The summons came less than twenty minutes after Arthur acquired his Black Token. A terrified junior instructor, sweating profusely despite the cool academy air, had intercepted him in the main hall and escorted him to the highest spire of the Vanguard Bastion.
Arthur walked through the towering mahogany doors into the Headmistress's office. He stepped inside willingly, recognizing this space for what it was: the domain of the absolute peak existence in this world.
The office was opulent but chillingly cold. Frost laced the edges of the massive arched windows. Behind a desk of polished black iron stood Sylvia Thorne.
She was breathtakingly beautiful, but it was a lethal, untouchable kind of beauty. Her silver hair cascaded down her back like liquid moonlight, and her eyes were a piercing, glacial blue. She radiated an immense, suffocating spiritual pressure that would have forced any normal mortal to their knees.
Arthur didn't even blink. He walked right up to the desk, completely unfazed by her beauty or her power, and stood with the relaxed, dominant posture of a man inspecting a new acquisition.
Sylvia's eyes narrowed slightly. "You possess a Domain-Level Sword Intent. Yet, you have no magical core. You dress like a slum rat, but you carry yourself like an emperor. Who are you?"
Before Arthur could answer, a violent jolt rocked his very soul.
Miles away, in the underdog training grounds, Caden Cross had just uncorked a cheap vial of blue liquid.
As the liquid hit Caden's stomach, the crisp sound of the system chimed in Arthur's mind.
[Ding!]
[System Notification]
↳ Target Caden Cross has consumed: Low Grade Mana Potion.
↳ 10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated.
Arthur opened his eyes wide as the system forced the massive reward directly into his body.
"Fvck!" Arthur grunted loudly and slammed his hands onto Sylvia's desk.
Ten thousand times the concentrated mana of a standard potion erupted inside his chest.
The energy had nowhere to go, so the system violently forged a container for it. Arthur's dormant mana pathways were forcibly ripped open, expanded, and fortified in a microsecond.
A blinding, pure blue light erupted from his chest, shattering the frost on Sylvia's windows.
[Biological State]
↳ Mana Core forged.
↳ Host has reached Master Tier Mana Core.
[System Achievement]
↳ Rapid Ascension Unlocked.
↳ Awarding one(1) additional Binder.
The light faded. Arthur stood up straight, rolling his neck, his body now humming with an ocean of pure, hyper-dense mana.
Sylvia Thorne had stepped back, her glacial eyes wide with absolute shock. She had just watched a mortal with zero magical ability organically manifest a Master Tier mana core in the span of three seconds. It broke every known law of physics in The Mortal Domain.
"What... what are you?" Sylvia demanded, her voice losing its aloof edge.
She raised a hand. The ambient mana in the room obeyed her instantly. A condensed spear of crackling, absolute-zero ice formed in the air, humming with lethal intent. It was a test, a reflex from a predator realizing another predator had just entered her cage.
"Whoosh!"
She launched the mana spear directly at Arthur's chest. It moved at the speed of sound.
Arthur didn't dodge. He simply raised his right hand. Channeling his Domain-Level Sword Intent into his newly forged Master Tier mana, he caught the tip of the ice spear between his index and middle fingers.
"CRACK!"
The spear stopped dead, the kinetic force shattering the floor beneath Arthur's boots. He held the lethal projectile effortlessly, the ice hissing against his skin.
"A bit hostile for an interview, don't you think?" Arthur said smoothly. He pinched his fingers together, and the Arch-Mage's spear shattered into harmless blue dust.
Sylvia visibly flinched, not from the destruction of her spell, but from a sudden, sharp spasm of pain. Her hand darted to her collarbone, a grimace breaking her flawless, icy facade.
Arthur's predatory eyes locked onto the movement. He activated his system's analysis, scanning the dark, throbbing energy beneath her skin.
[Target Analysis: Sylvia Thorne]
↳ Status: Afflicted by Apex Curse.
↳ A tracking and suppression brand utilized by Higher Realm entities.
Arthur smiled. A distressed asset.
"You're in pain," Arthur said, taking a slow, deliberate step around the desk. "A curse. High-tier. Originating from the Apex Realm. It's eating your mana to sustain itself, keeping you anchored to this rock so they can track you."
Sylvia's eyes flared with panic and fury. "How do you know about the Apex Realm? If you are one of their hounds"
"I'm not a hound," Arthur interrupted, closing the distance between them. "I'm a businessman. And right now, I see a CEO who is bleeding capital. Your curse is killing you. I can feel it from here."
"There is no cure," Sylvia spat, stepping back until her back hit the frosty glass of the window. "It is an absolute law written into my soul."
"I don't think i care about their laws," Arthur said, his towering frame looming over her. The sheer purity of his newly forged, 10,000x refined mana began to unconsciously resonate with her, temporarily soothing the burning agony in her collarbone.
Sylvia gasped softly, her eyes fluttering as the chronic pain she had endured for centuries suddenly eased just by his proximity.
"I can cure you," Arthur stated, his voice a commanding whisper. "I can erase their brand and give you your power back."
Sylvia looked up at him, her glacial eyes searching his face for a lie. "And what is your price?"
"Absolute authority," Arthur replied without missing a beat. "I cure you, and you give me this academy. You work for me. We turn this livestock pen into a fortress."
Sylvia scoffed, a bitter, cynical laugh escaping her lips. "You are arrogant, mortal. You have a Master Tier core and a sharp sword, but you are too weak to break an Apex Curse. It would incinerate you."
"Too weak?" Arthur smirked. He didn't ask for permission.
He stepped directly into her personal space, erasing the gap between them. Before she could react, he raised his hand and slapped his palm flat against her exposed collarbone, directly over the pulsing black veins of the Apex Curse.
"Let's test that theory," Arthur growled.
He initiated the second Binder.
[Ding!]
[System Notification]
↳ Target Sylvia Thorne Bound.
↳ Initiating System Feedback Loop.