Very soon, Carillian Academy the first holiday after the term began—a very particular one. On the small island to the southeast of the Academy, a mysterious secret realm had been discovered. Investigation indicated it was a relic site left behind by the Marsmo civilization.

Per Academy regulations, professional instructors would first establish transfer anchors within; after that, Academy students would participate in the expedition. As payment, students would be eligible to obtain some opportunities within the realm. Of course, whether any “opportunity” fell to you depended entirely on luck and personal fortune. In most cases, you only broadened your horizons, gained experience, and picked up some real-combat practice.

This expedition differed from past practice. Normally—out of concern for first-years’ lack of real-combat experience—new students were barred from newly discovered realms. This time, an exception was made: first-years were also eligible.

As for the other fated heroines, Vinny didn’t know—but Isatia, at least, showed an unusually intense interest in this realm. Why, he had no idea.

Who knew. He knew nothing about Marsmo and had zero interest to begin with, so he hadn’t planned to go realm-delving at all. What a way to waste time.

However—

Vinny suddenly recalled what Feikolin had told him a few days back.

Right—he had no family to rely on; he could only rely on himself. His family had fallen; he had to seize every chance that might bring an opportunity, let him grow stronger, and increase his real-combat experience.

So Vinny was somewhat inclined to go have a look. After all, his classmates in the Armor Class all seemed to be going. If he alone didn’t go, then when everyone came back and discussed what happened in the realm, he’d be the only one who knew nothing—Feikolin would rib him to death.

Feikolin had a point: given how things stood, if he didn’t show some drive, how would that work?

Every scrap of combat experience was crucial for a first-year like him.

At that thought, Vinny decided he had to dig in and push himself. Thus—

He rolled over on the dorm sofa, gave a twitch, and kept on sleeping.

Talk was talk—but getting up was really hard. The difficulty and resistance weren’t ordinary. The sofa had taken him hostage!

Vinny would rather roll around on the sofa like a wheel than get up and go register.

He’d sat through a week of classes already—how could he not enjoy himself a little?

Right—he’d stockpiled all this Virtue. It was time to spend it all!

Vinny suddenly remembered. He needed to hurry and pour those saved Virtue points into strengthening himself. Otherwise, hadn’t he earned all that Virtue for nothing—hadn’t Aesphyra popped his Virtue for so long for nothing?

So Vinny opened his Virtue panel. It showed his current remaining Virtue: 11814.

Most important, of course, was his realm.

He glanced at his current realm: high-tier Sorcerer.

Advancing one’s realm increased total mana capacity and mana recovery rate, and the heft of one’s mana—indirectly boosting spell power. It also let you learn more spells. Naturally, the biggest gains went to one’s Spirit Soul itself.

And since his [Armor Fortress] had 100% compatibility with him, every advance to a new major realm would alter its appearance and grant a brand-new resistance attribute.

At present he’d obtained impact resistance and toxin resistance.

What would the next resistance be? For now—unknown.

But Vinny was eager to find out.

He turned his focus to realm advancement. As a high-tier Sorcerer, he could now push to the next major realm: Magus.

That was pretty great. Strictly speaking, a first-year who could enter the Magus realm was one-in-a-thousand even at Carillian Academy.

Magus-level was, just barely, the entry tier of the continent’s experts. Magus stood mid-pack among those ranks. People at that level could hold instructor posts at many ordinary academies—or even decent ones. Out in the world, many powers would hire them readily. Money wouldn’t be an issue.

Vinny checked—likely because he’d completed enough tasks—he could advance to Magus already.

If he stepped into Magus, it would be a massive boost. Or rather, as realms rose, the gaps between each major realm—and even minor sub-realms—would only grow. By the Master realm, a junior Master was no match at all for a mid Master.

Good, good, good. From today on, Vinny, scourge of the Camella capital, would also be one of the continent’s experts! Making something of himself!

What a feeling. Back in the day he’d been nothing but a slum bully coasting on a noble title to push around small-time thugs. Now he had accomplishments of his own—joining the ranks of high-level Spirit Soul users on the continent.

He looked at the Virtue cost to upgrade to junior Magus: 8000 Virtue.

Twice what it cost to reach high-tier Sorcerer (4000 Virtue).

Acceptable. Thankfully he’d been saving steadily without the habit of blowing Virtue right away. Otherwise, even if he could advance to Magus now, he’d be stuck just staring.

Truly—saving is always a good habit.

8000 was pricey enough that it made him wonder how much he’d need for the Master realm.

He still remembered that going from Two-Wing to Four-Wing had cost 15000 Virtue. Looked at that way, today’s price was actually a bargain.

But if he could reach Magus, it was worth everything!

Vinny pressed the Advance button.

From today on—roar, roar, roar—I’m a Magus too!

His heart swelled with achievement.

“[Virtue -8000].”

“[Current Virtue: 3814].”

“[Your realm has advanced to junior Magus.]”

Nice!

The instant he stepped into junior Magus, Vinny felt power flood every inch of him. A mighty, icy force burst from his body—and at the same time, a layer of phantasmal armored scales shimmered over his skin.

His internal mana and recovery rate leapt by a qualitative margin. Compared to before, he simply couldn’t run dry!

So this was the Magus realm?

He sprang up off the sofa.

Others had to batter themselves against the Magus bottleneck who knew how many times. He just had to tap a button.

Roll the MVP settlement animation for advancing to Magus!

Progress—achieved!

“Eh?” Shicodale happened to be coming downstairs with a broom and saw the whole thing, blinking blankly, with no idea what whim had struck Vinny now.

