The silence of the Vance Estate was heavier than the roar of the arena.
Kaelen sat at the head of the long mahogany table. His uniform was gone, replaced by simple black combat fatigues he had purchased from the System Shop. On the table in front of him sat three items:
The Mithril Sword (Chipped and stained).
The Registry of Traitors (The partial list).
The Key to the 7th Door (The Tournament Reward).
He picked up the Key. It didn't look like a key. It looked like a jagged shard of void-glass, pulsing with a faint, purple rhythm that matched his own heartbeat.
"You're famous, Boss," Vex said, kicking her boots up onto the table. She was counting a stack of gold coins so large it defied physics. "The betting pools paid out. We have 50,000 Gold. We're not just rich; we're 'buy a small city' rich."
"Rich doesn't stop an army," Kaelen muttered, turning the Key over in his hand.
Seraphina sat by the fire, wrapping a fresh bandage around her ribs. Her face was pale, but her eyes were dry. The [Solar Tyrant] class had changed her. She didn't look like a princess anymore; she looked like a soldier who had survived a shelling.
"The Headmaster sent a messenger bird," Seraphina said, her voice raspy. "You've been expelled."
Kaelen let out a short, humorless laugh. "Expelled? After I won their tournament?"
"'Excessive brutality and suspected Heresy'," she quoted. "They can't prove you're a heretic because of the Black Box blackmail, so they're using 'Student Safety' as an excuse to kick you out. They want you gone before the Church burns the Academy down looking for you."
"Good," Kaelen said. He dropped the Key back onto the table. "I was done with school anyway."
He stood up and walked to the window. The mana barrier outside was humming loudly. Beyond it, in the shadows of the forest, he could see the glint of steel. Church Paladins. They weren't attacking yet—wary of the barrier and the political fallout—but they were waiting.
"We have 50,000 gold," Kaelen said, looking at Vex. "Spend it."
"On what?" Vex asked. "More potions?"
"No. Supplies for a migration," Kaelen ordered. "Dried rations. Camping gear. Warp Scrolls. And a carriage reinforced with alchemy plating."
Vex stopped playing with her coins. "Migration? Where are we going? The City is safe as long as we have money."
"The City is a cage," Kaelen corrected. "Rian is broken, but his father, Count Valerius, is not. Inquisitor Silas is humiliated, which makes him desperate. If we stay here, we die in our sleep."
He pointed to the Key on the table.
"Besides, the prize isn't a trophy. It's a map."
[System Analysis: Key to the 7th Door.]
[Item Class: Abyssal Artifact.]
[Description: A coordinate beacon pointing to the location of the 7th Gate of the Abyss.]
[Location Identified: The Ashen Wastelands - Sector 4.]
[Requirement: Must be Level 20 to activate.]
"The Ashen Wastelands?" Seraphina stood up, alarmed. "Kaelen, that's a Dead Zone. No mana regenerates there. It's filled with Corrupted Beasts and Rogue Cultists. It's suicide."
"It's where my father died," Kaelen lied smoothly. He didn't know if his father died there, but he knew the System wanted him to go there. "And it's the one place the Church refuses to tread."
He turned to them.
"I'm leaving at dawn. You have a choice. Take your share of the gold and disappear, or get in the carriage."
It wasn't a question. It was a test.
Vex shrugged. "I'm a wanted criminal in three kingdoms. The Wastelands sound cozy. I'm in."
Seraphina looked at the fire. She touched the scar on her shoulder where Rian's light-spear had hit her.
"I have nowhere to go," she whispered. "House Lionheart has disowned me. Rian tried to kill me. You..." She looked at Kaelen. "You're the only monster I know how to survive."
"Flattering," Kaelen deadpanned.
He grabbed the Key and shoved it into his pocket.
"Pack your things. We burn the rest."
The Next Morning. Dawn.
The sun rose grey over the Academy. Fog clung to the spires of the Administration Tower.
A black, iron-plated carriage sat idling at the back gate of the Vance Estate. Two massive Night-Mares—undead horses summoned from the Dungeon Core—snorted black smoke in the cold air.
Kaelen stood in the courtyard, holding a torch.
He looked at the manor. It was a ruin when he arrived, and he was leaving it a fortress. But he couldn't take it with him.
"System," Kaelen commanded.
[Yes, Host?]
"Initiate Protocol: Scorched Earth."
[Warning: This will destroy the Estate's Mana Well and collapse the Pocket Dungeon entrance. Are you sure?]
"Do it. If I can't have it, nobody can."
[Acknowledged.]
The ground beneath the manor rumbled. The blue mana barrier flickered and turned a violent, unstable red.
Kaelen tossed the torch onto the porch. The old, dry wood caught fire instantly.
He turned and walked to the carriage. Vex was in the driver's seat, reins in hand. Seraphina was inside, organizing their supplies.
"Let's go," Kaelen said, climbing in.
As the carriage rolled out of the gate and into the mist of the forest road, a deep, booming explosion echoed behind them.
BOOM.
The Vance Estate collapsed into a sinkhole as the Dungeon Core detonated. The mana shockwave would blind the Church's scrying sensors for days.
Inside the carriage, Kaelen leaned back against the leather seat. He opened his Status Screen.
[Name: Kaelen Vance]
[Class: Sin Eater (Tier 1)]
[Level: 15]
[Title: The Abyssal Sovereign (Mythic)]
[Effect: All Dark-attribute entities (Monsters/Cultists) of a lower level will feel instinctive fear towards you.]
He scrolled down to his [Quests].
[Main Quest Updated: The Pilgrimage of Ruin.]
[Objective: Travel to the Ashen Wastelands.]
[Objective: Locate the 7th Door.]
[Time Limit: 30 Days.]
"Thirty days to cross a continent," Kaelen muttered.
"We have company," Vex called out from the driver's seat.
Kaelen opened the sliding window. "Church?"
"No," Vex laughed. "Worse. Fans."
Kaelen looked out.
Lined up along the road leading away from the Academy were hundreds of students. They weren't blocking the path. They were standing in silence, watching the black carriage pass.
They were the Null-Talents. The commoners. The F-Rank students who had been bullied by Rian and the nobility for years.
As Kaelen's carriage passed, one student stepped forward and raised a fist.
Then another.
Then all of them.
They didn't cheer. They didn't shout. They just raised their fists in a silent salute to the boy who had broken the system.
Kaelen watched them. He felt a strange thrum in his chest. It wasn't warmth. It was... power.
[Ding!]
[Passive Skill Triggered: Lord of the Outcasts.]
[You have gained the faith of the downtrodden.]
[Faith Points: +500.]
[System Note: Faith can be converted into Mana or used to upgrade the 'Sin Eater' domain.]
Kaelen closed the window.
"Idiots," he whispered. "They think I'm a revolutionary."
"Aren't you?" Seraphina asked softly from the darkness of the carriage.
Kaelen looked at his hands. The hands that had eaten souls, broken bones, and saved a child from acid.
"I'm not a revolutionary," Kaelen said, closing his eyes as the carriage picked up speed, leaving the Academy behind forever.
"I'm just the inevitable consequence of their world."
The carriage rattled as it hit the unpaved road of the outer lands. The mist swallowed them whole.