The challenge didn't take long to arrive. It came in the form of a wax-sealed parchment delivered to Elian's door the next morning.
[Sanctioned Duel: Rank Assessment]
Challenger: Borin of House Valerius (Gold-Class, Rank 15)
Objective: Verification of Beast Stability.
Venue: The Sun-Dial Court.
Elian crumpled the paper. This wasn't a duel for honor; it was a subpoena dressed in combat robes. House Valerius was a vassal to Lady Seraphina's family. They wanted to see his cards.
The Sun-Dial Court was an outdoor arena, smaller than the Grand Arena but far more prestigious. Only the elites gathered here to settle disputes. As Elian stepped onto the sand, he saw Borin—a broad-shouldered boy with a smirk that suggested he had already won.
Beside him sat a Stone-Gargoyle, a Bronze-Mid beast with skin like jagged granite and eyes that glowed with a dull, yellowish light.
"Voss," Borin called out, his voice carrying to the balconies where Seraphina and her circle watched. "The Academy has rules about 'Aberrant Evolutions.' If your fox is a danger to the student body, my Gargoyle will put it down here and now. For the safety of the school, of course."
Elian didn't respond. He simply tapped his leg, and Ignis trotted forward. The charcoal fox looked tiny compared to the hulking stone construct.
[System Scan: Stone-Gargoyle (Bronze-Mid)]
[Primary Skill: Crushing Weight (Uncommon)]
[Strategy: Physical impact. High defense. Low speed.
"Begin!" the referee shouted.
"End this! [Crushing Weight]!" Borin roared.
The Gargoyle leaped into the air, its wings flapping once to gain massive height. It folded its limbs, turning into a falling boulder of pure mana-reinforced stone, aiming directly for Ignis.
The crowd leaned in. A hit from a Bronze-Mid Gargoyle would turn an Iron-rank fox into a red smear.
"Ignis," Elian said, his voice a low anchor. "Don't move. Activate [Obsidian Plating]."
Ignis sat. He didn't flinch. He didn't even look up. As the shadow of the falling beast engulfed him, the faint orange lines on his ribs turned a deep, vibrating violet-black.
CRACK-BOOM.
The impact sent a cloud of dust and sand thirty feet into the air. The stone floor of the court shattered, spiderwebbing outward. Borin laughed. "Too easy. Someone bring a shovel for the—"
The laughter died in his throat.
As the dust settled, the Gargoyle was still there, its massive stone fist buried in the crater. But it wasn't resting on the ground.
It was resting on the back of a small, charcoal-furred fox.
Ignis hadn't been crushed. The ground beneath the fox had cratered, but the fox itself was standing firm. A faint, translucent shell of dark energy—the Kinetic Shield from his new passive—shimmered around him like oil on water.
[Obsidian Plating: 85% Impact Absorbed. 15% Transferred to Earth.]
"My turn," Elian said. "Ignis. Point-blank [Fireball]."
Ignis opened his mouth. Because the Gargoyle was literally touching him, there was no travel time. The white-hot sphere detonated directly against the Gargoyle's chest.
At such close range, the heat didn't just burn; the kinetic force of the explosion, combined with the "Lava-Effect," caused the Gargoyle's stone chest to undergo rapid thermal expansion.
SHATTER.
The Gargoyle was blasted backward, its chest plate glowing molten red and covered in cracks. It tumbled across the sand, unconscious before it even stopped rolling.
The silence in the Sun-Dial Court was absolute.
Elian picked up Ignis, who looked bored, and looked up at the balcony. Seraphina's eyes were wide, her Frost-Eagle agitated.
"Stability verified," Elian said to the stunned referee.
He turned and walked out.
As Elian walked back to his room, his mind wasn't on the victory. It was on the feeling he had when the Gargoyle struck.
For a split second, the Matrix had flickered, showing a "ghost signal" coming from the audience—not from a beast, but from a person.
The same green, extraterrestrial energy he had seen in the Iron Woods.
Someone at the Academy is infected. Or someone is a spy.
He needed to get stronger, and he needed to do it outside the Academy's prying eyes. He remembered a conversation he had overheard in the Mercenary Hub between two veteran hunters about the "Shadow-Market of the Gutter."
Every lunar eclipse, a secret auction was held in the sewers beneath Oakhaven. It was where the true forbidden goods were sold: stolen eggs, cursed artifacts, and—most importantly—Spatial-Type Beasts.
"System," Elian whispered as he reached the safety of his room. "If I find a Spatial beast, what's the fusion potential?"
[Processing...]
[High Potential: Integrating Spatial Essence into an Ash Fox would unlock 'Folded-Space Storage' or 'Short-Range Blink.']
[Warning: Spatial Cores are extremely volatile. Cost for Synthesis: Estimated 50 Silver Credits.]
"Fifty silver..." Elian leaned against his door. He had ten. He needed a way to make a fortune, fast. And he knew exactly how.
He looked at the beetle cores remaining in his bag. Most Beastmasters didn't know how to refine them. But he had the Matrix. He could create "Pre-Fused" materials—super-stable alloys that blacksmiths would kill for.
"We're going to the auction, Ignis," Elian said, his eyes reflecting the flickering flame on the fox's tail. "But first, we're going to become the most mysterious suppliers in the underground."