Calder had four days before Round 5. He used them to build an arsenal nobody would see.
The Capital Academy's training grounds were available to Round 5 candidates — private chambers with reinforced walls, mana dampeners, and enough shielding to contain Tier 6 spellwork. Calder booked the deepest chamber, three stories underground, and locked the door.
He had two priorities. First: shore up the spells he could show publicly. Flame Blast, Infernal Storm, Blizzard, Storm Cyclone — the Tier 4 toolkit that defined his cover. These needed to be polished to perfection, because Round 5's format was unknown and he'd need to perform under observation while maintaining precise output control.
Second: expand the spells he couldn't show.
The passive Essence had been doing work while he competed. Wind spells had solidified across the board. Ice spells were razor-sharp. But the real growth was happening in the background — the Essence ticking into his identification skill, his defensive passives, the structural integrity of his core itself.
The void was getting stronger. Not just in raw power, but in architecture. Each day it held more, processed faster, responded more precisely. Like a field that had been tilled and re-tilled until the soil was perfect.
He spent mornings in the training chamber and afternoons exploring the Capital.
Tianhai was a Reaper's paradise. The city's ambient mana made Greenvale's Spell Fields look like puddles. Wild spells didn't bloom here — they were cultivated, farmed in controlled environments, and sold at premium prices. But the sewers, the old tunnels, the forgotten sub-levels beneath the ancient city districts... those still held wild magic.
Calder found three wild spells in the Capital's underground on day one. Higher quality than anything in the Greenwall Forest — Tier 3 and Tier 4 variants, well-nurtured by centuries of ambient mana. His void ate them without comment.
On day two, he found something else.
The Capital Academy was built on old ground. The Academy's public records said the campus dated back two hundred years, constructed on reclaimed land. But Calder's Void Resonance — a sense he'd first noticed at Kanglin and had been growing steadily — told a different story.
Something was beneath the Academy. Deep. Ancient. Resonating with the same frequency as his core.
He didn't investigate. Not yet. Round 5 first. Answers later.
On day three, he met Luyu.
---
The third Round 5 candidate arrived late — travel delays from the Eastern Coast, according to the administration. Calder was eating alone in the dormitory's small cafeteria when she walked in.
Luyu was compact, dark-skinned, with tightly curled hair cut close and eyes that moved across the room the way a predator surveyed terrain. She wore practical clothes — leather vest over a plain shirt, boots made for hiking, not fashion. Her mana signature was a strange blend: beast-taming core mixed with a suppression field that dampened ambient magic around her.
She saw Calder. Assessed him in two seconds. Walked to his table.
"Calder Voss."
"Luyu."
"Just Luyu." She sat without asking. "I watched your footage on the train. Triple element, impossible casting speed, broke every record." She paused. "I'm going to beat you."
"Nice to meet you too."
"I'm not making small talk. I'm telling you my intention so you can prepare." She pulled a ration bar from her vest and ate it with mechanical efficiency. "Your speed is your advantage. I've been analyzing it for three days. The weakness is predictability — you default to overlapping area-effect patterns. Efficient against static targets. Less so against someone who can suppress magic in a radius."
She was right. Calder's rapid-fire technique relied on casting density — many spells at once, all working together. A suppression field that dampened magic within range would reduce his output proportionally.
"Your beast-unity core," Calder said. "It distributes damage across your tamed creatures?"
Luyu's eyes narrowed. "How do you know that?"
"Research." He wasn't going to explain All Seeing Eye. "The suppression field is your Domain ability — Infinite Silence. It mutes magic below Tier 6 within range."
"Below Tier 5," she corrected. Then stopped. Her jaw tightened. "You got me to correct the threshold."
"Farm boy trick."
Luyu stared at him. Then she laughed — a short, sharp sound. "Alright, Voss. You're smarter than you look."
"Low bar."
"True." She finished her ration bar. "Round 5 is a dungeon scenario. PvP-enabled. I'll see you in there."
She left. Calder watched her go and thought about Domain abilities. At Level 60, Reapers unlocked Domain skills — area-of-effect manifestations of their core element. Luyu had hers already, which meant she'd hit Level 60 before the exam. Her public level showed 58, but Domain-awakened Reapers could sometimes access their ability early through extreme talent.
Xia Yuan also had a Domain: Void Severance. Space-cutting. Calder had read it through the training chamber walls while Xia practiced on the floor above him. Her Domain carved reality into segments — anything caught in the cut was separated at a molecular level.
Two Domain users. Both targeting him.
Round 5 was going to be interesting.
---
The briefing came on day four.
All three candidates sat in a conference room on the Academy's ground floor. Director Leona from Linshan was there, along with a representative from the National Education Bureau — a young official who deferred to the sealed envelope he placed on the table.
"Round 5 is a special Abyss dungeon," Leona began. "Specifically, a hunting scenario with PvP enabled. You'll be teleported into a structured dungeon environment. Monsters spawn continuously. Each kill earns points based on the monster's tier and type."
She activated a holographic display. The dungeon map showed a diverse landscape: mountains, grasslands, forests, frozen tundra. Massive.
