Lian held the bag of cash—the leftovers from buying everything he needed to start building the rune.
He pulled out a stack, flipped through it, then pulled a single note out and looked at it closely.
"So this is what a 100-clad note looks like…"
Clad was the fiat currency of this country.
In his previous world, owning anything other than government-issued digital currency was illegal. Tracking and control became effortless. Your digital ID was tied to your bank, your social media, your bio metrics.
At first, it was framed as security. Break the law, and access would be limited depending on the severity.
But it didn't stop there.
Say the wrong thing, step out of line, and suddenly your money stopped working. No hospital access. No housing. No food.
You didn't get arrested. You got erased, piece by piece, until survival itself became a problem.
Lian folded the note slowly.
This world hadn't reached that point yet, so Lian wanted to exploit that freedom before it got patched.
"Let's start with the Pyromancy glove," he muttered, a hint of excitement slipping through.
--
Even with access to military-grade blueprints, Lian's options were limited.
At Sequence 1, most of them were unusable. The few designs within reach had to be stripped down and restructured just to function at his current level.
And his skills had improved a lot after working on the invisibility rune. He was now able to create blueprints of his own.
Well, not entirely on his own. He borrowed pieces from different blueprints and stitched them together into something new. It wasn't military tech either. Just something common, something almost every student in the academy used.
The fireball rune.
One of the basics. Anyone could buy it with academy credits, along with things like wind blade or water wall.
But what Lian planned on making was a more advanced, far deadlier version.
He called it the Pyromancy Glove.
Most fire-type runes students used could be activated with bare hands. Attacks were weak, barely more than surface burns. And while activating it felt like dipping your hand in hot water—uncomfortable, but nothing serious.
This one didn't play around.
It burned through flesh, melted bones, and left only ashes behind.
The rune was supposed to be for Sequence 2, something only peak-stage users could handle.
But with the military's optimization protocol, he could force it to work even at Sequence 1.
Thirty seconds. That might sound short, but it was enough to kill most people if Lian played his cards right.
Its initial purpose wasn't for combat or the academy. Although he later decided to use it in the academy by lowering the output.
It was actually meant to eliminate traces, to make evidence disappear.
Just in case Lian ever had to kill someone and make them vanish.
The heat and ether radiation it emitted were so high that without the glove, his hand would melt. Even with it, he had to pair it with the full-body armor from the academy bracelet, just to block out the radiation and heat.
Instead of releasing dispersed flame, the rune compressed ether into a dense ignition layer around the user's palm and fingers. A thin, controlled envelope of high-temperature plasma-like fire, stabilized through micro-regulation channels.
Lian tested it on a tree. It incinerated the entire trunk into ashes until nothing remained.
He also tested it on a huge iron cube. It melted through it within thirty seconds.
It was strong. Strong enough to rival, if not surpass, most Sequence 2 runes.
But it came with a price.
First, the duration. Only thirty seconds.
Then the cost. It didn't just drain Lian's ether at a brutal rate, it drained his wallet too.
After three to five activations, its ether lines would start to degrade, the transformer would melt, and Lian would had to replace it.
Back on Earth, Lian had been inspired by Nikola Tesla and his work with alternating current. The idea that voltage could be pushed higher even with limited energy stuck with him. He tried to apply that same principle here.
He tested almost every variation he could think of, but in the end, he couldn't increase its sustainability without sacrificing output.
Lian later added an intensity knob to regulate the output. Unless it was a life-or-death situation, he wouldn't push it to maximum.
It took him a full week to refine it, just in time before the class was sent out on a camping trip.
Physical education wasn't just drills. It covered survival too.
--
The bus stopped near the forest, and all the students started getting off in line, carrying backpacks and gear, with their instructor guiding them.
Right now, Class A and Class D were the ones that came, as Class B and C had already completed this the previous week.
The instructor gathered both classes in one spot and started explaining the rules of the assessment, along with the dangers they might face.
Basically, each student had to form teams and survive for five days. After that, they had to submit a detailed report. They could also hunt predators and wild beasts for bonus points, depending on how dangerous the target was. The hunting part was completely optional and not recommended for Class D.
Lian listened quietly.
The instructor then asked, "Why do you think we selected Class A and D? Or why we only start this in the second year?"
