Nova sat in silence as his mind churned with possibilities.
‘Will a partly faded calligraphy be of any use to me, or is it just a waste of money? If only the price weren’t so outrageously high, I wouldn’t need to think about it so much. Other than this letter, the only other options are purchasing a several herbs that might strengthen my body or soul by a little bit, but I doubt the results will be impressive with just a handful of stalks.’
He sighed.
‘As for the skills, that’s not even a question, they’re even less worth buying than the herbs. This only puts me back at the start. Gamble on this letter. If it fails, I’ll lose most of my money and end up with a useless item once owned by a Spear King. But on the off chance it’s useful, I’ll be able to hasten my understanding of Spear Force and start closing the gap between me and the others.’
He mentally laid out all the pros and cons he could think of and mulled over them.
After taking a better look at the Store, he realized that his current Gold coins weren’t as plentiful as he’d previously thought. While he could either enter a Purple portal or farm Blue portals to make decent money, he still felt that wasn’t the best approach.
Time was short. In less than a year he would have to enter the Lesser Orange portal. If he started clearing Blue portals just to earn a few tens of thousands of Gold coins per portal, he would only be wasting time he could otherwise use to become stronger.
And that wasn’t all.
If he fell too far behind, there was a very high chance he might die against the experts of other civilizations.
Nova didn’t know that Erevan was rushing to get inside, but it didn’t take a genius to realize that most civilizations must have entered the portal several dozen years after the apocalypse began in their own worlds.
That was also considered the best time to enter, as it ensured two things.
Firstly, after so many years, a civilization would have developed enough that it no longer feared fighting others in the same situation.
And secondly, their trial time would still be plenty enough that it wouldn’t weigh heavily on their minds, allowing them to slow things down if necessary.
The second point wasn’t as clear-cut as the first, but mindset, apart from strength, was the second most important quality to have during a fight. In certain situations, it might even take the top spot.
Nova closed his eyes. His mind rapidly went through every possibility he could think of as he tried to form a simulation.
What if he gave up on everything and the letter turned out to be useful?
What about the opposite?
Or if he chose the herbs instead of the letter?
As his mind ran through each simulation, his thoughts spun.
His Wisdom was so high that his current thought speed would have made a normal human’s brain collapse, yet even so, taking into account every variable he could think of and running those simulations took a toll on him.
Seconds ticked by, and with each passing moment a new bead of sweat formed on his forehead.
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Then, barely five minutes later…
Gasp.
His eyes snapped open and he sucked in a sharp breath.
A dull headache throbbed behind his temples, but it wasn’t painful enough to divert his attention. Instead, he focused on taking slow, heavy breaths to steady himself.
‘The gamble is too worthwhile,’ Nova thought once he calmed down.
‘If it succeeds, I’ll save at least months, maybe even years, of progress. But if it fails, I’ll only lose some strength. Relatively speaking, spending all my money on herbs might let me become strong enough to contend against a level 125 construct using only my body and Aura, but that’s nowhere near as valuable as the time I could save with the letter.’
Nova refocused on the Store and eyed the letter.
‘I’ll take this gamble. I have to.’
With that thought, he didn’t hesitate and purchased the letter.
But it wasn’t over yet.
He glanced at his remaining gold coins, 829,164, and bought a couple of herbs.
Afterward, he smiled wryly.
“I went from feeling rich to being dirt poor,” Nova muttered, eyeing his dwindling coins.
Gold coins: 34,164.
He only entertained that thought for a second before eagerly taking the letter he had just bought out of his Inventory.
“What’s this material?”
The moment he touched it, Nova was shocked.
He could immediately tell this wasn’t normal paper. Let alone the materials present on Earth, it felt far more durable than even his Dreadscape.
Perhaps because of age, or perhaps because it was the natural color of the material, the letter was white with a faint yellowish tint.
He studied it for a while but eventually shook his head.
‘I didn’t buy this to examine the material. What I need is inside.’
He carefully unfurled the letter and there it was. Characters.
They were indeed faded, just as the Store’s description had pointed out, and the language was alien to Nova. But…
“I can feel it! It’s the same feeling the construct gave off, no, it’s at least ten times clearer! I can feel it! Hahaha!” Nova broke into a fit of laughter.
Within those faded characters, Spear Force thrummed quietly.
For a moment, he even thought that if not for the durability of the material, these characters might have already torn it apart.
He couldn’t believe such a thought, and just as he was about to push it aside to continue staring at the characters, his eyes began to prickle. He was feeling as if a spear was pointed directly at them, only seconds away from tearing them apart.
Acting on instinct, he closed his eyes, and the immediate danger passed. Yet the prickling sensation lingered.
Nova kept his eyes shut and frowned.
“How am I supposed to study this letter? Just looking at a few faded characters for a few seconds made me feel like I could lose my eyes at any moment.”
Recalling what he had just said, he felt lucky no one was around to hear him.
“Compared to this letter’s Spear Force, the construct’s Sword Force might as well have been a gentle breeze. What would have happened if the characters weren’t so faded?”
A shiver ran up his spine.
Just characters, and yet he hadn’t felt this threatened even in the Purple portal.
‘…Exactly how strong is a Spear King?’
Nova stood in silence, seriously trying to come up with an answer.
He had almost lost his eyes to a few casually written characters, even ones that were faded. No matter how hard he racked his brain, he still couldn’t even fathom the true strength of such a person.
Since he couldn’t find an answer, he shoved the question to the back of his mind. As long as he kept moving forward, he was certain he would discover it eventually.
Nova took a deep breath and reminded himself, ‘I need to take this as a lesson. From now on, I can’t allow myself to be so rash. Even the smallest things, if left behind by an expert, can harm me.’
‘As for now, I’ll put studying Spear Force on hold. Sadly, while I won the gamble, I’m now suffering from success. I can barely glance at it for more than a few seconds, making it hard to focus. I should first try to become stronger.’
He carefully folded the letter and stored it back in his Inventory before pulling out the two herbs he had bought from the Store.
Worth a total of 795,000.
They were two starkly different herbs. One was fiery red, radiating immense heat, while the other was pale blue, giving off freezing cold.
As Nova stared at them, he muttered, “I’m supposed to refine every base element herb, but I had to settle for only these two. I hope they won’t let me down.”
He rose from his seat and made his way to the bathtub. Just as he was about to close the door, he remembered Jack’s teasing. With a tap of his finger, a rank 1 isolation array formed on the bathroom door. He nodded and entered, closing it behind him.
Minutes later…
“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
A piercing scream rang out, loud enough that it should have echoed through the entire village, but this time, no one would be able to hear it.
Bonus Chapter Count: 0
Extra chapter for each milestone Ratings 92/200
?????????? 40%
Reviews 8/20
Followers 656/2000
?????????? 40%
Whoever wants to help and read advanced chapters can check out my .
