Level gaps in Ascension weren’t cosmetic. A level 15 monster hit like a genuinely different category of threat compared to a level 10 one, and a five-level spread was normally enough to make even a boss-tier companion sweat.
Normally.
Between the class passive’s flat 50% stat bump and everything Kael had already poured into both companions, the math tilted hard in his favor before the fight even started. The Bladefang Wild Wolves didn’t stand much of a chance.
The General worked like a one-man siege line Raise the Fallen kept a standing crew of four skeletal archers peppering targets from range while his own spear carved through the wolf pack in clean, economical arcs, never a wasted motion.
Kael trailed behind both companions, bow in hand, picking off wounded stragglers and dropping the occasional heal or buff wherever the fight needed it most.
Mostly, though, he stayed busy just keeping up with the loot.The ring was making that harder than it should have been.
A level 15 trash mob dropping a handful of copper was generous on a normal day. Under the ring’s influence, every single wolf was coughing up silver instead two coins minimum, sometimes more, on top of scattered copper that added up fast.
Every few kills, something with an actual glow to it hit the ground.
I didn’t know collecting loot could be exhausting.
He almost laughed at himself, scooping up another handful of coins.
If regular trash is dropping like this... what’s a Silver-tier first kill going to look like?
The thought alone was enough to put a spring back in his step.
They pushed deeper into the valley, wolves falling in steady numbers, and Evolution Points climbed with every kill. Kael started spending them as fast as they came in, feeding both companions’ skill trees without hesitation.
"5 Evolution Points spent. [Hardened Hide] upgraded: E-rank → D-rank."
Hardened Hide → Thick Hide: Dual-resistance +4 → +6 per level.
"25 Evolution Points spent. [Feast] upgraded: D-rank → C-rank."
Feast: 150% → 160% attack damage, 40% → 50% converted to HP. On kill: +10 → +20 max HP. Cooldown: 36s → 32s.
An hour bled by in a blur of arrows and bone spikes. By the time Kael surfaced from the grind long enough to check his panel, both companions had pushed every skill they carried up to C-rank, banked over a hundred fresh Evolution Points, and climbed to level 11 apiece.
That was when the valley finally opened up in front of him.
Below a jagged cliff face, something massive paced back and forth six meters of muscle and glossy fur, two fangs curving out past its jaw like drawn blades.
[BLADEFANG WOLF KING] (Silver-Tier Boss)
Level 16
Kael pulled up the stat comparison and ran the numbers in his head.
Even with the class passive stacked on top of everything they’d already gained, a full five-level gap against a Silver-tier boss was still a stretch too far to close on raw stats alone.
Time for the trump card.
The Wolf King had already noticed them it broke into a full charge, jaws wide, murder in its eyes.
Kael sent the Ravager forward to meet it head-on, buying time, and turned his attention to the General standing at his side.
"Your turn."
Warden’s Mandate.
Crimson light exploded around the General’s frame, and its towering shape folded inward, bone and armor collapsing into something smaller, sharper a spear, pale white, wreathed in a faint red haze that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Kael reached out and closed his hand around the shaft.
Power slammed into him the instant his fingers made contact raw, furious, and utterly certain of itself.
His stat panel lit up across the board, every number climbing at once as eighty percent of the General’s full attributes folded into his own.
Stacked against his existing gear, it still wasn’t quite enough to fully close the gap against a level 16 Silver-tier boss.
But it was close. Close enough to matter.
Something settled into place in Kael’s chest familiar, almost nostalgic.
A blade in hand, an enemy in front of him, the old rhythm of a fight that didn’t need a companion to carry it. This was the part of his last life he’d genuinely missed.
He raised the spear, triggered Combo Strike, and closed the distance in a blur three strikes, delivered too fast to see coming, each one finding its mark.
The Wolf King roared, abandoning its fight with the Ravager entirely to turn on the more immediate threat. Three crimson claw-marks tore through the air toward Kael’s chest.
He didn’t try to block it. His weight dropped, boots skidding sideways across the dirt, and the strike passed close enough to feel the wind off it.
He answered before he’d even fully recovered his footing, driving the spear forward into the Wolf King’s flank.
Sword had always been his weapon of choice in his last life but three years of training and two of active combat hadn’t left him a one-trick fighter.
Every weapon type had gotten its share of hours, and none of it had gone to waste. Close-combat instinct like that didn’t fade. It just waited.
Beast-type bosses at this tier ran on a short, predictable loop pounce, claw, tail sweep, charge and every one of them telegraphed hard before it landed.
With the stat gap closed this tight, reading and countering each move became second nature.
Kael settled into a rhythm and didn’t let up. Strike after strike, relentless, precise, chipping away at a health bar that had no good answer for someone who already knew every move before it came.
Ten minutes in, the bar finally bottomed out, a sliver of red clinging on at the edge.
The Ravager, circling and waiting the entire fight, seized the opening. Jaws split wide, and the Wolf King vanished in a single convulsive swallow.
A shower of loot hit the ground in its place coins in three different metals, and gear that actually caught the light.
Overhead, the sky lit up with the deep chime of a server-wide announcement:
"Server Announcement: Player Unrivaled has claimed the server-first kill of the Silver-Tier World Boss, Bladefang Wolf King. Rewards: +200 Reputation, +100 Gold, +3 Luck, Item Unlocked — [Sacred Oath] (Epic)."