Chapter 271: New Rankings
The blinding white light of the extraction array faded, replaced by the cool, crisp evening air of the Academy courtyard.
The spatial pressure vanished, and the heavy, suffocating atmosphere of the Obsidian Woods was instantly gone.
As my vision adjusted, I noticed we weren’t the first ones back.
A handful of surviving squads were already scattered across the cobblestones, looking battered, exhausted, and covered in varying degrees of mud and monster blood.
And standing near the center of the courtyard, completely pristine and radiating absolute hostility, was a very notable figure.
Torren Graves.
He had a tall, athletic build, sharp features, and brown eyes that were currently burning holes into the side of my head. Torren was the undisputed top student who had flawlessly aced the practical and theoretical entrance exams.
He was supposed to be the golden boy of our batch, right up until my little ’dungeon incident’ spiked my assessment and forcibly bumped him down to the second position on the faculty watchlists.
He hadn’t forgotten it, and based on the absolute murder in his glare, he hadn’t forgiven it either.
Before I could even ponder whether he was going to walk over and try to start a fight, the massive runic circle behind us flared with blinding blue light again.
And this time, more figures began to walk out of the spatial tear.
First one was Lyra Silverwood. An elven girl, she stepped onto the cobblestones with a terrifyingly graceful elegance. Her long, platinum hair caught the evening light, and her pointed ears twitched slightly as she surveyed the courtyard.
She didn’t have a single scratch on her.
Impressive.
Right behind her, moving with the heavy, predatory stride of an apex predator, was Zhakhel Ironstone.
He was a Lion Kin, possessing messy, untamed dark hair, a heavily scarred jawline, and piercing, glowing amber eyes.
He was carrying a massive, blood-stained war hammer resting casually over his broad shoulder.
These are the monsters of our batch. Well, we did had one more, but she left.
I still don’t know why.
Shaking my head, I looked back at those three.
Torren possessed an almost obsessive drive for perfection. Lyra had a century’s worth of latent elven mana capacity compacted into a teenager’s body.
Zhakhel was a sheer, unstoppable physical juggernaut.
Well, my goal was never to stand at the very top and draw all that lethal aggro. I just needed to secure a high enough rank to maintain my resource flow.
"He’s staring at you again," Emma whispered.
She was still standing perfectly at my side, her arm casually looped through mine. She didn’t look at Torren directly, but I could feel the slight, subtle shift in her mana.
"Let him stare," I replied, my voice completely flat and unbothered. "Aggression without action is just a waste of energy."
Emma let out a soft, highly amused giggle, leaning her head lightly against my shoulder.
Before Torren could actually do anything about his glaring, another runic circle flared brightly across the courtyard, depositing another bruised and exhausted squad.
"There you are!"
Sira’s voice echoed over the chatter. She immediately broke away from her group, completely abandoning Tobias—who let out a long sigh and began walking toward us at a much more dignified pace—and her other two thoroughly traumatized teammates.
Sira jogged up to us, her uniform covered in dirt and what looked like scorch marks. "How did it go?" she asked, catching her breath. Then she blinked, looking around us. "Wait... where’s Kyle?"
"Got his ass kicked," Emma teased smoothly, a bright, cheerful smile on her face.
Tobias finally reached our group, adjusting his wire-rimmed glasses. He looked perfectly pristine, having clearly let Sira and the others do the actual heavy lifting. "And what about the other one? The Westmore heir?"
Emma huffed, rolling her eyes in profound annoyance.
"He was a whiny little bitch who wouldn’t stop crying about getting mud on his silk clothes, so I locked him in a box and popped his flare for him."
The sheer, unexpected vulgarity coming from the usually sweet and innocent-looking girl made Sira freeze for a split second. Then burst into a fit of delighted giggles. She immediately stepped forward and clung to Emma’s free arm.
"Oh my god," Sira laughed, her eyes sparkling. "I am liking you more and more by the second."
Emma blinked, momentarily surprised by the sudden physical contact from another girl. But seeing Sira’s genuine amusement, Emma’s lips curved into a bright, entirely self-satisfied smile. She leaned into Sira’s side, clearly pleased with her new dynamic in the group, while keeping her other arm firmly anchored to me.
Suddenly, the heavy iron doors of the primary hall slammed open.
"Form up and fall silent!" Professor Aldwin’s booming voice echoed across the courtyard, instantly cutting through the exhausted chatter of the students.
He marched down the stone steps, followed by a dozen faculty members who immediately began sweeping through the surviving squads, collecting the dimensional pouches full of tokens.
"The forty-eight-hour timer has concluded. The Obsidian Woods are now sealed," Aldwin announced, his sharp eyes sweeping over the battered first-years. "For those of you who survived the duration without triggering your emergency flares, congratulations. You have proven you possess the baseline competence required to not die immediately in a real combat zone."
He pulled out a heavy, glowing runic slate as the faculty members dumped the collected tokens into a massive counting artifact at the center of the courtyard. The artifact violently hummed, processing the physical tokens, the monster cores, and the theoretical exam scores from earlier in the week.
"The mid-term rankings are finalized," Aldwin declared, his voice echoing loudly. "These positions will dictate your dormitory assignments, your resource stipends, and your library access for the remainder of the semester. I will announce the top ten."
Aldwin looked down at the slate.
"The First-Year Mid-Term Rankings are as follow:
Rank 1: Torren Graves with a Total Score of 9,450
Rank 2: Jin Raith with a Total Score of 8,920
Rank 3: Lyra Silverwood with a Total Score of 8,750
Rank 4: Zhakhel Ironstone with a Total Score of 8,100
Rank 5: Emma Vale with a Total Score of 8,050
Rank 6: Tobias Vane with a Total Score of 7,400
Rank 7: Sira Vance with a Total Score of 7,250
Rank 8: Elaria Kall with a Total Score of 6,900
Rank 9: Kaelen Thorne with a Total Score of 6,850
Rank 10: Kyle Stoneheart with a Total Score of 6,500"
A heavy silence fell over the courtyard as the numbers registered.
Torren stood perfectly still, his jaw tightly clenched. He had secured the absolute first position, proving his dominance, but his dark eyes instantly flicked toward me.
I kept my face completely blank, but internally, I winced. Rank two.
"We did it, Jin!" Emma cheered, completely ignoring the heavy stares of the rest of the student body.
Her eyes were practically glowing with pride. She tightened her grip on my arm, pressing herself happily against my side.
"Top five!"
"Second place?!" Sira gasped, "And wait, Kyle actually made the top ten?!"
Tobias pushed up his glasses, the lenses catching the light.
"Fascinating," he murmured, his analytical gaze shifting between me and Emma.