The morning air was crisp as I left the dormitory. My body felt light after exercises, the heat of training purged by the cold bath, and the quiet calm of breakfast lingering on my tongue. Every step down the stone pathway echoed faintly in the courtyard.
Yet it wasn't my footsteps the students noticed.
It was my presence.
Mana coiled around me in invisible currents, unwilling to stay hidden. Students along the path stopped mid-stride, conversations dying as they felt it wash over them. Their own auras trembled, recoiling instinctively. Whispers sparked like embers in the silence.
"Oh my god… he's breathtaking."
"B-rank. At sixteen. A monster in human skin."
"His aura—my chest feels tight. He's dangerous."
I didn't spare them a glance. My gaze stayed fixed on the towering doors ahead. Admiration, fear, envy… none of it mattered. What mattered was walking forward.
When I pushed open the Apex classroom door, the atmosphere collapsed into silence.
Every head turned. Dozens of eyes pierced into me, their owners struggling to breathe under the weight of my mana. I crossed the room without pause, my aura whispering against theirs, until I reached my chair and sat down as though nothing had changed.
But everything had changed.
Their whispers returned, quieter, though my sharpened senses caught each word.
"He reached B-rank…" Theodore Ashbourne's voice cracked in disbelief.
Beside him, Viviene froze, the faint light of the mana crystal in her hand flickering erratically. The energy she had been shaping scattered into sparks, her control shattering the instant her eyes fell on me. Her lips parted, but no sound came.
Selene Ravenshade—my sister—stared at me with wide, conflicted eyes. Her aura flickered unsteadily, pride and shame tangled in its tremors. Once, she mocked me as the disgrace of our bloodline. Now her mana itself bowed before mine.
My former fiancée looked even worse. Her shoulders sagged, her fingers clutched at the small mana conduit on her desk until her knuckles whitened. Regret clung to her like a shadow. She tried to avert her gaze, but her eyes returned to me, listless and defeated, as though the weight of her choices was finally suffocating her.
Lucian Aureldane's response was fire. His aura spiked violently, lashing against mine with all the subtlety of a cornered beast. Rage, malice, jealousy—all bleeding into his mana. The clash was brief. His aura shattered against the calm tide of mine, leaving him glaring, jaw tight, face pale.
Kael Rivers, the so-called protagonist, wasn't pale. His eyes blazed. Shock at first, yes, but quickly hardened into resolve. He clenched his fists, and his mana flared in answer. A rival's fire. He would double his training after this—I could see it written in his aura.
Nymera Dravenholt sat calm as ever. She had known of my breakthrough from our battle in the dungeon. But even she wasn't untouched. I caught the flicker in her eyes, the way her mana hummed, sharpened, eager. Competition. Fighting spirit.
Seris Eryndor studied me with curiosity. Her aura was steady, controlled, but its edges reached out toward mine as though probing, testing. She wasn't shocked—she was intrigued.
And then there was Carmila Noctharyn.
The vampire princess smiled, crimson eyes glowing faintly. Her aura was a storm of silk and steel, coiling possessively around me even across the room. I felt it like cold fingers brushing my skin. Obsession, hunger, madness. When I spoke of Nymera, her mana shifted, the sweetness souring into jealousy, sharp enough to cut.
I looked away. Best not to feed that fire.
The silence broke when Theodore spoke again, joined by Kael.
"How?" Theodore demanded, voice thin."You were already strong," Kael added, tone grudging but edged with respect. "But this… this is monstrous."
Dozens of gazes burned into me. They wanted an answer.
I let the moment stretch before I replied, voice calm, steady.
"Nymera and I entered a dungeon. We fought a B-rank monster. In the heat of battle… we broke through."
Gasps rippled through the class.
Even without mana-sight, they felt the truth in my words. Facing a B-rank monster at sixteen was suicide for most. For us, it had been rebirth.
Carmila's aura twisted the moment I spoke Nymera's name. Her mana pressed against mine, possessive, jealous. I ignored it, turning my senses outward instead.
Kael Rivers—C+ rank. Lucian Aureldane too, his aura strained but growing. Nymera, already at C+, steady and strong. The others hovered at C, prodigies in their own right. The Apex class truly was filled with monsters.
The door creaked open again.
Professor Lysandra Vaelthorne entered with the grace of a drawn blade. Her presence alone was enough to quiet even the restless mana currents in the air. Her aura swept across the room, commanding obedience without words.
Her gaze paused on Nymera, and she gave the faintest nod of approval. Then her eyes moved across the class—until they met mine.
For a heartbeat, her composure cracked. Her aura faltered, shocked by what it touched. She masked it quickly, face smoothing into calm, but I had seen it.
"Congratulations," she said, voice measured. "On reaching B-rank."
"Thank you," I replied.
Her gaze sharpened, assessing, weighing. "From here on, advancement will not come easily. Past B-rank, raw power is not enough. You will need theory, intelligence, strategy. You will face missions that will risk your life. Only then will you find another breakthrough."
"I will," I said simply.
A flicker of approval glimmered in her eyes. She turned back to the class.
"Today, we will not waste time with drills. Instead, the Academy has arranged something… special."
Her words hung heavy in the silence.
"You will duel not against lower classes—they are too weak for you now—but against your true peers. The Apex class of the second years."
The classroom erupted.
Mana flared like wildfire—fear, excitement, disbelief crashing together. The air crackled, the classroom thick with pressure as every prodigy's aura erupted at once.
A duel against the second years—the elites, one step ahead of us. For most, it was unthinkable.
For me?
Perfect.