"Oh my god, my grimoire is so thick!"
A boy was so overwhelmed with excitement he nearly fainted on the spot.
"What's the big deal? Mine's twice as thick as yours."
Another boy scoffed dismissively.
But where there's joy, there's also disappointment. A frail, skinny boy stood off to the side, holding a grimoire barely the size of a palm.
Meanwhile…
Asta had his eyes closed.
Can someone please tell him why everyone else got one, but he didn't?!
"Tch. Whatever, I expected as much."
Asta curled his lip. After all, it wasn't the first time he'd been rejected by a world's mainstream cultivation system. So what if he didn't get a grimoire? It wasn't the end of the world.
Right now, he had already saved up 200 points, and once he reached 10,000, he could redeem a Single Tomoe Sharingan from the System. Once he activated it, he'd still be the flashiest guy in this world!
"Looks like it's time for me to head off into the deep mountains for training."
Asta sighed. He'd originally planned to live it up in the capital if he managed to get a grimoire and experience the true top-tier combat power of this world. But now that he'd come up empty-handed, he had no choice but to quietly "jungle farm" on his own.
"Hmph! I'm going to enter the Magic Knights Entrance Exam six months from now!"
Will announced smugly, his brows and eyes full of conceit.
"We'll definitely pass!"
Rek chimed in, just as confident.
"From here on out, our paths diverge completely! From this moment on, the clouds belong to the sky, and the mud to the ground. A discarded orphan like you is only fit to scrape by in some forgotten chapel. So what if you can slaughter pigs? Once we join the Magic Knights, we'll have endless room to grow, dragon-slaying won't even be out of the question!"
Will looked at Asta's empty hands and couldn't help but sneer.
"What a pitiful sight. Even a grimoire didn't bother to choose him! I've heard that even in backwater villages, some bumpkins still try to shamelessly join the Magic Knights just for a scrap of glory to brag about when they're old and farming. But this guy? He won't even get the chance!"
Rek added gleefully, mocking him without mercy. In a world like this, where magic was everything, someone who couldn't use magic might as well be trash.
"You jerks! I won't let you insult Asta like this!"
Nash gritted his teeth and stepped forward.
"Where'd this beggar come from? Beat it."
Will said in disgust, just as a chilling voice came from the distance.
"Wanna know what it really means to be 'worlds apart'?"
Asta walked up to the two, his expression ice-cold, and casually placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"This is the Grimoire Tower, you wouldn't dare kill us here!"
Will and Rek both felt a sudden, tight clench in their guts. This was not looking good.
Whoosh!
Just as they feared, Asta lifted them like two rag dolls and charged straight out of the tower. His speed was like that of a fierce azure beast, chakra gathering rapidly in his legs. He was running at five times the speed of an average person!
"MURDER!!!"
Will and Rek's voices trailed behind like faint echoes, they couldn't even keep up with the wind.
Just as Asta passed by Yuno, a sudden, brilliant golden light erupted from the grimoire in Yuno's hands, drawing everyone's attention.
"The fourth leaf has bloomed!"
The Tower Master's eyes locked on the glowing book, stunned to see that on the cover, among the usual three, a fourth leaf had appeared.
"A four-leaf grimoire?!"
Gasps of awe rippled through the tower. After all, it was said that even the First Magic Emperor had received a four-leaf grimoire!
Everyone knew the three leaves of a clover symbolized honesty, hope, and love. The fourth leaf, however, held something rarer still: luck.
Beyond that, a four-leaf grimoire housed an extraordinary level of magical power. It was a legendary artifact in its own right.
"Looks like Yuno got something pretty damn impressive," Asta muttered, glancing back.
"Guess I'd better hurry up and deal with these two clowns."
With that, he surged forward again, blasting through the tower doors, and leapt onto the roof of a nearby building seven meters high, dragging Will and Rek with him like sacks of potatoes.