Chapter 98: SS-Rank Item The Threshold Seal

Light flared, and Kael’s character resolved back into the game.

The Astral Spire existed as its own sealed instance, entirely separate from the main world map

unlocked automatically at level 40, one challenge attempt per player, accessed directly through the system panel.

Beastlord came with one additional wrinkle specific to the climb: any companion above level 40 had its stats forcibly suppressed down to that threshold for the duration, keeping the challenge fair regardless of how far ahead a tamer had pushed their roster.

Every one of Kael’s companions already sat comfortably past that line. No extra preparation needed there.

Still, a run this important deserved every possible advantage walking in. Kael summoned Elara

someone who rarely grinded alongside him directly to join for this one.

Before logging off to deal with Sterling, he’d already sent word for her to meet him outside Frostwatch.

Arriving at the agreed point now, it didn’t take long before hoofbeats rolled in from the distance, a small column of her personal guard riding escort.

The past several days of military service had changed her, even this early into it. Ice-blue robes shot through with gold embroidery, light armor fitted over the vital points, her posture settled into something straighter and more assured than the sheltered palace bearing he remembered.

Whatever softness had defined her before had hardened into something closer to quiet command

still elegant, but carrying weight now instead of just grace.

“Your servant greets you, my lord.”

Kael stepped forward and offered a short bow of his own, gesturing toward a cave mouth set into the hillside nearby.

“Found the location you asked me to track down. Few days of searching, but it’s confirmed

just ahead.”

“Well done.” Elara nodded, satisfied, and turned to the guard escort. “Hold position here. No one enters without my word.”

She dismounted cleanly and fell into step beside him, following him into the cave.

Deep inside, Kael pulled up the system panel and triggered the instance transfer. Blue light flared around both of them, and the world dissolved.

They reappeared somewhere else entirely

a dim, roiling sky overhead, storm clouds churning with flickers of distant lightning, the whole scene lit in a heavy, apocalyptic haze.

Ahead, a massive stone tower rose out of the gloom, built from dense black rock weathered by what looked like centuries, its upper reaches vanishing somewhere above the cloud line entirely.

Kael took in the sight with something close to reverence. A structure that had haunted an entire previous life, standing in front of him again, fresh.

He raised a hand and summoned his full roster. Light bloomed, and Wraithlord, Void Colossus, Thunder Roc, and Lyra all materialized behind him in quick succession.

Elara had seen Wraithlord and Void Colossus before, though even familiar faces carried new weight now

both had grown considerably since her last encounter with them.

Thunder Roc and Lyra, bonded more recently, hit her with the full force of first impressions

raw presence radiating off both of them, something undeniably formidable in the air around each.

Lyra in particular drew the eye. Poised, flawless in bearing, the star-mark between her brows catching the storm-light, longbow held with the easy confidence of someone who’d never once doubted her own aim.

Elara felt the shift immediately

some quiet, competitive instinct rising unbidden, her grip tightening slightly on her staff as she stepped a half-pace closer to Kael’s side, chin lifting just enough to not be ignored.

Kael caught the gesture and allowed himself a small, knowing smile.Without comment, he opened her companion panel and pushed every one of her lower-tier skills up to A-rank in a single sweep.

Elara’s breath caught at the surge of power settling into her, gratitude breaking across her expression. “Thank you, my lord!”

“Don’t mention it.” He rested a hand briefly on her shoulder, voice gentling. “I know your position keeps you from staying at my side the way the others can.

But what you’ve given me matters just as much as anything they contribute. More, in some ways

nothing about it was ever replaceable.”

“You’ll never come second for it. Whatever the others earn standing beside me, you earn the same.”

Elara nodded, something in her chest easing at the words

the quiet, nagging resentment she’d carried over her own limited access finally loosening its grip entirely.

Kael led the group into the tower’s entrance hall, a vast chamber stretching nearly a thousand feet across, an intricate summoning circle etched into the floor at its center.

Light flared across the inscriptions, and a massive, dark-green spider materialized in the circle’s heart, carapace gleaming like polished stone.

[JADEWEB SPIDER] (Common)

Level 40

Early floors ran gentle by design

any reasonably built combat class could clear the opening stretch without trouble, let alone someone sitting at the top of the server’s rankings.

Lyra raised her bow and loosed three clean shots. The spider dropped before the third arrow finished its flight.

Neither equipment nor experience dropped floor by floor

every reward accumulated instead into a single chest, released only once a player chose to exit, scaling in quality with both the floor reached and the speed of the climb.

A flash of light swept them up to the second floor the instant the spider fell. Two skeletal figures wreathed in ghostly green flame lunged out of the gloom, claws bared.

Elara answered with a sweep of her staff, a biting gust of frost and ice rolling out to catch both mid-charge. They shattered on contact, brittle and silent.

Floor after floor fell the same way after that

Kael’s roster simply outclassing anything the tower offered this early, the climb accelerating fast.

Within what felt like no time at all, they’d already cleared past floor thirty, momentum showing no sign of slowing, each new hall resolving almost before the last one had finished dissolving behind them.

Just over two hours into the climb, a deep chime rolled out across the entire server at once.

“Server-Wide Announcement: Congratulations to player Unrivaled for defeating the Legendary-tier boss Scytheclaw Tyrant

the first Legendary kill recorded inside the Astral Spire. Rewards: Reputation +5,000, Gold +500,000, Luck +5, and the Threshold Seal (SS).”

The chime rolled out across every corner of the server at once, and for a moment even Kael paused mid-climb, genuinely curious what an SS-grade item pulled from a boss this deep inside the Spire could possibly turn out to be.