During the past few days nothing major happened. Jack’s situation remained unknown to others; Cassidy managed Nemesis as usual; Ysara made a last ditch effort to teach the three best students of her academy, but nothing came of it; and lastly, Nova seemed to have once again vanished from the lives of his friends and subordinates.
This time, however, Nova’s disappearance had a very different reason from the previous ones.
He hadn’t entered a portal, nor was he busy running around Earth collecting resources.
After visiting Greenwood Park, either willingly or unwillingly, he decided to focus on training, and the best way for him to do so was alone, away from any distractions.
Thus, he picked a random direction and settled in a mountain range he encountered along the way. For the past three days, he hadn’t moved from there.
‘Status,’ he thought as he sat on the cold ground of a cavern he had personally carved into the mountain while sweat rolled down his forehead and back without pause.
His face, along with his body, screamed tiredness from every pore but his eyes were as vibrant as ever.
[Status]
Rank: 0
Name: Nova Grey
Species: Human
Affiliation: None
Level: 100 (3,900 / 50,000)
Mana:
-
Mana Core (Medium): 617,701,564 / 10,000,000,000
-
Nodes: ??? Spinal Node, ??? Perception Node, ??? Pulse Node, ??? Voice Node, ??? Vital Organs Node, ??? Power Node, ??? Stance Node, ??? Manipulation Node
Concepts: Death (0.003%)
Class: None
Titles:
Goblin Exterminator, King Slayer, Survivor, Spear Advanced, Troll Exterminator,
Orc Exterminator, Rune Novice, Mana Intermediate, Lord (Giants), Hunter, ???, Sword Intermediate, Throne Breaker, Novice Crafter, Lord (Goblins), Lord (Trolls)
Stat Points: 2,216
Attributes:
-
Strength: 2,847 (+133,663)
-
Vigor: 2,820 (+132,678)
-
Dexterity: 2,870 (+164,223)
-
Speed: 2,830 (+160,964)
-
Intelligence: 2,786 (+31,821)
-
Wisdom: 2,830 (+32,321)
-
Will: 20
-
Luck: 10 (+10)
Skills
Active:
-
Spear Thrust (27) — 63,989,279,560 / 67,108,864,000
-
Spear Jab (27) — 2,546,651,125 / 67,108,864,000
-
Spear Sweep (27) — 1,806,120,569 / 67,108,864,000
-
Spear Lunge (27) — 47,199,108,631 / 67,108,864,000
-
Spear Overhead Strike (26) — 5,780,376,366 / 33,554,432,000
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
-
Sword Slash (15) — 1 / 16,384,000
-
Sword Stab (15) — 3 / 16,384,000
-
Sword Chop (15) — 1 / 16,384,000
-
Sword Sweep (15) — 0 / 16,384,000
-
Sword Parry (15) — 0 / 16,384,000
-
Sword Block (15) — 0 / 16,384,000
-
Crafting (0) — 0 / 10
-
Chasing Shadow (0) – 0/4
Passive:
-
Regeneration (23) — 8,257,903 / 4,194,304,000
-
Keen Reflexes (14) — 6,207,021 / 8,192,000
-
Momentum Streak (18) — 107,775,522 / 131,072,000
-
One with the World (Spear) — MAX
-
One with the World (Sword) — MAX
-
One with the World (Footwork) — MAX
-
Aura — Fourth Stage
Then, as soon as he opened the Status window, another familiar series of notifications, along with a prompt, flashed through his mind.
[Woud you like to reset your level to 0 while keeping all the Stats and advance to Grade 1?]
[The Stats received from every level up at Grade 1 will be five times higher than Grade 0’s]
[Your level cannot increase until you make your decision]
[Yes/No]
This was his first time opening the Status window since he had started clearing Blue portals to gather resources, and now that he had reached level 100, he was eligible to increase his Grade, but…
Nova glanced at the notifications and, once he recognized the same text from a few months ago, simply swiped them away.
