Seth bolted toward the white cross while Nightmare slunk off to the side and vanished as he had done in the three previous fights. If the summon turned out to be a caster, the direwolf's sneak attack could probably give them a chance. Just as Seth felt slightly more optimistic, a giant bear appeared: a massive frame of over six feet tall on all fours, fur as dark as coal, a single stripe of flame running down its back—an Inferno Bear. The same beast that had made them jump off a cliff a few weeks prior.

Inferno Bear

 

Potential: Iron Tier

Rank: 22 (Low-Iron)

Affinity: Fire

 

Strength: 81

Arcane Power: 40

Toughness: 70

Well Capacity: 40

Agility: 45

Regeneration: 43

"You've gotta be freaking kidding me," Seth cursed, halting his sprint immediately. 'Seventy Toughness and eighty-one Strength, Nightmare! How are we supposed to beat that?'

'That's still nothing for Shadow Bite.'

'Can't wait to see that.'

Seth lifted his black dagger, bracing himself as the bear let out a thunderous roar that shook the floor beneath them. Its massive jaws opened wide, revealing rows of drool-drenched yellow teeth that could crush Seth's aether barrier in a single bite.

'If I get closer, I feel like it'll sense me,' Nightmare said, staying a dozen yards behind the beast. 'I'll need a distraction.'

'Fine.'

Seth charged at the beast, his core pulsing and Feral Instinct surging in his body as he channeled Haste. Dodging was his only priority right now. Glaring at him with its red eyes, the Inferno Beast slammed down its massive paw and large flames erupted from the floor, spreading out in all directions.

Seth dodged and weaved through the sea of dancing fire, trying to get closer to the beast. Having a bow would've been nice.

Just as he thought things couldn't get worse, the fire strip on the beast's back expanded, enveloping its large body in a cloak of flames.

"Fantastic," Seth muttered. They couldn't wait for the spell to wear off with the time limit. 'You better help me soon, Nightmare!'

'I will!'

The bear roared and charged, its claws glowing with a mix of red aether and flames. Seth gritted his teeth and bolted forward, his dark dagger aimed at the beast. The two collided with a thunderous crash.

Seth deflected the claws with his blade, and sparks flew—a searing pain jolted across his arm. The ensuing numbness caused the weapon to slip from his grip, forcing him to grab it with his other hand. Almost simultaneously, Nightmare pounced at the Inferno Bear from behind, his jaw open as thick, black smoke emanated from within. His teeth sank into the beast's back, and the corrosive cloud instantly spread.

To Seth's surprise, Nightmare's spell was different; the smoke was darker, almost black as night, and far denser, obscuring everything inside its range. At first, the bear's fire cloak seemed to hold its own against the corrosive effect, but soon the edges of the flames sputtered and faded as the black smoke seeped into them, engulfing half of the bear and slowly eating its way through the flesh.

The colossal beast let out a deafening roar of agony, and for a split second it almost seemed like victory might be within reach. But then the bear thrashed Nightmare off with a violent jolt and a burst of flames, flinging him across the room.

As the direwolf slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, Seth's heart surged with rage, and he launched himself at the bear. Empty puppet or not, you'll pay for that.

Darting to the side, Seth narrowly evaded the bear's flaming claws before retaliating with a lightning-fast flurry of slashes. A few superficial cuts wouldn't kill the beast—but a thousand probably could.

Seth gave in to his inner beast, letting his core drive each of his moves as his aether streamed into Haste's grooves. The bear's razor-sharp teeth and claws kept missing his face by inches with each attack. Every muscle of his body screamed in pain, strained to their limits, yet a grin spread on his face. He had almost forgotten how good the sensation felt—thriving and fighting to his limit.

The ferocious battle raged on, and he kept following his Feral Instinct with unwavering trust, dodging every single attack until the inevitable happened a dozen seconds later: the bear finally hit him. The red glowing claws tore through Seth's aether barrier, and the massive paw slammed him down, crushing his back against the hard floor.

"Argh," Seth groaned, wincing in pain as the colossal bear abruptly vanished in front of his eyes in a cloud of dust.

After laying there for long seconds, he then turned his gaze toward Nightmare, who was still motionless and lying in the same spot. 'You, okay?'

'Yeah,' the direwolf muttered, painfully raising on all fours. 'We lost against a puppet.'

'A puppet with twice our attributes.'

Seth stood as well, and looked down at his hand to see his stats.

Seth

 

Class: Primalist

Rank: 15 (High-Copper)

Subclass: -

 

Core: Feral Instinct

 

Strength: 27 (+3)

Arcane Power: 22 (+4)

Toughness: 20 (+2)

Well Capacity: 20 (+2)

Agility: 31 (+4)

Regeneration: 23 (+3)

Spells:

- Link [???〜??? (???)]

