Free Web NovelChapter 29: Chapter 29: Ranking board
The blue system screen hovered silently in the darkness.
Lina sat cross-legged on the edge of her plush bed, staring at the floating panel while her heart continued to hammer inside her chest. Outside her dormitory window, the academy remained under lockdown. Search-orbs drifted through the night sky like glowing stars, sweeping beams of light across rooftops and courtyards.
The entire academy was hunting a monster.
A monster is currently grooming his ears on her desk.
Qhuin sat beneath the glow of the system screen, looking completely harmless. His white fur appeared soft enough to use as a pillow. His pink nose twitched lazily.
Then his voice echoed inside her head.
"Why are you staring at me?"
Lina jumped.
"I-I wasn’t staring!"
"You were."
She immediately looked away, Qhuin narrowed his ruby eyes.
"Pathetic."
Lina’s face turned red.
"I almost died today!"
"You almost died because you are incompetent."
Lina nearly choked.
"That’s not comforting!"
"I am not attempting to comfort you."
The rabbit hopped onto the desk and sat upright.
"You survived because I intervened. Your body currently possesses enough physical strength to snap the neck of an average adult. Yet you cannot hold a door handle without destroying it."
Lina glanced toward the damaged brass handle sitting on her nightstand.
Her shoulders drooped.
"...Sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
"I can’t help it."
"Then learn."
The rabbit’s ruby eyes gleamed.
"We begin training now."
A new screen appeared.
[ CONTRACTOR CALIBRATION]
Strength Control: 0%
Mana Control: 2%
Body Synchronization: 11%
Failure Probability: Extremely High
Lina swallowed.
"What exactly am I supposed to do?"
Qhuin’s ears twitched.
"Move one strand of mana through your body."
"...That’s it?"
"Without destroying something."
Ten minutes later, Lina accidentally crushed a teacup, and the porcelain exploded in her hand.
Twenty minutes later, she ripped a pillow in half.
Thirty minutes later, she snapped the leg off a chair.
An hour later, her room looked like it had survived a battlefield.
Feathers floated through the air, broken wood covered the floor, and shredded stuffing littered the carpet.
Lina sat in the center of the disaster zone with tears in her eyes.
"I hate this."
Qhuin sat on the desk like a tiny king judging a criminal.
"Again."
"I already tried fifty times."
"Again."
"My hands hurt."
"Again."
Lina groaned, somewhere during the past two hours she had stopped asking why a rabbit sounded like an ancient monarch.
At this point, it felt normal which was probably the most terrifying thing about the situation.
She closed her eyes and focused.
Mana flowed through her veins; immediately, the floor beneath her cracked.
CRACK.
Lina nearly screamed, Qhuin pinched the bridge of his nose with one paw.
An awfully human gesture.
"I have commanded armies with greater discipline than this."
"Stop comparing me to armies!"
"I would if the armies performed worse."
Lina grabbed a pillow and threw it at him.
Qhuin casually dodged, and the pillow smashed into the wall.
Another crack appeared, and silence filled the room.
Lina buried her face in her hands.
"I’m never going to figure this out."
For a moment, Qhuin didn’t answer.
Then he hopped down from the desk, his voice lost a fraction of its usual mockery.
"You are attempting to control mana the same way ordinary Tamers do."
Lina looked up.
"What does that mean?"
"It means your foundation is flawed."
He hopped onto the bed.
"Mana is not water."
Lina blinked.
"What?"
"Everyone in this world treats mana like water."
His ruby eyes narrowed.
"They move it. Push it. Force it."
The rabbit looked toward the moonlit balcony.
"In my world, we treated power differently."
Lina listened quietly.
Qhuin’s voice became colder.
"Blood does not obey because it is pushed."
"It obeys because it belongs to you."
The words lingered in the room.
"For the next hour," he continued, "you will stop forcing your mana."
"What do I do instead?"
"Listen to it."
Lina stared.
"...That’s your explanation?"
"Yes."
"That’s a terrible explanation."
"Then fail."
Lina gritted her teeth; somehow, she suspected he was enjoying this.
Still, she followed his instructions, she closed her eyes and for the first time, she stopped trying to command the power flooding her body.
Instead, she listened, she heard nothing.
Then—
A pulse, followed by a rhythm like a second heartbeat.
The mana inside her body moved naturally, flowing through her veins. It circulates through muscles, then returns to her core.
Slow and Steadily.
A faint red glow appeared around her fingers.
Qhuin’s eyes sharpened.
"There."
Lina opened her eyes.
The glow vanished.
"What was that?"
"The beginning."
A new screen appeared.
[CRIMSON BLOOD CIRCULATION]
Ancient Mana Control Method
Status: Learning
Progress: 1%
Lina stared.
