SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 674: The Number on the Wall

The first construct lost its sword before it completed its opening attack.

Leon caught the weapon on his own blade, turned it aside, and struck through the exposed center of its chest. The body broke into pale fragments before the stolen sword hit the floor.

A line appeared above the chamber entrance.

[Senior Course — Stage One: Cleared]

[First-clear contribution: 300]

He looked at the number, then at the place where the construct had stood.

I could get used to that.

The next stages required more attention without demanding much strength. One compressed the available fighting space. Another sent several opponents toward a pillar he had to protect. Their patterns were well made, but the force behind them remained far below what his body could withstand.

He cleared both without allowing an attack to land.

Stage Four reproduced a Peak Nascent Soul swordsman. Leon limited his output while testing the transition he had practiced that morning, giving the opponent time to pressure his Earth barrier.

The sword shifted toward the outside.

He released the unnecessary brace and answered with Lightning. The current crossed the opening cleanly, and the construct collapsed before its attack reached him.

There was no heat gathering in the branch afterward.

Leon checked the return once, pleased, then accepted the payment. Twelve hundred contribution waited in his account.

The Soul Transformation stages gave him more room to fight.

Stage Five spread a constraining field across the chamber. He broke its control with pressure of his own and reached the construct before it could establish the field again.

Stage Six used a more difficult arrangement: attacks from two directions, with the second timed to catch his answer to the first. Leon bent the path of the leading strike, forcing the rear opponent to defend itself, and finished both while they were recovering their positions.

He was enjoying the freedom. He could commit to a useful combination without considering whether someone outside would misunderstand the speed of the change or ask why he possessed it.

At Stage Seven, the benchmark rose to Early Void Immortal.

The construct carried a broad blade and used its pressure to deny a direct approach. Leon let Void Dominion spread through the unclaimed parts of the room, testing the boundary of its influence before crossing.

The blade descended where he had been.

He emerged beside the construct, armor covering his forearm, and drove an elbow into its flank. The impact opened a seam. His sword followed before the body could turn, and a brief holy strike through the exposed interior ended the exchange.

Mana still held his spatial route open as the Divinordial Heart supplied the blade through its separate channels.

Leon withdrew his sword and let both currents settle.

That would have earned him questions outside. Here, the chamber simply added five hundred contribution to his balance.

He took the short rest interval before continuing.

By Stage Eight, raw speed no longer decided the opening exchanges.

The Peak Void Immortal reproduction carried a spear and changed its reach by shifting the pressure surrounding the weapon. Leon turned aside the first thrust. The second shortened unexpectedly, trying to catch his wrist before he completed the parry.

He withdrew his hand and let the spear scrape across his armor.

Better.

He used Elemental Surge to strengthen a sequence of attacks rather than pouring everything into one blow. Ice obstructed the construct’s retreat, wind spoiled its attempt to clear the obstruction, and Lightning reached the opening beneath its raised arm.

The spear came back at him even as the strike landed.

Leon changed his footing, allowed the shaft to pass, and drove his holy-powered blade through the damaged region. The construct broke apart against the ice behind it.

Stage Nine reproduced Early Earth Immortal combat strength.

Its pressure reminded him of the more dangerous opponents he had faced in the Tower. He gave it the respect it deserved, watching how it controlled the space around its body before attempting a close attack.

The first shallow cut reached his upper arm when he misjudged the end of its defensive field. Life closed the wound while he circled. No audience saw the repair, and he did not have to conceal the current beneath another technique.

He fought more freely after that, combining short spatial changes with physical attacks until the construct committed too far to a turn. A concentrated strike broke its defense. The follow-up ended the stage.

Leon sat down when the rest interval began.

He had spent energy, but his breathing settled quickly. His balance now stood at three thousand eight hundred contribution.

Outside, two disciples stopped beside the results wall.

One had come to reserve a practice chamber. His companion had stayed because the new name on the senior-course list had continued climbing while they talked.

”Stage Nine,” the first disciple said. ”Isn’t that an Earth Immortal benchmark?”

”Early Earth Immortal,” his companion replied.

They both looked at the cultivation entry beside Leon’s name.

”Peak Golden Core,” the first said, quieter this time.

”He is the Palace Mistress’s disciple. You heard about the duel.”

”I heard he survived Wei Zhaoran’s forbidden technique. This is different.”

The hall elder approached to examine the updated result. The second disciple stepped out of her way, then hesitated.

”Elder, does the Hall measure what he uses?”

”Inside the chamber, it resolves the fight,” she said. ”Outside, we receive the result.”

”Then nobody knows how he did it?”

”Leon knows.”

She studied the wall a moment longer. By the time she returned to the steward’s desk, several more disciples had stopped to look.

Stage Ten took Leon longer than the preceding fights.

The Mid Earth Immortal reproduction used a heavy sword and a defensive field that resisted the easiest applications of his spatial control. He could still move around its protected region, but reaching its body required him to enter the weapon’s range.

He tested it with a sequence of quick attacks. The construct blocked the first two and stepped into the third, catching his forearm between its sword and his own.

Bone cracked beneath the armor.

Leon drove it back with a close elemental discharge and withdrew behind an ice barrier. Life repaired the arm while he kept the barrier moving between them. By the time the construct broke through, he could grip his sword again.

He remembered how the Gatekeeper in the Tower had resisted direct spatial interference. Trying the same failed approach with more power would waste strength here too.

Instead, he used the space beyond the defensive field to change where his attacks arrived.

The construct could protect its body. It could not make every direction equally convenient to defend.

He forced the sword low, crossed the opening with Raijin, and struck from a new angle before it could recover. Its counter caught his side, hard enough to jar his breath, but the holy blade reached the core first.

The chamber cleared around him.

[First-clear contribution: 1,000]

[Available contribution: 4,800]

Leon remained standing until the ache beneath his ribs eased. Then he sat and gave himself the full rest interval.

The next benchmark appeared when he requested it.

[Stage Eleven — Peak Earth Immortal Combat Reproduction]

[First-clear contribution: 2,400]

That would bring him to seven thousand two hundred. Enough for the marrow and preparation stock, with room for the medicine list as well.

He examined his condition carefully. The arm was whole. His reserves were reduced, but he had not exhausted either Heart. The next fight would be harder than the Lord-class enemies he had already defeated, and he would have to judge it by what it actually did.

I can withdraw. I don’t have to decide the whole fight from a line on a wall.

He stood and accepted.

Pressure settled across the chamber before the opponent appeared. A short experimental fold frayed as it crossed the center of the room, depositing him well short of where he intended.

The construct rose from the stone, three meters tall, its overlapping plates joined by pale channels. A long-hafted blade rested in its hands.

Leon let his armor cover him fully.

The construct stepped forward, and the floor beneath his boots trembled.