The "Manual Labor Corps"—or as the students called it, *The Dregs*—smelled of wet straw, unwashed bodies, and despair.
Despite the spectacle Julian had caused in the examination hall, the bureaucracy of Aethelgard was rigid. The Proctor had categorized his violet resonance as a "spectral anomaly," likely a malfunction of the crystal. Without a traditional Spirit Root to store mana, Julian was deemed useless for combat.
So, here he was. Not in a silk-draped dormitory, but in a leaky wooden barracks on the edge of the Academy grounds.
"New meat!"
The voice was rough, like gravel grinding in a mixer. Julian paused while unpacking his meager bundle of clothes. He turned to see three burly teenagers blocking the doorway. The leader was a boy with a jaw like a brick and a faint, muddy-yellow aura flickering around his fists—a sign of a Grade-E Earth affinity.
"I'm Kael," the leader grunted, cracking his knuckles. "In The Dregs, we have a tax. Your blanket looks newer than mine. Hand it over."
Julian sighed. *Tribalism. The universal constant of the uneducated.*
He adjusted his glasses—miraculously still intact from his transmigration—and looked Kael up and down. A blue overlay flickered across his vision.
[Analysis Active]
[System Analysis Active]
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Target: Kael (Grade E - Earth Cultivator)
[Scan Complete]
Structure: High bone density. Poor stance.
Resonance Frequency (Skull): ~320 Hz.
Resonance Frequency (Sternum): ~110 Hz.
"I advise against this," Julian said, forcing his voice to remain steady despite the adrenaline spiking in his blood. "I'm tired, and my tolerance for inefficiency is currently zero."
Kael laughed, a barking sound. "Did you hear that? The F-Grade thinks he can talk! Get him!"
Kael lunged, his fist glowing with that muddy yellow light. It was a crude reinforcement technique, hardening his skin like rock. To a normal person, a punch like that would break ribs.
To Julian, it was just a mass in motion with a specific structural flaw.
*Time to test the active skill.*
Julian didn't dodge. Instead, he took a half-step forward, intercepting the punch before it gathered full momentum. He didn't block it with strength; he placed his open palm gently against Kael’s incoming forearm.
[Skill: Internal Oscillation (Rank G) - Activated]
Output: Destructive Interference Pattern.
Julian hummed deep in his chest. It wasn't audible, but the vibration traveled from his core, down his arm, and into Kael’s wrist.
He matched the frequency of the vibration to the exact structural stress point of Kael's hardened skin—and then inverted the phase.
*Snap.*
It wasn't the sound of bone breaking, but the sound of the magical reinforcement shattering. Kael yelled, not in pain, but in pure shock as the yellow light around his arm disintegrated into sparks. His arm went numb, vibrating uncontrollably like he had just punched a high-voltage pylon.
Kael stumbled back, clutching his deadened arm, eyes wide with horror. "You... you used a dismantling art! That's a Tier 2 spell! You're an F-Grade!"
"It wasn't a spell," Julian corrected, dusting off his sleeve. "I simply introduced a contradictory frequency into your kinetic chain. Your technique is sloppy. Too much noise, not enough signal."
The other two lackeys froze. They looked at Julian, then at their groaning leader, and backed away.
Julian turned back to his bed, smoothing out the blanket. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to meditate. Or as I prefer to call it, 'calibrate'."
He sat cross-legged on the rough mattress. The system window popped up again, hovering in the gloom of the barracks.
[Combat Data Processed.]
Proficiency Gained: Internal Oscillation +4%
New Derivative Skill Unlocked: [Damping Field] (Ineffective against high-tier attacks, but excellent for silencing idiots).
Julian smiled. This world thought magic was about rage and power. He would teach them that the universe was made of math. And he was the only one holding a calculator.
Author's Note:
