"The rules of this match are pretty simple. Runic Notation consists in recording the best way to use a Skill in a standardized way. What matters is not only the knowledge of the individual regarding one Skill, but also the quality of their Runic Notation. With time, everyone develops variants of the standard Runic Notation that can be more or less effective. And since Jacob Cloud accepted a Platinum-Ranked challenge, you two shall witness two students use random Platinum Skills and then you shall proceed to advise them by sketching Runic Notation diagrams of their Skills on the spot. I know this is a very hard challenge and that neither of you is a Tutor, but the one who provides the best quality of Runic Notation and has the Skill advance the most, will win."

  The students seem stunned.

  "That is an impossible challenge! The Professor wants them to have someone level up on the spot?! Does he even know what he's saying?! They're too young to be Tutors!"

  "And even Tutors might not be able to have the right Skill level."

  "Maybe the Professor wants to punish--"

  "I'm not trying to punish anyone," Professor Halvern says. "What I'm trying to demonstrate is quite simple. And there's not just levels to this world. I'm perfectly capable of telling whether the efficiency of a Skill has increased even if it didn't make the cut for a new level."

  "Wow! Professor Halvern's eyes are the most discerning in the world!"

  "This is an amazing test, then!"

  "Professor Halvern could really see a rat at the base of a mountain while standing at its peak!"

  Who keeps saying this weird stuff? I think, turning around and scanning the crowd.

  "I agree with the terms," I say.

  "I agree as well," the Princess replies.

  "Now, then, let's begin," Professor Halvern tells us. "Princess, I will select the student for you."

  Professor Halvern scans the stands with narrowed eyes until pointing to a random guy.

  "You! Come here. Demonstrate your weakest Platinum Skill to Her Highness."

  The student gets up shakily and walks forward.

  "T--this is my strongest Platinum Skill, it's called Spear of the Metal Giant."

  The student focuses his Mana and summons an unwieldy, gigantic spear that is twice his height. It looks rough and jagged.

  "I'm sorry, Professor, I wanted to become proficient with this Skill, but it's too hard for me to learn. I've been trying to level it up for months, but it's barely level thirteen..."

  "Don't worry, my disciple," Professor Halvern nods. "I understand your struggle. And I'm sorry you had to showcase it in front of everybody. But a bared heart grows stronger than a shielded one."

  That's actually a pretty good line, I have to admit.

  Now, though, I am very curious to see what’s wrong with the skill.

  [Grimoire Analysis]

  [Seven Flaws Detected.]

  Seven?

  Sometimes, it happens that there are not many flaws in any given Skill. However, that usually means that fixing those flaws is much harder than usual. If there are only seven flaws and the Skill is at level thirteen, it means this would be very hard to fix.

  Yet, I have this distinct feeling that the Princess looks way too confident.

  She’s a Goblin, Jacob Cloud, King Baalrek voice speaks into my head.

  “So?” I shoot back under my breath.

  Goblins are naturally more in tune with metals, similar to Dwarves. Spear of the Metal Giant is a damage-focused Metal Magic Skill. You think that the PRINCESS of whatever Goblin empire she’s from doesn’t know what to do in this case?

  In fact, I look at a smug Princess Naar’ethra strut in front of the timid boy and smile. “I’ll need a moment to sketch out the Runic Notation, darling,” she puts a hand on his shoulder. “Can you wait for a moment?”

  The boy nods hesitantly and looks away from the seductive gaze of the gorgeous woman.

  “S—sure.”

  Princess Naar’ethra walks to a desk, takes a quill and a piece of parchment out of her Interspatial Ring, and she starts scribbling down.

  “Oh my, she’s got an Interspatial Ring,” a student mutters. “She’s truly a Princess.”

  “Yeah, and not even all Royals have Interspatial Rings. She must be the inheritor to the throne for her family to provide one to her. Do you know how rare they are? We’ve completely lost the knowledge on how to make new ones. All the ones in circulation have been made in other eras.”

  “I wish they had selected me. Look at how good her Runic Notation looks!”

  Princess Naar’ethra dips her quill again.

