"Next registrant for Tier 1 Warrior assessnt: Garrick Ironside, Warrior profession. Please proceed."
As the staff mber called the na, the muscular young man in the fitted vest stepped forward confidently. He placed his palm on the energy asurent crystal and channeled his energy into it.
The crystal humd for several seconds before displaying results.
"Energy stat asurent: 11.321. Passed."
The staff mber nodded professionally. "Next is the combat power assessnt. Please strike the testing apparatus with full force. You must achieve 1,500 or higher to pass certification."
The muscular man — Garrick — positioned himself before the combat analyzer, taking several deep breaths. He adopted a martial arts stance, drawing stares from other waiting registrants who watched with interest.
"I’m guessing he’ll break 2,000 easily."
"Looks more like 2,500 to ."
Murmurs of speculation rippled through the crowd.
"HAAA!"
Garrick’s shout echoed through the testing area. His right arm visibly swelled with surging energy as he threw his full power into the strike.
BOOM!
3,783
"Oh, not bad at all!"
"Quite capable!"
Scattered praise erged from the audience. Garrick’s face split into a proud grin.
The staff mber announced, "Combat power assessnt passed. Congratulations on achieving Tier 1 Warrior certification. Here is your official badge. You’ll receive a monthly warrior subsidy of 5,000 points from the Association."
Garrick held his badge up and stared at it for a long mont before clutching it to his chest.
"Finally." His voice ca out rougher than he intended. "Finally."
He had failed his awakening three tis during high school. Three separate ceremonies, three trips to the Origin Temple, three tis the crystal had produced nothing. No talent. No job awakening. The examiners had been professional about it each ti, which sohow made it worse. He had sat in the back of his classroom after the third failure while his classmates received their results and looked at their new panels and started planning their futures, and he had understood clearly that he was not going to be part of that conversation.
What the examiners had told him afterward was this: failed awakenings ca down to two factors. Insufficient physique — a body too weak to handle the crystallization process — or insufficient soul strength — a consciousness too underdeveloped to anchor the law etching. Most people who failed once fell into one category or the other. Most people who failed twice fell into both.
Garrick had failed three tis.
So he had done the only thing he could think of. He had trained his body until it didn’t qualify as insufficient anymore. Six days a week, every week, for two years after graduation, building the physique that high school hadn’t given him the ti or discipline to develop. The soul strength had followed gradually — a byproduct of sustained cultivation effort combined with the Basic Spirit Refining thod he had purchased with three months of part-ti salary. It was slow. It was unglamorous. Nobody had written any web novels about his process.
AN: you will be rembered Garrick
On his fourth attempt, the crystal had responded.
"After my multiple failures during high school—" he started, then stopped, because his voice was doing sothing embarrassing and there were people watching. He straightened up and finished with the volu restored. "The era of Garrick Ironside has arrived!"
It was not the most dignified declaration he had ever made. He didn’t particularly care.
This was not an unusual story in Thornhaven. Failed awakenings were quietly common — the Origin Temple’s process demanded a physique and soul developnt that high school training often hadn’t had ti to produce. The warriors who made it through on determination alone rather than natural readiness tended to be quieter about it afterward, or very loud about it, depending on personality. Garrick was clearly the second type.
The next registrant — a young woman — passed her energy stat test but failed the combat power requirent despite multiple attempts.
"How is this possible? I always exceeded 1,500 at my martial hall’s testing equipnt..." She protested with frustration and disbelief.
"Is there sothing wrong with your machine?"
Elara approached with practiced professionalism. "The Warrior Association’s equipnt represents the highest calibration standards available. If there’s a discrepancy, the error lies with your martial hall’s apparatus. Please return when you’ve trained further. Next registrant!"
So succeeded, faces lighting with joy. Others failed, shaking their heads in disappointnt as they departed.
"Next registrant for Tier 2 Warrior assessnt: Theron Stormwind, LV9 Warrior profession. Please proceed."
A dignified middle-aged man who’d been sitting near Kaelith stood and approached the testing stations.
"Energy stat asurent: 103.232. Passed."
BOOM!
"Combat power assessnt: 21,432. Passed."
"Congratulations on achieving Tier 2 Warrior certification. Here is your badge. You’ll receive a monthly subsidy of 10,000 points." Elara smiled warmly.
Theron accepted the badge with a satisfied nod.
Everyone who’d remained to observe — including Garrick — gazed at the middle-aged warrior with genuine awe. In their perception, Tier 2 Warriors represented genuine power. Such individuals could command captain positions in military units or earn monthly salaries exceeding 100,000 points working as guild officers or bodyguards for wealthy families.
"Next registrant for Tier 1 Warrior assessnt: Kaelith Frostborn, dic profession. Please proceed."
Kaelith opened her ice-blue eyes, rose with fluid grace, and walked forward.
Nova’s clone felt mild surprise upon hearing the na and profession.
Frostborn? Sa family na as Rowan from the Elite Class. Related sohow? And she awakened as a dic — a healer support class. Interesting choice for soone with her apparent combat capability.
Kaelith placed her hand on the energy asurent crystal without hesitation. She channeled only the barest fraction of her actual energy output into it — the equivalent of a Tier 1 warrior’s baseline, nothing more. Her true energy stat would have shattered the crystal’s asuring range entirely. She kept her expression completely neutral as she waited for the reading.
"Watch this. She’ll definitely fail," Garrick muttered, arms crossed defensively.
