Chapter 130: Chapter 130
The morning sun rose slowly over the massive spires of the Ascendant Academy, casting a brilliant golden light across the main academy sector. The heavy iron gates that separated the freshman residential block from the rest of the campus were officially thrown open.
For the first time, the ten thousand recruits were allowed to step into the grand central pavilion, a colossal open-air plaza built from polished white marble and surrounded by towering crystalline pillars.
A very different atmosphere filled the central pavilion this morning. Unlike the previous days, which were filled only with the anxious chatter of new beginners, the plaza was already occupied by thousands of older students. These were the second-year and third-year seniors of the academy.
The seniors did not look like the fresh, pampered recruits at all. They were true battle-hardened Gold Crusaders. Most of them wore advanced, customized armor plates covered in glowing magical runes, and their physical bodies radiated heavy, visible aura pressures that warped the surrounding air.
They gathered in large, highly organized groups, sitting beneath the banners of their respective student factions. The banners carried fierce symbols like roaring dragons, flaming swords, and iron shields, representing the powerful student organizations that dominated the higher academic years.
"Look at the new batch coming in," a second-year senior with metallic silver wings remarked with a mocking laugh, leaning against a marble pillar. "They look completely pale and traumatized. Did the orientation trial shake them up that badly?"
"I heard a very weird rumor from the evaluation logs this morning," a tall, third-year warrior replied, his hand resting on the hilt of a massive broadsword. "They say the entire first-year vanguard got completely liquidated by a single participant within a matter of hours. The global scoreboard was supposedly broken."
"Oh, please. Do not believe those dramatic freshmen rumors," a female mage wearing elegant purple robes countered, waving her hand indifferently. "The beginners always panic over a minor regional boss and exaggerate the details. A single freshman wiping out ten thousand elite recruits? That is physically impossible unless a Crown-ranked powerhouse sneaked into the grid."
While the seniors were casually gossiping and laughing among themselves, the massive crowd of ten thousand first-year students slowly marched into the pavilion. They walked in tight, silent groups, their faces filled with a heavy level of exhaustion.
Suddenly, a small, rhythmic bouncing sound echoed from the main entrance corridor.
Squish. Bounce. Squish.
The thousands of freshmen instantly went dead silent, their bodies freezing in place as they frantically scrambled backward, pushing against one another to clear a wide, fifteen-foot path. The deep, bitter animosity and envy were still burning in their hearts, but their survival instincts completely overrode their pride. They did not want to be anywhere near the monster that had caused them agonizing seizures the day before.
Rolling smoothly through the center of the open path was a small, round ball of translucent blue liquid.
Ayla had officially arrived at the orientation ceremony. Her Apocalypse Gold Metal Core was humming perfectly deep within her center, completely stabilized after digesting the ancient Primordial Bone Fragment. Her blue jelly surface looked incredibly sleek, glossy, and dense under the bright morning sun, reflecting the light like a flawless gemstone. Her golden eyes were wide open, her prominent golden rings glowing faintly around her pupils.
She looked around the massive pavilion, her expression completely deadpan and flat. To her, the grand architecture and the thousands of powerful seniors were entirely uninteresting.
"Nexus, there are too many people here again," Ayla muttered through the mind link, her mental voice carrying a heavy tone of pure boredom. "They are all staring at me. It is annoying."
"Well, you cannot blame them, little monster!" Nexus’s voice giggled loudly inside her head, sounding deeply entertained. "You are literally a legendary celebrity now. Look at the giant projection screen above the central podium. The academy hasn’t reset the historical logs yet."
Ayla tilted her mass upward, looking toward the highest point of the central pavilion. Floating above the main podium was a massive, hundred-meter-tall holographic display screen that showed the permanent records of the orientation week.
[ Current Freshman Overview ]
[ Absolute Rank 1: Ayla — Score: 98,400 Points — Evaluation Rank: Gold Crusader ]
The moment the older students noticed the giant scoreboard and traced the name down to the tiny blue slime waddling on the marble floorboards, the loud chatter across the entire pavilion instantly vanished. A heavy, suffocating silence blanketed the plaza.
The second-year and third-year seniors stared at the screen, and then they stared back down at Ayla, their jaws dropping in absolute, pure disbelief. Their battle-hardened faces turned completely pale as their minds tried to process the ridiculous statistical numbers.
"Ninety-eight thousand points?" the silver-winged senior stammered, his metallic wings twitching in shock. "That—that is not a freshman score! That is higher than the graduation scores of the elite vanguard captains!"
"And look at her rank parameter," the third-year warrior whispered, his hand shaking slightly against his sword hilt. "She is already a stable Gold Crusader. A primitive monster slime achieved a Gold breakthrough on the very first day of school?"
A wave of intense, heavy murmurs quickly erupted across the senior factions. While some of the older students felt a deep touch of caution and fear, many of the elite vanguard leaders felt a sharp wave of pure irritation and arrogance. To these seasoned veterans, who had spent months bleeding in the outer sectors of the cosmic grid to earn their status, seeing a tiny piece of jelly get so much historical attention was a massive insult to their dignity.
"This is ridiculous," a loud, booming voice suddenly shattered the murmuring crowd.
