Chapter 77: Nice Massage

Eden’s eyes widened slightly.

The guardian reached out to touch the blade.

"You learned it."

Eden slowly pulled the Dark Matter weapon free.

"Your..."

He struggled to catch his breath.

"...Technique?"

The guardian nodded.

"Yes."

It looked at Eden.

"You stopped treating each movement as an individual action."

Its voice echoed throughout the ruined chamber.

"Every movement became the beginning of another."

Eden stared at it.

The guardian’s body began to crack.

Eden lowered his blade.

The guardian slowly straightened.

"You have passed this trial."

Eden blinked.

The guardian extended one of its remaining hands.

Black energy gathered above its palm.

The darkness condensed.

A ring appeared.

It was completely black, with intricate markings carved around its surface.

Eden stared.

The guardian held it out.

"Take it."

Eden stepped forward.

’Finally.’

"It’s called Lord’s Wrath."

The moment Eden touched the ring, he felt an immense surge of power.

The guardian continued.

"It will strengthen all of your attributes by... forty points, according to your systems measurements."

"It also possesses another ability."

Dark Essence gathered around its hand.

"Lord’s Wrath can manifest itself as armor."

The ring suddenly emitted black light.

A dark robe appeared around Eden’s body.

It flowed from his shoulders down toward his ankles.

Heavy armored plates covered his chest and shoulders, while dark fabric extended around his legs. The entire outfit looked almost regal, yet threatening.

Eden stared down at himself.

"Looks pretty good."

"Yes."

The guardian’s voice remained calm.

"It will regenerate itself when damaged and give a further boost in agility and strength by thirty points when active."

’...!’

Eden touched the armor.

’I didn’t know it also further boosts offensive attributes when armored.’

"This is..."

He grinned.

"...really damn useful."

The guardian nodded.

Eden immediately slipped the ring onto his finger.

A wave of energy surged through him.

[Item Equipped.]

[Lord’s Wrath — S-Rank]

[All Attributes +40.]

Eden’s eyes widened.

His strength increased.

His agility.

His vitality.

His Essence.

His perception.

And even Dark Matter.

He blinked.

’It boosts Dark Matter too?’

That was unexpected.

But he certainly wasn’t going to complain.

Eden opened his System.

Then froze.

His expression slowly darkened.

[Devour — S-Rank]

[Activation requirements not met.]

Eden stared.

Silence.

His eyebrow twitched.

"...You’re kidding."

He checked again.

The result didn’t change.

His attributes were still too low to activate Devour.

"All this."

Nothing.

"For nothing?"

Still nothing.

"God damn it!"

The guardian watched him calmly.

Eden clenched his fists.

"How high do my attributes have to be?!"

No answer came.

The System remained indifferent.

Eden’s frustration boiled.

He had just defeated an absurd guardian.

He had reached B-Rank.

He had acquired an S-Rank item.

He had received a massive attribute boost.

And Devour still refused to activate.

’What the hell are the requirements for this thing?’

His gaze fell onto Lord’s Wrath.

Then another thought surfaced.

’Lord’s Mercy.’

The counterpart.

An A-Rank ring.

A white ring that increased every attribute by twenty points.

By itself, weaker than Lord’s Wrath.

But if both were worn together...

Eden did the math.

Forty from Wrath.

Twenty from Mercy.

But the rings’ combined effect would apparently produce an additional synergy.

A total bonus of one hundred points in every attribute.

His eyes narrowed.

’Would that be enough?’

Then he sighed.

’Probably.’

But there was one problem.

He already knew who possessed Lord’s Mercy.

A B-Rank Awakened affiliated with the Association.

Someone who would serve as a guide during the second round of the tryouts.

Someone Eden was supposed to meet soon.

Someone who—

Eden’s expression suddenly became complicated.

Dies.

His thoughts stopped.

The memory was unpleasantly clear.

’That person is going to die during the second round.’

Eden’s jaw tightened.

’And I can’t just walk up to them and say, "Hey, mind giving me your ring because I know you’re going to die."’

There were too many questions.

Too many inconsistencies.

Too many ways to expose information he shouldn’t possess.

Eden sighed.

’I’ll deal with it when the time comes.’

His thoughts were interrupted.

"You are thinking too much."

Eden looked up.

The guardian was holding something else.

A strange rune-covered key.

It extended its hand.

Eden took it.

The moment his fingers touched the object, he felt a strange sensation.

"What is this?"

The guardian’s body continued cracking.

"You will understand when you find my true body."

Eden frowned.

"Your true body?"

"This is merely an avatar."

The guardian’s voice became quieter.

"Find me within the Abyss."

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

"What do you want from me?"

The guardian smiled faintly.

"I will be waiting..."

Its body began dissolving into black particles.

