Kael rubbed his chin, deep in thought.
"Now… what I need is a summon that can give me a good skill," he murmured.
"The academy starts in one week, so I only get one chance to use my talent. If I waste it on something useless, I'll risk getting placed into the lower classes."
As an orphan with no family backing, he needed a stable supply of resources to grow stronger — and the Academy only provided that to students in higher-ranked classes.
He exhaled sharply.
"To level up… I need to kill and absorb cores," he whispered. "That's the only way."
For any awakened, leveling up required absorbing the mana cores of beasts they killed themselves. Cores given by others were useless — their mana would simply reject him.
"So I need a summon that gives me offensive skills," Kael muttered, pacing slowly. "Something that can help me actually kill beasts… otherwise I'll be stuck at Rank 1 forever."
"But… I also can't summon something too powerful," Kael muttered, pacing. "If I get killed a second time, that means permanent death."
He shook his head and stood up.
Opening the bedside drawer, he took out a necklace. It wasn't a simple trinket, but an uncommon-class artifact called Moon Tears.
[ Moon Tears ]
Type: Accessory
Rank: Uncommon
Effect: Under moonlight, increases the power of Dark Magic by 10%
Restriction: Level 10 and any Abyssal class
It was something he had earned during one of the academy's field tests. A random reward — yet a precious one. Many awakened seniors had tried to buy it from him back then, but he refused. It was his trophy, the proof of his achievement.
"I guess… it's finally time to use you," Kael murmured, pocketing the necklace. He couldn't possibly use the skill inside the Academy—it was too risky, and the dorms had monitoring formations everywhere.
Leaving his dormitory, he walked out of the Academy grounds and headed toward the nearest training center. Once inside, he booked a private room. It was costly, but thanks to him always ranking first in the Academy assessments, he had accumulated plenty of rewards—including cash prizes.
He even had enough money to move out of the Academy dorms and rent a good place outside, but he never felt the need.
Even now, if the Academy's training halls didn't have cameras, he wouldn't have wasted money on this private training center.
Entering his assigned testing room, he locked the door behind him. The room was large, with a practice dummy set in the middle. He pushed the dummy to the corner, then took out the necklace.
"Alright… here we go."
Holding the necklace, he activated the skill Summon. After feeding it 50% of his mana, he tossed it forward. As soon as it hit the ground, a magic circle began forming with the necklace as the center. The lines glowed brighter as the necklace slowly sank into the circle, and something started rising from it.
Seeing this, Kael grabbed a steel practice sword from the rack and braced himself.
"If it's anything lower than C-rank, I'll try to subdue it… If it's higher, I'll let it kill me," Kael muttered, tightening his grip as the silhouette grew more distinct.
A hunched, red-skinned goblin appeared—its back bent, its hands gripping a crooked wooden staff.
Kael's eyes widened as the soul text appeared:
[ Red Goblin Shaman – B Rank ]
[ Level: 12 ]
The goblin grinned, its beady eyes full of malice. Mana gathered in its hands as it prepared a spell. Kael tried to dodge, but he was too slow—the blast struck him squarely.
The goblin snickered, losing interest the moment Kael collapsed. Since the summoner had died, the summoning circle faded away, its light dissolving into the air as the room fell silent once more.
But only a second later, the charred corpse on the floor began to knit itself back together—burnt skin regenerating, flesh reforming, wounds closing at an impossible speed.
Kael's eyes shot open.
He sucked in a sharp breath, panic flaring as he looked around.
"…What—what is this?" he gasped, his hands trembling uncontrollably.
He remembered everything.
The moment before he died.
The pain—unbearable, mind-numbing, like his entire body had been ripped apart from the inside.
It had lasted only a blink, but the memory of it was burned into him with terrifying clarity.
Kael shut his eyes and forced himself to breathe deeply until his heartbeat steadied.
"I… I don't want to use this Infinite Respawn talent unless I absolutely have to," he muttered. "That pain… it's too much."
He swallowed hard. Just thinking about it made his skin crawl.
But then another thought crept in—quiet, cold, and disturbingly logical.
"…Or rather," he whispered, "after death, everything feels… better."
The agony had been hellish—almost inhuman—but the power he gained afterward…
Thinking of that, Kael opened his Soul Status. Seeing his Talent was now on cooldown, he nodded, then switched to the Skills tab, wondering what ability he had inherited from the Red Goblin.
[ Skills : Summon, Bond, Summoner Space, Recall, Devil's Breath ]
Noticing the new skill Devil's Breath, he instinctively tapped on it.
[ Devil's Breath : Summons the phantom head of a demon, which instantly releases a dark, corrupted breath that deals 1000% of Magic Damage and randomly applies an Advanced Curse to the target. ]
[ Rank : S ]
[ Obtained from 10× enhancement of the Red Goblin Shaman's "Dark Breath" skill ]
Seeing the skill, a wide grin broke across Kael's face.
"Hahaha… jackpot," he said excitedely.
Plus, it wasn't just this—his Infinite Respawn had also permanently increased all of his stats by 10%. And for the next hour, he iss completely immune to magic.
"Now… I just need another magic-type monster. With one hour of magic immunity, I can easily subdue any pure magic-type summon," he mumbled, stepping out of the training center.
As he exited, he instantly regretted it. His entire clothes were shredded due to the attack of the goblin shaman
"fortunately no one saw me," he muttered. His clothes were almost shredded, so he grabbed the training clothes from the equipment rack, changed into them, and left the center.
He visited a nearby shop and bought a common-rank magic ring that increased Dark magic power by 2%. It was weak—practically the weakest and cheapest—but good enough to serve as a medium for summoning.