The tournament had ended, but his training did not.
Cale woke up before dawn each day, his body still bearing the marks from the finals. The cut on his arm and the bruise on his ribs served as 8nstant reminders of having sacrificed a possible victory. He dressed in silence and walked to the training yard while the rest of the academy still slept.
By now, he allowed Revenant to roam about freely, hiding in people's shadows to stay out of sight while gathering important information. The creature met him right on cue at the academy's training yard.
The creature materialized from his shadow, its golden eyes gleaming in the grey light. "You are pushing harder than before."
"Any problem with that?"
"The tournament is over. Your team lost."
"You don't get it. My Penalty is gone, but the third seal hasn't opened." Cale raised his blade. "So I'm not done. I always have to get stronger, because I have a dream."
Revenant tilted its head. "You seek power just for its own sake?"
"I seek control, yeah… and whatever you just said." He lunged.
They sparred for hours. Revenant's claws were a blur, its movements completely unpredictable. Cale's Death Sense screamed, but he forced himself to rely less on it and more on pure instinct. He practiced his ice, his Necrotic Touch, and his Reaper's Mark, drilling every form Aldus had ever taught him. Sword, spear, staff, knife—he practiced it all until his muscles moved without thought.
By the end of the first week, his Experience had climbed to 289.
By the end of the second, it had reached 300.
He stood in the empty yard, sweat dripping from his chin, and pulled up his system screen.
```
Experience: 300/300
You have reached a certain Threshold.
```
He waited for the notification. The seal. A new affinity. Or even a wonderful new skill.
But nothing happened.
Instead, his rank flickered and updated.
```
Rank: E → A
Stage: Awakened
Experience: 0/400
```
The seal did not break.
"Iris."
"I see it."
"Why didn't the seal unlock?"
"I don't know why. Perhaps the threshold was for your rank, and not your seal. The third seal might requires more than Experience. It probably require something else."
"What?"
"I do not know. The system is… cryptic. But your power has grown. Your rank is now A, still within the Awakened stage. That is significant."
Cale dismissed the screen. His hands were shaking, not from exhaustion, but from sheer frustration. He had worked hard, given up so much, and cleared the Penalty. He had sacrificed a possible victory. And still, the seal refused to open. What exactly did the system want from him?
Revenant emerged from the shadows. "Patience."
"I've been patient. And clearly, I'm in no mood for lectures."
"Then be more patient," Revenant said in its slow, deliberate speech, completely ignoring Cale's second statement.
Cale didn't answer. He raised Soul Drinker and began training again. Maybe if he trained more and harder, he might just make some progress. Maybe, just maybe.
The blade had changed.
He noticed it during the third week. Soul Drinker's glow was much brighter, its edge sharper. When he channeled Mauri into it, the blade seemed to hum, sending a distinct, hungry sensation down his arm. During a spar with Revenant, he struck a training dummy and felt the weapon pull. Not just cut. It Pulled. Mauri and some other strange essence, actual life force drained from the dummy into the blade. The wood cracked, turned grey, and fell apart.
He stared at the remains.
"Looks like you got the upgrade you were seeking," Iris said. "Soul Drinker has evolved. It can now absorb more than just a fraction of power. It can drain a target's Mauri and zodiac essence, leaving them weakened and basically helpless if you push far enough."
Cale raised the blade, studying it. It pulsed in his hand, eager.
"It's too dangerous to use in the academy now," he said.
"I agree with you. But it should be useful for what comes next."
He dismissed the blade and continued training.
The long-awaited new skill came a few days later.
He was practicing his ice, trying to extend its range, when his system chimed.
```
New Skill acquired: Frostgrave.
This skill allows its user to create a field of freezing mist that slows enemies, drains their Mauri, and obscures vision. The duration scales with the amount of Mauri invested.
```
He tested it in the empty yard. Mist poured from his hands, spreading across the stone, cold enough to make his teeth chatter. Within the mist, his own movements were unaffected, but he could feel the drain on his Mauri—steady and demanding.
"I think it will be useful in group fights," Iris said. "To control the battlefield."
Cale nodded. He dismissed the mist and continued his training.
The academy buzzed with the aftermath of the tournament. Rumours and exaggerated narratives of the fights spread like wildfire through the campus.
Students compared rankings, celebrated victories, and nursed fresh grudges. The hallways were loud with talk of stages and ranks. Cale kept his head down, actively avoiding the crowds to focus entirely on his training.
But the chatter was impossible to ignore entirely. As he passed through the courtyards and dining halls, the changing hierarchy of the first-years became clear.
Valerie had advanced. She had reached the Stargazer tier, her stage moving from Awakened to Stargazer, while her rank settled at B, when the standard default was E. She walked the halls now with her Ember Cloak dimmed and her eyes distant. She looked for him sometimes; he caught her glancing his way in the dining hall and in the corridors, but he always looked away.
Meanwhile, Vorian was already pushing ahead into the stage after Stargazer: the Astral tier, maintaining a rank of C. It was impressive. The golden boy had proven exactly why everyone called him golden.
Cale, on the other hand, was still Awakened. A Rank. A full stage behind Valerie, and two stages behind where the top students like Vorian were heading.
He didn't care. The seals were what mattered. Because breaking more seals was the only true path to the real power he needed.
He avoided Valerie because he simply didn't know what to say.
I threw the match for a system penalty I couldn't explain. I let your team win because a poem told me to. I'm still weak, still hiding, still carrying secrets that would burn everything down if anyone knew. It sounded awful. It sounded completely made up.
She deserved better than that, so he said nothing. That was at least better.
They passed each other in the corridor one evening. She stopped, but he kept walking, pretending not to see her. He knew his acting was bad, and in no way was it even close to convincing.
"Cale."
He paused, but he didn't turn around.
"I noticed you've been avoiding me."
"No, I've not. I've just been training."
"You can train and still talk."
He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "I don't have anything to say."
Her footsteps approached until she stopped right beside him, her Ember Cloak radiating warmth against the cold evening air.
"You saved the match for your team. You got disqualified on purpose. You did something no one—or at least I—don't understand." She searched his face, desperate for a real answer. "Why?"
"I told you. I can't explain it."
"You can't or just won't*?"
He finally met her eyes. "Both."
She held his gaze for a long, heavy moment. Then she stepped back.
"Fine. When you're ready to talk, you know where to find me."
She turned and walked away. He watched her go, then turned to walk in the opposite direction. You're scarce these days, and I honestly don't even know where to find you, he thought.
That night, he trained alone once more with Revenant. Soul Drinker hummed in his grip, hungry for more power. The third seal waited, invisible and frustratingly just out of reach.
He would find the key to the next seal, and he would break it. And when he did, he would be ready for whatever came next.
He raised his blade and began again.