Once Jake successfully countered the first allegation, it became obvious to Arthur and the instructors alike that penalizing him and his crew on those grounds was out of the question.However, Jake was only getting warmed up, as he moved swiftly to the second charge, he argued that neither he nor his teammates had fully summoned their combat suits.He even went as far as to point out that in the rulebook it explicitly specified that only full suit summons were subject to restrictions. Therefore, he contended there was no valid reason to penalize him and his team for a mere partial manifestation.To mock the opposing group, he added that if they possessed enough skill, they could have utilized partial manifestations themselves instead of complaining about their own shortcomings.This jab felt like a direct insult to Arthur's faction, though they could only grit their teeth and take it as there was nothing they could do about it, even the elders found themselves taken aback by Jake's re

Jake's conversation with Alfred had caught him completely off guard, delivering a series of unexpected revelations he hadn't prepared for.Top among them was his new appointment as the team captain that would be representing the F region; and he now faced the daunting task of recruiting nine other individuals to stand alongside him in the upcoming inter-academy tournament.Since Jake's circle was limited, he immediately reserved six of those slots for his current squad members, knowing he could absolutely trust them to have his back.It was a logical choice, as none of the other F-region first-year students came close to the caliber of his teammates; the Scorpio squad members outperformed their peers by a massive margin.Even the Blade sisters had already reached the second level. As rare-rank talents, they maintained an impressive average damage output of 24%, even without factoring in their weapon affinities.Excluding Jake, they were currently the strongest members of the squad, fo

Drax was at the wheel of the rented military-reinforced pickup truck, navigating the bumpy ride while the rest of the boys laughed in the back, as they joked about how his terrible driving would probably kill them long before they ever set foot in the Portal to fight monsters.Following a series of twists and turns, they finally reached their destination, the moment the squad leader guarding the entrance noticed their arrival, he walked over to meet Jake's team.Not wanting to waste any time, Jake immediately handed over the physical approval slip that Silas had printed out for them.The squad leader didn't even bother looking at it, though. Since he already knew Jake and the Scorpio team, such strict verification checks were usually reserved for the F region military squads. Besides, Silas had already called ahead to notify him that they would be arriving with the intention of clearing the gate dungeon, making the entire process smooth sailing, once that formality was cleared, Jake

The exact moment they decided to get restless was when Jake fired his shot, without hesitation, he pulled the trigger, the stock of his sniper rifle kicked hard against his shoulder, but he didn’t flinch, shift, or show the slightest reaction.The gunshot was the signal his team had been waiting for, the real reason Jake had ordered them to hold their fire, however, was to keep the element of surprise.He knew that if they had simply raised their weapons and opened fire, the agility the Lizardmen had already shown while climbing the trees would have let a few of them escape, and Jake had absolutely no intention of letting anyone get away. He wanted to wipe out the entire group in a single, decisive strike, he was that ambitious, and cautious at the same time.The moment his bullet rang out, shock rippled through the Lizardmen, their eyes were still locked on the human soldiers in front of them, and they were certain none of those men before them had fired the shot. Confusion flooded

[SYSTEM ERROR!!!][The portal realm has been compromised. Sabotage detected at the gate entrances. Wild abyssal energy has infiltrated the zone, drastically amplifying the threat level. Expect significantly enhanced enemy forces. Predicted gate threat level at full integration: Peak Uncommon Rank.]A series of ominous warning notifications began flashing across Jake’s System interface while he was in the middle of inspecting their setup.The shift in the environment was so severe that the rest of the squad realized something was dangerously amiss almost instantly, their standard hangar systems immediately issued alerts indicating that an external energy source had abruptly spiked the gate's difficulty level.Though their basic system layouts lacked the sophisticated intelligence of Jake's own system, so they were left without the finer details of the anomaly that had just occurred. However, the core message was clear enough for everyone to realize they were in deep trouble."Toby, sco