Clueless to what was happening outside, Alden was sitting inside the lecture hall, his chin propped on one hand, pretending to take notes.
Amyra was missing today.
'She must have taken a mission.'
Aziel was missing too—off on a mission with his party.
The students who chose missions could skip classes.
But only a few tis a week; otherwise, all students would have just kept accepting any missions they found to skip classes.
The class he currently was in was Monster Studies.
Now, normally, he would've complained about how boring it was learning about different monster species, their ranks, their strengths.
That was useful stuff but kind of boring.
But today's topic was interesting.
Racial limits.
Alden found this class quite amusing.
Professor Dorel, who was in charge of this class, was an old man with his hair greyed due to his old age. His eyes shone with wisdom gained from his experiences.
His face had a calm expression that indicated his gentle deanor.
He was currently standing at the front of the room.
His voice was slow and deliberate.
Like he was truly enjoying the process of teaching.
"All monsters have racial limits," the professor said.
"No monster can grow beyond its set potential. A beast born at Overlord rank will remain an Overlord. A beast born at Novice rank will remain a Novice."
"But there are exceptions to this rule." The professor smirked, scanning the class seeing curious expression on all student's face.
"The Rulers."
"They are a beast that can grow in strength like humans."
Alden leaned forward.
Rulers?
Alden already knew a ruler, the one he had slain in his awakening trial, but he didn't know anything else.
At that ti, he'd thought it was just a cool-sounding na because he'd beaten the trial's final monster.
Now?
Now, he wasn't so sure.
There was no ntion of anything about rulers in the novel, not even in passing comnt.
And yet, here they were.
Monsters that could level up like humans.
Alden rubbed his temples.
He was getting a headache just thinking about it.
This was either a massive plot hole… or a massive problem.
The teacher continued.
"Every species of monster only had a single ruler, which could break through the limitations placed on their potential, and unless the previous ruler died, a new one couldn't appear."
"They could break through ranks, and they also had greater intelligence than their normal counterparts."
"The most dangerous aspect of a ruler is that they have no limits on potential and can even grow to the highest rank in the world, which is the primordial rank."
The tension in the room nearly tripled.
Primordial rank.
A being at primordial rank is near invisible and can only be killed by soone at the sa level, and those beasts could reach that level given enough ti.
That sounded… concerning.
"But there is a catch?" The professor raised up a single finger. "Unlike normal monsters, Rulers start from the bottom."
"Take a dragon, for example," Dorel went on. "Normally, a dragon hatches already at Overlord rank, which is their race's limit. But a ruler dragon? It starts from Novice rank and has to work its way up."
Alden frowned.
That sounded both like a massive disadvantage and a terrifying advantage too.
Because if a ruler ever did make it to the top…well let's just hope they don't.
"There's a theory that a Ruler did reach Primordial rank once." The professor let the information sink in. "And that's the reason why most Primordials vanished."
The class went silent, the weight of the revelation pressing down like a mountain.
Alden, anwhile, was having very unproductive thoughts.
The kind of thoughts that went: So you're telling there's a chance a potentially overpowered, world-ending monster is just vibing sowhere out there, waiting for the right mont to ruin my day?
Professor Dorel let the students panic a little longer before finally exhaling.
"Now, now, before any of you panic," he said, his voice filled with the mischievousness of a man who had played this kind of prank many tis, "You can all relax."
"The Alliance has been hunting Rulers for centuries," Dorel continued. "None are allowed to survive long enough to be a problem."
Alliance was the organization that managed the peace in allied species.
It included representatives of allied species.
Alden did not relax.
Because statents like that? They were always followed by sothing horrible.
Like, 'Oops, turns out we missed one. And oh, look at that, it's your problem now.'
He forced himself to focus.
There were still too many unanswered questions.
How did rulers even co to exist?
Were they just anomalies, or was there sothing deeper behind it?
Dorel clapped his hands, snapping Alden out of his thoughts.
"Alright. That's enough theorizing for today."
"I will give you your assignnt," the professor continued, "You have to pick any known ruler from history and write a detailed analysis on how they could have beco a potential threat if they had lived."
