One man nudged his colleague.
"Did you hear? Some high school sophomore with a Slime wants to challenge Caelum."
The other snorted.
"Caelum? The number two in holy dragon university year 1 student?"
"Yep."
"That's suicide."
A woman in a black suit joined them.
"I heard he's only tenth grade. His beast is E-rank."
Shook her head.
"Does he have no self-awareness? The grade difference alone is massive. Two full grades."
Another official chimed in.
"And the beast rank gap! F-rank versus SS-rank! That's seven tiers!"
"Eight if you count Caelum's other ability, his family gave him lots of good stuff for the beast."
"The kid doesn't understand how power scaling works."
But then someone else spoke up.
Older man.
"Wait. Alex? The one who helped Victor?"
The group turned.
"What?"
"That boy destroyed the cult ritual on the island. Saved Victor's entire team. He's got military merit at seventeen."
Murmurs.
Surprised.
The woman frowned.
"Really? That was him?"
