A saturated core, in the Novice stage.
Meaning he stood right on the threshold of a breakthrough into an Adept Mage.
A few more monthsâless, if he pushedâand heâd break through.
And he was only eighteen! How many talents could boast such strength at his age! None!
The people present werenât fools. Unexpected growth happened. Exponential growth even happened.
But this?
"This..." the young man muttered under his breath. "Is this correct?"
The woman checked her tablet twice. Then a third time, as if that would change the data on their screens.
"Yes," she said flatly. "The glyph confirms it."
Selene laughedâa low, delighted sound. "Hah! I knew it."
Evelineâs thoughts raced.
An improvement was expected,
she admitted inwardly.
After what he did to Williamâs group...
But this?
This wasnât just talent.
This was absurd.
Georgeâs eyes gleamed.
A diamond,
he thought.
Noâ
A generational talent.
Every single person in the room reached the same conclusion, almost simultaneously.
A genius.
The pair of staffâs thoughts were far less innocent
. Whatever made him improve in the dungeon, we have to find it.
They could not miss out on something this remarkable. It simply would not do. They had already started running through all the possibilities.
This is the break we have been looking for.
Of course, they didnât show it outwardly, but they did exchange an understanding glance. They had to report this first! Questions would come later. Investigations. And of course, the politics and pressure in tandem.
But right nowâ
Right now, there was no denying it.
They hadnât just discovered a promising student.
They had stumbled upon an opportunity
And they had found a diamond in the rough.
And if they found the cause of his kind of sudden growth, the academy would never be the same again!
Elion acted like he was oblivious to their thoughts, but he studied each and every personâs motions. He could see the gears turning in their heads, and he couldnât help but sigh inwardly. All that caution, and the results were pretty much the same.
He could only regret not being able to buy an artefact from the system that could conceal his mana core stage.
He did find one thought, only problem was, it was fucking expensive!
[Artifact: Suppression Ring]
Type:
Accessory / Concealment
Item Grade:
Legendary
Description:
A finely crafted ring designed to suppress and mask the wearerâs true power. When worn, it conceals the userâs aura and interferes with both magical perception and scanning abilities. Probes directed at the wearer will only detect the mana core stage set by the user, regardless of their actual strength.
The ring does not reduce the wearerâs real powerâonly how it is perceived. Its suppression can be adjusted at will, allowing the user to appear weak, average, or deceptively competent.
[Cost: 20 000 SP]
A month of stocking points, and he couldnât even afford it yet!
But the grade was high, and its effects were worth the cost, so he didnât think he was getting robbed in broad daylight.
Iâm really starting to wish I had paid Beatrice a few visits now.
He looked back toward the still reeling group of five with him in this room.
He could only imagine what their reactions would have been like if he had thrown all caution to the wind and broken through when he wanted to.
They would have looked at him like a monster. And they would have probably restrained him and chained him to a table.
Yeah, definitely.
He suddenly didnât feel very safe in this academy anymore.
The pair of staff did not even bother masking their interest. They looked at him like a subject waiting to get dissected!
[Discerning eye: Hostile intent detected]
Elionâs perception narrowed down to George. Maybe the guy thought he was hiding his bloodlust well. After all, he still had that infuriating signature smile plastered on his face.
But the look in his eyes was much more real.
The realisation made Elion frown. George was not very happy with Elionâs newfound strength.
He did not know why that could be, but he made a mental note to be wary of this teacher of his.
A malevolent glint flickered through Georgeâs eyes as the full weight of Elionâs talent finally settled in.
I have to report this,
he thought.
Up until now, he hadnât paid much attention to Elion dismantling Williamâs group. Talented first-years occasionally embarrassed themselvesâor othersâand it rarely amounted to anything worth escalating. George had assumed it was nothing more than youthful arrogance meeting an unexpected wall.
William himself likely hadnât reported the incident either; doing so would only have drawn his fatherâs attention and earned him a humiliating reprimand. Pride alone would have kept his mouth shut.
But this... this was different.
Talent like this would not be ignored.
If Elion had truly jumped from bronze to peak gold in such a short time, there would already be people within the academy reassessing him, weighing his value, considering whether he was worth protecting. And once that happened, Williamâs petty grudges would stop being harmless. They would become dangerous for Williamâs future.
And he wasnât a fool. There is no way Elion happened to stumble off that bridge, but he had chosen to keep his mouth shut about it. Which meant the boy was smart, and he was cautious.
He was the worst kind of enemy for someone as impulsive as William. And he was more than guaranteed to have thoughts of revenge brewing in that calm head of his.
Georgeâs jaw tightened slightly.
He couldnât allow that.
Not because he cared about Elionâs safety, but because he cared about what might happen if William acted foolishly. There were lines in this academy that could not be crossed without consequences, and prodigies were often granted leeway that ordinary students could only dream of.
This was different from that time when Elion was nothing but a weakling with no real value.
So one might wonder, why was George so invested in this?
The answer was simpleâand deeply buried that most people knew nothing about it.
Williamâs father was his elder brother.