Overflow Novice: 10,000 Years in Tutorial Hell

Chapter 4: The Measuring Stone

Tiberion’s "Wolf Soul" aura rolled over the cracked asphalt like a physical tide of predatory intent. To any normal person, or even a Mid-Rank Hunter, it would have felt like being submerged in a vat of freezing oil. To Ryu, it felt like a mild, slightly annoying draft that happened to smell vaguely of wet dog.

Ryu blinked, his expression remaining dangerously blank. Internally, he was doing rapid-fire mental gymnastics. Stay calm. Act scared. People usually tremble when someone glows purple and barks at them, right? He forced a slight wobble into his knees, though his legs felt like solid pillars of neutron star material.

"Tiberion, enough!" Pyra stepped between them, her own heat flaring. The air shimmered as her flame-touched mana evaporated the pressure of the Wolf Soul. "He’s a survivor I found at ground zero. If you touch a civilian without cause, I’ll report you to the Oversight Committee before you can even draw that oversized toothpick on your back."

Tiberion’s sneer didn't waver. He didn't look at Pyra; his golden, lupine eyes were fixed on Ryu’s tattered, blood-stained tunic, the same clothes Ryu had worn for the last few centuries of the loop. "A civilian? Level 1. Zero mana signature. And yet he’s standing in the middle of a crater that looks like it was hit by a tactical nuke, and he hasn't even broken a sweat. You think I’m an idiot, Solstice?"

"The Association can determine his status," Pyra snapped, her hand still tight on her hilt. "We’re heading to the Seoul Branch for a formal evaluation. If he’s a 'glitch' or a 'Hidden Class,' the scanners will catch it. Until then, he’s under my protection."

Tiberion let out a short, barking laugh, the sound grating against the ruined buildings. "Fine. I’ll follow. I want to see the look on your face when the machine reads 'Zero' and we find out he’s just a lucky cockroach. Or better yet, when it catches the scent of whatever illegal artifact he used to cause this mess."

The journey to the Hunter Association Headquarters was a blur of neon lights and ruined infrastructure. Ryu followed Pyra, trying to walk with the "struggle" of a normal human. It was difficult. His default walking speed, if he wasn't paying attention, tended to create sonic booms. Every step felt like he was walking on a floor made of wet tissue paper; he had to consciously minimize his mass to keep from leaving footprints in the solid concrete.

The Seoul Branch was a monolith of chrome and reinforced glass, teeming with Hunters in high-tech ceramic armor. Ryu felt like a literal caveman. He stood in the center of the grand lobby, ignored by most until they saw who he was walking with.

"He looks like he crawled out of a sewer," someone whispered.

"Is that Pyra Solstice? And Tiberion? Why are they escorting a hobo?"

Tiberion shoved past a group of C-Rankers, heading straight for the Rank Evaluation Wing. "Clear the floor! We need the S-Grade Measuring Stone. Now!"

A frantic clerk scrambled to comply. Within minutes, Ryu was standing in a sterile, white-tiled room dominated by a three-meter-tall slab of dark, iridescent mineral. It was a Mana-Reinforced Measuring Stone, designed to absorb and quantify the kinetic and magical output of the world’s strongest beings.

"Alright, 'peasant,'" Tiberion said, leaning against the observation glass with a mocking grin. "The rules are simple. Hit the stone. Use everything you’ve got. If you’re just a Level 1 civilian, the stone won't even vibrate, and I get to personally toss you into a containment cell for questioning."

Pyra stood by the control console, her eyes narrowed. "Just do what you can, Ryu. Don't worry about the results. The stone is indestructible; it's rated for S-Rank impact."

Ryu looked at the stone. Then he looked at his hand.

Indestructible? he thought skeptically. He remembered the 'Tutorial Mountains' he used to punch into dust when he was bored during year 4,000. This stone looked much softer than those mountains.

If I hit this too hard, the System will flag me as an anomaly. If I hit it too soft, they’ll think I’m a fraud and lock me up. I need to hit it with... let's see... 0.000001% of my base strength?

