A/N: The name of Darkness and Lightning element is changed to keep it natural with the names of other elements.

Darkness → Umbra

Lightning → Electro

The changes are already implemented in the earlier Chapters.

---

"Who was that mysterious woman?" Vlad murmured, sitting alone on the rooftop. Strangely, despite how unfathomable her presence had been, he did not mind her company. Even though it was the first time he had met her, he felt the same familiar comfort in her presence as he had felt with his mother, Elaria.

He lay back on the rooftop, resting one hand behind his head while extending the other toward the bright moon in the sky. The cold stone pressed gently against his spine, and the night breeze whispered through his hair.

He slowly closed his hand, as if trying to cup the moon within his palm, and declared in a firm voice, "The play time is over. It is time for the endless grind."

Taking a moment to let the weight of his own declaration settle, he ordered, "Ren, claim the reward of the quest."

---

[Reward claimed!]

[Congratulations! The host has received a mystery box.]

---

A horizontal thin line appeared in the air before him. Slowly, the line spread from the center into a diamond shape. From the opening, a cubic box emerged. It fell onto Vlad’s lap, and the hole in space vanished.

"W-was that dimensional space?" Vlad gasped. He had only heard of artifacts that could be connected to small dimensional pockets, which could then be used to store items. He had never seen an interdimensional space appear without any artifact serving as a medium.

"Whoever created the Legacy System must be one heck of a genius," Vlad said, shaking his head in disbelief.

He turned his focus to the head-sized cube resting in his lap. It resembled a Rubik’s cube, except all of its sides were the same deep black. It was heavy, metallic, and finished with a smooth, matte texture.

Vlad rolled it around to examine it. One of its sides had a white square at the center. "Am I supposed to press here?" He touched the white square with his finger. It pressed inward. The cube vibrated, then slipped from Vlad’s hand and fell to the floor.

Its segmented sides began rotating with a low metallic hum, as if the puzzle were solving itself. Once the motion stopped, the white tile on the top face slowly ascended upward, revealing something Vlad had never seen before.

A finger sized diamond stone stood vertically on the elevated platform. Its crimson color gleamed under the moonlight, pulsing with an inner fire. An energy even darker than the night radiated outward from it. At irregular intervals, small flickers of crimson bolts sparkled and danced around the stone like captive lightning.

For a moment, Vlad was completely captivated by the stone, his crimson eyes intently fixed upon it. It felt as though the stone was calling to him. A strange hunger surged through his body. It was not similar to the hunger for food. It was something more, something primal.

As the feeling continued to increase exponentially, he immediately pressed the top of the platform, pushing it back inside the cube. The hunger vanished once the stone was out of his sight, as if the cube had sealed its presence completely.

He took a deep breath to steady himself.

’I should call it a night,’ he decided inwardly.

He pressed his forehead, a mild ache throbbing behind his eyes from the mental exhaustion that came like every full moon night of each month. ’I will ask Ren about the stone tomorrow.’

He grabbed the box and his violin and went inside the dormitory through the stairs.

---

The night slowly gave way to the day as the bright sunlight outshone the stars in the sky.

The central hall of the main building of the academy slowly filled with the footsteps and energetic chatter of the students.

"Is it true that this year the title of Crownbearer is claimed by a commoner?" a girl asked from a group of four beautiful second year students.

"Certainly is," the girl beside her revealed with an excited expression. "But he is unlike the usual lowly commoners. He outsmarted all the other freshers in the Orientation. He won one sidedly. It was not even a competition."

A faint blush appeared on her face as she continued, her voice dropping to a whisper. "And he is very handsome. I saw him in the cafeteria last night. Compared to him, the other junior boys do not hold a candle in terms of looks."

"Really, really? Tell us more."

"What is his eye color?"

"How tall is he?"

Her friends crowded around her, bombarding her with questions, their voices brimming with curiosity and excitement.

"Ladies, you should not believe rumours so easily," a voice cut through their lively chatter, drawing their attention.

The voice belonged to Leo, who stood beside them with his hand resting on his wide waist.

"What do you mean?" the girl who had revealed information about Vlad asked with narrowed eyes.

"Good morning, seniors. I’m Leo Roosevelt, a first year from Order of Rings," Leo introduced himself. " I was passing by when I overheard your discussion. You got two things wrong. First, he is not the most handsome of the first years." He raised his round face high as he continued, "There are many handsome juniors that you might have accidentally overlooked."

The girls looked at him with furrowed brows. They were about to resume their discussion about the handsome Crownbearer when he continued, realizing they seemed unconvinced. "Secondly, he did not outsmart all of us. Even though he managed to monopolize all the resources, he could not secure his own uniform from me. So I obviously outsmarted him there."

A satisfied smirk curled on his face as he revealed, "If you want to see him, you will be able to identify him easily. After all, he will be wearing a skirt for the whole week."

"Look, he is here," the girl exclaimed in excitement, pointing at the main hall’s entrance, completely ignoring Leo.