Deactivating Soul Burn didn’t mean losing the charge. The soul was still there and Winston could reactivate it whenever he needed. The reason he’d switched it off was simpler than that.

Using a Realization skill pulled on stamina the same way physical exertion did. It was like flexing a muscle, the act was sustainable in bursts, but draining if held too long. So he would use the skill only when it counted, during battle.

Winston pushed deeper into the forest and a group came into view through a gap in the undergrowth.

Five Level 3 Kobolds, clustered together, heads down over something on the ground. Whatever they were eating had been reduced beyond recognition, just scraps and dark stains on the dirt.

They were completely absorbed in it, jostling each other, making noise and paying no attention to anything beyond the meal in front of them.

In any normal situation, Winston would have walked the long way around. One Kobold was manageable. Five was a death sentence for someone at his natural level.

The gap in numbers alone would have made it a losing fight before it started.

But he wasn’t fighting at his natural level anymore.

’I’ll sneak in for the first strike.’

He moved through the shrubs slowly, placing each step with care. The Dark Wolf’s Mantle did its work, as his presence dulled and his footsteps quieted.

He closed the distance without a single one of them lifting their head.

『IGNITE』

The gladius surged to Level 6 instantly. Flames wrapped the blade in a tight, violent coat as Winston burst from the undergrowth and drove straight into the cluster.

The first Kobold turned too late as the second and third moved to intercept but the supercharged shortsword tore through all three of them in a single sweeping arc, cutting clean through scale and bone without slowing down.

[0.3 Mastery Gained]

[3 Souls Gained]

The last two had already committed. Their claws were mid-swing before the other three hit the ground.

Winston didn’t bother blocking, he stepped into them and swung, the Level 6 blade shearing through their attacking arms and splitting them apart before they could register what had gone wrong.

[0.2 Mastery Gained]

[2 Souls Gained]

Winston stood in the middle of it and exhaled.

This morning he’d been locked in a bathroom by Mark and his friends.

Now he was cutting through groups of Level 3 Kobolds without taking a single hit. The difference a few hours and one Legendary class made was almost difficult to process.

He crouched and got to work. Each Kobold carried a small dense stone lodged in their chest cavity called energy stones, the raw material was used to produce energy recovery potions and craft the enchantment ink needed to transcribe spells onto scrolls.

Winston pulled all five, adding them to the one he’d already collected from the first kill. Six total in his bag now.

He checked his panel next as he stood.

[Mastery: 5.6] [0%]

[Slot: 5/5]

[Souls: 6]

First of his mastery had gone up but more importantly all five lotus slots were now occupied.

With five souls loaded and nowhere pressing to be yet, Winston ran his tests.

『IGNITE』

First, he burned all five souls into his Realization and the familiar heat surged through his chest, as all five shrubs ignited at once and his mastery surged.

[Mastery: 12.6] [125%]

A 125% boost, exactly what his math had predicted. His physical output climbed with it, a noticeable step up that he could feel in the tension of his muscles and the sharpness of his reflexes. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Then he turned to the second test, as he tried stacking two souls onto a single spell.

It didn’t work.

The first soul transferred cleanly and the gladius jumped to Level 6 the same as before. But the moment he pushed a second soul toward it, the system rejected it flat.

And it was just like trying to pour water into a container that had already sealed itself shut.

Winston lowered the blade and thought it through.

’It makes sense, actually.’

Spells weren’t living things. They were constructed-blueprints of patterns and energy held together by design.

Getting one soul to bond with a spell was already pushing past what should have been logically possible. It was defying the fundamental logic of how souls interacted with the world.

The only reason Soul Burn could do it at all was because Winston was a Legendary class holder, whose whole build centered entirely around soul dominance.

This was the reason his Realization could take all five because it was part of him. It shared his nature. A spell didn’t have that connection.

But Winston wasn’t bothered. One soul per spell still meant he could boost every spell he carried before a serious fight. The Gladius, the Mantle and the Energy Coating.

All of them could be elevated at once. That wasn’t a limitation. That was a full combat upgrade!

Winston pulled his focus back to the clearing and glanced down at the remains the Kobolds had been eating.

Something stopped him cold.

He crouched slowly, eyes narrowing at the scattered debris on the ground. Most of it was unrecognizable. But one piece wasn’t.

’Isn’t that a human skull?’

❖❖❖❖

The Astral Heaven had never been safe. That was a fact every student learned in their first year and never forgot.

Blue gates made it worse. The random drop mechanic didn’t care about mastery, experience, or preparation, it scattered everyone who entered across the full region without exception.

That was why the Academic Board of Key City sent in support teams for every First Entry.

Experienced Rank One initiates with high Mastery, anywhere between fifty and seventy points, dropped in alongside the students to manage the more dangerous areas and keep casualties down.

The problem was the gate treated them the same as everyone else.

Support or not, experienced or not, they landed at random locations just like the students did.

High Mastery and powerful spells gave them a better survival rate, but it didn’t make them immune to what lived in the deeper parts of the region.

Winston had understood that in theory. Now he was looking at the proof.

He picked up an ID card from the ground and turned it over.

A photo of a middle-aged man with short black hair and a calm, professional expression that looked completely out of place given what was left of him on the forest floor.

Jeff Benson

Crystal Crab Agency

Winston looked at the ID. Then he looked at what remained of the body. Then back at the ID.

’Level 3 Kobolds didn’t do this.’

Jeff would have handled Level 3 Kobolds without breaking a sweat.

A high Mastery Rank One initiate didn’t die to the same creatures Winston had been cutting through all morning.

Winston crouched and examined the bite marks more carefully. Most of them were wrong, they were too large and the angles were all different.

Something else had been here first. Something that had done the real damage. The Kobolds had just arrived afterward to feed on what was left.

Then the sound hit.

ROAR!

It came from the trees to the north, it was the kind of sound that vibrated in the chest before the ears fully registered it. Winston straightened slowly, head turned toward the direction it came from, and held very still.

His heart rate climbed.

’Whatever made that sound killed a high Mastery initiate.’

The smart move was obvious. Go around, keep moving toward the beacon and let whatever was out there stay out there. Winston knew that. He ran the logic twice just to be sure he wasn’t missing something.

Then he thought about five fully charged soul slots. A Level 6 Gladius. Life Tithe sitting ready in the background with five resurrections available if everything went wrong.

’But this could also be an opportunity.’