Ascending With A Legendary Class

Chapter 38: Trigger

’Shameless.’

Celeste watched Richard’s back and kept the word firmly internal.

He had opened this conversation by undermining Winston, scanning him, finding nothing remarkable, questioning how someone with no special qualities could have accomplished what he did.

And now, the moment Winston’s value had been confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt, Richard was using his daughter’s three-day field relationship as a legitimate bridge to secure exclusive proximity.

The pivot had been seamless.

Celeste had to admit, grudgingly, that it was well executed.

Markus thought the same thing and said nothing about it either.

Richard wrapped up without ceremony. "One of my people will come to collect you both tomorrow. Use today to rest." He turned to Freya.

"Let’s go."

Freya hesitated at the edge of a moment, as if there was something she wanted to say to Winston and Zelda that didn’t quite make it out.

She settled for a small wave which the two reciprocated, then turned and followed her father.

Celeste gave Winston one last look before disappearing without fanfare. Markus gestured briefly toward his Association agents and turned back to Winston and Zelda before leaving.

"You two can go after you’ve given your reports."

An Association agent stepped forward with a recording device and standard debrief questions.

Winston and Zelda kept the details accurate but careful, the demigods had already erected a sound barrier during the main conversation, ensuring nothing about Winston’s actual capabilities had reached the reporters still pressing against the perimeter.

That was intentional, and Winston understood why.

The public version of events, Nightwing Fortunate clears a Tier Three beacon — was already astonishing enough to generate significant attention.

The real version, a Tier Four guardian defeated by a fresh initiate, was the kind of information that attracted interest from powerhouses well outside Key City.

The demigods wanted controlled access to that information while they prepared their Crucible offers.

Winston was fine with that arrangement. It bought him time too.

The reporters got nothing from either of them. After the debrief, Winston and Zelda boarded the buses.

The atmosphere inside was immediately different from the ride in three days ago.

"Winston! Over here, I saved you a seat—"

"Why would he sit with you? Winston, come here—"

"Did anyone else notice Zelda looks completely different? Did she get taller?"

"Do you think she’d give out her contact—"

Winston and Zelda walked past all of it without slowing down. They found a pair of empty seats at the back, sat down, and let the noise exist without acknowledging it.

The students who had called out understood quickly and stopped pressing. Nobody was genuinely offended by the silence.

If anything, a quiet acceptance moved through the bus — the recognition that respect earned through real things didn’t automatically come with friendliness, and that was a reasonable outcome when you considered how the previous six years had gone.

The engines turned over. The bus pulled away from the gate and started back toward the academy.

Winston leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Outside the window, the gate shrunk behind them until it disappeared entirely.

❖❖❖❖

The bus rolled through the academy gates and students began filing off, most of them heading straight for waiting family cars or the path home.

Winston and Zelda stepped off last and stood together at the academy entrance for a moment, the noise of the dispersing crowd moving around them.

"So when do I return the spells to you?" Winston asked.

Zelda looked at him.

"What?"

"The Black Dragonic set."

"Oh." She waved it off. "Keep them. Don’t worry about it."

Winston looked at her for a moment.

"You should try being a little selfish around me sometimes. Being this generous makes it feel like I’m taking advantage of you."

Zelda was quiet for a beat. Then she said, "I know you’ll make it up to me later."

Winston smiled.

"I guess I will."

They bumped fists before splitting off in different directions without any further ceremony. Winston headed toward the dormitory wing.

Zelda turned toward the academy’s side exit and walked down the alley beyond it.

The moment she cleared the corner and was out of anyone’s sightline, the smile dropped.

She flagged down a passing taxi and got in.

"Central hospital."

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror and his eyes went slightly wide.

"You’re one of the students from the false gate. The Sacred class holder."

Zelda nodded once.

The driver smiled at her confirmation. "The ride’s on me. It’s the least I can do."

"Thank you."

"No, really." He pulled into traffic and settled into the route. "What you all went through — keeping those people alive in there — that matters. I’m honored to help, even a little."

Zelda sat back and looked out the window. The city moved past in the late afternoon light.

She didn’t say anything else, and the driver seemed to understand she didn’t need to.

❖❖❖❖

Winston pushed open the door to his dorm room and stepped inside.

Six years in this room. The same four walls, the same narrow window, the same worn desk in the corner.

It looked exactly as he had left it before the First Entry, except now all his belongings were packed into two pieces of luggage sitting beside the bed.

He had handled that before stepping into the gate, knowing he wouldn’t be coming back to Nightwing as a student.

He closed the door and sat on the edge of the mattress.

The dormitory was completely quiet. Most sixth-years had already cleared out — graduating students didn’t linger.

The underclassmen were on break. The only people left in a building this size were the ones who had nowhere else to be, and Winston had always been one of those people.

The orphanage he had grown up in was behind him now. The academy was behind him too. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

’I’ll need to find a place soon. The energy stones should cover it.’

He had collected a significant number over three days of clearing the forest, the mountain range, and the pagoda.

Enough to set himself up properly if he moved carefully. He filed it as tomorrow’s problem and pulled up his panel.

[Winston Vance]

[Class: Soul Emperor]

[Trait: Soul]

[Class Grade: Legendary]

[Trait Type: Abstract]

[Rank: 1]

[First Realization: Soul Garden]

[Mastery: 100] [0%]

[Spells: 7]

[Traitial Art: 1]

[Energy: 2,000]

[Trigger: Received]

The Trigger notification had appeared the moment he crossed back through the gate.

He hadn’t been able to look at it — the demigods, the debrief, the bus ride, all of it had pushed it to the back.

Now the room was quiet and there was nothing left to handle first.

Winston exhaled slowly and focused on the panel. freewebnovel.cσ๓

’Reveal Trigger.’