Filoria looked down at the arena in disbelief. She always knew this gamble could end in Rafael's death, but she had no other choice back then.

For the past few weeks, Collab used his influence to become the main guard for Rafe's wing of the prison. It was like the damn man never slept. He was there every time she went, and so she was unable to enjoy her time as she wanted.

When her father first told her all his secrets, Filoria thought that she could readily give up on Rafael. But now things had changed.

'Ding': Your class water dancer has grown to level 75.

After the last hunting trip she went on with Rafe, she only killed Helare. She did not remember killing anyone or anything else.

Although she had never received the kill notification for Helare.

Killing one person weaker than her shouldn't be enough for a whole level at this point in her journey. Where had this level come from? It came the night her father yelled at her in the cell.

The level came weeks after Helare's death, so it really was curious. It was hardly the most curious thing though.

'Ding': Congratulations, you have awakened a hidden stat: perception.

Grand achievement: Unlock a hidden stat while still in the f grade.

Rewards: +10 per, +100,000 fate points.

Collect more fate points to unlock a quest system.

Current fate points: 101,211.

Filoria unlocked a hidden stat and got a hundred times the number of fate points she had owned before. Now there was something about unlocking a quest system. If her father could see this notification, he might vomit blood. How long had he been trying to obtain a quest system?

Down in the sands, Rafe made a move first. There was a fundamental difference between the levels of the two combatants. One was a warrior and one was a pure mage, yet when they clashed, the mage didn't even use spells.

Physically, the mage seemed to be on par with a pure warrior. He stopped Rafe's first jab. And then in the next ten seconds blocked tens of follow ups, forcing Rafe to take a step back. The mage smiled in a condescending way and gestured for Rafe to step forward again.

Filoria could only groan at this mage's stupidity. Rafe was yet to even use any techniques or skills, and yet this damned mage was acting like the fight was already over. Maybe Filoria didn't think Rafe could win easily, but she knew he was not someone to underestimate.

And the next sequence of blows proved that, as even with his superior agility and his weird mage specific veil that slowed Rafe's attacks down, he was unable to block a single of Rafe's blows. The mage was forced to withdraw. He coughed and touched his chest uncomfortably.

"Idiot!" Filoria proclaimed with a shake of her head.

Her heart pounded in her ears though. Was it possible that Rafael could win and survive this fight?

"Tch. An F grade brat thinks he can run rampant against me," the mage said. "Well, I guess I should go all out."

Filoria grew up with a lot of E grade people around her, including her master and father. Still, she was yet to see an E grade user going all out. This was the first time she saw such a thing, and what a thing it was.

The wind blades that even Rafael couldn't dare meet head on. She first thought Rafe was being too cautious, but one of the wind blades met the hard concrete reinforced wall of the arena and dug a huge furrow through it. This arena was not built to support E grade level strength.

When Rafe closed in, the mage took to the sky using a barely visible ball of compressed air as his base. He was sitting cross legged like a sage on it. Rafe flew up faster than the eye could see and tore through the wind ball.

The mage shrieked in panic, though he calmed down soon after and slowly floated to the ground with the wind. Or at least that seemed to be his intention. But Rafe gracelessly barreled into him from the sky and the two went tumbling across the arena floor.

E grades were indeed terrifying. If it was an F grade mage, they would probably have died after such a violent collision.

This fighter, though he had a lot of wounds and scratches, and it seemed like he was in a lot of pain, stood up almost comfortably.

Rafe also stood up, but that was to be expected. He was the one who used that move, so presumably he had a way to control the fallout.

"This!" the mage exclaimed angrily. "You are dead, boy! Dead!"

And then a tornado formed in the arena. A towering pillar of wind and sand that affected even those in the stands.

A group of people suddenly formed a ring around the front most seats. E grade mages. They raised their hands and started chanting something.

A blue dome suddenly took shape right in front of the audience's eyes. They were insulated from the fight. This was the first time an E grade with their heaven defying power participated in the pits.

The fight lasted three hours. At that time, the mage ran out of mana and Rafael attacked him relentlessly and whittled him down.

Someone like Helare would have run out of mana in maybe half an hour, less if she was using the kinds of Earth shattering spells this wind mage was using. And she didn't even have such heaven defying spells anyway. Sure enough, the E grade was vastly superior to the F grade. But how the hell did Rafael not run out of stamina for three hours?

****

Filoria came to the cell, and she looked at him for a long time, but ultimately did not say anything. She offered him his ration of potions and left.

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Rafe felt the healing and nourishing effects take place. He had officially survived the pits of Primus, and he had killed his first official E grade, though it was only a level 76 mage.

The mage's physical strength being comparable to Rafe's was really surprising. And their mana pool was nigh inexhaustible. And it was very subtle, but Rafe could see the mage's injuries healing naturally the longer they fought. It was too slow to be a self healing ability, and too fast to be normal.

Rafe was strong against mages, he knew. Had that guy been a warrior, even a weak warrior, Rafe was not sure he could have defeated them.

Still, to the victor go the spoils.

'Ding': Your class warrior has grown to level sixteen.

Your pseudo-class skill mimic has grown to level sixteen.

Class upgrade options available.

Wind dancer(common) Main skill-wind step (common) (unlocks hidden stat constitution) (+4-str/agi/con/end) per level(+ def-2, off/def-1) per level

The first option he got was the perfect upgrade path Noid had chosen for him before, although he couldn't help but think the fact that he was on Primus played a part in the class's name. He already knew what his choice was going to be, but it would not hurt to check out a few other options.

