Free Web NovelChapter 2: The Unclassified Variable
A chill ran down his spine the very moment she smiled.
Then, her aura crashed into everyone.
It felt eerily similar to the agonizing pain Alden had experienced just moments before waking up in this body. It was a mental attack, one designed not only to crush them physically but also to completely break them mentally.
This wasn’t just mere intimidation.
It was a brutal warning.
"Damn it...!"
Alden clutched his chest as he fell hard to his knees, struggling just to breathe.
His brain felt like it was going to explode at this rate.
’Is she a principal... or a demon wearing human skin?!’
He forced himself to endure it. Surprisingly, despite his body being incredibly frail, his mind could still withstand the heavy mental pressure.
Alden gritted his teeth, trying his absolute best to keep himself completely sane. He forced his heavy head up and looked around the massive hall.
Only a handful of students were still conscious.
The rest lay completely scattered across the cold stone floor, knocked out cold.
Moments later, the crushing pressure faded away as quickly as it had appeared.
Alden dragged himself back up into his seat, breathing heavily, his clothes drenched in cold sweat.
The entire hall fell into an eerie, dead silence.
Healers and academy instructors immediately rushed into the room to tend to the unconscious students.
Principal Alexa simply waved her hand dismissively.
"It was merely a simple pressure test... But it seems the little mice couldn’t even stand tall."
She glanced around the hall, looking entirely unimpressed.
"Less than half the students remain conscious. Good."
She looked at the survivors, her sharp gaze scanning everyone with pinpoint precision.
Alden felt her heavy gaze pause on him for just a split second before she casually looked away toward the other students.
Alden let out a quiet sigh of relief. He didn’t want to gain any unwanted attention, especially right after transmigrating here.
The more he got involved in this world’s events, the more he would have to play the part of some novel protagonist, and he had absolutely zero interest in doing that. He didn’t want to change his lifestyle. He strongly preferred staying in the background in his past life, and he fully intended to do the exact same thing here.
Transmigration, magic, or whatever else was going on—the actual reason he ended up in this body didn’t concern him at all. He wasn’t even curious about finding out how he appeared in this world. He was simply too lazy to think about all that complicated stuff.
"From tomorrow onward, all students will attend their allotted classes."
With those final words, she vanished. She disappeared into thin air through what could only be a powerful spatial manipulation skill befitting an SS-ranker.
Alden stood up slowly and made his way out of the Grand Hall. He passed through the large crowds of students who were just starting to wake up, groaning in pain as the healers attended to them.
He stepped out into the long corridor, walking toward the boys’ dormitory building situated on the far right side of the academy grounds.
"It seems my academy life won’t be as easy as I imagined..."
Then—
A sudden thought struck his mind.
"Wait... I transmigrated. I was thrown into some fantasy world..."
"Then shouldn’t I have a golden finger after transmigrating?"
Alden’s eyes lit up. He immediately imagined the overpowered systems that most light novel protagonists received. They could literally become gods just by completing some basic quests, or buy god-slaying weapons and earth-shattering powers directly from a system shop.
He couldn’t wait to see what kind of cheat ability he was going to get.
"Status window... open."
He waited.
Nothing happened.
"...Open?"
"..."
Absolute silence.
A vein twitched on his forehead.
"Don’t tell me I got scammed after transmigrating..."
He waited a few more seconds, staring blankly into the empty air. There was no dramatic flash of light. No divine voice speaking in his head. No floating blue menu. Just the quiet murmur of students shuffling out of the Grand Hall behind him.
Just as total irritation began creeping into his mind—
[DING!]
[STATUS WINDOW]
[Name: Alden]
[Age: 18]
[Title: None]
[Talent: Unclassified]
[Rank: E+]
[Bloodline: Dormant]
[Elements: Wind]
[STR: 12/100]
[AGI: 13/100]
[DEF: 9/100]
[INT: 41/100]
[HP: 64/100]
[MP: 50/50]
[Luck: SSS+]
[Techniques:
• ???
• ???]
[Skills:
•None]
...
