"Do you know the true nature of Duty Crystals?"
Since Lucille had promised to help Sudiya enhance her strength, his goal was to make her a Duty Wielder.
But instead of acting immediately, he began testing her knowledge.
"My court tutors taught me," Sudiya replied without hesitation. "The essence of a Duty Crystal is the manifestation of a class."
"For an ordinary person to become a Duty Wielder, they must possess their own Duty Crystal, bound to their soul, unusable by others."
"Duty Crystals have spatial properties. When a Duty Wielder activates one, the equipment stored within automatically equips to their body."
"Every Duty Crystal is incredibly valuable. Even standard class crystals are beyond the reach of ordinary people, let alone special ones. They are the core of a Duty Wielder."
Lucille nodded silently. Due to certain limitations, even his avatar, Night Star, could only use standard classes, not special ones.
"Sudiya, as a royal heir, you must have a Duty Crystal, right?"
"Yes," Sudiya said, not hiding anything. She retrieved various items from her spatial ring. "Duty Crystals, mana materials, even magical artifacts—I have them all. But I still can't become a Duty Wielder. Mr. Lucille, do you know why?"
"The ritual," Lucille said confidently. "You're missing the right ritual."
"Ritual?" Sudiya looked puzzled.
"Didn't your court tutors teach you?" Lucille frowned. "That's basic knowledge for Duty Wielders."
"No… they taught me, of course," Sudiya clarified. "But no matter how correctly I perform the rituals, I still can't become a Duty Wielder."
"That's because you're using the wrong ritual," Lucille said with assurance. "Sudiya, I've told you your identity is special. That uniqueness lies in the fact that your royal bloodline is innately tied to controlling fire."
"You can't acquire a standard class. You can only obtain the legendary class—Firebearer."
"Firebearer… does that class really exist?" Sudiya's eyes sparkled with curiosity and excitement. "I sneaked out of the palace to find clues about this class. Mr. Lucille, do you really know about it?!"
"Not only do I know about it, I know the ritual to obtain it," Lucille said, pausing. "But you'll need to trust me completely."
"Completely… how?"
"Don't worry. With the contract in place, I'll ensure your safety," Lucille said, suddenly moving toward her. "But beyond that… you'll need to endure a bit."
He struck her stomach with a punch, the sharp pain forcing her to double over. Seizing the moment, he raised his knee, slamming it into her chest.
Sudiya gasped, unable to breathe. A hand gripped her throat, cutting off her air. In her oxygen-deprived haze, she could only vaguely hear a man's voice echoing in her ears…
"In a sense, the Shadow Cult was right."
"Over fifty years ago, the fire went out of control. From that moment, no one in the royal family could wield flames, nor could they become Firebearers—or any Duty Wielders, for that matter."
"This led to the inevitable decline of the royal family. Sudiya, you've been searching for a way to become a Duty Wielder, but the moment you left the palace, the Shadow Cult had already targeted you."
"They've long wanted to use you for an experiment. A genius among them proposed a theory: if a living person can't control the fire, what about a dead one? Perhaps only the dead can master an uncontrolled flame."
"They never had the chance to test it, but it's worth a try."
Though he said this, Lucille knew the Shadow Cult had succeeded.
In the game from his previous life, Sudiya's corpse had become a Duty Wielder, serving the cult.
Now, he just needed to replicate that process.
Sudiya had slipped into a near-death state, no longer able to hear his murmurs.
Lucille used a small knife to cut her skin, dipping his fingers in her blood to draw a complex pattern on her body. The surrounding mana materials, arranged in precise order, began to glow faintly, resonating with the ritual.
He stepped back. The rest was beyond his control.
He knew the method could work, but that didn't guarantee success. The past life was the past; this was now. More importantly, in the game, Sudiya was truly dead, while now she was only on the brink of death.
The one thing he was certain of was that Sudiya, equipped with a life-saving artifact, wouldn't die here.
This wasn't a magic-sealing zone. Her artifact detected her near-death state and activated, repairing her body.
Yet she remained teetering between life and death. At this boundary, her ritual succeeded. The previously blank Duty Crystal began to take on specks of inky darkness.
It worked!
A trace of joy flickered across Lucille's face. Sudiya had unlocked a special class—"Emberbearer."
"I admit, you're a true genius."
"But unfortunately, a standard class can never defeat a special one."
"And I, Eric Campbell, possess the special class—Golden Hall Knight!"
"I am a Tier Ten Duty Wielder, a Golden Hall Knight!"
A pressure not inferior to Night Star's swept outward, overwhelming some weaker Duty Wielders, who collapsed under its weight.
Night Star, however, was unaffected. After switching to Blood Knight, her physical prowess had been enhanced in every aspect. Except for her limited mana reserves, she was no longer on the same plane of existence as ordinary humans.
But she didn't rely on her physical strength to clash head-on with Campbell. She knew the Golden Hall Knight's physique would surpass hers, and her skills wouldn't easily threaten him. To defeat Campbell, she needed an unconventional approach.
She pulled out a purple-black "gem" and pressed it into her hand. The blood-red gem popped out, and her crimson armor vanished, replaced by a dark outfit that completely concealed her form.
"Shadow Assassin."
Campbell's Golden Hall Knight was indeed formidable, but as an overwhelmingly powerful boss, it had drawn countless players to study it.
And the Shadow Assassin was the standard class proven by countless gaming experts to be the most effective for a "no-damage clear."