Chapter 20: The Soul Tempering Token

Chapter 20: Chapter 20: The Soul Tempering Token

Latching the wooden door of his attic bedroom, Eric kicked off his boots, sat cross-legged on his worn straw mattress, and let out a long, eager breath into the quiet room.

Outside, Riverdale was falling into a quiet slumber under a canopy of starlight, but inside the small attic, the air felt charged with static anticipation.

With a focused thought, Eric reached into his soul-bound subspace and materialized the reward won from the day’s hunting trial. The sleek, midnight-blue card shimmered in his palm, its intricate silver runes coiling and uncoiling like living mercury under the pale moonlight.

"Alright," Eric murmured, rubbing his hands together with a dry grin. "Time for some late-night gamba."

*Use Gacha Ticket.*

*SHIIIING.*

The card dissolved into a sparkling shower of azure motes, instantly expanding into the semi-translucent, crimson-outlined roulette wheel directly before his retinas. The five primary segments locked into position: Manuals, Potions, Weapons, Artifacts, and Miscellaneous.

*Let’s roll.*

The wheel blurred into a rapid spin, the selector needle clicking past the icons with a rhythmic, mechanical hum.

*Tick-tick-tick-tick...*

The needle whipped past Weapons, breezed across Manuals, dragged past Potions, and gradually bled off momentum, inching across the boundary line of the gray Miscellaneous icon before shuddering to a complete halt.

*DING!*

│ [GACHA REWARD CONFIRMED]

│

│ Congratulations, Host!

│ Obtained: [Low-Rank Talent Upgrade Token x1]

│ Item deposited into [System Inventory].

Eric stared at the crimson prompt, his brain momentarily short-circuiting.

*A low-rank what?*

He blinked hard, reading the glowing lines a second time to ensure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him in the dim light.

*A Talent Upgrade Token?!*

In this world, a tamer’s innate talent rank was universally regarded as an unalterable absolute established at birth. The mythical heavenly elixirs and ancient divine relics rumored to elevate a soul’s talent grade were astronomically rare, costing billions of credits on sovereign auction blocks or triggering continental wars among high-tier noble clans.

To pull a talent-refining artifact from a basic lottery ticket defied every established law of cultivation.

"All hail RNGesus," Eric whispered in reverent awe, dropping his forehead down onto his mattress with hands clasped in mock worship toward the wooden rafters.

Perched on the edge of the pine desk, Coal tilted his head sideways, blinking his eyes with an expression that loudly conveyed he thought his tamer was losing his mind.

Catching his breath, Eric pulled the item from his inventory.

It was an octagonal token carved from crystalline white jade, glowing with a soft, milky luminescence that radiated pure spiritual pressure.

│ [ITEM: Low-Rank Talent Upgrade Token]

│

│ Description: A concentrated essence of soul authority.

│ Effect: Permanently elevates a single Rank D, E, or F innate talent by exactly one tier.

*My Skill Comprehension is already sitting at Rank C, which sits outside this token’s threshold,* Eric calculated. *That means this goes directly into Appraisal.*

Without a second of hesitation, Eric willed the token to activate.

*Use token on Appraisal.*

The white jade token dissolved into liquid luminescence, sinking directly through the pores of his palm and racing up his nervous system like molten silver.

Unlike the soothing, restorative bath of a standard Level Up, this process was pure, concentrated agony.

*CRACK.*

A blinding spike of pain detonated inside his skull. It felt as if a pair of searing iron tongs had reached directly into the core of his spiritual sea, violently tearing apart his innate soul pathways and reweaving them under immense energetic pressure.

Veins bulged along Eric’s temples and neck. He collapsed onto his side, his teeth clenching so hard his molars groaned under the strain. For three excruciating minutes, which felt like hours suspended in hell, he endured the silent soul reconstruction, refusing to let out a gasp to avoid waking Emily and the children sleeping on the floor below.

Then, the crushing pressure snapped.

A wave of cool, pristine clarity washed across his mind, soothing his frayed nerves.

"Haaah... haaah..."

Eric pushed himself upright on trembling forearms, his shirt soaked in cold sweat.

He wiped his brow on his sleeve and summoned his status panel.

│ STATUS PANEL

│

│ Name: Eric

│ Race: Human

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 2 (2%)

│ Talent: Appraisal (Rank D), Skill Comprehension (Rank C)

│ Skills: None

│ Contracted Beast: 1/1

*Cool. Not only have I reached Level 2, but my talent ranked up as well. Literally the best day ever.*

Next, he brought up Coal’s panel directly through their shared soul tether.

│ CONTRACTED BEAST STATUS

│

│ Name: Coal

│ Race: Bonepecker Crow

│ Cultivation Stage: Mortal

│ Level: 4 (26%)

│ Rank: D

│ Skills: Flight (Rank E), Scratch (Rank F)

A clean 20% progression jump from his own Level 2 breakthrough feedback.

*Solid growth across the board,* Eric thought, feeling the newly refined channels humming in his consciousness.

Now that his soul upgrades were settled, Eric pulled the walnut-sized *E-Rank High-Grade Mana Stone* harvested from the Fleshcrawler out of his pocket and tossed it toward the desk.

"Here, catch, Coal. Digest this while I meditate."

*Caw!*

Coal caught the dense crystal mid-air with his bone beak and swallowed it whole, letting out a satisfied trill before tucking his head beneath his wing atop the blanket.

Eric returned to his lotus posture, closing his eyes to cycle the *Low-tier Mortal Grade Cultivation Manual*.

With his Appraisal elevated to Rank D, his soul vessel’s baseline capacity had expanded, increasing his natural mana absorption rate by roughly thirty percent. Combined with his C-Rank Skill Comprehension, the efficiency was staggering—allowing him to siphon and refine ambient environmental mana faster than tamers born with natural B-Rank gifts.

Every rhythmic breath drew in thick, cool streams of mana from the night air, routing them smoothly through his seventy-two meridians and condensing them into his Mana Heart.

"This is the rhythm," Eric murmured quietly into the dark room. "Let’s keep building, Coal."

He closed his eyes and sank into deep meditation, letting the quiet hum of circulating energy carry him through the night.