The adrenaline from the fight began to fade the moment Ray stepped out of the courtyard, he felt the strain of maintaining the ‘Quad-Concurrent Partial Immersion’ although the cost was partially offset by his innate skill Cognitive Network, he still felt it had cost him some mental stamina.

As wanted to maintain his peak state, Ray reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a dense, foil-wrapped brick: a high-calorie nutrient bar Rina had formulated specifically for his recovery. It tasted like sawdust and concentrated honey, but Ray tore the wrapper off and bit into it with feral intensity.

“Want one?”

Ray offered, his mouth half-full, holding out a second bar to the group.

Kaelen and Eliza declined in unison. They were used to this. For Ray, effort was almost always followed by snacking.

“You are an endless pit of contradictions, Ray,”

Eliza said, watching him demolish the bar in three bites. She tilted her head, eyeing him with a new, critical appreciation.

“One minute you are the fragile scholar, the next you are… well. That.”

She gestured vaguely back toward the courtyard, where students were still staring at the spot where Viktor Garrick had folded.

“Have you been secretly lifting rocks in the basement?”

Eliza teased, a playful glint in her eyes.

“Or are you planning to leave us and join Team SIS? I hear Darian is looking for recruits for the main qualifiers. You’d fit right in now.”

“I prefer our team, ‘Team Chimera,’”

Ray mumbled, swallowing the last of the bar.

“Muscle is just armor for the organs. It’s practical.”

“It is terrifying.”

Kaelen corrected softly.

Ray looked at her. Kaelen was walking slightly behind him.. Her expression was stoic, but her eyes were turbulent.

For the past three months, Kaelen had been pushing herself to the brink. She had trained until her hands bled, mastering the flow of mana, like she was preparing to join a war. She thought she was far ahead from Ray being a 3rd-Circle Adept. She thought it would still take years for Ray to catch up to her.

But today…

He didn’t use a spell, He dismantled a Garrick using nothing but biology and timing. While I was sharpening my sword, he was reforging the arm that holds it.

Kaelen thought, the realization settling in her chest like a stone.

It didn’t discourage her. Kaelen Thorne was not built to break. But it shifted her world. She realized that being Ray Croft’s comrade no longer needed her to protect him. It was about running fast enough to keep up with his growth and still be able to fight side by side with him in the future..

“My Lord.”

A large shadow detached itself from a stone pillar up ahead. Svane stepped into the sunlight, falling into step beside them. The veteran captain didn’t look at Eliza or Kaelen; his eyes were locked on Ray.

“Captain,”

Ray acknowledged, reaching for a second nutrient bar.

“You saw?”

“I saw it.”

Svane grunted.

“The hand-slap was reckless. But effective. However…”

Svane paused, his gaze intensifying.

“That move you used to get behind Garrick. The burst of speed into the blind spot. The way you leveraged the momentum.”

Ray paused mid-bite.

“Effective, wasn’t it?”

“It looked familiar,”

Svane said, his voice low.

“It looked like my Tactical Shift.“

Ray smiled slightly.

“You have a good eye.”

“That is a Gold Aegis technique, I have never taught it to you. I have only used it in your presence… perhaps a couple of times? During our trip to Iron-Wake.”

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Svane said, baffled.

“I watched,”

Ray admitted.

“I analyzed the footwork and the mechanics. I can’t use it as efficiently as you, so my move is an inferior version of yours captain.”

“Inferior?”

“You could say it’s a poor man’s version, It burns three times the stamina and has half the effective range. It’s messy.”

Ray explained, treating it like an engineering problem.

Ray raised three fingers.

“Three months ago, attempting the move caused me to be down and out for the day and it would take me at least a day to recover back to peak physical state. My tendons would have snapped under the torque. But I continue to practice and recently I got a breakthrough and I can now handle the recoil.”

Ray explained as he tapped his chest.

Svane fell silent.

He walked beside his charge, staring straight ahead, but internally, his mind was reeling.

He reverse-engineered a Golden Aegis mobility skill just by watching it,and he adapted and modified it to suit his physical capabilities?

Svane thought.

Svane had served many lords. He had seen prodigies. But Ray wasn’t just a prodigy. He was a mimic. A predator that evolved by consuming the techniques of everyone around him.

The Captain’s intuition was sharper than he knew. He was unknowingly describing the system’s ‘Tactical Replication Protocol.’ Months ago, during the chaos at Iron-Wake, Ray hadn’t just “watched” Svane; the system had recorded the aetheric signature of the Tactical Shift frame-by-frame. Ray had spent countless nights in his training room at the Spire of Sages deconstructing that data, stripping it down to its core mechanics, and rebuilding the skill from the ground up to fit his own physiology.

“It was not messy, It was… sufficient.”

Svane said finally, his voice gruff with hidden pride.

Ray grinned. From Svane, that was high praise.

By the time Ray reached the Spire of Sages, the story of the spar had already lapped him twice.

The Academy rumor mill, usually a source of petty gossip, had turned into a frenzy of speculation. The “One-Punch Artificer” was the only topic of conversation in the cafeteria, the library, and the dueling arena.

