The class followed Kael into a large training room, cluttered with towering structures of pillars, platforms, and hanging ropes. Some obstacles reached the ceiling, while others curved around the floor.
"Thank you, Maris," Kael said.
A girl near the front wobbled under the weight of a large glass jar, struggling forward until she finally set it down in the middle of the room with a heavy thud.
"Everyone, this is Maris Feld. She'll be assisting with your assessments today."
Maris gave an awkward wave.
"Together, we'll be evaluating your strengths and weaknesses. But today's test has one focus: agility." Kael's eyes swept the room. "Pay close attention. This isn't just about speed—it's about how well you control your body under pressure."
Landen scanned the room, sizing everyone up.
In a battle arena, there were five distinct roles, one of which was the assassin—built for speed, shadow, and precision. High burst damage, low defense. Pure agility. If this test was designed with any role in mind, it was clearly that one.
"Look down at your suits," Kael continued. "You'll each find a number on your chest and back. That's your identifier. After all assessments are completed, your results will be posted—find your number to find your score."
The students had swapped their uniforms for sleek black suits, each marked with a unique number. Landen wore 28. And across from him was the white-haired boy—number 56—arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"Hit the lights," Kael said, pointing at Maris.
She tapped on her tablet, and the room went dark.
Gasps rippled through the group. Then the jar on the floor began to glow—softly at first, then brighter.
"Don't move," Maris said quietly.
She unscrewed the lid and hundreds of luminous lights drifted upward, spreading through the space like floating embers.
"Wisps?" Landen whispered.
Kael's voice cut through the dim glow. "This test is called the Wisp Tag. Your suits are equipped with sensors that will track your every movement—coordination, balance, reaction time, acceleration, velocity. All of it."
He and Maris moved through the crowd, handing a small woven basket to each student.
"Your goal is simple: catch as many wisps as you can in thirty minutes. Store the wisps inside your basket, and our system will automatically register your points."
As Landen strapped his on, he pulled up his system menu to check his agility stat.
|| Agility: 2 ||
"You still possess ten unclaimed stat points," the system said. "Shall I apply them to your agility?"
"No."
"A few points would make this significantly easier."
"That's the point. I want to know where I actually stand."
A pause. "As you wish."
He closed the menu, though the confidence he'd projected inward didn't quite reach his chest. The truth was, he'd never been athletic. Back on Earth, he was the kind of person who chose a controller over a gym membership every time—scrawny, slow, and perfectly fine with it. Now he felt stronger, healthier. But how much stronger? That's what he needed to find out.
A holographic display flickered to life above them, bright against the dark.
"There are a few things you should know before you begin. Take a close look at the display, and you'll notice four different-colored wisps. Each one carries a different point value."
The display zoomed in, isolating four colored wisps along with their point value.
|| White: 1 point ||
|| Blue: 2 points ||
|| Red: 3 points ||
|| Rainbow: 10 points ||
"You will notice the higher the value, the fewer there are. White wisps will be scattered throughout the course, but if you want a high score, you'll need to keep your eyes open for the others. But, just know—they're worth more for a reason."
"There are also two rules," he said. "First: you are not allowed to use any abilities during this test. This is a measure of your natural physical capability—nothing more."
"Second: you are not allowed to interfere with other participants. No fighting, no sabotage, and absolutely no stealing wisps from someone else." His gaze swept across the group. "Any violation of these rules will result in immediate disqualification."
While Kael spoke, Landen felt a presence settle beside him.
The white-haired boy.
"You don't belong here."
The words were quiet, but certain. Too certain—like he knew his true identity.
Landen said nothing.
"People spend years to reach this point," the boy continued. "Raising their Essence level. Training their bodies. Competing against thousands just for the chance to walk through this academy's doors." He finally turned to look at Landen. "And then there's you. A Civilian criminal with zero Essence and a clear soul color nobody's ever seen before. Vanderbilt may think that the clear soul color means something special. But we'll find out soon enough that it means nothing. You're not some hidden genius. You're just a criminal. That's all there is to you."
Landen didn't respond right away.
Because honestly? The boy wasn't wrong.
Back on Earth, he'd been ordinary in every sense of the word. No power. No talent. No greatness. Even now, he still didn't fully understand why he had been brought here instead of someone else more deserving. Being here among the academy students, all radiating confidence and strength, made him feel like an ordinary person pretending to belong among monsters.
The boy took a step forward.
"I'll expose you. Right here, right now."
And then—
A translucent blue screen suddenly appeared in front of Landen's vision.
"You have received your first quest," the system said.
Landen's eyes widened.
|| QUEST: Outscore your opponent. ||
|| REWARD: 20 EXP. ||
For a split second, Landen completely forgot about the boy.
A quest. An actual quest.
His pulse kicked up. Ever since the system appeared, one question had been gnawing at him above all others: How do I earn EXP? He'd turned it over and over without an answer.
Now he had one.
A slow grin spread across his face.
The white-haired boy's eyes narrowed—clearly misreading the reaction. From where he stood, it looked like Landen was smiling after being insulted.
"Thank you," Landen said, dropping a hand briefly onto the boy's shoulder. "That pep talk was exactly what I needed."
He stepped forward and stretched his arms overhead.
The boy stared after him. Then smile. Genuinely impressed by Landen's unfazed response.
"Let me remind you all," Kael announced. His gaze moved across the group one final time. "Your results today will determine whether you earn your place here at Aegis. This is not just a test. It's your future. Do your best."
