The F-Class dorms were quiet, but inside Room 104, the air was vibrating with heat.
Amari sat cross-legged on the floor. The bone ring on his finger glimmered.
Retrieve.
A slab of meat the size of a brick dropped onto his hot plate. It was dark red, marbled with veins of silver light. A steak from the Alpha’s flank.
Amari didn't season it. He didn't marinate it. He just seared it for thirty seconds on each side.
The smell was intoxicating. It smelled like wild energy.
He picked it up with his bare hands and took a bite.
It was tough, like chewing rubber, but as soon as he swallowed, it exploded in his stomach.
Whoosh.
It wasn't like the Boar Liver. That was a trickle of energy. This was a flood. The Alpha had spent fifty years absorbing mana from the forest, condensing it into its flesh.
Amari’s veins bulged against his skin. His heart rate spiked to 180 beats per minute.
"Breath of Iron..." Amari gasped through gritted teeth.
He forced his lungs to expand. He grabbed the energy rampaging through his gut and forced it into his bones.
Crack. Snap.
His bones were literally micro-fracturing and rebuilding themselves in real-time. The marrow was drinking the silver energy, becoming denser, heavier.
He ate the rest of the steak in three bites.
He fell back onto his mattress, his body twitching as the Void Body cultivation processed the high-grade fuel.
In his past life, it took him five years to reach Stage 2: Steel Bones.
Tonight, after just one steak, he felt his skeleton beginning to harden. He wasn't made of glass anymore. He was becoming a weapon.
The Next Morning: The Great Hall
The Assembly Hall was a cathedral of glass and light. All 1,000 freshman students stood in formation.
The mood was tense. The Scoreboard was about to go live.
On the main stage stood Dean Vance. He looked immaculate in his military dress uniform, his face like carved granite. He scanned the crowd, his eyes passing over the F-Class section with barely concealed disdain.
"Cadets," Vance’s voice boomed. "Yesterday, you faced the wild. Some of you conquered. Some of you hid."
He pressed a button on the podium.
A massive holographic screen materialized in the air.
[FRESHMAN CLASS RANKINGS - EXAM 1]
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The names began to scroll.
Rank 1: Caelum Sol (Hero Class) - Score: 9,500 Rank 2: Jaxon Miller (Hero Class) - Score: 8,200 Rank 3: Sarah Lin (Hero Class) - Score: 8,100
The Hero Class cheered. Caelum stood in the front row, smirking, waving to his admirers.
"As expected," Dean Vance nodded. "The Elite remain Elite."
The list scrolled down. The D-Class and C-Class students appeared in the 200s and 300s.
Then, a gasp rippled through the crowd.
Rank 42: Elara Vance (C-Class) - Score: 4,100
Dean Vance froze. He stared at the name. Vance.
He looked down into the crowd. He found his niece, Elara, standing near the back. She wasn't slouching anymore. She was standing straight, her chin up.
The Dean narrowed his eyes. Elara was a failure. Her father—his brother—paid full tuition just to keep her from embarrassing the family. How did she jump from Rank 350 to Rank 42 in one day?
A fluke, Vance muttered to himself.
The list continued to scroll.
Rank 49: Bronson (B-Class) - Score: 3,800
Bronson turned red. He had dropped out of the Top 20. The Alpha encounter had ruined his score. He glared at the back of the room, looking for Amari.
"Where is he?" Bronson hissed. "He killed the Boss. He should be Number 1."
The list hit the bottom. The F-Class students. Rank 800. Rank 900.
Then, the screen flickered.
At the very bottom, where Rank 1000 should be, the text turned red.
Rank: [ERROR] Cadet: Amari Malik Score: [CALCULATION FAILURE] Note: Mana Expenditure: 0 / Damage Output: CRITICAL
The hall went silent.
"Error?" someone whispered. "Does that mean he failed?" "Look at the note. Zero Mana? Did he hide in a hole?"
Dean Vance frowned. He tapped the podium. "System, explain error."
A robotic voice filled the hall.
"Subject: Amari Malik. Combat data recorded. However, System algorithm divides Combat Score by Mana Efficiency. Division by Zero is impossible. Score cannot be calculated."
Laughter broke out in the Hero Class.
"He broke the math!" Caelum laughed loudly. "Typical F-Class. Even the computer thinks he doesn't exist!"
Dean Vance sighed, rubbing his temples. "Another anomaly. Place him in Pending Review. Rank remains F."
The screen flickered off.
Amari stood in the back, his face blank. He felt Elara looking at him with worry, but he just gave her a small, almost imperceptible nod.
He didn't care about the rank. He cared about the bone ring on his finger and the strength in his legs.
Let them laugh, Amari thought. Being a "Glitch" was the best camouflage he could ask for.
The Basement: Maintenance Sector
Far below the shiny hall, in a room smelling of bleach and old coffee, the Old Janitor sat in front of a bank of monitors.
He wasn't sweeping floors today.
On his screens, the raw footage of the Exam was playing.
He paused the video.
It was a freeze-frame of the Alpha fight. Specifically, the moment Amari’s hand crushed the wolf’s throat.
The Janitor zoomed in. He wasn't looking at Amari’s face. He was looking at the air around Amari’s hand.
To a normal eye, there was nothing. But to the Janitor’s eyes—eyes that had seen the world before the System—he saw the faint, distortion ripple of pure kinetic force.
"Iron Grip," the Janitor whispered, stroking his white beard. "And the Breath of Iron to support it."
He leaned back in his creaking chair, a smile revealing gold teeth.
"The Dean thinks it's an error. The kids think it's a joke."
The Janitor reached into his pocket and pulled out a tattered, leather-bound journal. He opened it to a page marked 'Potential Successors'.
The page was blank. It had been blank for forty years.
He picked up a pen.
With a shaky hand, he wrote: Amari Malik.
"Finally," the Janitor chuckled. "Someone who remembers how to hunt."
[Lore File: The Ranking System] [Formula: Score = Damage Dealt × Target Threat Level ÷ Mana Consumed] [Result: Division by Zero = ERROR]
[Arc 1: The System Error — COMPLETED] [Arc 2: The Tournament of Houses — INITIALIZING]
