Asher walked with a not too hurried stride through the Ranking halls of Balreth Academy. Though he is going to see one of the strongest geniuses in the entire Academy, he was in no rush to meet this Scarlett person.

Unlike how other common students see meeting any Ranking List students as a gracious gift of divine luck, Asher was simply indifferent.

Even before awakening his System Soul, he never put anyone on a pedestal. Asher found it disrespectful to himself that he would place another person's existence above his own if he doesn't even know them at all.

On his first meeting with Elsa, Asher did regard her as one of the most beautiful people he ever saw in his life. Moreover, she had an insane amount of strength that pre-awakened System Soul Asher could only hope to achieve.

But, even with all that stacked against him, Asher never regarded Elsa as above him.

He more so saw her like an inevitable goal post that he would one day catch up to. His way of catchup thinking is why Asher barely gets discouraged, no matter how much more powerful someone is than him.

It's also why Asher was intrigued at the prospect of experiencing the Magical Aura of a Peak Stage Spirit Tier cultivator firsthand.

Asher had read over the Ranking Student List once and noticed there were far more Late-Stage geniuses than Peak Stages.

And Scarlett was one of those few Peak Stage geniuses.

Asher presumed there obviously has to be a tremendous dividing line separating the Late Stages and Peak Stage geniuses.

Whether it was access to better resources, more lucky chances, or just better talent, Asher believed he could find some sort of answer from meeting with Scarlett. Since she is willing to meet him, she also should be willing to answer some of his questions.

Casual and relaxed, Asher began turning around one hallway corner, but he abruptly stopped mid-step.

All at once, Asher sensed tremendous danger rush through his entire body!

A cold frill shivered up Asher's spine, and there was a tightening lump quickly forming within his throat. In an instant, Asher frantically spread his Aura Sense out and immediately detected what made him feel such frantic danger.

Just sixty feet away from him and rapidly approaching was one of the most powerful Magical Aura Asher had ever sensed and felt.

A colossal pressure warped Asher's body, nearly making him crash to his knees. From all around him, the wind started to fiercely kick up, becoming a frantic whirlwind that forced Asher to tightly squint his eyes.

This was the most significant pressure Asher had ever been under. But he wasn't going to simply roll over for whoever this sudden attacker is!

Faster than he could ever do before, Asher swirled a tremendous sum of Spirit Mana energy into his arms as his Magical Aura explosively bursts from his body!

"Haah!!"

Asher unleashed a roaring battle cry as his prowess tremendously surged within a nanosecond. The floor cracked beneath Asher, causing a meter-deep crater to form underneath his feet.

Releasing his Magical Aura and Spirit Mana energy did cause the colossal pressure to decrease off from Asher's body. And in that instance, he blinked his eyes and suddenly saw just who his attacker was.

Asher couldn't identify if it was a male or female, but it was somebody's foot that was unleashing a powerful Magical Aura and was diving straight at him, intending to cave his chest in.

Even though Asher could sense he's weaker than whoever this person was, he didn't become fraught with fear.

Instead, Asher tightly grits his teeth, crosses his arms in front of his face, and firmly holds his stance.

'Bang!'

The whole hallway floor slightly quivers as Asher forcefully took on this powerful foot. Spider-like webs continued expanding on the floor and even carved a bit into the wall just from their violent Magical Aura clash.

Asher and this person's Magical Aura were like two wild hurricanes clashing against each other, wreaking considerable havoc inside the hallway.

Thankfully for them, there wasn't anyone else down this specific hall.

'Fuck!!'

Even though Asher successfully blocked the sudden attack, the pain was genuinely excruciating. Asher felt like he had just blocked a wrecking ball going at supersonic speeds!

It was impressive enough that his arms didn't snap like twigs from this attack. But, there still was a terrifying numbing sensation creeping through both of Asher's arms.

Still, no matter how much pain he was in, Asher didn't leak any grunt. He instead glared at his sudden, rude attacker.

And right then, a loud woman's voice boomed into his ears like fireworks.

"Ahahaha!!! Yea!! Now that's what I'm expecting!!"

As the woman brazenly shouted, she jumped off from Asher's arms, landing precisely ten feet away from him.

