As the sun set, at exactly 6:22 PM, Noah arrived at Sector 11 and returned to the dorm. He took the elevator up to the seventh floor and headed to his room.
His outing with Luo Yan had taken a long time, but he felt that their relationship had grown stronger. Luo Yan was open and didn't pressure him in any uncomfortable way, which made talking with her as easy as always.
Noah paused in front of the room shared by Sirius, Enel, and Neriah, looking at their brown wooden door, trying to sense whether his friends were inside. Instinctively, he deployed a field that covered the seventh floor using his skill, "Influence field". To his surprise, no one was in the room.
The skill "Influence field" had a secondary effect when used in a small, specific area: the ability to sense the presence of others. The smaller the field, the more detailed the information he could gather—from a person's height, gender, and rank, to their breathing and heart rate. That's why Noah hadn't relied much on the passive effects of the Foresight skill in past fights—he could already sense his enemies' presence and react.
"Maybe they haven't come back yet…" Noah thought. But then he picked up a signal—not from his friends' room, but from his own room at the end of the hallway.
"Someone's in my room?! Who? How?! I'm sure I locked the door… Did they break in, or maybe came through the window? No, I closed that too. That's impossible! … Calm down. Panic won't help. I need to focus." Noah thought, flustered. Gathering his courage, he walked toward his room. When he reached the door, he noticed it was slightly open, and a breeze was coming from inside—the window was probably open too.
According to Noah's field, the person in the room was a bit tall, sitting on the bed, holding what looked like a storybook and reading it. The person's expression and very presence were fuzzy, like static on a TV screen—making it impossible to identify them.
"Probably someone with bad intentions… I can't let them attack first. I'll end this fast…" Noah thought, tense. He clenched his fist tightly. Then, Noah vanished from the hallway, replaced by a pen from his desk—he had swapped places using it.
Inside the room, Noah didn't hesitate for even a second. As soon as his foot touched the desk, he launched himself at the figure on the bed. Finally, he could make out a few facial features—black hair, wearing the university's uniform.
The person turned around—and Noah realized who it was.
It was Sirius.
As Sirius turned his head, the first thing he saw was Noah flying at him like he intended to kill him.
Sirius didn't panic. He quickly dodged by moving forward. Noah crashed onto the bed, causing the ground beneath them to shake a little. Fortunately, he landed on his bed, on something soft, so he wasn't hurt. He looked up and saw Sirius standing in front of him.
"S-Sirius?!" Noah exclaimed, shocked that the intruder was his friend.
"Dude, were you trying to kill me or what?! And how did you even get in?! Did you jump through the window or something?!" Sirius asked, clearly annoyed, throwing the book to the floor.
"He dodged me so easily…" Noah thought, surprised, noticing Sirius's angry expression. He hadn't expected him to get that upset just because Noah mistook him for an intruder and attacked him out of nowhere.
"H-ha ha ha… I-I thought you were an intruder," Noah said with an awkward laugh, scratching the back of his head.
"A-anyway, what are you doing in my room?" he added, trying to change the subject.
"I was waiting for you. You know, my dear friend ditched me because a girl shook her ass… for the second time," Sirius said, annoyed. And who wouldn't be? This was the second time Noah left him for a girl he'd just met. Sirius pouted so much his cheeks puffed out.
"It's not like that… By the way, where are Neriah and Enel?" Noah asked, confused. They weren't in their room when he scanned it, and obviously not here either.
"Ah, remember old man Raikel Attin? Enel went to check if he brought an axolotl. Neriah tagged along to make sure he's safe," Sirius explained, looking out the window toward Sector 3.
"I see…"
"By the way, how did you get into the room like that? You definitely didn't come through the window—it's the seventh floor," Sirius asked, now genuinely curious, having calmed down. He sat on the bed next to Noah.
"Um, remember my skill Dreamcrafter?" Noah asked, hesitating, unsure whether to tell Sirius the truth or keep lying. Naturally, he chose to lie.
"Yeah, the skill that lets you create any skill of any rank through dreaming, right?" Sirius replied, his tone devoid of curiosity, as the answer was already clear.
"Yeah. I made a skill that lets me open a small field where I can teleport by swapping places with an object inside it," Noah explained, sitting upright on the bed beside Sirius after lying on it.
"I see… And how did you find out I was in your room? Mana detection or another skill you made?" Sirius asked again, this time clearly intrigued. Whatever Noah answered, his curiosity would only grow.
"It's another feature of the same skill. As long as I'm inside the field, I can sense people presence," Noah replied, slightly uneasy. He wasn't sure how much he should reveal, even to a friend like Sirius. But lying wouldn't help here—Sirius had cornered him by offering only two choices: mana detection or another skill.
Mana detection is an ability possessed by any human ranked above C. From birth, humans absorb mana and, one day, awaken their unique skill. Once they surpass rank C, they can spread their mana to locate people like a GPS within a certain radius, based on their experience and strength. This is called "Mana Sensitivity" and functions like a sixth sense. Naturally, someone below rank C can't use it. It would've been ridiculous for Noah to claim he did.
"Do you have other skills?" Sirius asked, smiling with a sadistic excitement, clearly eager to learn more about what made Noah special.
"No. T-to create a skill, the dream has to be… unique. I can't make anything if the dream's ordinary. It has to be a lucid dream," Noah replied, flustered by Sirius's grin. He found himself lying again—but what surprised him more was how fast and smoothly the lie came out. He was becoming a professional liar.
"That's a shame. I was hoping to hear more," Sirius said, his smile fading back into a neutral expression.
"A-anyway, how did you dodge my attack? You were fast—too fast for my eyes to follow, and your skill isn't even combat-related," Noah asked, curious.
"True, my skill is about information. But it's rank A. Right now I'm rank C, which makes me stronger than you. That explanation good enough?" Sirius answered casually.
Noah was shocked to learn Sirius was rank C. But he felt some relief, He felt relieved that he didn't lied that he used "Mana Sensitivity" to locate Sirius, as such a free feature had a fatal flaw, after all, that ability reveals the user's location to enemies. Every human has a "mana field"—a white aura. When someone uses "Mana Sensitivity", they release mana waves that detect others by touching their fields. But those same waves react with the enemy's field, letting them know someone's nearby. Anyone below rank C can't even sense their own field, which is why they can't use the "mana sensitivity".
"Noey-kun, anyone could've dodged that attack. All students here are rank C or higher. Even that student who died today, Elliot Winters, was stronger than you. Which makes you… the weakest student in the university," Sirius explained bluntly. Noah already knew this. He wasn't even close to rank C and had no way of knowing his current rank. But hearing it out loud still hit a sensitive nerve.
"But you can get stronger. Your skill is ridiculously powerful—endless potential. Sure, the conditions are weird, but still. It's more about luck than raw power or experience. You might even become one of the top ten ranked people… like your father," Sirius said with a smile, trying to encourage him. But it sounded absurd.
"The top ten? No, no, that's impossible… Wait—h-how do you know my father is one of the top ten rankers?!" Noah asked, stunned, jumping up.
"Hm? Are you playing dumb, Noey-kun? Did you forget my skill? I know everything about you," Sirius replied calmly.
"No need to worry, I won't tell anyone," said Sirius with a playful smile on his lips. It was hard to trust this person.