2026-03-16 16:18:01"We're looking for someone with at least a Common-rank beast," a girl added, glancing at Rose with barely disguised disgust.
"You understand, right? We can't afford dead weight."
Harry nodded calmly and moved on. Rejection after rejection. But truthfully, he didn't mind. The fewer people who knew Rose's true power, the better.
"Well, well, well!"
John's voice carried across the plaza like a herald's trumpet. He strode forward with Seraphiel gliding beside him, flanked by five other students—all looking confident and well-equipped.
"I can't believe you actually showed up!" John laughed, spreading his arms theatrically. "I thought you were joking yesterday, but here you are! Like a cockroach that doesn't know it's already been stepped on!"
His team laughed dutifully. One of them—a tall boy with slicked-back hair—sneered at Rose.
"Is that seriously your beast? It looks like a malnourished child playing dress-up."
"Careful, Marcus," another boy said mockingly. "You might hurt its feelings. Oh wait—trash doesn't have feelings."
"She's probably already crying inside," a girl with an ice-element serpent added. "Wondering why she got stuck with the biggest loser in the city."
Rose's hand tightened on her hammer, but Harry placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Ignore them," he said quietly.
"Oh, he speaks!" John clapped slowly, mockingly. "Listen, Harry—former cousin—I'm actually doing you a favor by showing up. When I win first place with my team, it'll prove once and for all that you never belonged in the Klein family. You're a mistake. An error. A piece of garbage that should've been thrown out at birth."
"Are you finished?" Harry asked calmly.
John's smile widened. "Not even close. See my team? Thompson, Marcus, Sarah, Elena, and Victor? All top students. All with Common or Rare-rank beasts. Together, we're unstoppable. First place is guaranteed." He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "And you? You'll be lucky to kill a single Level 1 slime before you're eliminated. Everyone's going to watch you fail. Again."
"We'll see," Harry said simply.
"Yes, we will." John straightened, addressing the crowd now. "Everyone hear that? Harry Klein—sorry, just Harry now—thinks he can compete! Place your bets on how long before he gets kicked out!"
Laughter rippled through the candidates. Several people actually started discussing odds.
"Attention!" A booming voice cut through the noise.
Professor Walsh stood atop the altar, his robes billowing in an unfelt wind. "The entrance examination will now begin! The rules are simple: You will be transported into the Secret Realm. Hunt magical beasts. Earn points based on their level. Level 1 beasts are worth 10 points. Level 2 are worth 30 points. Level 3 are worth 100 points. Level 4 are worth 300 points. Level 5 are worth 1000 points."
He paused, letting the numbers sink in.
"You have six hours. Teams are permitted. The top fifty scorers will earn admission to the Imperial Royal Beast Academy. Any questions?"
Silence.
"Then begin!"
Light exploded across the altar. Runes flared to life, and the world dissolved into brilliant whiteness. Harry felt the sensation of falling, spinning, being pulled through space itself—
Then solid ground appeared beneath his feet.
Harry blinked, his vision clearing. He stood in a forest—dense, primordial, with trees that stretched impossibly high. Strange bird calls echoed in the distance. The air hummed with wild magical energy.
He was alone.
"Rose?" Harry called softly.
"Here, Master." She appeared beside him, the Upper Realm Warhammer manifesting in her hands. Despite its size, she wielded it with perfect ease.
Harry took a deep breath, steadying himself. "Alright. Let's—"
A growl cut him off.
Five pairs of red eyes emerged from the shadows. Demonic wolves—massive creatures with midnight-black fur and fangs like daggers. Their eyes glowed with malevolent intelligence, and saliva dripped from their snarling jaws.
[System Alert: Enemy Detected]
[Demonic Wolf × 5]
[Level: 3]
[Threat Assessment: MODERATE - Recommended retreat for Level 1 Beast Tamer]
Harry's heart hammered. Five Level 3 beasts at once. For a normal team, this would be a disaster. Level 1 beasts needed to hunt weaker prey first, building strength gradually. Encountering Level 3 enemies immediately was terrible luck.
The wolves began to circle, intelligent enough to coordinate their attack.
But Harry looked down at Rose and smiled.
"Ready?" he asked.
Rose's grip tightened on her hammer. Her violet eyes blazed with power. "Yes, Master."
"Then show them what trash really looks like."
Rose stepped forward, and the massive warhammer began to glow—light and darkness swirling around its surface in perfect harmony. She raised it high above her head, her small frame radiating divine power.
"Hammer of Judgment!" she cried.
She leapt.
The world seemed to slow. Rose soared through the air, impossibly high for someone her size. The hammer blazed with destructive energy, growing brighter and brighter until it was like a falling star.
She brought it down.
BOOM.
The impact created a shockwave that flattened trees for twenty feet in every direction. The ground cratered, stone and earth exploding outward. Three of the demonic wolves—caught directly in the blast radius—simply ceased to exist. They were pulverized, reduced to nothing but scattered particles.
The remaining two wolves, positioned farther away, were thrown backward. They slammed into trees with bone-breaking force, whimpering in pain. Their health was clearly depleted, but they still lived.
Rose landed gracefully, her hammer resting on her shoulder. She wasn't even breathing hard.
[System Alert: Combat Victory]
[Experience Gained: Demonic Wolf Level 3 × 3]
[Rose has leveled up! Level 1 → Level 2]
[Points Earned: 300]
Harry stared at the destruction, his mouth dry. The entire encounter had lasted less than ten seconds. Three Level 3 beasts—gone. Just... gone.