He closed his eyes, visualizing his power. It was an ocean, a sun, a collapsing galaxy held back by a fraying dam of his own willpower. He began to dial it down.

90%... 99%... 99.99%... 99.9999%...

He felt like he was trying to thread a needle while wearing oven mitts. He settled on a force that felt roughly equivalent to the flick of a gnat’s wing. To Ryu, it felt like a gentle caress.

"Whenever you're ready," Pyra encouraged, her voice tinged with a strange hope.

Ryu stepped forward. He pulled back his fist, not even a full wind-up, just a casual jab. He focused on 'holding' his momentum, making sure his feet didn't shatter the floor tiles during the weight transfer.

Tup.

His fist made contact with the center of the dark stone. For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Tiberion began to guffaw. "See? I told you! The brat doesn't even have..."

CRACK.

The sound wasn't a snap; it was a dry, cinematic boom that echoed through the entire facility. A single, hairline fracture appeared where Ryu’s knuckle had touched the mineral. Then, that fracture branched into a thousand others.

The iridescent glow of the stone suddenly turned a violent, screaming red.

"Wait, the mana saturation is spiking!" the technician yelled, his hands flying over the keyboard. "It’s absorbing... it’s not absorbing! The stone is rejecting the impact! It’s..."

The Measuring Stone didn't just break. It underwent a state change. It turned from a solid mass into a cloud of fine, grey flour in less than a second. A shockwave of pure, unadulterated force erupted from the point of contact, blowing out the reinforced observation glass and sending the heavy computer monitors flying against the back wall.

The fire suppression system triggered immediately, dousing the room in chemical foam as the testing machine’s internal capacitors began to melt and catch fire.

Ryu stood in the middle of the chaos, his hand still extended. He looked down at the pile of dust that used to be an S-Rank testing tool and felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. Dammit. I used too much. I'm going back to the hut. I'm going to have to kill that pig another million times.

"My... my stone," the head evaluator whispered, staring at the empty pedestal.

Pyra was frozen, her 'Eye of Truth' glowing so brightly it was painful. She wasn't looking at the dust; she was looking at the UI flickering above Ryu’s head.

[ERROR: MEASUREMENT FAILED]

[RECALIBRATING...]

[CRITERIA: LEVEL]

[LEVEL: 1]

[FINAL RANK: F]

The machine’s AI voice, distorted by the electrical fire, sputtered out the result: "Evaluation... complete. Candidate... Ryu. Rank... F. Reason... Level 1. Suggestion... Machine... Malfunction... detected."

Tiberion scrambled up from the floor, his face pale and covered in glass dust. He looked at the smoking wreckage of the room, then at Ryu’s Level 1 tag, then back at the dust. His brain seemed to be short-circuiting.

"He... he used a bomb," Tiberion snarled, his voice trembling with a mix of fury and genuine terror. "He had a concealed explosive! No Level 1 can do that! That stone was rated for a mountain-level impact!"

"The sensors didn't pick up any explosives, Tiberion," Pyra said, her voice breathy. She stepped through the shattered glass, her eyes locked on Ryu with a terrifying intensity. "They didn't pick up anything. No mana, no skill activation. Just... physical force."

Ryu tried to look as confused as possible. "Is it supposed to turn into powder? I thought you said it was a 'stone.' It felt more like a sponge."

Tiberion’s face went from pale to a deep, vein-popping purple. He reached for the hilt of the massive claymore strapped to his back. The "Wolf Soul" aura exploded again, this time with lethal intent. The floor beneath his boots groaned and shattered.

"I don't care what the machine says! F-Rank? Don't make me laugh!" Tiberion roared, drawing his blade. The steel hummed with a hungry, golden light. "You’re a spy, a glitch, or a monster, and I’m going to peel back that fake Level 1 skin of yours right now!"

He leveled the tip of the sword at Ryu’s throat. "Sparring match. Right here. Right now. If you're an F-Rank, you won't mind a little demonstration for the cameras, will you? Or are you afraid your 'cheat item' will run out of batteries?"