BOOM!
The massive gate—silent for four hundred years—let out a thunderous roar, and slowly opened a crack!
Before Shane could even react, five beams of light in different colors shot out through the doorway like sprites freed from the shackles of time and space!
"What is that?!" Shane's pupils shrank. Almost on instinct, the crimson flames of his Eye of Karma flared as he tried to see what was inside those lights.
"ROAR—!!!"
But the moment his gaze caught the foremost, most blazing scarlet beam—
A colossal dragon's roar, ancient with authority and crushing pressure, detonated deep inside his mind!
Shane's head rang—his thoughts blanked for an instant.
Then the five beams didn't slow at all. They pierced straight through the solid stone ceiling as if it weren't there, rocketed into the distant sky, and vanished.
The underground chamber "calmed" again, leaving only the dazed, unreal atmosphere of magic after extreme release.
Shane stood frozen, breathing harshly.
In a haze, he seemed to glimpse a burning world of endless magma—an enormous dragon, mountain-sized, its scales shimmering with limitless magical radiance, slowly turning its head. With a hint of scrutiny and boundless majesty, it glared straight at him.
"…A dragon?" Shane muttered. "What flew out of the Eclipse Gate… was a dragon?"
For a split second, his Eye of Karma had caught fragments of information.
And he had to admit: the pressure and sheer level of life that fire dragon radiated were nothing like the cold bones in the Dragon Graveyard.
He couldn't help comparing himself to it—and reached a dispiriting conclusion:
Unless he was willing to pay the price and use his Noble Phantasm, his current "normal" strength probably couldn't even scratch it.
But then, thinking of those scales glowing with bottomless magic… Shane couldn't help wondering: even if he did use his Noble Phantasm and went all out, could he really defeat something like that?
"…Haa."
He exhaled slowly, forcing himself not to dwell on an image that was still too far beyond him.
And at that moment—after witnessing the Eclipse Gate open—the once-silent Book of Heroic Spirits began turning pages.
Finally!
Shane's spirit surged. He straightened his back, drove away all distractions, and focused.
[Long-Chain Trial: Heartfilia — Complete]
[Evaluation: None. Will be settled after the full chain is completed]
[Reward: "Depth Increase" Permanent +1, Dual Permissions +1]
"Permanent?!"
The instant he saw the reward text, Shane reflexively rubbed his eyes, half-convinced he was seeing things from mana exhaustion after using his Noble Phantasm.
He checked again and again—the word was still there, unmistakably stamped on the page. No hallucination.
"Hahahaha—!" Shane couldn't stop his grin. "So this is what a major-event long-chain trial rewards? This is insane!"
It meant the "depth" of the Heroic Spirit pool had been permanently increased—deeper foundations, higher ceiling for future summons.
And with the Dual Permissions from this reward, plus the two permissions he'd scrimped and saved—
"Four layers! The Heroic Spirit pool can reach the fourth layer!" Shane's heart pounded.
At surface level (Layer 0), he had summoned Arash.
At underwater Layer 2, he had summoned Senji Muramasa.
So what lived in Layer 4?
Shakyamuni? Zeus? Odin?
…Or—no. He shook his head. "India's hype is too outrageous. I'd summon a myth and wake up."
The crushing pressure from the dragon was instantly washed away by a tide of anticipation.
Shane didn't even spare a glance for the still-stunned King Toma and Layla. He closed his eyes and plunged his mind deep inside.
With three precious Trait Selection points in hand, his gaze skipped right past the normal classes like Archer and Saber—
And locked onto the special classes and attribute bars that had always been gray—ones he hadn't even been allowed to view before.
Ruler, Avenger, Alter Ego, Moon Cancer, Foreigner, Pretender—
Just reading the names felt extraordinary, and now all of them lit up at once, glowing with temptation.
Shane tried pushing his intent into one of them, and the feedback arrived immediately:
All of them required 3 Trait Selection points to choose.
"Tch. Expensive." He clicked his tongue.
He'd saved up these three points with absurd restraint—was he really supposed to dump everything into a single class choice?
No. After years of being trained by poverty, Shane wasn't about to impulse-spend.
He forced down his curiosity and kept browsing.
Then he noticed something even stranger.
Aside from the newly unlocked classes, one class icon was still gray, not lit at all.
But perhaps because he'd completed a long-chain trial and gained slightly better access, he could barely make out the label beneath it:
"Beast…?"
Shane frowned. "What a weird name… 'Beast' is a class?"
Even with three trait points available, it was still gray. His curiosity spiked. He tried simulating investing points into it.
The feedback nearly made him think he'd miscounted a zero:
To select the [Beast] class requires Trait Points: 10.
"Ten?!" Shane stared. "Choosing Beast needs ten trait points?!"
He double-checked. Triple-checked. The number didn't change.
"…What is this, summon Typhon, progenitor of all monsters? Even then—no, even if it was Typhon, I'd still call it a terrible deal."
He'd suffered to save three trait points. Ten? He honestly suspected he'd die of internal injuries before he ever saved that much.
He immediately tossed "Beast" into the maybe in another lifetime pile.
Next, he moved to the newly unlocked Legendary Attribute section.
Now that his permissions were high enough, the whole list was basically open:
[Heaven] [Earth] [Man] [Star] [Dragon] [Riding] [Divinity] [Beastlike] [Demonic] [King]—
And he said "basically," because there was one more oddity:
At the very end sat another gray icon labeled [Beast], just as lonely—also requiring 10 trait points.
"…Seriously?" Shane went blank for a second.
"So 'Beastlike' isn't 'Beast'?" he muttered, completely lost on the Book's internal logic.
~~~
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