From the front row of the second-year sector, a towering humanoid warrior stepped forward onto the open marble path, blocking Ayla’s way. He was over nine feet tall, his body covered in thick, dark iron armor plates that radiated a heavy, suffocating physical aura pressure. His skin was a dark, rocky gray color, and a pair of massive curved horns protruded from his forehead. His name was Tyrok, a prominent vanguard commander of the Iron Shield Faction, one of the top student organizations in the second-year bracket.
Tyrok stared down at the small blue slime, his yellow pupils filled with a supreme, arrogant disdain. He purposely released the full force of his peak Gold-ranked physical pressure, causing the marble floorboards beneath his heavy boots to crack and shatter into fine powder.
"So you are the little anomaly that everyone is whispering about," Tyrok sneered, his deep voice echoing across the quiet plaza. "Ninety-eight thousand points in a beginner simulation map? You first-year weaklings must have had a very pathetic trial setup. To think the academy is treating a stupid piece of fluid like a legendary genius. It makes me sick."
Ayla stopped rolling, floating calmly on the surface of the floorboards just three feet away from Tyrok’s massive iron boots. She tilted her round mass upward, her golden-ringed pupils locking onto his face with an absolute, deadpan indifference. She did not release her aura, and she did not say a single word.
Her complete silence made Tyrok’s blood boil with an immediate, savage fury. He was an elite vanguard commander, yet this primitive monster was treating him like an invisible piece of dirt in front of the entire freshman and senior class.
"You think because you cheated some points in a fake simulation grid, you can act arrogant in front of the seniors?" Tyrok hissed through his teeth, raising his massive armored hand. A heavy, glowing gray magical barrier instantly manifested around his forearm, reinforcing his physical defense to its absolute maximum limit. "Let me show you the real difference between a pampered beginner and a true veteran of the outer universe. A piece of jelly should stay on the floor!"
Tyrok lunged forward, bringing his massive armored fist down toward Ayla’s center with a thunderous, whistling speed. The physical force of his strike was so immense that it created a violent wind pressure, threatening to flatten her fluid mass into a pancake.
The surrounding freshmen closed their eyes in panic, while the older students watched with cold, mocking smiles, expecting the little slime to get smashed into pieces.
Ayla didn’t bother using her Abyssal Shadow Blink to dodge the heavy fist, and she didn’t use her mind control to stop his movement. She wanted to test the new tool she had just grown last night on a real, solid target.
Deep within her translucent blue body, her golden core throbbed once.
Clang.
A loud, terrifyingly sharp metallic sound echoed across the entire pavilion.
From the front of Ayla’s blue fluid mass, five majestic, pitch-black claws suddenly extended out for a brief millisecond. The claws were covered in intricate, glowing golden runes that instantly absorbed all the ambient mana in the air.
Before Tyrok’s massive fist could even touch her surface, the black claws sliced through the air parameters with an invisible, blinding speed.
The heavy, glowing gray magical barrier that Tyrok was so proud of did not even trigger a defensive ripple. The Rend of the World-Order trait completely ignored eighty percent of his magical and physical protections.
The pitch-black claws sliced cleanly through his high-grade iron armor plates, through his rocky skin, and deep into his muscle tissues like an iron hot knife cutting through soft butter.
"AAARGH!"
Tyrok let out a high-pitched, agonizing scream of pure pain as his entire body was violently thrown backward by the counter-force. He crashed heavily onto the marble floorboards, sliding for several meters before coming to a hard stop against a crystalline pillar.
The entire central pavilion fell into an absolute, deathly silence.
The older students’ mocking smiles instantly froze on their faces, their eyes widening into dinner plates as they stared at the scene in complete horror. Tyrok’s massive right arm was covered in deep, clean lacerations that were pouring dark red blood onto the white marble floorboards.
What was even more terrifying was that his wound was glowing with a faint, corrupted black light. The permanent bleeding effect of her new law attribute trait was directly damaging his soul container, making it physically impossible for his high-tier regeneration skills to close the cuts.
"My—my soul..." Tyrok whimpered, his face turning completely gray as he clutched his bleeding arm, his body shivering violently on the ground. He couldn’t even find the strength to stand back up.
Ayla smoothly retracted the pitch-black claws back into her translucent blue body, leaving absolutely no trace of blood on her glossy surface. She did not look at the screaming senior, and she did not let out a single ripple of pride.
"That armor was very cheap," Ayla muttered to Nexus, her mental voice carrying the exact same bored, deadpan tone as before. "It broke far too easily. He is just as weak as the freshmen."
"Oh, that was beautiful!" Nexus laughed hysterically inside her head, snapping digital pictures of Tyrok’s terrified expression. "Look at the senior student leaders now! They look like they just saw a ancient primordial demon awaken in front of them!"
Ayla ignored the absolute shock wave she had just created across the entire plaza. With a slow, lazy rolling motion, she continued her path right past the shivering body of the vanguard commander, heading straight toward the front row of the orientation pavilion.
The thousands of second-year and third-year seniors frantically scrambled backward, pushing against their own faction members to clear a massive, twenty-foot path for her to pass through.
None of them dared to look at her golden-ringed pupils, and absolutely none of them dared to assert dominance anymore.
The little blue slime had officially entered the main academy sector, and she had just proven to the entire student body that no matter what tier or what year they belonged to, they were all nothing more than prey in her eyes.
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