Kael closed his eyes, carefully attuning himself to the power of the Eternal Sacred Seal. Before long, he confirmed two things.
First—whenever he was within any natural element—be it air, sunlight, wind, or even the faint, invisible motes of aether—the Seal would slowly draw in its essence, converting it into his own strength.
Even something as simple as standing by the window and breathing in the morning dew carried on the breeze would increase each of his four attributes by 0.01.
And this… was only the effect at Tier 0. Once he advanced to higher tiers, the absorption rate would multiply.
Second—the absorption was constant. It did not speed up with meditation, nor by actively drawing in mana. As long as the elements of the world continued to flow, he would grow stronger.
By his current estimation, the rate was 0.2 points to all attributes per minute. That was 12 points per hour—and nearly 288 points in a single day.
For reference, the attribute cap for a normal adult was only 10 points.
No fighting, no danger—just by staying alive, I'll become a monster.
Kael's heart pounded, caught between awe and disbelief.
There were three people in the ward. Besides himself, an elderly nobleman with snow-white hair lay in the bed nearest the door, seemingly bedridden from a chill. The other was not a patient at all but the old man's granddaughter—a golden-haired girl of sixteen or seventeen, here to visit.
When the holy light descended, Kael's injuries had healed instantly. The old man's pallor had vanished as well, his cheeks flushed with newfound vitality.
The girl clutched her grandfather's hand, eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Grandfather, my Divine Grace is B-rank – Wind Whisperer! The tutors say it's a rare gift—only one in a thousand awaken to it!"
The higher the rank of one's gift, the lower the chance of awakening it. Most people never surpassed F-rank or E-rank. An S-rank appeared only once in a hundred thousand awakenings… and the highest of all, SSS-rank, was so rare that there were likely fewer than a hundred across the entire continent.
The old man only gave a gentle smile. His own Divine Grace was merely E-rank – Small Shield, and he cared little for such comparisons.
The girl, however, kept sneaking glances at Kael, curiosity flickering in her eyes as if trying to guess what kind of blessing he had awakened.
Kael had no intention of boasting before strangers—let alone revealing that he had gained the Eternal Sacred Seal, an SSS-rank gift that broke all known rules.
Instead, he pulled out his magitech communication crystal and opened the academy's student channel.
Messages were flying past in a blur—news of the attempt on his life had already spread among his classmates. At first, the chat had been full of speculation, but in the wake of the Descent of Divine Grace, the conversation had shifted entirely to bragging and envy.
"Hah! I awakened A-rank – Flame Spear Soul!"
"Tade, you lucky bastard—there aren't even a handful of A-ranks in the whole academy, and our class got one!"
"Lord Tade, take me as your sworn knight!"
"Ugh, I only got D-rank…"
"F-ranks, crying in the latrine."
Kael skimmed through a few lines and was about to reply when the sound of boots pounding down the hallway reached his ears—too fast, too heavy, too urgent.
His body tensed. After surviving an assassination attempt, he had become hypersensitive to that kind of sound.
He looked up—just in time to see the air at the doorway warp and split open.
A shadow wolf, wreathed in black mist, stepped out of the rift. Blood-red vertical pupils glimmered with murderous hunger, and strands of drool dripped from its jaws, hissing into smoke where they struck the floor.
The old man and the girl both turned in shock—
In the very next heartbeat, the shadow wolf lunged, a blur of darkness streaking straight toward the girl!
She froze, mind blank, forgetting entirely that she even had a wind-element gift. The old man surged to his feet, trying to shield his granddaughter, but he was a heartbeat too slow.
In that instant—
A steel-like hand shot in from the side, clamping down hard on the beast's neck. The other hand seized its hind leg.
"Bang!"
The shadow wolf was wrenched off the ground and slammed into the wall with bone-cracking force. Blood sprayed in a fine mist, and the creature collapsed to the floor, twitching weakly before falling still.
The one who struck… was Kael.
Barely ten minutes after his awakening, Kael's attributes had already risen to—
Strength: 10 | Agility: 9 | Constitution: 10 | Mind: 9
In the next instant, both Strength and Constitution broke past the human limit.
With his current physique, he could suppress a low-tier beast like this barehanded.
Kael didn't hesitate. He burst out of the ward. At the far end of the hallway, a black rift hung in the air, slowly sealing shut—the clear source of the invasion.
On the other side, a shadow wolf had leapt onto a healer's desk, sending a young medic sprawling to the floor in terror. The moment it pounced, Kael's boot slammed into its ribs mid-air, sending it crashing several meters away where it lay gasping, unable to rise.
"Th-thank you!" the healer stammered, still pale with shock.
Kael didn't answer. He snatched up a wooden chair, stormed into the next room, and smashed the last shadow wolf into the corner with a bone-rattling crack.
In mere heartbeats, all three beasts that had spilled from the rift were dead or dying.
Yet no patrol knights or order officers came. A quick inquiry revealed the reason—identical attacks were breaking out across the capital at the same time, stretching the city's defenses far too thin.
Kael took no part in the aftermath. With his wounds fully healed, he returned to his own residence—a modest stone townhouse in the mid-city district, left to him after his parents' passing.
From there, he checked his magitech communicator. The class channel had been completely overtaken by news of the Abyssal Tide. The academy had been attacked as well—not by shadow wolves, but by a swarm of one-meter-tall, green-skinned goblins, their twisted forms wreathed in black mist.
Every magic scrying mirror and messenger pigeon headline carried the same twin proclamations:
"Descent of Divine Grace" and "Abyssal Tide Strikes the Capital".
Fortunately, the monsters in this first wave were weak, their numbers limited. While they caused casualties, the attack was far from a city-destroying disaster.
It felt less like a full assault… and more like a warning—
A grim reminder that divine blessings always walk hand in hand with calamity.
As the spatial rifts gradually closed, their appearances became noticeably less frequent.
Kael pulled up his status panel, his gaze settling on a new option that had appeared—
[Realm of Trials].
—For a Tier 0 Divine Grace holder to advance, they must first pass the test of the Realm of Trials.
The Realm was divided into two types: Standard Trials and Advancement Trials.
Clearing a Standard Trial granted rewards and growth points. Accumulate one hundred growth points, and you would be eligible to enter an Advancement Trial. Succeed there, and you would ascend to the next rank.
Kael's eyes narrowed in thought.
By nature, he wasn't reckless; the steel in his heart only surfaced when he was driven into a corner. With the Eternal Sacred Seal's Elemental Absorption, he could easily hide in a safe haven, grow stronger in peace, and enter the Trials only when his power was overwhelming—then crush them with ease. Why not take the easy path?
But today had changed his mind.
First an assassination attempt. Then a beast incursion.
Danger had already come knocking at his door.
Power… must be gained now.
He lifted his head, his eyes hard as forged steel.
With a single thought, he selected [Enter Realm of Trials].