Two Days Ago...

  In a distant nd, far removed from the bustling cities and on folk, a gra secluded offied within the heart of an Academy.

  A woman sat gracefully upon a throne like chair, her posture exuding an air of authority.

  Shadows cloaked the dimly lit chamber, cealing her face from view.

  Before her rested a polished desk, its surface meticulously arranged with stacks of dots and scrolls.

  Fp.

  Fp.

  The soft rustling sound of pages turning filled the silent room, the only indication of her presence.

  Her delicate fingers gliding over the part, eyes sing the words with sharp precision.

  It was evident—she was reviewing important dots.

  Then, she spoke.

  Her voice was soft, melodious, yet carried an unmistakable weight of and.

  "Hmm... It seems this year's didates for the entrance exam are quite... monstrous."

  A pause.

  Her golden eyes gleamed behind the veil of shadows as she sidered the implications.

  "Perhaps we should increase the difficulty of the test or—"

  Her words abruptly ceased.

  Her hand, which had been idly flipping through the pages, stilled.

  Nearby, her assistant—a young girl dressed in an academy uniform—turoward her, sensing the subtle shift in the air.

  Though her face, too, was hidden in the shadows, the curiosity in her soft voice betrayed her surprise.

  "What is it, Dean?"

  A light chuckle resonated from the darkness.

  "Haha! Nothing much," the Dean mused, amusement creeping into her tone. "Just something... iing."

  The assistant's brows furrowed. "Iing? Every time you say that, something absurdly big follows."

  BAM!

  The assistant smmed her hands on the desk, eyes burning with frustration.

  "You're not pnning to leave the ti again, are you? The entrance exams are in six months! You're already behind by a whole month in reviewing these dots! Who's going to handle everything if you disappear—AGAIN?!"

  "Do you know how exhausting it is c for you every time you vanish?"

  The Dean merely smiled. "Thank you for your sacrifices, Sara."

  "I don't need yratitude, I need you to do your jo—!"

  Before she could finish, the dean cut in with a knowing smile.

  "And... sorry in advance."

  Sara froze. Her voice wavered. "W-Wait... don't tell me..."

  "Sorry," she said, gng at her assistant.

  "Sorry?! Who's going to check all those papers, then?" Sara huffed, exasperation clear in her voice.

  The Dean looked up, amusement dang in her golden irises. "I have no choice. Something important has surfaced."

  Sara took a sharp breath. "What could be so important that you'd abandon your duties again?"

  "You remember my resear whether people from other tis absorb mana?"

  Sara crossed her arms. "That crazy project of yours? The one you've been obsessed with for turies? The ohat has NEVER succeeded?"

  "A-Ahem. Saying it like that kind of stings," the Dean muttered.

  "Well, I 't help it. It's the truth," she replied bluntly.

  "A's be ho, everyone knows it's impossible. It's not just you—tless researchers and schors have tried for thousands of years, yet not a single one has succeeded."

  "Except, of course, for the Great Dragons or the High Elves from the other tis. They wield their Draiystiergy like Mana, casting spells far beyond our prehension."

  "But for humans? It's impossible," she stated firmly.

  "Alright, alright, you theory-worm. Walking Encyclopedia." The Dean smirked.

  "ue. It's already happened."

  "hat?" Sara stammered, her breath hitg. "A-Are you kidding me?"

  "Not at all." The dean smirked, a glint of amusement in her eyes.

  Sara instinctively took a step back, disbelief washing over her.

  "You know," the dean tinued, her voice ced with intrigue, "decades ago, I traveled to the Sleeping Dragon ti. And back then, I mao infiltrate the Four Overlord Sects."

  Sara's breath caught. "hat?!"

  She shook her head in disbelief. "S-Sneak? Into the Four Overlord Sects? Are you serious?! Eae of them rivals our entire academy in strength!"

  "Didn't anyone discover you?"

  The dean shrugged. "I had cast aremely advaealth spell. How could they?"

  Sara still wasn't vinced. "But… what about the Supreme Beings there?"

  The dean cleared her throat. "A-Ahem! Most of them were in seclusion at the time."

  But inwardly, she ged.

  "Although… that demoness almost caught me and started our tury-old fight. I 't tell Sara that, or she'll nag me endlessly."

  She quickly ged the subject.

  "Anyway, back to the point. I left an Intermediate-Grade Mana Stone deep within a cave in the Mystic Evergreen Forest—yered with tless traps——inside Supreme Dao Sect's territory."

  "I also left some s… along with one of my weakest, cutest little doggies and a few of its friends."

  Sara blinked. "…What?"

  The dean tinued, unfazed. "That was two and a half months ago. Someone found the stone."

  Sara frowned. "Well, that's not too surprising. Even if you hid it well, things like that don't stay secret for long."

  "I didn't pay much attentioher," the dean admitted. "After all, the other three Overlord Sects discovered their stooo."

  She paused, then her lips curled into a slow, eerie smile. "But… the real shock came just now."

  Sara's stomach dropped. "What do you mean?"

  The dean's eyes gleamed. "Just now, I sensed something—no, I felt it. That sto was absorbed. Almost instantly."

  Sara paled. "T-That's not possible."

  "Oh, but it happened." The dean's voice was ced with amusement. "And the moment it did… I lost all trace of it."

  She leaned in slightly. "No. It wasn't just lost. It vanished. As if it had been erased from existeself."

  "Although, before its trace vanished, I detected it still within the Supreme Dao Sect."

  Sara shook her head violently. "That 't be! Even we mages take more than a month to absorb an Intermediate-Grade Mana Stone!"

  Her voice dropped into a whisper. "Even the most gifted mages least a week… How could a cultivator—who doesn't even specialize in mana absorption—do it instantly?"

  The dean's grin widened. "Now you see why I find this so iing?"

  Sara shivered. "You're calling that iing?! That's almost as terrifying as the world-wide phenomenon from before!"

  The dean's eyes sharpened. "Exactly. And from my research, the source of that phenomenon… alsinated from Supreme Dao Sect's territory."

  A heavy sileretched between them.

  "I'm going to iigate," the dean finally decred, her tone firm. "There's a ce both events are ected to the same person."

  "And if this person poses a threat to our ti..." Her gaze tureely. "I'll ha myself."

  "What? The Dean—a 9th-Circle Mage—personally stepping in? That only meahing… that person possesses absurdly terrifying potential," Sara thought, her mind rag.

  Without another word, she activated a teleportation spell. A glowing magic circle fred beh her feet.

  Sara's panic spiked. "W-Wait! Still what about the dots?!"

  The spell neared pletion.

  The dean waved a dismissive hand. "I give you full authority to hahem as you wis—"

  Her words were cut off as the teleportation took effect, and in a fsh of light—

  She was gone.