My System Doesn't Give Power

For the next two months, life settled into the same brutal routine.

Wake up before sunrise, head to the training ground, survive Simon’s merciless training, return home, practice mana control and mana coating until exhaustion finally wins, then collapse into bed.

And do it all over again the next morning.

The specialized training bracelets only made things worse. Whenever the weight finally started to feel manageable, the bracelets increased the gravity again. No matter how much they trained, their bodies were never given enough time to fully adjust.

Just like every morning for the past two months, everyone was assembled on the training ground. Today, however, something was different.

Matilda was there. She stood beside Simon, quietly observing the students as they lined up in their usual formation.

Marty leaned towards Zac and asked under his breath, "What do you think this is about?"

"How would I know?"

A few steps away, Kelly glanced at Sabrina. "Snow, do you know what’s going on?"

"No," Sabrina replied with her usual deadpan expression.

Once everyone had assembled, Simon stepped forward. "As you can all see, your class instructor is here. She has something to say."

Matilda stepped forward and swept her gaze across the group. "Hmm. It’s been two months since I last saw all of you. It seems you’ve gotten a little stronger, thanks to Sir Simon’s teaching, of course." She smiled. "I hope it hasn’t been too hard on you."

Several students’ expressions immediately changed.

Marty stared silently at the ground. "Too hard on us? If only you knew what the last two months have been like."

Matilda continued as though she hadn’t noticed their reactions. "The reason I came here today is that, as I told you before, it’s time to see how well you’ve mastered Mana control."

She paused briefly. "But rather than doing a simple assessment, I pitched the idea of holding a little contest between all of you, and the academy’s higher-ups agreed."

Confusion appeared on several faces. "We’re going to hold a small... kind of tournament."

That got everyone’s attention. "As for the details, once your training here is finished, all of you are to report to the auditorium. I’ll explain everything there."

She smiled brightly. "Now, you may continue your training. Bye-bye."

With that, Matilda turned around and left, and the students stared after her. "Is this what they call showing someone a pie and then not letting them take a bite? At least let us smell it first."

The students had no choice but to return to their training. But the moment the session ended, they followed Matilda’s instructions and made their way to the auditorium.

When they entered, they found the students from Class B already waiting inside.

Once everyone had assembled, Matilda stepped onto the stage and began speaking. "Welcome, students of Class A and Class B."

She looked across the auditorium. "That’s right. The reason both classes are here today is because this will be a joint contest. Or, if you prefer to call it a tournament, that works too."

Murmurs immediately spread through the crowd.

"Since this is the first time both classes have taken part in an activity together," Matilda continued, "I’m hoping to see some impressive results."

She paused before getting to the main point. "Now, as for the tournament itself, it will consist of classic one-on-one matches. All of you will draw lots to determine your opponents. The loser will be eliminated, while the winner advances to the next stage."

"This will continue until only one student remains undefeated."

A few students nodded as they listened carefully.

"If we end up with an odd number of contestants in any round, one student will receive a free pass through the draw and advance directly to the next stage."

Matilda then moved on to the part everyone was waiting for. "As for the rewards, the top fifty students will receive one skill of their choice from the academy’s Skill Library. The top thirty will receive two skills of their choice."

She paused for a moment. "And as for the top three students..."

Her smile widened slightly. "They will receive two skills, along with an opportunity to enter the academy’s Marrow Washing Pool."

The moment the words ’Marrow Washing Pool’ left her mouth, the atmosphere in the auditorium changed.

Several students immediately grew excited.

Zac noticed their reactions and raised an eyebrow. "Marrow Washing Pool? What’s that? Some kind of spa?"

[As the name suggests, it is a pool. However, instead of ordinary water, it contains highly condensed liquefied mana. By immersing yourself in it, impurities accumulated throughout your body, including those buried deep within your bone marrow, can be washed away.]

"So it improves the quality of my body."

[That is what I just said.]

Zac frowned, genuinely confused. "But didn’t I already get an almost divine-tier body? What’s the point of going there?"

[Idiot. You obtained a body with extremely high compatibility with Mana because of the near-divine-tier spirit herb, but you are still a human.]

Zac stared blankly ahead. "Why do you say being human like it’s a sin?"

[God only knows.]

"Whatever. Back to the point."

[Human bodies naturally accumulate impurities over time. Even though you cleansed your body a few months ago, it has already accumulated a considerable amount again. This would be an excellent opportunity to remove them.]

"So you’re saying I should regularly clean the impurities out of my body?"

[Yes! Sir!]

"Do you know if there’s any soap for that? I’m not going through that painful process again if I can help it."