"Energy stat asurent: 12.838. Passed."
Elara’s eyebrows rose with genuine surprise. She hadn’t expected another young prodigy to appear for testing today.
Shocked exclamations rippled through the crowd.
"What?!"
"Her energy stat is nearly 13! That’s incredibly high!"
"Who said her energy stat would never break ten?!"
Garrick’s face flushed crimson with embarrassnt, but he stubbornly doubled down. "That’s nothing special. Obviously supplented with expensive genetic dicines. Anyone with money can inflate their energy stat artificially. A girl who awakened as a dic definitely won’t have the combat power to reach minimum threshold..."
Kaelith approached the combat analyzer.
Without ceremony or visible preparation, she struck. She held back almost everything she had — a controlled output, nothing that would cause the machine to malfunction or the room to question what was standing in front of them.
Nova’s enhanced perception caught details others missed - Her force generation technique was exceptional even at this fraction of her actual capability. Perfect economy of motion. Zero wasted energy. Her strike carried the refined precision of soone with years of genuine combat experience compressed into a single restrained movent.
To everyone else her motion appeared almost casual.
The number appeared.
6,932
"Six... six thousand nine hundred thirty-two?!" Soone’s voice cracked with disbelief.
Gasps echoed throughout the testing area.
"How is that possible..."
"The machine must be malfunctioning!"
Even Elara looked stunned. "Could you... could you please test again?"
Kaelith complied without complaint, striking a second ti.
6,947
The margin of error was less than fifteen points — well within normal variance. The results were accurate.
"Nearly 7,000 combat power... and you think that’s from supplents?" Soone looked pointedly at Garrick, whose earlier confident proclamation now seed absurd.
The muscular man stood completely frozen, mouth hanging open. He couldn’t comprehend how a teenage girl who appeared barely sixteen or seventeen possessed nearly double his combat capability.
"How can a support-class dic have such trendous combat power?" Multiple people voiced variations of the sa confused question.
"Absolutely incredible!"
The newly certified Tier 2 Warrior, Theron, shook his head with genuine admiration. "I didn’t expect to witness such exceptional talent today..."
"Here is your Tier 1 Warrior badge." Elara handed over the credential with newfound respect.
"Thank you." Kaelith accepted it calmly, as if the achievent ant nothing significant — which, given her mories of a previous lifeti, it genuinely didn’t.
Kaelith looked at Elara directly. "I recall the Warrior Association maintains a policy providing 100,000 points to warriors who certify before age eighteen."
"You’re referring to the Genius Developnt Fund? That’s correct. Would you like to claim it now?"
"Yes."
"Please follow to process the disbursent."
As Kaelith departed to handle the financial paperwork, attention shifted to the final registrant.
"Will he pass too?" a young man whispered nervously.
"How is that possible? One prodigy is remarkable enough. Two appearing consecutively, one after another?" Garrick forced confidence into his voice despite his earlier humiliation. "That’s astronomically improbable."
"True enough..."
Agreent murmured through the crowd.
"Registrant Nova Stern, Shadow Reaper profession. Energy stat asurent..."
The staff mber’s voice trailed off, eyes widening as she stared at the display.
Nova had placed his hand on the crystal and channeled only a Tier 1 equivalent output — a carefully asured trickle, the absolute minimum that would register a passing score without raising impossible questions. His actual energy stat would have done sothing unflattering to the asurent crystal’s structural integrity.
A long, pregnant silence stretched.
"...24.322. Passed."
Her voice carried unmistakable shock.
The entire testing area fell absolutely silent.
Garrick nearly fell off his chair.
Kaelith, who’d been signing docunts at the side counter, couldn’t help but turn her head sharply to stare.
"Another one?! ANOTHER ONE?!"
"24.322?!! That’s absurdly high!!"
"That’s already reached LV2, hasn’t it?"
"Dear gods, how many genetic enhancent serums must he have consud?"
"This is insane..."
"Young people nowadays are all monsters, aren’t they?"
Everyone gazed at Nova with expressions mixing shock, disbelief, and sothing approaching existential despair.
One genius appearing was remarkable. Two consecutive geniuses shattered probability into dust.
Garrick sat completely dumbfounded, unable to process that both high school students he’d openly mocked possessed energy stat asurents dramatically exceeding his own.
The staff mber’s voice actually trembled slightly. "Please, please proceed to the combat power assessnt station."
All eyes locked on Nova as he approached the analyzer.
A man swallowed audibly. "Will his combat power exceed that girl’s?"
"Should be possible... after all, Shadow Reaper is more of a burst-damage assassin class."
Everyone watched with laser focus.
Nova stood before the combat analyzer and ran his calculation quickly. His actual battle power with Limit Break and the Divine Scripture active exceeded 100 million. Kaelith had shown 6,932. Showing anything in that range would be consistent with the energy stat reading and wouldn’t break the story he was maintaining.
He needed to show sothing that justified LV2 and his energy stat without triggering questions he couldn’t answer. Peak Tier 2 range. Approximately 50,000. Strong enough to be remarkable, not so overwhelming that it beca a different category of problem.
He channeled a controlled fraction of his strength and struck the analyzer with a seemingly casual punch.
BOOM!
The impact resonated like thunder contained within tal. The combat analyzer shuddered — not from excessive force, but from the sheer density of the attack despite its moderate power output.
The display flickered, processing...
49,847
CRASH!
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