Karasuno High School – Class III A (13 June, 2025)
"Man, I'm doomed!"
Kirito buried his head in frustration.
"Don't worry, we'll pass… at least by the minimum marks," Neje reassured him, though even his words sounded hollow.
"What about you, Reno?" Neje asked.
Reno gave a bitter laugh. "We're all in the same boat here."
On the other side, Asuna bumped her head onto the desk.
"What am I going to tell Mom if I fail?" she muttered.
"It'll be fine, Asuna-chan," Mitsumi tried to cheer her up.
Shibuya – Sam's Apartment (Evening)
Kirito and Reno sat stiffly on the couch, their usually non-stop chatter silenced. Across from them, Sam sat with their answer sheets clenched tightly in his hand, his eyes burning with anger.
"What am I supposed to do with you two?" Sam muttered, releasing a heavy sigh. "Kirito—21 out of 100. Reno—21.5 out of 100. And you expect to pass?"
Both swallowed hard.
"You'll fail the entrance exam next year at this rate," Sam snapped, standing up and heading toward the kitchen.
"Huh…" Both Kirito and Reno exhaled in relief.
But Sam's voice thundered again, "No dinner for either of you tonight!"
Their relief shattered instantly.
Later That Night
The doorbell rang. Reno opened it to find Allya returning from her volleyball class.
"What happened to them?" she asked, glancing at the gloomy Kirito and Reno.
"They'll be fine," Sam said curtly. "Go wash up for dinner."
The evening passed in awkward silence. After dinner, as kirito and Reno returned home, they spotted someone familiar in the building corridor—Asuna.
"Huh? Kirito?" Asuna blinked.
"Huh? Asuna?" Kirito gasped, eyes wide in shock.
"Kirito, did we… drink alcohol or something?" Reno asked nervously.
"No, why?" Kirito tilted his head.
"Because… I'm seeing Asuna at our apartment door."
"What? Not just you. I see her too!" Kirito froze, staring at the figure.
Allya quickly opened the door and screamed, "A ghost of Asuna-chan!?"
"What nonsense are you spouting?" Sam snapped. He yanked the door open—only to find Asuna standing there, very much alive.
"Yes! I'm real, not a ghost!" she shouted indignantly.
Apparently, she had been kicked out of her house for failing her exams—scoring just 28 out of 100.
"Ha! At least she scored higher than you two," Sam smirked cruelly.
The next morning, Sam gathered Kirito for training.
"Come at me with everything you've got," Sam ordered.
Kirito focused his mana. "Atomic Rain!"
Blue particles showered horizontally across the room.
"Not bad for your first try," Sam said, before countering with his own spell, "Atomic Dome!" A shimmering barrier appeared, blocking Kirito's attack.
Kirito grit his teeth. To make a long-range fire attack, I need to combine hydrogen and oxygen.
"Let's go—Boom!"
But instead of fire, a gush of water splashed out.
"What the heck!?" Kirito screamed.
"You still have a long way to go," Sam said with a smirk.
During training, Sam introduced a new spell.
"This will boost your speed."
"But I can give myself a boost of speed with mana, so why to use a spell for that" kirito asked?
"Because you can't use it in long term"Sam answere in a second.
"So what does this spell do"
"Concentrate your mana and slime in feets and then imagine a way at which you want to travel,then release the slime to make the way visible and when you release the mana you can travel through the line, This is just a theory of mine, you can just imagine a way to travel on,faster you imagine faster you move"Sam explaine.
Kirito concentrated, and imagine a scenario of Sam using atomic rail, the blue line start generating, sound of high speed start snoozing in his ears. His vision blurred as the world around him accelerated."Is the spell worked" Kirito murmured and close his eye to avoid the damage due to dust. Sonda of holy bells and choncol shells covers the atmosphere around him.
Then, without warning, everything shifted.
Kirito opened his eyes and found himself levitating in a space filled with divine light. "Is this is a dream" Kirito pinch himself to check "No,this is real again". When he looked infornt of him, A colossal being, hundreds of times larger than him, stood before him—its form shrouded in mist, its presence is overwhelming.
His body trembled under the crushing weight of its mana.
"I… can't take this for long," Kirito whispered in fear.