Winston looked at the scrolls. Then at Zelda.

[Black Dragonic Yari — Level 45]

[Type: Permanent]

[Cost: 900 Energy]

[Description: Forged from the abyssal scales of a fallen Shadow Dragon, this polearm hums with a predatory hunger. The shaft is reinforced obsidian-treated steel tapering into a jagged four-sided spearhead that bleeds a faint dark vapor. On a successful strike, "Dragon’s Malice" triggers, momentarily reducing the target’s physical defense by 43%. While active, the wielder gains resistance to fire and shadow-based damage.]

[Black Dragonic Armor — Level 45]

[Type: Permanent]

[Cost: 900 Energy]

[Description: Heavy plate crafted from interlocking midnight-sheen dragon scales bound by tempered dragon-bone rivets. Chest piece etched with violet runes that pulse in rhythm with the wearer’s heartbeat. Grants "Draconic Resolve" — converting 30% of incoming damage into a temporary shield. Full set provides immunity to minor burn effects and generates a daunting presence that unsettles lower-level enemies.]

"You got these from the secret realm?" Winston said.

Zelda held his gaze.

"Since I can’t convince you to stay, and you won’t let anyone come with you, this is the best I can do to prevent you from dying."

Winston looked at the scrolls for one more second.

"I won’t be dying."

He tore them both open and absorbed the spells without ceremony.

The knowledge settled in cleanly, weight distribution of the Yari, activation feel of the Armor’s passive, both slotting into place the same way the academy scrolls had on day one.

He turned to Zelda and gave a short nod. Then he turned to Freya and did the same.

Then he walked out.

He passed Mark in the entrance without a word. Crossed the bridge, passed John and Rebecca at the base of it, and kept moving without looking back.

The two guards watched him go, then looked at each other, clearly lost.

Inside the pavilion, Mark turned to Zelda. "Boss, why did you let him go alone? The monsters near the beacon are all Level 46 and above. Even with Level 45 spells, the gap doesn’t close enough to—"

"You think I don’t know that."

Mark went quiet.

Zelda exhaled and looked toward the pavilion exit.

"Once Winston sets his mind to something, there is almost nothing that redirects him. All we can do is hope he’s right."

Freya said nothing. She had known Winston for three days, not six years.

She didn’t have Zelda’s framework for understanding what he was capable of versus what he was walking into.

What she did know was that from the moment he’d announced his intention, he’d said ’I’ every time. Never ’we.’

The exclusion had been deliberate from the start.

Both Sacred class holders sat with that and waited.

Then John stepped into the pavilion, bag in hand. He held it toward Mark.

"The For—" He stopped before correcting himself. "Winston said to bring this back."

Mark took the bag and opened it but went still the next moment.

The energy stones inside were plentiful, that part he’d expected. What he hadn’t expected was their levels.

The levels stamped into each stone were ranges he had never personally seen before in three days of surviving this region.

’Just how strong is he actually?’

Zelda and Freya weren’t focused on the bag. Mark noticed that, bowed quietly, and took the stones out to power the hidden effect.

❖❖❖❖

Winston walked through the secret realm without looking back.

He hadn’t said anything reassuring before he left. No ’I’ll be back soon’ or ’don’t worry.’

The moment Zelda had handed him the scrolls and it became clear he was doing this alone, something in him had simply locked in.

He wasn’t being cold. He was being superstitious and he knew it. Saying the words out loud felt like inviting a reason for them not to be true.

He moved through the cavern at a steady pace, eyes forward.

The class holders around him were scattered across the cave floor in tired clusters, students who had crossed a gate expecting a manageable first challenge and found themselves dropped into a Tier Three region instead.

A Tier Three region was territory reserved for Rank Three Champions and above. These were freshly awakened initiates. The fact that many of them were still breathing was genuinely remarkable.

The agents weren’t in much better shape. Sent specifically to ensure the First Entry ran safely, they were now trapped in the same crisis as the students they had come to protect.

Winston understood the core reason. It was not bad luck or poor planning, it was just the fundamental problem of insufficient strength meeting a situation that demanded more. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He had lived with that gap his entire life. He knew it intimately but not once had he let it define him and now that he had the power to match, he would use it without restraint.

Winston didn’t follow the entrance he had come through. The beacon’s pull was stronger from the opposite side of the cave, it was closer and more insistent than it had been since he’d crossed the gate.

He moved toward it and found no one standing watch over that section of the wall and it was reasonable.

After all, monsters near the beacon never ventured out toward the rest of the region, so that fact itself had served as a natural barrier. No one had thought to guard what had always been safe.

Winston walked through.

[You Have Entered the Beacon Zone]

[Mastery and Spells Cannot Be Earned Here]

’At least I remembered that one.’

He dismissed the panel and got to work. The Dark Wolf’s Mantle and the Lesser Drake Gladius dissolved as he deactivated them, these were the spells that had carried him through three days of the forest and the mountain range, but now they were outclassed by what came next.

『Black Dragonic Armor』

The plates materialized across his body in sequence, the violet runes along the chest piece pulsing once as they synced with his heartbeat and the weight settled across his frame like it had always been there.

Nine hundred energy spent.

『Black Dragonic Yari』

The polearm appeared in his grip, dark vapor bleeding faintly from the spearhead, humming with something that felt distinctly predatory. Another nine hundred energy and his pool dropped to two hundred.

It didn’t matter.

Winston activated his Realization and the Soul Garden opened behind his awareness.

『IGNITE』