CHAPTER 73: DUKE CASTOR’S CONSPIRACY

"You wish!"

Malcolm rolled his eyes at Lucien.

"I traded a token of the Shadow Kingdom to get this. I am already at a loss. Why would I give that bastard Castor anything now?"

He gave a snort, sounding slightly annoyed.

"What realm is he in?"

However, Lucien didn’t care what Malcolm thought and asked about the core issue.

Since Duke Castor could invite Malcolm to meet, he must be someone of equal power or maybe higher.

"Heh... he is at the same rank as me, at Peak Weaver rank. But with my companion Velmara, I can crush him even if he has reached the realm of the Lord."

Malcolm scoffed, clearly not taking Duke Castor seriously. He seemed confident.

Only, he noticed that even after boasting, Lucien, Cedric, and Seraphine were looking at him as if urging him to say everything. They clearly didn’t believe his words.

"Cough, okay. I probably can’t crush him like I said, but he’s not my match if push comes to shove."

Malcolm felt awkward about his childish behavior just now and suddenly became solemn, shifting the atmosphere back to normal.

"Only his class, Berserker, is a little troublesome."

"Oh? He’s a Berserker?"

Lucien raised his eyebrows, intrigued.

From his previous life memories, he knew Berserkers were fierce warriors who fought in a wild rage, trading defense for overwhelming strength and relentless aggression.

They generally had high Strength and Endurance, low Defense and Intelligence, and moderate Agility.

He didn’t know how the class functioned in this life, though.

"Do you know... what rank his class is at?"

Lucien thought for a while and asked again. Honestly, looking at his status, he really had no clue how the two worlds’ power systems worked together at all.

It was all random and jumbled.

"Class Rank? Obviously C-rank. I’m also a C-rank Beast Master." Malcolm looked confused and asked Lucien,

"What is the rank of your class?"

Even Cedric and Seraphine looked at him as if they found something odd.

Lucien was suddenly caught off guard by their weird reaction, thought rapidly, and replied a little unsurely.

"I’m at E-rank? Is that... too low?"

He spoke with a hint of embarrassment. He already had an idea where his knowledge lapse was this time.

After all, the two classes that he used were both at D-rank and B-rank.

He was really surprised that Malcolm was only a C-rank Beast Master.

So, he thought of gauging his family’s reaction if he said he was at E-rank already.

He didn’t want to say higher as that might make his gramps lose his prestige again.

Unbeknownst to him, though, behind his back in the shadows, Velmara rolled his eyes and muttered inwardly,

’E-rank, huh? Who’s supposed to believe that?’

Fortunately, he had no intention of being a snitch.

"Huh... E-rank? Aren’t you only at the Apprentice realm?"

Cedric suddenly asked, stunned by Lucien’s revelation. Not only him, but even Seraphine and Malcolm seemed stunned, although his grandpa seemed not that surprised.

He already had some suspicion.

Cedric saw that Lucien didn’t know how classes worked, put aside his curiosity for now, and explained,

"The ranking of classes is actually connected with the realm of this world. Everyone who awakens first will always have the F-rank class directly corresponding to their Apprentice level."

Cedric continued, but looked at Lucien weirdly,

"When your power level increases from Apprentice to Invoker, Arcanist, Weaver, or Lord, your class rank will also increase from F to E, D, C, B, and so on."

"Yeah, by this meaning, your class should be at F-rank for now. Then, it’ll rise with your realm steadily. Of course, now that dungeons have appeared in this world, your class potential decides if your realm can grow."

Malcolm butt in and patiently explained to Lucien,

"In my opinion, having an E-rank class at the Apprentice realm is incredibly rare. Although I’ve heard of rare classes that can defy normal class progression, I haven’t seen one myself. Maybe, someone like the Third Princess has such cases?"

Malcolm was very smart. He knew Lucien had an unusual class that required him to absorb the Seed of Greed.

So, he immediately linked the incident to Lilith, guessing her case might be similar to Lucien’s. It was also his way of warning Lucien that he wasn’t all that unique.

Better to stay on guard.

’Yeah, that makes sense, too.’

Lucien realized his gaffe and nodded to his grandpa. Surprisingly, even though he thought his parents might ask about his unusualness, they kept quiet, not minding his secrecy.

Honestly, he felt kind of bad for lying to them.

’But it’s better to keep my secret a secret.’

Lucien still believed that.

After all, he knew that walls had ears. In such a magical world, who knew what kind of methods someone could use to spy on their secrets?

Better to be cautious.

"Umm... so don’t worry about it. You’re an Earth Mage, that too at E-rank already. I think it has enough potential to rank higher."

Seraphine also chimed in, lovingly rustling Lucien’s hair.

"I’m a Mage too. I’ll teach you about these things slowly."

She thought her son might be a genius and immediately smiled beautifully, encouraging her son. Cedric thought so too, as his smile was wider than his wife’s.

Only, they didn’t notice the weird look on Malcolm’s face. After all, he knew Lucien wasn’t an Earth Mage at all.

But unfortunately, he still didn’t know what Lucien’s actual class was. Not to mention, he had a feeling this brat might be hiding his true class rank.

’Sigh... so complicated.’

"Wait... if our rank is tied to our World of Origin class, then what about those who were already high-ranked when it appeared?"

Lucien suddenly found a loophole and asked a sharp question.

After all, didn’t Malcolm say that classes only appeared after the dungeons showed up?

So, what about those who were already at a high rank from the start?

What rank did their class have? Or did they even have one?

Moreover, if what they said was true, then the power rank in this world already exceeded the SSS level of classes.

"Of course, it’s the same. However, I don’t know much about the truly higher-ranking people. They all disappeared after all." Malcolm replied lightly, understanding Lucien’s thoughts.

’Then, does that mean the World of Origin engulfed those parts of Soren just because their power levels were too high?’

It made perfect sense. Now, all Lucien needed to do was to enter that world and experience it to know everything.

"Okay, I have some books in my collection about this topic. You can read them yourself later. But we’re off-topic now."

Malcolm stopped Lucien’s divergent thoughts, then brought back the main issue.

"So, the trouble this time is that the Lionheart family is backed by Duke Castor, who wants to pressure me to give up my invitation to the Circle of Nobility."

Malcolm summarized the events of the day.

"And they’ve already begun attacking our business throughout the Edoria Kingdom. Though it’s Lionheart in name, I know who they really are."

He couldn’t help but gnash his teeth in hatred. He had worked hard to build this business empire spanning three kingdoms and seas. Now, one of them was on the verge of collapse.

If the news spread, he knew what would happen to the rest.

In business, money matters the most. Although he trusted his subordinates everywhere, he couldn’t deny there were rats hidden among them, too.

"Then... what are you going to do?"