[Spirit: Yuan Wu — Level Up: Lv.10 → Lv.15]
[Spirit: Little White (Winged Cat) — Level Up: Lv.1 → Lv.20]
Fang Yuqing stared at the floating translucent system notifications, her eyes blinking in a mix of confusion and indignation.
"There's no comparison without harm," she muttered under her breath. "Is there some kind of mistake?!"
They had just wiped out a swarm of over twenty Level 23 monsters. For Yuan Wu, the actual combatant who did 99% of the work, that massive influx of experience points had only moved his needle by five levels. Yet, the "mascot" cat—who had done nothing but cling to Yuqing's shoulder and let out a few buff-amplifying meows—had skyrocketed twenty levels instantly.
It was the cold, hard reality of the UR-rank. The higher the potential of a Spirit, the more "nutrients" it required to grow. A drop of water could fill a cup, but it wouldn't even wet the bottom of a vast ocean.
"Master, why are you standing there like a statue?"
Yuan Wu's voice pulled her back to reality. He was standing further down the tunnel, his white hair reflecting the dim blue light of the crystals.
"I'm coming! I'm coming!" She jogged forward, waving her hand to activate her Spirit-Master's "Storage Domain." A ripple of spiritual energy swept across the floor, and the scattered Spirit Stones and monster materials vanished into her personal sub-space.
"We're moving too slow," Yuan Wu said, his gaze fixed on the darkness ahead. "At this rate, the sun will be down before we reach the heart of the rift."
"Too slow?" Yuqing huffed. "We just cleared a swarm in record time!"
"Not enough," he replied.
SHHH-T!
Suddenly, a thick, muscular red Kagune erupted from his back. Before Yuqing could process the movement, the appendage wrapped firmly around her waist. It was cold, tight, and possessed an irresistible physical force.
"Wait! Yuan Wu! What are you—!?"
"Hold on tight."
Before she could finish her sentence, the world blurred. This was Yuan Wu's movement technique: Kagune Propulsion.
The Kagune retracted sharply, pulling her off her feet as Yuan Wu took off like a bullet. He didn't run like a human; he moved like a predatory beast, his feet barely touching the ground as the Kagune acted like a secondary engine, propelling them forward with violent bursts of speed.
The wind roared in her ears. The scenery of the cave became a smear of grey and blue. Yuqing felt like she was being carried by a tiger through a hurricane.
"Could you... at least... use a bridal carry!?" she screamed, her hair whipping into a chaotic mess.
Little White let out a panicked "Meow!" while desperately digging its claws into Yuqing's collar for dear life.
Yuan Wu ignored her. He was in a state of hyper-focus, slaughtering anything that crossed their path without breaking stride. Any monster that lunged from the shadows was instantly skewered by a secondary Kagune and reduced to Spirit Stones before it could even register a threat.
In less than five minutes, they reached a massive, ornate stone door. Yuan Wu finally skidded to a halt, the red Kagune unwinding from Yuqing's waist and dropping her unceremoniously to the ground.
"You really need to work on your cardio, Master," he remarked.
"I wasn't the one running!" she yelled, stumbling slightly as she tried to fix her "birds-nest" hair.
Despite her annoyance, she checked the logs. Along the way, they had slaughtered dozens more monsters. Yuan Wu was now Level 12. Little White was already Level 25.
"Master, how much spiritual energy do you have left?" Yuan Wu asked, his eyes fixed on the door.
Yuqing checked her internal reservoir. As the top freshman, she had a massive pool, further buffed by her passive connection to her cat. Even so, the high-speed transit and Yuan Wu's constant Kagune usage had taken a toll.
"About 80%," she said, feeling a bit dejected. Her "vast" energy seemed like a drop in the bucket compared to what Yuan Wu could potentially consume.
"Sufficient. Let's finish the Boss."
Yuqing took a deep breath, her nerves tightening. "Usually, a Two-Star Boss is Level 40. But... there's a rare phenomenon. Sometimes, a 'Red-Name' Boss is born. They're Level 50 and possess mutated skills. They drop incredible loot, but the survival rate against them for freshmen is basically zero. The trigger conditions are extremely rare, so we should be—"
Yuan Wu pushed the heavy stone doors open.
The room within was massive, a hollowed-out cathedral of rock. Suddenly, row after row of green witch-fire ignited along the walls, illuminating a scene of eerie desolation.
The temperature didn't just drop; it felt as though the very concept of "life" was being drained from the air.
"Wait... something's wrong..." Yuqing's voice trembled.
CREEEEAK—
A sound like the groaning of a rotting wooden ship echoed through the dry cavern. There was no water. No sea. But the sound of a hull grinding against a dock was unmistakable.
In the center of the room, space twisted. A thick, toxic green fog seeped from the void, coalescing into a towering figure nearly three meters tall.
It wore the tattered, salt-stained coat of a captain. Its lower body was nothing but a churning vortex of ghost-mist. One hand gripped a shattered ship's wheel, and the other held a swaying, green lantern that emitted no light—only a void that sucked in the surrounding shadows.
Its face was a nightmare: half-skeleton, half-green flame.
