2026-09-02 11:26:55When Ryan opened his eyes again, the first thing he noticed was that the bourbon was gone from his system.
Completely.
His head felt clear.
His vision was sharp.
Even the bitter taste of alcohol had disappeared from his tongue as though he hadn’t drunk anything at all.
Ryan rubbed a hand across his face.
“I’m actually sober?”
“Open the door!”
The shout came from the far side of the room.
Ryan turned toward it—
And finally noticed where he was.
He was standing inside an enormous stone hall surrounded by more than a hundred strangers.
Some were still dressed in office clothes.
A few were wearing pajamas.
Almost everyone looked either confused or terrified.
A muscular man near the far end of the hall was pounding on a massive wooden door.
“Whoever you are, open this door right now!”
Others quickly joined him, shouting demands of their own.
Some tried calling the police, but none of their phones had a signal.
Ryan checked his.
Same problem.
Stranger still, the digital clock on his screen was frozen at 11:08 PM.
BANG!
The muscular man slammed his fist into the door again.
A scraping noise came from above.
Ryan looked up.
A stone gargoyle perched over the doorway slowly opened its eyes.
Then it jumped.
Its stone wings spread wide as it plunged toward the man below.
“Dormio.”
A man’s voice came from beyond the door.
The gargoyle froze in midair.
A second later, it crashed onto the stone floor before it could reach its target.
The massive doors swung open.
A tall man in his thirties walked into the hall.
He wore a long gray coat, and a black wand rested at his waist. His brown hair was cut short, while a thin scar ran along the line of his jaw.
He looked down at the fallen gargoyle, then at the muscular man.
“Your first day here and you’re already picking a fight with the hall guardian. Ambitious.”
Nobody laughed.
The newcomer didn’t seem bothered.
“My name is Gareth Crowe. For the next three months, I’ll be the instructor in charge of Group Seven.”
Questions immediately exploded from every direction.
“Where are we?”
“Send us back!”
“This is kidnapping!”
“Who the hell are you people?”
Gareth let the shouting continue for several seconds.
Then he snapped his fingers.
BOOM!
The sound of a massive bell rolled through the hall.
The stone beneath Ryan’s shoes seemed to vibrate.
Everyone fell silent.
“Much better.”
Gareth pulled out his wand.
A blue flame appeared at its tip.
Before anyone could react, the flame took the shape of a tiny bird. It fluttered through the air for a moment before bursting apart into dozens of glowing butterflies.
Several people gasped.
“You are inside Blackthorn Arcane Academy,” Gareth said. “This place is real. Magic is real too.”
He swept his gaze across the crowd.
“But none of you are officially students yet. At the moment, you’re only candidates.”
A woman near the front raised her voice.
“What if we don’t want to be here?”
“Then fail the entrance exam.”
Gareth answered without hesitation.
“If Blackthorn decides you’re unqualified, you’ll be sent home.”
That seemed to cool some of the anger in the room.
Ryan, however, didn’t like the way Gareth emphasized the word unqualified.
The instructor walked toward the front wall and pressed his palm against a symbol shaped like an eye.
Stone ground against stone.
Part of the wall slid away, revealing a black mirror nearly three meters tall.
Its metal frame was covered in intricate carvings of twisting thorny vines.
“The Mirror of Appraisal,” Gareth explained. “It measures your basic physical condition and your innate potential.”
He stepped aside.
“Stand in front of it until the examination is complete. Do not move until the light disappears.”
The candidates went forward one by one.
A red glow swept over each person for several seconds.
Afterward, golden writing appeared on a sheet of parchment in Gareth’s hand.
A few results earned a nod from him.
Most received nothing more than a bored glance.
Eventually, nearly everyone had been tested.
Gareth looked down at the list in his hand.
“Ryan Volde.”
Ryan stepped forward.
Gareth studied him for a moment.
“You were also the last candidate to regain consciousness after transit. Nearly three hours.”
Ryan frowned.
Three hours?
From his perspective, the trip from his apartment had lasted only a few seconds.
Before he could ask about it, Gareth pointed toward the mirror.
“Go.”
Ryan walked up to the black surface and stopped in front of it.
A red light immediately swept over his body.
Five seconds passed.
Then ten.
The examination continued.
Ryan remained still.
Gareth, who had looked half-bored until now, slowly straightened as the writing on the parchment in his hand continued to change.
Fifteen seconds.
Twenty.
Several nearby candidates began to notice.
Whispers spread through the hall.
Ryan said nothing.
Half a minute passed.
The Mirror of Appraisal was still scanning him.
