Chapter 30— Before the Blade Falls.
Chapter 30— Before the Blade Falls.
The last grains of invisible sand tumbled through the system’s internal timer.
Kaelen sat cross-legged on the clean white linen of his infirmary bed, his palm resting lightly on his knees. His eyes were closed, his breathing measured and deep.
Beside him, the faint blue glow of his interface flickered with a quiet, hummed intensity.
CLING!
[ MERIDIAN LOCK: RECOVERY COMPLETE]
[ MANA FLOW: FULLY RESTORED ]
[ SYSTEM REBOOT IN PROGRESS...]
A sudden, sharp rush of energy erupted from the core at his chest, surging outward into his limbs like liquid lightning. The cold, empty voice that had left his body feeling like a hollow lead for hours was violently swept away.
Dark violet mana—denser and far more compact than before—flooded back into his newly reinforced channels.
Kaelen opened his eyes. A faint pulse of violet light flared in his pupils before vanishing.
He raised his right hand and clenched his fist. The subtle resistance he used to feel in his pathways, the slight drag when compressing high-density energy, was completely gone.
Investing those eight points into Mana Meridian Endurance had expanded his channels, allowing his void vote to circulate energy at twice its previous velocity without causing internal tearing.
" Your mana signature shifted," Tsubaki observed silently from the corner of the corner of the room, his hand coming off the hilt of his sword.
" It feels... heavier."
" Ty capacity increased," Kaelen replied, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up.
He stretched his shoulders, hearing a satisfying crack along his spine.
"The backlash cleared out the residual impurities from the Blood Core. My core is running cleaner now."
Lyra stepped into the room from the private balcony, holding three sealed leather travel bags containing their freshly mended combat gear.
She paused, sensing the subtle shift in the air pressure around Kaelen.
"You’re back at full strength," she noted, setting the bags down with a faint exhale of relief.
" Good. Because the moment we step outside this infirmary, we leave the protection of the Crown’s direct watch."
Kaelen picked up his uniform jacket, fastening the polished silver button before pinning the star-shaped medal, the Order of the Silver Guardian, onto his left chest.
The mithril star gleamed sharply under the sunlight.
Tsubaki and Lyra followed suit, attaching their medals to their uniforms.
"Let’s see what the Academy has to say," Kaelen said smoothly.
The main courtyard of the Royal Academy was usually a place of disciplined order, but today it buzzed with a chaotic, electric atmosphere.
Hundreds of students clad in various elemental robes and combat uniforms gathered near the central fountain, their voices rising in heated debate.
The moment the three of them stepped past the marble archway leading from the medical wing, a heavy silence rolled across the courtyard like a failing curtain.
Pairs of eyes turned toward them—some filled with genuine awe, others with sharp curiosity, but the vast majority burned with cold, unvarnished resentment.
"There they are..." a third-year student whispered from the edge of the promenade.
"The ones who got decorated by the king this morning."
"Is that really the E-RANK kid?" another student sneered, his silver-embroidered cloak marking him as a high-tier noble from the House of Valerius.
"An E-RANK receiving the Order of the Silver Guardian? It’s an absolute farce. The High Council is just trying to cover up their administrative failure with a dramatic public story."
Kaelen ignored the murmurs, walking at a steady pace toward the Central bulletin plaza where the preparations for the upcoming tournament were underway.
Lyra kept her head high, though her jaw tightened slightly, while Tsubaki walked with the relaxed, dangerous composure of a hunting cat.
" They’re unnerved," Tsubaki said under his breath, his eyes flicking subtly left and right.
"They saw the medals, but they didn’t see the blood on the cobblestones last night. They think it was handed to us. "
"Good," Kaelen murmured softly.
"Underestimation is the most efficient weapon."
Before they could reach the central steps, three figures stepped directly into their path, blocking the walkway.
At the center stood Julian Vance, a tall, broad-shouldered noble with sharp golden hair and a cloak bearing the crest of the Academy’s Elite S-Class Division.
He was flanked by two senior enforcers from the student council, their hands resting lazily on their sidearms.
"Hold on a moment, ’heroes’," Julian mocked, his voice laced with smooth, venomous arrogance as he stepped forward, his eyes locking onto the medal pinned to Kaelen’s chest.
"It seems commoners and low-ranked strays are walking around with royal honors these days. Tell me, Kaelen... how much did you have to beg the captain for that shiny piece of tin? "
Lyra took a step forward, her hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of her side blade.
" Watch your tongue, Julian. The king himself bestowed those medals. You’re questioning the Crown’s decree."
Julian laughed softly, shaking his head.
" The king rewards results, Lyra. But we all know how the world works. An E-rank Void user doesn’t stop an A-rank conspiracy alone. You two carried him through the fight, and the Academy manufactured a story to boost public confidence before the tournament."
Julian stepped closer, coming within a foot of Kaelen. He leaned in, lowering his voice so only the three of them could hear.
" Enjoy your little moment in the sun, stray,"
Julian hissed.
