CLASS F’S MONSTER SON-IN-LAW

Chapter 2

Alex Vex arrived at the Annex Building twenty minutes before his first mandatory lecture. The Annex was the architectural equivalent of a sneer: a squat, concrete block hastily attached to the glittering, magi-tech main campus. While the main Academy was powered by self-sustaining mana crystals, the Annex relied on flickering fluorescent lights and the grudging patience of the campus maintenance crew.

This was the realm of Class F.

He located Lecture Hall 7. Inside, twenty students were lounging, their attitudes ranging from sullen resignation to bitter antagonism. This was the bottom tier—the rejects, the academically challenged, and the unfortunate few whose mana cores were simply too weak to register a decent output. They were the guaranteed failures the Academy admitted purely to boost enrollment numbers.

The moment Alex walked in, the murmuring stopped. Every eye in the room landed on his cheap, unscorched denim.

“Look, it’s the janitor,” spat a voice from the back.

The speaker was Marcus, a massive, barrel-chested student who had failed his Physical Augmentation exams three times. Marcus made up for his lack of magical talent by being a physical bully, relying on brute force and a low-level Strength spell he’d barely managed to memorize. He was the undisputed king of Class F.

“Vex, right?” Marcus lumbered forward, his shadow engulfing Alex. “Word travels fast. You’re the Lin family’s lapdog. Why are you here? Did you finally get promoted to cleaning our lockers?”

Alex stopped at the threshold. His internal AI, having finished the System Reset assessment, was now running a sub-protocol: [Threat Analysis: Marcus. Muscle Mass: 110 kg. Stance: Predictably aggressive. Magic: Low-tier Augmentation (Predictable Energy Flow). Threat Level: Zero.]

“I am a student,” Alex stated, his voice flat, devoid of emotion.

The whole class erupted in cruel laughter.

Marcus shoved Alex hard, intending to send the "cripple" stumbling back into the hallway. "Get a seat in the back, dog. And try not to smell up the place with floor cleaner."

Alex allowed the shove. He swayed precisely 0.05 meters. His feet, which had been perfectly parallel, shifted into the Aethelian Stabilizing Stance—an invisible adjustment in weight distribution that allowed him to absorb sudden kinetic shock while generating zero counter-movement. Marcus’s hand, which had made contact with Alex’s chest, felt like it hit a wall of dense, inert iron.

Marcus blinked, confused. He had put his full weight into that shove.

“I said,” Marcus growled, reaching out to grab Alex’s collar again, “get lost, or I’ll teach you what happens when you disrespect a Rank 1 Power Augmenter.”

Alex waited. He calculated the exact trajectory of Marcus's arm—a clumsy arc that relied on strength, not skill. The energy of Marcus’s low-level Augmentation spell began to flow, creating a slight, visible bulge of power around his forearm.

The moment Marcus’s fingers locked onto his collar, Alex executed the counter-move. It wasn’t a block, a punch, or a kick.

It was a perfect manipulation of physics.

Alex rotated his torso microscopically, simultaneously shifting his entire body weight forward and applying a focused, precise burst of kinetic pressure against the ulnar nerve and brachialis muscle of Marcus’s grabbing arm.

The effect was instantaneous, devastating, and entirely silent.

Marcus’s own amplified strength, which was meant to be his weapon, became the source of his undoing. The sudden, systemic shock caused his Augmentation spell to feedback violently against his own muscle fibers.

Marcus let out a strangled, animalistic scream, releasing Alex as he collapsed to the floor. His entire right arm seized up, curled against his chest, paralyzed by systemic nerve interference. Tears welled in his eyes, not from physical injury, but from the horrifying realization that he had just somehow—magically—crippled his own arm.

The whole classroom fell into stunned silence.

“You… you hit me with black magic!” Marcus whimpered, rocking back and forth.

