Wain wanted to return to his Void, but suddenly strange messages appeared in front of him.

[You have left the arena.]

[Your achievements are being counted, and your rank is being changed.]

[You have defeated Ambassador of Light, who was Rank-A, as well as five hundred other creatures with a Rank from D to B.]

[You completely destroyed one of the organizations in the Fallen Forest. You impressed all the combatants in that arena.]

[Given the circumstances, you, Nameless, are awarded Rank-A.]

The next moment his World of Darkness card appeared in front of Wain.

[Nameless

Race: Human

Chronicle: First

Rank: A

Voids: 1, Frozen Land Rank-E, Small

Warriors: 1359]

Rank-A... Hmmm, to be honest, I expected more, but maybe I'm too confident. What's the highest Rank? Wain asked.

[After Rank-A is Rank-AA, then Rank-AAA, Rank-S, Rank-SS, and Rank-SSS.]

"What the hell... That makes five Ranks above me, isn't that too much?"

Wain was not happy about this. He thought it indicated his strength, and he wasn't happy with such a mediocre result.

[You needn't worry. It was your first appearance in the arena, and you got Rank-A, something only a few people out of millions could do. Moreover, it is impossible to evaluate your power and influence in one session fully.

Rank is awarded based on your actions and the effect that you have had on the situations and not based on your skills or stats. You need to keep fighting, and if you are strong enough, you can increase your Rank]

'Understandably, it's a pretty fair system. Despite the importance of stats and skills, they are not decisive factors in mortal combat. How much difference is there between Rank-A and Rank-S?'

[It's hard to describe. A gap of two Ranks means that the abilities and overall power of the two fighters are drastically different, and a Rank-A fighter has no chance of winning. It would be total annihilation on one side.

Also, don't forget that Rank is awarded based on your Chronicle. When you become a Second Chronicle creature, your Rank will be revised. Try to show the best you can for impressive results.]

'Huh, it's scary to imagine who has Rank-SSS then. Haden was strong, mentally and physically, but even given his influence, he only had Rank-A. This is the World of Darkness, and there are many incredible geniuses and hidden talents...'

Wain nodded and headed for the ice gate, but another message appeared before him.

[Rank-A Award Received.]

Whoooosh.

The next moment a small red orb the size of a pearl appeared in the air in front of Wain with a large 'A' on it.

Wain took the sphere in his hands and muttered, "What is it?"

[This is your reward. Every arena reward is special. You have to destroy the orb, and then you get your reward. It can be a skill, a piece of equipment, or even a consumable. However, it has one important detail.]

"Hmm?"

[The special thing about this reward is that the item you get will be what suits you best at the moment. Also, this item will be synchronized with your Main Soul and converted to the appropriate standards. This will affect the item's power and purpose based on theme or attribute].

"It's pretty complicated, but it sounds interesting. Well, then it's time to find out what's in there." Wain said, smiling, and crushed the pearl.

Initially, he was a little disappointed because he thought this orb was no different from Soul Chest or Skill Book, but his opinion changed when he heard about the interaction with Main Soul.

Moreover, this sphere lacked such an essential factor as luck. Wain would get precisely what suited him best at the moment, and he liked it.

In the four months of the apocalypse, Wain had already learned a bit about the power that lurked behind his main soul, Nameless King. It could be compared to pushing the boundaries or being immune to them.

Crackle.

Wain clenched his fist tightly and crushed the orb. It shattered into many pieces, and a red symbol flew into Wain's glabella. His eyes glowed brightly for a second, and then he took a deep breath.

The symbol headed toward his Soul Altar and joined it.

However, when this happened, a strange force began to work on the symbol, and it changed its color from red to black and gray. This was a special effect of the arena reward.

Wain got lucky and received a skill, not a piece of equipment or a consumable. He concentrated, and the information about the skill appeared in front of him.

[Call of the King (Unique Active Skill)]

'What? Unique Skill? What does that mean?

[This is a special skill, to which you can't apply parameters such as Chronicle or Rating. Also, this skill does not count as an active skill, despite the description.

Even if you already have three active skills, you can still have unique skills, excluding soul skills.

Also, most Unique Skills cannot be improved, but it is hidden behind hundreds of seals even if there is a way. However, Unique Skills gradually grow along with the wielder's strength to match it]

"I see..."

[Call of the King (Unique Active Skill)

Your strength and unwavering aspirations deserve respect. No matter what happens, you will forge ahead, and even deadly storms will not be able to make you stray from the path.

You are a king, and your voice will be like a command from God to many in time.

You can use this power to bring your voice to a certain personality type. They all have to have something in common that unites them, and that comes from their heart]

Wain didn't comment on the new ability in any way. In his opinion, Call of the King had great potential. It had significant functionality, but he had to figure out how to use the skill. Call of the King was only suitable for specific situations.