"You can find the records of all important rulers in the library."
Alden sighed.
Fantastic.
Howork about monsters that technically shouldn't exist.
"Class dismissed," Dorel said, ignoring the collective sigh of students at the ntion of the assignnt.
This was the last class for the day, so all students got up, gathering their things to leave.
Alden could hear murmurs about rulers going everywhere.
But he was still seated, lost in his thoughts.
Why were the Rulers never ntioned in the novel?
Did the Association really do a thorough job that not a single one remained?
Or.
There were still so left.
Sowhere.
Waiting to grow stronger but never growing strong enough to be a threat until the end of the novel.
Alden found the latter conclusion more likely, as no matter how thorough the job of the association, it can't kill every ruler.
He exhaled as he got up, shoving his hands into his pockets.
That was a problem for later.
For now?
He just wanted to get out of this class before soone asked him what he'd learned.
Because the only thing he'd learned today was that he absolutely did not want to et a Ruler.
________
The next day.
Alden was seated in his training room.
He had been training for the last three hours nonstop.
His remaining two stats had finally entered the next rank. Now he could finally break through to Initiate Rank.
He didn't delay it anymore, he quickly put his sword back and sat in a cross-legged position.
He closed his eyes as he focused on his energy core.
Unlike breakthroughs of minor rank, which happen without any conscious efforts, breaking through to major rank requires imnse focus.
A person can even fail to break through and may suffer a backlash if he is not careful.
Alden activated his Spirit Domain.
As it helps to increase his senses and could be a great help to feel his core more easily.
He felt his mind clearing up.
His shadow core humd with dark energy.
He recalled a way to break through and give in his mana to.
He focused on ambient mana. The process was similar to the ti he had first ford the core.
He had to explode his core.
Alden sighed.
'Why did this cultivation thod insist on turning every step into a torture session?'
He felt annoyed as, unlike his cultivation thod, others didn't need to explode their cores.
Well, at least the protagonist didn't need to in the novel.
It was just his cultivation that dealt with pain all the ti.
Inheritance? Painful.
Forming a core? Agonizing.
And now breaking through? Just another intense torture session.
They should just change the na of the To from Eclipse Codex to Suffering Codex. At least then, it would be honest.
Even as these thoughts were going through his mind, he kept filling his core with mana he absorbed from the surroundings.
It wasn't difficult for him now.
The reason?
He was Monarch of Mana.
Although the ability was still in the early stage, controlling the mana was second nature to him.
He soon felt his core filled to the brim.
Now cos the hard part.
He let the mana run rampant inside his core while absorbing more ambient mana.
The pain was intense, as it even made his expression wince, but he didn't let his focus waver from the pain.
He was already used to pain.
Pain and Alden had a long, committed relationship. He just wished he could break up with it.
'Was the pain a Yandere with a crush on or sothing? Because it kept clinging on to even when I tried to push it away.'
Even in this intense mont, Alden's mind was making intrusive thoughts.
The rampage of his energy within his shadow core stopped.
As all energy beca calm… eerily calm.
It was calm before a storm.
Here it cos.
Boom
A wave of energy was released by Alden's core more violently than the rampage before.
Crack
A second later, his core finally cracked.
Shattering into small bits before being rged with energy.
The energy was starting to dissipate quickly, but Alden quickly took control of it.
This is the most important part.
He quickly condensed the energy, forging a new, stronger core. It was even darker than the previous one, and it looked strong too.
As soon as Alden was done, a warmth spread throughout his body…
He relaxed his tensed senses.
He had finally broken through to the Initiate Rank.
He opened his eyes.
[THE USER HAS BROKEN THROUGH TO INITIATE RANK.]
[SUPRE ABILITY HAS RANKED UP TO F RANK.]
[NEW EFFECT OF SWORD OF CHAOS HAS BEEN UNLOCKED SUCCESSFULLY.]
Alden looked at the notification in front of him.
His body was covered in a dark black substance.
They were impurities in his body.
He sniffed the air.
Then he imdiately regretted it.
"Okay. Shower first. Status check later."
_______
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