Jace and Kiri quickly found a secluded, abandoned alleyway several blocks from the Beast Tamer's Hall. The location was far from ideal, exposed to the elements and offering minimal security, but it had one critical advantage: complete privacy. No one came to this part of the industrial district unless they were hiding from something, and even then, they kept to themselves.
Jace leaned against the cold brick wall, his breathing laboured from the extended walk and the sustained Spirit drain. His Constitution of 40 was making itself painfully known. Every step had been a minor agony, his weak body struggling to maintain the contract bond with Kiri while simultaneously keeping itself functional. The forced feedback from her critically malnourished state was a constant, dull ache that settled in his chest like a stone.
The contract bond itself was an entirely new sensation. It wasn't painful, exactly, but it was invasive. He could feel Kiri's presence in his mind, a flickering golden thread that connected his consciousness to hers. Through it, he sensed her exhaustion, her hunger, her wariness. And beneath all of that, a current of desperate hope that she was trying very hard to suppress.
Kiri stood a few feet away, her posture rigid despite her obvious exhaustion. Even in her current state, barely alive and marked for destruction just hours ago, she maintained the bearing of someone who had once held power and authority. Her golden eyes surveyed their surroundings with tactical precision, cataloguing exits, potential threats, and defensive positions.
"This will do," Kiri said quietly, her voice still hoarse but stronger than it had been in the Hall. "It's exposed, but defendable. More importantly, it's far from prying eyes."
Jace nodded, impressed despite himself. Even starving, even broken, the Seraph's tactical instincts were functioning at a high level. That spoke to extensive training, probably military or royal guard background. Another confirmation that she wasn't just any common Seraph. The Hall's assessment of her as a simple reject was laughably inadequate.
He sat down slowly, his legs finally giving out. The combination of sustained Spirit drain and physical exhaustion was pushing him dangerously close to his limits. He pulled up his status screen to confirm what his body was already telling him.
System: Summoner Status
Name: Jace
Stats: Power 35, Spirit 45, Constitution 40, Speed 38
Rank: Common Tier Summoner
Contract Slots: 1 (Occupied: Kiri)
Warning: Spirit capacity at 91% due to sustained bond strain.
He dismissed the warning. He'd been prepared for this. The Royal Stat Floor provided stability, but it couldn't eliminate the fundamental limitation of his weak Spirit stat. He had three credits remaining and a Seraph who desperately needed nutrition. The math was simple and brutal. Three credits wouldn't buy enough conventional food to sustain them both for even a day.
But Jace had something far more valuable than money. He had knowledge. The royal archives were a treasure trove of information that this degraded era had forgotten. One of the Prince's most valuable skills had been understanding the fundamental relationship between nutrition and spiritual development. Not the expensive, proprietary enhancement foods sold by merchants to wealthy summoners, but the basic, naturally occurring materials that could achieve similar or better results for a fraction of the cost.
"Wait here," Jace said, forcing himself back to his feet. "I need to gather some things. Don't leave this location unless you're under direct threat. The contract bond will let me sense if you're in danger."
Kiri's eyes narrowed slightly. "You're going to find food. With three credits."
It wasn't a question. She'd clearly been monitoring his financial situation through their brief conversations in the Hall, or perhaps she could sense it through the bond. Jace allowed himself a small smile, the first genuine expression of confidence he'd worn since waking in this weak body.
"I'm going to find the right food," he corrected. "There's a difference between calories and cultivation nutrients. Trust me."
He left before she could question further, moving as quickly as his exhausted body would allow. There was a market stall three streets over, one he'd passed earlier when navigating the Dregs. The vendor specialized in common herbs and root vegetables, the kind of basic agricultural products that fed the city's working class. Nothing prestigious, nothing expensive, just raw materials that most summoners dismissed as worthless for beast cultivation.
Jace spent his remaining three credits with surgical precision, the Prince's knowledge guiding every purchase. Two bundles of spirit grass, a common herb used primarily as animal feed for livestock. The vendor had it piled in cheap bins, selling it by weight to farmers. One cluster of iron-root vegetables, bitter and unpleasant but packed with mineral content that would be perfectly bioavailable for celestial bloodlines. And finally, spending his last half-credit on a small vial of distilled essence, the cheapest possible grade, extracted from low-quality mana stones and sold as lamp fuel.
The vendor barely looked at him, probably assuming he was buying feed for some Common tier pet or perhaps planning to use the spirit grass for its mild medicinal properties. The total transaction took less than two minutes. Jace was just another poor summoner scraping by, beneath notice.
