SSS Rank: Strongest Beast Master

Sergeant Seraph walked Jonah out of the library without saying a word. Her hand on his shoulder wasn't rough, but it was firm – there was no mistaking it: he had no choice but to follow. Jonah expected to be marched to a training field or a lecture hall, but Seraph led him in the opposite direction, toward a stark, unassuming staircase labeled 'SUBLEVELS.'

"Where are we going?" Jonah asked, his voice echoing in the stone stairwell.

"Your new classroom," Seraph replied, her voice flat. They descended past the first sublevel, a bustling area for equipment maintenance, and the second, which housed the alchemical labs. They went deeper, into the silent, rarely traveled levels of the Academy's foundation.

She held up his report on the Glimmer-Wing Striker. The pages were already marked up with her sharp, precise notes. "Your discovery of 'Synergy Skills' is… significant. The idea that merging essences doesn't just add abilities but creates new, hybrid ones is a paradigm shift. It elevates your power from simple construction to genuine creation."

Jonah felt a rush of pride, but Seraph's tone wasn't congratulatory. She sounded more like someone reading off the features of a machine.

"Because of this," she continued, "I submitted your report, and your existence, to the highest authority in this Academy."

They stopped before a heavy, steel door set into the rough-hewn stone wall. There were no handles, only a single, glowing rune in the center. Seraph placed her palm on it. The rune glowed with blue light, and with a heavy, grinding sound, the door slid open.

"The Headmaster himself reviewed your file," Seraph said, stepping through the doorway into the darkness beyond.

Jonah froze. The Headmaster? Everyone knew who the Headmaster was. He isn't just some teacher, He's living legend. An Overlord-Grade Elite, one of the handful of people in the entire Mystic Phoenix Nation who stood at the absolute pinnacle of power. The idea that a being of that magnitude even knew his name made his knees feel weak.

"He sees your ability as a potential 'game-changer' in the war against the Demonic Beasts," Seraph's voice echoed from the dark. "A potential that must be nurtured. Quickly and quietly."

Jonah nervously followed her into the room. The door slid shut behind him, and everything went almost pitch black. A moment later, soft lights began to glow from the ceiling, illuminating their surroundings.

They were in a massive, circular chamber. The walls were lined with row upon row of transparent, crystalline alcoves. And inside each alcove, a single orb of glowing, colored light floated, pulsing with a gentle, contained energy.

"What is this place?" Jonah breathed, his voice full of awe.

"This is the Essence Archive," Seraph said. Her voice was quieter now, and there was a kind of respect in it that caught Jonah off guard. "A repository. "For years, the Academy's best teams have been out there hunting the strongest Demonic Beasts they can find. This… this is where all that power ends up. Stored. Studied. Ready to be used."

She gestured to the countless glowing orbs. "Normally, access to this chamber is restricted to Ascended-rank students and above. This place is one of the Academy's biggest secrets – and its most valuable asset."

"So… why am I here?" Jonah asked, his voice small. He felt like someone who didn't belong, like a kid who'd somehow wandered into a royal vault.

"The Headmaster has granted you conditional access," Seraph said. "You are a craftsman without a gallery, a painter who has only seen two colors. To understand what you can truly build, you must first study the works of the masters."

She pointed to a nearby alcove. A small, neatly engraved plaque beneath it read: Gryphon Heart Essence. Inside, an orb of brilliant golden light pulsed with a majestic, noble energy.

Jonah stepped closer, his eyes wide. He could feel the power radiating from it, a feeling of soaring flight and fierce loyalty so strong it almost brought him to his knees.

He looked at the next one. Basilisk Eye Essence. The orb inside was a sickly, petrifying green, emanating a cold, heavy aura of stone and venom. Further down the row was Wyvern Talon Essence, a swirling vortex of violent, storm-gray energy that crackled with contained fury.

"You are not to touch anything," Seraph's voice was a firm anchor in his sea of awe. "And you are not yet strong enough to even dream of using essences of this caliber. An attempt at synthesis would not give you psychic backlash; it would liquefy your brain. Your purpose here is to observe. To learn. To understand the properties and potential combinations of what truly powerful essences feel like."

Jonah didn't need the warning. He understood perfectly.

This was the real library.

The books upstairs were just words. But this... this was the real thing. The living language of his power. Every glowing orb felt like a word, a sentence, a story. A story about a battle, a monster, and the moment it was beaten – its essence sealed and saved.

He looked from the incredible, potent essences lining the walls to his own small, internal collection – a bit of Ant, a bit of moth, a bit of turtle. He felt like a child who had been happily making mud pies in his backyard, only to be brought to a master chef's kitchen. Just moments ago, Rook and the Striker had felt amazing, like real victories. Now, they seemed small. Simple. Almost basic compared to everything around him.

But he didn't feel discouraged. He felt inspired. He wanted to grow. To get stronger.

He finally had a real goal. Not just surviving. Not just getting through Seraph's tests. Something bigger. Something he could chase with everything he had. One day, he wouldn't just stand here staring at these essences – he'd earn them. He'd be strong enough to go out and claim them himself. And when he came back, it wouldn't be as some wide-eyed student… but as someone who belonged.