Kael read the talent description twice, brow furrowed.
Simple enough on paper. kill things, collect points, spend points on his companion. But numbers on a screen didn’t tell him how it actually felt in practice.
That answer was going to have to come from the field.
He pulled up his panel and summoned the companion the system had handed him.
Light folded in on itself. A creature dropped into the hall deep purple hide stretched over a frame bristling with bone spurs, its mouth splitting open in a grin full of too many teeth.
[RAVENOUS HUSK]
Bloodline Tier: Iron
Constitution ★★★★★
Strength ★★★★
Agility ★★★
Spirit ★★★
Skill I Hardened Hide: Permanent dual-resistance +2 per level.
Skill II Feast: Bite for 120% attack, converting 30% of damage dealt to HP. On kill: permanent +5 max HP, and grows in size. No mana cost. 40s cooldown.
A ravenous thing born of the Void, forever hungry, forever hunting.
Kael’s eyes lit up.
Ascension’s tier ladder ran Common, Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Dark Gold, Legendary, Epic, Mythic, Divine and the single number that actually mattered for a companion’s long-term ceiling was its star total.
Fifteen stars, spread across four stats. For an Iron-tier beast, that was the cap. Maxed out before it had even taken a single step.
Tanky. Self-sustaining.
And that Feast skill
Permanent HP gain on every kill meant this thing’s health bar had no real ceiling. Feed it long enough, and one day it would simply stop dying.
That kind of scaling skill was rare even on Legendary-tier companions. On an Iron-tier starter beast, it was borderline unfair.
He was itching to log in properly and start grinding but Ascension didn’t officially open until midnight. Kael logged out, made a supply run, and forced himself to actually sleep.
At 11:50 PM he strapped back in.
Ten minutes of loading screen later, light washed over him and he dropped into a dusty, half-built settlement.
"Welcome to the continent of Ascension. Spawn Zone: Haven’s Rest Ashwood Outpost
Teleport flares kept flashing in rapid succession, dumping wave after wave of players into the square.
Within minutes the sleepy little spawn town had turned into a shoving match.
Half the crowd sprinted straight for the tree line, novice weapons in hand, hungry to start the grind. The other half wandered the settlement cornering every NPC in sight.
"Hey, gorgeous, where’s the good loot around here?"
"Ma’am, no offense, but you’re aging incredibly well."
"Old man! You got quests or not?!"
Kael shook his head and kept walking.
Starter quests in this game weren’t handed out for free most needed a specific string of prerequisites, or a power threshold most of these players wouldn’t hit for days.
Not worth his time when every minute mattered.
Grinding first. Everything else could wait.
One stop before he left town, though.
Ascension had no appearance customization. Whatever you looked like in the real world, you looked like in-game no exceptions.
And Kael’s face was not exactly anonymous. Three championship runs with Ironclad had put it on enough streams and highlight reels that half the competitive scene would recognize him on sight. He wasn’t ready for that kind of attention. Not yet.
He detoured to the general store, handed over ten copper for an iron mask, and pulled it on before stepping through the gates.
Outside the walls, the clearing was chaos dozens of players swinging rusty starter weapons at level-one stray dogs, yelling over each other, having the time of their lives.
Kael didn’t slow down.
His companion alone already out-statted most of these players fresh out of the tutorial base numbers boosted a flat 50% by his class passive.
The Husk was hitting like something seven levels ahead of anyone still fighting over random low beast.
He pushed past the noise and into the tree line, deeper than anyone else seemed willing to go.
Once he was clear of prying eyes, he called the Husk out again, and the two of them moved through the forest together.
Ten minutes in, they found the spot.
Something white broke from the brush a rabbit, snow-pale, ears too long for its body, eyes an unsettling shade of red.
[THORNBACK HARE] (Common)
Level 3
HP: 220
ATK: 14–16
DEF: 11
Looks harmless. Bites when cornered.
Kael grinned behind the mask.
"Go get it."