Chapter 43: Temporary exception

Eden’s first Gate was a D-Rank.

It was also the beginning of what he had privately named "Hellweek."

He stood before the Gate with a backpack over one shoulder.

Inside was basic nourishment. Dry food and some water.

Not exactly a feast, but it was enough to keep him alive.

Most of the remaining space was occupied by potions.

Attribute boosters.

Health potions.

Essence recovery.

Stamina recovery.

Essence boosters.

Anything that could increase his efficiency for even a few minutes.

His blade hung at his side.

That was it.

Eden stepped through the Gate.

The dungeon barely had time to register his presence.

An Abyss Creature charged.

Eden disappeared.

Bam!

Its head hit the ground.

Another came from behind.

He turned.

His blade flashed.

The creature fell.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Eden didn’t slow down.

He moved through the dungeon like a machine.

His attributes were already significantly higher than what someone at his level should possess.

The attribute boosting potions pushed them even further.

The difference was ridiculous.

By the time he reached the boss room, most of the dungeon had been reduced to corpses.

The boss lasted less than two minutes.

Eden stood over it, breathing steadily.

[Level Up! ×2]

Eden blinked.

Another notification appeared.

[Current Level: 100]

He stared.

’Level 100.’

’I’ve finally...’

’Reached that threshold too.’

Eden opened his status window

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[STATUS]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name: Eden

Level: 100 [C-Rank]

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Attributes

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strength: 457

Agility: 359

Vitality: 211

Essence: 221

Perception: 107

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skills & Authorities

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Devour [A]

Heir’s Pride [A]

Phase Shift [B]

Paralysis [C]

Stealth [C]

Warrior’s Spirit [C]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

He had finally reached it.

A faint smile spread across his face.

"C-Rank."

For the first time in his life, Eden had officially entered the C-Rank.

He looked down at his hands.

In his previous life, reaching this point had been nothing more than a pipedream.

Years of grinding.

Years of crawling through Gates.

Years of being stuck behind people who had better skills and better opportunities.

And yet he never reached this threshold.

Now?

He’d done it in less than 3 Months.

Eden clenched his fist.

"And I’m just getting started."

He turned toward the Gate’s exit.

There was no grand celebration or break.

Eden didn’t have time for that.

He was going to work himself to the bone during his exp boost.

The first three days became a constant blur as Eden cleared C-Rank dungeon after C-Rankn dungeon.

Granted, Eden did allow himself to sleep a little.

A total of 3 hours, and only when his body absolutely demanded it.

Sometimes less.

Food was a bunch of dry bread he brought along.

Water was whatever he could drink while moving.

His body began to ache constantly.

His clothes became stained with blood.

His hair became increasingly messy.

He didn’t care.

The Kitsune Essence Potion was active.

That meant every hour mattered.

Every minute mattered.

And as far as Eden was concerned, every second mattered.

He hated feeling powerless, and yet that’s exactly what he was when fighting the mercenary and escaping the Centipede.

So to him, every kill mattered.

Every attribute point he gained after using Devour mattered.

Every bit of experience mattered.

However, on his third day...

Eden killed another C-Rank boss.

The creature collapsed.

Red Essence erupted from Eden’s palm.

Devour consumed the corpse.

[+3 Agility]

Eden was about to close the notification window when he suddenly felt something change.

Eden froze.

A strange sensation passed through his body.

His Essence surged.

The familiar red energy gathered around his hand.

His eyes widened.

A System window appeared.

[Skill Rank-Up!]

Eden’s heart skipped.

Another line appeared.

[Devour]

[A-Rank "S-Rank]

Eden stared.

Then slowly...

A grin appeared.

"S-Rank."

He laughed.

He looked down at his hand.

"An S-Rank skill?"

It was something only a microscopic fraction of Awakeneds ever possessed.

S-Rank skills were monsters among skills.

Rare.

Powerful.

Capable of defining entire careers.

And now he had one.

Eden immediately raised his hand.

"Let’s see..."

He activated Devour.

Nothing happened.

He waited.

Nothing.

His smile disappeared.

"...What?"

He tried again.

Nothing.

A System window appeared.

[Activation failed.]

[Insufficient Attributes.]

Eden stared.

"...What?"

Another notification appeared.

[Current Attributes are insufficient to use Devour.]

He stared at the words.

