Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Wings and Ash The fire raged across the arena floor for a few seconds longer before finally thinning out, revealing a single figure still standing. Rhian. He had charged straight in, but now he was crouched with his wings wrapped tight around his body. The flames had licked across them but done nothing. Steam hissed from the ground beneath him, and as he stood upright, the heavy folds of his wings unfurled slowly. Across the arena, the fire mystical stared in disbelief. His match settings had been strict. The academy’s simulation filtered encounters to match rank and ability tier, he was F-Rank, and this opponent should’ve been, too. Yet he’d just burned through the arena floor and landed a direct hit, and it hadn’t even slowed the guy down. Before he could make sense of it, Rhian moved again. His steps weren’t blinding or impossibly fast, the limiter in the simulation capped everything at F-Rank performance, but even within that frame, Rhian’s movements were sharp, efficient, and heavy. His wings helped. Every dash had weight behind it. The fire mystical barely raised his guard before Rhian slammed a punch into his chest. The impact launched him backward. He hit the ground and rolled, trying to recover. Rhian didn’t wait. He burst into the air with a flap of his wings, rising quickly before diving down again. His silhouette cut through the haze, but this time, the mystical wasn’t fooled. He formed a fireball and hurled it at the figure mid-air. The flames passed through. Illusion. Rhian appeared from the side. The real one. Before the fire user could react, Rhian slid behind him and drew both blades in one smooth motion. With precise speed, he crossed them over the guy’s throat and pulled. The mystical’s body lit up instinctively, fire flaring in panic, but it was too late. Rhian tore the blades outward in a swift motion. The flames blinked out as the avatar collapsed, lifeless. The simulation ended. The body faded. Rhian stood up, breathing lightly. This fight had been clean. His raw stats were kept within F-Rank limits, but his instincts and ability usage were clearly sharper than his opponent’s. That was the edge. Of course he didn’t use the limiter because he was scared of stronger opponents. He just wanted to test things on his own terms. There were a couple of students who had broken through to D-Rank after the last expedition. The school had returned all the cores they harvested, and some students used that to push themselves forward. Rhian could feel the difference in some of their energy when they passed by. But most of them weren’t joining the simulations. Maybe they were taking their time, or maybe they just didn’t want to risk losing in a public match. Rhian didn’t care either way. He just wanted variety. Fighting at full power wasn’t always the right approach. Not every fight needed it. Some required patience, strategy, or learning control over abilities that weren’t meant for brute force. That was why he kept the limiter on for now, not because he was hiding, but because he was building something, quietly. He laid back, his arms folded under his head, letting the ceiling of the simulation room blur in his vision. A familiar screen popped into view. [Name: Rhian Locke] Age: 18 Divine Core: E Rank (99.99%) Seals Unlocked: N/A Bloodline: Ragnarok [Abilities] ■ Locked ■ Locked .... [Unlocked Abilities:] ■ [Passive] Aquatic Adaptation ■ [Passive] Predator Instinct ■ [Passive] Ragnarok Physique ■ [Moderate] Reptilian Regeneration ■ Pain Resistance ■ Breath of Ragnarok ■ Poison Immunity ■ Illusion [Limited] ■ Shadow Manipulation [Limited] ■ Combat Instinct ■ Valkyrie Wings Rhian stared at the screen for a while. There was no emotion on his face, just a long sigh as his eyes moved to the part that frustrated him the most. E Rank (99.99%). It had been like that for nearly a month now. It wasn’t even that he wasn’t trying. He was doing everything, training, fighting, pushing himself mentally and physically. But no matter what he did, that number didn’t budge. Back before the expedition, he was around [35%]. Then after they came back, the school returned all the cores they’d harvested, and Rhian absorbed them all. Or rather, he ate them. He had figured out what "Breath of Ragnarok" really meant. It wasn’t about breathing fire or anything about combat. It was about his body’s capacity to process energy, especially chaotic energy. Cores, when eaten, didn’t come clean. They were wild, unstable. It would tear their insides apart. But when Rhian ate his first core, his body accepted it like it was normal. As if it had been made to handle it. The energy moved through his limbs, his chest, his lungs, and instead of rejection, there was adaptation. The chaos was restructured, redirected. It was like breathing in something poisonous and turning it into strength. That was the moment he realized his ability didn’t just let him absorb, it let him devour. He had tested it carefully. He absorbed a F-Rank core through normal means. The system showed an increase. Then he ate a second one, and the spike was larger. The energy hit harder. He hadn’t done the math, but he was confident that eating the core gave him more of its value. He wasn’t reckless with it. He had limits. He made sure to pace himself. Ash didn’t even take any of the cores from their share, which allowed Nia and Rhian to divide the remaining ones. It wasn’t a fair distribution since neither of them had done most of the hunting, but Ash didn’t seem to care. Nia had pushed her percentage high with those cores. She was days from reaching D rank from what she said. He wondered if he would get new abilities, but it wasn’t too common, but it wasn’t rare either. Rhian, on the other hand, was stuck. He had eaten every core he had, including the one E-Rank he managed to keep, and that brought him to 99.99%. And now no matter how much he fought, or trained, or stressed his body, it didn’t move. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺 He had pushed himself. Used the Ragnarok Physique to the fullest. Sprinted until his lungs burned. Swam in extreme depths for hours. Sparred with Aras, lost to Nia, trained with Iris. Nothing changed. The progress bar remained the same. He even wondered if the system was bugged. If maybe the last sliver was locked behind something else. But that didn’t make sense. He was supposed to be an Evolved. A cursed. This kind of growth came from effort, not riddles. He clenched his jaw, pushing the screen away. He was tired of waiting. He wanted that breakthrough. Not just because of strength or the seal system, but because this was the first time in his life he felt like he was actually going somewhere. And now the whole system felt like it had hit pause. And he was stuck. Again.