The morning started with shouting.
"—and I said no mana channeling in the dorms!"
Professor Virel's voice carried down the hallway long before Ren reached the classroom. By the time he stepped inside, half the students were standing at attention like soldiers caught mid-crime. The rest were pretending to be invisible.
She stood at the front, tablet in hand, expression carved from stone.
"Good. Everyone's here," she said. "Today, you'll prove whether Class F deserves to exist."
A few groans rippled through the room.
"The rest of the academy is holding its first-year Practical Combat Assessment. Teams of four will enter simulation stages to clear Rift scenarios. Your performance affects your Merit ranking. For most of you, that means survival."
Ren sank into his chair. Fantastic. I can't even make the lights work without shorting them; now they want me to fight holograms.
Virel tapped her screen. Names flickered on the wall display in neat columns.
"Teams are preassigned. No swaps, no complaints."
The display scrolled to the bottom, where his name glowed faintly in red:
Team 7 — Mira Calden, Ezra Tenn, Kade Iseren, Ren Ardyn
He blinked. "Who's Kade?"
He didn't have to wait long for the answer.
"Finally," someone drawled behind him. "I was wondering which genius I got stuck with."
Ren turned to see a tall, broad-shouldered student with perfectly styled blond hair and the kind of smirk that came with old money and good lighting. His uniform jacket hung open like the rules were for other people.
"Kade Iseren," he said, extending a hand like he was doing Ren a favor. "Class E. Temporarily."
"Ren Ardyn," Ren said, shaking it anyway. "Class F. Permanently."
Kade grinned. "Right. The Ardyn who can't use mana. Don't worry, I'll carry."
"Great," Ren said. "I've always wanted to be luggage."
Mira, sitting nearby, sighed audibly. She was short, dark-haired, and looked permanently unimpressed.
"You two done?" she said. "Because if not, I'll start without you."
Ezra — the nervous, gadget-carrying engineer — raised a tentative hand. "I, uh, built a new drone. It might help."
"Fantastic," Mira said. "Let's just hope it doesn't explode."
Ezra looked down. "…It might."
Arena 3 – Simulation Stage
The arena was massive — a hollow cylinder of polished metal, lined with crystalline projectors that painted the world into existence. High above, bleachers filled with students from higher divisions, cheering as simulations played out below.
Class F didn't get many cheers.
Professor Virel stood by the control console, arms folded.
"Stage one: urban Rift incursion. Objective: eliminate or contain all hostiles. You'll have ten minutes. Survive, and I'll consider not failing you on attendance."
Ren's sword felt heavier than usual as the simulation booted up.
The arena shifted into a broken cityscape — collapsed towers, flickering streetlights, the distant echo of something growling. Blue light bled from every crack in the ground.
Mira gave orders fast and clean.
"Ezra, traps. Ren, cover him. Kade, stay close until I—"
Kade had already drawn his sword and sprinted ahead.
"—or don't," Mira muttered. "Sure. Let's die early."
Ren followed Ezra instead, shielding him while the boy placed mana disks along the broken pavement.
"You sure these will work?" Ren asked.
"Probably! They just need a steady mana line—"
The ground shook as Kade's sword met the first monster — a lean, four-legged thing of dark mana with too many eyes. His blade cut deep, glowing with white heat.
"One down!" Kade shouted, grinning. "Try to keep up!"
Then two more beasts appeared. And another.
"He just aggroed half the stage," Mira snapped.
Ezra's trap grid flickered. "Wait, the current's unstable!"
"Of course it is," Ren muttered.
One of the creatures leapt straight for them. Ren moved without thinking — sidestepping, bringing the dull training sword up just enough to deflect the lunge. His stance was clean, reflex perfect… until the weapon met mana.
The blade sparked, the projection flickered, and then—
Everything froze.
The monsters hung mid-air, the simulation colors twisting into static.
Even the background sound cut out.
A robotic voice echoed overhead.
[Error: Unregistered Signature Detected.]
[Recalibrating Simulation Environment…]
Ren stared at the motionless creature an inch from his face.
"…Did I just break reality?"
Ezra looked around, wide-eyed. "You— you touched it! And then the program—"
The entire city blinked once. Then exploded in white light.
When it cleared, the monsters were gone. The environment reset to neutral.
Professor Virel's voice cut through the silence.
"Stage cleared."
Aftermath
The team regrouped near the arena exit.
Kade was furious.
"You didn't clear it," he snapped. "You glitched it! That's not skill."
"Worked better than your plan," Ren said.
"My plan was working fine until—"
"Until it wasn't," Mira interrupted. She crossed her arms. "Face it, Iseren. Whatever he did, it counted."
Ezra nodded quickly. "The system logged it as a full clear. I, uh, checked twice."
Kade turned away, muttering under his breath.
Ren looked up at the observation gallery. Elise stood there among the elite students, arms folded, expression unreadable. When their eyes met, she tilted her head — not quite approval, not quite disbelief.
He couldn't tell which made him more uncomfortable.
Night
Ren's wristband pinged as he sat on his bed later that night.
[Merit +10 | Reason: System Anomaly – Manual Review Pending]
He smiled faintly.
"I'll take it."
He set the band aside and leaned back, staring at the faint glow of the dorm ceiling.
For once, the lights didn't flicker.