The chaos of the Archive alarm had subsided, replaced by a tense, investigative silence across the AATA campus.
Heuk-jae and Eun-ji were safely back in their cramped room, the air thick with the smell of damp earth and adrenaline.
The Master Zai Arcane Treatise lay open on their table. It was not just a textbook; it was an illuminated map of the Academy's intellectual bias.
Deciphering the Treatise
Eun-ji, who was trained in logic and analysis, spent the first few hours pouring over the dense script.
"It's not just the answers to the exams," she whispered, tracing a complex, repeating geometric pattern. "It's the methodology of flawed thinking."
Heuk-jae watched her, his expression intense.
"He designs every problem, every technical challenge, to favor the wealthy noble approach," Eun-jae explained. "Nobles rely on expensive tutors and bulky incantations. Zai's tests reward complexity and brute force elemental output."
"But the commoners are forced to find shortcuts," Heuk-jae noted, a familiar, cold glint in his eye.
"Exactly. This treatise reveals Zai's blind spots," Eun-ji confirmed. "He never anticipates simplicity. He never expects an answer that uses one step instead of ten. We don't just know the answers; we know the quickest, most efficient path to the answers."
Targeting the Elite
Their next objective was clear: publicly surpass a top-50 ranked student within the month to gain access to the Head Proctor's Inner Circle.
Heuk-jae pulled up a roster of the Academy's current high-achievers.
"We need a rival who is visible, arrogant, and easily defeated," Heuk-jae said, his finger stopping at a name near the top.
"Lord Theron, Rank 23," Eun-ji read aloud. "Master of Elemental Synthesis. He's rumored to be a prodigy, specializing in combining Fire and Earth Aether."
"Theron is a flashy fighter who relies on expensive, custom-tuned elemental rings," Heuk-jae countered. "He is all display, no substance. The perfect target for a controlled humiliation."
Training: The Efficient Strike
Their training shifted from endurance to precision combat application. They couldn't afford a long, drawn-out fight; they needed a single, perfect, undeniable victory.
They used the Treatise to anticipate Theron's favored techniques and Heuk-jae's Magic Mastery to perfect the counter-attack.
"Theron's signature move is the Obsidian Blade—a dense, controlled fusion of Fire and Earth," Heuk-jae said, demonstrating the motion without actually conjuring the magic.
"It's powerful, but it requires two full seconds of channeling," Eun-ji observed.
"Two seconds is an eternity," Heuk-jae agreed. "We will challenge him in the Mid-Term Synthesis Tournament next week. You will be my 'second' to help select the challenge parameters."
Heuk-jae then focused his Magic Mastery. Instead of showing off raw power, he focused a minuscule amount of Aetheric energy around his palm.
"Watch," he instructed. "We counter brute force with vulnerability exploitation."
He used the Aetheric energy to slightly destabilize the ambient air in a wide arc, creating an invisible, oscillating pressure wave that was technically undetectable by any common sensor.
This pressure wave, if activated at the moment Theron was synthesizing the Obsidian Blade, would introduce a microscopic flaw into the formation—making the dense Earth-Fire mix unstable and prone to fracture.
The Tactical Challenge
The challenge needed to be formal, public, and undeniable.
Heuk-jae, resuming his role as the lazy Lord Jae-eun, used his Facial and the appearance of boredom to approach Lord Theron during a crowded lunch period.
"Theron," Heuk-jae drawled, interrupting Theron's boastful conversation. "I hear you fancy yourself a genius of synthesis."
Theron, Rank 23, looked down his nose at the mediocre Rank 511. "I am, Jae-eun. While you're still reading primary incantations, I'm forging Level 4 elemental constructs."
"Dull," Heuk-jae scoffed, adopting an air of entitled indifference designed to infuriate a rival. "Your mastery is entirely reliant on your expensive focus gear. I propose a simple challenge: a Single-Strike Synthesis Duel in the Mid-Term Tournament."
"Single strike?" Theron laughed. "You wouldn't last a second."
"The terms are thus," Heuk-jae continued, ignoring him. "The duel is won by the student who creates the most complex, sustainable synthesis construct that can hold for ten seconds, without the aid of any external elemental focus."
This was the key. No external focus meant Theron couldn't use his expensive custom rings, forcing him to rely on his innate, untutored skill.
Theron, too proud to back down, and confident his raw talent would still crush the slacker Jae-eun, accepted immediately.
"Done, Jae-eun. You've just guaranteed your own academic expulsion," Theron sneered.
Heuk-jae simply smiled, his eyes holding the predatory glint of a Viper about to spring its trap.
[New Tournament Duel Scheduled: Lord Theron (Rank 23) vs. Lord Jae-eun (Rank 511).]