- Shocking Strike [Copper〜Uncommon (Standard)]

- Haste [Copper〜Uncommon (Standard)]

- Identify [Copper〜Common (Refined)]

One Agility and one Strength, he figured out. Two attributes in under half an hour, without even risking my life—can't complain.

As he went over the fight in his mind, Seth recalled the intense, dark obsidian smoke of Shadow Bite, and turned to Nightmare 'Did you do something special with Shadow Bite? It seemed way more powerful than usual.'

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The direwolf looked at him, his red eyes gleaming as if he had been waiting for that question. 'I used aether with increased density.'

Seth's eyes widened and immediately cast Identify.

Nightmare (Tenebrous Young Direwolf)

 

Potential: Silver Tier

Rank: 18 (High-Copper)

Affinity: Darkness

 

Bonded to [Seth]

 

Strength: 32

Arcane Power: 35

Toughness: 23

Well Capacity: 21

Agility: 39

Regeneration: 24

Spells:

- Illusionary Emptiness [Silver〜Epic (Crude)]

- Danger Sense [Silver〜Rare (Decent)]

- Shadow Bite [Iron〜Rare (Decent)]

'Two in Arcane Power and one in Agility. I wi—' the direwolf started before abruptly stopping. 'Shadow Bite reached Decent! We can definitely go Rift Diving now! Right?'

'Congrats.' Seth laughed, ruffling the fur of the direwolf's head.

He had expected the quality's boost of Shadow Bite, but seeing it still had him thinking. Ever since acquiring Shocking Strike, he hadn't been able to improve his own grooves despite throwing aether inside dozens and dozens of times. Could I do the same as Nightmare? Increase the aether density flowing through my own spells to refine them and push them further up in quality?

It made sense that higher density might aid in carving new grooves—but how exactly would that make existing ones more efficient? To his understanding, spell quality was all about optimizing the grooves. Did it deepen them and smooth out their imperfections, enhancing the spell in the process? If so, improving his aether-manipulation skills might be the key.

Still… Seth's grooves weren't textbook examples.

He'd created Quick Step from scratch, and yet Identify had been able to recognize it. That probably meant the spell wasn't being analyzed by groove patterns directly, but matched to the closest known function or effect. Which raised a concern: how often was Identify wrong?

If spell formation varied as much as he suspected, then there was a real chance that how Identify described a spell and how it actually behaved weren't always aligned. On multiple occasions his spells' grooves had been deepened by his core, making them easier to use, and yet most of the time their quality hadn't improved.

Seth sighed and rubbed his face. I'll need to read more about spell-carving theory at the library.

He then turned to Nightmare. 'And to answer your question, nope. We still aren't strong enough to Rift Dive.'

'Oh, you're such a chicken,' the direwolf answered. 'We'll be fine with Danger Sense.'

'Help me get my aether manipulation to your level, and then I'll think about it,' Seth said, infusing aether into his necklace to move the direwolf back inside. 'I'm pretty sure what you just did with Shadow Bite is more difficult than doubling the density of a one- or two-uniums Lighter.'

'There's no way you can reach such mastery,' Nightmare retorted. 'You aren't hairy enough.'

Seth rolled his eyes before starting to go down the stairs, heading back to the entrance. 'As if having fur was a plus. It seems awful.'

The direwolf plopped down inside the teardrop's dimension. 'Says the guy who's always freezing at night in the forest?'

'Yet you're the one who gets crap stuck to his hairy butt once a week.'

'It doesn't happen that often,' the direwolf growled. 'But next time it does, I'll wipe it off on your face while you sleep.'

'Oh, come on, that's disgusting.'

After finally reaching the bottom of the tower, Seth halted in front of the large doors. People would probably assume he had cheated the moment they saw his results—a Primalist and a commoner like him, shouldn't be able to beat a Rank-20 beast. Or, for that matter, any of the last three summons he and Nightmare had defeated.

No point in overthinking it now, Seth thought before taking a deep breath and swinging the doors open to walk out.

At first, hardly any students paid attention to Seth, then a few of them glanced at his results and the whispers began spreading like a fierce wildfire. He could see all sorts of emotions in their eyes as they stared at him—surprise, confusion, jealousy, and outright anger. The moment he reached the ranking boards, he could almost feel the tips of their blades resting on his throat. They definitely don't appreciate a commoner getting so high in the ladder.

1st: Elena Surani [Rank 19] ~ Floor 12, 24 min 55 sec.

