The SSS-Rank Jellyfish's Growth System

A few hours earlier....

Far away, in another part of the world, there was a room in the territory of Marquis Julius von Varenth O’lleht. The room was quite, its walls lined with shelves of thick books and magical instruments that glimmered faintly in the candlelight. A woman with black hair sat at a wooden desk, her blood-red eyes moving slowly across the pages of a Fourth Circle spellbook. She read every line with focus, without complaint and fatigue.

Luna Charlotte closed the book with a soft thud and set it down on the desk.

"Finally," she murmured, her voice cold and calm. "I’ve mastered Fourth Circle magic. It’s time to move to a higher tier."

She rose from her seat. Her footsteps were light on the wooden floor as she crossed to a small chest in the corner of the room. Beside the chest lay a letter with the Marquis’s red seal stamped in the corner. Inside the chest, resting on dark velvet, was a gemstone that radiated a soft, beautiful light.

Luna picked it up. She turned it slowly in her palm, watching the light refract through its facets with something close to admiration.

"It’s good to be a noble," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I only had to ask, and they brought it to me immediately. This is nothing like before." She paused, her fingers closing around the gem. "Do you feel it too, Cindy?"

She set the gem down and opened the chest fully. Inside, resting on a cushion of black silk, was a locket identical to the one Cindy had worn. Luna lifted it carefully, then held the gemstone in her other hand.

"[Configuration]," she intoned.

The gemstone rose from her palm, floating in midair. It glowed brighter, then brighter still, until the light filled the room. Then it began to melt into pure energy, streaming into the locket like water flowing into a vessel. The locket absorbed it, its silver surface rippling as the gem’s power merged with its own.

Luna watched the process with cold satisfaction. When it was done, she fastened the locket around her neck.

"With this," she said quietly, "I can surpass you, Cindy."

A sudden rush of mana flooded into her. It was thick, potent, almost overwhelming and it felt familiar. It felt like Cindy.

Luna’s eyes widened. She gasped, her hand flying to the locket.

"Did it work?!" she breathed.

The mana poured into her body, settling into her core, becoming part of her.

And that mana rebelled, forcing Luna to merge it into herself as part of her own being. She grabbed several potions she had already prepared and drank them down.

Gulp.... Gulp... Gulp....

Then dropped the empty bottles carelessly onto the floor. She kept refining the mana, over and over, and her efforts were not in vain.

But somewhere, far below, in the crushing dark of the abyss, that same mana had been torn away from its source. And the source had almost died.

Luna only smiled, her blood-red eyes gleaming in the candlelight.

"Perfect," she whispered. "Just as I planned."

---------×---------

Meanwhile, in another room of the Marquis’s estate, a man with red hair and blue eyes sat at a large oak desk. He looked to be in his forties, his features sharp and distinguished, his posture straight-backed with the easy authority of someone accustomed to command. Documents were spread before him, some already signed, others still waiting for his attention.

Without looking up, he addressed the elderly servant standing beside him.

"How is Luna doing?"

The servant, a man with graying hair and weathered hands, poured tea into a porcelain cup with practiced care.

"Miss Luna still hasn’t left her room, my lord. She continues to seclude herself. There’s been no sign of her coming out."

The Marquis set down his pen and lifted the cup. He took a slow sip, then set it back down with a soft click.

"She still hasn’t done anything useful for this territory," he said. "What is she even doing in that room?"

The servant bowed his head slightly.

"Perhaps she is still studying, my lord. She is still only Fourth Circle, after all. Perhaps she wishes to become stronger so she can meet your expectations."

A short, derisive breath slipped from the Marquis.

"Can a mage simply advance to the next tier that quickly?" He turned his gaze toward the window, where gray clouds gathered over the distant sea. "A mage must have talent to comprehend it. Real talent. Like Cindy did."

The servant hesitated. Then, carefully, he asked, "If that is so, my lord... why did you appoint her as the new court mage?"

The Marquis picked up his pen again, tapping it once against the desk.

"Because there was no one else more suitable to replace her," he said. "With Cindy gone, Luna was the next best option, that’s all."

The servant fell silent at those words. He said nothing more, simply moving to tidy a few documents that had been left slightly out of order on the desk. His hands worked quietly, carefully, the way a man does when he knows his place and has learned not to interrupt.

The Marquis stared at the page in front of him, but his eyes weren’t focused on the words. His pen had stopped moving.

"If only I hadn’t sent Cindy to hunt that Sun Eater," he said, almost to himself. "She won’t have died in vain."

The servant paused, his hands resting on the papers. For a moment, he seemed to weigh whether to speak at all. Then he did.

"You were not the one who ordered her to hunt it, my lord. It was the Duke’s request. You only passed it on."

The Marquis let out a short, bitter laugh.

"That’s a convenient way to phrase it," he said. "I passed it on. I told her it was an honor. I told her only a mage of her caliber could handle such a mission." He set the pen down and leaned back in his chair, his gaze drifting toward the window. "And she believed me because she trusted me. And now she’s dead, and I’m left with..."

The servant straightened, tucking the documents into a neat stack.

"Cindy Maxwell was exceptional, my lord. There is no denying it but she is gone. Miss Luna, for all her flaws, is still—"

Before the servant could finish his reply, a sudden fluctuation rippled through the room, a pulse of mana so dense and sudden that it made the air itself feel heavier.

The Marquis froze mid-motion. His blue eyes widened, and for the first time in the entire conversation, his composure cracked.

"This..." he breathed.

He rose slowly from his chair, his hand pressed flat against the desk. The mana was pouring from the direction of Luna’s room. It was thick, potent, and far stronger than anything a Fourth Circle mage should have been able to produce.

’This is... what is this?’

He recognized the quality of the mana. It was controlled. Refined. Layered with a precision that most mages spent decades trying to achieve.

"Has Luna... reached the Fifth Circle?"

The servant stared at him, speechless.

The Marquis stood still for a long moment, letting the surge of mana wash over him.

He began to analyze the mana with the practiced eye of a man who had spent decades around mages.

There was no doubt.

This was Fifth Circle mana.

A slow smile spread across the Marquis’s face. It was the smile of a man who had just watched an investment pay off far sooner than expected.

"Philips," he said, turning to the old servant. "It seems my doubts were unfounded."

The servant blinked, clearly caught off guard.

"My lord?"

The Marquis straightened his coat, his composure fully restored.

"I doubted her. I thought she was reaching beyond her grasp. I thought she was wasting her time locked in that room, chasing something she couldn’t achieve, but I was wrong."

Philips hesitated, then bowed his head.

"That is... remarkable, my lord. Truly remarkable."

"Remarkable," the Marquis repeated, as if tasting the word. "Yes. That’s exactly what it is."

He walked toward the door, his footsteps measured and confident. The unease from moments before had vanished completely, buried beneath the satisfaction of a man who had just confirmed he hadn’t made a mistake after all.

"Luna was always ambitious," he said, almost to himself. "I chose her because I saw that hunger in her. She wanted to prove herself. She wanted to be more than just a replacement." He paused at the threshold. "And now she has."

Philips followed a step behind, his expression composed.

"Shall I prepare a celebration, my lord?"

The Marquis let out a quiet chuckle.

"Not yet. First, I want to see her. I want to look her in the eye and ask her how she did it." His smile sharpened. "Because a mage doesn’t leap from Fourth Circle to Fifth in a matter of days. She must have found something extraordinary."

He stepped through the doorway and into the corridor.

"Come, Philips. Let’s go congratulate our new court mage."