"When the tournament starts, there are no guards to shield you. I’ll personally strip that medal off your uniform in front of the entire kingdom."
Kaelen didn’t flinch. He didn’t raise his voice, nor did he reach for a weapon.
He simply stared into Julian’s eyes with a cold, vacant intensity that made the noble smile falter for a fraction of a second.
"If you want the medal, Julian," Kaelen said, his voice flat and devoid of emotion,
"You’ll have to earn it on the ring. Just make sure you bring more than just your family name."
Julian’s face flushed with a surge of anger, his fingers twitching as if tempted to draw his blade right there in the courtyard.
But before the situation could escalate, the loud, deep tone of the Academy’s central bell rang out across the grounds, signaling the release of the official tournament rosters.
With a cold glare, Julian turned on his heel.
"We’ll see how long that arrogance lasts," he spat before disappearing into the crowd.
Twenty minutes later, the trio sat inside a private, ward-sealed training room deep within the basement of the Academy’s eastern wing.
Tsubaki engaged the room’s sound-dampening runes, causing a faint blue barrier to seal the heavy iron door.
Kaelen pulled out the reward item he had received from the system—a sleek, obsidian-black keycard embedded with a faint silver crest. He placed it on the central stone table.
[HIGH COUNCIL VAULT PASS (KEYCARD)]
[- CLEARANCE LEVEL: MAXIMUM]
[- ACCESS TARGET: ANCIENT ARTIFACT STORAGE ROOM B-4]
Lyra leaned over the table, her brow furrowed as she studied the intricate runic etching on the card.
"Storage Room B-4... That’s located in the deepest subterranean layer of the Capital’s Central Vault. That area is protected by anti-teleportation arrays and heavy elemental seals. Why would the system reward you with an access key to a high-security storage unit?"
"Because Malakor wasn’t the end of the chain," Kaelen said calmly, leaning back against his chair.
"Think about it. Why would a player with the Red-Eyed avatar bother orchestrating an attack on the central plaza? He didn’t care if Malakor succeeded or failed. The explosion in the plaza was a distraction."
Tsubaki’s dark eyes narrowed. "A distraction to draw the Royal Guard away from the vault."
"Precisely," Kaelen continued, his finger tapping rhythmically on the table.
"The Red-Eyed Player isn’t after political control of the city. He’s after something inside Room B-4. And with the entire city focusing its security efforts on the upcoming Academy Selection Tournament, the security at the vault will be stretched thin."
"So the tournament is a smokescreen," Lyra realized, her face turning grave.
"He intends to use the chaos of the event to infiltrate the lower levels and steal whatever is locked inside B-4."
"Which means we need to win our matches quickly and keep our eyes on the vault entries," Kaelen said.
"I need to find out what artifact is stored in that room before he gets his hands on it."
Kaelen brought up his internal interface once more, reviewing his updated status profile:
[NAME: KAELEN]
[CLASS: VOID ARCHITECT]
[LEVEL: 15]
[HP: 1,450 / 1,450]
[MP: 2,200 / 2,200]
[STATISTICS]
STRENGTH: 39%
AGILITY: 40%
PERCEPTION: 48%
MANA MERIDIAN ENDURANCE: 32%
VOID COMPRESSION RATIO: 1.30x
[ACTIVE SKILLS: VOID STEP (LVR 3), EVENT HORIZON (LVL 1), CORE OVERCLOCK (LVL 2)]
[PASSIVE SKILLS: VOID RESONANCE, ARCHITECT’S COMPRESSION]
The stat allocation had significantly boosted his operational limits.
With 48 points in perception, his brain could process visual data and predict the opponent’s trajectory at nearly three times the speed of a normal human.
His new title, Void Architect, gave his skills a passive compression boost, meaning his Void Step would cost less mana while executing faster.
Suddenly, a sharp chime resonated from the comm-crystals mounted on the training room wall.
BZZZT.
A projected illusion flared to life in the center of the room, displaying the official brackets for the Academy Selection Tournament—First Round.
Kaelen scanned the glowing list of names until his eyes landed on his assigned bracket:
[MATCH 4—ARENA BETA]
[KAELEN (E-RANK / UNLINKED) VS. GARRETT VANE (B-RANK / HEAVY SHIELD SPECIALIST)]
"Garrett Vane..." Lyra read off the screen, her eyes widening slightly. "He’s Captain Vane’s nephew, but he belongs to the conservative faction of the noble guard. He uses a heavy mithril tower shield enchanted with kinetic absorption. He’s built specifically to counter high-speed and elemental mages."
"A wall," Tsubaki commented quietly.
"They assigned you a defensive counter for your first match to test if your Void magic can breach heavy physical armor."
Kaelen looked at the bracket, a quiet, cold smile forming on his lips.
He dismissed the projection with a wave of his hand and picked up the Vault Pass from the table, sliding it securely into his inner coat pocket.
"A wall is only useful if it can react to what’s coming," Kaelen said, his eyes burning with a faint violet flame.
"In three days, we shatter the wall."