The Extra's Rise-Chapter 215: Ouroboros (3)

Elias Vance had been an easy acquisition—just as expected.

He was waiting for someone to gamble on his intelligence, someone who saw him as more than just a disposable strategist in the underworld. He had no real loyalty to the Grey Crows or the scraps they tossed his way. He wanted something bigger, something where his mind wasn’t just tolerated, but valued.

And I had given him that.

The others, though? A different story entirely.

One, I could only approach once I returned to Mythos Academy. Another, I needed to be at Integration-rank to even have a conversation with.

Which left me with just one option.

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The very next day, Elias turned up at Ouroboros Guild headquarters, handed over his signed contract, and officially joined the team. He didn’t waste time settling in—he immediately started assessing our operations, analyzing everything with that sharp, calculating gaze of his.

Meanwhile, Kali had done her part, managing to hire three from her assigned list. That put our total members at six. A promising start.

But now, it was time for the next piece of the puzzle.

"You want to hire her?" Elias asked, looking at me like I had lost my mind.

I nodded.

"Reika Solienne," he repeated, as if testing the name for flaws. "She isn’t strong."

"Not yet," I corrected.

"She’s talented, sure, but nothing groundbreaking. High Orange-rank at eighteen? At best, she’ll hit Yellow-rank soon, maybe Silver-rank in the future. She’ll make a solid four-star adventurer if lucky, but that’s about it."

I smiled, shaking my head. "You’re missing the full picture, Elias. There’s more to her than what’s on the surface."

Reika Solienne wasn’t part of the main cast in the novel, but she had something others didn’t—a path. A slow, painstaking, unstoppable path. Her potential wasn’t on the level of Lucifer or Rachel, but she had something rare: an unbreakable trajectory toward greatness.

If nurtured correctly, she would reach Immortal-rank one day.

Comparable to Kali.

And she had no idea.

Elias crossed his arms, clearly unimpressed. "Even if you’re right, there’s still one problem. She graduated from Maveren Academy’s lower division. If she’s going back for the upper division, we’d have to wait."

"She won’t go back," I said simply.

Elias narrowed his eyes. "And you know that… how?"

"Call it foresight," I said, flashing him a smirk.

His fingers drummed against his arm, irritation creeping into his expression. "Alright, fine. Keep your secrets. But if we’re chasing a potential that doesn’t pay off, that’s on you."

I chuckled. "I wouldn’t waste my time if I didn’t know she was worth it."

Elias sighed in defeat. "And while you’re off chasing hidden talents, I assume you want me to continue scouting the other two?"

I nodded. "Find them, observe them, but don’t approach them yet. Timing matters."

Elias gave a mock salute. "Sure thing, boss. Let’s hope your gamble pays off."

I watched as he left, my thoughts already shifting toward my next move.

I had a guild to build.

And Reika Solienne was about to become a part of it—whether she realized it or not.

__________________________________________________________________________________

This world was locked in a ceaseless war—one fought not just on battlefields, but in shadows, in whispers, in the spaces between ordinary life and the abyss clawing at its edges.

At the heart of that war stood the Five Cults and the monstrous species they served.

Or rather, Four Cults. One had supposedly been destroyed long ago, its name faded into obscurity, its followers scattered like ash in the wind. But that was not true.

Each Cult was a force unto itself, led by a Radiant-rank Cult Leader and backed by legions of miasmic creatures. Their strength rivaled entire continents, their ambitions woven into the fabric of history like a lingering infection.

They struck without warning, carving through civilization like a rusted blade, and Reika Solienne was born in the aftermath of one such strike.

She wasn’t supposed to exist—not in the way ordinary humans did.

An artificial weapon.

Spliced together from stolen knowledge, forbidden science, and human fragility, she had been crafted for war. But something went wrong. She escaped before she could be molded into the perfect instrument of destruction. Her memories, however, didn’t escape with her.

