The red timer hovering in Ren's vision was a merciless executioner.
[00:05:12]
Ren lay buried in the freezing mud, his breathing so shallow it barely stirred the blades of grass in front of his face. His muscles screamed, locked in a state of agonizing tension. Three feet away, the wild rabbit continued to nibble on a clover, completely oblivious to the predator disguised as the earth.
[00:03:45]
Ren didn't twitch. He couldn't afford to. Without his 89 Speed, his body was bound by the sluggish laws of normal human biology. If he lunged too early, the rabbit would bolt. If he lunged too late, the realm would collapse, and his body would reject his stats forever.
[00:02:10]
The rabbit paused. It turned its head, its long ears swiveling toward Ren. It had caught a scent. The wind had shifted.
It was now or never.
[00:02:00]
Ren exploded from the mud.
He didn't use mana. He didn't use a skill. He used the explosive, fast-twitch muscle memory forged in the hell of Batch Two. His hands shot forward like coiled springs, bypassing the rabbit's reaction time through sheer, desperate precision.
His fingers clamped around the animal. It shrieked and kicked, but Ren twisted his hands sharply.
Snap.
The rabbit went limp.
Ren collapsed onto his back in the mud, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. He held the rabbit tightly, his hands shaking violently from the adrenaline and the cold.
The red timer froze at [00:01:58].
Then, it shattered into a shower of brilliant, golden light.
[All Mandatory Tasks Completed.]
[Evaluating Physical Vessel... Optimal.]
[Initiating True Integration.]
The world of the peaceful valley dissolved into white noise.
Suddenly, the emptiness in Ren's chest vanished. His Mana (78) rushed back into him like a tidal wave breaking a dam. But it was different this time. His 106 Strength and 89 Speed didn't feel like a heavy suit of magical armor layered over his skin. The numbers fused directly into his newly torn and rebuilt muscle fibers. He felt incredibly dense, grounded, and lethal. The "Glass Cannon" flaw had been eradicated.
[True Integration Complete.]
[Returning User to the Material Plane.]
Ren gasped, his eyes snapping open.
He was lying on his bed in the academy hostel. The heavy curtains were drawn, and the room was pitch black. He glanced at the magical clock on the wall.
5:00 AM.
His match against Kage was scheduled for 3:00 PM. He had been in the Realm of Peace for three grueling days, but in the real world, only a single night had passed.
At the foot of the bed, Erna was curled up in a ball, snoring softly, his silver wolf ears twitching in his sleep.
Ren didn't even have the energy to take off his boots. The True Integration had solidified his stats, but the mental exhaustion of the ordeal crashed down on him like an anvil. He closed his eyes and instantly fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Ren woke with a start.
He looked at the clock. 1:49 PM.
He sat up, expecting the familiar, agonizing stiffness of torn muscles. Instead, he felt... incredible. He felt refreshed, light, and thrumming with a quiet, terrifying power. He clenched his fist, feeling the air pop with kinetic force. His body was finally worthy of his stats.
He quickly stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water wash away the phantom sensation of freezing mud.
As he stepped out and dried his hair, he opened his System interface to check his status before the fight.
Right in the center of the screen, a glowing, ornate treasure box hovered. There was no explanation. No task attached to it.
Ren raised an eyebrow. 'Oh. Must be an extra reward for completing the Realm of Peace mission,' he thought.
He mentally tapped the box. It burst open in a shower of purple and gold sparks.
[Congratulations!]
[You have gained an additional +20 Points to Intelligence.]
[New Skill Acquired: Grave Eater (Lv. 1)]
Ren stared at the notifications.
[Intelligence: 142 -> 162]
His mind sharpened instantly. The world around him came into a hyper-focused, terrifyingly clear resolution. He could hear the faint hum of the mana-lamps in the hallway outside.
He checked the skill description, but the System offered only a vague, corrupted text file. 'Grave Eater...' Ren mused. 'Sounds dark. Must be powerful. Well, I have got to prepare for my fight. Let's go and eat.'
He dressed in his Shroud of the Night Stalker, woke a groggy Erna, and pulled the oversized hood over the boy's wolf ears.
They walked down to the Heroes' Cafeteria.
