Chapter 38: Ten Hour Challenge, The Boy of Millennium

Solomon tightened his grip on the hilt of Eden’s Penance. The divine steel immediately sent another jolt of lightning up his arms as the weapon actively rejected his touch.

However, he forced his muscles to lock in place and overpowered the sword’s resistance through sheer physical exertion.

Suddenly, the twin-headed dire wolf lunged from its pile of bones, snapping both sets of jaws open to tear him apart.

Solomon quickly calculated his options. He entirely discarded the idea of using the Imperial Sword Arts.

The blade was fighting his control, so executing high-speed precision techniques with a resisting weapon that could tear his own muscles apart. Testing that theory in the middle of a boss battle was definitely a terrible idea.

Instead, he opted for brute force. He planted his boots into the stone floor and swung the oversized executioner’s sword in a simple horizontal arc.

The pristine steel collided with the leaping beast, sending a booming crash echoing across the cavern.

Fortunately, the momentum of the strike launched the boss completely across the room, where it smashed into the wall and dropped a rain of debris from the ceiling.

The wolf quickly scrambled to its feet. While the left head spewed a torrent of black flames, the right head darted forward to bite his legs.

Solomon spun the greatsword in a vertical wheel to use the wide side of the metal as a shield, perfectly deflecting the incoming fire. He then stepped forward through the dispersing flames and launched the blade upward in a devastating uppercut.

The edge caught the right head directly under the jaw, cleanly severing the neck and sending it spinning into the darkness.

The remaining head howled in pain and lunged blindly at him.

Solomon drove the point of the sword directly into the floor and used the hilt as a pivot to vault his body upward. He easily cleared the snapping jaws, flipped mid-air, and landed flawlessly on the beast’s back.

He gripped the handle of the embedded sword with one hand, ripped it from the stone, and brought it crashing down onto the monster’s spine.

The boss shattered instantly into a cloud of ashes.

Solomon casually rested the giant blade against his shoulder, wiped a stray speck of ash from his cheek, and stared directly into the floating mechanical owl’s camera lens.

The chat interface rapidly scrolled with bewildered reactions.

[LazyCat: THE AURA IS OFF THE CHARTS RIGHT NOW!!]

[GamerGuy: Bro just used an S-Rank holy relic like a baseball bat!]

[BloodKnight: Zero flashy techniques. Just violence. Beautiful.]

[User12: HE DID A FLIP OFF HIS OWN SWORD!]

[StreamFan99: The way he just stared into the camera at the end... he knows exactly how cool he looks.]

Solomon tapped the floating screen to check his time. He was making excellent progress, and the physical exertion felt surprisingly manageable despite the lack of sleep. Turning toward the glowing transit gate, he walked forward and entered the sixth floor without looking back at the empty arena.

Back in the administration building, the massive projection on the wall displayed Solomon effortlessly dispatching the wolf boss and stepping through the portal to the sixth floor.

The Grandmaster leaned back in his leather chair and folded his hands over his desk. "What do you think of his performance?"

"It is just standard swordsmanship," Balzac replied casually, resting his chin in his palm. "He uses normal sword techniques. There is absolutely nothing flashy about his forms."

"Why do I feel like you are lying to me right now?" the Grandmaster asked, narrowing his eyes at the professor.

Balzac shrugged his shoulders lazily. "If you refuse to trust my assessment, you should simply call the other professors who actually teach the practical sword classes."

The Grandmaster remained completely silent.

While the quietness stretched between them, Balzac turned his attention back to the live feed. Solomon was already engaging a new horde of monsters in the rocky corridors of the sixth floor.

The boy seamlessly parried strikes and returned lethal blows, maneuvering through the chaos with practiced ease.

"You must have read his student profile," Balzac continued, gesturing toward the glowing projection. "You know exactly what kind of skills he has registered and how many he actually possesses. Look at him move. That is simply a guy who knows his way around a sword because he has trained incredibly hard."

The Grandmaster ignored the explanation and kept his gaze locked entirely on the screen.

"Why are you so hung up on him?" Balzac finally asked, crossing his arms in genuine confusion. "He is strong for a first-year student. However, he is definitely nothing extraordinary."

The Grandmaster sighed and finally broke his silence. "He was given the Millennium Invitation Ticket."

For the very first time since entering the office, Balzac completely lost his lazy composure. His eyes went wide, and he physically recoiled a step away from the cart. He knew exactly what that artifact meant.

The Founder himself personally handed those out, and no one had laid eyes on that man in an entire century. Anyone who received that specific invitation was fundamentally destined to become the absolute greatest of the greatest.

Balzac stared at the Grandmaster in complete shock, entirely unable to form a coherent response.

Three hours later, Solomon stepped into the sprawling, sand-filled arena of the ninth-floor boss chamber.

A giant scorpion with three venomous tails occupied the center of the cavern, angrily clicking its massive pincers as it spotted the intruder.

Solomon sprinted directly at the beast while dragging Eden’s Penance across the loose sand.

The scorpion retaliated instantly, thrusting all three stingers forward in a synchronized strike.

Solomon slid gracefully under the first tail, pushed off his back foot to dodge the second, and brought his greatsword up in an upward arc.

The pristine steel slammed into the third tail, cleanly severing the stinger. The monster screeched in pain and snapped its right pincer toward his waist to crush him.

Fortunately, Solomon easily anticipated the counterattack. He used the flat of his sword as a makeshift springboard, vaulting himself completely over the closing claw and landing perfectly on the scorpion’s armored back.

Before the creature could buck him off, he reversed his grip on the hilt. He channeled all his physical momentum and drove the executioner’s sword straight down through the dense carapace.

The massive blade pierced the monster’s core, pinning it entirely to the cavern floor.

The giant scorpion twitched once before its body began to rapidly disintegrate. The armored shell and severed tail crumbled apart, turning into a pile of gray ashes that scattered quietly across the sand.

Solomon pulled his weapon free and rested it against his shoulder. He checked his stream interface, noting his clear time and the immediate flurry of new comments.

[LazyCat: nine floors down! he is literally speedrunning this dungeon.]

[BloodKnight: Flawless evasion on those stingers. You are managing your stamina perfectly despite the lack of sleep.]

[GamerGuy: the way the boss just turns to ash is so satisfying.]

[User12: bro is making an S-Rank holy relic look like a basic farming tool.]

"That makes nine," Solomon told the chat, casually wiping a bit of sand from his cheek. "We are making excellent time, and my stamina is holding up just fine."

He turned his back to the scattering ashes and walked toward the glowing transit gate waiting at the far end of the cavern, ready to conquer the tenth floor.