The glowing number shimred in the air like a divine answer dropped straight from the heavens.
7.8 ters.
For a mont, it was silent, so quiet you could hear the tiny gears in the Loor softly wind down as if even it was shocked by what it had just recorded.
Lia’s jaw dropped so hard it could’ve shattered through the floor. "SEVEN, wait, WHAT?!" she shrieked, pointing at the number like it owed her money.
"No, no, no, this thing’s broken. Squeaky ball, you traitor! This has to be rigged!"
Ren blinked. "...I don’t think it’s rigged."
Lia stomped over dramatically, peering over the number as if it would shrink if she glared hard enough.
"That’s more than three tis mine! Mine was 2.4! TWO-POINT-FOUR! I even got excited like so rookie fangirl!" She threw her hands up.
"How is the difference this absurd?! Did you eat Loom for breakfast?! Did you sleep inside a ditation cave? Do you secretly bathe in Primordial Tea?!"
Ren chuckled, giving her a short, calm smile. "I’m shocked too. Honestly, I have no clue."
That wasn’t entirely false, but it wasn’t entirely true either. Because while Ren hadn’t expected his ntal range to already be that monstrous, there were a few solid reasons for it.
The biggest one? His ntal Sea had evolved.
In the world of weaving, there were two main ways to expand your ntal range and grow your ntal power: ditation and ntal Sea grade.
ditation was the slow, steady path of sitting for hours and pushing your mind to stretch like a muscle over and over again.
And to be fair, Lia loved ditating. She treated it like sacred yoga for her soul. Ren, on the other hand, had probably ditated less than half the ti Lia had. If that.
But his ntal Sea had changed. Transford. Evolved.
Originally, it had been a standard ntal sea, then he had evolved it to the Common grade Chaos ntal Sea, and after upgrading the red evolution crystal, Ren had pushed it beyond that.
He had evolved it to the Uncommon Grade. That wasn’t just a shiny new badge. It was like upgrading your brain’s operating system from a basic desktop to a quantum supercomputer.
His thoughts moved faster. His ntal threads reacted quicker. His range had shot forward like a rocket fueled by genius and luck.
Now that he had reached 7.8 ters, he was well past the halfway mark of the Adept stage’s limit.
The goal was 10 ters; the maximum possible ntal range in this stage. Once he reached that, the next step wasn’t actually improving beyond and reaching the next stage, it was breaking through the first layer of the Loom.
A process so difficult and terrifying most weavers failed multiple tis. But if successful, piercing into the Loom’s second layer would be like discovering color in a black-and-white world.
It would unlock insanely high power for his weaves, new complexities, and absurd improvents to weaving speed and control.
Ren planned to do it.
Soon.
Lia, however, wasn’t letting this go. She stood dramatically with her arms crossed and lips puffed out in an adorable pout.
"First, you reach Adept a few seconds before . Now this? What’s next? Are you going to start glowing in the dark and flying like a Master?"
"I’ll let you know if that happens," Ren said dryly.
"Hmph," she grunted. Then her eyes lit up with a spark of mischievous fire. "Okay then, Mr. Mysterious Monster ntal Range. I challenge you to a friendly spar! Right now!"
Ren raised an eyebrow. "So suddenly?"
Lia nodded, her erald eyes glowing. "Yup! I want to test how much I’ve improved. And maybe..." She smirked. "Just maybe show you that range isn’t everything."
Ren gave her a side glance. He could tell she didn’t just want to spar. She wanted to prove sothing. She needed a win.
And honestly? He didn’t mind at all. Because he had a few things he wanted to test too.
"Fine," he said. "Let’s have so fun."
The two moved to the center of the training room, the number from the Loor slowly fading into soft particles that vanished into the air.
It had been a quiet, private room earlier. But now, there was tension; a playful but dangerous energy that crackled between them like thunderclouds sharing a joke before the lightning strikes.
Like most students these days, both of them carried their weapons everywhere now. The curse incident had shaken everyone, and the academy hadn’t exactly been subtle about the lesson.
Always be ard. Always be ready. Girls passed them in the halls with swords slung over their backs, knives strapped to thighs, or talismans tucked into their belts.
Ren had seen a girl last week carrying what looked suspiciously like a flathrower disguised as a parasol.
Ren reached behind him and grabbed the compact black box attached to his belt. From within, he pulled out Bloodthirsty, his heavy, deadly kusarigama.
The red sickle glead with a polished nace, but the real show ca from the long red chain wrapped around its base.
As Ren unraveled it, the red links began to glow faintly, pulsing like the heartbeat of a predator waking up.
He wrapped it around his waist and shoulders with practiced grace, letting the weight settle like a cloak of lethal intent.
Across from him, Lia reached down and drew her own weapon; a short, dark blue spear with a pointed glassy tip that looked almost decorative.
But Ren knew better. That "toothpick" could pierced through curses and shattered bone easily.
She spun it once with flair, entering a fluid battle stance, one foot forward, the spear held low like a waiting serpent.
