Name: Jacob Cloud

Class: Infernal Architect - Lv. 127

Core Skills

Hellbane's Sword - Lv. 34 (Platinum - Offensive)

Flame Slash - Lv. 37 (Gold - Offensive)

Flame Shield - Lv. 31 (Gold - Defensive)

Flame Armor - Lv. 23 (Gold - Defensive)

Flame Walk - Lv. 14 (Gold - Movement)

Infernal Veins - Lv. 28 (Platinum - Constitution)

The Grimoire Extraordinaire (Rainbow - Support)

Class Skills

Furnace Core (Passive) - Lv. 100

Flameform Blueprint (Active) - Lv. 100

Infernal Thread (Passive) - Lv. 100

Ember Keystone (Active) - Lv. 1

Architect's Insight (Passive) - Lv. 100

Hellspire (Active) - Lv. 100

Ignition Array (Active) - Lv. 2

Attributes

Strength (STR): 300

Dexterity (DEX): 314

Endurance (END): 200

Vitality (VIT): 314

Intelligence (INT): 600

Spirit (SPI): 600

Wisdom (WIS): 500

Charisma (CHA): 18

Luck (LCK): 10

Unassigned Points: 35

Other Skills

Minor Cookery - Lv. 34 (Iron)

Minor Night Vision - Lv. 32 (Iron)

Light - Lv. 67 (Bronze)

Pickaxe Mastery - Lv. 81 (Bronze)

Minor Mineral Sense - Lv. 72 (Bronze)

Mana Well - Lv. 24 (Gold)

Echolocation - Lv. 78 (Silver)

Meditation - Lv. 100 (Silver)

Bronze Grip - Lv. 100 (Bronze)

Advanced Endurance - Lv. 87 (Silver)

Advanced Strength - Lv. 52 (Gold)

Infernal Wings of Ash - Lv. 78 (Gold)

Dark Lattice - Lv. 78 (Gold)

Diavolo Draw - Lv. 51 (Gold)

Dark Blade - Lv. 38 (Gold)

Black Flame - Lv. 15 (Fusion Skill - Platinum)

* * *

I look over my Skill levels and feel frustrated. Even the Gold Rank Core Skills are feeling really slow to level, and I find the crawling pace grating.

The Grimoire snaps shut as I decide to head to my next class, Body and Veins 101.

I read the scroll from Elder Lioren, I frown at the listed location. The ink sits thick and red, and the wax smells like smoke.

"Isn't this at the market?"

* * *

The market is a low maze of canvas roofs and iron lanterns. Conversations rise and fall, and the air smells like spice, hot metal, and old rope. I arrive at the marked spot and see a merchant waiting behind a narrow counter of black wood surrounded by stacked crates. He smiles and hands me a cube without saying a word. The cube feels warm and heavy, and the edges bite into my fingers.

I love that certain traditions are still enforced.

What do you mean? I ask King Baalrek.

Puzzles, Jacob Cloud, are important to develop—

"Solved," I say. I examine the cube with the Grimoire, and I press my mana into the right parts. Fine seams click and a lid lifts, and I pull out another location. I hear gulls and I smell brine as the crowd thins near the water. "Is this the damn fish market?"

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* * *

Professor Veythra stands at her black stone desk and studies the enchanted scroll that tracks the trials. Red runes drift over the vellum, and a thin silver ring marks the completion rate for each puzzle and indicates whether they tamper with the test. She does not enchant the puzzles to signal completion because that would waste time and fuel.

In her class, she keeps only the best students that she handpicks herself. She even chose one after watching the Champion's Selection. Her motives for choosing him are not pure at all. The office is quiet.

"I can't believe that damn bastard was messing with my niece." Professor Veythra shivers with rage, and her horns heat up. "How dare he? Iskara should have killed him on the spot just for displaying our species' skill. What kind of madman absorbs an Infernal Constitution Skill and thinks he can get away with it?"

But Princess Iskara has already put in a request for an exemption for this Jacob Cloud, the tenth Champion, that some now call the Fake Champion. Professor Veythra is Iskara's Royal Aunt, and she wants to cripple him for the insult she has caused her niece and their race.

Now that the students are traveling from location to location in order to solve puzzles, she expects that trash like Jacob Cloud will take at least twelve hours. The puzzles take four hours for the very best of her past students. Her niece, with all her talent, might need three. It has been about thirty minutes since they started.

Professor Veythra estimates that six hours to complete six puzzles will be the typical time for an average student.

The Headmaster bothers her endlessly. Her class is important and exclusive, so the Headmaster and the Vice Principals, along with some of the Deans, use their power to enroll people into Body and Veins 101 that she doesn't want. They do this because she would otherwise only pick a handful each year if she had her way. The old bastard also forces her to be fair, giving out equal rewards to the harsh challenges she sets.

