Chapter 710: The Night’s Armour

Selene grinned and hugged his arm.

"Let’s go!"

The two of them boarded another orbital and made their way toward Tom’s estate.

When they arrived, the guards at the gate greeted them with warm smiles and polite words, recognizing both of them at once. Moon and Selene returned the greetings in kind before being escorted inside to meet Tom.

They reached his office, and Moon knocked.

~Knock-knock~

"Come in!"

At Tom’s call, the two of them entered.

Tom’s eyes lit up the moment he saw them, and he pushed up from his seat with a massive grin.

"There he is. That was some seriously good work at the gate, my boy. The Association forwarded your payment through me, along with a few other things."

Tom rubbed his hands together. "Want to see it?"

"Yes."

Tom tossed a storage ring across the room, and Moon caught it out of the air.

He looked inside, and found ten million dollars in cash sitting alongside the prize he’d been waiting for since before he entered the gate. The reward from his negotiated incentives.

Without hesitation, Moon drew it out.

The armor materialized in his hands. It was remarkably light, yet the moment he carassed it he could feel the density of the material, it was durable.

A simple black attire, nothing flashy that would draw the eye. Exactly what an assassin’s gear should be.

"That’s the assassin armor you asked for," Tom said, settling back against his desk. "They delivered ahead of schedule, which almost never happens, so consider yourself lucky. It’s got an active effect built in. The material shifts color to match your surroundings, feeds directly into camouflage and stealth work. Pair it with whatever concealment you’ve already got and you’ll be a ghost."

Moon turned the armor over in his hands, examining the craftsmanship, and a small smile crossed his face.

Between Camouflage, and now an armor set built to amplify exactly that, his stealth capabilities had just taken a serious leap.

"It’s perfect," Moon said. "This is exactly what I wanted."

[The Night’s Armour]

[Order: Second]

[Rank: B]

[Details: Allows the user to change the armour’s visual representation with a thought or automatically. +100% Concealment Effect. +10 Constitution]

Tom laughed.

"Good, good. Now, I heard about that Beast Soul you picked up." He shook his head with a grin. "Prepare yourself, boy. You’re about to become a very hot topic. Every branch in the kingdom is going to want you on their gate teams."

Moon nodded. "I can imagine. Not that I’m complaining."

With the southern commander in his summon pool, Moon was confident he could clear any B-rank gate or below without serious risk. The Beast Soul alone was formidable, and Moon’s own strength kept climbing. Once he finished the foundation of his twelfth acupoint, built around Ice-Assimilation, his power would jump by the equivalent of two or three acupoints, another meaningful edge stacked onto everything else.

My acupoints are worth several times what a normal fighter’s are. That’s the tradeoff for how brutally hard they are to fill. But it’s worth it. Every one I complete puts me further ahead of where anyone expects me to be.

"By the way, where’s Kael? Still in the Second Sanctuary?"

Tom nodded. "Yeah. Taking his training dead seriously since the tournament. You lit a fire under that boy, I don’t think he’s taken a day off since." He paused. "Which reminds me. The Association reached out to me about the tournament."

Moon’s curiosity sharpened. "What did they say?"

"Redoing the tournament outright is off the table. Too much cost, too much disruption, and half the contenders are scattered now. So instead, they’ve decided to award the grand prize to the single most contributing contender, measured across ongoing performance." Tom’s grin widened. "And clearing this gate earned you a mountain of points. You’re in the lead, comfortably."

Moon’s expression turned thoughtful.

"Smart move on their part. This way they keep the Evolver-rank geniuses clearing gates instead of just grinding in the sanctuary. And they can offer lower incentives per gate, because we’ll take the work anyway to chase the ultimate reward. They turn the whole prize into a leash that keeps their strongest young fighters doing exactly what the Association needs done."

Tom nodded, clearly pleased Moon had seen it so quickly.

"They’re not easy to deal with. Shrewd as they come. But here’s the thing." He leaned forward. "With that Beast Soul of yours, they’re going to have to raise the incentives whether they like it or not. You’re not just another contender anymore. You’re the number one gate clearer for B-rank and below in the entire kingdom. When you’re the only one who can reliably clear the gates that kill everyone else, you set the price. Not them."

Moon smiled slightly, the leverage was his now, and it was only going to grow the more gates he cleared.

After speaking with Tom for a while, Moon excused himself and returned home with Selene.

They spent the next few hours relaxing, watching some new shows Selene had been wanting to try. As much as Moon itched to train, he knew these quiet hours with her were rare and worth protecting.

Fighting monsters would always be waiting, days like this wouldn’t. So he set the training aside, settled onto the couch beside her, and let himself enjoy it.

When the show ended, the two began trading opinions.

"The male lead made the right call in the end," Moon said. "He cut ties when staying would’ve dragged everyone down with him. It’s cold, but ultimately correct. Sentiment would’ve gotten them all killed."

"That’s such a you answer." Selene rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "He didn’t just cut ties, he broke her heart doing it. He could’ve explained, given her the choice, trusted her to handle the truth. Instead he decided for her, and I think that shows he was scared of that conversation."

"Maybe. But the conversation costs time he didn’t have. Sometimes protecting someone means letting them hate you."

Selene was quiet for a moment, then tilted her head.

"...Okay. I’ll give you that one. In his situation, maybe there wasn’t a better move." She poked his arm. "But he still could’ve been kinder about it. You can do the practical thing and not be a jerk while you’re at it."

"Fair," Moon conceded with a small smile.

They went back and forth a while longer, her reading the characters through their hearts and him through their logic, neither fully winning but both giving ground.

Eventually, Moon rose and excused himself to his room.

"Time to set the foundation for the twelfth acupoint."

He settled into a lotus position on the floor, closed his eyes, and began carefully weaving Ice-Assimilation into the acupoint, threading the skill in as its core foundation, building the twelfth around the skill he’d just mastered.

An hour or so later, he opened his eyes.

His spiritual energy had risen noticeably, and his strength had climbed by the equivalent of two acupoints, exactly the jump he’d anticipated.

"I need about three more acupoints before I fully clear the five-star ranking and step into whatever comes next," he murmured thoughtfully.

For a normal Evolver, the ranking after Five-Star Evolver was Surpasser. But Moon’s condition was unusual. His acupoints produced output several times greater than an ordinary Evolver’s, which had let him fight at Five-Star and beyond with only a fraction of the acupoints filled.

How exactly his advancement would resolve when he crossed that final threshold, whether he’d become a Surpasser in the conventional sense or something that didn’t fit the standard mold, he genuinely didn’t know.

The uncertainty didn’t worry him. If anything, it intrigued him.

Three more acupoints. And then I find out what I actually become.

He was curious to see it happen, whenever the day came.