Chapter 38: Leap of Faith

After walking a few more minutes Tristan finally reached his dorm hall, or to be more precise it was more like a luxury hotel.

"Woah" Tristan couldn’t help but let out an exclamation.

After walking inside he walked in the elevator and pressed the top floor and then entered his "dorm."

Tristan tossed his leather duffel onto the polished marble entryway and let out a long breath, listening to the heavy front door seal behind him with a soft, magical chime.

He had secured Rank 1 in Flamecrest Legacy across dozens of playthroughs, but standing inside the reward was a completely different sensation. The digital renders didn’t do it justice. The top-tier suite in the Sovereign Wing was a sprawling, two-story penthouse. The ground floor housed a fully equipped kitchen, an expansive living area with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the illuminated campus spires, and a private washroom. The second floor featured a massive master bedroom suite, an ensuite bath fitted with mana-heated tiles, and a secondary guest room.

It was a stark, brutal contrast to Louie Hall, the slums reserved for the bottom-ranked bottom-feeders. In Louie Hall, room square-footage barely passed basic safety codes, cramming two students into a glorified closet with twin beds while forcing an entire floor to share a single communal bathroom. At the Academy, rank was more than status; it was quality of life.

After a quick walk-through and tossing his clothes into the wardrobe, Tristan pulled up the course registration portal on his obsidian phone. The core curriculum was mandatory for all freshmen: General History, Applied Mathematics, Monster Studies, Combat Theory, Essence Control, and Physical Training. He had to pick two electives to fill out his remaining slots. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

He selected [Southern Continent History] first, a deliberate choice to gather intel for his long-term plan to establish a frontier seat in the South. Tristan knew a lot but perhaps not everything, maybe something in that class could help him out.

For his second elective, he chose [Introductory Alchemy].

It wasn’t out of a sudden passion for brewing potions. Tristan remembered a recurring plot flag from the game: the Red Mist initiation. An underground syndicate established contact with a specific freshman initiate, tasking them with assassinating a top-ten student to prove their loyalty. The cult initiate always enrolled in that specific afternoon Alchemy section, but their target was randomized every single playthrough. Taking the class was the only way Tristan could monitor the suspect’s movements before he, or an important figure, was targeted.

Also it was no brainer because of his memory.

’I literally remember every recipe.’

Even if he didn’t have the skills to brew or have the materials to make certain potions he could always get those. But some of the end game recipes? That’s a different story. But you see, Tristan had a lot of them.

Housekeeping finished, Tristan used his mobile device to order a lavish, high-protein meal delivered straight to his door. He literally had unlimited points, well within reason, so there was nothing stopping him from getting all the food he wanted.

Setting the empty plates aside an hour later, the quiet of the penthouse finally gave him space to digest his situation. Since waking up in this world, he had been operating on pure adrenaline, navigating the labyrinth, devouring essence stones, shattering his core bottleneck, and outmaneuvering the weird interviewers. Now, the real fun began.

The Academy was the ultimate crucible to accumulate power. To uncover the true ending of this world and eventually challenge the Verneuil main branch, he needed to reach Sovereign rank. Step one was keeping his Rank 1 status, a task that would become infinitely harder once the recommended noble elites entered the ranking pool during the upcoming placement exam.

With three days left until classes started, Tristan wasn’t about to waste time. He unclasped his new brass circulation charm, sat cross-legged on the floor, cracked open his mana threads manual, and got to work.

***

Three hours bled into four as the night deepened over his penthouse.

Exhausted, Tristan lay sprawled out on the polished floor of his living room, staring blankly up at the vaulted ceiling while his chest heaved. He checked his progress, only to let out a frustrated groan. His Essence Thread mastery had crawled from a pitiful 14% to 17%.

In Flamecrest Legacy, acquiring and mastering a skill took a simple click of a button. Once obtained, he could pull off absurd combat maneuvers, swinging from gothic rooftops, tripping up opponents, or forcing their movements into perfectly predictable patterns. He had even invented his own custom finisher in one playthrough, wrapping an enemy in an invisible web of essence before snatching the master thread to inflict dozens of razor-sharp cuts all at once.

’I could be like spiderman...’

Needless to say, Tristan desperately wanted to learn the ability, but the execution just wouldn’t come to him. Essence was foundational to every element of existence in this world, but because he had so little actual physical experience manipulating it, the process felt excruciatingly unintuitive.

Feeling defeated, he decided to step outside for a walk around campus to get some fresh air before heading to bed.

Outside, the night was peaceful and slightly breezy. The courtyard was much quieter now that the club recruiters had cleared out their banners and kiosks. Occasionally, he spotted a few solitary students wandering the stone paths, likely clearing their heads just like him. Even though this was his first time physically on campus, everything felt strangely, intimately familiar.

He strolled past the darkened lecture halls, his boots crunching quietly against the gravel, and headed toward the central bell tower. It was the tallest structure on campus, housing several flights of stone stairs that wrapped in a tight spiral up its interior core. Technically students weren’t allowed in the building but only a simple padlock served as an obstacle. [Reave] easily handled it.

When Tristan reached the top, the entire academy laid out beneath him in a sea of moonlit black stone and distant, glowing windows. He sat on the stone ledge, resting his arms on his knees, his mind drifting back to his previous life. He thought of his friend Noah, the shock of waking up inside this familiar world, acquiring his ability, and surviving long enough to make it to the Academy. His real journey was just starting.

Looking out into the open drop below, an absurd thought suddenly crossed his mind. Maybe, if he jumped from here, a true leap of faith, the sheer desperation would force his essence control to snap into place, mastering the thread technique on the way down. Throwing himself into the deep end of the pool, as they say.

Tristan chuckled softly, shaking his head at his own madness. He pulled himself off the ledge and turned back toward the dark spiral stairs.

"Maybe another day."