[Level 50: The Nether Captain (Red-Name Boss)] [Attribute: Ghost / Spirit-Body] [Skills: Soul Extraction, Necrotic Erosion, Summoning of the Drowned]
"A Level 50 Ghost-type..." Yuqing's face went bone-white. "This is a disaster. Physical attacks are almost useless against spirits!"
Yuan Wu tilted his head, his white hair falling over his mask. A small, chilling smirk touched his lips. "Interesting."
"Yuan Wu, we have to use the escape crystal!" Yuqing grabbed the emergency teleport gem the academy gave to freshmen. "A Level 50 Red-Name is impossible for a Level 17! We won't even be able to touch a spirit-body!"
"I don't run from a meal," Yuan Wu said calmly. He stepped forward into the "Domain of the Drowned."
The Captain raised its lantern.
BONG—
A ripple of green energy surged outward. Yuqing felt her soul being tugged from her body, a crushing depression weighing on her mind. This was Soul Extraction.
Yuan Wu stood at the center of the wave. He didn't deploy his Kagune. He didn't dodge. He just stood there, his head lowered as if he were listening to a distant melody.
"A bit noisy," he whispered.
BOOM!
A ghost-chain erupted from the Captain's lantern, piercing directly through Yuan Wu's chest.
"YUAN WU!" Yuqing screamed.
But he didn't fall. He didn't even flinch. He slowly raised his head, his single red eye glowing with a light so intense it started to burn through the green fog.
"So... this is the type of energy you use?" he murmured, his voice starting to vibrate with a strange, metallic distortion. "I can feel it... trying to eat my mind."
The Captain sensed something was wrong and swung the lantern again, summoning dozens of weeping phantoms to swarm the white-haired boy.
At that moment, the air around Yuan Wu began to crack.
CRACK—
It wasn't a physical sound; it was the sound of a "Rule" being broken.
Instead of his usual four Rinkaku tentacles extending outward, they began to retract and compress. They wrapped around his shoulders, his arms, and even the side of his face, hardening into a jagged, bone-like carapace. It was a fusion of black and blood-red armor, serrated and terrifyingly Sharp.
The Half-Kakuja State.
"I... can't quite... control it yet," Yuan Wu's voice was now a guttural growl. He looked up, his eye completely blood-shot and manic. "So, I'll stop trying."
BOOM!
The ground beneath Yuan Wu's feet collapsed as he launched himself forward. He didn't "move"—he vanished and reappeared in the Captain's face.
Before the ghost could react, a Kakuja-claw, reinforced by compressed RC cells, ripped into the Captain's spectral chest.
"SCREEEE—!"
The Captain let out a soul-shredding shriek. A spirit-body was supposed to be immune to physical force, but Yuan Wu's Kakuja wasn't just physical; it was a manifestation of pure, predatory intent. He was literally tearing the soul-matter apart.
"Caught you," Yuan Wu hissed.
He unleashed a flurry of strikes. Every claw swipe, every bash from his armored shoulders, sent ripples of green fire splashing across the cave. He was no longer a fighter; he was a meat-grinder.
The Level 50 Boss, a nightmare that could wipe out a senior team, was being pinned to the floor and systematically dismantled. The lantern was crushed. The ship's wheel was splintered.
"Too weak," Yuan Wu growled. He grabbed the Captain's skull and slammed it into the ground, his Kagune erupting from his back and piercing through the ghost's core like forty spears at once.
KABOOM!
The Boss exploded into a massive burst of green embers and experience points.
Silence returned to the cavern. Spirit Stones rained down like a crystalline storm.
Yuan Wu stood in the center, the Kakuja armor slowly melting back into his skin, his breathing heavy and ragged. He pressed a hand to his forehead, suppressing the lingering madness of the transformation.
Fang Yuqing stood a dozen feet away, her staff trembling. She was terrified, yet awestruck.
"What... what was that?" she whispered.
Yuan Wu turned back to her, his mask partially shattered, revealing a sliver of a pale, handsome face. "A Kakuja," he explained, his voice returning to its calm tone. "It's a mutation caused by an over-concentration of cells. It's rare. It's dangerous. And it's hungry."
Yuqing checked her data. This "Kakuja" state didn't just increase stats. It fundamentally changed the Spirit's biological structure to adapt to the threat.
She realized with a shudder that Yuan Wu didn't have a "power ceiling." As long as he fought, as long as he "consumed" and survived, he would keep evolving.
"Master," Yuan Wu said, walking toward her with his hands back in his pockets. "I'm Level 20 now. Let's go deeper. I'm still hungry."
The silence following the Boss's explosive demise was not the peaceful silence of a completed mission. It was heavy, stagnant, and carried the metallic tang of ozone.
Fang Yuqing moved instinctively toward the charred remains of the Nether Captain. She expected to see the shimmering loot table or the golden glow of the exit portal.
Then, she stopped dead.
She stared at the ground, her brow furrowing more with every passing second. Her heart, which had just begun to settle after the adrenaline of the Kakuja transformation, gave a sharp, painful thud against her ribs.
Something was wrong.
It was beyond wrong; it was a fundamental violation of the laws governing the Academy's Secret Realms.
After a Boss died, the system settlement interface was supposed to manifest instantly, tallying experience points and distributing loot. There should have been a resonant "Clear" notification echoing through the cavern.
Most importantly, the blue pillar of light—the exit portal—was nowhere to be seen.