The Apex Awakening

Chapter 24: Class Zero

​The living quarters of Class Zero were not located within the grand, white-marble spires that housed the rest of the Sky Academy's elite. Instead, they were carved directly into the underside of the floating island—a subterranean ring of dark runic basalt suspended over five thousand feet of empty air and shifting cloud cover.

​The air here smelled of damp stone, ozone, and the faint, bitter metallic tang of unrefined mana.

​Leo walked down the narrow, torch-lit corridor, his heavy boots making a hollow, rhythmic sound against the basalt floor. His hands were tucked deep into the pockets of his dark tactical coat, his eyes quietly scanning the doorways carved into the bare stone walls.

​Unlike the opulent dormitories of the upper spires—which boasted enchanted baths, private training rooms, and dedicated servant staff—Class Zero’s facilities were brutalist and functional. Each iron-reinforced door bore only a simple brass plate stamped with a number.

​He stopped in front of Room 04.

​Before he could touch the heavy iron latch, the door swung inward with a creak.

​Sitting on a low wooden bench inside the sparse stone room was a girl wrapped entirely in thick, grey linen bandages, leaving only her dark, analytical eyes and a mess of short raven hair visible. In her hands, she casually spun a pair of long, obsidian-black assassin needles between her fingers with terrifying, seamless speed.

​It was Lady Chen—the second-place candidate who had lasted six minutes in the Iron Threshold.

​"You walk loud for someone who moves like a phantom," she said, her voice raspy and muffled beneath her linen wrappings. She didn't look up from her needles. "The whole lower ring is talking about you. The commoner who shattered an ancient gate and made Duke Valerius swallow his tongue."

​Leo leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. "I hear Class Zero is supposed to be a suicide squad. So far, it just looks like a cellar."

​A dry, rustling laugh escaped the girl's throat. "The cellar is where they keep the things that bite."

​She flicked her wrist, and one of the obsidian needles vanished from her hand, reappearing a fraction of a second later buried three inches deep into the stone wall right beside Leo's head. Leo didn't even blink. He hadn't shifted his posture a single millimeter.

​Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly behind her bandages. "No twitch. No mana barrier reflex. Your nerve endings are either dead, or you're so dense my needles can't find a gap in your skin."

​"Try throwing it harder next time," Leo said flatly, reaching out with two fingers to pull the needle from the solid basalt wall, handing it back to her. "Where's the rest of the unit?"

​"You're looking at half of it," a booming, deep voice echoed from the shadowed corner of the corridor behind Leo.

​A massive man stepped out from the darkness, his bare chest crisscrossed with glowing, deep-blue sealing runes that hummed with a quiet, suppressed power. He stood nearly seven feet tall, his shoulders broad as a iron vault door, carrying a giant wooden prayer-bead necklace around his neck. It was the third-place finisher from the trial gate—the rune-marked monk.

​"The names are simple here," the monk said, offering a curt, respectful nod. "I am Bram. The girl with the needles is Chen. We are the only survivors of last term's Vanguard Pioneer roster."

​Leo turned his head toward the giant. "Survivors?"

​"Class Zero doesn't take lecture classes or practice with wooden swords," Bram explained, his heavy voice reverberating off the narrow stone walls. "Every three days, we enter the Upper Depth Breaches directly beneath the Central Abyss Gate. Our job isn't to harvest monster cores or secure territory. Our job is to clear the conceptual corruption before it breaches the academy's foundation."

​Bram reached into his belt and tossed a small, heavy black iron badge toward Leo.

​Leo caught it with his left hand. The badge was stamped with an inverted crest—a broken tower surrounded by three jagged stars.

​[Item Analysis: Pioneer Class Zero Crest]

[Privileges Unlocked: Direct Access to Central Abyss Gate (Floor 1–10)]

[Warning: Floor Rules Apply. No External Rescues. Death Rate: 68%]

​"Grand Commander Kaelen assigned you as our unit lead," Chen said, retrieving her needle from Leo's hand and tucking it into her sleeve. "Which means when we step through the hatch tomorrow morning at dawn, you're the one taking the first hit."

​Leo looked down at the cold, heavy iron badge in his palm, feeling the faint, familiar pulse of dark energy radiating from the metal. He squeezed his fingers, feeling the badge bite into his skin—a dull, minor pressure that barely registered against his baseline endurance.

​"Tomorrow at dawn is too late," Leo said, turning back toward the main stairwell leading toward the central spire.

​Bram blinked, his thick brow furrowing. "What do you mean?"

​"The Abyss gate is open twenty-four hours a day," Leo said over his shoulder, his dark coat swishing as he walked away. "I didn't come to the Sky Citadel to sleep in a cellar. I came to farm stats."