"I’m not holding back," she said, eyes burning with determination. "I want to see how far I’ve co."
Ren nodded, his grip tightening on the chain. "Then go all out."
It was on!
The first spark ca from Lia’s skin.
It started small, just a flicker at her shoulder. But then it roared to life.
Fire burst out from her pores in all directions, engulfing her entire body in a golden-orange inferno.
Her dark blue spear lit up with a hiss as the flas surged across its length, turning the weapon into a glowing brand of destruction.
Even the floor beneath her feet sizzled, steam curling up in wild spirals as she took a single step forward and cracked her neck.
"I’m not holding back," she warned again, this ti with glowing eyes and heat waves distorting the air around her like a mirage.
Ren didn’t flinch.
He simply uncoiled the glowing red chain of Bloodthirsty and rolled his wrist.
The scythe at the end of the kusarigama swung lazily in the air like a bored predator, its curved blade catching the warm light of her flas.
Lia moved.
She shot forward with a powerful leap, her footsteps cracking the tiles as she charged like a cot, her body covered in flas and her spear drawn back for a stabbing thrust.
Swoosh!
Ren sidestepped to the right without a word. Smooth. Calm.
He didn’t try to et her head-on. That would’ve been suicide. She was faster. Stronger. Her body had already gone through two Rune Carvings. Ren had done only one.
Instead, he whipped the scythe around in a wide arc, letting the chain do the work.
Swish!
It spun outward with centrifugal force, screaming through the air before crashing down toward Lia’s side like a crescent of steel death.
Lia grunted and skidded to a halt, dropping to one knee to let the spinning blade sail overhead, close enough that the wind sliced off a few strands of her hair.
She narrowed her eyes. "Tch. So that’s how it is."
Lia lunged again, trying to duck under the scythe’s return swing and push into close range, her flas burning brighter now as they tried to lick Ren’s clothes just from proximity.
But Ren spun on his heel and yanked hard on the chain.
Swish!
The scythe snapped back toward him like a yo-yo, and at the sa ti, the other end of the kusarigama; the spiked tal club shot forward from behind his waist.
The club smashed into the floor in front of Lia with a solid BOOM, sending dust and stone flying. She flinched backward, forced once again to retreat before she could land a strike.
If that club had impacted her, sothing would have definitely broken.
Ren took a few calm steps backward, spinning the scythe lazily again as the chain humd with tension.
"Keeping at a distance, huh?" Lia muttered, sweat beginning to bead on her brow, not from fear, but from the sheer consumption of her own stamina.
Her stamina was dropping faster than she wanted to admit and she hadn’t even managed to close the distance!
Ren’s expression didn’t change. "That’s the plan."
Lia narrowed her eyes and decided to crank it up a notch.
She bit her lip, then whispered a single word: "Ignite."
A pulse of golden-red energy burst from her body. Her flas flared up, no longer just heat, they were almost alive.
They wrapped tighter around her muscles, focused, dense, controlled. A glowing rune lit up on her collarbone, the first she had carved onto her body.
From her left fist, the fire condensed into a solid mass of swirling fla, like a burning orb that hovered right above her knuckles.
It wasn’t a weave. It was a triggered fla activation from her runes, ant for impact only. This was the ability of her rune!
No throwing, no long-range blasts. If she wanted it to work, she had to punch or kick sothing.
Preferably Ren’s face.
anwhile, Ren’s eyes flicked toward the glowing rune. He didn’t panic. He didn’t rush. He analyzed.
’That’s a fla density upgrade... no projectile capability... must be designed for lee combustion. Boost or high-damage burst? Probably both. Limited use due to stamina cost... Her breathing’s already off.’
He made his move.
Ren launched the scythe forward again, this ti in a more chaotic pattern. It zigzagged, twisted, darted low and then high, aiming to make her trip, dodge, spin, or react.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The chain glowed bright red from the sheer speed it was moving, its whistle in the air now more like a scream.
Lia ducked one swing and slid under another. But the movents were costing her. Every dodge shaved her stamina, every twist pulled the breath from her lungs.
Still, her eyes were locked onto Ren like a lion tracking prey. She had to close the distance.
And then, she had an idea.
As she ducked the next scythe strike, she didn’t counterattack.
She extended her left fist behind her... and detonated the fireball.
BOOM!
The explosion cracked through the room like a firecracker in a glass jar. The force didn’t harm her since her body was immune to her own flas, but it launched her forward like a missile.
Ren’s eyes widened slightly, caught mid-movent as the kusarigama arced back toward him.
Before he could retract the chain to widen the gap again, she was there.
Right in front of him.
Up close and personal.
The distance he had carefully kept all match was shattered in an instant by Lia’s insane flaming boost.
Her body blurred from the sheer speed, and her spear was already mid-thrust, aid dead center for Ren’s chest.
She smirked mid-air. "Surprise."
Ren blinked.
The scythe was out of position. The chain was still recoiling. There was no ti to pull back, no ti to dodge conventionally. There was not much montum to shift as well.
His mind raced.
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