Free Web NovelChapter 2: The Partner Blind Box
The pain receded quickly
Ethan opened his eyes.
The world before him had completely changed.
The Blind Boxes that had been shrouded in mist began to reveal faint lines of text one by one.
[Weapon Blind Box.]
[Item inside: Alloy longsword.]
[Rarity: D.]
[Skill Blind Box.]
[Skill inside: Hearing Enhancement.]
[Rarity: E.]
[Power Blind Box.]
[Power inside: Cold Resistance.]
[Rarity: C.]
Ethan kept his calm expression.
But his heartbeat had quickened.
He could actually see through the Blind Boxes.
Over the past eighty years, countless scholars had studied the energy fluctuations, patterns, colors, and appearance rates of each type of item.
But no matter how much effort they poured in, no one could ever be certain what a Blind Box contained.
Yet Ethan could see.
Clearly.
Precisely.
This ability alone was enough to drive the entire world mad.
He was in no rush to choose.
His gaze slowly swept across each box.
Rank E.
Rank D.
Rank C.
A few rank B.
There was a Weapon Box containing a rank A sword, enough to make most students so elated they couldn’t sleep for days.
But Ethan still didn’t stop.
He had waited two years.
There was no reason to rush into choosing a reward that was merely decent.
The dull ache began to creep back.
Ethan narrowed his field of observation, skipping over the boxes with fluctuations that were too weak.
At that very moment, a thin layer of red mist slipped into his sight.
At the outermost edge of the altar, in a spot almost no one paid attention to, a dark red Blind Box floated quietly.
It wasn’t large.
Its surface bore no special patterns.
But when Ethan focused on it, the lines of text before his eyes were completely different from the rest of the boxes.
[Partner Blind Box.]
[Race: Unidentifiable.]
[Rarity: Unidentifiable.]
[High-level camouflage layer detected.]
[The Eye of Truth is conducting analysis.]
The pain immediately surged, as if a hammer had struck his eyes, forcing him to shut them.
But after only a few seconds, a new layer of information slowly emerged.
[Partner: Crimson Dragon Laira.]
[Actual rarity: SS.]
[Status: Severely weakened.]
[Seal: Undetermined.]
Ethan fell silent.
SS.
He had never seen this tier in any of the academy’s official records.
The rarity classification system for everything, including aptitude and Heaven’s Gates, was divided into: F, E, D, C, B, A, S, Epic, Legendary, Mythic.
According to the rarity system that humanity currently used publicly, the highest tier was Mythic.
In the entire world, only six Blind Boxes had been confirmed to have ever opened a reward reaching Mythic rank.
Six Blind Boxes.
Six owners.
Six beings standing at positions that were all but unshakeable within humanity’s current order.
Each of them was powerful enough to influence a nation, a region, or the entire front line against the Void.
But before Ethan was an SS Partner.
A tier that not even the textbooks recorded.
Without hesitating any longer, Ethan reached his hand toward the Partner symbol on the guidance crystal.
The red light began to converge.
The ceremony’s host immediately frowned.
"Ethan Ashford."
"You are choosing a Partner Blind Box."
"I know."
"You may reconsider before confirming."
The moment those words rang out, the entire main hall erupted into noise.
"Partner?"
"He’s choosing a Partner Box?"
"After waiting two years?"
"No way. He’s top of the year in theory. Could it be he doesn’t know the Partner Box is the worst possible choice?"
A student in a row near the stage burst out laughing.
"Studying well doesn’t mean having a normal head on your shoulders."
"Maybe he wants to gamble."
"Gamble with his own future?"
"How stupid."
The laughter quickly spread.
Someone else raised their voice:
"I once read records about a humanoid Partner at rank F."
"It couldn’t fight, all it knew how to do was eat and sleep."
"Its owner spent more than ten years and still couldn’t get past Black Iron tier 3."
"A strong Partner isn’t so bad."
"But if you open something useless, your whole life is basically over."
"Can’t kill it."
"Can’t abandon it."
"And you have to share your energy with it on top of that."
"Picking a rank D sword would be better."
On the top floor, the man in the military uniform leaned back against his seat and sighed.
"I take back what I said earlier."
The gray-haired woman shook her head slightly as well.
"His theoretical results are excellent."
"But his mindset is too impatient."
"Maybe the two-year detour made him want to gamble on something more special."
Headmaster Cole still watched Ethan.
His gaze sank.
He had once thought very highly of this student.
Near-perfect scores.
Strong analytical ability.
Willpower strong enough to work and study at the same time while still holding on to the top position.
A person like that should have understood, better than anyone, just how dangerous a Partner Box was.
"What a shame."
He said softly.
In a front row, Ryan no longer hid his smile.
He stood up.
"Big brother."
His voice rang out clearly across the main hall.
"You really disappoint me."
Ethan turned to look at him.
Ryan slowly continued:
"And here I thought that after two years working in a warehouse, you’d at least have learned to treasure an opportunity."
"But it seems I overestimated you."
"A Partner Box?"
He let out a laugh.
"What are you trying to prove?"
"Trying to make everyone pay attention by making some oddball choice?"
"Or do you really think you’re the protagonist of some cheap story, where just picking the thing no one wants will earn you a miracle?"
A few laughs rang out.
Ryan looked at Ethan, his eyes full of contempt.
"Stop daydreaming."
"You’re not a genius."
"You’re just someone who’s two years slower than everyone else."
"Even if you open a Partner that can fight, your cultivation speed will still be so slow you’ll never catch up to me."
Selene, sitting beside Ryan, curled her lips into a faint smile and said, "Don’t worry, maybe Ethan has his own confidence, hahaha... Ethan, I believe in you, my son..."
The phrase ’my son’ coming out of her mouth was like a horrible insult.
Claire frowned now and spoke up in a low reminder: "There’s no need to choose a road of no return just for the sake of pride."
"Ethan! Don’t do this. Choose the Weapon Box. Even if you only get a rank D or rank C, at least you’d still have a chance to become an Awakened."
Ethan looked across the entire main hall.
The pitying gazes.
The mocking smiles.
The disappointed sighs from the top floor.
No one knew what he was seeing.
No one knew what was inside that dark red box.
In everyone’s eyes, he was just a student who had once been held to very high expectations but had, in the end, destroyed his own future with his own hands.
Ethan didn’t explain.
He placed his hand on the guidance crystal.
"I confirm."
The red light blazed up.
The remaining Blind Boxes all dimmed at once.
The dark red box sitting at the edge of the altar slowly flew toward Ethan.
The laughter in the stands grew clearer.
Ryan shook his head and wore a cold smile.
Selene also leaned back against her seat, her gaze having completely lost all interest.
But the instant Ethan’s hand touched the cold surface of the box, [The Eye of Truth] suddenly activated on its own.
Without his permission.
Without time to react.
His vision pierced through the red shell.
Through the dense veil of mist.
Through the black chains coiling around a tall figure. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Then it continued deeper.
Farther.
To a place that did not belong to the box at all.
In the endless darkness, a colossal pupil slowly opened.
It looked straight at Ethan.
[Out-of-bounds observation target detected.]
[Warning.]
[When you gaze into the Void, the Void gazes back at you.]
A thin crack appeared on the surface of the Blind Box.
Crack!!!
The sound of cracking rang out across the main hall.
