Ascending With A Legendary Class Chapter 42: The Valerian Lunatic

Winston looked at Freya and Zelda’s current states and sighed.

Zelda was bruised and unsteady on her feet. Freya was on the floor, one eye swollen nearly shut, fighting to stay conscious through what looked like sheer stubbornness.

Both of them had been through a false gate, three days of surviving the impossible, and were now apparently being used as warm-up material on their first morning of training.

He set his bag down and walked to the center of the training floor.

"Lord Richard placed us under your care," he said, stopping a few ters from Freya’s sister. "But It seems like you’re using us as punching bags."

"And?" She smiled with the sa cold, precise expression from before. "Diamond forms under pressure. I want to beat the potential out of you. Haven’t you heard that phrase?"

Winston looked at her for a mont. Then he smiled back.

"Alright. Now I’m interested." He paused. "What’s your na? I’d like to know who I’m about to fight."

"Impress first. Then you’ll get it."

He could find her na in thirty seconds online — a Paragon from the Valerian family wasn’t going to be difficult to look up.

But Winston found he preferred it this way. He’d earn the na.

"Fair enough." He reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it off in one motion, dropping it beside his bag.

The Black Dragonic Yari materialized in his right hand, the dark vapor bleeding from the spearhead in slow curls.

"This work?"

Freya’s sister glanced at him.

"Suit yourself."

She dropped into a battle stance — loose, practiced, one hand still partially behind her back. "Co at ."

"With pleasure."

Winston dashed forward and swung the Yari in a wide horizontal arc. To a Paragon, the movent read imdiately as too slow, she was already tracking the trajectory, already positioning her counter.

Then the speed changed.

『IGNITE』

Ten souls burned into his Realization simultaneously. His output spiked mid-motion, the acceleration hitting in the last fraction of a second before contact.

The speed went from readable to sothing else entirely.

BOOM!

The impact connected and Freya’s sister’s feet dug into the training floor — literal furrows carved backward through the material as the force of the strike pushed her several ters across the room before she planted and stopped.

Silence.

Zelda stared. Freya, still on the floor with one eye swollen, managed a pained smile that said everything.

Winston rested the Yari across his right shoulder and looked at the Paragon across the training space.

"Impressed yet?"

Freya’s sister stared at him. The cold composure that had been locked in place since he walked through the door had developed a crack.

Her eyes moved across him — the bare chest, the casual posture, the spear on his shoulder — and landed on his face with an expression that was equal parts assessnt and sothing she hadn’t expected to feel today.

"How?"

Winston shrugged.

"You’re supposed to be the expert. Why don’t you tell ?"

Freya’s sister’s eyes narrowed.

"You have quite a sharp mouth."

The smile faded from Winston’s face before he could stop it — not from intimidation, but from a thought that arrived uninvited.

He wasn’t usually like this. Arrogance had never been his thing. Even now, he didn’t feel arrogant exactly.

It was more like... the words were coming out differently than they used to.

’When did I start thinking of myself as an emperor?’

The energy in the room spiked before he could pursue the thought further.

Freya’s sister dropped into a stance, her expression shifting from amusent to sothing more serious.

"That attack you landed was at peak Rank Three, possibly entry Rank Four. So I’ll stop treating you like a standard initiate."

She vanished and reappeared directly in front of him, fist already driving forward with energy coating every knuckle.

Winston reacted on pure instinct as he burned one soul into the Yari and threw it up as a block.

BAM!

The impact launched him backward as he crashed into the floor and ca up in a low crouch with his hand buzzing from the force that had traveled up the shaft.

He checked her soul quickly.

The Intensity was close to Freya’s but not quite there. Epic class.

’And based off those attacks she must be a physical type class holder.’

"You took that well," she said, tilting her head slightly. "But physicality wasn’t really my strong suit."

Winston’s eyes widened.

’She’s not a physical type?’

Lightning gathered in her hands and before he finished processing the movent a full bolt of lightning struck Winston’s chest.

It sent him through the training ground wall entirely, crashing out into the open compound beyond.

He felt the current spreading through his body imdiately, locking his muscles in repeating spasms as he lay on the ground, unable to coordinate a single voluntary movent.

’I need to calm down.’

He could feel her footsteps approaching through the ground. She was giving him ti to recover.

That was sohow worse.

Luckily an idea surfaced through the haze and it was about his skill Life Tithe.

Life tithe required one soul slot to trigger — one full soul consud to rebuild the body completely.

But the soul was the energy source, and souls were enormously powerful. Using an entire soul to clear electrical paralysis was like using a nuclear plant to power a single phone.

’What if I didn’t use the full soul? What if I tap only a fraction of it?’

He didn’t know if a partial use would still put a slot on cooldown. He didn’t know if his Realization would allow it or reject it outright.

But his body was currently making the decision for him by being useless, and Freya’s sister was getting closer.

Winston reached into the Soul Garden with conscious intent and found a soul.

He didn’t allow trigger Life Tithe fully — he pressed against the edge of it, directing just enough energy to clear the paralysis without consuming the soul entirely.

Golden light moved through his body in a quiet pulse.

The current stopped as Winston pushed himself up.

Freya’s sister had been walking toward him at a leisurely pace but she stopped the mont he stood up as she simply stared at this anomaly.

Then the smile ca back — wider than before, and genuinely delighted.

"I can’t wait to see the diamond you’ll beco."

Winston looked at her.

’She’s completely insane.’

He kept that firmly internal.

Above them, the sky was darkening. Clouds were rolling in from nowhere, pulling together with the specific unnatural speed.

Freya’s sister raised one hand toward the sky, and the clouds answered.

Work stopped across the estate grounds as staff and attendants looked up.

"The young lady must be practicing again."

"No — I heard she was helping Lady Freya and her guests prepare for the Crucible."

"Then why is she casting that?"

In a separate training ground nearby, a young man with long white hair tied back and violet eyes paused mid-sword-swing.

Glistening with sweat from what had clearly been a long session. He turned toward the window and looked at the gathering storm overhead.

He let out a slow breath.

"What is that lunatic doing now?"