Three first year exchange students arrived from Noctis Crown Academy.

Two boys and one girl.

The leader of the group was a young man named Abel. Much like Zephyr and Sylas, he came from a prestigious sorcerer bloodline and had been born a genius.

Despite being only a first year, he had already reached Grade One Sorcerer level and possessed multiple successful solo exorcism records against Grade One Cursed Spirits.

His core technique was Impact.

The other boy was named Knox.

Yes.

The very same Knox from AXN’s S Rank core team.

After the Galaxy Extinction Event in Super Universe, he decided to temporarily leave that game behind.

He planned to return once things settled down.

After some consideration, he entered the special series game Jujutsu Realm instead.

Compared to the chaos of many other game worlds, AXN’s influence here remained relatively stable.

Because of that, after entering the game and reconnecting with his guild’s forces, Knox quickly managed to form a Binding Technique contract with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit through the support of numerous guild members.

Unlike ordinary Cursed Spirits, most Special Grade Cursed Spirits possessed a certain level of self awareness.

Some even had intelligence fully comparable to humans.

Knox reached an agreement with the Special Grade Cursed Spirit. In exchange for regularly offering his own blood, he gained complete access to its power.

Once the Binding Technique was established, Knox immediately acquired the full combat capability of a Special Grade Cursed Spirit.

This was the strength of a major guild.

The only girl among the exchange students was named Uliya.

Since she also needed contact with her guild’s forces, both she and Knox used their real names.

Knox belonged to AXN’s core members.

Uliya was a core member of the Black Flag Guild.

In overall strength, Black Flag was no weaker than AXN or AXF99. All three were among the Four Great Guilds of Arkenfall.

Major guilds maintained extremely strict requirements regarding entry into special series games.

Unless a member had reached a certain level of strength, they were almost never allowed to waste such an opportunity.

After all, entering a special series game while still weak was nothing more than sabotaging one’s future growth potential.

It was pointless.

Because of this, those permitted into special series games were almost always core members.

Uliya was weaker than Knox.

After all, forming a Binding Technique contract with a Special Grade Cursed Spirit was absurdly difficult.

At the very least, she had never gotten such an opportunity.

Still, her luck had been excellent.

She began the game with a physical type Heavenly Restriction, then received a Special Grade cursed blade through her guild’s support.

Her combat strength immediately rose to the level of a peak Grade One Sorcerer.

Among the three, Knox was unquestionably the strongest.

However, since Abel came from a prestigious sorcerer family, the academy naturally treated him as the team leader by default.

Knox had no objections.

His constant blood loss left his complexion deathly pale. He looked perpetually exhausted and barely had the energy to walk, let alone lead anyone.

"Haa..."

Cursecraft Academy was located deep in the outskirts of Blackreach. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

As the group climbed the long mountain staircase through the wilderness, Knox wheezed nonstop.

He looked like he might collapse dead at any second.

Uliya glanced at him.

"You okay?"

"I... I’m... fine... haa..."

Knox struggled to catch his breath.

"But if you gave me a hand... I might feel a little better."

Uliya offered what she thought was a practical suggestion.

"Want me to just throw you to the top?"

"..."

Knox forced out an awkward laugh.

"Maybe not."

"I’ll help."

Abel wore traditional sorcerer robes with a refined old fashioned style.

A warm smile rested on his face, and simply being around him naturally made others feel comfortable.

He draped Knox’s arm over his shoulder and helped him continue up the staircase.

"Thanks."

Abel smiled lightly.

In terms of charisma alone, Abel was basically maxed out.

Eventually, they finally reached the top.

Zephyr, Sylas, and Caelum had already been waiting there.

With an obviously fake smile, Zephyr greeted them.

"Welcome to Cursecraft Academy for your exchange program."

Truthfully, he had not wanted to come at all.

Neither he nor Sylas needed this kind of exchange learning nonsense.

Then he remembered Caelum still had not even properly formed a core technique, and his hand to hand combat skills were barely at Grade Three Sorcerer level.

It was honestly terrible.

While other Sorcerers threw around techniques left and right, Caelum just punched things.

That clearly would not cut it.

Thinking that way, Zephyr eventually decided to show up anyway.

Even if he found the whole thing boring, at least he could help create a good learning opportunity for Caelum.

Caelum had no idea what those two were thinking.

They had spent the entire time complaining about how pointless this exchange was, yet still came to welcome the newcomers.

His gaze swept across the three visitors one by one.

Since he had never met Knox directly back during Super Universe, he did not recognize him.

"Welcome, all three of you."

The moment he spoke, all three exchange students reacted differently.

Confusion.

Surprise.

A trace of caution.

If Caelum had not spoken, none of them would have even realized another person was standing there.

Was this guy’s presence seriously that weak?

Abel looked toward Zephyr with slight nostalgia in his tone.

"Zephyr. It’s been a while."

"Has it?"

Zephyr hooked a thumb toward the academy barrier behind him.

"Save the catching up for inside. Your friend there looks like he seriously needs a break."

Abel nodded.

"Then we’ll be in your care."

As they passed by each other, Uliya deliberately gave Caelum another look.

As a Heavenly Restriction user, her instincts and senses were extraordinarily sharp.

Something about Caelum felt strange to her.

Could he be the same as her?

Another Heavenly Restriction user?

She herself possessed a purely physical type Heavenly Restriction. Although she had absolutely no Cursed Energy, unlike ordinary humans, she could directly see Cursed Spirits.

The next day.

After fully resting, the three exchange students arrived at Alpha Division.

After greeting everyone, Uliya failed to find Caelum anywhere in the classroom and asked Zephyr and Sylas:

"The guy in your class... is he a Heavenly Restriction user?"

"Hm?"

Both of them froze.

Sylas asked back,

"Why would you think that?"

Zephyr shook his head.

"As far as I know, his hand to hand combat skills are only around Grade Three level. With cursed tools, he can barely deal with a Grade Two Sorcerer."

"And Heavenly Restriction users are at least Grade One level. So no, he definitely isn’t the physical type."

"Besides, just look at how healthy and energetic he is. No way he’s the Cursed Energy type either."

Uliya looked slightly disappointed.

"I see."

"Since this is an exchange program..."

Sylas turned toward her.

"He’s actually pretty interested in hand to hand combat. I think you two would probably have a lot to talk about. Want to spar with him?"

"A match? Sure, no problem."

Uliya nodded.

"But where is he?"

"I’ve been standing here the whole time."

Caelum’s voice suddenly sounded beside them.

Everyone jumped in shock.