Serina approached the figure lying motionless in the snow with extreme caution. The Frostwind Tundra was brutally cold—the kind of environment where your breath crystallized instantly and exposed skin could develop frostbite in minutes. A person lying still like this could easily be dead.
But she could hear breathing.
Faint, but present. The sound carried oddly in the frozen air—irregular, off-beat, not the steady rhythm of someone sleeping or resting peacefully. Something was wrong with the pattern. Too shallow in some breaths, too deep in others, like his body couldn't decide what it needed.
He's alive, she realized with relief, then immediately felt a spike of concern. But that breathing pattern isn't normal. He could be injured, or going into shock from the cold
"Um, excuse me," she called out nervously, her voice barely carrying over the howling wind. "Are you injured? Should I call for help?"
She glanced around anxiously, half-expecting academy staff to appear, or worse—some massive Ice Golem Prime to emerge from the swirling snow.
Agni turned his head toward her, and the layer of ice coating his body cracked and fell away in crystalline sheets. He sat up slowly, brushing frost from his sleeves with complete indifference to the sub-zero temperature.
He recognized her immediately—light blue hair that caught what little light penetrated the storm clouds, black eyes filled with genuine concern, and that nervous energy. She was one of the three photographs his father had shown him before this whole academy mess started.
One of the ones Father had rejected as unsuitable.
"I'm fine," Agni said with a casual hum. "Just enjoying the calm weather."
Serina looked utterly confused as an icy breeze swept past them, making her shiver violently despite her mana-heated barrier. "Calm?"
Well, I suppose it's relatively calm, she thought, trying to rationalize his statement. After all, this zone is magically replicated, so the conditions are controlled. But was he trying to sleep? How is that even possible? I'd literally die if I didn't constantly heat myself with my mana circuits!
Best to leave before this got any weirder.
She began quietly stepping backward, hoping to slip away without further awkwardness.
"Let's introduce ourselves properly," Agni said, his eyes tracking her movement.
Serina froze mid-step. Why does he want introductions? Am I about to get executed for disturbing a prince's nap?
Cold sweat formed despite the freezing temperature. "I-I'm Serina! Serina Frostwind! I deeply apologize for disturbing your rest, Your Highness!"
Agni nodded slowly. "Serina... nice name. So what's the point of this whole selection exam anyway?"
Serina blinked, momentarily thrown by the mundane question. He really had slept through everything.
"W-well," she stuttered, then took a breath to steady herself. "Students are randomly divided into five environmental zones. We score points by defeating monsters to determine our class placement."
She counted off on her cold-numbed fingers:
"C-Class requires 0 to 199 points. B-Class needs 200 to 499. A-Class is 500 to 999. And S-Class requires 1000 points minimum."
She took a breath and continued. "Monsters have different base point values: A-Grade monsters give 24 points, B-Grade give 16, C-Grade give 8, D-Grade give 4, E-Grade give 2, and F-Grade give 1 point."
She paused to emphasize the crucial mechanic: "Killing monsters in a group divides the points equally. But killing them solo gives you an additional 25% bonus points."
Having delivered her explanation, Serina bowed formally. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to collect points. Good luck, Your Highness."
"That was way too fast," Agni groaned.
Serina had already turned to leave, her staff beginning to glow with gathered mana. But after a few steps, she noticed footsteps crunching in the snow behind her.
She spun around to see Prince Agni following at a leisurely pace, hands in his pockets.
The crunch of footsteps in snow made Serina's head snap up. Three distinct patterns—close, getting closer. She didn't hesitate. Her staff discharged three precise mana bolts toward the sound, each one finding its mark with deadly accuracy. Three Frost Goblins (D-Grade) collapsed before they even emerged from behind the ice formation, their bodies hitting the frozen ground with dull thuds.
+15 points, she noted mentally.
She turned back to Agni nervously. "Is something wrong, Your Highness?"
Agni sighed, staring at his right hand with that same distant expression. "Nothing's wrong. I just... can't put my finger on this sensation I'm feeling."
He looked up at her. "Why are you trying so hard to collect points anyway?"
Serina's confusion showed plainly on her face. "To get into S-Class, obviously."
Agni shrugged, his posture relaxed as he stretched with his hands behind his neck. "Aethermoor Academy is already the top institution in the world. Shouldn't any class here be good enough?"
"Well, yes, of course," Serina muttered, her cheeks coloring. "But S-Class provides something crucial—research sponsorship and funding. I need a lot of money for my work."
Her voice grew more passionate. "I want to research Chain Strikes in both mages and martial artists. It could revolutionize magical theory."
"Chain Strikes?" Agni asked, genuine curiosity in his tone.
Serina's eyes lit up like someone had just asked her favorite question in the world.
"Chain Strikes are like a fundamental law of nature—like gravity or planetary rotation," she explained, her hands moving animatedly. "They act as a strange multiplier effect on actions."
"For example, if you strike a tree with an axe normally, it counts as a single strike. But if you strike it with the proper angle, timing, and force distribution, the Chain Strike phenomenon occurs—and that single strike registers as a double strike! The damage literally multiplies!"
The ice around her feet began melting as her excitement literally heated the air around her.