One girl from Class A answered, "Because most students reach Sequence 2 in their second year and are more likely to survive in the wild."
The instructor nodded. "Yes, you're right."
He paused, then added, "And that's also why we brought you together with Class D. There are only a few instructors, and we can't reach every student in time if something goes wrong. Since everyone in Class A is Sequence 2, we're more free to look after Class D whenever someone gets into trouble."
Most of Class D were still at Sequence 1, around the middle and peak stages.
He then looked at Lian and the other Class D students and warned them, "I know you're all brave, hot-headed youths, but you're still at Sequence 1. So I strongly suggest you don't wander off alone.
This is the wild. Most predators are ether-resistant to some extent so your attacks don't have much effect on them. If you see one, escape or hide and ring the SOS on your bracelet. We'll get to you.
Do not fight them alone. I repeat, do not fight them alone. There are a few deaths every year, so you know how serious this is."
Lian nodded, along with the rest of Class D.
But deep down, he was genuinely excited. It was his first time seeing wild animals in real life. Back in his previous world, most species had gone extinct, and forests didn't exist anymore. He had only seen animals in old documentaries, filmed long before he was born.
The instructor then lined everyone up and advised them to form teams across classes, with at least one Sequence 2 student in each group.
Lian found Lin Ling in the crowd and teamed up with him, since he had recently reached Sequence 2.
Lin Ling asked for suggestions for other members. Lian suggested Kair, while Lin Ling mentioned he knew a few people from Class A they could team up with.
As they were still thinking, Hazy joined in and asked to be part of Lian's team. Since she was also Sequence 2, Lian agreed.
The instructor then assigned each team to different faculty members, who were responsible for their safety and would respond to any SOS calls.
Lian's assigned faculty spent the day walking them through different survival basics. Water sourcing, spotting predators, escaping, navigating when lost, finding edible food, even basic hunting.
At one point, he spotted the footprints of a pack of wild boars and showed them how to track them. He explained how to set traps, then hunted a few himself as a demonstration.
By night, he set up camp for the teams under his watch. They ate the boar and settled in, while he stayed awake on guard.
Lian lay in his sleeping bag beside Lin Ling and Hazy.
Lin Ling said, "I heard there are only three or four types of predators you really have to be wary of. Other than that, it's relatively safe." Then he added, "And don't do anything reckless like you always do."
Hazy smirked. "Yeah, we have to babysit him and make sure he doesn't wander off."
Lian replied, "If I really wanted to, I could disappear right in front of you, and you wouldn't even know it."
A few minutes passed in conversation, before the students in the camp fell asleep.
But Lian stayed awake, his thoughts wandering.
The boars here were nothing like the ones from Earth. These looked more like massive bulls than wild pigs. Before coming to the camp, he had looked up different animals, and almost all of them felt like evolved, more dangerous versions of what once existed on Earth.
There were also vast, unexplored parts of the forests. Places where even Sequence 3 individuals went in… and never came back.
Civilization here hadn't spread far. Forests still ruled most of the land.
Lian had already analyzed his chances if he ever faced a predator in this forest.
With his invisibility rune, he might be able to escape. But even that wasn't reliable. These creatures had sharp hearing and a strong sense of smell. The rune didn't hide scent at all. It could disrupt echolocation, but his breathing and footsteps still made noise.
Even after modifying his shoes with a rubber compound to reduce sound, there were limits. One wrong step on dry grass, and it was over.
Then there was the Pyromancy Glove.
It could burn through most predators, kill them in seconds. But landing a hit wasn't easy. These creatures were fast, agile, unpredictable.
Lian let out a quiet breath.
There really were creatures out here that someone like him had no chance against, no matter how much he improved his runes.
But humans weren't strong because of raw power.
They survived because they adapted. Because they worked together. Because they set traps.
That's how civilizations rose.
The smart and the patient outlived the strong.
Just then, Lian noticed something above.
A massive bird drifted over the camp, its body glowing with faint embers, lighting the night in a strange, almost unreal way. Its shadow slid across the ground below as it passed.
Then it let out a sharp, chilling screech that tore through the silence.
Lian frowned.
He had researched almost every creature he could find before coming here.
But this one—
He had never seen it before.