A red message appeared in Kieran's eyes.

[You have been eliminated.

Individual collected point: 12,240

Current Ranking: 24th]

He got up slowly in his capsule when his vision began to spin, he leaned on the edges of his capsule to restrain himself from falling. He suddenly felt a sharp pain in his head, as if someone had stabbed him with a knife and turned it several times inside, forcing him to hold his head with both hands, the pain twisted his face.

Even if it seemed that his body was fine, the last 20 minutes were trying for his mind, the pain of his body burning again and again was unbearable.

"You're finally out."

Hearing his brother's voice, Kieran forced himself to maintain a calm expression despite the pain that invaded his head, he slowly raised his head, seeing his brother in front of him with a bottle of water in his hand.

"Here, take this."

He grabbed the bottle his brother threw at him before opening it.

"How long have you been out, Ryan?"

"About 20 minutes."

"So, how did you finish in the ranking?"

A smile appeared on Ryan's face.

"I finished 25th, and you?"

"24th."

"Shouldn't you have finished higher since you stayed longer?"

"Don't you remember what happened when you were eliminated?"

"No, I was already fainting on your back against the lightning drakes. Didn't you manage to finish it?"

"Another guy came in and eliminated him before me, then he played with me until now," Kieran said, trying to sound as normal as possible, he didn't want his brother to know what had happened.

'I'm going to have to train harder and reach the Bronze rank quickly if I want to be able to return the favor to this guy.'

A cold light appeared in his eyes for a moment.

"Played with you? Can someone in the academy can do that?"

"I don't know who it is, but he is at the Bronze rank and has an ability with a red flame."

"A red flame? It must be Allen Graham from Class 3-2."

"Graham? Like the mayor of Ozryn?"

"Yes, it's his son."

"No wonder he's so strong, his dad must have given him all the resources he wanted."

"From what I heard, the mayor will never have the chance to reach the realm of transcendence in his life. Since his son was awakened with a B grade crystal seed, he uses all his resources to raise him, hoping he enters the realm of transcendence in his place."

"How do you know so much about him?"

"He is known by all the students in the academy for his bad temper, he injured several students during training, the teacher of class 3-2 had to stop him several times, and now no one dares to train with him. You would know as much if you stayed in the academy."

"I learn more through the rift than here at the academy."

"Do you plan to go back there soon?"

"Yes, I have no crystal core left to cultivate."

"You bastard!"

Suddenly Cassandra's angry voice sounded close to them.

Turning in the direction of her voice, Kieran and Ryan saw Cassandra approaching them with a dark face.

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"Hey, Cassandra. It's been a while," Kieran said in a skewed voice.

"A while?! You eliminated me!!!"

Ryan looked at his brother in shock.

"Why did you eliminate her?"

"She was useless."

"Useless?! If you eliminated me because I was useless, why didn't you eliminate him?!" Cassandra yelled, pointing at Ryan.

"Because he was more useful than you."

"Him?! A guy with a grade E crystal seed more useful than me?!"

"It wasn't very difficult since you were useless."

"You..."

Cassandra gritted her teeth, looking at Kieran with a gloomy face.

"I'll make you pay for that."

"If you say so."

Cassandra left without saying another word.

"Why did you eliminate her?" Ryan asked again.

"She did something she never should have done."

Kieran's eyes went cold, Ryan felt a shiver run down his spine when he saw those eyes.

The moment seemed to last forever for Ryan as a second passed before Kieran looked back at his brother with a smile.

"We did well during the competition, but I don't know if it's enough to get a good reward."

"I don't know either. They didn't indicate how the rewards would be distributed."

"We will know it soon. There is half an hour left before the end of the competition. Have you seen Thomas?"

"Thomas? He's over there."

He looked where his brother was pointing and saw Thomas accompanied by two other students busy talking to each other.

"Let's go see them. We have nothing better to do while waiting for the end of the competition anyway."

"Sure."

The two quickly approached Thomas's group.

"It's unbelievable that it appeared inside an Iron rank rift."

