Lady Yuan hesitated, but with the carefree smile plastered across my face, how could she not feel reassured? Even a very cautious rat would approach someone who looked as utterly harmless as I did.

Well, not that I intended to harm her. Not that I could, really…

In fact, maybe I was wrong about this entirely. Maybe the reason she decided to come sit next to me was because she was confident that I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Either way, it was a win for me.

She settled next to me, and immediately the smell of her cloak hit my nose — stale and cloying, like wet wool left in a damp cellar for too long. I frowned before I could stop myself. I truly had no intention to give my distaste away, but I was so helpless when it came to facial expressions.

She caught it and stood up immediately then pulled the cloak off, apologizing with a polite bow. "I'm sorry, I used this to hide my identity. I was very wary of eyes on my way here."

The cloak slid from her shoulders to reveal a black Chinese traditional attire — or perhaps it was better to call it a kimono — with red flowery designs spread across the silk. The collars were wide apart, revealing pale, slender shoulders and deep collarbones.

I also spotted a tattoo peeking out from her left arm. She drew the collar up to cover it, the motion quick and practiced.

'Interesting. A mark she doesn't want seen.'

Her tail fell freely behind her, swaying with a life of its own, and stashed at her side was a beautiful black and red katana — just as I had suspected.

She removed the sword and allowed it to rest against the wall by the door, then hung her cloak on the handle and placed her hat on the same hook. Then she bowed again, a shy chuckle escaping her lips before she sat back down.

This time, it was the smell of something sweet and calm that flowed into my nose. Subtle, floral — like petals crushed between pages of an old book. But I kept my face carefully neutral this time. If I showed a difference in reaction now, that would've confirmed I was truly offended by the earlier smell.

Which she probably already knew.

'Whatever. Anything to make myself feel better about my complete lack of facial control.'

Before the atmosphere got awkward because of that foul-smelling thing, I quickly spoke:

"You were saying you needed my help… what could you possibly need my help for? I'm not even strong."

Lady Yuan gave me an incredulous stare. She looked genuinely lost for a moment, as if I'd just said the sky was green.

"Lord Cade, what do you mean, you're not even strong?" Her voice rose with disbelief. "You just slayed a Primal Beast, not just any Primal Beast, by the way. That one seemed to have reached the third level of Soul Spirit. This kind of Spirit Beast is not one that five B-rank Summoners would've been able to handle. A level three Primal Beast is just too strong."

I paused, looked at her… then my eyes narrowed.

"There are levels? Spirit Beasts in each tier have levels?"

She frowned.

"Otherworlder—" She caught herself. "I'm sorry. Did Lord Cade not know about this and still went on to fight a Spirit Beast?" Her gaze shone with something that looked disturbingly like awe. "Amazing. Truly amazing."

'I think you have this whole thing twisted, young lady…'

But that wasn't what I was most concerned about right now. What mattered was the obvious gap in my knowledge — a gap that suddenly felt less like ignorance and more like sabotage.

"However you may see it, my knowledge about this world is incomplete." I chose my words carefully, feeling out the shape of what I was about to admit. "I do know a generous amount, though. However, given the history of where I'm coming from, I'm thinking that generous amount needs to be unlearned and relearned properly."

The church had left out too much. Far too much. And I had no idea why.

Was it because they wanted to control us through information? But how exactly would withholding that part of the information control us? Wouldn't it just put us in terrible danger instead?

'Now that I think back… stony-face instructor always looked like he hated having to teach us. Could this have been the reason?'

Maybe it wasn't that the instructor hated teaching us. Maybe he hated that he couldn't teach us properly. And what the Eternal Light church was doing could very well cost us our lives.

My eyes found hers and held them keenly.

"Lady Yuan. How many levels are there in one tier?"

She studied me for a moment — weighing something behind those careful eyes — then exhaled and responded evenly.

"Well, regardless of the tier, the levels remain the same. It's seen as a progression. Contrary to us, who are not massively affected by the Spirit River of this world, Spirit Beasts are different. Spirit essence in fact forms the core of their existence, and this causes them to advance in tier progressively as they grow. Their growth comes through being exposed to spirit essence in one area for an extended period of time — or just by consuming others."

She paused for almost a second, then continued.

"The spiritual progression before they hit evolution to another tier is in levels. From level one to level nine. And when they finally cross level nine, they break into level one of a new tier."

The revelation hit like a hammer wrapped in silk.

I leaned back, my mind racing through the implications. This wasn't just new information — this recontextualized everything. Every Spirit Beast I'd fought, every danger I'd faced, every assessment I'd made about relative threat levels. All of it had been operating on incomplete data.

'Level one to level nine within each tier. Nine steps of progression before evolution.'

A curious question bubbled up, one that I couldn't quite keep contained.

"Lady Yuan."

She beheld my face, her eyes glimmering softly with that same unearned respect.

"Let's say there's a human that can increase his or her essence by certain methods. Do you think this will be the same as Spirit Beasts? That eventually, they might break into a new rank?"

Lady Yuan held my gaze with a new frown. It made her beauty sharp and angular — dead serious, in a way that was almost dangerously attractive.

"That's impossible, Lord Cade. It has never been heard of."

I nodded slowly. "Sure. But let's say hypothetically…"

She looked at me. Then looked away, considering. Then looked back at me again, something shifting in her expression.

"I guess hypothetically, it could work. Each level would have to be significant, though. And eventually, they would break into a new rank." She paused, her frown deepening. "But this will only happen if they could increase their essence. Which is fundamentally impossible."

A dirty smirk spread across my face.

'Fundamentally impossible.'

I rolled the words around in my mind like a gambler testing loaded dice.

'Looks like I'm not going to be an F-rank forever after all.'

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