Gordon sat inside his office, a stack of papers sitting there on the table right before him. The office was illuminated by two crystal lamps that hung at opposite sides of the office, their glow warm and welcoming, allowing him to focus on work that needed to be done.

The window was shut to stop the cold night breeze from being a distraction. A steamy cup of coffee sat on the table.

Gordon gripped a piece of paper and read through the details.

"Multiple evolved monsters found close to a small town settlement." He muttered, his expression darkening a bit as he looked at the paper. "The occurrence is increasing more and more. Why are the monsters leaving the vast domain and getting close?

If evolved monsters are getting this close, then what's to stop higher monsters from coming? Tch, these are issues the secret palace should handle, yet they sit quiet."

Knock knock.

Gordon looked at the door. "Come in, it's open."

The door swung open, and in came Legion. He stepped in and shut the door behind him before scanning the office a few times and then looking at Gordon.

"Good evening, Gordon." He spoke casually before waltzing his way to a chair. He pulled it out and sat down.

"Legion, what's bringing you here now?" Gordon asked, not bothering with pleasantries.

"Tch, won't even respond to my greetings?" Legion said.

"I'm way too busy for whatever you want to say," Gordon said.

"Na, I beg to differ," Legion said.

"Fine, I'll humor you," Gordon replied, placing his paper down and looking at Legion. "So what's it?"

"Remember the kid, Aren, one of the first to leave the first trial?" Legion asked.

"Yeah, the one that loves to eat. What about him?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah, I searched his name under all S ranks and A ranks, and I didn't find him," Legion said.

"Hmm? That doesn't sound right," Gordon said. He picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip before placing it down. "Could it be that he is B tier?" He asked.

"No, even that, or any tier at all. He wasn't there at all," Legion stated.

Gordon frowned slightly. He interlocked his fingers. "There is no way he entered the trials without awakening," he said.

"He definitely awakened. I've seen him fighting, and I have to say that he is S tier, or at the very least a very solid A tier," Legion said.

"So what happened then? Why is his information not there?" Gordon wondered.

"Well, I think I know the reason, but I'm not sure of the information. When the awakening ceremony happened, I heard word of someone that didn't awaken anything at all, all question marks for some reason unknown," Legion said.

"Question marks? That's the first time I've heard of something like that. He had no class?" Gordon asked.

"Indeed, and he was written off as probably too weak to be rated," Legion said, leaning back into his chair.

"That's not possible," Gordon said.

"Hmm, why so?" Legion asked.

"Because it's not possible. F tier is the lowest any awakened human can go. Let me explain," Gordon said. He got up, carried his coffee, and walked toward the window.

"The human body is incapable of having lower than a certain amount of soul energy after awakening. Anything lower than that is considered the rare not awakened," he said.

"The orb is capable of telling when a person doesn't awaken. It has that ability. It's just never been really used much since very few people actually never awaken. It's so few it's not even public information.

He took a sip from his coffee and let out a deep breath. "The only way for him to have been so low he couldn't be ranked would be if he, by some mysterious means, found himself in the tiny crack that exists between not awakened and the lowest threshold of awakening.

That crack is literally nonexistent. There is no way for a human to be so unlucky that he falls there, and as we have seen from his performance, he is definitely not in that lowest crack," Gordon explained.

"So what are you trying to say?" Legion asked.

"Use your big brain, Legion. There are only a few responses here. First, there was a glitch, a glitch when it was his turn. Now any responsible and smart individual conducting the ceremony would have opted to try multiple times.

So whoever the idiot is that took the ceremony for them, he messed up. There is also the fact that the orb has only F to S, and then the secret SS," Gordon said.

"Yeah, the SS doesn't show in public, remember? It shows only to the ceremony master and shows S to the remaining people," Legion said.

"Yeah, to ensure the world doesn't know that there is something beyond the S rank, and what that entails as a whole.

But from the records, the first SS ranked appeared many years ago and is currently one of the top people in the Secret Palace.

So what I'm trying to say in essence is that until the first SS showed, there had never been any setting for it, and the orb came up blank. So what if this is a similar scenario?

What if we have someone that is higher than the SS tier?" Gordon asked.

Legion was shocked by this explanation, and to a great extent, it made a lot of sense. But then again.

"I think that's too far. I believe the glitch is better. The kid is skilled, but definitely not above SS tier skilled," Legion said.

"Don't throw it off just yet, Legion, because there is one more pointing factor. Shadow," Gordon said.

"Hmm? Shadow? The top of the new awakened? Isn't he the white-haired kid that flaunts?" Legion asked, then paused for a few seconds. "Wait, Aren uses shadow-like abilities and is quite strong, and the announcement of Shadow leaving the trials came around the same day he was out as well. Could that mean?"

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