Crack!

A very faint sound rang out across the main hall.

The first crack appeared on the surface of the red Blind Box, starting from where Ethan’s fingertip rested and slowly spreading downward. The sound wasn’t loud, but in that instant, the box seemed to have become the single focal point of the entire stage.

The laughter in the stands had not yet fully faded. A few students still leaned close to one another, waiting to see what kind of useless Partner Ethan would open.

"A goblin?"

"Maybe a child."

"Or a monster that only knows how to eat and sleep. Either way, he brought it on himself."

Ryan had already returned to his seat. The smile on his face was still intact, as if the result of the ceremony was no longer anything worth caring about.

"What a waste of time."

He said it very softly, but Selene, sitting beside him, still heard it. She lifted the corners of her mouth slightly, her voice keeping its calm tone as if consoling her son.

"Don’t pay it any mind. After today, he won’t have the standing to compete with you anymore."

Ryan looked toward the stage, his eyes carrying undisguised contempt.

"He never had the standing from the start."

Crack!

The second crack appeared.

The ceremony’s host changed expression slightly.

Over the past ten-odd years, he had presided over hundreds of coming-of-age ceremonies. Weapons, skills, powers, monster eggs, humanoid Partners, even strange items that the system couldn’t immediately identify, he had seen them all.

But this time something was off.

There was no clear basis. No concrete data. It was just the instinct of a man who had been through countless battles, continuously warning him that inside that red Blind Box lay something extremely dangerous.

Right after, a stream of blazing red heat suddenly poured out from the crack.

Boom!

The heat wave turned into a shockwave that swept violently in all directions, slamming straight into the protective dome covering the stage. The transparent barrier shook fiercely, and every line of blue energy flared at once, as if straining to absorb the pressure that had just appeared.

The ceremony’s host immediately took half a step back.

"What the hell is that?"

Even though the heat wave couldn’t escape the protective dome, the temperature inside the main hall still rose noticeably. A student sitting in a row near the stage frowned and unconsciously tugged at his collar.

"Do you guys feel it getting hotter?"

"Yeah."

"Is this a normal reaction?"

"Can a Partner Box produce energy fluctuations like this?"

The ceremony’s host didn’t answer. His gaze turned serious, and he immediately turned toward the control area behind the stage.

"Activate the second-tier protective barrier."

The two technicians snapped back to their senses and hurriedly placed their hands on the control panel. The blue lines on the floor lit up one after another, quickly interweaving into a second transparent curtain of energy.

Crack.

The third crack appeared.

Right after, the entire Blind Box shook violently.

Boom!

A pillar of blazing red flame erupted in the middle of the stage.

The fire shot straight upward, smashing hard against the protective barrier. The air trembled violently. An invisible pressure immediately poured out of the stage, sweeping across the entire main hall like a colossal wave.

Crash!

Several students sitting near the stage suddenly fell backward. A girl turned pale, her hands unconsciously pressing against her chest.

"What’s happening?"

"My heart is beating too fast..."

"I can’t breathe."

Gasping breaths rang out all across the stands.

No one was burned by the fire. Nor did any stream of energy directly attack them. But the aura alone emanating from within the pillar of flame was enough to make the students’ bodies react on instinct.

Hearts pounding.

Palms ice-cold.

Muscles taut.

An uncontrollable sense of danger flooded the entire main hall, like a tiny beast that had wandered by accident into the territory of a creature standing at the top of the food chain.

Ryan shot to his feet.

The flame badge on his collar had been giving off a faint light. But the moment the pillar of fire appeared, that light immediately dimmed. The fire-element energy within Ryan’s body shook violently.

It wasn’t resonance.

It was fear.

His rank S fire-element power was instinctively shrinking back, as if it didn’t dare appear before something far more noble.

Ryan gripped the armrest of his seat tightly, his expression gradually turning ugly.

"No way..."

Selene had stood up as well. The calm on her face had completely vanished.

"What is this?"

"It’s just a Partner Box."

"There’s no way it could produce a reaction like this."

On the top floor of the main hall, the man in the black military uniform immediately stepped up to the glass reinforced with formations.

"Activate the third-tier barrier."

The gray-haired woman quickly checked the measurement screen beside her. The numbers on it were climbing at a terrifying rate, turning her expression grave.

"The energy pressure is still rising."

"The fluctuation meter has already exceeded the academy’s standard limit."

Headmaster Cole pressed his black wooden cane hard against the floor.

"Prepare a plan to evacuate the students."

His voice wasn’t loud, but every staff member and official in the room immediately sprang into action.

Down below, the first protective barrier had already begun to show thin cracks.

Crack.

Crack.

Crack.

The ceremony’s host changed color.

"Activate the third-tier barrier! Hurry!"

A new curtain of light immediately enveloped the stage. The blue lines on the floor blazed bright, continuously channeling energy into the trembling barrier.

But the fire still showed no sign of dying down.

It didn’t actively attack.

It didn’t destroy.

It didn’t burn.

It simply existed.

And yet that existence alone was enough to put Aurora Academy’s defensive system under colossal pressure.

A student in the stands opened his mouth, his voice turning dry and hoarse.

"Is this really something opened from a Partner Box?"

"No way. I once watched the ceremony of someone who opened a rank A Partner. This is nothing like that at all."

"Rank S?"

"Even a rank S Partner couldn’t produce an aura like this."