"Okay, it's time to rest and move on to souls..." Mumbled Wain and entered the ice gate.

He didn't go to Frigus or Black Rabbit now. Wain wanted to rest and focus on his immediate goals.

The only thing he did was look at the map of Frozen Lands and see a good progression of monsters exploring the areas.

"Not bad, probably in a week or two, the area will be almost completely explored. This will be a good time to start strengthening the monsters. After that, I can move on to the wars, but I need an alchemist urgently.''

Wain didn't want to rush into declaring war. He was not lacking in resources at the moment. On the contrary, the monsters hadn't even found all the crystal and root deposits yet.

First, Wain wanted to build a strong foundation and use the resources with maximum efficiency. Then he would take over new territory, and the process would repeat itself.

In his opinion, this was the best solution, since this 'game' was not played by him alone, but by more than a thousand other monsters. He couldn't lead the Void, allocate and use resources alone.

As much as Wain didn't like being a leader and participating in large-scale team projects, he understood that, in this case, he had no other choice.

One day Wain wanted to meet the humans that other races fear so much and learn the other secrets of the World of Darkness. To do so, he had to grow stronger and strengthen his status and influence.

Wain made his way to the icy lake and, as always, took a slow dip in the cool water. This place had become special to him lately.

Here he could rest, refresh himself, and clear his thoughts, but now Wain wanted to do something else.

He waved his hand, and souls began to fly out of his body. They didn't stop, it was like an endless, multicolored stream.

When Wain killed the elves, he also got the saved souls for the future. They didn't have very many souls individually, but the total was impressive.

At the moment, Wain had 1,800 souls. That was a record number for him, especially since all of those souls were First Chronicle.

Wain could have traded those souls for Void Souls and bought some powerful and rare items, but he had another plan.

He was going to use those souls and reach level 30. Wain also wanted to increase his stats to the limit. In that case, he would peak as a First Chronicle creature and would no longer be able to get stronger with stats.

A blue soul flew up to Wain, and he crushed it.

[You have acquired the Soul Essence of Aral Thaan level 25.]

[You have acquired the Soul Essence of Light Brick level 26.]

[You have acquired the Soul Essence of...]

Wain continued to use souls one by one. Their number seemed endless. The entire ice lake cave was filled with hundreds of hovering souls resembling bright lights.

Each time Wain destroyed a soul, he felt himself growing stronger. Sometimes there were Damaged Souls and even Whole Souls. He was rapidly increasing his stats as he approached his maximum.

However, even after three hundred souls, Wain still hadn't reached level thirtieth.

"As I suspected, it takes a tremendous amount of energy to make the last step. If I hadn't attacked the elves, it would have taken me weeks to mine that many souls." Wain muttered and crushed another soul.

At that moment, Wain realized that the ability of humans to absorb a soul without residue or preparation fully was incredible.

He didn't need to waste time on unnecessary actions, Wain was devouring energy like a black hole.

Then, the message he had been waiting for appeared in front of him.

[Your Agility has reached 250. Further increase of this stat with energy on the First Chronicle is impossible.]

Three hundred more souls later, Wain saw a similar message.

[Your Strength has reached 250.]

Wain absorbed two hundred more souls.

[Your Vitality has reached 250.]

[Your Stamina has reached 250.]

Eventually, when Wain absorbed a thousand First Chronicle Souls, he increased his stats to the maximum of First Chronicle. At that moment, Wain felt as if he could destroy an entire planet with a flick of his finger.

The power overwhelmed him, the might he gained was incomparable. It was a blissful feeling.

Wain clenched and unclenched his fist several times and muttered, "Huh, if I had that kind of power a few hours ago, I would have won in a few attacks."

He was pleased with the increased stats, but Wain still hadn't reached level 30. He didn't realize how much more energy he needed to get.

Over the next few minutes, Wain used another two hundred souls, and then he finally saw the coveted message.

[You have leveled up to level 30. You get 3 status points to distribute freely.]

[You have reached your limit. You can no longer accumulate Soul Essence and increase stats by absorbing the souls of other beings. You must evolve to enter the next league]

"Great." Quite said Wain.

[To evolve, you must meet the following conditions:

[Obtain Legendary Rating Soul

[Break the line between life and death

[Know what death is a hundred times]

Wain was sure that he would need to meet some special conditions to evolve a second time. This was obvious since, during the first evolution, all he had to do was concentrate and use his energy.

He was prepared for the conditions to be difficult, as he assumed that their difficulty depended on the Rating of his Main Soul, but he could not expect that.

"These conditions are not difficult, they are impossible..."

...

Wain spent the next few hours coming to his senses. He was in shock, for somehow, he had to meet these conditions for future promotion.historical

Moreover, he realized that there were no impossible conditions to improve his skills so far. It wasn't a lie, Wain needed to find out how to do it.