Chapter 35: Announcement

Leon didn’t stop walking until the sun had completely vanished below the horizon, plunging the forest into a deep, heavy darkness.

He found a secluded hollow beneath the roots of an ancient, overturned tree, a natural shelter shielded from the wind and passing eyes. He didn’t build a fire. He didn’t need one. With his Constitution sitting at 50, the chill of the night air barely registered against his skin, and building a fire was just an invitation for unnecessary company.

He sat back against the packed dirt, exhaling a long, slow breath that seemed to carry the weight of the last three hours with it.

The adrenaline was finally fading, leaving behind the quiet, bone-deep ache of a body that had been pushed past its limits and forcibly stitched back together by magic. He was alive. He had walked into a Level 22-25 Zone at Level 19 and walked out at Level 27, leaving a dead Sovereign and a collapsed dungeon in his wake.

"Alright," Leon murmured to the empty woods. "Let’s see the damage."

He opened his inventory, bypassing the mountain of eternal coins and basic crafting materials, and pulled out the Platinum-Rank artifact.

[The Sovereign’s Mantle]

[Rank: Platinum (Artifact)]

[Description: Woven from the shadows of the Underworld and dyed in the ash of the forgotten. This mantle passively absorbs ambient light to conceal the wearer’s presence in darkness. Grants absolute immunity to low-tier curses and minor necrotic effects, while significantly reducing the impact of high-tier domain suppressions. Automatically adjusts its size and weight to perfectly fit the bearer.]

Leon pulled the dark fabric over his shoulders. The moment it settled against his Fanghide Battleplate, the mantle seemed to melt into place, weightless and completely silent. The tattered, spectral aesthetic it had possessed on Malakor shifted, smoothing out into a sleek, midnight-black cloak that seemed to drink the moonlight filtering through the canopy.

He could immediately feel the difference. The residual stiffness in his joints from the necrotic damage he’d taken in the throne room vanished entirely.

Next, he pulled the glowing Platinum rune from his inventory.

[Skill Rune: Wraith-Step]

[Level Requirement: 25]

[Rank: Platinum]

[Time to Comprehend: 3 Seconds]

Leon closed his fingers around the rune.

Unlike the two seconds it had taken to comprehend Verlimon’s Judgment, this one took a fraction longer. The knowledge flooded his mind—the precise manipulation of spatial mana, the exact frequency required to fold himself into the physical shadows, and the physical toll of tearing through the veil of reality.

Ding!

[Skill Acquired: Wraith-Step]

[Level: 25]

[Rank: Platinum]

[Description: Allows the user to instantaneously traverse short distances by shifting through the shadow plane. Movement is untraceable by conventional tracking abilities. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Mana Cost: High.]

"Untraceable teleportation," Leon whispered, a slow grin spreading across his face. Combined with Gale Weaver, his mobility was now officially terrifying.

He left the Core of the Underworld in his storage. The system categorized it as a Mythic Material, which meant he needed a proper use for it—likely an evolution catalyst for an S-Rank or SSS-Rank talent down the line. Fiddling with it now, without knowing its exact purpose, was a waste.

He pulled up his status panel to allocate his 10 unspent Stat Points.

He dropped 5 into Strength, bringing it to 30, and 5 into Agility, pushing it to 40. He needed his physical speed and striking power to keep up with his spellcasting, especially now that he would be fighting enemies pushing Level 30.

Finally, he turned to the notifications he had been ignoring since leaving the throne room.

[Talent Devourer: Residual Talent Energy Detected: "Domain of the Dead" (Fragments Available: 10)]

[Talent Devourer: Residual Talent Energy Detected: "Soul Severance" (Fragments Available: 10)]

Twenty fragments. Both from a Level 30 Zone Boss.

Leon looked at Soul Severance first. A guaranteed-kill skill designed to rip the soul from the body. Acquiring it as a standalone talent was tempting, but it felt redundant. He already had Arcane Requiem for overwhelming ranged destruction. What he needed was a way to make his close-quarters combat absolutely lethal against heavily armored targets.

He drew Bloodfang Edge from its sheath. The silver blade hummed in the quiet night, the Corrosive Edge property shimmering faintly along the metal.

"Fuse ten fragments of Soul Severance into Bloodfang Edge."

Ding!

[10 Fragments of "Soul Severance" fused into Weapon: Bloodfang Edge.]

[Bloodfang Edge has gained: Severance Effect.]

[Description Updated: Strikes from this blade now carry a chance to deal true damage directly to the target’s vitality, bypassing all physical armor, magical barriers, and natural resistances. The chance of triggering increases based on the severity of the wound inflicted.]

Leon studied the blade. A weapon that could ignore armor entirely and strike the soul. It was the perfect counter to enemies like the Royal Obsidian Colossi.

That left the ten fragments of Domain of the Dead.

Fusing an AoE suppression field into a skill didn’t make sense. It needed to be its own entity.

"Fuse the ten fragments and acquire the talent."

The ten dark fragments materialized in the air before him, spinning rapidly before slamming directly into his chest. A wave of freezing, necrotic energy washed over his skin, instantly neutralized by the Sovereign’s Mantle, leaving behind only the pure, crystallized knowledge of the talent.

Ding!

[10 Fragments of "Domain of the Dead" have been fused.]

[New Talent Acquired: Domain of the Dead — Grade: B]

[Description: The user can project a localized domain of necrotic suppression. Enemies caught within the domain suffer a 15% reduction to all base attributes and have their passive health regeneration severely dampened. Maintenance requires a continuous expenditure of mana.]

Leon dismissed the panels, leaning his head back against the dirt wall of his shelter.

He was done. His build was solidified. He had an answer for swarms, heavily armored elites, magical casters, and brute-force bosses.

He closed his eyes, intending to actually sleep for the first time in ten days.

And then, the sky outside his hollow turned a brilliant, blinding gold.

Leon’s eyes snapped open. The golden light didn’t come from the moon. It was everywhere, bleeding through the canopy of the forest, illuminating the darkness with the intensity of high noon.

A sound followed—a deep, resonant tolling, like a massive bell being struck at the center of the world. It vibrated through the earth, echoing in the chest of every living creature in Eternal Heaven.

BONG.

BONG.

BONG.

Then, a massive, translucent system interface unrolled itself across the entire sky, the text glowing so brightly it was impossible to miss, no matter where a player was standing.

Ding!

[Global Announcement!]

[The Underworld Realm (Level 22-25) in Sector 4 has been permanently sealed.]

[The Sovereign of the Ash has fallen.]

[Congratulations to the anonymous player for achieving the First Zone Boss Elimination of the Elimination Cycle.]

[As a reward for this unprecedented achievement, Sector 4 will receive a 5% global increase in ambient mana density for the remainder of the cycle.]

[May your paths be forged in blood and triumph.]