Some courses like hers offer prizes to those who prove exceptional, which the Academy's deep pockets pay for. This year, the first-place student gets an extremely rare Gold Skill. It is rare enough that you could restart your entire Meditation path, even if you had already chosen a Platinum Skill. This is the power of an Evolution Skill. A Skill Crystal usually only grants one Skill that barely affects the next, and each Rank sets the limit of your powers. Rare Skills, like this one, appear once in a generation. She cannot wait for Iskara to win it.

This Skill Crystal not only gives a powerful Gold Rank Skill but also shapes every other Skill in the Meditation line. It leaves a bundle of power that keeps growing and affects whatever Skills you later evolve that line into.

She checks the parchment and sees that her niece is already on her third puzzle after an hour.

"Wonderful, wonderful," Professor Veythra snickers. "She'll get the Evolution Skill at this rate. The second and third place will probably go to the damn Highblood and the Dragonkin. They'll get the lower two rewards. The rewards will still be great, even for them. But for my dear Iskara, this will definitely make her—"

"Excuse me? Is this the Veins and Body 101 class?"

Professor Veythra turns with a frozen smile. The door stands open, and the hall light spills across the floor. A dark‑haired Human kid waits at the threshold. She did not attend the Champion's Selection in person, but she got reports on what Jacob Cloud looks like.

"You…" Professor Veythra looks down at the scroll and then at the Human in front of her. The circles do not show any evidence of puzzle manipulation in Jacob Cloud's column. "Are you Jacob Cloud?" she asks him.

Then she stares at the parchment, stunned.

How did this happen? Did I leave instructions on how to find this place? But no. There's a rune you must solve before entering. How did he do that? That puzzle alone was the hardest of the lot and should have taken 3 hours minimum. Any tampering to find out more about the rune would have triggered on the parchment?

Professor Veythra looks back at the student who stands there with a plain face and calm eyes.

Unless he managed to somehow crack every puzzle without having to tamper with them.

Veythra isn't a fool. She knows when she's been beaten. She licks her lips, and her body trembles. Damn that old man and his stupid soul contracts!

She opens a drawer and takes out the Gold Rank Evolution Skill Crystal. Light swirls inside it like baked coals. She slides it across the desk with her claws. Disgust rises in her, and she looks away. She feels so disgusted that this Fake Champion would be the one to get the skill crystal and not her niece.

"Take that," she says.

"What? Why? Is this the class or not?" Jacob asks. He looks confused, and he glances past her at the rows of empty benches and diagrams of different bodies' mana veins on the slate wall.

"TAKE THE DAMN SKILL CRYSTAL AND SIT DOWN. YES, THIS IS THE DAMN CLASS! BE QUIET WHILE WE WAIT FOR THE OTHERS!"

"Ok," Jacob replies. He raises an eyebrow at her, and he keeps his voice flat.

The guts on this kid!

Professor Veythra now has hours to kill before her niece can reach the room. She plans to spend the extra time between first and second place teaching Iskara how to use the Gold Skill, yet now she sits here with Jacob Cloud instead. She would have had little more than an hour with Iskara, and that opportunity has vanished.

The thought of sitting here with someone who plundered an Infernal Constitution Skill for the next three hours makes her jaw tighten in anger.

"Professor?" Jacob Cloud raises a hand and points at the Skill Crystal.

"Yes?" she answers. She tries to pull back and comport herself with the calm grace that an Infernal Royal should display.

"So, is this for me to absorb? I don't understand."

"You…" Professor Veythra feels her skin itch with anger, and she keeps her voice level. "Yes. The class has prizes for the first three students to make it here."

"Huh, cool. So, just double‑checking, can I just go ahead and absorb this Skill?"

"YES."

"Before I do, can you tell me more about it?"

Veythra has always prided herself on her beautiful skin, but talking to this upstart makes her feel her eyes starting to wrinkle in real time.

"The Skill is called Minor Enlightenment," Professor Veythra explains begrudgingly, forced against her will by the Headmaster's Soul contract to reply to this simple a request. "It's an Evolution Skill, Cloud."

Jacob Cloud narrows his eyes.

"I know. It's from the Meditation lineage, right?"

"How do you know about that?" Professor Veythra looks surprised.

"I must have heard about it from somewhere."

It's not common knowledge. Very few know about this sort of thing. How could a commoner possibly know about this Skill?

"Did you, now?" Professor Veythra looks at Jacob Cloud curiously. "Well, go ahead, then. It's not an easy Skill Crystal to level up, though. Perhaps, you would like to sell it?"

Before Professor Veythra can make her offer in coin or trade so she can pass the Skill Crystal to her niece, she sees it slowly sink into Jacob Cloud's hand.

I can't believe it. This bastard didn't even listen to my offer!

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