2nd: Silvius Crestor [Rank 19] ~ Floor 12, 26 min 49 sec.

3rd: Brandon Surani [Rank 20] ~ Floor 12, 29 min 49 sec.

4th: Seth [Rank 15] ~ Floor 11, 19 min 44 sec.

5th: Gabriella Ryehill [Rank 19] ~ Floor 11, 22 min 54 sec.

6th: Malcolm Seralp [Rank 18] ~ Floor 11, 24 min 32 sec.

[...]

"Holy cow, Seth!" Jenna bellowed, standing next to Elena and her brother who both seemed stunned, their mouths hanging open. "How did you manage to clear the tenth floor but still lost against me?"

Seth gave her a sheepish shrug, rubbing the back of his neck. "Primalists are better at fighting beasts than Wielders, I guess?"

"Bullshit," came Lucius' voice. The noble was now at the first spot of the waiting queue, still surrounded by his three cronies. "You cheated, that's obvious. Look at your time. I'm going to ask my brother to take off your—"

"Oh, cut the whining, Lucius," Marine interjected, striding over to them, a handful of a few students in scarlet uniforms following her. "The ranking can't lie. Seth, here, is just better than nearly every other first-year."

As the noble opened his mouth to retort, the tower's instructor stepped out of the entrance. "It's your turn, Faertis. Follow me."

Marine flashed the blond noble a sweet but clearly fake smile. "Good luck beating his score. You'll need it."

Boiling anger rose on Lucius' face with a red flush, and he shot one last venomous glare at Seth before following the instructor into the tower. The tension in the air lessened with the noble's departure, but Seth could feel the suspicious and disdainful stares of the surrounding students.

'Do you think it was her plan all along?' Seth asked Nightmare with a sigh. 'If I do terribly, I look like a joke. If I do well, Lucius and the other nobles hate me even more?'

'Maybe,' the direwolf answered. 'If it makes Ponytail put another of those contracts on your head, that'd be clever.'

'I guess she really wants the unlimited pass for those Training Chambers afterall.'

Marine approached Seth with a wide grin, a mischievous sparkle in her blue eyes. "Nicely done, Mister Genius. I shouldn't have underestimated you," she said before giving him a quick once-over and leaning in, her voice dropping to a whisper. "If you make sure to not do well at the Spring Tournament so I can win my bet, I might reward you with a date."

A shiver ran down Seth's spine as her chest pressed against his arm. "Thanks, Marine, I'll… think about it."

The brown-haired noble stepped back with a playful smirk, then winked. "Good. You have until Saturday to think about it and tell me your intentions. Don't disappoint me."

'She'd also make a fine mating partner,' Nightmare said as Marine turned on her heel and strode away. 'She's quite cunning.'

'You mean manipulative,' Seth muttered, his eyes drifting toward the tower's entrance, hoping Devus would finish soon. 'And no thank you.'

Jenna walked over to him with a puzzled look on her face while Elena and her brother followed closely behind. "What'd she whisper to you?"

Seth let out a weary sigh. "She… offered me a date."

"Lucky bastard," Brandon exclaimed with a grin as he stopped next to Jenna, towering over her by a good foot. "If I were you, though, I'd keep that a secret. Her fan club is full of jealous people. You could get yourself in trouble."

"What did she ask in exchange?" Elena asked, arching an eyebrow—clearly she didn't think the second-year noblewoman could be interested in him.

"She wants me to lose on purpose during the Spring Tournament," Seth answered. "She made some kind of bet with Professor Reat about my final standing."

"That's not a bad deal. I would—" Brandon started before getting elbowed by his sister.

"No, it is bad," Elena said, glaring at her giant brother. "Whatever he decides to do, it'll end terribly."

"Why's that?" Seth asked with a frown.

Elena sighed. "If the academy catches you throwing matches on purpose, they'll expel you. And if you don't throw them, you'll get on the wrong side of the person with the most powerful background here."

Seth tilted his head, thinking for a second. Getting expelled for losing a match on purpose seemed absurd. Wasn't he the one who got to decide if he wanted to push himself or not? Well anyway, it isn't like I'll deliberately lose just for a date. I'm not Mael.

"Her background doesn't really matter," he then finally answered with a shrug. "Let's face it. Almost everyone here has a cousin, brother, or aunt who could kill me. Whether it's in five seconds or a minute, I'd still end up dead."

Elena shook her head with exasperation. "Normally, the academy wouldn't let another student's relative or guard just kill you, but for her, it's different," she said before pausing briefly to look at Marine in the distance. "Her grandfather is Marshal Vancaws. The only Platinum Wielder in the country besides the king."

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