Darkness stretched endlessly beneath him.
Kael stood alone within it.
No ground.
No sky.
Only black emptiness spreading in every direction like an endless abyss swallowing the world itself.
Then—
something moved.
Not around him.
Below him.
A massive presence stirred somewhere beneath the darkness, distant enough to remain unseen yet close enough for him to feel it.
Breathing.
Slow.
Heavy.
The entire void trembled faintly with each movement.
Kael tried to step back instinctively—
but his body wouldn't move.
Cold pressure wrapped around him instead.
Not violent.
Not painful.
Hungry.
Then the darkness beneath him suddenly opened.
Kael woke instantly.
His eyes snapped open as rough breathing escaped his chest.
For several seconds, he remained completely still inside the dim dorm room while early morning light spilled faintly through the window beside him.
Silence.
Only silence.
Kael slowly sat upright, one hand pressing lightly against his forehead.
Another dream.
Lately, they had become more frequent.
Stranger too.
His gaze drifted toward the ceiling quietly.
The assessment was over.
Yet parts of it still replayed clearly inside his mind.
The collapsing bridge.
Brann's expression changing.
Rhett watching silently from above.
The instructors delaying retrieval.
And Tovin—
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly.
That moment beneath the ruins still didn't make sense.
No F-Class student should possess that level of mana reinforcement.
Not with that precision.
Not with that level of control.
A dull ache spread through Kael's side as he shifted slightly.
The academy healers had treated his injuries yesterday, though only barely. Bruises still covered most of his body beneath the bandages hidden under his uniform.
Practical treatment.
Nothing more.
He expected that much already.
Outside the dorm window, distant academy chatter echoed softly across the morning air. Students were already moving through the outer walkways toward classes and training sectors as if nothing had happened.
Life continued quickly here.
Kael lowered his gaze toward his hand silently.
Then slowly gathered mana.
A faint blue glow flickered weakly around his fingers.
Immediately—
the familiar sensation returned.
Wrong.
Like something inside him was pulling against the mana itself.
The energy destabilized almost instantly before fading unevenly through his fingertips.
Kael frowned slightly.
Again.
Mana reinforcement was supposed to strengthen circulation through the body by maintaining stable internal flow.
That was basic theory.
Yet his mana never behaved correctly.
Whenever he tried forcing greater output, the sensation only worsened.
A hollow pressure.
Like the mana was disappearing somewhere inside him before stabilizing properly.
Eventually, Kael released the flow completely.
The uncomfortable feeling faded soon after.
He stared at his hand quietly.
"…Why?"
No answer came.
There never was one.
After several moments, Kael stood and quietly prepared for class.
---
The academy hallways buzzed with energy by the time he arrived.
Students filled nearly every corridor discussing evaluation scores and combat performances from the previous days.
"Aurel scored over four hundred points."
"I heard Selene defeated three upper-ranked students alone."
"Rhett's team nearly reached the restricted zones."
Kael walked silently through the noise.
A few students noticed him immediately.
Their conversations lowered slightly.
"…That's the F-Class guy."
"The one who survived the collapse?"
"I heard he got hunted by D-Class students."
"Still only scored forty-one points though."
Kael ignored them and kept walking.
At this point, whispers barely mattered anymore.
Inside the classroom, the atmosphere felt only slightly different than before.
Not friendly.
Not welcoming.
Just aware.
Several F-Class students glanced toward him curiously before looking away again.
Even the usual mockery had weakened somewhat.
Not because they respected him.
Because surviving something dangerous changed how people looked at you.
Kael quietly took his seat near the window.
Outside, cold morning wind brushed softly through the partially opened glass, moving strands of his black hair across his eyes.
A familiar figure sat near the back corner of the room.
Tovin.
Sleeping.
Or pretending to.
Completely ordinary.
Kael stared at him briefly.
If he hadn't witnessed the ruins himself, he would've believed Tovin was exactly what everyone assumed.
Weak.
Lazy.
Forgettable.
Yet now every small movement felt intentional somehow.
The classroom door opened moments later as their instructor entered calmly.
"The combat evaluation results have now been finalized," he announced. "Starting this week, academy resources and practical opportunities will be distributed according to class performance and individual rankings."
Quiet tension spread across the room immediately.
Of course.
Everything here revolved around value.
The strong gained more opportunities.
The weak fought over what remained.
Kael listened silently while the instructor continued explaining future combat sessions and ranking systems ahead.
But part of his attention drifted elsewhere.
Toward the strange sensation from earlier.
Toward the instability inside himself.
Toward the growing feeling that something about his mana fundamentally contradicted everything he had studied so far.
That night, long after classes ended, Kael sat alone beneath the dim light of his dorm desk studying mana circulation theory again.
Page after page.
Diagram after diagram.
Flow stabilization.
Output efficiency.
Core synchronization.
Nothing explained him.
Slowly, Kael gathered mana once more.
The faint blue glow formed briefly around his hand.
For a single moment—
the pressure inside him changed.
His eyes widened slightly.
Something enormous stirred beneath the surface of his mana.
Then—
it vanished instantly.
Like it had never existed at all.
Kael stared silently at his trembling hand.
And for the first time—
it felt like something inside him had opened its eyes.