The atmosphere inside was a stark contrast to the tension of the arena. The other "Pillars" were gathered around a long, lavish table. Marcus Hale was eating quietly, his left arm heavily bandaged from his fight with Valerius. Valerius himself sat at the far end, glaring at his food, his pride visibly bruised. Suzume and Fiora were chatting and laughing loudly, occasionally snorting at a joke, while Lira sipped tea, looking pale but recovered from Eren's mental assault.
In the darkest corner of the room sat Kage, the Shadow Monarch. He wasn't eating. He was simply staring at the wall, a void of silence.
Ren grabbed a plate of roasted meat for Erna and a simple broth for himself. He sat at a small table away from the others. He didn't engage in the laughter or the snorting. He just ate, his 162 Intelligence analyzing every micro-movement Kage made.
Suddenly, a massive, resonant sound echoed through the academy walls.
THIM... THIM... THOM...
It was the heavy, brass warning bell. The signal that the arena was open.
Ren walked out of the competitor's tunnel and onto the sun-baked sands of the Royal Stadium.
He looked up at the stands, expecting the deafening roar of fifty thousand citizens that had greeted Marcus and Valerius.
Instead, the stadium was eerily quiet.
Ren blinked. There were barely over a thousand people scattered across the massive marble bleachers. The VIP boxes were mostly empty. The atmosphere wasn't a grand festival; it felt like a minor, forgotten side-event.
Across the arena, Kage materialized from the shadows. The A-Rank assassin wore shifting, dark robes that seemed to absorb the sunlight.
Kage looked up at the empty stands, then let out a dry, mocking snort.
"Hmm. Just a thousand," Kage's voice echoed across the sand, raspy and dripping with condescension. "Must be because they consider you weak. The citizens of Syrius don't want to waste their hard-earned Yen watching a stray dog get put down. They know this isn't a fight. It's an execution."
Ren's expression didn't change under his hood. He knew the truth. Zilton had likely suppressed the advertising for this match. The corrupt lord didn't want the public to see his secret son, the Shadow Monarch, fighting a "commoner." He wanted Ren to die quietly, in the shadows, where assassins belonged.
"Fighters, take your marks!" the referee shouted, raising his hand.
Ren drew Eclipse. The S-Rank dagger hummed, eager for blood.
CLANG!
The referee hit the big bell, signaling the beginning of the match.
Kage didn't move. He stood perfectly still, his hands resting casually inside his dark robes. He refused to take action first, projecting an aura of absolute, insulting superiority.
'Fine,' Ren thought, his eyes narrowing. 'Let's end this quickly.'
Ren decided not to hold back. He had just achieved True Integration. His body was a perfect vessel.
[Skill: Shadow Step (Lv. 3)]
Ren vanished. He didn't just move fast; he tore through the spatial fabric of the arena's shadows. He reappeared directly in front of Kage, closing the thirty-meter gap in a fraction of a second.
He channeled every ounce of his 106 Strength and his 89 Speed into his right arm. He didn't use a dagger strike; he used a powerful, high-speed punch aimed directly at Kage's chest, intending to shatter the man's ribs and end the fight in a single blow. The air cracked like a whip around his fist.
SMACK.
The sound wasn't the crunch of breaking bone. It was the dull, heavy sound of leather meeting flesh.
Ren's eyes widened.
Kage hadn't dodged. He hadn't used a spell. He had simply raised one hand from his robes and caught Ren's full-power, high-speed punch in his open palm.
The impact blew the sand away from their feet in a massive crater, but Kage's arm didn't even tremble. He held Ren's fist effortlessly, as if he had just caught a thrown baseball.
Kage tilted his head, the shadows of his cowl shifting to reveal a cruel, glowing red eye.
"Is that all the strength a glitch can muster?" Kage whispered.
Ren gritted his teeth, trying to pull his fist back, but Kage's grip was like a vice of solid steel. The terrifying reality of the level gap—Level 34 versus Level 10—crashed down on him. An A-Rank's base stats were monstrous.
Wow. Looks like this isn't going to be an easy fight.
Ren's mind raced, his 162 Intelligence desperately calculating a way out of the iron grip. He had stepped into the Shadow Monarch's domain, and the shadows were biting back.
Let's see how it goes. Next time, on Ren's fight. Don't miss it.