Step, step.
Nova slowly walked toward the end of the cave, his steps rang out softly in the quiet space.
It wasn’t long before he reached the place where the person closest to the entrance, a young woman with brown hair, sat.
Nova glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
Small beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. She was so deep in focus she couldn’t even spare Nova a look, despite him being only a few meters away. Evidently, even sitting so far in the back took a great toll on her, but, in this place, that was to be expected.
Due to the high concentration of wind mana, the closer one got to the end of the cave, the stronger they needed to be in order to withstand the pressure. Just managing to hold on at the back was already a feat in and of itself, something few on Earth could boast about.
After a brief look, Nova walked past her and continued with seemingly no effort at all. From an outsider perspective it looked like those who were struggling were faking it while Nova was the only one acting normal.
Up ahead two men, one young and the other middle-aged, sat beside each other.
The former, much like the young woman, had no mind to spare for what was happening around him. In fact, his condition seemed even worse, as a thin trail of blood ran down his chin with a few drops of blood having already fallen on his clothes.
Earlier, curious about who had entered the cave, he’d turned around. Such action had caused his focus to falter for a moment and, for a split second, he had to endure the full brunt of the pressure with no defenses up.
Although it was only for an instant his body couldn’t handle it, causing him to suffer a few internal injuries.
The middle-aged man, on the other hand, seemed far more relaxed. There were no signs of stress, and his breathing was steady.
He was in good enough condition that, as soon as he heard footsteps, he immediately turned his head. There he saw Nova, and the two’s gazes met.
After an awkward pause, they nodded at each other and resumed what they were doing, at least until the middle-aged man saw Nova walk past him as if he were taking a stroll in his own backyard.
A mixture of complicated emotions welled in the man’s eyes as he stared at Nova’s back, which grew farther and farther away.
These youngsters are more impressive than the last…
The middle-aged man shot a glance at the other two people farther ahead and sighed before closing his eyes.
Meanwhile, after reaching the halfway point, Nova sensed the change around him and thought, ‘The pressure increased once again. Now without the strength of a Grade 1 it would be impossible to continue.’
His gaze then landed on the figures of the two young men sitting not far away.
‘Nemesis is truly filled with geniuses,’ he thought with a smile. He couldn’t help but internally praise Cassidy once again for growing Nemesis into such an entity.
Nova continued. His steps remained as light as when he started, and only moments later, for a brief second, he stood right beside the two young men.
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He calmly looked at them and, feeling his gaze, they instinctively looked back. It took them a moment but when they realized the person in front of them was the guy they had previously disregarded, their eyes went wide.
How had they never seen him in Nemesis when he was this strong?
They had no idea. All they could do was watch as Nova grinned at them before leaving them behind.
Dumbfounded, the two looked at each other, only to confirm that neither of them had any idea who he was.
When they turned their gazes back toward Nova, something even more unbelievable unfolded before their eyes, he was already standing at the far end of the cave, right in front of the massive collection of weapons and armor.
Is this really happening? Since when reaching the end of one of the caves became so easy?
Their mouths hung open in shock.
At the end of the cave, Nova felt as if he were bathing in mana.
He sat down and closed his eyes as dense mana surrounded him.
“So relaxing,” Nova reflexively mumbled.
He doubted even the finest of spas could offer the comfort and relaxation he felt at that very moment.
Around him, wind mana poured directly into his wind core without reservation, he didn’t even need to actively guide it.
As the wind mana flooded the wind core, the latter spun rapidly, emitting flashes of green-grey light. It was being filled to the brim at a pace that could only be considered fast.
‘No. This can’t go on. I must guide the wind mana myself, or the tempering might not be as thorough as possible,’ he thought, eyes glinting.
Nova composed himself and began actively controlling the wind mana with his Will.
‘Don’t leave anything out. I need to temper every spot, every single particle of the wind core to the limit. Only then I’ll advance it to rank 4.’
He repeated those words in his mind like a mantra so as to not lose focus.
If he wanted to maintain the advantage he had gambled his life to obtain when he formed his wind core, then he couldn’t rush things. What he needed was patience and the steadiness to advance slowly, always in the best possible condition.
If either was lacking then he’d be wasting all his previous efforts and the pain he’d endured. Just thinking about it reinvigorated Nova and he became even calmer.
As the wind core was inundated with wind mana and underwent repeated tempering, he didn’t feel any discomfort.
Quite the opposite.
He felt like a half-filled cup slowly filling itself once again.
What had once been a problem of not having enough space had now become a problem of having too much space, and he was putting that space to good use.
His body had no trouble housing the rapidly increasing pressure his wind core released. His organs, muscles, and tissues felt no strain, and his bones were as steady as mountains.
With these conditions it was only a matter of time before his wind core advanced.
Like that, minutes slowly passed.
Half an hour later, the area was as silent as ever.
Calm had returned to the cave after the initial shock of seeing someone reach its end.
Since the person who had reached it hadn’t shown any movement, they gradually forgot about him and refocused on their own training.
Time in this place was far too expensive to waste.
What none of them could have guessed was the magnitude of the transformation taking place inside Nova’s body.
If earlier the wind core had only emitted a faint light, now it was dazzling, almost as if it were on the verge of exploding, and there was no sign of it stopping.
‘Almost done. Just a bit more and I’m ready to advance,’ Nova thought solemnly. With time his focus only grew instead of dimming down.
He’d spent the past thirty minutes hunting down and tempering every single particle to the best of his abilities.
By now he had no idea how much wind mana he had consumed, but one thing he knew for certain: without this place, reaching rank 4 might have taken him months, if not years, of scouring Earth for the richest wind mana filled areas.
He also came to another conclusion.
‘I don’t know if my body would even be able to take it but, even if it could, advancing my wind core to rank 5 here is impossible.’
He wasn’t sure how much wind mana he had absorbed, but he could clearly tell that the mana around him had thinned.
The others in the cave were too far away from him to notice any difference, but in his immediate surroundings there was barely any left. If not for the weapons and armors, that kept forming more wind mana particles over time, there would be nothing left.
To complete what he had started, he was now pulling wind mana from farther and farther away.
If he continued, it was only a matter of time before the two young men nearest to him noticed something was wrong. At this point he could only hope the wind core’s transformation would be finished by then, but he wasn’t sure.
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