The two surviving wolves struggled to their feet, limping and bleeding. They took one look at Rose and bolted into the forest, yelping in terror.
Rose turned to Harry, tilting her head. "Master? Should I chase them?"
Harry couldn't speak. He could only nod numbly.
Rose smiled—a small, sweet expression that looked completely at odds with the devastation surrounding her—and sprinted after the fleeing wolves, her hammer trailing behind her like a comet's tail.
Alone in the clearing, Harry finally found his voice.
"John," he whispered to the empty air, "you have no idea what's coming for you."
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CHAPTER 79 PART 2
The first was a young woman standing near the window with her arms crossed and her weight balanced on her back foot, the posture of someone who assessed threats before she assessed people. Sienna Reyes. Her hair was cut short, practical, and her eyes carried the patient stillness of deep water. Behind her, barely visible in the room's dim light, a shape shimmered, her contracted beast, a Frost Ice Phoenix called Frostwing, whose aura radiated cold so controlled that it never quite reached the furniture but made the air taste like winter.The second was a young man sprawled across two chairs with his boots on the table and his hands behind his head, radiating the kind of confidence that usually preceded a spectacular failure. Damon Ellery. Tall, broad shouldered, with the build of someone whose beast did most of the fighting while he did most of the talking. His War Treant stood behind him like a living fortress, bark skinned and massive, its root system curling across the stone floor.
CHAPTER 79 PART 1
Harry had not finished folding his second shirt when the knock came.It was not a knock that waited for permission. The door opened three seconds later, and Elias Cho stood in the frame looking like a man who had slept exactly zero hours and made peace with that fact."General Cole is outside. You leave in four minutes."Harry looked at the half packed bag on his bed, then at Rose, who was already standing with the hammer materialized and her posture perfectly composed, as if she had known this was coming before the door opened."Four minutes," Harry repeated."Three now," Elias corrected, and disappeared.They were in the air before Harry's brain fully caught up with his body.General Cole's guardian beast defied every reference point Harry possessed. The system panel flickered when he tried to scan it, returning fragmented data that amounted to almost nothing, a name, Skyrender, and a classification so heavily redacted that the display looked like a page of blacked out text. The cre
CHAPTER 78
Red markers highlighted completed sections, forming an almost continuous line across the map. Almost."Every other section has been conquered. Military forces cleared them over the past decade at significant cost in lives and resources. But one section remains open." Cole enlarged a single point on the map, a pulsing gray marker surrounded by red. "This node sits at the most critical junction in the entire defense network. Without it, the barrier has a gap. And through that gap, Outer Domain demons enter our territory every single day."Harry studied the marker. "Why hasn't the military closed it?""Because the Land of Trial at this node is classified as Abyssal difficulty. The highest tier recognized." Cole's voice carried the weight of someone who had lost people to those words. "And because Abyssal Trials impose entry restrictions that no amount of military force can circumvent. Specifically, this one requires a team of exactly three Beast Masters, all at Awakening Tier Five or belo
CHAPTER 77
The Southern Command Mansion corridors smelled like polished stone and authority. Elias Cho walked two steps ahead of Harry, his posture so rigid that it looked painful, as if the man's spine had been replaced with an iron rod somewhere between the plaza and the front entrance. He had not spoken a single word since they left the ceremony grounds.Harry followed in silence, Rose walking beside him with the hammer dismissed and her hands folded behind her back. She had sensed the shift in atmosphere the moment they crossed the mansion's threshold and adjusted accordingly, pulling her aura inward until she radiated nothing more threatening than a well dressed young woman with unusual eyes.Elias stopped before a set of heavy oak doors, knocked twice, and stepped aside."Through here, Mr. Klein. They're expecting you."Harry pushed the doors open and read the room in two seconds.City Lord Marcus White stood near the window, hands clasped behind his back, occupying the kind of position a m
CHAPTER 76 PART 2
Beside him, Seraphiel had gone very still. While everyone else had been watching the rankings climb from the bottom, she had been scanning the entire list from top to bottom, searching for one specific name. She had checked every position from last place to second.Harry Klein's name was not on the list.Which meant it could only be in one place.The screen resolved its final line.First Place: Harry Klein. 42,600 points. Potential Evaluation: SSS.The plaza did not erupt. It detonated.Noise crashed from every direction at once as hundreds of voices collided in shock and disbelief. Students grabbed each other's arms and pointed at the screen. Spectators who had been leaning against walls pushed forward to get a closer look. Someone near the front dropped their drink, and the glass shattered on the stone without anyone noticing."Forty two thousand?""That's five figures. That's a five figure score.""Count the digits again. Count them again!""Is that real? Is that actually real?""S
CHAPTER 76 PART 1
The white light spat them back into the city plaza like the Trial Space was glad to be rid of them.Harry blinked against the sudden brightness of open sky after hours of fog and crimson shadow. Rose materialized beside him, hammer resting casually on her shoulder, looking no worse than someone returning from an afternoon stroll. The plaza was already crowded, hundreds of students and spectators milling around the massive display screen mounted above the registration platform, waiting for results to populate.Harry barely had time to orient himself before a figure cut through the crowd toward him with the kind of urgency that turned heads.Elias Cho looked like a man who had sprinted from the monitoring station to the plaza without stopping to catch his breath. His uniform was rumpled, his hair disheveled, and a coffee stain darkened the left toe of his boot. But his eyes were electric, burning with the kind of energy that bureaucrats were not supposed to possess."Harry Klein." Elias
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