The system announcement rippled across Zuan like a sudden tremor. [The Gifted “Divine Ascendant” has issued a challenge for the 200th position in the Power Ranking.] [If you wish to watch the battle, you will be transported to the arena bleachers in 5 seconds.] Sera’s eyes widened as the message appeared in front of her. Before she could collect a single thought, her body dissolved into light along with countless others inside the Gifted Hall. In the next instant, she found herself seated high above the sprawling arena, now packed with spectators filling rows upon rows of stone bleachers. The place could easily hold two hundred thousand people, and today, it seemed determined to test that capacity. She leaned forward and looked toward the center of the battleground. On one side of the arena stood the newly arrived challenger, the man everyone was already whispering about. Divine Ascendant. Ray. Her contractor. On the opposite side waited the current holder of the 200th spot, a you

Ray had been fighting without pause, crashing through every opponent in his path with the same brutal, head-on aggression. He did not hesitate for even a heartbeat. He did not waver. He simply kept going. By now he had climbed all the way to the twenty-first spot on the Power Ranking, tearing through everyone who stood in front of him. Some of them tried to talk to him while they fought, voices strained and frantic, thinking conversation might slow him down or buy them time. They sounded too familiar, too human, too much like people from his old world. Ray heard their accents and recognized the way they spoke. Earth. They were definitely from Earth. He ignored every one of them. The moment they opened their mouths, he pushed harder, forcing them to spend every ounce of attention on staying alive. He gave them no chance to breathe, let alone speak. He refused to let anything distract him from reaching the top. He did not bother planning anything out. He did not calculate risks. He

The roar of Ray’s last attack lingered in the air long after the light vanished. Even the Gifteds crowding the bleachers felt the remnants of that monstrous sword intent scraping over their skin, sharp enough that some instinctively flinched as if the attack might lash out at them too. The atmosphere trembled for nearly a minute before the storm of Ki finally settled. When the haze lifted, the arena floor revealed a vast scar carved straight through its center. A single stroke had torn a monumental gouge into the ground, as if a titan had dragged the edge of an impossibly large blade across the stone. Dust still floated from the edges of the wound, rising in thin streams beneath the flicker of weakened sunlight. At the far end of the slash lay Lucia. Her body was unconscious and coated in blood, her clothing blasted apart until nothing remained to cover her. Not a single person in the arena paid attention to anything indecent about her state. Their focus was fixed entirely on the br

Ray held the [Gungnir's Bane] with both hands and looked at his opponent, a beautiful and bountiful elf. She, too, held a long spear in her hand. Ray smiled, briefly focusing on the spear she wielded, completely ignoring the waves of dark, foggy aura seeping from his own weapon. The sinister energy wrapped around him, coating his body in a reddish-black aura. "To obtain 10th rank in the power rankings, she must be quite skilled... This will be a great chance to assess the level of my spearmanship compared to hers." As soon as the timer ran out, Ray didn't hesitate for even a second. He dashed forward at full speed without any enhancement from his elemental essence or the techniques he possessed. Sera, the common elf, didn't stand idly either. She charged forward with her silver spear in hand. Though she wasn't as fast as Ray, she was still undeniably swift. Ray closed the distance faster and swung his spear with both hands, using only a portion of his strength. Se

There were several reasons why Ray chose to fight the common elf without finishing the battle in a single blow, as he had done with others. One of them was his desire to assess how much his spearmanship had improved. After fighting for over fifteen minutes using nothing but pure spear techniques, Ray finally realized that his spearmanship had already surpassed the level of masters and was now approaching the realm of grandmasters. However, at the same time, he sensed a great wall preventing him from stepping fully into the grandmaster realm. It wasn't just his spearmanship; his swordsmanship had also reached the same level. Ray became even more interested in reaching the grandmaster realm when, in the middle of their battle, Riya asked if he was already a grandmaster. He could see the frustration on her face, which only fueled his determination to break through that barrier. But there was a problem; he had no idea how to do it. He needed more information. It seemed t