"Crimson Blood Circulation?"
"A primitive version."
"Primitive?"
"It is sufficient."
The rabbit looked away, and Lina narrowed her eyes.
"You keep talking about your world."
Silence.
"Who were you before?"
Nothing.
"Why are you afraid of Professor Valerius?"
Qhuin’s ears twitched once, as the temperature in the room seemed to drop.
"Continue training."
Lina frowned.
"You’re avoiding the question."
"Correct."
"Why?"
"Because I do not wish to answer it."
She crossed her arms.
"That’s not fair."
His ruby eyes met hers, and for the first time that night, there was something dark behind them.
Something old, something that didn’t belong in a rabbit.
"There are answers that provide no benefit."
The room became quiet as Lina lowered her gaze.
"...Okay."
Qhuin turned away.
"Continue."
The next several hours passed in a blur.
Again and again she practiced, again and again she failed, but eventually the failures became smaller.
The cracks in the floor stopped appearing, furniture stopped exploding and the room stopped suffering casualties.
By midnight, she could lift a porcelain cup without shattering it; by two in the morning, she could walk normally; and by three in the morning, she could suppress most of the mana leaking from her body.
When dawn finally approached, Qhuin gave a rare nod.
"Acceptable."
Lina almost cried from relief.
"That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me."
"It was not a compliment."
"It sounded like one."
"It wasn’t."
She laughed weakly, but the rabbit ignored her.
"Now open the academy network."
Lina blinked.
"The what?"
"The terminal."
She looked toward the magical crystal tablet sitting on her desk.
Every student possessed one, and normally she only used it for class schedules.
She activated it.
A glowing interface appeared.
Qhuin immediately pointed toward a section labeled:
[AURELIUS MIRROR NETWORK]
Lina clicked it, as hundreds of rankings appeared.
Her eyes widened.
"What is all this?"
"The ranking you her suppose to know this"
The first board opened automatically.
STUDENT COMBAT BOARD
#1 — Soren Vanguard
Year: Third
Beast: Thunder Drake
Rank: A-Rank
Potential: Divine
Lina sucked in a breath.
The profile picture displayed a silver-haired young man standing atop a massive draconic beast covered in crackling lightning.
Even through the image, he looked terrifying.
"He looks scary."
"He is?"
Lina glanced downward.
The list continued, hundreds of names, belonging to hundreds of students.
Everyone ranked.
The academy suddenly felt much larger than before.
Then Qhuin directed her toward another tab.
The Beast Potential Board.
Lina opened it.
Thousands of contracted beasts appeared, at the very top were legendary creatures.
Phoenixes.
Thunder Drakes.
Sun-Winged Griffins.
Then she searched for Snowy.
The result appeared instantly.
Lina froze.
#1200
Snow Rabbit
Owner: Lina Aurelis
Potential: E-Rank (Mortal)
Threat Rating: Negligible
Silence.
Then—
"PFFT."
Lina immediately covered her mouth, Qhuin’s eye twitched.
"Are you laughing "
"No."
"You did."
"It was a tiny laugh."
"You laughed."
The rabbit looked personally offended, and Lina couldn’t help it anymore, as she burst into giggles.
"Threat Rating: Negligible!"
Qhuin stared at the screen.
Then at her then back at the screen.
His expression somehow radiated royal displeasure despite being a rabbit.
"An administrative failure."
Lina laughed harder.
"You’re ranked below herb-gathering squirrels."
"Temporary."
"Below messenger pigeons."
"Temporary."
"Below decorative fish."
The rabbit looked like he wanted to commit murder, making Lina immediately stop laughing.
The murderous look remained.
"...Sorry."
"One day," Qhuin said calmly, "I will stand at the top of that board."
Lina smiled.
"Sure."
The rabbit’s eyes narrowed.
"I am serious."
"I know."
Outside, a bell suddenly rang.
BOOOONG. freewёbnoνel.com
BOOOONG.
BOOOONG.
The sound echoed across the academy, and Lina jumped.
A notification appeared across the terminal.
═══════════════════
MANDATORY ASSEMBLY
ALL STUDENTS REPORT TO THE TACTICAL AMPHITHEATER IMMEDIATELY
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
INTER-CLASS GRAND TOURNAMENT
═══════════════════
The room fell silent, and Lina stared at the screen, then at Qhuin and her stomach dropped.
"...Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it means."
Qhuin hopped toward the balcony.
A slow smile appeared on his mind.
"The academy finished investigating yesterday’s monster."
The rabbit looked toward the waking campus below.
"Which means they are free to begin creating tomorrow’s."
Outside, the morning bell continued to ring.
And somewhere inside the academy, the first pieces of a much larger game had begun to move.