Jace returned to the alley with his purchases clutched carefully in his arms and found Kiri exactly where he'd left her, standing sentinel despite her weakened state. Her eyes tracked his approach with predatory precision, then dropped to the bundle of materials in his hands. Her expression shifted to something between confusion and disappointment.
"Animal feed," she observed flatly, her voice carrying a note of resignation. "You spent your last credits on animal feed."
"I spent my last credits on the specific materials your body needs to begin recovery," Jace corrected, sitting down and spreading the materials out on the relatively clean patch of ground he'd identified earlier. He began preparing the mixture, his hands moving with practiced confidence. The Prince's knowledge guided every action, every proportion, every combination.
Spirit grass contained trace amounts of ambient mana that, when properly prepared, could stimulate dormant spiritual channels and encourage energy circulation. Iron-root vegetables, while nutritionally basic for humans, had extremely high bioavailability for beasts with celestial bloodlines due to their mineral composition. The distilled essence would act as a catalyst, accelerating the absorption process and forcing Kiri's starved body to process the nutrients at an enhanced rate.
The preparation was simple but precise. Jace crushed the spirit grass between two flat stones he'd found, reducing it to a coarse paste that released its stored mana. He mixed in finely chopped iron-root, the pieces small enough to be easily digestible. Finally, he added exactly three drops of the distilled essence, no more and no less. Too much would overwhelm her damaged spiritual channels. Too little wouldn't provide adequate catalyst effect.
The mixture turned a pale, luminescent green, giving off a faint smell of ozone and earth. It looked and smelled utterly unappetizing, more like something you'd feed to sick livestock than a sentient celestial being.
"Eat," Jace instructed, offering the prepared meal to Kiri.
Kiri stared at the paste with unconcealed scepticism bordering on revulsion. She was a Seraph, a being of pure celestial light and divine energy. In her former life, before her exile and mutilation, she had consumed only the purest forms of spiritual essence. Crystallized starlight, distilled moonbeams, the concentrated radiance of dawn. Meals that were as much ritual as sustenance, prepared by dedicated servants who understood the sacred nature of feeding celestial beings.
This common sludge, prepared by a desperate failure in a dirty alley using materials meant for livestock, was an insult to everything she had been. Every instinct screamed at her to refuse, to maintain what little dignity she had left.
But she was also starving. The hunger wasn't just physical. It was spiritual, a gnawing void in her core that threatened to consume her entirely if left unfed much longer. She could feel her own power flickering like a candle in a hurricane, minutes or hours away from guttering out completely. Pride was a luxury she could no longer afford. Survival trumped dignity.
Kiri took the meal with trembling hands and consumed it in quick, efficient bites. The taste was as unpleasant as she'd expected, bitter and earthy with an underlying metallic tang that made her want to gag. But she forced herself to swallow, to keep consuming despite every instinct telling her to stop.
Then, within seconds, something changed.
The reaction was almost immediate and dramatic. Warmth exploded in her chest, spreading outward through spiritual channels that had been dormant and dying for months. The spirit grass activated first, flooding her system with raw, unrefined mana that her starved body absorbed with desperate efficiency. Then the iron-root's minerals began reinforcing her physical structure, addressing months of critical malnutrition in minutes. Finally, the distilled essence accelerated everything, forcing her body to process the nutrients at ten times the normal rate.
Kiri's eyes widened in shock, then went unfocused as her entire being was overwhelmed by the surge of energy. It was like being struck by lightning, except the lightning was healing instead of destroying. Her starved body, desperate for any sustenance, absorbed the mixture with terrifying efficiency. The forced feedback through the contract bond intensified dramatically as her stats began climbing in real-time.
Jace gasped, feeling the sudden spike in spiritual load. His Spirit of 45 strained against the increased demand, like a dam holding back a flash flood. The pressure behind his eyes intensified to a stabbing pain, and for a moment he thought the bond might actually snap, potentially killing them both. But the Royal Stat Floor's passive advantage kicked in at the critical moment, providing just enough stability to prevent complete collapse. He could sustain this, barely, as long as Kiri's stat increase didn't exceed a certain threshold.
System: Beast Stats Updated
Beast: Kiri (Wingless Seraph)
Condition: Rapidly Improving
Stats: Power 200, Spirit 210, Constitution 195, Speed 220
The jump was staggering. From 105 to 200 Power in minutes. Her Spirit had nearly doubled, jumping from 115 to 210. Her Constitution and Speed had followed similar trajectories. She'd gone from the absolute bottom of Rare tier, barely qualifying for the classification, to solid Mid-Rare tier with a single carefully prepared meal.