“Stopping at level 100 won’t make much of a difference. The real question is, what’s the highest level I can reach at Grade 0? Is there even one? I don’t know if even Erevan knows the answer to that,” he murmured to himself before focusing on a letter lying on the ground right in front of him.
“I’ve been studying the calligraphy of this so called Spear King for the past few months whenever I was free, but I’m still nowhere near understanding anything.”
A sigh escaped his lips as a random thought popped into his mind.
‘Does my talent only amount to this, or is this what progress will be like in the future? Should I start getting used to it?’
‘Whatever. This is enough rest. I should get back to training.’
Pushing the useless thoughts away, he focused his gaze back on the letter.
While months ago he could barely glance at it, now, after his level had increased from 88 to 100, he could endure thirty seconds before needing to take a few minutes’ break to regulate his breathing.
Even though thirty seconds didn’t seem like much, it made a world of difference compared to when he couldn’t even focus on it at all. It allowed him to experience, albeit for a very limited amount of time, Spear Force purer and stronger than he could have ever hoped to witness.
So much so that, over the past months, he had grown to respect whoever the owner of this letter was, as their attainments in Spear Force were so high that he had no idea where the limits even lay.
That realization, instead of filling Nova with despair, only fueled his thirst for knowledge even further. If a Spear King could be so strong, then… the owners of the more expensive items, how strong were they exactly?
He couldn’t wait to witness it and, sooner or later, experience it himself.
/////
While Nova was trying his hardest to comprehend even a sliver of the Spear Force within the calligraphy, elsewhere in the world, more precisely, in Univara, a celebration was taking place in the city’s largest stadium.
Today, the four main academies, Univara, Altura, Tritus, and Quarath, would, as per now tradition, gather and compete through their students to determine which among them was the best.
As always, spirits were burning and hopes were high.
But among everyone present, the ones most invested in the tournament were, unsurprisingly, two of the deans:
Ysara and Fenric.
Jonathan stepped up to the rail and delivered his usual speech, expressing his wish to see the growth of humanity and to witness the rise of new talents, before finally concluding,
“Let this year’s Birth of Deities begin!”
The tournament, after many iterations was now more optimized than in the past and lasted only a single day, passed in a blur.
Top 100…
Top 50…
Top 20…
Top 10…
Top 3…
Both Ysara and Fenric watched as their students advanced through the rankings, their expressions filled with both anxiety and expectation despite the two trying their best to hide them.
The former couldn’t wait to get Fenric under her thumb and step down from her position as dean, while the latter wanted to prove his worth to Ysara, and to do that, he needed to defeat her.
Sadly, when the best student of Quarath, a young woman named Lisa, faced the best student of Univara, a young man named Taros, she was inevitably defeated within a handful of minutes.
When Ysara witnessed this, her eyes contracted to pinpricks, but not because of the loss. What truly startled her was Taros’s mana.
It was more than a notch above Lisa’s, someone she regarded as a genius, and she could scarcely believe it.
Turning her head toward Fenric, dark lines creasing her forehead, she said, “What did you do to him? He couldn’t have possibly attained that level of mana purity and quantity at his age.”
“Hehehe, did I need to do anything?” Fenric replied with a sly smile, puffing out his chest. “He’s just more talented than your student. There’s no need to be a sore loser.”
Ysara didn’t believe a single word coming out of his mouth and spat, “Bullshit.” Then, as if remembering something, her frown eased. “I hope you can replicate that same ‘genius’ for the next tournament.”
She shot him a sharp glance and left the stadium, but before she was fully gone, Fenric’s cheerful voice reached her ears.
“Don’t forget, we’re tied two to two, and it will only get worse for Quarath in the next four years. As I see it, if I were you, I’d already start packing my things.”
Ysara didn’t bother to answer, nor did she acknowledge his words, and continued to leave while Fenric’s laughter rang out behind her.
And just like that, this year’s tournament came to a close, with the Federation once again, after a few years from their last success, showed the world that rebels like Nemesis had only enjoyed a lucky start, one whose momentum was rapidly reaching its end.
Once that happened, nothing would be left of them.
With the tournament’s hype slowly coming to a close, time passed.
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