Vane pushed open the massive oak door marked 1-A and stepped inside.
The room was an amphitheater, built specifically to intimidate. It was large enough to hold a hundred souls but contained only twenty desks carved from polished basalt, arranged in steep, rising tiers that looked down upon a central podium made of volcanic glass. The acoustics were merciless; the slight scuff of Vane's boot on the threshold echoed like a gunshot.
Seventeen students were already seated. They were the cream of the global crop—prodigies from the vast Empire, the distant Eastern Kingdoms, and the isolationist Elemental Palaces who had clawed their way into the top class through bloodline, boundless wealth, and ruthless tutoring. Zenith was the only place on the planet where the heirs of warring nations sat in the same room.
When Vane and Valerica entered, seventeen heads snapped toward the door.
The chatter died instantly. The silence that fell over the room was heavy, pressurized, and thick with judgment.
Vane scanned the battlefield, cataloging threats instinctively.
Anastasia Aurelia, the Imperial Princess, was seated front and center, exactly where royalty should be. Her golden hair was coiled in intricate perfection, her posture regal enough for a throne room. She didn't turn around. To acknowledge their arrival would be to admit they were worth noticing. The two seats flanking her were empty, a silent demilitarized zone that no lesser student dared to cross.
Valerica Sol, the stoic titan from the neutral territories, ignored the tension completely. She walked past Vane to the back row with heavy, deliberate steps. She chose a corner desk.
Vane didn't follow her.
He felt the weight of the room's assessment pressing against his [Courtier's Mask]. He was a thug in a room full of generals, a street dog in a kennel of purebred wolves from every corner of the map. He chose a seat in the middle tier, near the wall and by a high, narrow window. It gave him a clear strategic view of the door, the podium, and the majority of the class without being in the center of attention.
He sat down. The basalt desk was cold to the touch, leeching the heat from his fingertips. The silence stretched, taut as a bowstring, as the other seventeen students subtly shifted, angling themselves away from the Rank 1 anomaly who had no flag and no family name.
Then, precisely at 08:00, the door at the front of the room opened, and Instructor Rowan Draeven walked in.
He was not a professor in tweed. He was a weapon that had been sheathed reluctantly. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, built like a fortress that had weathered too many sieges. He had short, steel-grey hair and a jagged scar that ran from his left temple down to his jaw, pulling one corner of his mouth into a permanent, cynical grimace. He wore the Academy instructor uniform, but on his frame, it looked like combat armor.
He carried no tablets, no books, no notes. He carried only an overwhelming aura of disciplined, lethal violence that made the air in the room feel suddenly thin.
Rowan walked to the obsidian podium and stood there, silent, for a full ten seconds. He let his presence fill the room, pressing down on the young elites until some of the lesser nobles squirmed in their seats.
"This is Class 1-A," Rowan said finally. His voice was low and rough, like stones grinding together in a mixer. "You think you are special because you are in this room. You are wrong."
He leaned forward, placing his scarred hands flat on the podium.
"You are not gifted children. You are volatile assets. For the next four years, your lives do not belong to your nations, your houses, or yourselves. They belong to Zenith."
His eyes, the color of frozen iron, scanned the faces in the room. They lingered on Anastasia's regal indifference, paused on the heavy menace of Valerica in the back row, and finally settled on Vane.
The look wasn't hostile. It was worse. It was clinical. Like a butcher eyeing a strange cut of meat, trying to decide if it was worth hanging in the window or throwing to the dogs.
"The world has invested billions in your potential, and it expects a return on that investment. I am not here to coddle you. I am not here to teach you how to cast a pretty light spell to impress your parents back home. I am here to sort you."
"If you are defective," Rowan said, holding Vane's gaze for a second longer than necessary, "you will be broken. If you are weak, you will be discarded. Zenith is a crucible. My job is to turn up the heat until only the gold is left."
He tapped the obsidian podium. A large holographic display flared to life above it, showing twenty names—Vane at the top in glowing gold, Valerica and Anastasia below him, and the seventeen others beneath them—alongside a list of combat archetypes.
"Your first task," Rowan announced, "is to define your existence here. You will choose your Primary Combat Discipline for Year 1. This will determine your practical training, your weapons issue, and your combat trials for the foreseeable future."
The list appeared on the crystal tablets embedded in their desks, humming to life:
Blade (Sword/Rapier/Dagger)
Spear / Polearm
Arcane Focus (Pure Caster)
Unarmed / Brawler
Support / Utility
Hybrid (Requires Instructor Approval)
"Choose carefully," Rowan warned. "You can petition to change later, but it will cost you rank, time, and respect. If you pick something you cannot handle, you will be exposed in the Arena tomorrow. Don't be stupid."
The room filled with the soft tapping of fingers on crystal.
In the front row, Anastasia tapped her screen instantly. On the main holographic display, next to her name, the word [Blade - Rapier] appeared. It was the choice of a duelist, elegant and lethal, perfect for her Imperial station.
In the back, Valerica didn't hesitate. [Unarmed / Brawler]. Vane remembered the density of her presence on the bridge. She didn't need a weapon; her body was a siege engine.
Vane stared at the list on his own desk.
His fingers hovered over Blade. Daggers were his life. They were fast, easily hidden, and synergized perfectly with his stolen [Flash Step] and assassination skills. It was the safe choice. The comfortable choice.
But comfort got you killed in Zenith.
He looked at the students around him—heirs to kingdoms and ancient magical lineages. Many of them had passive defensive skills or expensive artifact armor woven into their uniforms. Daggers struggled against heavy defense. He needed something with more leverage. More penetration.
His mind went to the strongest offensive skill he had currently stolen: [Gale Thrust (Grade C)]. It was a spear technique.
He looked at Spear / Polearm.
It was a weapon of war, not assassination. It required spacing, discipline, and a foundation he didn't have. But it was the best delivery system for his highest-damage skill, and it would keep monsters like Valerica at arm's length.
Vane made his choice. He tapped [Spear].
At the podium, Rowan's eyes flickered. He looked up from his own display, locking onto Vane instantly.
Vane felt a sudden, intense pressure. It wasn't an Usurper skill; it was the weight of a master's gaze dissecting him. Rowan wasn't reading a status screen; he was reading Vane's posture, his grip on the desk, the way his weight settled in the chair. He was judging the meat and bone, sizing up whether the guttersnipe from Oakhaven had the structure for the king of weapons.
Rowan held the stare for a long, uncomfortable moment, his expression unreadable. Then, he gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. It wasn't approval. It was acknowledgment of a wager placed.