Winston hit the ground and the forest closed around him instantly.

There were dense trees in every direction and there was a thick canopy overhead blocking most of the light. There were no sounds of other students. Just the Astral Heaven, exactly as described in every academy lecture he’d half-listened to over six years.

He didn’t waste a second.

『Dark wolves Mantle』

He cast Dark Wolf’s Mantle and felt the weight of it settle across his shoulders as the cloak materialized around him. Forty energy deducted.

『Lesser Drake Gladius』

Then he cast Lesser Drake Gladius and the shortsword formed in his grip, warm to the touch, carrying that low dry heat the description had mentioned.

Sixty energy gone. His energy now read zero.

Winston immediately downed five level 2 energy recovery potions back to back, feeling the sting of the liquid before his energy climbed back to full.

This was exactly what the academy had drilled into them. The moment you land, cast every permanent spell your energy allows.

Then refill immediately with potions so your expendable spells are ready the instant you need them. Natural energy recovery was useless in a live situation, one point every forty-eight minutes while active.

Nobody could afford to wait for that. The potion method was the only real option.

Setup complete. Winston exhaled slowly and took his first real look at the environment.

Lush greenery Sprawled in every direction with no clear paths and no visible landmarks. He was alone and there were no other students in sight, which wasn’t surprising.

Blue gates didn’t drop entrants together. The landing point was always random, even if the destination region was the same.

Every student who had just crossed that portal was somewhere in this forest right now, scattered wide, figuring out the same thing he was.

’Let me see if I can sense the beacon.’

A beacon was a fixed point within each Astral Heaven region, a location protected by a guardian creature.

Kill the guardian, and the beacon stabilized into a permanent portal connecting that region to the real world.

It was through that method that humanity had built its network of bases throughout the Astral Heaven over the past century.

Every class holder, even on their first entry, carried an instinctual pull toward the nearest beacon. It wasn’t something that could be taught. It was just there, built into the awakening itself.

Winston let his senses spread outward without closing his eyes.

Closing your eyes in the Astral Heaven was a death sentence.

The pull came almost immediately. The beacon was located west. Winston adjusted his grip on the gladius, checked that the mantle sat right across his shoulders, and began moving.

Winston moved west through the trees, keeping his steps measured and his eyes scanning ahead.

’I wonder how Zelda is doing.’

The thought came without warning. Zelda was somewhere in this forest right now, alone and the honest truth was that the odds of her awakening anything above Normal were slim.

Winston wasn’t being cruel about it. He was being realistic. She was a Fortunate with no generational buildup, same as him.

The difference was he’d somehow pulled Legendary. That kind of luck didn’t strike twice in the same class.

’I hope I run into her on the way.’

Six years of having each other’s backs didn’t just switch off because the gate had opened.

If he found her, he’d stick with her, that wasn’t even a question. His conscience wouldn’t allow anything else. But before he could protect anyone, he needed souls.

The Soul Garden was empty, the passive was inactive, and without filled slots the Life Tithe was useless. He had to fight first.

Winston filed the thought away and refocused.

But in the next moment the shrubs ahead rustled and he stopped instantly, planting both feet. This was exactly the reason the academy drilled one rule above almost everything else, never run carelessly in the Astral Heaven.

Running blind meant you wouldn’t see the trap until you were already inside it. More students died from sprinting than from bad fights, and Winston had no intention of becoming that statistic.

The shrubs parted and the creature stepped out.

It was short and hunched, moving on digitigrade legs with a low, twitchy gait. Rusted-crimson scales covered its skin. The snout was narrow and reptilian, nostrils flaring with every ragged breath.

Two small ivory horns jutted from a ridge of hard bone above its brow, and a wiry tail swept low along the ground behind it.

Its amber eyes carried a strange flickering luminescence, the kind that came from creatures that spent their lives in dark, sunless places.

A name tag blinked into Winston’s vision.

[Kobold — Level 3]

Tier One gates ran from Level 1 monsters at the low end up to Level 15, sometimes as high as 20, with the ceiling depending on the guardian’s own level.

A Level 3 Kobold was about as low on that scale as it got. The creature’s clouded amber eyes locked onto him.

Then it charged.

❖❖❖❖

The Kobold closed the distance fast, claws scraping against the forest floor as it came in low and aggressive.

Winston didn’t flinch.

Second lowest in physical ability across his entire year — that was the label that had followed him through six years at Nightwing.

It was accurate. He wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. But being second lowest in a class full of students born to awaken still put him well above the average person.

And more importantly, it said nothing about his technique.

Six years of drilling. Six years of controlled combat practicals against real monsters in monitored environments. His body knew what to do even when his brain was still catching up.

The Kobold’s made a wide diagonal slash, exactly like every Level 3 Kobold Winston had faced in academy practicals.

Winston had seen that opening move enough times to read it before it finished. He stepped inside the arc, let the claws cut air behind him, and drove forward.

The gladius punched into the kobold’s chest and Winston added the full force of his dash behind the thrust, pushing the blade deep.

The dull-red glow of the drake-infused steel flared on contact, and Lesser Embers kicked in instantly, heat searing into the wound, cauterizing as it cut, making sure there was no pulling back from it.

The Kobold’s legs buckled and it dropped dead.

Winston pulled the blade free and stepped back, scanning the treeline automatically.

[0.1 Mastery Gained]

[1 Soul Gained]