The rain outside the cave had not stopped. If anything, it fell harder now, drumming against the rocky overhang in a steady, relentless rhythm.
Cael sat with his back against the cave wall, the remains of the rabbit nothing but bones picked clean.
The at had settled in his stomach, warm and dense, and with it ca a strange sensation he could not ignore.
His rank had progressed. Very little, almost negligible, but progression, nonetheless.
’How was this possible?’
He had not trained.
He had not fought to his absolute limits.
He had not absorbed any special resources or completed any difficult trials.
He had simply eaten a rabbit.
A small, ordinary-looking rabbit that happened to have wind mana flowing through its small body.
Cael stared at the bones in his hands, his mind racing.
There was no such thing in the novel. No ntion of eating beasts and gaining progression.
That was not how the system worked.
Rank advancent ca from training, from battle, from understanding your class and mastering your elents.
Not from cooking at over a fire.
One had to rember that Rank progression related to one’s soul.
And yet, here he was. The evidence was right in front of him.
For so reason, Cael felt the answer was obvious.
It was right there, at the edge of his thoughts, but he could not put a finger on it.
Every ti he reached for the conclusion, it slipped away, leaving him more frustrated than before.
He shook his head and decided to focus on sothing else.
He raised his hand, and frostfla flickered across his palm.
The blue-white fire danced for a mont before he directed it toward the rabbit bones.
They froze instantly, then cracked, then crumbled into fine dust that scattered across the cave floor.
The bones were gone. No trace left behind.
Cael leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.
He was curious about the forest and the strange creatures in it.
The deer with its crystal antlers. The snake that refused to stay dead. The salamander, he could not sense. The bowman who attacked without reason.
But he had not forgotten his original purpose for coming here.
He was here to find the dark green-haired girl. The one with amber eyes. The one who had achieved the State of Resonant.
Cael opened his eyes and stared at the cave ceiling.
’How had she done it?’
How had a girl who looked no older than him managed to resonate with her class when even Lucian, the protagonist of the novel, had never co close?
He did not have an answer. But he wanted one.
Cael summoned his status interface.
His eyes found his class description, the sa words he had read dozens of tis before.
...
Iridescent Monarch
Rank: SSS
A class that represents power without a single shape. This class does not embody one concept. It reflects many.
Unlike ordinary classes that define a fixed path, elent, or role, the Iridescent Monarch has no predetermined form. Its strength changes according to the user, the situation, and the will imposed upon it.
Just as iridescence shifts with perspective, the Iridescent Monarch manifests power differently in every mont, refusing to be confined to one identity or rule.
It is not a class of specialization. It is a class of dominance through adaptability.
....
Cael read the words again, slowly, muttering them under his breath.
"No predetermined form."
"Will imposed upon it."
"Refuses to be confined by one identity or rule."
"Dominance through adaptability."
The words echoed in his mind, each phrase settling into his thoughts like a puzzle piece that did not quite fit.
Then an absurd thought crossed his mind.
Was progression by eating beast at related to adaptability?
His class was about adapting, about changing, about refusing to be confined.
If he could adapt to anything, why not adapt to the mana inside the creatures he consud?
Why not make their strength his own?
Cael recalled his second resonance, the vision of the True Iridescent Monarch.
She had killed a fox by biting it, by eating it alive, by drinking its blood.
He had assud it was desperation, a primal act of survival.
But what if it was sothing more?
What if she was not just surviving, but growing?
There was no proof to verify this thought.
No evidence, no data, no precedent. But Cael felt it was likely. It fit too well with his class description.
"So, was this my innate ability?"
Cael muttered.
"Ha. I had an innate ability?"
Now that he thought about it, this was his first ti eating a mana beast’s at.
He had never had the opportunity before.
In the academy, his als were prepared from normal ingredients.
On missions, he ate store food, which was stored in his space pouch.
"No matter, I will find out soon enough."
Cael’s eyes fell back on the interface.
He wanted to understand his class better.
The description had always felt vague, almost intentionally so.
But now, after everything that had happened, he felt like he was finally starting to grasp its aning.
"Refuses to be confined by one identity or rule."
He was not able to understand this line.
’Identity or rule.’
’What did that an?’
’Was it saying I should not just be Cael? Should he be Nicolas as well?’
’The two souls rged inside him, two identities in one body.’
But Cael shook his head.
On the day before he rged with Cael, he already had this class.
The Iridescent Monarch was his class before the rger, not after.
So, it was not about Cael or Nicolas.
Then what?
Cael was deeply contemplating when the rain outside suddenly intensified.
The wind picked up, howling through the trees, and a cold gust entered the cave.
It swept across the floor, reaching the small pile of embers that had been his fire.
The flas flickered once, twice, then died.
The cave fell into darkness.
Cael sighed. The fire was gone.
The warmth was gone. The light was gone. He sat in the dark, listening to the rain and the wind, feeling the cold seep into his clothes.
To create another fire, he would need more dry wood, more dry leaves, more ti.
It might take an hour or more, and he did not have the mood to do it again.
’If only I had the Fire elent.’
Unfortunately, he had fused fire with ice to create frostfla elent.
He could not gain another fire elent either.
Once an elent was rged into a special elent, he could no longer obtain it as a separate base elent.
’Would it not be great if I could still use the fire elent even after rging?’
’WAIT A MINUTE!’
Cael’s eyes widened in the darkness. His breath caught in his throat.
"Refuse to be confined by one identity or rule."
The line echoed in his mind again, but this ti, it ant sothing different.
This ti, he understood.
His class was not telling him to be multiple people.
It was telling him that he did not have to be confined by the rules of the elents.
He had rged fire and ice into frostfla.
By the normal rules of the world, that ant he could no longer use fire or ice separately.
The elents were gone, replaced by sothing new.
But his class refused to be confined by rules. His class was dominated by adaptability.
Why should he be limited by the fusion?
Cael cald his mind and took deep breaths.
He stretched his hand forward in the darkness and closed his eyes. He recalled a line from his class description.
"The will imposed upon it."
He summoned Frostfla.
The blue-white fire flickered in his palm, casting pale shadows on the cave walls.
It was cold and hot at the sa ti, a contradiction made solid.
Cael focused on the fla and started to think of fire.
Just fire. Fire without ice.
Fire as it had been before the fusion.
He imagined the orange glow, the heat that burned without freezing, the wild and untad nature of the elent he had once commanded.
The frostfla flickered.
For a mont, nothing happened.
Then Cael felt a warm sensation spreading through his palm, different from the cold heat of frostfla.
It was warr, purer, more familiar.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Orange flas danced on his palm. Not blue-white. Not cold. Just fire. Pure, simple fire.
Cael smiled.
He had done it.
He had broken the rule. He had refused to be confined.
He was still far from achieving the State of Resonant.
There was still a long way to go.
But this step, this small breakthrough, was a milestone.
He had bent the rules of his own elents.
He had imposed his will upon his class.
Cael watched the orange flas flicker and dance, casting warm light across the cave walls.
"This can be considered my second innate ability, right?"
He asked the question to no one, the words swallowed by the rain and the wind outside the cave.
But deep down, he already knew the answer.
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