By the time Ren left the park, he'd taken a rough assessment of his own strength.
Tier 2, probably. Maybe on the higher end of it.
This world divided power into ten rough tiers, each with its own set of markers:
Tier 1 — Foundation building. Physical conditioning, basic meditation. The vast majority of students were here.
Tier 2 — Entry level. Energy application, the first sparks of combat-ready technique.
Tier 3 — Skill consolidation. True Qi formed inside the body, beginner-level spells mastered.
Tier 4 — True Qi externalization, or intermediate magic.
Tier 5 — Qualitative transformation. True Qi takes physical form, or multiple elemental affinities are mastered.
Tier 6 — Sect-founding level.
Tier 7 — Domain mastery, personal magic barriers.
Tier 8 through 10 — Transcendent. Essentially god territory. Nobody at Ren's level had any business thinking about these.
Currently, Ren sat at Tier 2. He'd fully assimilated the combat techniques from the park, but hadn't yet formed True Qi inside his body. That was the bottleneck.
So if I want to keep pushing forward, I need to find a way to cultivate True Qi.
Deep in thought, he arrived at the school gate. Students were already streaming in, and more than a few of them were carrying weapons — which would have been absolutely unthinkable back in his old world, but here apparently rated zero comment from anyone.
Following his inherited memories, Ren found his classroom without trouble and slipped into his seat.
Most of the early arrivals were doing their own thing — chatting, reviewing notes, pretending to study. Ren glanced around, matched a few faces to names from memory, and noted that none of them had any particular awareness of him. Not surprising. His predecessor had been the human equivalent of a background character.
Fine by him.
He pulled his attention inward and reached for the textbooks on his desk. The curriculum here was entirely combat-focused: A Mage's Meditation, True Comprehension of Martial Arts, Monster Illustrated Guide. Nothing like the general subjects he remembered from school.
Ren picked up the magic text and started reading.
He wasn't especially worried about the class sorting. Mage, martial artist — either path worked for him. With his talent, there was no good reason to restrict himself to just one system. As long as it made him stronger, he wanted it.
The book laid out the basics of meditation clearly enough. With Jianjigu running quietly in the background, he absorbed everything in one pass.
Then he closed the book, sat quietly, and actually tried it.
His body's previous owner hadn't had any intention of walking the mage's path, so the memories Ren had inherited leaned heavily toward martial arts. But Ren had no such preference. Casting his mind outward, he activated the meditation technique and felt a faint energy seeping into his body from the air around him.
Then something unexpected happened.
Magic Power began to form.
It was a trickle, not a flood — but it was there, in only minutes.
Ren opened his eyes.
"Is my magic talent really this strong?"
According to the book, sensing Magic Power for the first time typically took days at minimum. A week for most students. And here he was, picking it up in a single sitting.
Or maybe that's the eyes again. Hard to say. Either way — good news.
He resumed meditating. In a world this dangerous, he had no patience for feeling defenseless.
By the time the classroom was half-full, the noise levels made quiet meditation impractical, so he gave up and turned his thoughts to the upcoming sorting.
The real issue wasn't which path he ended up on. It was how to present his talent without showing his whole hand.
Revealing the full scope of Jianjigu would be catastrophic. He'd be watched, studied, potentially targeted. On the other hand, playing completely dumb and hiding everything wasn't the move either. Keep pretending to be a pig and eventually you actually become the pig.
What he needed was a careful middle ground.
A learning-type talent. That's how I'll frame it. Rapid comprehension — I can master most things on the first try. Vague enough to be believable, impressive enough to be worth the school's attention.
As for the full extent of what Jianjigu could do — copying physical constitutions, replicating innate traits — that stayed buried. Permanently.
His mind made up, Ren settled into his seat and waited for the bell.
Not a single classmate approached him, which suited him perfectly. He sat in comfortable silence while the room filled up around him, picking up useful scraps of information from the conversations buzzing nearby.
Everyone was talking about their talents. Teenagers couldn't keep something like that bottled up. He heard about martial-type abilities, magic affinities, flexible dual-path talents. The latter group was currently showing off at full volume.
Listening carefully, Ren built up a working picture of his classmates. Nobody mentioned awakening nothing. It was purely a question of quality.
When the class bell finally rang and their teacher walked in carrying a stack of forms, the chatter died immediately.
Everyone knew what was coming.