"Yeah."

"It's a shame that with our strength, we won't be able to go there."

As the two got closer, they heard the three talking to each other.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kieran asked.

"Hey Kieran, you finally got out. So how did it go? Did you manage to rank well?"

"We finished in the top thirty, now we are waiting for the end of the competition to have our final ranking."

A look of surprise appeared on the faces of the three.

"The top thirty? How did you do it? Did you breakthrough the Bronze rank?"

Thomas was in disbelief, he kept asking Kieran questions without stopping.

"I'm not at the Bronze rank yet but I've improved a lot since our last practice together. How about you? What's your ranking?"

"I finished 15,850th," said Thomas, scratching the back of his head.

"What were you talking about when we arrived?"

"Didn't you see the news on the aurora net?"

"No."

"A secret realm has been discovered in an Iron rank rift."

"A secret realm?!"

Kieran opened the aurora net, accessing the news from the city of Ozryn, he quickly found the article related to the secret realm that had appeared.

[The Iron Rank 57863 rift is a rift connecting to an archipelago with hundreds of thousands of islands within it.

At present, the Aegis alliance has still not finished exploring the limit of the archipelago. The maps of the archipelago are, to date, still incomplete.

Seven days ago, the Cold Ocean guild discovered small spatial cracks on an island of the archipelago. After several examinations, the spatial cracks belong to a secret realm.

Several exploration teams from the guilds of Ozryn are currently regrouping to try to open a passage to connect to the secret realm.

In four days, the exploration teams of the guilds will leave the refuge to reach the secret realm. Anyone wishing to join the Guild Expedition is welcome.]

A secret realm was a domain sealed in a space outside the world. Most secret realms were remnants left by former cultivators from the ancient era. After the erosion of time, the formations that kept the space of the secret realm stable crumbled and thus left the secret realm to appear to everyone.

Each secret realm was different. Some had level restrictions, just like the spatial rift. Groups within the Aegis Alliance occupied some, even the Ozryn Cultivators Academy had one, but those already occupied had seen their best resources taken away long ago, becoming training grounds for the younger generations, gardens for natural treasures or breeding grounds for rare crystal beasts.

Only undiscovered secret realms contained many treasures or legacies long lost within them. Although some were empty or ravaged by time, entering a secret realm could change a person’s life overnight.

Kieran was lost in his thought when Thomas's voice woke him up.

"You should try to go, Kieran. The secret realm appeared in an Iron rank rift. This is an event that may not even happen again in 100 years. You must have enough strength to join the expedition if you can reach the top 30 of the ranking."

'If I'm lucky, I might find the materials I need to evolve my crystal trees inside or at least something to trade for them,' Kieran thought as he listened to Thomas's words.

"You are right. I will try my luck. Four days remain before the expedition leaves to open the secret realm. I have time to prepare myself."

The five began to chat among themselves. Thirty minutes later, teacher Marsk entered the virtual machine room.

"Everyone come closer here."

Teacher Marsk's voice echoed in the room, and all the students moved quickly to regroup in front of him.

"The Ozryn Academy inter-class competition is now over. You will soon receive the results and a reward for all those who reached the first to 30th places in the ranking."

At the end of his words, a notification appeared on the aurora collar of each student.

[Student: Kieran Arvost

Class: 3-4

Ranking: 28th

Reward: 1 Iron rank crystal core]

Kieran stared at the results in a daze.

'I reached 28th place, but I only get a single crystal core for this?'

He found the reward absurd. They spent almost two full days killing crystal beasts with his brother. If they had been inside a rift, those two days would have brought them at least 40 crystal cores at the rate at which they killed the crystal beasts during the competition.

'Wasting two days to receive so little... Rifts are more profitable for me than staying at the academy. Hunting inside a rift allows me to train my abilities better and get crystal cores simultaneously.'

He had already decided before the competition, but now he was even more sure that if he stayed all the time at the academy, his progress rate would be greatly reduced.

The two returned home together after receiving their rewards from the academy.