Then at his hand.

Then back at the System.

"No."

He activated it again.

Nothing.

"Come on."

Nothing.

Eden’s eye twitched.

"You’re telling me my attributes aren’t high enough?"

Silence.

"Seriously?"

He looked around the dungeon.

His attributes were already absurd.

He had devoured countless creatures.

He had consumed entire bosses.

He had consumed Awakeneds.

His attributes easily surpassed those of people on his level.

"So what the hell do you mean, insufficient?"

He sat down on a rock.

He stared at the System window.

"How high do you want them?"

No response.

Eden slowly covered his face.

"This is bullshit."

"You’re telling me my most powerful skill evolves to S-Rank and now I can’t even use it?"

He leaned backward.

For several seconds, he said nothing.

Then he took a deep breath.

"Okay."

He lowered his hands.

"Okay."

His expression became calm again.

"Maybe it’s fine."

He nodded to himself.

"Probably."

One more nod.

"I just need another level or two."

He stood.

"Yeah."

He pointed at the System window.

"That’s probably it."

He began walking.

"Definitely."

A pause.

"...Probably."

---

Meanwhile...

Lucy had discovered a problem.

She hated finding unregistered Gates by herself.

"They were so much easier to find with Eden."

She stood in front of a D-Rank Gate, hands on her hips.

She had spent nearly three hours searching for this place.

With Eden, they’d somehow managed to find several every day.

Without him?

Practically nothing.

She kicked a small rock.

"How does he even find these?"

"Maybe it’s his Future-sight skill?"

She walked deeper into the dungeon.

Then she heard footsteps.

She stopped.

Someone was approaching.

Lucy immediately became cautious.

The figure was strange.

Baggy clothes.

A hoodie.

The hood pulled tightly over their head.

A baseball cap.

Shaded glasses.

And a medical mask covering most of their face.

The person looked around.

Left.

Right.

Then left again.

Like they were checking whether anyone was watching.

Lucy frowned.

’...’

’Is that a Drug Dealer?’

She approached carefully.

"Hey."

The figure froze.

Lucy smiled.

"Are you here to raid this Gate too?"

The person turned.

They stared at Lucy through the sunglasses.

cough.

A fake, deep cough.

"Yes."

Lucy blinked.

The voice was completely unnatural.

The stranger cleared their throat.

"I mean..."

Another cough.

"...Yes."

Lucy tilted her head.

"Do I know you?"

"No."

"You seem familiar."

"I don’t know what you mean."

Lucy stared.

The figure looked away.

Lucy stepped closer.

"You look like someone I know."

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Lucy narrowed her eyes.

"Wait..."

"...Sonne?"

The figure went completely still.

A long silence followed.

Then, in the deepest fake voice Lucy had ever heard:

"I have no idea who Sonne is."

Lucy stared at her.

"..."

The disguised girl stared back.

"..."

Lucy slowly smiled.

"Right."

She folded her arms.

"Of course you don’t."

Sonne coughed again.

"I am merely a completely ordinary person."

"Uh-huh."

"With no connection whatsoever to Sonne."

"Sure."

"And I have never seen you before."

Lucy nodded.

"Absolutely."

Sonne relaxed slightly.

Then Lucy smiled wider.

"So, Sonne..."

The disguised girl flinched.

"...Wanna raid it together?"

Silence.

Sonne slowly pulled her mask down just enough to sigh.

"This is a humiliation ritual."

Lucy laughed.

"You actually thought this would work?"

"I don’t want anyone from the Association recognizing me."

"Since, you know..."

"This is illegal."

Lucy blinked.

Then smiled.

"So the righteous Sonne is secretly an outlaw?"

Sonne’s face reddened.

"I’m not an outlaw."

"You’re standing in front of a unregistered Gate dressed like a drug dealer."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Sonne adjusted her sunglasses.

"I have made a temporary exception."

Lucy grinned.

"That’s what an outlaw would say."

Sonne groaned.

"Don’t make me regret this, Lucy."

And just like that, after a few minutes, the two girls stood together in the middle of an unregistered Gate.

Neither of them knew it yet, but while Eden’s week would become a brutal descent into exhaustion, Lucy and Sonne’s would become something very different.

A partnership.

Perhaps even a rivalry.

And, for Sonne in particular, a quiet violation of the principles she’d spent her entire life preaching.