"You have thirty minutes." Kael raised his hand.
"Begin!"
BUZZ!!!
Students leapt, sprinted, slid, and climbed as glowing wisps scattered in every direction. Some vaulted across pillars. Others scrambled up walls, baskets snapping shut around flickers of light.
While all the students moved, Landen and the boy ran side by side, equal in speed, and they both dove towards a few wisps. Instead of catching anything, they crashed into each other hard.
Landen fell down. When he looked up, he saw the boy from behind. He stood perfectly still, calm and relaxed, as if the collision had never happened.
What is he planning?
Then, slowly, the boy turned his head.
His gaze locked onto Landen—and a faint, unsettling smile spread across his face.
They both sprinted together again, but this time the boy was much faster than Landen.
I swear our speed was just equal, but now I can't seem to keep up. Did he use some kind of ability or something?
Landen stopped as he watched the boy sprint ahead, jumping around on different obstacles until he stood at the top. He looked back at Landen, holding his first wisp in his hand.
"I will win this," he said, then jumped away.
Landen narrowed his eyes, replaying the movements in his mind.
No abilities allowed…so what did he just do?
He clenched his fist. "Who are you?"
— — —
Landen sprinted with everything he had. It felt fast to him—but compared to everyone else, he might as well have been standing still. Seeing that everyone else moved at similar speed to the white-haired boy, he realized: this was normal here. Back on Earth, this level of speed would've been called inhuman. Superhuman.
But here? This was the baseline.
Not far away, Professor Kael and his assistant Maris stood at the center of the course, tablets in hand. Landen tracked their gaze.
"Pull up information on number 11," Kael said. He watched a smaller girl with blond hair tied into two tight, bouncy pigtails, moving effortlessly through the obstacles.
Maris checked her tablet. "Elara Vesperine. Age sixteen. House Vesperine."
He looked over at Maris. "So one of them finally enrolled here."
The infamous Vesperine family, known as a noble house specializing in covert operations and security. However, everyone knew the truth. For generations, House Vesperine had produced some of the deadliest assassins in history. And here was one in the making.
They watched her.
Elara didn't rush. Instead, she flowed—pivoting lightly, stepping where others leapt, adjusting her balance mid-motion with subtle shifts of her shoulders and hips. Wisps seemed to wander into her basket, as if drawn by her calm precision. Her posture never broke, even as she traversed narrow beams and angled walls.
Maris marked a star next to her name.
Then Kael pointed to someone in the distance. "Number seventeen—who is he?"
The boy had a leather headband pushing back dark hair, and eyes that held a focused, predatory stillness even in motion. He looked exceptionally fit, clearly trained.
"That boy is Silas Vance," Maris said. "He appears to have no family record. A simple commoner."
"A commoner with exceptional skills," Kael replied, watching Silas dash around, his eyes nearly keeping up.
Compared to Elara, Silas was a different breed entirely. If Elara was a breeze, Silas was a bolt of lightning. He ignored the lower, easier wisps and went straight for the rafters. He sprinted up a slanted wall, grabbed a dangling chain, and snatched five wisps out of the air in a single pass.
Landen had stopped moving entirely, too busy staring.
"They're like characters straight out of a video game," he said. "I bet I can do that too."
"Is that an order to add points to your Agility?" the system asked.
"Stop it," he said, hitting his head.
He tried running again, but something was wrong. His stride wobbled, like his legs weren't fully listening. Each step landed half a beat too late. When he threw a punch, it dragged. Even jumping felt off, like gravity had suddenly increased.
Landen slapped his legs in frustration. "My mind and body aren't syncing." He stood. "I need practice. But time is the one thing I don't have."
"I have a suggestion," the system chimed in. A menu opened up in front of him with a tab that read [ TRAINING ], pulsing in and out. "You can use the training facility within the MOBA system. Within it, you operate at the speed of thought rather than the speed of your body. One hour of training there equates to approximately six minutes in reality."
Landen went very still.
He looked up at the clock. Twenty-five minutes remaining.
A new prompt materialized:
|| Quest: Explore the MOBA Training System || || Reward: 10 EXP ||
His eyes lit up.
"Five minutes to pay for training and free experience points." He grinned. "Let's do it."
"System," he said firmly, "enter the MOBA training system."
"Right away."
The world cut out.
Sound vanished first—then color—then everything else. For a brief moment, there was nothing but silence and the faint sensation of falling inward.
Then—
Endless, blinding white stretched in every direction. No walls. No floor. No horizon. Just a space that felt both infinite and contained.
"Welcome to the MOBA training system," the system chimed. "I am capable of generating any training scenario you can conceive. Environments. Enemies. Conditions. Limitations. All tailored to your needs."
Landen raised a brow. "Anything… huh?"
His eyes sharpened.
"Then let's see what you can really do."
— — —
Back in reality, Kael and Maris continued to monitor the students. Maris noticed something odd.
There, they spotted a lone boy sitting cross-legged on the ground. His eyes were closed, his posture calm and completely unmoving, as if he had forgotten he was in the middle of an exam. Wisps floated nearby, yet he made no attempt to collect them.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
"Number 28 is Landen Knight," Maris said. "Essence Level: Civilian."
Kael narrowed his eyes. He recognized the face. "He is the boy from the classroom." He shook his head slightly. "What a disappointment."