Chapter 10 - Ascending the Stage

The Academy's training grounds stretched before me like a chessboard, its terrain dotted with obstacles, magical constructs, and beasts summoned for the day's examination. The test was simple in its rules, brutally clear in its design: earn 1,000 points to pass, first place receives a prize of exceptional renown.

Students scrambled into positions, eyes bright with ambition and nerves. Malrik Veynor's stance radiated confidence, his aura sharp and commanding; Isolde Thorne's presence was calm yet intense, every movement precise and controlled. Everyone believed talent, speed, and determination alone could tip the scales. How naïve.

I surveyed the field, Codex humming at my temples. Every creature, every construct, every student's trajectory was visible. Points, power, potential, missteps—all quantifiable, all manipulable.

Step One: Observation.

I let my gaze fall on the first wave of summoned beasts—creatures of claws, fangs, and magic-infused sinew. Others approached with caution, weapons ready, mana coiled. But I did not step forward yet. I analyzed. Their strength, weaknesses, elemental affinities, and behavioral algorithms. Every trait cataloged.

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7/10

6/10

Fire, Earth

Predictable attack cycles, elemental limitations]

Step Two: Disintegrate.

I focused. A flicker of intent. One thought. Their claws, teeth, senses, elemental instincts—gone. Traits evaporated into nothing, stripped from the beasts themselves. The other students froze, uncertain, powerless against the creatures they believed they controlled.

Step Three: Integrate.

I drew the traits inward, feeling them weave into my body, my mind, my aura. Reflexes sharpened, elemental sensitivity heightened, instinctive combat knowledge folded seamlessly into my awareness. A single thought: I am all of this, and more.

I stepped forward. Hands empty. Body small. Yet every motion carried the lessons of dozens of beasts, every step a cascade of newly integrated skill.

Students struggled, beasts roared, teachers shouted, and yet I moved like inevitability incarnate.

Malrik Veynor(Male lead) acted instinctively, striking with precision, his points rising steadily—but under my Codex, his actions were entirely predictable. Isolde Thorne(Female lead) adjusted her mana flow with exquisite control, elegant and precise, but her efforts could not compare to one who held the essence of every beast and the perception of the System in his mind.

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I glanced at Malrik. He clenched his fists, eyes sharp, recognizing a level of power he could not yet measure. Isolde's gaze lingered, calm but calculating, aware that I was no ordinary student.

The crowd erupted as I crossed the final marker, a polite bow to the observing teachers masking the omnipotence I carried. The prize—the recognition, the symbolic title—was mine, and the Academy would remember it.

But trophies were trivial. I had grown beyond the test itself.

The beasts, disintegrated and integrated, were now fragments of my existence. Their instincts, elemental affinities, and combat tendencies coursed through me like rivers of power. I felt their strength, not as another being, but as an extension of my will. Every strike, every dodge, every thought a reflection of perfected calculation.

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