Eternal assassin (Epic) Main skill- shadow step (Epic) (unlocks hidden stat perception)...

Rafe stopped reading it from there, lest he get tempted and change his decision. Why did he have to get a weak dodge tank class again?

It was strange. None of his other options were even uncommon. He had five upgrade options in total, and four of them were epic. One was even a defense focused class.

Rafe felt his heart wrench as he chose the first option.

'Ding': Congratulations, your Class has evolved to level sixteen wind dancer.

Special quest completed: You have unlocked a hidden stat as an F grade user.

Rewards: +10 con, +11,000 quest points.

The ten thousand quest points were probably just the system reimbursing him for pettily deducting them from him a few weeks back. He had apparently failed an emergency quest and so the system took away a few of his quest points. It also would have taken away any unallocated stat points, but he didn't have any.

You have learned the skill wind step(common) With steps as light as the wind, you are able to step out of the way of any attack like a breeze. Evasive action improved with increase in skill level.

You have more skill slots. Would you like to add new skills to your class? Y/N.

Rafe thought about it, but in the end decided to give it a rest. There was only a week to the promotion event, and learning new skills right now would cause more harm than good.

'Ding': Detected resonance between dodge and wind step skills. Would you like to merge these skills? Y/N

Warning: there might be damage to the life force provided inadequate energy supply.

There was no way Rafe was saying yes now, was there? He would leave the skills separate for now.

'Ding': Your pseudo-class skill mimic has evolved to mimic( common lvl. 16)

Mimic(common lvl.16) (+1 wis/ int) per level. (+1 cont/ dens/ regen) per level.

You can temporarily copy any mana skill used in your presence provided it is lower rarity than this class/skill. Only one skill can be copied at a time. Skills copied once can be called upon in the future. Effect of copied skill is half the level of this class/ skill.

Rafe was still not clear on the functioning of this class or skill, but now that it was common ranked, presumably he could mimic basic spells. He'd have to test it out and see .

Rafe distributed all his free stat points, once again focused on his agility and coordination. Then he took a look a his new and updated status.

Name: Rafael Kingsley Wilde

Race: Human (lvl. 16)

Class: Wind dancer (common lvl. 16), Mimic (common lvl. 16)

Health: 330

Stamina: 430

Stats

Strength: 46

Agility: 82

Coordination: 67

Endurance: 43

Vitality: 33

Intelligence: 24

Wisdom: 38

Paranormal: Luck: 21

Mana: 380

???

Hidden: Constitution: 5

Class Specifications:

Offense: 27. Defense: 40.

Control: 5. Density: 17. Regeneration: 5.

Quest Points: 34,271

Credits: 2 D-grade, 1022 E-grade, 510 (31, 730)

****

A few days later, Rafe wrestled Goleon in the soul strengthening array. There were more than a hundred gods on Primus, and over the last few weeks the god feeding the array constantly changed, sometimes multiple times a week. None of them died, so Rafe was still not sure on why Ma'la promised him they would all die.

The last step of his soul strength training was literally working out with his soul in the array, to increase the strain on it.

"This is a very crude and unimaginative way of doing things," Rafe told Goleon when he first introduced this concept weeks ago.

"You are right," Goleon said with a nod. "The only reason this method can be considered probably the peak soul strengthening method in the multiverse is because you are getting divine essence to temper your soul. Besides that, you are still in the F grade, so the benefits to your foundation are quite massive. Still, it is a very crude method, but crude should be good enough for you for now."

That was all true. How many F grades focused on their soul strength this early? Maybe those with strong family heritages, but would they have as much soul quality as Rafe. There was a silverish dot on his perfected soul core. He hadn't done anything except remove impurities, but now the core seemed to be in the process of evolving in colour.

The speed of his soul cultivation was simply staggering. And he had no doubt it had to do with whatever this divine essence was that he was getting from these gods. His second soul core was growing of its own volition by now, even if he didn't provide it a lot of soul nurturing essence. And he had run out of these supreme treasures.

He hoped the system would give him a few more after this quest chain was finished.

After weeks, Rafe once again acclimatised to the strain brought about by physically straining his soul. So this new routine had started. He fought with Goleon as a soul wisp.

He could not get used to this, because once he did Goleon just had to level up the challenge.

But on this day Rafe lasted more than two hours, and he acquired a lot of damage.

Goleon dodged a few frenzied punches from Rafe, then neatly kicked his legs from under him. Rafe didn't even have a chance to resist. Goleon was a huge man, but he was more graceful than a ballerina.

Rafe tried to get up, but Goleon held him down.

"You don't have any more soul nurturing treasures," the god said, not gently but not sharply either. "You need the next few hours to recuperate."

Rafe was breathing hard, but deep in his heart, he knew what Goleon was saying was true.

He had trained his soul for weeks now, but he could hardly tell the difference. It did recover fast, even without soul nurturing treasures, but his soul sensation had long since stopped growing. He was yet unable to see the full schema of his soul.

"Will it be enough?" he asked Goleon.

The deity hesitated, then shook his head. "We could have used more time for sure, but so what? You can never be truly ready for anything. All that matters is you tried your best with the tools you had, and we did so as well."

Rafe smirked. "I tried my best?"

"At least you restrained your hatred for us all these weeks. It must have been hard. In any case, we promised to strengthen your soul, and this is just the beginning. This was just the appetizer. Of course, your body should not be left too far behind, so we have made the necessary arrangements. Prepare yourself. Tomorrow will no doubt be one of the longest days of your life."

The little soul wisp nodded. "Before I leave, how exactly am I going to get free from the cell?"

Goleon smirked. "Be patient."

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