The forest thinned out as Holden walked.

The container from the Gold Chest was still in his jacket pocket.

He pulled it out.

It was small and sealed tight, with a faint glow that pulsed once when his thumb touched the lid.

He broke the seal.

Click.

Inside was a single vial. The liquid was a bright gold color, far brighter than the Luminous Serum.

He checked the label engraved in the glass.

[Rank 3 Aether-Vein Elixir.]

He opened the bottle and drank it all at once.

The Luminous Serum had been painful, but this felt smooth. The energy flowed through him gently, not hurting him at all. His body was ready for it and took the power in quickly before it could cause any pressure.

[1,000x Multiplier Active.]

[Absorption Rate: Maximum.]

[Processing.]

He kept walking.

By the time he saw the academy walls through the trees, he felt a massive change

deep in his chest.

Click.

[Fighter Rank: Rank 1, 8-Star.]

His power felt stronger and more solid now. His whole body was full of energy, and none of it was being wasted. He pulled all that power deep inside himself.

Shhhh.

He pulled his aura in until it was completely still. From the outside, he looked like exactly what the academy records said he was: a Rank 1, 4-Star student from slums.

He slipped back through the gap in the boundary wall.

The house was still sealed when he got back.

He reset the Aegis Array from inside and stood in the front hall for a moment,

listening.

Maeve was moving around upstairs. He heard quiet noises like drawers being

opened and shut.

He went upstairs, knocked on her door, and waited.

"Come in," she said.

He opened the door. She was wearing an oversized sweater, squinting at a page of notes with the expression of someone locked in a personal disagreement with the material.

She glanced up. Glanced back down. Then back up again.

"You look completely exhausted," she noted gently, though her eyes were already

scanning him for injuries.

"Had a long night," he said.

"You have blood on your ear."

He touched his ear. She was right.

"Go wash your face, Holden," she sighed, pointing her pen at him. "You’re

embarrassing us both. You can’t go on your big academy mission looking like you

lost a fight with a rosebush."

He almost smiled. "Yes, ma’am."

He closed her door, went to his room to clean up and change, and spent the next two hours sitting on the floor in the quiet while the house filled with the sounds of Maeve making breakfast and humming something off-key in the kitchen.

He slipped out the front door while she was distracted in the kitchen.

He left a note on the table that said: I’ll be out for three days. Back before you know it.

The academy’s transport gates were massive.

They were made of two stone pillars as tall as a building, covered in old carvings. Right now, there was only empty air between them. The portal wouldn’t open until the teachers turned it on. The courtyard in front of the gates was

crowded with two hundred first-year students in their combat gear. Everyone looked very nervous because they all knew how dangerous the mission was going to be.

Holden spotted his team immediately.

He heard them first, technically.

"I did some more digging last night, and apparently the fog has different layers," Renna said, pacing restlessly with her bow strapped to her back.

"There’s a thin layer, a medium one, and then the deep-zone fog which is basically a different chemical. I even found a story where a guy claimed his boots started dissolving. Like, literally melting away right off his feet while he was walking! Emric, is that a real thing? Is that actually on record somewhere because I really like these boots and I don’t want to melt!"

"It’s true that the deep-zone atmospheric condensation possesses highly

corrosive properties," Emric said, sounding entirely calm because he had obviously done his research. He was running his fingers along the rim of his shield, checking the edge for any imperfections. "Standard leather

will dissolve in approximately four hours if subjected to prolonged exposure.

However, the filters the academy provided reduce particulate intake by roughly eighty-three point four percent. Our footwear shouldn’t be a problem provided we maintain a consistent movement velocity."

"Eighty-three percent," Renna repeated, talking even faster now. "What’s the

other seventeen percent doing? Just hanging around waiting to eat my toes?"

"Technically, it is still corroding the material," Emric clarified, "but at a degradation rate your body’s natural energy reserves can easily mitigate. Unless, of course, you stop moving for an extended duration."

"So if I stop moving I start dissolving."

"In the deep zone, yes."

"Great," Renna said. "That’s just great. That’s incredibly comforting information, Emric. I feel so much better about this whole situation now!"

Lyra was standing slightly apart from them, the supply packs laid out flat on the ground in front of her, working through a checklist. She touched each item once as she mentally confirmed it.

Holden walked up.

Renna stopped pacing. "Oh thank goodness, you’re here. Okay, so did you know

about the boot thing? Because I feel like that really should have been in the

main briefing."

"We’ll be fine," Holden said.

"Statistically speaking, Holden is right," Emric added helpfully.

"The environmental filters are fully accounted for," Lyra stated, her tone calm. "I have personally verified the calibration on all four sets. I also took the liberty of requisitioning a

secondary emergency set for the main pack, just to be certain."

"Good," Holden said.

Lyra finished her check and stood up. She put her list away and turned to look at him, but then she stopped. It was only for a split second. She looked at him in a strange way, like her instincts were warning her about something that her mind didn’t quite understand yet.

She had trained with elite noble instructors her whole life. She had grown up surrounded by people who understood cultivation the way other people understood the weather as something you felt before you saw.

She was feeling that energy from him now.

"You’re different," she said quietly, her eyes narrowing.

Holden held her gaze.

"Are we ready?" he asked, completely ignoring the observation.

"Yes. We are ready," she said.

She picked up the supply pack, turned to face the gates, and said nothing else.

Behind them, the instructors were starting to move toward the central mechanism

between the two stone pillars.

The mission was about to begin.