[2 days later]
Damian and Sagara walked into the classroom which had quite a lively atmosphere to it. It had been a week since the incident between Damian and the Ajuma, since he had been unconscious for five days.
All eyes fell on both of them as they walked into the classroom. Damian, who had now gotten so much stronger under the span of two days, walked behind Sagara. He was no longer intimidated by the aura around the classroom; rather, he now had a powerful presence that made some of his classmates suffocate.
They soon found their way to their seat while the teacher continued her teaching. The school, which was oblivious to the incident, told the class that their teacher had resigned and then brought in a substitute teacher from Class 3, which were on a field trip.
She looked young, around the age of 20 to 22, yet she was already teaching the highest level of class in the academy. Her aura alone exuded dominance, with her gaze as sharp as a spear piercing through the hearts of the students.
"Now everyone quiet down. You can do some self studies for two hours, and after that, there will be a sparring session. I want to evaluate the rating of the class with my own observation." Those were the few words of the teacher before she left the classroom. She looked to be in a hurry, as she had even left a few things behind.
"Status!" Damian called out as he wanted to see his current status. He hadn't taken the time to read the details of his new skills.
[NAME: DAMIAN ??
AGE: 17
MAIN REGALIA: Divine Body — currently reduced to Earth grade (0/800)
Other regalia: Power of Beelzebub
{abilities: Devouring Aura (God grade); copied skills: 1/2; skill: Dagger of Trinity: Earth grade (1/800)}
Physique: 100
Abstract: 100
Z.F: 5+50]
[Divine Body: Increases base stats to 100, and if activated can increase it to 200. It also grants 10% reduction to all damage taken by the host, and it gives the user 10% pure aura.]
[Dagger of Trinity: A powerful dagger that has the ability to burn, paralyze, and poison the target. Up to five can be summoned, and their movements in midair can be freely controlled. Their speed can reach up to 200 m/s and have an attack strength of 500 kg.]
[Devouring Aura: Grants the user the ability to turn deceased foes into Zeta fragments and also has the ability to copy any abilities used on the host, with its limit only being the host itself.]
One thing Damian also noticed was that any abilities that were copied automatically became a growth‑type ability, and that was something that could make his potential limitless.
Damian was currently saving the last spot for a powerful ability, or rather, he was saving it for Sagara's ability, as he believed that copying Sagara's Regalia could increase his potential one million fold.
With Damian's current stats at 100, his strength was already about 1000 kg, while his speed could reach 90 meters per second, which was already an impressive feat. He decided to focus on mastering Zeta energy, and thanks to Sagara, who agreed to train him, he was already improving as he could now circulate Zeta energy around his body.
---
Two hours later, the teacher walked into the class with her ever serious face. She had a worried look on her face, but of course it was none of their business. "Everyone head to the training ground. It's time for the minor test!" She said as she left, but she soon paused at the door to add a few more words. "The top ten in my list can directly transfer to my class if they wish!" she said while leaving with her new information, causing an uproar amongst the students. Some had made up their mind to give up—those were the bottom rankers—while some mid‑rankers steeled their resolve and set their goals to be at the top ten. Only a few remained calm about the situation as they had confidence they would win for sure.
According to Sagara, Damian could rank fourth in the classroom. The third was a guy named Austin with a Unique‑grade Regalia, while the second was the girl who had sat beside them, with a Heaven‑grade Regalia, while Sagara himself was ranked first.
Everybody left the class as they walked out of the academy block to the training ground, which was about 100 meters from there. It was a big open field with several high rising platforms; some also contained training dummies or practice targets.
Close to the training ground was another building, the Combat Room, but that was off limits for the second years. When they got there, they met their teacher having a conversation with another man. They all recognized him as he was one of the sponsored researchers of the school; he also helped in admitting new students as he was interested in different kinds of Regalias.
"Damian, isn't it? It seems you've been doing well. You've even grown strong. Tell me, what grade is your Regalia now?" The researcher, who was Mr. John, said as he walked close to Damian with a warm smile.
Damian greeted him with a warm gesture as he also thanked him for the spatial bracelet and the contents inside it.
"Oh don't mention it. I like seeing kids with potential grow up. So tell me, what level is your Regalia now?" Mr. John asked curiously, as he knew that Damian's Regalia was special and so its speed might also be insanely fast.
Normally it took a person with a growth‑type Regalia a month to level it up from Common to Uncommon, after that six months to level it to Rare, and then one and a half or two years to level it up to Earth grade, while some with higher potential could level it up to Unique in five years.
Growth‑type Regalias also have their growth limit. Some could stop advancing at Rare, or Earth, while if your Regalia advanced to Unique, most people would usually stop as they knew breaking through to Heaven grade might be impossible or take half of their life for.
In the world, the person with the fastest growth rate was currently one of the Ten Pillars, Void, who had used ten years to break through from Heaven grade to Legendary grade. Of course, growth‑type Regalias didn't necessarily start from Common grade; some could even start at Mystic grade directly, like the War God, who then used fifteen years to break through from Mystic to Legendary. Those people were true monsters, as if ordinary people with growth‑type Regalias were to try to advance to even Mystic, they would already be in their eighties before it could happen.
