No! I don't want to be a Super Necromancer!

The impact was explosive.

Not loud, but sharp, and the rock cracked cleanly. A fist-sized chunk broke away, larger and deeper than anything seen so far.

Gasps erupted from the crowd.

Even the instructors responded immediately.

"Mid to high-tier B rank. At least." Professor Kong Hu's eyes gleamed in pleasant surprise.

"He's already stabilizing at colonel-class strength."

"And with his temperament during the simulated assault earlier—he's made for command. Cool, efficient, precise."

"A future offensive general."

The praise was loud, clear, and well-earned.

Damien Bloodbane glanced at the six second years.

The Lin Triplets had extremely ugly looks on their faces. They could not believe that they were being overshadowed by everybody so far!

The Mu Triplets were surprisingly calm. They even looked kind of happy that there was actually someone stronger than them.

"They must be bored of being the best." Damien Bloodbane thought to himself. "It is that lonely at the top huh?"

Then came the quietest among them.

The mysterious girl in the light blue dress walked forward. No one cheered. No one whispered. The silence followed her like a shadow.

She stood in front of the stone, raised her hand, and gently gathered mana. It wasn't showy. It wasn't dramatic.

She struck once.

Crack.

A chunk broke off.

It hit the ground with a dull thud.

Then people started whispering in shock.

Because the piece was as large as Ji Chen's!

The instructors blinked, visibly startled.

"What…?" Professor Kong Hu's eyes gleamed as though he was looking at a human sized diamond.

"She actually matched Ji Chen's output!" Professor Bai Lian's smile was radiant.

"Another monster has appeared." Professor Wu clenched his fist in yet another rare show of excitement.

Damien Bloodbane's eyes narrowed.

She was holding back. He could feel it. That wasn't her limit. Not even close.

But more than that—it was her precision that unsettled him.

The piece of Beta Stone which she broke off was not only the same size, it was also the same shape as Ji Chen's.

To replicate Ji Chen's result so flawlessly required not just energy, but an impossibly sensitive control. A level of awareness that only someone far above B Rank should be capable of.

Damien Bloodbane could feel his blood boiling.

Where would he rank in this gathering of dragons and phoenixes?!

After getting the Necromancer System and going through the Super Soldier Basic Training, there was no bloody way he was still E Rank!

"I should be B or even low tier A Rank." Damien Bloodbane thought to himself.

He stepped up and drew back his fist to strike at his stone.

But at that moment, Zhao Rui's condescending voice rang out.

"Why are we wasting time with this E rank trash? There is no way that he would be able to even scratch the stone. Let's just go on to the next test already! Zhao Rui said impatiently. "Time is money! Let's go, Professor Kong Hu!"

But Damien Bloodbane didn't even glance at him.

He had spent the previous minute compressing his death energy in his fist, and he was extremely eager to find out just how powerful his strike would be.

His fist moved forward.

It wasn't fast or flashy, but filled with a calm, terrifying certainty that silenced the entire field.

At the very moment his fist connected with the Beta Stone, he detonated his compressed death energy.

KABOOOOMMMM!!!!!!

The moment Damien Bloodbane's fist made contact with the Beta Stone, a deep, bone-vibrating boom cracked across the training field.

A shockwave rippled outward in concentric rings, flattening grass and sending dust into the air like a miniature explosion.

Several students instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes. Others just gawked, their mouths hanging open. Even the instructors, seasoned and stoic as they were, leaned forward unconsciously, eyes narrowing.

When the dust finally settled—

The Beta Stone was gone.

Not cracked. Not chipped.

Gone.

The slab-like pedestal it had rested on stood empty, the faint outline of its original base now exposed like a forgotten relic.

For a beat, no one moved. The crowd stared at the vacant space as if the rock might somehow reappear and apologize for the inconvenience.

Then Zhao Rui broke the silence with a bark of laughter.

"HAHAHA! What the hell was that supposed to be?!" he crowed, his finger jabbing through the air like a dagger. "You threw the damn thing off the field? What a clown! I bet he palmed it with a spell and flung it like a discus! Bluffing bastard! Kick him out of Pearl!"

His laughter rolled across the stunned crowd. And then the other students joined in and began to laugh and jeer at the pathetic E rank cheater.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Are you trying to make us believe that you actually destroyed the Beta Stone completely?"

"Typical E Rank rat—when you can't win fair, you bluff and hope no one notices."

"I've seen cleaner moves from street hustlers. At least they admit they're cheating!"

The instructors didn't laugh. They stared.

Professor Wu's tea hovered forgotten in midair. Professor Bai Lian's hand was still halfway to her mouth, her lips slightly parted. Professor Kong Hu's brow furrowed so deeply it looked like someone had carved a river into his forehead.

Because something didn't add up.

Beta Stones were not ordinary rocks. They were forged from a reinforced blend of mana-dense obsidian and compressed stone quartz, layered with threadlike veins of alchemical steel and spell-stabilizing matrices. Each one was personally vetted by Pearl Institute's equipment division and imbued with defensive enchantments that made them resistant to shock, pressure, and mana interference.

They were rated for B Rank combatants.

They were designed specifically to withstand upper-tier combat mana. Even mid-tier B Rankers could only crack it. At best, they might chip off a chunk the size of a fist, like Ji Chen had done.

To break it completely?

To pulverize it into dust?

That required something far, far beyond B Rank strength.

But because such a thing was unthinkable, nobody thought to entertain the idea. The only logical conclusion was that Damien had somehow manipulated the test, that he had flung it away.

Or triggered a displacement spell. But that would mean he had Space Energy, and only the Germans had Space Energy.

Could he be a European Spy??