Alex looked down, utterly impassive. “Incorrect. Your internal pressure was unstable. I merely applied an external kinetic counter-force, causing your low-level augmentation spell to misfire against its own biological host. This is simple, high-school-level biomechanics.”

Professor Silas, a portly, middle-aged man who had been attempting to nap at his desk, shot up, aghast. “Vex! What was that display? That was un-Academic! Marcus, get up! Get up before I fail the whole lot of you!”

Marcus was still writhing. Silas stared at Alex’s cold, unmoving face, deciding this wasn't worth the paperwork.

“Fine,” Silas huffed, wiping his brow. “Everyone, settle down! The lecture can wait. Today is mandatory field testing. You will all enter the Standard Goblin Hive Simulation. You need a 5-minute survival time and one confirmed kill using magic. Fail, and the Academy cuts your funding, and you are expelled. Get moving!”

In the chaos of the class filing out toward the simulation room, Marcus stumbled past Alex. His arm was still useless, throbbing with residual nerve pain.

He leaned in close, his voice a furious hiss. “That wasn’t luck, Vex. You hurt me. I’ll make you pay ten times over. I have connections in the A-Class. I’ll arrange a little accident for you in the sim.”

Marcus pulled out his communicator and started frantically typing a private message.

Alex watched him walk away. The tiny, internal voice of the Aethelian AI spoke clearly in his mind.

[Threat Level Assessment: Marcus. Status: Downgraded to 'Nuisance.' Energy Drain Potential: Low. Recommended Action: Use the 'Accident' to test the current environment’s upper limits.]

When they arrived at the training room, the air grew thick with latent mana. The room was massive, the ceiling disappearing into a mesh of holographic projectors. Alex walked past the entrance and felt the subtle, low-frequency hum of a massive Mana Core deep beneath the floor.

A highly unstable core, Alex noted internally. They are drawing too much power too fast. This entire building is a ticking bomb.

The students stepped onto the open grid floor. Professor Silas hit the activation button, and the lights dimmed.

[Simulation: Standard Goblin Hive. Commencing.]

Holographic projections of trees, rocks, and sickly green Goblins began to materialize. The other students quickly paired up and began fumbling with their weak spells.

Alex stood alone, waiting for the swarm to reach him.

Just as the first five goblins charged, Marcus’s trap triggered.

A panicked voice boomed over the training room speakers: “Attention, Class F. We have encountered a system error! Due to a breach in the external perimeter, the simulation has automatically introduced a high-level threat for diagnostic purposes! All Level 0 Students, this is your mandatory sacrifice scenario!”

A massive shadow fell over the battlefield. The ground shook. The Goblins scattered in terror.

From the northern corner, a creature the size of a small tank materialized. It was a Level 30 Armored Orc Warlord—a beast whose spiked armor was impenetrable to anything less than a mid-tier bombardment spell. It roared, the sound echoing painfully in the confined space.

The students shrieked, instantly abandoning their spells. Even Professor Silas, watching from the control room, looked like he was about to vomit. This creature could kill the entire class in thirty seconds.

Alex, however, smiled faintly—the first genuine expression of pleasure since his forced awakening.

A Level 30 Armored Orc. Finally, something worthy of kinetic testing.

He dropped his Student ID card and prepared his body for motion, his eyes locked on the Orc’s heavy, flawed armor.

But before Alex could move, the Armored Orc Warlord paused, its massive head tilting slightly. Its projection wavered, and a second, much fainter internal signal—a military frequency—overlaid its roar. It wasn't charging Alex; it was looking past him, directly at the control panel where Professor Silas stood. The Orc Warlord then dropped to one knee, its spiked head bowed low, and a synthesized voice broadcasted over the simulation speakers in a dead language Alex instantly recognized:

"System Aethelian 7. General Protocol 7. Target: The Unstable Core. Command: Await Signal."

The creature wasn't here to kill the students. It was here for the Core—and Professor Silas looked like he was about to faint, not from the threat of the Orc, but from the words it had just spoken.