Among all the tech trees players ranked highest in potential, Ink Star stood at the top.
It could be obtained as early as the opening stretch — just a trip to the library — and as a growth-type skill, its ceiling was effectively limitless. On top of that, Ink Star's mana held an overwhelming advantage against every elemental affinity. A genuinely broken trait. In any straight clash of power against power, it simply didn't lose.
Of course, nothing comes without a price.
The force was violent and heavy, placing tremendous strain on the user's body. Compared to other builds, its greatest weakness was short combat duration.
That was the defining feature of an Ink Star build: end it fast. Overwhelm everything with sheer, monstrous potential and finish the fight before it starts.
One strike. The monster's skull caved in.
The creature that had been lunging for my throat hit the floor.
*...Huh.*
I stared down at it, genuinely puzzled. Brain matter seeped from the shattered head. It was definitely dead.
Honestly, the monster itself wasn't particularly strong. A lower-tier creature — seasoned soldiers could put one down without much trouble. The students probably could have won easily too, if they'd just applied what they'd learned.
The point of this exam was overcoming fear.
Swordsmanship training or not, these were sixteen-year-olds. Barely past childhood. When a monster brimming with killing intent is right in your face, plenty of people freeze up and forget everything they've been taught.
Even so — a monster was still a monster.
*But it died in one hit?*
I looked down at the bloodied blade. The edge was wreathed in a jet-black aura.
*...Was I always this strong?*
I'd been putting in the work, sure. But this much?
I quietly pulled up my Status Window.
《Matyos Binna Moretti》
◆ Physical
Age · Gender: 17 — Male
Height · Weight: 160.3 cm — 48.3 kg
◆ Skills
[Ink Star — 1st Star], [Moretti Collateral Line], [Superior Marksmanship], [Basic Freestyle Swordsmanship Lv.8]
◆ Stats
Strength [16] Agility [19] Stamina [17] Mana [20]
The average adult male sits at 10 across the board. A trained soldier, 15. An imperial knight, 40.
My stats were well above a common soldier's. Factor in Ink Star and Shu's blessing, and I could hold my own against an imperial knight.
Come to think of it, there was nothing strange about it.
I'd received intensive training from Professor Vilhelmine, private magic tutoring from my sister. I'd consumed the elixir crafted from the Iron-Plated Tiger that Sword Saint Sharlot gave me and tempered my body with it.
Excellent mentors. Rare encounters. A meteoric rise in a short span of time — not so unreasonable, when you laid it all out.
I felt a quiet swell of pride as I turned to look at Professor Vilhelmine. She was marking her clipboard with a faint smile — the kind that was barely there, as if she'd only half-decided to let it show.
"Matyos Binna Moretti. One hundred points."
* * *
The swordsmanship exam was done, but plenty more remained.
I shut myself in my room alone to prepare for the magic exam.
Fireball, Barrier, Strength. Three spells. That was the test.
The theory I'd drilled into my head through my sister's tutoring sessions — completely solid.
*Strength.*
Enhancement magic. I extended my mana through my body.
*Surge.*
The strength in every muscle sharpened noticeably. I threw a light punch.
*Whoosh.*
The air split with a crisp, biting sound. The enhancement was unmistakable.
A mage using Strength might seem out of place. But there's a reason for it.
Mages aren't artillery pieces, bolted to one spot and lobbing spells from a distance. That used to be the prevailing doctrine, but times had changed.
When ambushed or targeted for assassination, you needed a minimum of magic to fight back. That was Strength — the most fundamental option. There were flashier counters, but nothing more basic.
*Moretti's secret art is especially suited to that. Impenetrable defense.*
The Moretti family's exclusive magic.
Ashen Lightning.
Players ranked it zero-tier without debate.
Ashen Lightning was a magic that wielded devastating bolts of lightning — but these weren't ordinary bolts. Each one possessed its own autonomous will, acting as an extension of its master. Something like a high-grade AI, if you wanted to put it in terms I'd understand.
It could throw up electromagnetic barriers on its own to deflect attacks, or rain merciless thunderbolts down on enemies in a relentless barrage. Offense and defense unified in a single art. Truly all-purpose.
The drawbacks: it couldn't be used by anyone outside the Moretti bloodline, it devoured mana at a ruinous rate, and the technique itself was fiendishly difficult to control.
*I could only manage a little of it.*
The Moretti blood runs in me the same as it does in my sister, so I can technically use Ashen Lightning.
But my blood is thin and my talent insufficient — using it does more harm than good.
My sister's mana is virtually limitless, and she's a genius besides. She wields Ashen Lightning as freely as breathing.
Anyway. That's her.
*Whoosh.*
Fireball. The most elementary of spells.
I was plenty comfortable with this one by now. Draw in the mana, shape it with the nature of flame, release.
A red blaze flickered to life.
"Try channeling Ink Star into it."
"Into this?"
Shu spoke up.
"Mm. Think of it like dipping meat into sauce. Give it a go."
"What kind of analogy is that. Have you even eaten meat before?"
"No? But that's how humans do it."
"...Fine, I'll try."
Following Shu's advice, I raised the intensity of my mana. I roused the Ink Star that had been resting quietly within me — a small star startled awake, fluttering in confusion through my inner mindscape.
Then I let the black mana flowing from it seep into the Fireball.
*Crackle.*
The flames darkened. They sputtered and sparked with a sound like charcoal being heated, throwing off embers that began to scatter across the floor.
"Whoa, whoa—"
I yanked the magic back in alarm. Nearly set the floor on fire.
But the excitement hit harder than the fear.
