Solo Cultivating in Superhero Academy -
Chapter 56: F ranked City Hero
Chapter 56: F ranked City Hero
Elius stepped off the bus and immediately felt the shift in atmosphere.
The air hummed with low-level energy fields, subtle but unmistakable, like the invisible pulse of an electric city made entirely for beings with power.
His eyes scanned the surroundings.
Towering structures shaped like metallic spires glimmered in the distance.
Transparent skyways crisscrossed overhead where caped figures flew or sprinted through the air.
Training arenas, like miniature stadiums, throbbed with explosions and energy blasts in the far end.
This wasn’t the full city, not the grand City of Heroes where S-Ranks ruled like gods.
No, this was F City—a campus-sized metropolis designed specifically for those in the lowest tier of superhero classification.
The cradle of the weak. The place where iron tried to become steel. The most crowded place of all is Academy High.
One could say that this is the starting point of every superhero who wanted to climb the ranks of superheros.
And Elius? He was starting here, too.
He turned to Rockson beside him and said, "I’m going ahead. I want to walk around the city first."
Rockson blinked, one chicken leg still gripped in his hand. "What? Wait—no, no! Didn’t you read the message on your HeroBand? We’re supposed to wait here for an instructor to go to the Orientation Hall first! There’s a schedule! They’ll dock points if you skip."
Elius waved a hand lazily. "I’ll catch up later. I just want to see the layout. Get a feel for the place. This is for me so I won’t be nervous around this unfamiliar place..."
"But—!" Rockson tried to protest, but Elius had already begun walking away, cloak fluttering slightly with each confident step.
Behind him, murmurs spread like ripples through a pond.
"Tch. Look at him walking off."
"Thinks he’s better than us just because he killed one peak-ranked F villain."
"I swear to god, if I bag a peak-F villain, I’ll shove it in his smug face."
"Same. Let’s see how long he lasts acting like that."
But Elius didn’t hear them—or rather, he didn’t care. His mind was already moving ahead.
He passed under an arch labeled "F Hero District – Core Campus" and entered deeper into the city.
Color-coded buildings surrounded him: red for combat training, blue for mission simulations, green for rescue operations, yellow for information and registry services.
One caught his eye immediately—Hero Registry Hub.
A silver plate above its entrance read: "Identify. Classify. Ascend."
Elius pushed open the door.
A cool, conditioned breeze met his face.
The inside was spacious and clean, the kind of sterile you only find in military structures or elite research centers.
He approached the front security desk where a muscular guard with glowing veins looked up from his holo-screen.
"I’m here for my Hero ID," Elius said.
The guard nodded and buzzed him in. "Counter four."
Elius approached a woman at the desk, her hair tied in a sharp bun and a visor-like display floating over her eyes. She didn’t look up until he reached the desk.
"Name?"
"Elius Northrim."
"Alias?"
He straightened his back. "Sword Immortal."
The woman paused. Her visor blinked and processed the data, and suddenly, her eyes widened. She would look up and stare at Elius who was also looking at her calmly.
"You’re the one from last night..." she said, her voice lifting. "Oh my god, you were all over the news! You’re the one who took down Lava Scissor!"
She looked at him, genuinely impressed. "You’re much younger than I thought. And cuter."
Elius smiled slightly, modestly. "Thanks."
"Just a moment, please."
Elius nodded.
She typed swiftly, and after a few minutes, a small card slid out of a glowing terminal. It shimmered with his face, hero alias, and a silver-framed ’F’ in the corner.
"Here you go," she said, handing it over. "Welcome to the Hero System officially, Sword Immortal."
He bowed his head in thanks and turned to leave, but his destination wasn’t back to the group.
It was to the tallest, most colossal building in the entire F Hero City—The Tower of Advancement.
A black-and-gold monolith with twenty floors, each one dedicated to the paths a hero might take.
Combat. Missions. Rescues. Intelligence. Strategy. Mobility. Equipment Usage. Special Conditions. Psychology. Support.
And more.
Elius entered, immediately stepping into the main reception hall.
It was crowded, noisy, and buzzing with superhero students from all parts of the F-tier network, but his steps didn’t falter.
He moved directly to the scheduling counter, where an old man with a vast white beard and a horn-rimmed pair of glasses sat behind a crystal-topped desk.
The old man peered over the glasses and spoke without looking. "Name."
"Elius Northrim. Sword Immortal."
The man typed slowly into the console, blinking, then leaned back.
"Oh... so it is you." His voice held surprise, but not awe. "You’re the sword guy from the dimensional rift. Hmph. I thought you’d look taller... I was a little disappointed..."
Elius was speechless but he just said nothing and gave him a polite nod. "I want to register for ten subjects."
The old man’s hands froze on the keyboard.
"...Ten?"
"Yes."
He pushed up his glasses and narrowed his eyes at Elius. "Ten subjects? You sure about that?"
"I’m sure."
The old man leaned forward. "Let me explain something, boy. Do you know what taking ten subjects means? It means waking up before the sun, dragging your ass to theory classes, running drills till you’re half-dead, fighting in practice arenas, memorizing code-red rescue protocols, and performing mock missions under the pressure of being disqualified. Every day."
Elius didn’t blink. "I know."
The old man huffed. "Kids these days. One villain kill and you think you’re some hot slice of cosmic pie. Look around you—look!" He gestured broadly to the crowded floor of students. "Half of them tried that last year. You know how many passed all ten subjects in a single month?"
Elius remained silent.
"Three. Out of hundreds. And one of them’s dead now. The other two got promoted to E-Rank after almost dying in the dimensional rifts. And you—Sword Immortal—you want to be number four? Already overestimating yourself, huh?"
The man clicked his tongue and muttered, "It’s always the flashy ones..."
Still, he resumed typing.
"You sure you’re not just trying to make headlines again, boy?"
Elius finally spoke. Calm, clear. "It’s the fastest way to enter a dimensional rift and get stronger."
The old man stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. "Tch. Ambition. It’ll either make you a legend or a corpse."
He waved a hand. "Fine. ID, please."
Elius passed him the card.
The old man inserted it into the scanner, and suddenly, the screen flashed with a sharp ping. He blinked, squinting at the data. His brows furrowed. Then slowly rose.
And then... he froze.
He leaned in. Adjusted his glasses. Double-checked the glowing information panel. His eyes widened in visible shock.
"Oooooh..." the old man said slowly. "What’s this?"
Elius tilted his head. "What?"
The old man turned toward him, almost reverently.
"You’ve got... two exceptions registered on your record."
He looked up with a strange mix of admiration and confusion.
"Hero Sword Immortal... you can enter two F ranked dimensional rifts of your choosing. Anytime."
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