“Did you see the spar?”

One 3rd-Circle Adept whispered to another in the hallway. “Croft walked right through Viktor’s ice element spell. Didn’t even slow down.”

“I heard he didn’t use mana, I heard he wore a prototype exo-skeleton under his coat. That’s why he slapped the spell. It’s plating.”

A 1st-Circle Novice countered.

“No, you idiot. He’s clearly been training in the Eastern Monasteries. That was a Dim Mak strike he used on Viktor. Stopped his heart.”

The betting pools for the Azure Cup were in chaos. Overnight, the odds on Solhaven’s internal qualifiers shifted. Viktor Garrick, previously a favorite for the Dueling event, plummeted. Ray Croft, who wasn’t even confirmed for the Dueling event yet, skyrocketed.

Expectation hung heavy over the Spire. Everyone assumed Ray would take his ‘Direct Entry’ and storm the Dueling event to cement his dominance.

But inside the quiet sanctuary of his suite, Ray wasn’t thinking about dominance.

He was thinking about logistics.

Ray sat in his armchair at his study, the evening light fading outside his window. He pulled out his Custodian Crest and tapped on the link for the details about the Main Qualifier.

A shimmering blue holographic interface projected into the air at eye level. It showed the Official Tournament Registration Portal, rotating slowly.

Ray tapped the air, bypassing the dense introductory text and scrolling straight to the selection screen. The categories floated before him as glowing, interactive runes.

[EVENT SELECTION]

[ ] Dueling (Combat)

[ ] Alchemy & Potioneering

[ ] Runic Engineering (Artifice)

[ ] Beast Taming

[ ] Strategic War-Gaming

Inside his mind, his internal Council began a discussion.

Weaver: “Of course we have to join the Dueling Event! Don’t let me down, boy! Did you see the sheer terror on those peasants’ faces? We didn’t just win; we shattered their tiny, insignificant worldviews into a million pieces! Just imagine us on the main stage, We’ll be weaving circles around those amateurs until they’re spinning!”

Naturalist: “Crikey, mate! You’re a real legend, but how about we take a look at the absolute beauties in this Beast Taming event! It’s not just about the sights, either, they’ve got some bonza prizes, like a mystery rare egg for the champion. My heart’s pumpin’ just thinking about it! We’ve gotta get right out there and explore the wild!”

Veteran: “Quiet down, both of you. We made our point with Garrick. We don’t need to paint a bigger target on our back.”

Courtier: “Agreed. Public displays of force invite scrutiny. If we dominate the Dueling Event, we reveal our full hand before the real war begins.”

Ray ignored them for a moment, his eyes drifting to the Rewards Section.

[Dueling Champion: 10,000 Marks + Glory + Access to Martial Manuals + Master level Equipment Commision.]

[Alchemy/Artifice Champion: 10,000 Marks + Access to Tier-3 Vaults + Rare Material Commission.]

[Runic Engineering Champion: 10,000 Marks + Access to Tier-3 Vaults (Schematics) + Master-Class Runic Commission.]

[Beast Taming Champion: 10,000 Marks + One (1) Mystery Rare Egg (High-Grade) + Full Set of High Quality Beast Reagents.]

[Strategic War-Gaming Champion: 10,000 Marks + Access to the Royal Archives (Restricted Maps) + A Master-Class ‘Tactical Projection Table’equipment.]

Ray’s eyes narrowed. Glory was nice. Money was useful. But Tier-3 Access? That was power.

The Tier-3 Vaults didn’t just hold combat manuals. They held the restricted blueprints for the Academy’s defensive arrays. They held the lost recipes for rare Elixirs. They held events in the history of Eldoria that the Crown had redacted.

“I don’t need glory, I need data. And I need materials.”

Ray murmured.

Weaver: “But the applause! The drama!”

Cultivator: “Vanity is a trap. The true master seeks resources, not recognition. However… to secure access to the Vault, we must win.”

Ray looked at the ‘Direct Entry’ designation next to his name. This allowed him to skip the Open Culling, the messy, chaotic free-for-all that weeded out the weak.

Most people expected him to use his Direct Entry for the Dueling Event, to save his energy for the Main Qualifiers..

Ray smiled, a sharp, calculating light entering his eyes.

He scrolled past Dueling, Alchemy, past Runic Engineering, past Beast Taming. He stopped at the bottom of the list and pressed his thumb firmly against a single, specific category.

Veteran: “Kid… You realize that event is dominated by the highborn nobles from the College of Statecraft? They’ve been studying military history and supply lines since they were in diapers.”

The Crimson Weaver: “Oh, let them study! We’re going to rewrite the textbooks!”

The interface pulsed green, accepting the additional entry.

“The Headmaster said she wanted to win everything.”

Ray said. He swiped his hand across the display, hitting the final [SUBMIT REGISTRATION] rune.

The holographic display collapsed into a tight beam of light and sucked back into his Custodian Crest with a digital whir.

“I’m just following orders.”

Ray added, glancing up at the physical map of Eldoria hanging on his wall, a map he now knew was woefully incomplete.

“Besides, I have a very big game to play.”

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