The firepower of a Fireball infused with Ink Star was extraordinary. Since the mana was my own, I felt no heat — but I could gauge the intensity from the temperature it pushed into the surrounding air and the sheer brightness it threw across the room.
I headed to the bathroom for a more controlled experiment.
*Splash.*
I turned on the tap. Then I conjured a flame no larger than a matchstick on my fingertip and plunged it into the running water.
It died instantly.
This time, I activated Ink Star. A flame that burned black.
I pushed it into the water again.
*HISSSSS!!!*
The water vaporized on contact, blasting out a tremendous cloud of steam.
"Wow."
"See? Make a habit of using Ink Star from now on."
"I'd like to, but my mana capacity is so small..."
"...That can't be helped."
For more rigorous practice, I headed to the magic training grounds. On the way, a cluster of second- and third-years had spread themselves across the corridor, talking loudly. At their center stood a tall, muscular figure.
Franz.
The same one who'd tried to intimidate Tiana before. The Crown Prince's closest friend — and the man in love with the Crown Prince's woman.
Getting to the training grounds meant walking straight past them. I picked up my pace and tried to slip by.
"Hey."
Of course he wouldn't let it go. Franz called out to me.
"No greeting for your senior?"
"Good day, Senior."
I gave a quick bow and moved to leave. He stepped in front of me.
"You call that a greeting?"
"Is there a problem?"
"Ha. This little—"
Franz cracked his neck with a delinquent's ease.
"Keep acting like that and you might end up getting beaten half to death."
"By whom?"
"Who do you think?"
"I genuinely don't know. Care to enlighten me?"
Franz's fist trembled. He leaned forward like he was about to swing — then caught himself, remembered his situation, and stepped back.
"Get out of my sight."
"Of course, Senior. Good luck on your exams."
As luck would have it, Franz and I were in the same lecture.
The tactics exam. A subject Franz, from a military family, was supremely confident in. So was I, for that matter. Franz spat on the floor and finally looked away from me.
* * *
"Mmh... there. Yes, right there, keep going..."
A bedroom lit by only a few candles. Shadows swayed and stretched long across the walls and ceiling.
Ofilienne lay loosely sprawled across the bed, breathing in low, quiet exhales.
Faint light slid along the curve of her side, tracing a soft silhouette. One arm stretched out and spilled over the pillow; her unbound hair fanned across the sheets like a dark wave.
Beside her, Matyos was diligently working at her body with both hands.
The price for borrowing her power during the Vatican infiltration operation: massage duty through the end of this semester.
Matyos, without complaint, finished today's session as well.
*Phew. That was exhausting.*
He wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand.
Ofilienne looked slender at a glance. But beneath that smooth skin, compact, dense muscle lay packed underneath. Quite knotted in places, too — working it loose was genuinely demanding.
And her height meant there was simply more ground to cover. Shoulder to back to waist. His hands had been moving constantly.
"The exams."
Still lying face-down, she turned her head just slightly. She glanced at Matyos from the corner of her eye. The candlelight caught in her grey irises like a tiny point of flame.
"Did you do well?"
"I think so."
"How many are left?"
"About three now. Magic, tactics, and general studies."
"You don't need my help?"
A casual question — but with something underneath it. Was she actually prepared to help if he asked?
Matyos tilted his head and answered.
"Mm. I'm fine. I can manage on my own."
"Then that's that."
"What about you, Sister?"
He asked out of courtesy. The answer was obvious without asking. Perfect scores across the board, no doubt.
"As well as you'd expect, given you weren't worried about me."
Which meant perfect scores.
Matyos hesitated for a moment, then asked again.
"...Sister, you didn't do anything else, did you?"
"Anything else? Like what?"
"Ah — never mind, if not."
What I was really asking about wasn't nothing.
It was something from the original story.
Taibeon had been quietly building influence, resolving incident after incident. And Ofilienne couldn't stand the attention he was drawing. She'd used this midterm evaluation to lay a subtle trap for him.
*The night before the exam, she had him poisoned — just enough to wreck his condition.*
Because of it, Taibeon had struggled through the tests.
But the Taibeon I'd seen earlier had been perfectly fine. He'd swung his sword the way he always did and cut down the exam monster without difficulty. Not the performance of someone who'd been poisoned.
"Don't start a sentence and leave it hanging. What is it?"
"It really is nothing..."
Her response was lukewarm, and Ofilienne pushed herself upright. The sheet slid away with a soft rustle.
Then her arm hooked around him without warning.
Matyos was pulled smoothly but firmly into her embrace. He let out a compressed breath as he found himself trapped against her.
"I — I really mean it, it's nothing..."
The words came out short, muffled against her.
"Really?"
Her gaze bore down on him from just inches away. Close enough that her breath grazed his face.
"Really..."
She studied him for a moment, then slowly released her hold.
"Just this once."
She shifted her position. She turned Matyos lightly on the bed and drew his back against her, pulling him in from behind. Settled against him with her arms around him, she placed her hands on his shoulders.
"Look at these shoulders. Do you never stretch? Not even once?"
"I mean, not really..."
"Stay still. Let your sister work on them a little."
"Wait, that's kind of — *ugh*—!"
Pressure, deep and unannounced, drove straight in.
"Oh my. You're quite knotted here."
Matyos squirmed at the sudden assault, and Ofilienne wrapped her long legs around him, locking his waist in place. Caught like a fly in a spider's web, he had no choice but to endure the full force of her ministrations.
"This really hurts—!"
"It's fine. It'll feel better in a moment."
Ofilienne laughed, soft and bright.
He didn't escape for quite a while after that.