Lancet did not move for a while after reading the card.

He kept it low, half-hidden against the desk, his fingers resting lightly over its edge as though that alone could keep it from being real.

Around him, the classroom had already shifted back into its usual rhythm. Chairs scraped softly. Papers moved. Voices settled.

Miss Maecil was at the front again, bright and composed, already transitioning into the day’s lesson as if nothing unusual had happened.

"Pay close attention to the board, everyone," Miss Maecil’s voice rang out clearly from the front of the classroom, snapping Lancet’s focus back to reality for a brief second.

She tapped her pointer against the blackboard, drawing a complex diagram connecting two circles. "Today, we are discussing Tethering Fatigue. Many amateur Summoners believe that as long as they have the Grace, they can keep their Summons manifested indefinitely. This is a fatal misconception."

Lancet lowered his head, sending her voice away somewhere until it was only white noise at the back of his troubled mind.

The Serpent Society.

They were still coming for him.

Even after everything that had happened. Even after Hebthej. Even after the Terrible Three.

Well, maybe what happened in Hebthej would only make them want him even more. But shouldn’t it also scare them?

Lancet lowered his eyes slightly, his thoughts tightening into something colder, more deliberate.

He had assumed that dealing with the Terrible Three would have sent them a clear message. But on that subject, could what happened to the Terrible Three have anything to do with them?

Lancet didn’t think Caelem, Linzley or Muskard had it in them to actually kill someone. Beat them up, yeah, but kill?

Did the Serpent Society do something to get them expelled? Did the Terribles come in their way or were they just loose ends they wanted to get rid of before moving on with their grand plan?

Lancet’s head stormed with thoughts.

"The tether between a Summoner and their Summon is not just a pipe for Grace; it is a bridge of willpower," Miss Maecil continued her explanation, pacing in front of the class.

"When your Summon takes damage, or expends a massive amount of energy, that strain echoes back through the tether. If your physical and mental level cannot match the weight of your Summon’s actions, your own channels will rupture."

Lancet read the words again;

’Time is running out. One more chance to make the right choice.’

He exhaled quietly through his nose, then slid the card into his pocket without drawing attention. Lancet leaned back in his seat in the same motion, his gaze drifting forward toward the board while his thoughts moved elsewhere.

"Every Awakener needs a level of willpower over what they control," Maecil went on. "Specialists with weapons, Elementalists with elements, Enchanters with concepts... and Summoners with summons. For us, because whatever control is mostly sentient, our willpower has to be even higher."

Lancet absently tapped his finger against his desk. He had originally planned to use Thor to completely eradicate them.

It had always been simple on paper. Once Thor fully agreed to be his Summon, he would draw the Serpents out, and he and Thor would eradicate them for good, knowing that Thor would go all out and give them the punishment they deserved.

End it all for good.

But the thought did not settle as easily now as it had before.

Lancet’s eyes narrowed slightly as he considered it more seriously.

Am I strong enough yet?

The question mattered more than anything.

He summoned his status screen, and read the numbers he had been deliberately ignoring since the raid.

⸢ Profile: Lancet Leogardt ⸥

⸢ Class: Architect (Brilliant) ⸥

⸢ Rank: 1★ Gold ⸥

⸢ Level: 19/150 ⸥

⸢ Grace: 1230/2500 ⸥

⸢ Weapon: Radiant Guillotine ⸥

⸢ Power: Omnipotent Character Manipulation ⸥

⸢ Skills: Heroine Creation | Phantom Skills ⸥

Level 19.

That was where he had stopped himself.

Not because he couldn’t go further but because he had chosen not to.

There was still a massive reserve of experience sitting untouched, accumulated from the Hebthej raid. Enough to push him far beyond his current level if he decided to use it. He could feel it, like a weight waiting to be converted, a resource he had deliberately kept locked away.

If he spent it all now, he could reach Level 40. Easily.

The thought lingered but Lancet dismissed it just as quickly.

In Awakener Supreme, Year One students typically ranged from Level 1 to 20 over the entire course of the academic year. Hitting Level 40 in the very first month of school was an absolutely absurd metric.

Even Renan Falconhart, the literal main character of the novel with his overpowered Heavenly Knight class, hadn’t reached Level 40 this early in the timeline.

If Lancet suddenly flared with the Awakener aura of a mid-tier veteran right after the King and the Headmistress had already put a target on his back, it would bring the entire Kingdom’s intelligence network down on his head.

Lancet leaned back slightly, folding his arms loosely as he kept his attention outwardly on the lesson.

Right now, more attention was one of the things he needed less of.

’I’ll hoard the EXP. I’ll keep my level low to blend in with the Academy’s natural progression. And when I need it the most—when I’m in a life-or-death corner—I’ll spend it all at once for an instant heal and a massive power spike.’

"This is why pacing is critical," Miss Maecil continued her lesson. "You must know your limits. You must know exactly what your tether can handle before it snaps."

Lancet thought about what she just said, then his lips curled into a small smirk. Limits.

The Serpent Society was banking on the fact that he was a clueless First Year. They operated in the shadows of the Academy, using fear and anonymity to control the student body. But they had made one fatal miscalculation when targeting him.

He wasn’t from this world. In Lancet’s world, they were nothing but characters in a web story. A web story he had read numerous times.

That meant there were no secrets from him in this world.

He knew every twist, every hidden identity, and every shadow-play the author had ever penned. He knew exactly who was sitting at the top of the Serpent Society’s hierarchy. He knew their Class, their weaknesses, and their daily routines.

He didn’t need to be Level 40 to dismantle them. He just needed to find the right moment to reach out and touch the top of their little food chain.

Lancet pictured Thor’s crackling hammer, his tool of judgment.

If he could reach the top of the food chain—Lancet’s lips curved faintly—then he wouldn’t just respond.

He would end all of it.

With a surprise they wouldn’t see coming.

"Lancet."

The voice pulled him back. Lancet looked up and realized that Miss Maecil was watching him.

She wasn’t too stern or suspicious. She only had a knowing look on her face.

"Care to tell me what I just said?" she asked, one brow raised slightly.

A few students turned toward him with quiet amusement.

Lancet straightened slightly in his seat.

"...You were talking about summoning tethers," he said carefully. "How to depend on your willpower rather than how strong your tether is."

Maecil smiled. "That’s part of it," she said. "But let’s go over it properly."

She turned back to the board, her energy shifting into something more focused as she began writing.

"Summoning is not about power first," she said. "That’s the mistake most beginners make. They think strength comes from calling something bigger, stronger, more destructive."

She paused, tapping the board lightly. "It doesn’t."

The class quieted.

"Summoning is about control," she continued. "About structure. About the relationship between the summoner and what is being summoned."

She turned slightly, her gaze moving across the room.

"If your foundation is weak, it doesn’t matter how strong your summon is. You will lose control of it. And when that happens, it stops being your power and starts being your problem."

Lancet listened. More closely this time.

"You don’t just call something into existence," Maecil went on. "You bind it. You define its limits. You establish your authority over it."

She gestured lightly.

"That authority is not just force. It’s understanding. It’s... your willpower."

Her eyes landed on Lancet again for a brief moment. "As Summoners, our will is legendary. If it was expanded from the ability to just summon and manipulate entities, there is nothing out there that we can not do."

Lancet’s eyes narrowed.