  When she finishes the last row of runes, she leans back, lips curling in satisfaction.

  “There,” she announces. “Flawless notation.”

  Her voice alone is enough to silence the whispers around the class. Even Professor Halvern pauses in his pacing and extends his neck over the piece of parchment.

  “Flawless work, Your Highness,” the man says, sighing dramatically. “If there wasn’t age separating us, you would have been a better Runic Notation teacher than me.”

  “Professor Halvern, I’m flattered,” the tall Goblin woman says. “I’m just lucky I found someone with a Skill I know about.”

  I glance briefly at the Runic Notation and activate the Grimoire. I see several red spots, but there’s more green than I initially expected.

  She’s extremely talented, even King Baalrek chimes in, observing from my eyes.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  She is.

  Princess Naar’ethra hands the parchment back to the trembling boy with a graceful flick of her wrist.

  “Now,” she says, stepping aside with confidence so tangible it practically glows, “try again, darling. The spear will listen to you this time.”

  The boy swallows, grips the haft of his conjured weapon, and breathes deep.

  A silver circle manifests around his feet. The spear rises from it, smoother than before, its jagged edge reshaped into cleaner lines.

  The audience gasps.

  The boy exhales shakily as the massive weapon hums in front of him. Light ripples along the shaft, no longer sputtering or uneven. When he wills it forward, the air ripples—smooth, controlled, powerful.

  Then the glow fades.

  He stumbles back a step, eyes wide, staring at the spear’s fading outline.

  “I—” he stammers, looking down at his trembling hands. “I think… I just gained eleven levels!”

  The room erupts.

  “Eleven levels?!”

  “That’s impossible!”

  “She made him gain eleven levels in one go?!”

  “No way, that’s Princess Naar’ethra for you! A born genius!”

  “She must’ve used some hidden technique, right? That can’t just be Runic Notation!”

  “She’s incredible! Did you see how clean that formation was?!”

  “Even the Professor didn’t expect that!”

  There’s a cacophony of voices.

  Eleven Levels? Not too shabby, Jacob Cloud. Do you think you can do better?

  Professor Halvern, for his part, adjusts his glasses three separate times, visibly impressed and deeply satisfied. “Exceptional work, Your Highness,” he says, nodding gravely. “Your notation perfectly harmonized with the nature of the Skill. That’s a true demonstration of Goblin craftsmanship and academic rigor.”

  The Princess bows lightly, her eyes gleaming with pride and something sharper—confidence sharpened to a blade.

  “I’m flattered, Professor. But it was the student’s heart that did the real work.”

  They’re getting way too theatrical.

  The crowd, however, eats it up.

  “She’s so humble!”

  “Did you see how she handled the quill? I think I fell in love.”

  “She’s royalty and a genius! This isn’t fair!”

  “Why is she not in this Academy?! She should be teaching! I would attend all her Classes until I stamped her image in my mind with fire!”

  WHO KEEPS SAYING THIS WEIRD STUFF?!

  Professor Halvern raises a hand to quiet the room, though he’s smiling from ear to ear. “A remarkable showing, indeed. Eleven levels in a single casting… that’s the highest improvement I’ve seen in a classroom this year.”

  He turns to me then, and the noise dims immediately.

  “Now, Mister Cloud,” he says, his tone suddenly precise and deliberate. “Let us see if you can rise to meet that.”

  I look at the trembling boy, at the still-smoking runic marks on the floor, and then at the parchment Princess Naar’ethra has left on the desk—her “flawless notation.”

  Professor Halvern clasps his hands behind his back, his voice resounding through the hall.

  “You will teach the same student, Mister Cloud. The same Skill, under the same conditions. We must compare the quality of your Runic Notation directly.”

  “What?!” someone from the stands gasps.

  “That’s cruel!”

  “Even a Tutor would struggle to match Her Highness right after that!”

  Professor Halvern doesn’t even glance at the crowd. His eyes are locked on me, sharp as glass. “Surely, you don’t intend to refuse, Mister Cloud?”

  I give him a small smile. “Of course not. I was actually hoping you’d say that.”