"...inside the reverse castle of the eclipse."

Eden’s expression hardened.

"The what?"

But the guardian was already disappearing.

Its final words echoed through the cavern.

"Come when you are ready."

Silence returned as it completely vanished.

Eden stood alone in the ruined chamber.

He stared at the empty space.

"...Reverse castle of the eclipse."

He looked at the strange rune key in his hand.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

’The reasons to head into the Abyss just keep stacking up.’

Then his System chimed.

[Level up! ×3]

Eden blinked.

His eyes widened.

"Three levels?"

He quickly opened his Status.

[Level: 154]

A grin slowly formed.

"Not bad."

Eden finally deactivated Corrupted Surge.

The enormous increase in power disappeared.

His body immediately felt lighter.

Then he deactivated his Dark Matter enhancement.

The black blade in his hand dissolved.

Almost immediately, warmth spread throughout his body.

The damage he had suffered began healing.

His fractured ribs slowly reconstructed.

The cuts across his shoulder began closing.

His muscles relaxed.

Eden let out a long breath.

"Ah..."

He dropped down onto the ground.

His legs stretched out in front of him.

He sat among the rubble.

"I’m taking the rest of the day off."

Footsteps approached.

Obsidian emerged from the dust.

He walked toward Eden.

Then stopped.

He lowered his head.

A simple nod.

Eden smiled.

"Thanks."

Obsidian nodded again.

Sylvia appeared beside him.

Her eyes were sparkling.

She practically rushed toward Eden.

"Master!"

Eden’s expression immediately became wary.

"Why are you yelling?"

"You did it!"

Sylvia threw her arms around him in a hug that caused them both to crash onto the ground.

"You actually defeated that thing!"

She looked absurdly proud.

"I knew you would!"

Eden struggled to breathe

"M—my Neck!"

"Ah—"

"Apologies Master."

Sylvia let him go and crouched beside him.

"It was incredible! You learned the guardian’s technique while fighting it, adapted to its movements, destroyed two of its ar—"

"Enough."

Eden sighed.

"Whatever."

He stood.

His body was already feeling considerably better.

Then he remembered something.

He looked down at his clothes.

Or what remained of them.

’...Right.’

Eden touched Lord’s Wrath.

The ring responded.

Black energy spread across his body.

Within seconds, the dark armored robe manifested completely.

It was sleek.

Heavy.

Protective.

The dark armor covered his torso and shoulders, while the robe-like lower half moved naturally with his body.

It somehow suited him perfectly.

Sylvia stared.

Then smiled.

"Master."

"What?"

"You look handsome."

Eden looked at himself.

"...I’ll take that."

He opened his Status.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

[STATUS]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name: Eden

Level: 154 [B-Rank]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Attributes

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Strength: 507

Agility: 389

Vitality: 301

Essence: 301

Perception: 147

Dark Matter: 170

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Skills & Authorities

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Devour [S]

Dark Matter Manipulation [S]

Corrupted Surge [S]

Paralysis [B]

Burst Step [B]

Stealth [C]

Warrior’s Spirit [C]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Eden stared at the numbers.

"Level 154..."

He smiled.

A low B-Rank.

Only barely inside the rank.

But it was still progress.

More importantly—

He had learned something here that couldn’t be measured by numbers.

His combat skill had improved..

Eden flexed his fingers.

’I’ll need to practice that Guardian’s technique some more.’

He looked toward Obsidian.

"Come on."

The Black Knight stepped forward.

Eden placed a hand against his shoulder.

"You did great too."

Obsidian nodded.

Dark Matter spread across his body.

He dissolved into black particles and returned to Eden’s reserves.

The cavern immediately felt quieter.

Eden stretched his arms.

His muscles still ached.

"I really need some proper rest after this."

Sylvia smiled.

"I can help with that."

Eden looked at her.

"...How?"

"A massage."

Her smile became suspiciously sweet.

"A very nice massage."

Eden’s eyes narrowed.

"..."

Sylvia leaned closer.

"And perhaps a happy ending."

Eden froze.

His expression became one of pure terror.

A memory surfaced.

Last night.

Sylvia.

His bed.

Her completely unreasonable stamina.

His exhausted soul.

Eden slowly took one step backward.

"No."

Sylvia blinked innocently.

"No?"

"I don’t need a massage."

"You just said you needed rest."

"I changed my mind."

"But Master—"

"I’ll rest naturally."

Sylvia giggled.

"You seem frightened."

"I’m not frightened."

Another step backward.

"I’m being cautious."

"Of me?"

"Very."

Eden turned away.

"Let’s just go."

She followed him.

Obsidian’s Dark Matter stirred faintly from within Eden.

For a brief moment, Eden could almost imagine the Black Knight judging him.

’Don’t start.’