Alex stared at his requirents in stunned silence, the words on the details seemingly mocking him with their cryptic vagueness.
"Kill one King class B- rank being," he muttered to himself, jaw tight.
The requirent wasn't a shock in itself — he was no stranger to the System's love for making things harder and harder for him.
But
breaking free of mortal bindings
?
He shook his head, bewildered.
How could he have already completed sothing he didn't even understand?
Mira, catching his muttered words, looked over with a curious frown.
"Sothing wrong?"
He glanced at her with a sigh.
"The requirents to hit B- rank are… odd. Apparently, I've already broken free of sothing called
mortal bindings
. No idea what it even ans."
Mira's brows shot up at Alex's words.
"Mortal bindings? Never heard of that before."
She took a mont, then shrugged.
"Might as well see what I need to hit C rank."
Opening her own details, she scanned the screen, her expression shifting from intrigue to confusion.
[Requirents to reach C rank: Bare witness with the horrors of the Void (complete); Kill 2 C rank Variant class beings (complete)]
"What in the world?"
She muttered, almost under her breath.
Alex glanced over at her, noting her surprised look.
"You too?"
Mira nodded, a little confused.
"It seems the System is feeling sowhat generous today… One of your requirents is already complete… while all of my requirents are complete!"
***
Over the next few days, Mira took Alex's previous generosity to heart, diving headfirst into absorbing and using the Soul orbs she'd saved up.
Alex had encouraged her to use them for herself, so she did just that, determined to finally reach the threshold of C rank.
With each day, she felt her power building, the strength coursing through her more naturally than ever before. When she reached 100% progress through C rank, the System confird her advancent, and she felt a surge of new strength and clarity settle within her.
Finally, Mira was a C rank.
Excitent and pride mixed with anticipation as she opened her details, eager to see what lay ahead for her in reaching B- rank.
The screen flickered to life, revealing her requirents:
[Requirents to reach B- rank: Kill 1 King class B- rank being (0/1); Break free of your mortal bindings (complete)]
"..."
Mira blinked.
'Is this not…?'
She almost felt overwheld with confusion.
Was this not the exact sa requirents Alex was faced with??
Mira stared at her details, the identical requirents confirming her suspicions.
With a shake of her head, she glanced over at Alex, barely able to mask her bewildernt.
"Alex…"
She said, drawing his attention.
"You're not going to believe this, but my requirents are exactly the sa as yours!... Right down to that 'mortal bindings' nonsense. And sohow, it's already complete for too…"
Alex's eyes narrowed as he processed her words, and he fell silent, thinking hard.
"So we both supposedly 'broke free of mortal bindings' — without even knowing what it ant."
Mira nodded, just as puzzled.
"And it sounds like it's already done, even though we don't know how or why. But… it doesn't seem like the kind of requirent that everyone just completes without a clue, does it?"
"No, exactly. I doubt every C rank has it marked off without knowing about it. In fact, I'd bet that this isn't typical at all. Which ans…"
Alex trailed off, furrowing his brows.
"Maybe whatever we experienced or survived together is what set us apart. So event must've broken us free of these bindings."
'But what would that be…?'
Alex fell into deep thought, trudging through his mories to try and find anything that could point him in the right direction to solving this unexpected riddle.
'Sothing we've both done before… Sothing probably a huge deal as well…'
It didn't take long before a thought crossed his mind, one that he felt could be a likely answer.
But if he was right about it, then how would every other C rank facing this threshold 'break free of their mortal bindings' like he and Mira did…?
'Phoenix rebirth…'
Alex recalled very, very vividly how he and Mira had both been through this, and it just so happened to be the closest thing he could think of that could fit 'breaking free' of mortal bindings.
Considering during the process of Phoenix rebirth they were quite literally broken down into re molecules before being rebuilt from the ground up, Alex was 90% sure it was the reason their requirent was already complete.
But this confused him.
How the fuck were other C ranks supposed to overco this threshold???
Considering they both had to die before undergoing this process… he doubted they would have to go through a similar one!
But it was easy for him to obtain an answer to this question.
Just ask soone who's already gone through the process before!
***
"Principal Farnes, it's Alex."
Alex announced his presence after knocking on the door of the familiar office he was in only a few days prior.
Without waiting for a response from the other party, he opened the door and entered the room.
He found Principal Farnes staring out of his floor to ceiling window, gazing across the whole of Capital Pri city.
"Back so soon?"
Farnes joked.
He knew Alex was coming the mont he even made the decision to.
He could easily keep tabs on everything and everyone on the whole planet at his rank, after all.
It wasn't hard for him to sense Alex coming his way from halfway across the city.
"Sir, how did you break free of your mortal bindings?"
Alex got straight to the point and asked his question directly.
He wanted to both satiate his curiosity, but also confirm whether he was correct in his assumption that it was due to his Phoenix Rebirth ability that he and Mira had already completed it.
Unexpectedly though, Farnes was a little surprised when he heard Alex's question.
He turned around with his brows raised.
"You're already at the threshold of becoming a Higher lifeform!?"
Alex shrugged.
"Yep. Mira too."
Thud!
A sound rang out the spacious office as Farnes felt a piece of wood from his desk crumble to dust under his grip.
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