  “Jacob,” Zibrek comes close to me and whispers. “What are you doing? Ask for another student. She already fixed the easiest flaws. You can’t do this.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” I say, looking at the Professor and scratching my chin.

  A chorus of whispers follows, low and incredulous.

  “He’s insane.”

  “He’s seriously going for it? After the guy gained eleven levels? How does he expect to top eleven levels in the same exact SKill?! Is he dumb?!”

  “Human arrogance knows no bounds…”

  “Maybe he has a Royalty-dependant humiliation fetish?”

  Princess Naar’ethra is still standing near the student’s desk, brushing invisible dust from her fingers. She turns her head slightly, her silver-green eyes glimmering. “Do be gentle with my darling pupil, Mister Cloud,” she says sweetly. “I wouldn’t want you to confuse him with all those… scribbles of yours.”

  “Don’t worry,” I reply, rolling up my sleeves. “I’ll keep it simple enough that even your spear can understand it.”

  The class gasps.

  “You can’t talk to royalty like that!”

  “Did he just—he did! He insulted her Skill!”

  “This is going to be bloody…”

  Halvern, for his part, just smirks. “Proceed.”

  The timid boy looks between us like a rabbit caught between two dragons. “Uh… what do I do?”

  “Same as before,” I tell him. “Summon the Skill once, just so I can see how it behaves.”

  He nods quickly and calls the spear forth again. The weapon hums in the air, smoother than his first attempt, but the flow still sputters faintly at the base.

  [Grimoire Analysis: Spear of the Metal Giant — Six Flaws Remaining.]

  [Flaw #1: Overfill Shear]

  Cause: The construct is being fed directly from the limb channels and spiking the output with the wrong driver. The spear overfills at the base and shears at the two-thirds mark.

  Fix (2-vein correction): Route intake stabilization through the Central Containment Vein first, then time a continuous output pulse via the Twin Pulse Veins in the forearms. Keep the pulse low-amplitude, high-frequency and bind the phase at the moment of extension.

  Expected gain: +45% stability, +312% thrust efficiency.

  [Flaw #2: Torsional Ring-Wobble]

  Cause: The shaft is picking up a metal-aspect torsion resonance from shoulder micro-oscillations.

  Fix (3-vein correction): Anchor the construct through the Anvil Gate Veins (new) across the clavicle/shoulder girdle to eliminate lateral drift; add a micro-loop damper through the Mercury Loop Veins (new) on the dorsal wrist to swallow residual ring-resonance; re-compress the feed every heartbeat through the Median Heart Veins to keep the spear’s spine true.

  Expected gain: +114% cohesion

  * * *

  Jacob takes a clean sheet of parchment and places it flat on the desk, the edges curling slightly under his fingers. He dips the quill into the inkwell and lets the excess drip once, then begins to write—very slowly.

  Professor Halvern steps closer without a word, his shadow stretching across the parchment. He leans in, eyes narrowing behind his spectacles.

  That style is familiar… Oh! What a fool!

  Professor Halvern shakes his head.

  He’s copying that Perfect Notation that Elder Karl has been circulating. Damn bastard has been ruining my business.

  Professor Halvern has been selling the information he got from students, but with the new Runic Notation coming from Elder Karl, his business has taken a serious hit. With all the info that he has gathered over the years, he has been able to create a large repository of Runic Notation to sell, but with the strongest Runic Notation on sale being Diamond Rank, he has had to rely more on quantity than quality.

  Professor Halvern basically has a plethora of Skills when it comes to Runic Notation, but almost nothing that could solve every problem. Even with the years of accumulating knowledge, he’s got very few complete Skill Runic Notation templates.

  Yet, somehow, Elder Karl got his hands on the templates of someone who apparently knows just about everything about any random Skill Elder Karl wants to sell—incidentally, most of them are very highly-priced common Skills and they have been underselling Professor Halvern very expensive Runic Notation.

  This brat is just copying the work of whatever master Elder Karl has been in touch with. Let’s see him make a fool of himself—after that, I’ll steal some of his knowledge, fail him, and make sure he doesn’t ever, EVER come back to the Academy.