The person beside him didn’t say anything more. Because even they themselves didn’t dare make a guess.

In the middle of the stage, Ethan still stood motionless.

Blood trickled down from the corner of his left eye, leaving a thin red streak across his cheek. He didn’t reach up to wipe it away, his gaze still fixed on the pillar of fire blazing before him.

The scene he had just witnessed was still seared deep into his memory.

A colossal pupil in the darkness.

A gaze so cold it made his very soul ache.

Ethan didn’t know what that thing was.

But he was certain of one thing.

It had seen him.

At that very moment, the pillar of fire began to contract.

It wasn’t dissipating.

The entire flame was converging toward a single spot, as if actively making way for some creature to step out of the sea of fire.

A figure gradually emerged.

Long red hair cascaded down like a flowing river of lava. A pair of curved black horns grew from either side of her head, perfectly symmetrical like a meticulously carved work of art.

Behind her back was a pair of colossal dragon wings. When the wings slowly spread open, they nearly covered the entire space inside the barrier. Each layer of dark red scales reflected the firelight, glinting like freshly heated metal.

Finally, a woman stepped out of the sea of fire.

A height exceeding two meters made her stand out so much it was almost overwhelming to everyone present in the main hall. Her body was tall but in no way coarse. On the contrary, every line was soft, balanced, carrying the mature and powerful beauty of a creature entirely different from humanity.

Each of her steps naturally created a strange sense of oppression, as if the entire space were unconsciously making way for her.

The white dress hugging her figure was alluring to an almost unbelievable degree. The soft fabric accentuated the full curve of her chest, her slender waist, and her striking long legs. Black-and-red patterns running down the length of the dress looked like exquisitely carved dragon scales.

Her red hair, reaching nearly to her knees, stirred slightly with the current of heat swirling around her body. Her amber-red eyes narrowed slightly, like two gemstones quietly burning.

But what drew Ethan’s attention most was not her appearance.

It was the faint, hazy black chains coiling around her wrists and ankles.

Each link was engraved with strange symbols. They kept dissolving into the air and then reappearing, as if they didn’t truly exist in this world.

Clack.

The heel of her shoe touched the stone floor.

Just one step.

But the invisible pressure in the main hall immediately surged.

A student in the front row clutched his chest, his face pallid.

"My heart is beating too fast..."

"I can’t control my body."

"My legs are shaking."

"Is this bloodline coercion?"

Another gritted his teeth, struggling to keep his body from collapsing.

"I once faced a Black Iron monster in combat simulation. But this is nothing like that at all."

"This is the feeling of a body instinctively knowing it could die at any moment."

But alongside the fear, another emotion appeared in the main hall.

Awe.

Quite a few students stared at the Crimson Dragon woman, dumbstruck. A girl sitting near the aisle swallowed dryly, her gaze still unable to leave the figure in the sea of fire.

"So beautiful..."

The friend sitting beside her had also all but forgotten to breathe.

"Is she really a Partner?"

"She doesn’t look human."

"No. I mean... she’s so beautiful she doesn’t look real."

A male student who had been sneering at Ethan just a few minutes earlier was now completely silent. His gaze lingered on the Crimson Dragon woman’s long red hair, her curved horns, and her almost flawlessly mature figure.

It was a long while before he muttered:

"I’m starting to feel like the Partner Box isn’t as bad as the instructors used to say."

The person sitting beside him immediately shot him a glance.

"Snap out of it."

"A case like this appears once in eighty years. Do you really think you could open something similar too?"

Another person, still staring toward the stage, couldn’t help but blurt out:

"What the hell is this?"

"Is this really a creature opened from a Partner Box?"

Ryan still stood motionless.

But his expression had turned extremely ugly.

The fire within his body wasn’t just shrinking back.

It was bowing its head.

On the top floor, the man in the military uniform stared at the woman who had just stepped out of the sea of fire and slowly said:

"The Dragon Race."

The gray-haired woman couldn’t maintain her composure either.

"Not a dragon egg."

"Not a diluted bloodline."

"But a complete humanoid Dragon Race member."

Headmaster Cole didn’t respond. He only looked toward the large screen behind the altar.

A warning bell suddenly rang out.

The system began updating information.

[Identifying Partner.]

[Race: Dragon Race.]

[Bloodline branch: Crimson Dragon.]

[Determining rarity.]

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

The information on the screen kept flickering on and off.

[Rarity: S.]

The instant those words appeared, the entire main hall let out sharp gasps.

"Rank S?"

"A rank S Partner?"

"Ethan really opened a rank S Partner?"

But before anyone could even react, the words on the screen immediately vanished.

[Recalibrating.]

[Rarity: Epic.]

The main hall fell dead silent.

A student opened his mouth, almost unable to believe his own eyes.

"Epic..."

"No."

"Wait."

"The screen hasn’t stopped."

[Recalibrating.]

[Rarity: Legendary.]

Crash!

A student unconsciously shot to his feet, knocking the chair behind him over onto the floor.

"Legendary?"

"Am I seeing things?"

"How is that possible?"

"How many years has it been since a Legendary item appeared in Safe Zone No. 7?"

"That’s not right."

"The screen is still recalibrating."

The gazes in the main hall fixed in unison on the line of text that kept changing.

Right after, the system produced its final result.

[Recalibrating.]

[Rarity: Mythic.]

[Data discrepancy detected.]

[Unable to continue analysis.]

[Current display limit: Mythic.]