Alden stared at the glowing screen with a completely deadpan expression. He actually felt a deep sense of shame just looking at his own status window.
"...What the hell is this?"
He didn’t expect his stats to be this incredibly low.
But he couldn’t exactly call the system fake. He could physically feel just how frail and pathetically weak this new body of his was.
Right now, even a stray dog could probably severely injure him if it started chasing him. He wouldn’t even be able to run away properly because his stamina was practically nonexistent.
The system had literally branded him as a failed product. With these garbage stats, he was undeniably the weakest student in the entire academy.
He looked down at his academy shirt. There was no crest badge pinned to it. Not even a bronze one. That meant his rank was even lower than the bottom thousand students who actually managed to get a badge.
"How pathetic..."
Alden’s jaw tightened as he squeezed his fists.
He looked at the Bloodline section, which currently sat at a dormant state. From the original owner’s memories, he didn’t remember his father or his older brother having any kind of special bloodline power. So, it was highly likely this would never awaken anyway.
Alden’s eyes then stopped as he scanned his Luck stat. It was completely unbelievable.
"...That’s absurd."
"Do SSS-rank stats really exist in this world? I hadn’t known about that... But what can I even do with just high luck? It’s not like I can actually use it in a fistfight... Sigh... Let’s just consider that later."
Alden glanced at his cursed status window one last time before dismissing it with a thought. He shoved his hands into his pockets and continued heading toward the boys’ dormitory building.
Outside, the academy courtyard was a sprawling, beautiful garden filled with rare, vibrant flowers and exotic plants that Alden had never seen before in his life.
As he walked down the outdoor corridor, groups of waking students whispered fearfully among themselves.
"Did you feel that terrifying pressure?"
"I couldn’t even breathe..."
"More than half the hall collapsed instantly..."
"Only the monsters managed to stay conscious."
Alden completely ignored their gossip and kept walking.
With his current stats, engaging in any real combat would be pure suicide. This body was nowhere near the standard academy requirements. And if the principal’s brutal words were anything to go by, weakness wouldn’t be tolerated here at all. He wouldn’t last a month at this rate.
If he wanted to survive, he had to start grinding himself into shape from day one.
He didn’t know if he was actually capable of pushing past the physical limits that the original Alden had completely failed to overcome.
"Garbage stats, no usable skills, a dormant bloodline, zero actual combat experience, and nothing but pure stubbornness..."
"What a wonderful start."
Still... he wasn’t afraid.
If anything, a strange, eerie calm settled deep inside his chest. It wasn’t every day someone got a second chance to live a new life, and he definitely wasn’t going to waste it wallowing in self-pity. If he was weak, then he would just train again and again until he became far more capable than his past self.
He didn’t have any massive, world-saving ambitions. He just wanted to live a peaceful life as a background character.
*DOOONG!* *DOOONG!*
A massive bell rang across the academy grounds, its deep and resonant tone echoing through the air.
"All students are to return to their designated dormitories immediately," a amplified voice announced.
"Tomorrow marks the beginning of formal instruction."
Suddenly, Alden felt a strange prickling sensation on his skin. A powerful presence was near him. He stopped walking and looked up.
High above, at the very top of the academy’s main tower, a solitary figure stood framed by an open balcony window.
Silver hair gleaming brightly in the afternoon sunlight.
A calm, all-knowing smile.
Eyes sharp enough to pierce straight through a person’s soul.
Principal Alexa von Veldora.
She wasn’t looking at him specifically at first. Her gaze was casually sweeping over the massive crowds of students walking toward the dormitories. But for a moment, Alden stopped and stared directly up at her.
And then...
Their eyes met.
For a brief, suffocating second, the entire world seemed to hold its breath.
She smiled—a slow, deliberate curve of her lips.
It wasn’t friendly.
It wasn’t openly hostile.
It was just unnervingly curious.
Then, she turned around and walked away from the window, disappearing back into the shadows of the tower.
Alden took a deep breath, slipped his hands deeper into his pockets, and turned back to the path ahead of him.
"Arcane Academy... let’s see which one of us breaks first."
