Inside the Foundation Hall, the sound of the Earth Spirit's forging hammer was like the only heartbeat of this underground world—steady, rhythmic, dispelling the endless deathly silence.
The air was permeated with the scorching scent of smelted rock and metal, yet it unexpectedly brought a sense of peace.
Continuous high-intensity exploration and combat had pushed the fatigue accumulated by Celeste and her sister to its peak.
The mental strain was stretched too tight, far more exhausting than the physical toll.
Especially that heart-stopping, unparalleled infiltration, the desperate situation of being surrounded and intercepted by the Slime tide, and... that social-death transformation that was worthy of being recorded in history.
"Sister, we really... reached 16th place."
Selene leaned against a warm stone wall, refreshing the ranking on her bracelet over and over again; in her bright eyes, the light of excitement was almost overflowing.
She felt as if she were in a dream.
Celeste rested beside her, eyes closed, her long eyelashes casting a quiet silhouette under the flickering firelight.
She only gave a soft "Mm," her voice laced with heavy weariness.
The jump in ranking was certainly a huge surprise, but the mental shock brought by that answer regarding the "whole of the world" far exceeded it.
It made Celeste realize for the first time that every choice they made here, every breath they took, could stir up unpredictable, monstrous waves in this "real" world.
This, perhaps, was not a simple exam at all.
"Sister, my eyelids are fighting each other... I can't hold on anymore..." Selene let out a big yawn, her eyelids beginning to droop.
Although her Paladin armor provided strong defense, wearing it all the time was also a considerable burden.
"Hang in there a little longer."
Celeste took out several alchemy items from her equipment space.
A few palm-sized [Glimmer Warning Rune Stones].
A small bottle of [Tranquility Dust] as fine as mist.
These were all precautionary items she had prepared for the Domain; they were expensive, but when one needed a sound sleep, they were worth their weight in gold.
The two found a relatively dry corner on the edge of the stone hall, far away from the forging area.
Celeste silently placed the rune stones around the resting spot at specific array angles, and a simple warning magic circle quietly took shape.
Once any hostile creature stepped inside, the rune stones would trigger a mental alarm that only they could perceive.
Afterward, she sprinkled a thin layer of "Tranquility Dust" at the entrance of the passage leading to the Earth Spirit core area.
This powder could absorb sound and mask scents.
Only after doing all this did she truly relax.
"Alright, sleep now."
"With the warning circle, we can both have a good sleep."
Watching her sister's smooth and practiced movements, Selene's eyes were full of admiration; she nodded, and almost as soon as her head tilted, she drifted into dreamland.
Celeste also closed her eyes amidst the exhaustion and this small sense of security she had built with her own hands.
They were simply too tired.
...
Meanwhile, outside the Domain.
Jiangnan Prefecture, Joint Monitoring Center for the Points Competition.
"Hum—"
On the huge light curtain leaderboard, a line of data suddenly lit up in a blinding red, jumping frantically upward.
It skipped over the names of hundreds of teams and, in the end, defiantly locked into place.
[16. Qingyue Xiyue - Points: 17455]
"Hm?"
The head of the Jinghua University admissions team, Professor Zhou Wenhai, known as the "Old Fox," pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose.
His gaze behind the lenses swept over that line of data, as if he could pierce through the light curtain to see the people behind it.
"Qingyue Xiyue? Never heard of that name. Which school is this team from?" He sipped his strong tea, his tone flat.
He had seen plenty of such dark horses that suddenly emerged; most were hiding their strength in the early stages and only starting to exert effort now.
The assistant beside him immediately pulled up the information, but after just one glance, he was stunned.
"P-Professor Zhou... this team... only has two people."
"What?"
Zhou Wenhai choked on the hot tea he had just put in his mouth, nearly losing his composure in public.
He lunged toward the screen, and when he saw the small text "Team Members: 2/4," the muscles on his face, which were always calm, instantly tensed up.
"Two people? Two people fought their way into the top sixteen of the entire prefecture?"
Beside him, his competitor from Imperial Capital University, a burly man named Chen Mo, also saw this information, his voice full of disbelief.
"Investigate! Investigate all their information for me immediately! Real-time monitoring, pull out everything that can be pulled out!" Zhou Wenhai's voice suddenly rose, losing all his composure.
In the entire monitoring hall, the gazes of all the university admissions heads were drawn by this roar.
A two-person team, charging into the top twenty? What kind of concept was this?
This meant that the value produced by these two people exceeded that of countless full four-person teams composed of elites from major universities!
This was no longer just a simple dark horse; this was a monster!
Soon, the information on The two sisters was pulled up.
[Celeste, 18 years old, Sim City No. 7 High School, Lv.20, Class: Priest (Support/Healer).]
[Selene, 18 years old, Sim City No. 7 High School, Lv.22, Class: Paladin (Defense).]
Chen Mo's breath hitched: "Good heavens, the Holy Light twins! Sim City No. 7 High School hid such a pair of trump cards this year?"
"Something's not right." Zhou Wenhai's brows, however, knitted into a knot.
"Look at their classes, one focuses on healing, the other on defense. A pure survival combination; explosive power is an innate weakness, so how could they grind out such terrifying points in the early stages?"
"Their points had a cliff-like surge half an hour ago!"
The assistant reported at lightning speed, "They gained 15,000 points directly! The source... the source is 'Gathering Rare Strategic Resource: Mithril'!"
"Mithril!" Wang Meng slammed his fist on the table, his eyes burning, "They found a Mithril mine! And they have the ability to mine it efficiently!"
Soon, some combat footage regarding "Qingyue Xiyue" was pulled up.
After watching it, the air in the entire monitoring center became strange.
"This Priest... is she really a Priest? That pink staff, why is she so skilled at hitting people on the back of the head and stabbing them in the kidneys?!"
"And that Paladin, the force of this shield bash and the precision of the swordsmanship, the foundation is solid to an unreasonable degree!"
"They actually found the Earth Spirit ruins and cooperated to repel the Slime tide? This luck and strength... wait, how can this Priest transform?! What kind of Heroic Spirit Summoning is this? There's no such character in the database!"
"The point is, there are only two of them!" Zhou Wenhai said, enunciating every word, his voice filled with fanaticism.
"No damage dealer! Relying entirely on a Priest and a Paladin, they managed to achieve such a result! This kind of tactical execution, this kind of class understanding... and this potential for a sudden change in style!"
After a brief silence, there was total madness.
What these two girls displayed was combat wisdom far beyond their level, and infinite possibilities for breaking through class barriers!
"We must sign them!"
"Draft an S-Class special recruitment plan immediately! Triple the scholarship! Open the A-Class resource library to them! As long as they nod, all conditions are negotiable!"
For a moment, there was an undercurrent of activity in the admissions departments of major universities, and special recruitment plans for the "Qingyue Xiyue" sisters were drafted with lightning speed.
All admissions heads silently pinned the sisters' profiles to the top, marking them as—[S-Class · Highest Priority Target].