The battle in the Ravine of Bones continued.

The Alpha had been circling the entire exchange, and Roman noticed he had been positioning himself with a patience that felt calculated. The moment the Sovereign extended its second pincer to redirect after the [Tremor Strike] disruption, the Alpha activated [Dark Crash] from the far end of the ravine.

The impact of a Level 55 soul servant at full charge against the exposed underside of the Sovereign’s extended pincer joint was something Roman felt through the ground beneath his feet from fifteen metres away.

The pincer snapped.

[Bone Crawler Sovereign Life: 38%.]

The Boss made a sound Roman had not heard from it before, something between a grinding and a high frequency scrape that came from somewhere underneath the shell, and it activated [Swarm Pulse] a third time, desperate and uncoordinated, a panic response rather than a tactical one.

Roman took the hit. He did not guard it and did not dodge it.

[Life: 67%.]

"Crap..."

He planted his feet the moment the shockwave passed and looked at the Sovereign’s Life bar.

Thirty-eight percent.

Getting close... If it doesn’t get to recover actually.

"All three of you. Now," Roman said.

The Goblin King hit the back crest crack with everything he had, his bone sword driving down with both hands behind it.

The Blade Ant Queen drove both mandible blades simultaneously into the right side crack she had been maintaining.

The Alpha came in low on the broken pincer side, jaws finding the exposed underbelly connection and pulling.

Three simultaneous hits on three separate compromised points.

The [Sovereign Hardening] tried to respond to all three at once and failed to complete any of them.

Roman activated [Blade Rush] and aimed for the gap that the King’s strike had opened in the back crest, driving Queenfang deep into the exposed surface underneath.

An unforgiving slash strike was made, and the laceration went deep.

[Bone Crawler Sovereign Life: 26%.]

Below thirty percent!

Roman pulled Queenfang back, planted his rear foot, and activated [Execution Edge] with everything he had left in his arms.

The strike landed at the deepest point of the back crest gap, and the sound it made was the specific sound of something that had been under sustained pressure finally giving way all at once.

[Bone Crawler Sovereign Life: 0%.]

The Boss went still, and...

The ravine went quiet right after.

[You have killed a Level 62 Ordinary Monster, Bone Crawler Sovereign. Ruler of the Ravine of Bones. +4000 EXP gained.]

[Rare Drop Delivered: Sovereign Shell Plate.]

[You have leveled up! Level 10 » Level 11.]

[Level: 11 {24850/27000 EXP}.]

[Talent Skill Triggered!]

[Do you wish to collect the Soul of the Bone Crawler Sovereign?]

"Yes."

He hadn’t hesitate, because he couldn’t wait to have this kind of crazy figure as one of his Soul Servants!

Roman stood in the middle of the ravine, breathing hard, one hand on Queenfang’s hilt and the other pressed against his ribs where the pincer had caught him earlier.

He looked at the three Soul Servants standing around the fallen Boss.

The Blade Ant Queen with her amber glow. The Goblin King with his bone sword resting across one shoulder. The Dire Wolf Alpha sitting on its haunches like it was waiting for the next instruction.

Roman let out a long breath and shook his head slowly.

"That was something else," he said quietly.

He thought about how the morning had gone. Four territories... Three of them cleared with almost barely a scratch on him while the Soul Servants arguably did most of the work.

The fourth had been genuinely dangerous, but even then, the three of them had made the difference between a manageable hard fight and something that might have gone very differently.

He thought about his Soulmancy Talent, about the Soul Bank full of entries that were going to keep growing, about the Soul Point thresholds and the growth stages waiting beyond them.

He had come into the Badlands with a Fourth Class Academic Standard and a thirty-six percent summoning chance, and his Talent was the ability to collect and command the souls of everything he killed!?!

"This thing is actually insane!"

At that point, he couldn’t help but scream.

Not a complaint. Not even close to a complaint.

He pulled up his accumulated Attribute Points from the day’s conversion and noted the total.

[Accumulated Attribute Points: 562.]

He left the allocation for later, wanting to think carefully about the distribution when he was back at the outpost and not standing in a ravine with aching ribs.

He looked at the Soul Servants one more time.

And then he did something he had been thinking about since the morning.

He pulled up the Soul Bank and opened the naming option for each entry. Somehow, the Infinite Dominion System already made it available.

Roman went straight to figuring out what he’d like to call them, because after what had happened today, they deserve a good treat... On their debut!

The Blade Ant Queen. She had been the first. The one that had started all of this, the colony, the Queen fight, the first real proof that his Talent was something worth taking seriously. She moved fast, hit hard, and had not once required instruction on where to be in a fight.

"Queen," Roman said, giving a nod.

[Soul Servant Name Set: Queen.]

The Blue Goblin King. The heaviest of the three, the one whose presence changed the dynamic of every fight he entered simply by being there. His [Royal Authority] would always buff the others without needing to be activated, and his bone sword had ended more of today’s problems than Roman could count.

"King," Roman said again, giving another satisfied.

[Soul Servant Name Set: King.]

The Dire Wolf Alpha. The most intelligent fighter of the three, the one who circled and waited and chose his moments instead of simply reacting. The one who had failed to retreat from any threat that the Bone Crawler Sovereign had tried posing.

He was a beast!

"Alpha," Roman spoke, now feeling like it was better than way, because well, even though it looked like it was derived from their actual monster name, it was still flawless.

[Soul Servant Name Set: Alpha.]

He looked at all three of them standing in the cleared ravine as the late afternoon sun began to drop toward the ridge above.

"This is just the beginning of our ride," he said. "We’ve got more to do."

None of them responded in any way that could be called a response.

But somehow it felt like they understood anyway... They had to... Because what had happened here to had just skyrocketed his hopes and plans.

Now, Roman was beginning to understand what he could do.

His potential. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

His capabilities.

He couldn’t wait...

Roman dismissed all three back into the Soul Bank, felt the ravine return to its empty, bone-covered quiet, and turned toward the outpost.

The sun was already setting behind the valley ridge, and he had Attribute Points to allocate and a very important night hunting to get himself into in no time.

It was already a long day for him...

But the day isn’t over.

.

.

[A/N: Due to the event ongoing, we can get double of every Golden Ticket vote count. Let’s not waste this opportunity! Thanks!]