Chapter 104 – The Salt of Ashes.

The fissure of the Gorge of Burned Bones narrowed until it became a slit of dark rock through which the wind blew with a biting whistle.

The copper-colored sun was already beginning to sink below the reddish horizon of the Third Circle when Diana and Boran reached the base of the cliff wall. High atop a basalt ledge twenty meters up, a nest crafted from the bones of ancient beasts sheltered the pair of Gluttonous Rift Manticores (Level 48).

Both monsters were the size of heavy lions, with reddish bodies covered in coarse fur and dark leather wings folded over their backs. Their long scorpion tails beat rhythmically against the stone, stingers dripping a green liquid that smoked upon touching the gravel.

The appraisal from [Command Eye] confirmed each beast's stats: 2,200 hit points and 50 Strength.

Boran crouched behind a loose boulder at the entrance of the gorge, keeping his skinning knife in hand. “The wind is blowing north, Commander. Our scent won't drift up to the nest if you circle around from the left.”

Diana drew the black steel dagger from its sheath with her right hand, feeling the Crown of Arcane Sovereignty cold against her forehead.

She did not reply. She simply took three brisk strides up the slope and initiated the rotation she had planned the day before.

***

Diana extended her open left hand toward the first manticore raising its head on the ledge.

DUAL ARCANE ICE LANCE!

Driven by 189 Intelligence, two spikes of blue ice shot straight through the air, piercing the unprotected membrane beneath the first manticore's left wing before the monster could spread its wings.

CRUNCH!

The ice tore through the thin tissue of the creature's wing-joint, freezing the shoulder tendons with a snap of fractured bone.

The manticore let out a roar of pain and lost its balance in the nest, plummeting twenty meters and crashing onto the gravel floor of the gorge with a dull thud, its left wing completely ruined.

The second manticore reacted in the very same second.

The beast leaped from the ledge with a heavy flap of its wings, swooping down in a low dive toward Diana with its scorpion tail arched over its head, loosing six bone quills soaked in corrosive acid.

Diana used [Arcane Teleportation].

She blinked eight meters backward, but two of the acid quills detonated on the gravel beside her boot. The corrosive liquid splashed onto the hem of her black leather coat, burning the fabric and grazing the skin of her left leg.

Diana's health bar dropped from 570 to 540 HP.

Diana gave the beast no room to wheel around.

She concentrated mana straight into the two obsidian horns on her head.

The golden grooves flared like burning embers, and the heat compressed into the twin sharp tips above her brow.

OBSIDIAN HORNS' IGNEOUS FOCUS!

PZZZZT!

The thin beam of white fire lanced from the tips of the horns with a sharp hiss, streaking through the air and piercing the manticore's chest in mid-flight. The concentrated heat bored through the animal's muscular wall, cauterizing the beast's heart in under half a second.

The Level 48 manticore folded its wings dead in midair, crashing face-first into the gravel five meters from Diana.

The first creature, sprawled on the ground with its shattered wing, tried dragging itself forward using its front claws to reach the Commander.

Diana walked toward it without haste.

She extended her right hand and discharged a [Greed's Flame] combined with an Arcane Arrow directly into the monster's gaping maw.

BOOM!

The internal magical explosion shattered the creature's skull into dust and ashes.

***

The fight was over.

The smoke of magical burning dissipated slowly across the quiet gorge.

And then, a colossal notification in golden and black lettering appeared before Diana's eyes, illuminating the valley's dark gravel:

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

[ENEMIES DEFEATED: 2x GLUTTONOUS RIFT MANTICORES (LEVEL 48)]

- Experience Gained: 1,800 EXP (+360 Anomaly Bonus).

[HISTORIC MILESTONE REACHED!]

- DIANA HAS REACHED LEVEL 40!

[COMMANDER'S LOOT ACTIVATED (+30% BONUS)]

- Direct Coins: +20 pure Silver Coins!

- Rare Materials: 2x Acid Manticore Stingers + 2x Level 48 Cores.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Diana handed the daily wage of one silver coin to Boran, who had descended the slope and begun harvesting the stingers with seasoned speed.

