlier, it brought his total count to sixteen. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
“How did he do that?!” a mentor blurted out, eyes wide.
“Did he trigger a sudden, high-level evolution?”
A crater of that scale couldn’t possibly be created by a mortal body.
Yet, as the instructors scanned the feed’s energy meters, the readings remained completely flat.
There were zero energy fluctuations around Reed Newt.
He hadn’t evolved at all.
He was still, by every definition, an ordinary human.
“Then how is this possible?!” another instructor exclaimed, throwing his hands up.
“Wiping out fifteen sea monsters in a single instant is beyond even a First-Order Evolutionary!
You’d need a Second-Order Evolutionary specializing in massive area-of-effect destruction to pull that off!”
“This is insane…
what on earth did he do?” The mentors swallowed nervously, their conventional understanding of the assessment shattered.
Nothing like this had ever been documented in the academy’s history.
“It wasn’t energy,” Meinhard Janek spoke slowly, his sharp eyes locked onto the black scorch marks visible on the projection.
“It was gunpowder.”
Tracing a finger along the edges of the massive depression, the Principal analyzed, “Look at the blast radius.
The structural impact spreads outward from a central point in a classic explosive pattern.
Notice the distinct yellow and black chemical residue coating the bedrock.”
The instructors froze for a second before the realization hit them like a physical blow.
Before the age of evolution, Terra had pursued the path of science and technology.
Chemical explosives were well-documented in historical archives, capable of shattering mountains and tearing through dense stone.
Still, shock rendered them speechless.
Reed Newt hadn’t tried to awaken a super-physique or channel raw energy; he had engineered primitive, high-yield explosives on a desolate island!
“Wait,” a mentor interjected, his eyebrows drawing together as he ran the mental calculations.
“If those were chemical explosives, the sheer mass required to kill fifteen armored sea monsters simultaneously…”
“At least three tons,” Meinhard nodded, uttering a number that left the room breathless.
In the grand scope of advanced technology, basic black powder was far from an ultimate weapon.
But when stockpiled by the ton and detonated in a tight space, its raw kinetic force was more than enough to paint the island red.