Chapter 64: Fire Pit Talk (2)
Reinhard nodded slowly as he could see the wisdom in that. It’s better to take an analyzed and well-documented path than to try creating a new one if you want to save time and resources.
Especially when there is a high chance the new path will lead to your death or negative conditions.
Bruno scratched his beard and leaned toward Marie. "Did you forget to tell him anything else?"
Marie tapped her chin with a finger as her eyes narrowed, and then she snapped her fingers. "Ah! We forgot to cover Spiritual Defense, Tier ranking, and the Soul Requirements for climbing to the next level."
Lloyd blinked in surprise. "Really? Guess that’s understandable... You three were a little busy with the town."
Reinhard turned to Bruno expectantly. "Spiritual Defense?"
Bruno leaned forward as his tone turned serious. "It’s simple but important. A Beast Master’s strength doesn’t just come from their Beast Spirit. Our bodies are fueled and reinforced by magic, which uses our lifeforce as fuel. Even the weakest of us is pushed beyond any normal human."
He held up his massive hands, curling them into fists. "Even a new Beast Master could survive something like a collapsing building and punch through stone walls without breaking bones. Our natural durability grows with every soul we take in and every step our gauge fills."
Reinhard frowned slightly. "So the Spiritual Defense is just like invisible armor that protects us from attacks."
"Exactly," Bruno confirmed with a firm nod.
Lloyd picked up where Bruno left off. "And when it comes to advancing... from Third-Class to Second-Class, the requirement is steep. You need to devour a thousand souls and pass and pass the next trial your Beast Spirit gives you before stepping into the next class."
Reinhard blinked in surprise and stared in slight shock. "A thousand?"
"Yes, it’s not meant to be easy. It takes at least years and sometimes over five years. But reaching a thousand souls isn’t the extremely hard part." Kyle says softly with a sigh.
"Is it passing your Beast Spirit Trial?" Reinhard asked.
"Yes, and well... From what I heard, for a Third Class to reach Second Class Beast Master, the Beast Trial usually involves an event of the Beast Spirit past that an Inquisitor must go through and pass to clear the trial... But well, it’s extremely difficult, with the only relief being that you can take the test as many times as you want without consequences." Kyle said, leading Reinhard to slowly nod his head.
But repeated failure can cause doubt and insecurity in the Inquisitor, though, even if they can repeatedly take the trial. Reinhard thought.
But this made him recall the trial Odin gave him. It was absolutely terrible, but somehow he was able to clear it and create a connection with Odin. Thinking about this, it made Reinhard wonder if the Beast Class also affects the difficulty of the Trial.
"Does the Beast Class determine the difficulty of the trial? For example, would Marie’s trial be harder than Joseph’s?" Reinhard asked.
Jessie shakes her head and says. "On paper, you can say Marie one would be harder, but in truth it’s said all trials are equal to each other. This is because the difficulty is fixed to each person, and so it is set to the same difficulty, extremely hard but passable."
That’s interesting, now that makes me curious about different classes trials. But at least this does help alleviate the pressure of a SSS Class Beast Trial... Well, a little bit.
Suzy cleared her throat gently, pulling the focus back. "As for tiers, they are just further classification of a Beast Master and Phantasm Beast’s strength, which I’m sure you already notice."
Reinhard nodded as he said. "I’m guessing how strong your lifeforce is helps place you in those tiers?"
Suzy gave him a thumbs-up before she continued. "Essentially, the E to D tier is the Third Class Beast Master stage. E represents new Beast Masters who’ve only just awakened. D rank is when you can summon your beast’s weapon or skill consistently and have a Beast Sigil. At this stage, your Beast Symbol should be about half full. With five hundred souls devoured, you’d be solidly D rank."
Reinhard’s brow furrowed as realization struck. "Wait, if it takes at least 500 souls to be Tier D. Then by all logic, Phineas should have at least been over six times stronger than us... That bastard really was holding back a lot."
The circle fell quiet for a moment as Reinhard sighed. He knew Phineas was holding back, but to such an extent that it was amazing to him. From what he knew, just having one soul above a person would make you stronger than them.
But Phineas soul count reaching over five hundred while there were still under a hundred was terrifying.
No, it’s more of the fact that we shouldn’t have been able to react to him, and he should have been able to knock us out with a few blows. Reinhard thought.
Joseph’s gaze dropped to the fire. "Well, it’s to be expected, even if he was one of the weaker Sinners... He was still a Sinner and not something new students can take on, let alone they should have survive."
Marie nodded and said. "Plus, he called himself the Director, remember? For him, it’s not about winning or losing but about the performance that follows his plot. Us struggling, even managing to hurt him, was part of his play, and the act of us surviving fit his script."
Jessie drummed her fingers against her knee. "So he let himself get beaten around, just because it suited the scene?"
Bruno grunted before shaking his head. "That’s insane. Who risks their life for theatrics?"
Lloyd’s lips thinned. "A person who values their story more than their skin."
Reinhard leaned back, eyes narrowing at the flames. "That explains a lot, I guess." He could still hear Phineas’s laughter echoing in his head and see the shine in the man’s eye even when injured.
Reinhard glanced at the burning town and crackling flames before turning back to see Jessie, Kyle, Bruno, Lloyd, Suzy, Marie, and Joseph finishing their meals. They put away their plates with quiet efficiency, the weight of the day’s events still heavy in the air.
One by one, they crawled into their sleeping bags, arranging themselves around the dying campfire.
Reinhard was the last to settle in, pulling the rough fabric up to his chin as he stared at the darkening sky above. The stars seemed distant tonight, flickering weakly through wisps of smoke that still drifted from the ravaged town behind them.
His eyelids grew heavy, the exhaustion from finding Ven and everything that followed finally catching up to him.
Sleep claimed him quickly.