With the loot revenue added and the guide's wage paid, the total balance in the faction vault adjusted to an untouched 399 Silver Coins (39.9 Gold Coins).

Diana sat on a flat rock beside the monster's carcass and allocated her points with mechanical calm:

- Diana (Level 40 - Commander of Greed): 5 Free Points + Class Passives (+3 INT, +2 PER, +1 WIS) -> +3 Free Intelligence (169 + 3 + 3 = 175 INT! + 20 from Crown = 195 INT!), +2 Vitality (57 -> 59 VIT -> HP reaches 590 POINTS!), +2 Perception (76 + 2 = 78 PER!), +1 Wisdom (34 + 1 = 35 WIS!). (MP reaches 1,280 MP POINTS!)

***

She stared at the floating screen.

Level 40.

Forty.

That was the number she had pursued across weeks of dungeons, blood, broken bones, and sleepless nights. It was the milestone proving she had cast off the weakness of a human body and seized the strength of this world's elite creatures.

Diana expected to feel the customary euphoria of victory. She expected to let out an arrogant laugh, count the silver coins in her pocket, and plot her next blueprint toward Level 50.

But none of that came.

In the middle of the cold, deserted gorge, with Boran working twenty meters away with his back turned, Diana's chest suddenly tightened.

A suffocating, bitter physical weight rose up her throat like a swallowed stone.

Her dark eyes with golden rings burned.

A silent tear slipped down her left cheek, tracing a clean path through the dust and combat soot.

Then another. And another.

Diana brought both gloved hands to her face, hunching her torso over her knees as a restrained, heavy, completely silent sob seized her body.

Her shoulders shook beneath the black leather coat.

She did not understand why she was weeping.

She tried using the logic of 195 Intelligence to analyze what was occurring: could it be a hormonal imbalance of the Archdemon body? Neural fatigue from mana depletion? A delayed reaction to the acid venom?

No calculation made sense.

The tears spilling from the Commander's eyes were the accumulated release of two full months of an existence that had never once had time to stop.

It was the girl who had died abruptly at seventeen on Earth without ever hearing an "I'm proud of you" from anyone. It was the agony of ribs shattered in the plunge down the chasm, the burning of horns tearing through the flesh of her skull within the cocoon, and the terror of having nearly watched Rhea die right before her eyes in the temple chamber.

And above all... it was the loneliness.

Diana had reached the milestone of Level 40.

But here, in this dark valley of red earth, there was no Kael to slam his gauntlet against his shield and laugh boisterously. There was no Aurelia-Elysia to bring a warm cup of tea. There was no Seraphina paging through a grimoire, and there was no Rhea to rest her head against her shoulder and purr in quiet comfort.

She stood at the summit of the mountain she had built. Yet she sat upon it entirely alone.

***

Diana remained curled over the stone for ten long minutes, letting the tears wash away the tension that had been locked deep in her bones ever since she woke up in the First Circle.

Beside her, the System interface hovered in the air with a soft glow of black gold.

This time, there were no jokes. There were no mocking remarks about her posture. The System simply lingered there, silent, illuminating the girl's figure in the valley's gloom with a calm, steady light.

Gradually, the knot in Diana's throat dissolved.

The Commander drew a deep breath of the gorge's dry air, inhaling until her lungs stabilized. She wiped the backs of her gloves across her eyes with firm resolve, clearing the tears from her face.

Her dark eyes remained slightly red, but the two golden rings within her vertical pupils burned with a clear, unbreakable resolve.

She had wept what she needed to weep.

Diana stood up from the rock, adjusted her black leather coat over her shoulders, and secured the black steel dagger at her waist.

Boran finished tying the leather sacks filled with the manticores' stingers and meat, walking over to her. The old man noticed the girl's reddened eyes, but kept his mouth shut with the austere discretion of a veteran who knew when silence was the only respectful answer.

“The haul is ready, Commander,” Boran said in a neutral tone.

Diana looked up at the reddish sky of the Third Circle opening above the gorge.

Level 40 was won. Weakness had been purged in the ashes.

And the march of the Arcane Greed Faction toward Level 50 continued steadily toward the horizon.