"And it's not just about raw power," she continued, practically vibrating with enthusiasm. "People who learn to trigger Chain Strikes consistently improve their overall abilities exponentially. They learn more from doing less, because each successful chain teaches their body the optimal patterns for efficiency!"
Wow, Agni thought, watching her transformation. When she starts talking about this stuff, there's absolutely no end to it...
"Chain Strikes, huh?" he murmured.
His mind flickered back to that moment during the assassination—burning Sasha's face off with Precision Flame Control. That attack had felt different, more powerful than it should have been. Was that what I experienced? Or was I just lucky?
"So your research is about understanding how it occurs and why?" Agni asked.
Serina nodded so enthusiastically her light blue hair bounced. "Yes! Exactly! Imagine if we could understand the underlying mechanism and control it deliberately! It would accelerate magical development by generations in just a few years!"
Her staff began crackling with uncontrolled energy as her emotions surged.
"Right now, it's just a rare phenomenon that occurs randomly in all sorts of activities—eating, crafting, combat, even daily tasks. But the highest ever recorded was someone achieving four Chain Strikes in sequence..."
She clenched her fists with fierce determination. "I want to break that record. It's my dream. And S-Class gives me access to the equipment, funding, and research time I need to make it happen."
The ground beneath her feet actually trembled as her mana flared. Thin tendrils of light blue lightning began crackling around her entire body, melting the snow in a widening circle.
"Alright, you're getting way too excited," Agni said, holding up a warning hand. "Your mana is getting dangerously condensed."
Serina blushed deeply and immediately reined in her power. "S-sorry. I get carried away sometimes."
She looked at him with renewed curiosity. "But Prince Agni... why are you following me? Do you want to team up for points?"
Agni shrugged. "Teaming up would be nice, I guess. But after hearing about your research goals, I honestly don't want to get in your way and slow you down."
He sighed, looking more uncertain than she'd seen him. "Actually, I wanted to know more about you as a person."
"Why?" Serina asked, genuinely confused.
"Nothing major. Just... my father wanted me to marry you."
The words hung in the frozen air like suspended ice crystals.
Blood rushed to Serina's face so fast she felt dizzy. "M-marriage?! With me?!"
Her mind erupted into chaos. Does the prince like me? Is this a confession? Wait—if I become a princess, eventually a queen, I'd have unlimited research funding! I could build the greatest magical research facility in history! I could hire the best minds, acquire the rarest materials, test theories that are currently impossible due to budget constraints!
Her imagination ran wild with possibilities.
But when she looked back at Agni, he'd already sat down under a nearby frost-covered tree, staring at his reattached hand with an expression of deep confusion.
"Just... get going with your point collection," he said quietly. "Sorry for wasting your time."
He looked more lost than confused now, as if something fundamental didn't make sense to him.
What the... hell is wrong with me? he thought.
Back in the Monitoring Control Room, several professors had been listening to the entire conversation through the Scrying Crystal focused on Zone 3.
"So the prince is troubled by romance!" Professor Luna Silverpaw said with obvious amusement, her wolf ears twitching.
Professor Helena sighed heavily. "Well, I suppose it's the age when hormones make everything confusing. Even royalty isn't immune."
"I doubt romance is his actual problem," Professor Marcus muttered, studying Agni's body language on screen.
Professor Vincent's Enchanted Score Tablet suddenly flickered with major updates.
"Oh, we have significant developments," he announced.
The main scoreboard shifted dramatically:
Student Cassius: 501 points
Student Draekon: 459 points
Student Lyralei: 423 points
"Student Cassius was the first to break 500 points," Vincent noted. "That's remarkably fast progress."
"Wait, is teamwork allowed in this exam?" Professor Sylvia asked, squinting at the Zone 4 display.
The Scrying Crystal showed a dark chamber within the Ironhold Fortress lit only by flickering wall-mounted lanterns that cast dancing shadows. Cassius stood in the center holding an elegant white spear, surrounded by ten Dark Knights—B-grade monsters that normally posed serious threats even to experienced students.
But all ten had their arms and legs precisely severed, rendered immobile but technically still alive.
"Good work, Aria," Cassius said with his characteristic soft smile.
The blue-haired woman looked genuinely proud of her efficiency.
Cassius moved through the disabled Dark Knights with practiced grace, beheading each one in a single clean strike. His point total jumped by 200 in less than thirty seconds.
"So Student Aria damages and immobilizes the monsters," Professor Gareth observed. "Then Cassius delivers the killing blow."
"But there's no official team formation registered," Vincent said, checking his tablet. "According to the system, each kill counts as Cassius's solo elimination, which means..."
He pulled up Aria's profile on a separate display.
Student Aria: 0 points
"She's feeding him points," Professor Whisper said quietly. "Crippling enemies without killing them, letting him claim full solo bonuses despite her assistance."
The professors exchanged uncertain glances.
"Is this... allowed?" Professor Sylvia asked hesitantly.
Professor Marcus rubbed his temples wearily. "Technically, nothing in the rules forbids it. She's not in a registered party, so points don't split. She's just... helping."
"It's exploiting a loophole," Professor Helena said with grudging respect.
"Truly a weird batch of heirs," Professor Marcus sighed, watching the screens show