The fires in the Vanguard Bastion were slowly dying out.
Thick smog of ash and ozone filled the air as the elite academy lay in ruins. Statues were toppled and dormitories were completely gutted.
Arthur stood near the center of the devastation but he was entirely untouched.
There wasn't a single speck of dust on his clothes or a drop of blood on his boots!
Across the courtyard, a battered and blood-soaked Caden Cross was being swarmed by a group of surviving students.
The sixteen-year-old was leaning heavily on his wooden training sword. He was panting heavily through his gritted teeth.
He had miraculously held a choke point and saved a dozen lower level students from a Cult hound.
"He's a hero!" One of the students wept loudly while clinging tightly to Caden's arm.
Arthur watched the scene and shook his head with deep amusement.
Save the weak, look humble, and reap the blind adoration. It was just too easy to guess.
But Arthur wasn't complaining at all. Because the moment Caden became a hero, the heavens decided to reward its chosen one!
[Ding!]
[Target Caden Cross has triggered a Serendipity Event!]
[Target has fallen through a fractured courtyard tile into a hidden underground catacomb!]
Arthur raised an eyebrow as he watched Caden suddenly stumble. The ground gave way beneath him and swallowed the boy whole amid the loud shrieks of his peers.
[Target Caden Cross has discovered the inheritance of the Fallen Wind Sage.]
[Target is consuming the 100-Year Sage Condensation Pill.]
[10,000x ROI Multiplier Activated!]
Arthur's breath completely hitched.
"Fvck!"
[Host is receiving 1,000,000 years of pure compressed cultivation base.]
The world didn't just go white. Reality itself seemed to tear apart around Arthur.
The massive volume of a million years of concentrated energy didn't just flood his core. It sought to completely annihilate his mortal vessel!
A mortal body physically could not hold that much time and raw power.
[Warning: Host's vessel is facing total existence erasure.]
[Initiating emergency protocol. Utilizing 1,000,000 years of cultivation to forcibly forge a higher vessel.]
[Forging: The Dimensional Breaker Physique.]
Arthur fell to one knee. He drove the Ebonheart Sword directly into the cracked marble to keep himself anchored.
It felt as if a massive hammer was striking his very soul!
Every single cell and every drop of his blood was being incinerated and replaced by dark and heavy matter.
The pressure was so absolute that the air around him warped and gravity increased tenfold in a ten-foot radius. The stone beneath him immediately pulverized into fine dust.
When the agonizing forging finally finished, Arthur slowly stood up.
He cracked his neck and the sound echoed like a collapsing boulder. He looked at his hands.
He didn't look any different, but he felt entirely detached from the world around him.
[Ding! Dimensional Breaker Physique Acquired.]
↳ Passive Effect: Host completely negates all realm suppression laws. Lower tier curses, gravity fields, and environmental damage are automatically nullified.
Arthur laughed loudly. It was a deep sound of pure joy.
"I love this kid. He works so hard and I reap all the dividends."
Minutes later, a dusty and glowing Caden Cross climbed out of the sinkhole. He was radiating a newfound and powerful aura!
Arthur immediately slipped into character. He walked over with his face arranged into a look of stern but supportive approval.
"You did good today, kid," Arthur said as he clapped a heavy hand on Caden's shoulder.
Caden looked up at the towering man with awe shining in his naive eyes.
"I just did what I had to do. Are you an upperclassman?"
"Something like that," Arthur lied smoothly. "Keep finding trouble, kid. Keep pushing your limits. The world needs heroes like you."
'And I need the passive income.' He added silently in his heart.
Leaving the highly motivated kid behind, Arthur bypassed the cleanup crews and headed straight for the administrative spire.
Sylvia was waiting for him in the ruins of her office.
She had changed out of her torn academic robes and was now wearing a sleek silver combat uniform that tightly wrapped around her massive chest and heavy bottom.
The air of the untouchable Arch-Mage was back. But when her cold eyes met Arthur's, the temperature in the room noticeably spiked!
"The academy is secure," Sylvia reported. Her tone was strictly professional but the slight flush on her neck betrayed her.
"The Cult retreated. But we have a severe internal issue."
"Middle management trying to stage a coup?" Arthur asked as he walked right up to her desk.
"The Academy Elders," Sylvia confirmed. Her eyes dropped to his lips for a fraction of a second before meeting his gaze again.
"They are assembling in the Grand Hall. They intend to blame me for the security breach. They want to strip my authority and hand the Bastion over to the Royal Family."
Arthur sneered in contempt.
"The Royal Family? The Kings and Emperors of this dirt ball are nothing but complicit dogs for the Apex Realm. They knew about this strike."
"I am officially appointing you as the Vanguard Commander," Sylvia said as she stepped around the desk.
She stopped inches from him and her heavy chest almost brushed against his body.
"You have absolute authority to handle the internal security."
"Is that so?" Arthur murmured as his hand came up to rest on her hip.
She didn't pull away. Instead, she leaned into the touch as her pure mana blended beautifully with his dark and heavy physique.
"Let's go have a board meeting."
Ten minutes later, Arthur and Sylvia pushed open the massive oak doors of the Grand Hall.
Dozens of elderly and elaborately dressed Academy Elders sat around a long circular table. They were shouting and pointing fingers.
At the head of the table stood Elder Vance. He was a fat and heavily jeweled man sneering with triumph.
"Sylvia Thorne's gross negligence has cost us dearly!" Vance bellowed loudly and slammed his fist on the table.
"I move to strip her of her title and surrender the academy's assets to the Royal Guard immediately!"
The hall went dead silent as Arthur walked in. His heavy boots echoed off the polished stone.
"Who is this filthy commoner?" Vance demanded as his face turned purple with anger. "Guards! Kill him!"
Arthur didn't stop walking and he didn't even draw his sword. He just manifested a fraction of his Dimensional Breaker aura along with his wind manipulation.
He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
A blade of compressed and invisible air shot directly across the room!
"Squelch!"
Elder Vance's head cleanly detached from his shoulders. It spun through the air before slamming onto the center of the wooden table.
Blood geysered from his stump and sprayed the horrified elders sitting next to him.
Arthur walked up to the table and casually kicked Vance's headless corpse out of the primary chair before sitting down.
He propped his boots up on the polished wood right next to the severed head.
"I am the new Vanguard Commander," Arthur announced to the room of trembling and pale-faced old men. "The board has been restructured. Does anyone else have an objection to the new management?"
Not a single one of them dared to breathe or make even the slightest noise. Absolute and terrifying control was established in exactly ten seconds!
Arthur reached into Vance's blood-soaked robes and pulled out a small black stone. It was a communication rock.
As Arthur touched it, the stone violently hummed to life and projected a blue holographic image into the center of the room.
It was a young man with aristocratic features dressed in glowing silk. He looked down with an expression of absolute arrogance.
"Elder Vance," the holographic Tristan sneered, his voice dripping with venom. "I assume you have secured the lower realm trash?"