Wiped clean, she became just another child in the Slatemark Empire, a girl of unremarkable talent, moving through life with a quiet determination but no true greatness.

Except that wasn’t the truth.

Her mediocrity was a lie—one she unknowingly forced upon herself. The trauma of her past had buried her potential, locking away a power so vast that if she ever unearthed it, she could stand among legends.

In the novel, she was a tragedy in motion. A misunderstood villain, her story was never meant to be one of triumph. She existed to teach Lucifer Windward a lesson—that not all who fall into darkness do so by choice. That some are simply born into it, shaped by hands that were never their own.

She had died proving a point.

A waste. A waste of talent, of potential, of a life that could have been more.

That wasn’t going to happen this time.

This time, I would steal her first.

Reika Solienne didn’t belong in the margins of someone else’s story. She belonged in Ouroboros, where she wouldn’t be a footnote or a tragedy—where she could be something greater.

First, though, I had to find her.

Right now, she was in a foster house, carrying the weight of expectation on her shoulders. The kind of pressure that forced people into dull, stable futures, with no room for risk or ambition. She needed security, money, a way to provide.

And I was about to give her an offer she couldn’t refuse.

Maveren Academy was no sanctuary for the elite, but it wasn’t exactly a place you could stroll into without a solid financial backing either. It hovered in that awkward middle ground—too expensive for the poor, too mediocre for the rich—making it the perfect place for someone like Reika Solienne.

That made her predictable.

It also made her vulnerable.

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I found her where I expected to—outside a small, overcrowded bookstore, tucked into a quiet corner of Avalon’s lower districts.

She stood under the neon glow of a flickering sign, flipping through the pages of an old manual on combat techniques. Not a flashy one, either. Something practical, meant for survival, not glory.

Reika Solienne had the look of someone who had been built to endure.

Her hair was a deep violet, cut just above her shoulders in a way that suggested either practicality or sheer indifference to fashion. Her eyes, the same striking shade, scanned the pages with a cold efficiency. Not the wide-eyed curiosity of a student, but the sharp analysis of someone who measured every piece of knowledge by its usefulness.

Her frame was lean—not underfed, but close enough to make you wonder how often she skipped meals to stretch her funds further.

She hadn’t noticed me yet.

I leaned against a nearby post, watching for a moment.

"Planning on learning that by osmosis?" I finally asked.

Her head snapped up, violet eyes locking onto me.

There was no immediate reaction—no surprise, no hostility, just a measured assessment. She was the kind of person who had learned that showing emotion first was a mistake.

"Depends," she said, voice steady, unreadable. "Does that work?"

I stepped closer, glancing at the book in her hands. "Not unless you’ve got a Gift for it. Which, given that you’re still standing here reading instead of demonstrating your newfound mastery, I’m guessing you don’t."

She shut the book, unimpressed. "I’ll manage."

"Maybe," I conceded. "But it’ll take time. And time’s not exactly something you have a lot of, is it?"

Her fingers twitched against the book’s spine. A tiny, almost imperceptible reaction—but one that told me everything.

She wasn’t just reading because she was interested. She was reading because she needed to be better—fast.

"Who are you?" she asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Arthur Nightingale," I said easily. "You might have heard of me."

Her brow furrowed, just for a second. She had, but she wasn’t sure why I was here.

"You’re with Mythos Academy," she said slowly.

"That’s right. And I’m here to offer you a job."

She didn’t scoff. She didn’t laugh.

She didn’t say no.

"Go on," she said instead, tilting her head. "I’m listening."

I pulled out the contract, placing it on the table between us.

"This is a contract to join Ouroboros—a rising guild in Slatemark Empire. You’d start with a competitive salary, full benefits, and the kind of long-term stability that would make Maveren’s tuition fees look like pocket change."

Reika didn’t move.

Didn’t so much as breathe.

Then, she slowly, carefully set the book down and folded her arms.

"What’s the catch?" she asked.

I smiled.

She was exactly as sharp as I’d expected.