Only then could Asher properly glare at this rude woman. Seeing this woman's appearance, Asher nearly leaked a sigh. Exasperation swelled in his chest as he thought to himself,

'Of course….anybody who's powerful will almost always be a beauty.'

Standing just before Asher was a woman he would describe as a wild beauty. She stood tall with an overbearing aggressive stature, crossing her arms and glowering down on Asher's form without a care for subtly.

Her height was amazingly tall for a woman, equaling Asher's 5'10 height and could even tower over some of the males around the whole Academy.

What really gave her that wild beauty look was her unkempt long fiery red hair that nearly looked like it was ignited with real flames. Moreover, her body was amazingly athletic and toned. Asher could see her well-defined muscles just from how tight-fitting her uniform is.

This was the kind of beauty you'll never be able to predict what they would do next.

And Asher already felt a headache coming as he quickly connected the dots on just who this crazy-looking beauty was. "So let me guess. You must be the one Daisy texted me about. Number eight on the Ranking List, Scarlett."

"Hmph!"

Instead of replying, Scarlett stroll five feet closer to Asher. Her arms were still crossed, and her gaze burned with a haunting intensity no other common students would be able to handle.

But even as she essentially bore a hole into Asher's gaze, Asher never once changed his calm expression.

Gradually, Scarlett's intense gaze turned into a slight battle-hungry smirk as confirmed Asher's words.

"You got that right! And I'm impressed already. You know, the kids lower than me on the Ranking List would always refer to me as only my title since they have no balls to just say my name. You are the rising Asher kid, right?"

Even down to her regular conversation tone, there was a hint of aggressiveness mixed in Scarlett's voice.

These were the kind of people Asher always found the most troublesome dealing with.

Still, since they weren't attacking each other, Asher could take a moment and property sense her Magical Aura. And he became even more impressed than before.

That previous attack was Scarlett obviously suppressing herself. And yet, she tremendously outclassed Asher by a wide margin.

Now that Asher could sense her regular Magical Aura, he perceived it to be massively higher than both Victim Sword and the Tiger Killer!

'So this is the difference between a Peak Stage….they weren't kidding at all.' Asher mutters in his mind.

Bearing the brunt of Scarlett's Magical Aura also made Asher realize another terrifying thought. If he didn't have his own Magical Aura and Spirit Mana energy out, he would've found it hard just to breathe around this woman.

Before Asher got too caught up in Scarlett's momentum, he quickly calmed himself. Without changing his emotions at all, Asher spoke in a calm voice.

"Yes. I am that Asher. And can I just say that you certainly have an odd way to greet someone you have never met before? Is this common for you?"

"Hm! Ahahaha!!"

Instead of replying, Scarlett suddenly began to bellow out a laugh that was already beginning to grate on Asher's nerves.

Uncaring how loud she's being, Scarlett's smirk turns into a more genuine yet aggressive smile. "No, it's not common since I rarely bother with weak-willed people. But, this is my way of gauging your sense of character, seeing if this would be worth my time or not. And congratulations Asher Vipond. You've just passed!"

Asher had to hold back a sigh. This woman definitely has one of those battle-hungry distorted common sense.

Knowing that she could decide to suddenly attack him again, Asher let his arms fall to his side but kept pushing out streams of Spirit Mana energy in them.

He had then evenly stared into Scarlett's smiling face, telling her, "I suppose I should count myself lucky for passing your ambush attack. Otherwise, both of my arms would've been cracked beyond repair."

"Oh yea, now that is interesting. Guess the insane rumors about you aren't so much hot gas. You know, I did this with a guy who had a similar bearing like you. He blocked my welcoming strike but almost immediately escaped from talking to me! But you….hmph. I see you got it in, you kid."

Scarlett spoke like there was nothing wrong with what she just said.

"Is that right? Really….couldn't imagine why that guy would want to escape. I mean….it's just suddenly getting ambushed, right?"

Asher didn't care at all if his slightly sarcastic tone would offend Scarlett. Anybody wouldn't like it if they got randomly attacked, no matter how beautiful that person is.

Unfortunately for Asher, that response only seemed to please Scarlett.

"Not afraid of getting feisty in words, too, huh? You're definitely an intriguing kid!"

Before Asher could bite back, he and Scarlett suddenly sensed another presence rapidly rushing towards their location.