Neo stepped toward the orb of dark material.

Up close, it did not look like simple metal. The surface shifted in a way that refused to settle into one thing. Smooth in one angle, uneven in the next, as if it had been shaped and reshaped without ever choosing a final form.

He crouched.

His hand moved forward slowly.

The tip of his finger touched it.

The reaction came at once.

[Soul-Window]

[You have obtained Soul Relic: The Thousand-Form Relic]

[Rank: Divine]

Neo didn’t move.

For a breath, he simply stayed there, crouched in front of the orb, the window hovering in front of him like something that didn’t belong to him.

His attention fixed on a single word.

Divine.

"Divine..." he murmured before he even realized he had spoken.

A laugh tried to come out and got stuck somewhere between disbelief and greed.

’Just like my class... Divine. What kind of absurd luck is this?’

He stared at the orb again.

A hidden chamber under a great white tower. A statue that moved because of the ring at his neck. A secret path beneath the floor. And at the end of it, a Divine Soul Relic waiting in the dark like it had been placed there for him.

Ridiculous.

Almost impossible.

Not impossible enough, apparently.

Neo exhaled slowly and forced himself to calm down. Excitement made people stupid, and stupidity in a place like this usually became a corpse before long.

His gaze shifted lower on the Soul Window.

[Attributes]

[Consumes weapon-type Soul Relics. After devouring them, it can take their forms, improving the attributes and effects they originally possessed.]

Neo’s mouth flattened.

So it ate other Soul Relics.

And not only that. It could become what it consumed, but better.

His eyes went back to the orb in his hand. It still didn’t look like a sword, spear, or anything with a proper identity. It felt dense, alive in a way he could not fully explain, like a weapon still deciding what it wanted to be.

’That’s... very close to my class.’

Take. Adapt and become stronger through what had once belonged to something else.

The resemblance was ugly enough to suit him perfectly.

Another line waited below.

[Description]

[[...] needed a weapon that could answer every path before him. Because his class could adapt to every possibility in the world, he needed a weapon worthy of it. So he forged the Thousand-Form Relic, with the aid of his brother, the God of Creation, Arkayde, who lent his hand to its making.]

Neo read it twice.

The same thing stood out both times.

The description hid the real name again. Just those three dots where it should have been, as if the system itself refused to place it in front of him.

But another name remained.

Arkayde.

Neo frowned faintly.

’Who the hell is Arkayde?’

He had never heard anything like it. It didn’t sound like the name of a normal person. It sounded old.

The God of Creation.

That part sat with him even worse.

He had already forced himself to accept that the corpse in the ruin was tied to something far beyond the world he knew. Still, seeing a line like that in front of him made the whole thing feel heavier. Less like some impossible accident that had happened once and would never touch him again.

Neo’s thoughts broke apart under a harsh sound from above.

Stone grinding against stone.

His head snapped toward the stairway at once.

He knew that sound.

He had heard it just minutes ago when the statue moved back and revealed the hidden stairs.

Neo shot to his feet.

’Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.’

The statue was returning to its original place.

If that happened while he was still below, the chamber would close again, and no one in this Breach would ever find him. Byron would build a hut, Snot would make some stupid comment, the others would eventually notice he had vanished, and Neo would still be down here rotting with a Divine Soul Relic in his hand.

Not a dignified end.

He desummoned everything in one motion.

The sword vanished. The orb dissolved into his soul. The only thing he kept was himself and the little Soul Essence still left in him.

Neo exploded up.

Beast Strength flooded through his legs and frame, and he tore up the stairs at a speed that would have looked ridiculous to anyone watching. He didn’t care. He was taking the steps in huge bursts, climbing like some half-starved mountain animal with better instincts than grace.

Five stairs. Six. Another jump.

The light above kept narrowing.

’Move.’

His Soul Essence dropped fast. He felt it more with every stride, the drain biting deeper, but stopping wasn’t an option. He burned through what he had left and pushed harder.

The opening above was shrinking.

Neo leaned forward and forced more speed into his body, boots striking stone hard enough to jar his bones.

The gap became smaller.

Smaller.

And Smaller.

He reached the top just as the statue dragged closer to its original place and threw himself through the narrowing opening with one brutal push from below.

Neo hit the floor of the upper chamber and slid across white stone on his shoulder.

Behind him—

Sccrrrk.

The statue sealed the passage.

Back in its proper place.

Neo lay there on the floor for a second, breathing hard, chest rising fast, his body almost empty of Soul Essence.

He turned his head toward the statue and said, voice rough from the sprint,

"Daughter of a bitch."

The torches on the walls burned on, uncaring.

Neo stayed down just long enough to get his breath back under control. Light still entered through the hole high in the wall, the same one he had used. He didn’t have the luxury of admiring how close that had been.

’I need to move.’

He forced himself up and crossed the chamber at once. His body felt heavier now that Beast Strength had burned through what little reserve he had, but there was no choice except continuing.

The vine still hung where he had left it.

Neo grabbed it and started climbing with raw physical strength instead of anything enhanced. His arms protested quickly. So did the rest of him. The sprint up the hidden stairs had drained almost everything useful out of his soul. Now it was only muscle, will, and the refusal to die somewhere stupid.

He climbed.

One pull. Another. Elbow over stone. Knee against the wall. Higher.

By the time he reached the opening, his breathing had gone rough again. He hooked one arm over the edge, dragged himself through, and collapsed half across the outer wall before gathering enough sense to keep moving.

The vine.

He started pulling it up right away.

He wasn’t leaving a clean rope hanging from a secret entrance like some kind of gift to whoever came next. Hand over hand, he dragged the length of it back through the opening, coiling it in with as little noise as he could manage.

Almost done.

That was when he heard the main door open below.

Neo froze.

Sound carried strangely inside the tower. He moved carefully back toward the hole, kept himself mostly hidden behind the veil of overgrowth, and looked down through the narrow opening.

Someone had entered.

A boy.

Gray hair. Gray eyes.

The same one from yesterday.

Neo stayed perfectly still and watched him cross the first floor alone.

So the bastard had come back in secret as well.

That changed things.

Neo kept his face hidden behind the tangle of roots and leaves, his thoughts already turning.

’So what exactly are you looking for in here?’

He remained there a little longer, silent above the chamber, observing what the gray-haired boy was doing in here.