But it wasn't just the raw statistical increase that mattered. The Royal Stat Floor's 20-30% performance advantage meant that her effective combat capability was now approaching High-Rare tier levels. A Power stat of 200, amplified by 30%, meant she could hit with the force of a 260 Power beast. Her Speed of 220, similarly amplified, translated to effective movement speeds of nearly 280, which would overwhelm most opponents in her tier category.
Kiri stared at her hands, flexing her fingers as though seeing them for the first time. Her skin had regained some of its natural pearlescent quality, the deathly pallor receding. Her breathing was easier, deeper, no longer the shallow gasps of someone on the edge of expiration. The constant, gnawing pain of starvation had receded to a dull background ache, manageable instead of consuming.
She looked up at Jace with an expression that was equal parts shock, confusion, and dawning understanding. Her golden eyes were brighter now, more focused, containing the intelligence and intensity that had been suppressed by months of neglect.
"What... what did you do?" Kiri asked, her voice stronger already. "That was common feed. I've seen that exact spirit grass sold for livestock enhancement at market stalls. How did it..."
"Knowledge," Jace said simply, though his voice was strained from the sustained Spirit load. He was still struggling to adjust to the increased bond demand. "The materials themselves are common, yes. But the combination, the proportions, the timing, that's what matters. Your body is Seraph bloodline, which means it has specific nutritional requirements that this era's merchants don't understand anymore. They focus on expensive, proprietary foods that deliver broad-spectrum benefits to any beast type. But if you know exactly what a specific bloodline needs, you can achieve better results with targeted, cheap alternatives."
He leaned back against the wall, his exhaustion evident in every line of his body. "More importantly, our contract includes the Royal Stat Floor advantage. That multiplies the efficiency of everything you consume. A meal that should have restored maybe ten or fifteen percent of your capacity just restored nearly fifty percent. It's not sustainable indefinitely, your body will adapt and require higher-grade materials eventually, but for now, it's enough to save your life and begin proper cultivation."
Kiri continued to stare at him, her analytical mind trying to reconcile what she was experiencing with what should have been possible according to everything she knew about summoning contracts. She'd been purchased by a Common tier failure with a Spirit stat of 45 and three credits to his name. By every logical measure, by every conventional standard, she should be dead within a week. Yet here she was, feeling stronger than she had in months, her stats climbing toward respectable levels, all because this failure possessed knowledge that shouldn't exist in a summoner of his rank and status.
"Who are you?" Kiri asked, her voice low and intense. "Really. Not your name, I know that already. But what are you? No Common tier summoner has this kind of knowledge. This is royal-level cultivation theory, the kind taught in palace academies to princes and high nobility. The kind of information that costs fortunes to access through restricted archives. And you're applying it with garbage-tier materials in a back alley like it's basic arithmetic."
Jace met her gaze, and for a long moment, he considered telling her everything. That he was a reincarnated Prince from a fallen kingdom, that his bloodline had once ruled nations with absolute authority, that the current world order was literally built on the corpse of his family's legacy. That every nation claiming to be "allied" was actually descended from the traitors who'd murdered his parents and stolen his throne.
But the truth was too complex, too vulnerable, too dangerous to share. Not yet. Not until he'd proven beyond any doubt that his knowledge could actually deliver on its promises. Trust had to be earned through results, not claims of lost royalty that sounded like the delusions of a failure trying to justify his inadequacy.
"I'm a summoner who studied harder than anyone else," Jace said carefully, choosing his words with precision. "I'm someone who knows that real power isn't about raw stats or expensive materials. It's about understanding the fundamental systems that govern this world and exploiting them with absolute precision. You want to know who I am? I'm the person who saw a wingless Seraph marked for destruction and recognized her true value when everyone else saw garbage. I'm the person who's going to make you into a weapon that this city has never seen before."
He gestured to her restored form, to the renewed strength evident in her posture. "Your stats are now solid Mid-Rare tier, performing at High-Rare effectiveness thanks to the bloodline advantage. Your Speed of 220, amplified by the Royal Stat Floor, means you can move at nearly 280 effective speed. That's borderline Low-Epic velocity. In five days, we have Academy trials. By then, I need you at the Rare tier stat cap, need your Speed at 300, and my own Spirit at 60 minimum. That's our goal. That's who I am. Someone who sets impossible goals and achieves them through knowledge and precision."
Kiri was silent for a long moment, processing his words and weighing them against her own observations. Then, slowly and deliberately, she knelt. Not in submission or servitude, but in formal acknowledgment. It was a gesture from her previous life, the one where she'd held rank and authority in the Seraph military hierarchy. A gesture that said: I recognize your capability as genuine, and I pledge my strength to your goals.
