News of Anya's feat spread like wildfire. The city guards, initially skeptical, were forced to acknowledge the truth. Word reached the Academy, a bastion of magic and martial prowess, normally out of reach for a slum dweller like Anya.
But the shard had awakened something within her. The leveling system, once a mere rumor, was now a tangible reality. People whispered of hidden fragments, of a forgotten power waiting to be unleashed.
Anya was summoned to the Academy, not as a prisoner, but as a prodigy. The enigmatic Headmaster, a figure shrouded in mystery, saw in her the potential to unravel the secrets of the Ascended Core.
Anya's journey had just begun. The world, once resigned to the shackles of fate, now flickered with the promise of change. The power to level up, to break the iron chains of power, had been revealed. And Anya, the spark ignited from the Underbelly, was destined to be at the heart of it all.
This is just the beginning of Anya's adventure. As she delves deeper into the mysteries of the Ascended Core.