"Earth grade, sir!" Damian said politely, which made Mr. John stagger back in confusion. Just a week ago it was an Uncommon grade, and now he had advanced two stages already. How was that even possible?
Mr. John took two minutes to regain his composure before telling Damian to come see him in his laboratory before he goes home, after which he left to stand beside their class teacher. Meanwhile, every other student was shocked as they knew the strict nature of Mr. John, but he was talking so friendly with Damian. Of course, none of them dared eavesdrop on their conversation as they knew the consequences would be dire.
---
The teacher informed them about how the evaluation test would be like. They would have a combat session of one round, and depending on the display of prowess and capability, she would decide for them to pass to the second round, which was measuring one's physique, after which they would move to testing their soul, then the last would be held in the Combat Room. Anyone was allowed to challenge their opponents as drawing lots would be a hassle.
Damian and Sagara just stood still waiting for challengers. Of course, not anybody came close to Sagara as they had already seen some of his display of powers and as such was dubbed the strongest student of the second year. The first to be challenged out of the two was Damian, who was challenged by the Assistant Class Rep, the fourth strongest person in the class with a Unique‑grade Regalia.
"Damian, I challenge you!" the Assistant Class Rep said without any hint of the arrogant tone of before. He seemed to have noticed that Damian had already grown strong enough to be recognized.
"I accept!" Damian said without hesitation. Even though his Regalia was just an Earth‑grade Regalia, he had confidence because of its overall abilities. He had no intention of using his new abilities as he felt it was unnecessary.
A few seconds later, Freya walked up to Sagara, challenging him. As the second strongest person in the class, she was the only one who had a little chance of beating Sagara, even if it was only ten percent.
After five minutes, everybody had already had their sparring partner except one. Seeing that they were thirty‑three students in the class, one person was bound to not have a sparring partner. It was the most secretive student in the classroom; in fact, nobody even remembered his face as he always wore a hoodie that covered most of his face.
The first set of persons to fight were the bottom rankers as they wanted to save the strongest sets for last.
After about one hour, it finally got to the top ten. The differences in abilities were vast, as the lowest grade of Regalia was Rare grade while Earth grade dominated, with three Unique grade and one Heaven grade which belonged to Freya. It finally got to Damian's battle with the Assistant Class Rep.
They stood face to face with each other while everyone had their eyes on them. From the looks of things, the Assistant Class Rep whose name was Cain didn't plan on attacking first, so Damian made the first move, dashing toward Cain. His base speed was insane as people couldn't even follow his movement properly; even Cain was caught off guard as he didn't notice Damian using any energy or even his Regalia.
Cain had barely avoided the attack as he leaped back, increasing the distance between them. Everyone was surprised as they didn't expect anyone to move like that without using Zeta energy or their Regalia.
"This is the result of years of intense physical training!" the teacher muttered as she stared at Damian intensely. Meanwhile, Mr. John, who heard it, couldn't help but disagree in his mind as he knew that Damian had recently stepped into the world of Regalia himself. This was the doing of his Regalia acting passively.
"It seems I underestimated you. It won't happen again!" Cain said as purple energy began to seep out of his body, indicating his Unique‑grade Regalia.
Damian still didn't activate his Regalia yet, as he had confidence in his base physical stats. As he dashed toward Cain with incredible speed, he suddenly felt his weight double before coming to a halt two meters away from Cain. Of course, he could still move, but he felt slower than an average human as his body weight had skyrocketed.
"You seem confused. I like giving my opponent a hint before I finish them. Right now you're under a hundred and fifty times normal gravity. It's amazing that you're still able to stand, but with your speed, you're more of a snail than a human," Cain taunted as his arrogance was already building up.
After Damian heard Cain's words, a smile formed on his face as he planned to wipe that little arrogance off his face. At that moment, Cain felt a heavy pain in his stomach, sending him flying like a broken kite.
[Regalia activated. Current stats at 200.]
With his stats at 200, he could easily withstand pressure up to fifty times gravity. He didn't plan to stop there. He felt the pressure on his body lift up since Cain had been forced to cancel the Regalia effect with a powerful punch. His speed easily reached almost 200 meters per second, combined with his strength of over two thousand kilograms. He easily dominated the battle. With each punch, Damian could hear the cracking of bones, which made him feel pity. After about fifteen seconds, the winner of the fight was obvious. It was the shortest fight in history. It seemed more like a Legendary rank beating a Common grade. Although the blue aura was an obvious fact that Damian had an Earth‑grade Regalia.
What people didn't know was that a fight didn't naturally depend on the rank of the Regalia. The rank of a Regalia represents the power and intensity of an ability; it also gives a higher aura than lower grades. The things that determined a battle were firstly the ability of the Regalia itself, second was control and experience over the Regalia, and something that could also be a game changer was the control over Zeta energy itself. And the only thing that Cain had over Damian was a higher aura. Seeing that his Regalia could control gravity up to one hundred times, it could be used to attack, defend, or even support the user instead of just using it to dominate the entire area.
After the battle, people with lower ranked Regalias had a little bit of self‑confidence, seeing the potential to train their Regalias even more.
"What an interesting kid. What did you think about him?" the class teacher asked while Mr. John could only smile.
"He has great potential. And don't you even think about brainwashing him to be some kind of disciple or something. I have long set my eyes on him."
2026-03-24 01:25:36
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