"Then I will follow your guidance," Kiri said, her voice steady and formal. "You saved my life when no one else would. You possess knowledge that defies conventional understanding. And most importantly..." She paused, her golden eyes burning with sudden, fierce intensity. "You mentioned something earlier. In the Hall, when you first examined me. You said my wings could be restored. Explain."
Jace had been expecting this question. It was the leverage he'd used to secure her cooperation, and she deserved to know if it was real or just empty promises meant to manipulate a desperate captive.
"Your wings were removed surgically," Jace said bluntly, not sugar-coating the reality. "Probably as punishment for some political or military offense. The scars are too clean, too precise to be battle damage. Someone with surgical knowledge of Seraph anatomy deliberately cut them away. But here's what matters: the spiritual channels that generate Seraphic wings are still intact in your body, just dormant and suppressed. I could sense them when we formed the contract bond."
He leaned forward, his expression intense despite his exhaustion. "There's a material called Wing-Marrow Opal. It's found in contested zones near the Seraph Nation's ancient borders, in areas that are still rich with celestial energy. When properly processed into an elixir and consumed by a Seraph with intact spiritual channels, it stimulates regeneration. The process takes time and requires you to reach higher tiers first, your body needs enough Constitution and Spirit to support the massive energy demands of regenerating lost limbs. But it's absolutely possible. I've seen the records in ancient texts. It works."
Kiri's breath caught, her entire body going rigid. "You're certain? This isn't... you're not giving me false hope?"
"I'm certain," Jace confirmed without hesitation. "But the Opal is located in Zone 3 of the Wild Continent, a dangerous area currently contested by multiple nations and patrolled by Epic-tier threats. We can't reach it at our current level. We'd be killed within minutes of entering that zone. That's why we need the Academy. They provide access to resources, training facilities, and most importantly, their Warp Gates that lead into the Wild Continent. Once we're strong enough, once you've reached at least Epic tier and I've advanced far enough to sustain your growth, we make the journey and retrieve what you need."
He held her gaze, letting her see the absolute conviction in his eyes. "But that's the long-term goal, the prize at the end of the climb. The immediate goal is survival. We have five days to prepare for the Academy trials. Your stats need to hit the Rare tier ceiling of 300. My stats need to improve enough to sustain your growth without the bond killing me. We train together, we suffer together, and we succeed together. Those are the terms. Are they acceptable?"
Kiri held his gaze for a long, measuring moment. Her Seraph pride warred with her desperate hope, her natural suspicion of too-good-to-be-true promises battling against the evidence of what he'd already accomplished with a single meal. Finally, she nodded, a single decisive movement.
"The terms are acceptable, master," Kiri said formally. "I will follow your plan. I will trust your knowledge. And when my wings return, when I can fly again, I will use them to destroy anyone who stands in our way."
The vow resonated through the contract bond like a struck bell, a surge of absolute conviction that made Jace's chest tighten with unexpected emotion. She wasn't just agreeing to help or accepting the situation. She was binding herself to this goal with her entire existence, pledging everything she was to their shared success.
"Then we begin tomorrow," Jace said, finally allowing exhaustion to claim him. His Spirit was dangerously depleted, his body aching from sustained strain. "For now, rest. Your body is still recovering from months of starvation. The stat increase helped, but you need actual sleep to consolidate those gains. I need to meditate and stabilize the contract bond before your stat increase causes delayed spiritual backlash. Tomorrow, the real training starts."
Kiri rose smoothly, her restored strength evident in the fluid motion, and positioned herself at the alley's entrance. She stood guard with renewed vigour, her golden eyes scanning the darkening streets for any potential threats. Through the bond, Jace could feel her determination, her gratitude, and beneath it all, the first fragile stirrings of genuine loyalty.
Jace closed his eyes, focusing inward, using what remained of his Spirit to reinforce the contract structure. The bond was holding, but just barely. The strain of sustaining Kiri's improved stats was significant. He needed to improve his own stats dramatically, needed to catch up to her growth trajectory, or the forced feedback would eventually overwhelm him and kill them both.
But for now, for this single moment, he allowed himself a brief sense of genuine satisfaction. The first step was complete. The gamble had paid off. He had his weapon, broken but rapidly healing, and together they'd taken the first real step on an impossible climb.
The Academy trials awaited. And for the first time since waking in this weak, debt-ridden body, Jace felt something other than rage and shame.
He felt hope.