"Points can also be acquired through PvP. Defeat another candidate — reduce their HP below the safety threshold — and you steal 500 points from their total. Your scores are tracked in real-time via enchanted bracelets." She held up three golden bracelets. "These monitor HP, position, and point totals. The top ten scorers across the dungeon are displayed on a leaderboard visible to all participants."
"You said the top ten," Calder said. "There are only three of us."
"For the national round, yes. But the dungeon is shared with provincial finalists from all regions. Approximately two hundred candidates total."
Two hundred. A massive free-for-all in a dungeon environment. Most of them Tier 4 or 5 candidates from regional exams. Plus three national-level perfect scorers who outclassed the rest by a wide margin.
"Emergency escape is available," Leona continued. "Activate your bracelet's panic function and you'll be teleported out instantly. However, escape resets your score to zero. There are no second chances."
Xia Yuan spoke for the first time. "Rewards?"
"First place nationally: Platinum-tier equipment set, 100 merit points, a Talent Crystal, and Trial Tower exemption." Leona paused. "The Talent Crystal grants one additional talent — a permanent, unique ability added to your core."
A Talent Crystal. Calder had heard of them — legendary rewards, rarer than skill books, capable of granting abilities that couldn't be acquired any other way. In a world where core capacity was limited, an extra talent was priceless.
For a Void Core with no limits, it was something else entirely. Another piece of power to add to the collection. Another tool for survival.
"Duration?"
"Forty-eight hours maximum. The dungeon collapses at the time limit. Candidates still inside are automatically evacuated with their current scores."
"When do we start?"
"Tomorrow. Sunrise."
---
That night, Calder sat on his bed and took inventory.
Level 42. Fire: Tier 9 (hidden). Wind: Tier 7 (hidden). Ice: Tier 7 (hidden). Necromancy: nothing yet — the breakthrough crystal was a potential Round 5 reward. Defense: Indestructible Body at Tier 7, with cheat-death passive. Identification: All Seeing Eye at Tier 9.
What he could show: Tier 4 across three elements. Maybe Tier 5 if pressed.
What he'd use: Ossian — no. He didn't have necromancy yet. Flame demons were Tier 6 fire summons, technically showable as an extension of his fire mastery but risky. Better to rely on personal combat skills.
Except Round 5 was a hunting scenario. Forty-eight hours of continuous monster farming with PvP threats. Efficiency mattered. And his most efficient tools — flame demon armies, Tier 7 area spells, Divine Fire Descent — were all off the table publicly.
Unless he found areas of the dungeon where nobody was watching.
The bracelets tracked HP, position, and points. Not spellwork. If he could isolate himself in a remote zone, he could farm at full capacity and only dial back when other candidates were nearby.
"You're overthinking it," Fen said from the doorway. He'd finagled an observer pass for the dungeon's external monitoring station — he'd be able to watch the leaderboard and communicate via the bracelet's message function.
"I'm planning."
"You're trying to game the system. Just go in and win."
"Winning without exposing myself is the game."
Fen sat on Xia Yuan's empty bed — she was in the training chamber. "Here's a thought. What if you don't try to hide everything? You're already public as a triple-element prodigy. The cat's out on that front. The only thing you're really hiding is the tier level. Show Tier 5 instead of Tier 4. It's one step higher, still within plausible range, and it gives you breathing room in combat."
"Tier 5 from a farm boy with a month of training."
"A farm boy who already broke four national records. Nobody's going to question Tier 5 at this point. They'll call you a generational talent and give you a scholarship." Fen paused. "The alternative is fighting at half your capability for forty-eight hours in a dungeon with two hundred hostile candidates and two Domain users who want to beat you. At some point, holding back becomes more dangerous than showing strength."
He had a point. Calder stared at the ceiling and ran scenarios. Tier 5 gave him access to stronger spells without entering the Grand Magus range that would trigger Association protocols. It was the difference between "exceptional student" and "national security concern."
"Tier 5," he said. "Maximum display ceiling. Nothing above."
"And if Xia Yuan or Luyu push you past that?"
"Then I find a creative way to win at Tier 5."
"And if creative isn't enough?"
Calder rolled onto his side and looked at Fen. His friend's face was lit by the hallway light — freckled, worried, loyal. The World Tree seed in his core hummed faintly, detectable only through All Seeing Eye.
"Then I'll deal with that when it comes."
Fen nodded. He didn't look reassured, but he looked resolved. "I'll be monitoring from outside. If your bracelet shows your HP dropping below 30%, I'm sending a message. And you respond."
"Deal."
"And Cal?"
"Yeah."
"Try to enjoy it. You're about to fight in the biggest Reaper event in the country. Most people would kill for this."
Calder thought about the dungeon. Two hundred candidates. Monsters. Points. PvP. Two opponents with Domain-level abilities. And him, with a core that could eat the world, pretending to be a talented student.
"I'll try," he said.
Fen left. The room was dark. Xia Yuan's bed was empty, Luyu's was made with military precision. Calder lay in the silence and felt the Essence tick.
Tomorrow.
The void settled around him, patient and vast, and outside the window the Capital glowed like a promise that hadn't decided yet whether to be kind or cruel.
