Caelum strolled out of the hotel at an easy pace.

The crowd outside had already been terrified by the commotion and scattered far away. Even though he walked right past them, nobody seemed to notice him at all.

It was as if he were completely invisible.

Soon, police sirens echoed through the streets.

Officers rushed in and sealed off the hotel lobby, which now looked like a slaughterhouse straight out of hell. Their first instinct was to check the security footage, only to discover the entire surveillance room had already been smashed to pieces.

[Crazy Crit Fusion Triggered]

[Please Begin Crit]

Caelum walked calmly against the flow of fleeing pedestrians while casually tapping the giant red button that only he could see.

In an instant, the crit gauge filled to maximum.

[CritCritCritCritCrit]

[Crazy Crit!!!]

The light sphere exploded.

This time, the Sorcerers and Cursed Spirits he killed had been both numerous and high quality, so the fusion immediately produced two techniques at once.

[Fusion Complete]

[Obtained Technique: Tide of Cursed Energy]

[Obtained Technique: Tide of Cursed Energy]

[Tide of Cursed Energy: Possesses five times the Cursed Energy reserves of an ordinary Sorcerer]

Unfortunately, both techniques were identical.

The effect itself was solid, but Caelum already possessed Heavenly Restriction. Extra Cursed Energy reserves did not significantly increase his actual combat strength.

[Continue Crazy Crit Fusion]

The shattered light reformed.

The crit gauge reset to zero.

Caelum slammed the red button again and instantly maxed the gauge out once more.

[CritCritCritCritCrit]

[Crazy Crit!!!]

The sphere exploded again.

This time, the two identical techniques fused together. Quantity transformed into quality, resulting in a technique that finally satisfied him.

[Fusion Complete]

[Obtained Technique: Source of Cursed Energy]

[Source of Cursed Energy: Infinite Cursed Energy]

Caelum stopped there.

As the light merged into his body, the amount of Cursed Energy within him surged violently, flooding every corner of his limbs and organs.

He now possessed endless Cursed Energy.

"That actually feels pretty good."

From now on, he could spend Cursed Energy as recklessly as he wanted without ever worrying about depletion.

Of course, Infinite Cursed Energy did not mean infinite output.

His reserves were endless, but his instantaneous output remained unchanged.

In simpler terms, Caelum now had infinite ammunition, but the caliber of his weapon and the power of each bullet stayed the same.

Tenfold Limit Art remained irreplaceable.

[Interference Value Obtained: 0.03]

[Current Interference Value: 0.03]

By participating directly in the bait operation that led to the destruction of Divine Grace Society, encountering Mordren himself, and wiping out many of Mordren’s subordinates, earning 0.03 Interference Value was already considered fairly substantial.

After all, even participating in a major event and playing a crucial role usually only rewarded around 0.1.

This incident with Divine Grace Society and Mordren did not even qualify as a true major event.

In the world of sorcery, a real major event meant something on the scale of dragging an entire Cursecraft Academy into chaos.

Those players obsessed over Interference Value nonstop. Every day, they were either causing trouble or planning something even bigger.

Caelum found that mindset boring.

Rather than exhausting himself for scraps of Interference Value, he would rather quietly build strength in the shadows until the day he could erase the entire sorcery world in one move.

Or better yet, destroy the entire Jujutsu Realm game world itself.

That was his actual goal.

Compared to that, overturning the current power structure or conquering the world with sorcery felt incredibly dull.

When it came to destroying worlds, Caelum had plenty of experience.

It was only a matter of time.

Because of that, he had zero interest in the politics and conflicts of the sorcery world.

In the end, he intended to destroy everything anyway.

Still, he did enjoy watching everyone else play their little games while occasionally stepping in himself to collect more fragments for fusions and strengthen his abilities.

Rushing things never ended well.

He had plenty of time to grow stronger.

Exposing his power too early would only alert the entire sorcery world. If every Sorcerer united against him before he was fully prepared, things could get annoying.

Sure, he could fight them while constantly farming fragments and evolving mid battle, but troublesome techniques were always a risk.

Especially things like sealing techniques.

Without enough confidence, he had no intention of charging in recklessly.

As always, Caelum remained cautious.

Still, after this battle, he finally had a much clearer understanding of his own strength.

There was no doubt about it.

Below Special Grade, he was untouchable.

As for the strength of Special Grade Sorcerers and Special Grade Cursed Spirits, he would need to encounter them personally before judging.

Either way, he was not worried.

Worst case scenario, he could just take off the glasses.

Truthfully, he also wanted to see exactly how strong he would become once the Binding Technique restrictions were lifted.

One thing was certain.

Mordren was absolutely not just a Grade One Sorcerer.

Most likely, he was Special Grade.

After all, even the puppet body he created already possessed the strength of a peak Grade One Sorcerer.

Against Zephyr and Sylas, it could still hold its own for a while.

Back at the academy.

Alpha Division.

Before even stepping into the classroom, Caelum could already hear the teacher scolding someone inside.

Zephyr and Sylas had acted without academy approval and wiped out Divine Grace Society on their own. The higher ups were furious over their recklessness.

Naturally, their teacher became the punching bag.

After getting chewed out by the academy leadership, he passed the frustration directly onto the two troublemakers.

Neither of them cared in the slightest.

Zephyr looked half asleep during the lecture, his eyelids drooping lower and lower until the teacher finally snapped and punched him in the head.

"Ow!"

Zephyr yelped and clutched his head in pain.

The teacher turned toward the doorway and looked at Caelum.

"Student, who are you looking for?"

"..."

"..."

The atmosphere instantly became awkward.

A moment later, realization flashed through the teacher’s mind.

Only then did he remember that Caelum was also one of his students.

No wonder something had felt off while he was lecturing earlier.

He had forgotten an entire person.

"Ahem!"

The teacher coughed awkwardly and pretended none of that had happened before quickly moving on.

"Right. One more thing. Within the next couple of days, several first year students from Noctis Crown Academy will be coming here for an exchange program. Since you’re all first years too, the academy assigned the three of you to handle it."

There were four major Cursecraft Academies in the sorcery world.

Astra Cursecraft Academy.

Noctis Crown Academy.

Solgrave Academy.

And Frostveil Academy.

Every year, Astra and Noctis organized exchange programs between students from various grades.

Officially, it was for learning and cooperation.

In reality, it was competition.

Just another yearly tradition.

"Huh?"

Zephyr looked completely annoyed.

"Why are we the ones stuck doing something this boring..."

"That decision came from higher up. I’m only relaying the message."

"Tch. What a pain."