But it looked like Vinny was in a good mood today?

“Dale, I’m not the same today! Can you tell what’s different?” Vinny raked a hand through his hair.

“Uh... Vinny, you—got prettier?” For some reason, Shicodale thought of Vinny in girl’s clothing a few days back, and the words slipped out.

“What—prettier—what the heck?” Vinny couldn’t help retorting. “Didn’t I tell you—don’t bring that up again. Let it rot in your stomach! ...Ugh, forget it. Changes on the inside are hard to see anyway.”

He flopped back onto the sofa and opened his Virtue panel again.

He checked the new resistance attribute [Armor Fortress] had gained upon this advancement.

“[Full-Compatibility Effect on Reaching Magus: Lighten armor weight, reinforce physical protection, and grant a spell with fixed elemental affinity at Exceptional.]”

Hm? A spell with fixed affinity at Exceptional?

So what spell was it? What element?

Or was it something that only revealed itself in real combat?

Still—Exceptional fixed affinity was no joke. Vinny’s highest elemental affinity had been Excellent for ice; his other affinities were far from Excellent yet.

Gaining a spell that locked in Exceptional affinity meant he now held Exceptional-tier magical attack capability.

All thanks to his perfect compatibility with [Armor Fortress]. Anyone else wouldn’t even dare to dream it.

What did [Armor Fortress] look like now?

Curious, Vinny tried summoning it. He felt his body sink—and a luxurious, heavy half–plate of brass-trimmed silver scales draped across him, gleaming under the lights.

Half–plate now?

Vinny stared at the mirror, astonished at the heavy armor on his body.

Beyond that—at the instant he activated [Armor Fortress]—the fixed-affinity spell he’d gained surfaced in his mind.

It was an earth-element spell named [Annihilating Heavy Stomp]: leap up and crash down hard, dealing massive earth damage to all enemies around you and severely hindering their movement.

So cool.

And thank goodness it wasn’t another ice spell. If all he had were ice spells, countering him would be too easy—just kit yourself head to toe with ice-resistance trinkets and anti–ice gear, done. Shutting him down would be trivial.

The more single-threaded your affinities, the easier °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° you were to counter. Everyone knew that.

Having one more spell in a different element was a huge boost—he could strike unexpectedly and be harder to target.

Could Vanessa use this one too?

Vinny didn’t quite dare picture Vanessa casting it. Or—would the spell change when [Armor Fortress] shifted into its female configuration?

He dismissed [Armor Fortress]. Though the armor had grown bulkier, its weight had dropped; movement was far easier. In Vanessa-state, this likely converted to increased movement speed.

He was slowly tasting the upside of a 100% match with a Spirit Soul. Impact resistance and toxin resistance had been niche and not very obvious—nothing like this upgrade.

After advancing to Magus, he still had 3814 Virtue left.

Awkward—too much to ignore, too little to surge somewhere big.

At Magus, he could learn more [Saintess] spells—but given that Vanessa was in a “blood-depleted” recovery state, Vinny figured he should bolster his male form instead.

He suddenly remembered the prize from the pageant: that vial to raise ice-element affinity. He dug it out, popped the stopper, and downed it in one go.

Feelings run deep—bottoms up!

He swallowed the ultra-cold liquid in a single draught and smacked his lips.

Cold. Ice-cold. Also a bit like an iced drink—faintly sweet.

This was probably Aesphyra’s personal alchemy, right? Should be.

With her skill, given the materials, brewing this kind of elemental elixir was nothing.

After he drank, Vinny felt a chilly aura radiating off him. Strangely, it felt like his normal body temperature—his surroundings turned cold, like it was snowing, yet he himself didn’t feel especially cold.

So that was the effect of an elemental elixir?

Before long, the icy aura slowly dissipated.

Was the enhancement done?

Vinny opened the Virtue panel again. Maybe it was his imagination, but on the spells page, the list of buyable spells seemed longer.

Soon his eye caught an ice-element spell called [Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame]. It had no Spirit Soul requirement—but it required ice affinity at Exceptional.

Huh? In that case, he... couldn’t learn it at all?

Wait—by rights, the Virtue panel wouldn’t list spells he couldn’t learn. Which meant his ice affinity had already reached Exceptional?

Vinny was stunned.

On second thought, it made sense. His ice affinity had already been very high—near the top of Excellent. He was very close to Exceptional. What he’d lacked was that final step—and this top-tier ice-element elixir, courtesy of Aesphyra, had shoved him across.

Fine. That white-haired nutball wasn’t entirely useless after all.

He checked the spell—[Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame]—a high-tier ice magic requiring Magus or above and an extremely high affinity, but only those two constraints. No requirement for a Mage-type Spirit Soul.

You couldn’t even say the requirements were harsh—just... picky. People with Exceptional ice affinity were far rarer than those who could learn Mage-typed Spirit Souls.

One look told you it packed destructive power. Vinny bought it.

“[Virtue -1200].”

“[Current Virtue: 2614].”

That was a hefty deduction. He’d keep the rest. No more purchases.

Which meant he’d gone from rich to broke again—and needed to go earn Virtue all over.

After thinking it over, Vinny slapped the sofa, stood up, and headed out of the dorm.

Well, no helping it. If it’s a blessing, it’s a blessing; if it’s a curse, you can’t dodge it.

He was at Carillian Academy already—he couldn’t just keep slacking forever.

Maybe fate wasn’t on his side, but he was going to fight for himself too.

So Vinny went to the Marsmo secret-realm registration desk, registered himself, handed over his student ID, and stated that he would also be joining tomorrow’s expedition.