I put in for an application for a Class-1 ruin and I received a response by the end of the week. My previous experience with the Class-3 ruin helped expedite my request and I was accepted.

After a short trip, I stood in front of the ruin entrance with a pouch of bones tied to my belt. To create Wilma’s War Scythe I only needed bones to use as the material and I had more than a few to spare.

I ran my hand over the ivory ring on my finger as I got ready to enter. This time, I decided to bring the book with me. I thought that I had gone long enough without arousing suspicion toward my awakening, so it should’ve been safe to take it with me.

After a few minutes, I went through the entry process and was let in without much of a hassle.

“If you find yourself in danger, be sure to retreat,” A guard said as I descended below.

The government valued the Gifted, but there was a certain lack of regulation in some areas. For example, there was a certain hearsay aspect of reporting your gift if you were under Class-3 as they were traditionally weaker and less impressive. Especially when you thought of the Gifted who could summon walls of fire or move in a way that defied all human understanding.

My thoughts stopped there as I entered the Class-1 ruin. I heard the sound of something being peeled away before I discovered the source. Clay Soldiers, alternatively known as Living Clay, began to fall from the ceiling before reforming into the shape of a human.

I reached into the pouch tied to my belt and grabbed all of the bones I brought with me. With a single thought, they began to click and rattle, before snapping apart and forming into the shape of a staff. After the sound stopped, I was left with a beautiful ivory weapon.

The single-edged blade of the War Scythe was narrow and pointed upward before curving like the claw of some large beast. The bone-white staff was smooth until the area where the shaft and blade came together. That part created an ominous air around the weapon as the bone fragments jutted out. The butt of the staff was a single sharp pointed that could be used for thrusting attacks, much like a spear if I ever had the need to do so.

A lump of clay approached me just as my weapon finished forming and I twisted the war scythe, transitioning into a diagonal slash and separated its body in half. I felt a warm sensation creep through my body and a burst energy that told me Soul Siphon was in use.

I pushed off with increased speed and rushed toward the gathering enemies. I lowered my war scythe before twisting the blade and lifting it upward, splitting another clay soldier into two pieces.

I had no time to rest as three more clay soldiers were advancing toward me. I used my feet to pivot while performing a wide swing, slicing through all three of my enemies. Their souls poured into me and my pace grew even faster, I lunged forward into the growing crowd of enemies and spun the war scythe fiercely.

The difficulty of a Class-1 Ruin wasn’t anything to worry about for me and it almost tricked me into believing I was far stronger than I really was. I stopped when the number of clay soldiers dwindled by a huge amount and motionlessly watched as they shuffled toward me. It was a moment that served as a reality check.

They were slow, they could only perform basic moves, and they had no real intelligence to boast of. They were truly the lowest rung of enemies you could face in a ruin where a large group of ordinary people could probably deal with a few if they were patient.

“I shouldn’t get too full of myself.”

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I needed to get keep a realistic mindset as I advanced. Although Penelope’s Dance proved to be an incredible fighting style that allowed me to hold my own in a Class-3 Ruin, I had very little experience with combat overall.

“Woah!” I jumped out the way as a Clay Soldiers swung his fist at me.

I twisted my body to avoid him before slapping him in the head with the sharp end of the war scythe.

The muddy head became deformed and I swung once more to separate it from the rest of the Clay Soldier’s body.

What I needed to do was gain a sense of understanding when fighting. I needed to recognize the flow of the battle without losing myself.

I stabbed the war scythe into the torso of a Clay Soldier before lifting it into the air and slamming him down onto the cavern-like floor causing it to lose its shape.

I only had a few enemies left, but I chose to wait for them to attack before avoiding it and countering. I wouldn’t always be able to easily cut down my enemies so I needed to prepare while I could.

The one glaring flaw I discovered after reaching another stage of Penelope’s Dance was that I currently lacked the ability to perform well in a drawn-out, one-on-one, fight. My current level allowed me to clear out weaker enemies fairly easy, but a boss-level enemy would still be too much for me to deal with alone.

I cut down the last Clay Soldier and came to a dead end. The structure of a Class-1 Ruin was extremely linear and it wasn’t likely that there would be a hidden corridor around.

I stabbed the war scythe into the ground and sat on the ground, taking a brief rest.

“Oh, yeah,” I mumbled as I removed the ivory ring from my hand.

I watched as it began to unfold into the shape of a book and immediately looked at the value of my souls.

Value Of Souls Gathered: 75

It wasn’t a very impressive amount gathered, but it was a little more than I first received by using the leftover remains. I guess it was due to the fact that the Clay Soldiers barely qualified as living beings.

Doing the math, I would need to clear this ruin around 67 more times if I wanted to advance the path of the Death Bringer another step. And that was under the condition I didn’t buy any other skills while doing so.

“I think I’ll save them for now.” I closed the book and let it reform into a ring before putting it back on my hand. When I thought to put away the war scythe, it crumbled into bone fragments that I collected into my pouch.

I figured that investing in new skills before mastering the ones I currently had would do more harm than good. So, I resolved to remain patient as I departed from the Ruin.

I narrowed my eyes as I adjusted to the sunlight before heading toward a guard. For a small fee, you could have others gather up the materials you couldn’t take yourself. Of course, that only applied to ruins below class 3.

“You- You’re out already? That was fast.” The guard on duty asked as he looked to his watch before turning his gaze back to me.

“Yeah? How much time did it take me?” I was a bit curious.

“About thirty minutes.”

“Really?”

“You want to check the logs?” He replied.

“No, I just thought it would’ve been longer than that.”

“Well, the highest recorded time for Class-2 Gifted and under is about, ten minutes. Either way, you should still be proud of your time. Hey, if you manage to beat the record you get a small tax reduction on what you earn from the Ruin.”

“Oh, that was a thing, wasn’t it?” I recalled the government creating a set of incentives for people to become more active in Ruin Clearing.

Not only was the reward pretty good, but you could leave your real name and grab the attention of guilds looking for talented people. I wasn’t too interested in the latter, but I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to put my name out there so I chose to leave my name behind. It sort of felt like I had gotten the highest score on an arcade game or something which gave me a sense of achievement.

I wrapped up the rest of the process, finding out my single run had earned me two thousand dollars after factoring the taxes and fees for recovering the material left behind. I felt that a few more runs would allow me to have enough to purchase a better combat suit. The current cloth-based one was good for now, but I had to think of the future.

I returned home in a good mood and applied for another ruin in my area before going to sleep.