And it still hadn’t produced a final result.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 16 - Final Attack
“Two shots...” Ryan repeated quietly as he stared at the Goblin Warlord still standing in front of them. “That means we can’t afford to miss again.”Evelyn didn’t answer. Her face had gone pale, and the hand gripping her wand was trembling slightly, but her eyes remained fixed on the Warlord’s half-destroyed head.Two other candidates who had somehow survived on the far side of the courtyard exchanged glances.They could have taken advantage of the weakened Warlord and escaped toward the Sanctuary Zone.Instead, after seeing how close the monster was to falling, they raised their weapons and charged.“Now! Hold it down!”The fi
Chapter 15 - Shockwave
[Universal Prodigy activated.][Target: Goblin Warlord.][Copyable ability detected.][Shockwave - Rank F.][Copy successful.][Ability duration: 3 minutes.]Ryan read the notifications once before immediately turning to Evelyn. “Three minutes. That’s all the time we have. No matter what happens, aim for its head.”Evelyn frowned slightly, clearly not understanding where Ryan’s confidence was coming from, but she didn’t waste time asking questions. Her wand was already raised as Ryan tightened his grip on the dagger and ran toward the Goblin Warlord.One of the remaining candidates had just failed to escape.The Warlord grabbed him from behind and slammed him into the ground before his body shattered into light. The sight still made Ryan’s stomach turn, even though he knew everything happening here was only part of the exam.The moment Ryan entered its attack range, the Warlord’s red eyes shifted toward him.The creature swung its arm.Ryan had already estimated its reach and stepped
Chapter 14 - Trump Card
Evelyn had already turned toward the Sanctuary Zone, but after only a few steps, the difference in their speed became obvious.The Warlord was much faster.Evelyn, meanwhile, clearly wasn’t built around physical attributes.“Not toward the Sanctuary!” Ryan pointed toward the ruins of the building that had collapsed when the Warlord appeared. “Go toward the candidates who were hiding!”Evelyn glanced over and immediately understood.The fourteen candidates who had refused to fight from the beginning were now gathered near the ruins.They still hadn’t crossed the courtyard toward the Sanctuary Zone because they were too afraid, but the collapsed building had destroyed their hiding place.Evelyn changed direction and ran straight toward them.Several candidates immediately panicked.“Hey! Don’t come over here!”“Take that thing somewhere else!”Evelyn didn’t slow down.The Warlord kept gaining on her, but she still had a lead of roughly twenty meters.The moment she passed the group near
Chapter 13 - Under Pressure
“Don’t fight it head-on! Fall back!”Ryan was already moving away before he even finished shouting.Marcus had just been sent flying with a single blow, and that was more than enough to kill any desire Ryan had to test his strength against the Goblin Warlord.With his attributes, one hit might be enough to end his exam.Not everyone thought the same way.The ten candidates who had been heading toward the Sanctuary Zone immediately turned back when the boss appeared.They had already completed the five-goblin mission, which meant the only major reward left was standing right in front of them.“Attack together!”“Don’t give it a chance to move!”Several swords and axes struck the Goblin Warlord almost at the same time.Two arrows followed from behind.The result was disappointing.Its thick, muscular body suffered only shallow wounds, while the arrows barely managed to penetrate its skin.Ryan chose to observe from a safe distance.All the ordinary Blight Goblins had collapsed the momen
Chapter 12 - Triggering the Warlord
No one laughed this time.Too many coincidences had happened for it to still look like luck.Marcus was the angriest of them all.“You’re doing this on purpose!”Ryan turned toward him.“Doing what?”“Four!”Marcus raised four fingers, his face turning red.“You stole four kills from me!”Ryan was actually a little surprised by the number.He had deliberately targeted Marcus more often because his high attributes allowed him to weaken goblins quickly.But Ryan hadn’t realized he had taken that many.He checked his skill progress.[Power Slash Lv.1: 80/100.]What a shame.A little more and the skill might have leveled up.Then again, if Ryan kept doing the same thing, Marcus might decide to stab him before stabbing another Blight Goblin.“Fine. I’ll stop.”Marcus snorted loudly.The others looked more curious than genuinely angry.They all knew Ryan only had nine total attribute points.That made his ability to time his finishing blows so precisely even stranger.Ryan, of course, had n
Chapter 11 - Kill Steal
Ryan’s satisfaction after getting his first kill lasted only a few seconds.The moment he tried to raise his dagger again, the muscles in his arm felt heavy and sore, as though all the strength he had gathered earlier had been squeezed out in a single attack.Power Slash was strong, but Ryan only had three points in Vitality.If he forced himself to use the skill twice in quick succession, there was no guarantee his arm would still be able to hold a weapon afterward.So Ryan didn’t rush to look for another target.He continued moving with the formation while watching how the others fought.Some needed three strikes to bring down a Blight Goblin.Others needed four or five.Ryan began memorizing how strong each person was and estimating when a goblin had been weakened enough for him to finish it with a single attack.About a minute later, the heaviness in his arm started to fade.A candidate beside him was fighting a Blight Goblin that had already taken three sword strikes.The moment
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