[We are discussing the cleansing of impurities buried deep within your flesh, organs, bones, and marrow, not removing dirt and stains from your skin. Unfortunately for you, the pain is something you have to go through.]

[The results, however will be remarkably beneficial.]

[And to answer your question, no. It is not something you need to do regularly. As your strength increases, the quality of your body will naturally improve with it, and the amount of impurities you accumulate will gradually decrease.]

Zac nodded, finally understanding.

Matilda’s voice drew his attention back to the stage. "There’s something important you all need to know, so listen carefully."

She swept her gaze across the students. "There is one major restriction." Confused expressions appeared throughout the auditorium.

"You are not allowed to use any skills or abilities during the tournament."

Shobin immediately raised his hand. "Ma’am, if we can’t use our skills or abilities, how exactly are we supposed to fight?"

"That’s precisely the point," Matilda replied.

"The purpose of this tournament isn’t to determine who among you is the strongest. It’s to determine how well you’ve learned and mastered mana control and mana coating."

"So during your matches, you may only use Mana Coating."

Several students exchanged uncertain glances.

"But before any of you ask, let me make something clear. I understand that mage-type variants generally use Mana Coating primarily for movement and defense, while most of their offensive power comes from their skills and abilities."

"But that doesn’t matter here. Not for this tournament."

"And being the last person standing does not necessarily make you the number-one student in this tournament."

That immediately caught everyone’s attention.

"There is a very real possibility that the last person standing will not receive the highest evaluation. That’s because we aren’t measuring your overall combat strength. We’re measuring your mastery of Mana Coating."

She raised a finger. "You could be eliminated in the very first round and still finish among the top ten if your control and application of Mana Coating are judged to be exceptional."

"That means someone with relatively weak offensive power could still outperform someone much stronger if their Mana control is superior."

Matilda paused before giving them one final warning.

"And one more thing. If any of you uses a skill or ability other than Mana Coating during a match, you will be immediately disqualified and will receive none of the rewards."

Her eyes swept across the auditorium. "Is that clear?"

The students nodded.

"Good. The tournament begins tomorrow at exactly nine in the morning in the arenas. Don’t be late."

With that, Matilda turned and walked off the stage. One by one, the students began filing out of the auditorium as well.

Eventually, the usual group of seven gathered together.

Daniel looked around at everyone. "So, who do you think is gonna win?"

"I don’t know," Shobin replied. "If this were a normal combat tournament, I could narrow it down to a few people. But since the only thing being judged is Mana Coating, I honestly have no idea."

"If it’s all about Mana, though, I think Snow has a pretty good shot," Kelly said.

"Yeah, I think so too," Daniel agreed. "But we all saw Zac spar with Sir Simon, and his Mana Coating was pretty damn good. So I’d say he has a chance as well."

Marty’s gaze shifted between Zac and Sabrina, then a grin slowly crept across his face. "Wait a second. Don’t you two already have some kind of competition going on?"

Zac frowned while Sabrina turned to look at him.

"You know, the whole ’who masters Mana Coating first’ thing?" Marty continued. His grin widened. "Why don’t you two use this tournament to settle it?"

Zac and Sabrina stared at each other in silence. A moment later, they both spoke at exactly the same time. "Fine."

They immediately looked away from each other.

Adrian crossed his arms, visible disgust spreading across his face. "Filthy commoners squabbling over a petty contest as though victory would be some grand achievement."

He shook his head dramatically. "Merely imagining someone as noble as myself being forced to compete for such trivial rewards is enough to give me a headache."

A heavy sigh escaped him. "Just how far has my glorious life fallen?"

Kelly quietly leaned towards Marty. "Did you really have to do that?"

"Oh, come on." Marty grinned. "The tournament was already going to be fun." He glanced between Zac and Sabrina. "Now it’s got front-row entertainment too."

Then, apparently deciding the fire wasn’t burning brightly enough, Marty turned to Zac. "So, Zac. You sure you can beat her?"

Without even looking at Sabrina, Zac pointed straight at her. "Like hell I’m losing to this Ice Cube."

Sabrina’s eyes narrowed. "Same. I’d rather die than lose to a bitch boy."

"Don’t call me that." Zac immediately turned towards her.

"Then stop calling me...ah...what you called me."

Marty quickly stepped between them before things could escalate. "Okay, okay. Save the domestic violence for tomorrow."

Both Zac and Sabrina turned their gazes towards him.

Marty’s grin vanished. "Right. Bad choice of words."

Sabrina gave Zac one last cold look before turning away. "Come on, Kelly." The two girls walked off together.

Zac watched them leave for a moment before turning around and walking away with Marty.

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