Itekan leaned slowly back in his chair, eyes flicking to the corners of the room. The instructors prowled like slow-moving predators in a sea of prey. His hand twitched once beside his paper, then rested calmly.
Togira, he thought.
Inside his spatial ring, the small creature peeked out with one eye, blinking—as if annoyed to be disturbed.
"Togira, come on, help me out here."
Togira groaned softly but eventually agreed. Itekan smiled faintly and wrapped him in shadow energy. A ripple of black mist shimmered for half a second before vanishing. Togira's body flattened, shifting into a ribbon of shadow that slithered along the floor like a phantom snake.
No one noticed.
No one ever did, not when Itekan used his shadow. His sensory and camouflage skills were already on par with heroes in the advanced Blue Eyes Form.
From his vantage point, Itekan watched Togira glide between legs and desks. He stopped at a sheet of black notes tucked hastily under a student's boot. These enchanted notes only revealed their contents to a specific Spiritual Signature Tier (SST)—not unlike his father's shadow diary.
The sheet belonged to Laila Joru—she was cheating.
So I'm not the only one, Itekan thought.
Togira curled beneath the page, scanned the glyphs with a quiet hum of energy, then slithered back. On his return, he passed under Avery Ransthrol's desk.
Avery's sleeve flicked.
From inside his coat, a slip of illusion magic unfolded, revealing a neat diagram of SE flow patterns inked onto a false inner lining. He muttered softly, tapping out translations with rhythmic fingers. The diagram mapped answers onto his paper as if he were typing to a silent beat.
Togira squeaked in amusement and moved on.
Halfway across the room, Kento Kenpachi hadn't moved once. But a faint vibration pulsed from his fingertips—soundwave resonance. His unique SE let him pick up microscopic impressions from ancient scrolls. With his perfect memory, the exam might as well have been printed on his palms.
Everyone's a little monster in disguise, Itekan smirked.
Togira swirled back up his arm like smoke. The moment they touched, Itekan's mind sparked—flooded with memorized text, highlighted glyphs, and reference formulae.
His hand began to move.
Three questions down in rapid succession. His confidence swelled. The fog of panic that had gripped him earlier evaporated. Questions he'd never have solved alone came easily now.
But forty minutes in, something shifted.
A pulse.
Itekan looked up. Instructor Keel Kun stood at the podium, his gaze scanning the room—then stopping on Itekan. For just a second.
Itekan grinned. He remembered the apostles' attack they'd survived together.
Did he notice?
Quickly, he suppressed the trace SE leaking from his body.
He lowered his pen. Breathed slowly. Pretended to reread the question. His eyes stayed on Keel Kun, who still held his gaze. Then, Itekan smiled—and looked away.
Across the hall, Itoyea caught the exchange. His lips twitched. He gave a subtle nod, exhaling a breath he hadn't realized he'd held.
Saw that. Nice save.
He turned back to his paper, tapping two fingers against the desk in a coded rhythm. The sheet in front of him fluttered as a sudden breeze swept through the hall.
Not natural.
He had unsheathed his main sword just slightly—just enough to cause that wind.
As the paper flew, he stood and retrieved it, helping others pick up theirs along the way. He returned to his seat with a blank expression.
Done. I don't think anyone noticed.
Except—one instructor near the front, beside Keel Kun, grinned.
That movement wasn't something even a third-stage hero could follow.
In truth, the paper hadn't flown. Itoyea had created a fake SE construct—so finely tuned it was undetectable. It acted as a distraction while he copied answers onto his real sheet—all while moving between desks.
Even if someone tried to expel him, it wouldn't hold. No SE fluctuations were traceable. The only reason the instructor noticed... was because he'd already been watching.
In the back row, Cheim Nell yawned.
Beneath her desk, her foot nudged a small mechanical fly—barely the size of a pebble. It pulsed once, projecting a faint image only she could see. A schematic of SE channel mutations hovered at the edge of her vision.
Farther back, Zealch Zuan was sweating blood.
His technique had been fine at first. He'd sent a wisp of SE from his astral body to latch onto a friend's aura—someone he trusted to have the right answers.
But that damned breeze.
His control slipped.
A tremor in his SE output made his signature flicker—just once.
No, no, no— he panicked, trying to pull it back in.
An instructor began moving toward him—Melordas, the silver-eyed enforcer with a face like cracked stone. He moved slowly, deliberately, as if giving Zealch time to fix the mistake.
Zealch forced his astral body back into alignment just as Melordas stopped beside him.
But it was too late.
His SE had been seen.
"Trainee Zealch Zuan. Submit your papers," Melordas said, palm outstretched.
"W-wait, please! I—I can fix it! Just give me a moment!"
Around him, some trainees looked away. Others smirked.
Well, that evens the odds by one, thought a boy with round glasses.
Itekan's jaw tightened, but he said nothing. Kutote looked grim, remembering what Sensei Pwain once told them:
This world has no pity for those who can't keep up.
Even if every trainee protested, the instructors would expel them all before backing down.
Keel Kun didn't speak. But his eyes met Itekan's.
Don't expect mercy.
As Zealch was escorted out, face streaked with shame, a heavy silence fell.
They were no longer students.
They were heroes.
---
The rest of the exam passed without incident.
Well… not exactly.
Three more were removed for cheating. One, in a panic, tried to lash out at the instructor who caught him.
He didn't even make it past his first motion—his arm was dislocated before he could blink.
To some, it seemed like a joke—a momentary interlude in an otherwise suffocating atmosphere.
By the sixtieth minute, time was called.
Papers down. Pens off the desk.
They filed out like prisoners released at dawn.
Outside the exam hall, Itekan and Itoyea finally let out synchronized sighs.
"I had no idea it gets that tense in there," Itoyea muttered.
"You? Tense?" Itekan smirked.
Binturu caught up to them, hands in his coat pockets. "Please. You two were practically having a backroom duel over who could cheat flashier."
"I didn't cheat," Itoyea grinned. "I used... combat instinct."
"Oh, shut it," Kutote rolled his eyes, brushing past them. "Itekan, you should've been more careful. You almost got caught."
"Hehehe… I guess Togira did most of the work," Itekan scratched his head, sheepish as they walked.
"So… when do the results come out?"
"Soon. Then they'll decide who stays… and who gets thrown out."
"Harsh," Itoyea said, eyes narrowing. "But fair."
Around them, trainees buzzed with nervous chatter—some hopeful, some terrified. No one mentioned Zealch Zuan or the others who had been expelled.
---
Later That Day
Keel Kun folded his arms behind his back as Headmaster Kime settled into his chair.
"What's the report?" Kime asked.
"No major incidents," Keel Kun replied. "Four removed. Only one caused a scene."
"And?"
"Nothing unexpected. Zuan lacked discipline. He slipped. We gave him more chances than protocol required."
Kime leaned forward slightly. "What about Itekan?"
A pause.
"He's good. Undoubtedly. But reckless. Almost messed up. I had to warn him directly."
Kime scoffed, reading the hidden praise in Keel Kun's tone.
"And Itoyea?"
"Used illusion wind. Clean execution. Most peers couldn't replicate it. If I wasn't watching, I wouldn't have known."
"Hm. Kutote?"
"He's the quiet type. His scores will be high. Likely memorized every glyph before the test started."
Kime smiled, leaning back. "The top ten are all monsters. 'C'... what did you see in those three?" he murmured.
Keel Kun glanced toward the window, the skies beyond it bleeding softly into the divine veil that separated the mortal world from the realm of the gods.
"Call them to my office," he said.
Then, quietly:
"Guess I should clear my schedule. Might be time to teach them a few new things."
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Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)
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