Lightning. Ice. Fire. Earth. Metal. Wood. Water.
Nova entered each subsequent room one after another, spending roughly an hour in each to raise his various elemental core ranks from 3 to 4. Every time he left one, the few people present were left in similar pitiful situations as those in the wind room.
It was only a matter of time before news of a person wreaking havoc in Nemesis’ most expensive training ground spread.
After being done with the rooms he knew were already functioning, he directed his gaze to the last two. The darkness and light rooms.
‘Since I’m already here, I might as well check them out. Who knows? Maybe I’ll reap some benefits.’
Nova walked up to the black, door-like gate, calmly pushed it open, and stepped inside.
Doubtful if this was a waste of time or not but at the same time curious, he entered the darkness room.
The first thing he noticed was the absence of mana. He could feel nothing in his surroundings, as if the old Earth was back and everything that had happened until now had all been just a dream.
Startled, Nova exclaimed, “There’s nothing? How is this possible?”
Unwilling to let go, he closed his eyes and pushed his senses to the limit. If he were in any other mana room, he would’ve been able to perceive mana with ease, especially if he were focusing this much.
But here…
Minutes passed.
Nova felt as if he were back at the moment he first tried to perceive mana particles, back when Nemesis was still based in Quarath’s slums.
At that time, it had taken every ounce of focus he had. If not for becoming One with the World through the spear, attuning himself more deeply to the space around him, he wouldn’t have been able to sense mana at all.
What was happening now was similar… but also not.
Years ago, when Earth was in the very first phase of evolution, elemental mana particles had been scarce, so sparse that being able to sense them at all was enough to label someone a mana genius.
Now, however, in this darkness room, which, despite not containing a high quantity of darkness mana, still held a few hundred particles, he couldn’t feel anything.
With a flick of his wrist, he took out Dreadscape. Holding it, his senses sharpened, but a trace of disappointment flashed across his closed eyes.
‘Nothing. I can’t sense anything. But I’m sure there must be at least a few darkness mana particles… so why?’
Before entering the darkness room, he had hoped that even though he wouldn’t be able to form a darkness core due to the low quantity of darkness mana particles, he could at least get a feel for the element. Just achieving that would have been extremely helpful for him. As, in the future, when he eventually traveled to the ocean to form the darkness core, he would be able to do so with much greater ease.
That hope was now being mercilessly extinguished by the reality of the situation.
Though, on one matter, Nova was right.
In the darkness cave, there weren’t just a few darkness mana particles, there were a few hundred of them, and they were spread out very thinly. If Nox or anyone else familiar with darkness mana had been present, despite their relatively low number in this large space they would have been able to clearly sense them.
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What Nova failed to take into account was the nature of the element itself.
Darkness.
The opposite of light.
An element that many mistakenly linked to shadows, though nothing could be farther from the truth.
A shadow could only exist where light existed, but darkness wasn’t so weak as to let anything dictate where or when it could appear.
No. Darkness was an element that even its own users found difficult to control, requiring far more time and training to reach the same level of mastery as peers who specialized in other elements although this came with its own set of benefits.
In a world without light, darkness ruled everything. And if such a world did have a light… a strong enough darkness could devour it, plunging everything back into utter blackness.
And while that was true, the opposite was also true. Light could wipe away every trace of darkness if it was stronger.
This was why, since the beginning of time, the two elements had been each other’s bane with no clear victor, only the strength of each user deciding which would prevail.
As for darkness’s peculiarity…
Darkness concealed, devoured, and corroded everything that came into contact with it, be they objects, people, mana and even senses.
Thus, when Nova’s senses swept outward, the already few darkness mana particles, difficult to notice even under normal circumstances, became nearly impossible for him to detect, as they devoured his senses the moment they came close to touching them.
This could have been avoided if Nova were already familiar with darkness mana, or if the quantity of it in the room were higher.
But now… Forget sensing it, the darkness mana in the cave might as well have been nonexistent to him.
Nova was oblivious to all of this. With furrowed brows, he continued trying his hardest to sense even a single darkness mana particle.
Alas, it was of no use.
Minutes ticked by, and by the time he finally stopped, nearly twenty minutes had passed without him feeling anything at all.
Gasp.
At that moment, his eyes snapped open, and he released the breath he had been holding.
Taking a moment to calm himself, he looked at the empty cave before him and whispered, “There’s no use forcing it. If I can’t feel anything here, then I’ll just have to find another way. I only came to check this place out and had no expectations, so there’s no reason for me to feel down.”
He inhaled deeply and stored Dreadscape back into his Inventory. Then he gave the cave one last look before turning around and heading toward the light room.
Light mana seemed to shout at him to notice it the moment he stepped inside. Contrary to darkness, which kept to itself, light was a beacon that wished for nothing more than to be seen and followed.
Nova smiled at the scene and spread his senses to cover the entire cave.
‘Around three hundred light mana particles… still a long way before people can come here to train,’ he sighed.
Remembering that he had probably absorbed hundreds of thousands of mana particles from the other rooms, he didn’t know how long it would take before he could increase his light mana core to rank 4.
As his thoughts drifted there, he recalled the question that had been on his mind before entering the darkness room.
‘The darkness room took all my focus I almost forgot it.’
He looked inward at his cores, which had grown considerably during this trip, and continued, ‘Even if I found a high enough quantity of light mana particles, I doubt I’d still be able to increase the light core to rank 4.’
Nova bitterly smiled.
It had started when he was increasing his earth mana core to rank 4. At that moment, he had felt his body inching ever closer to the point of saturation.
Since then, with each subsequent rank 4 core, that sensation had grown clearer and clearer, reaching its peak when his water mana core was breaking through to rank 4.
During the process, he had to grit his teeth and endure no small amount of pain, as his body felt like it might burst open at any moment. It simply couldn’t contain the enormous pressure radiating from his eight rank 4 cores. Something he hadn’t taken into consideration before.
Thus, he was left feeling both lucky and unlucky.
Lucky that there was nothing else he could strengthen in this place, and unlucky that his body had already reached its limit, making it impossible to advance his light mana core to rank 4, even if he could.
His lips twitched as he recalled several hours ago, when he first arrived, thinking his body could even endure a rank 5 core. It hadn’t taken long for him to realize just how absurd that thought had been.
“I didn’t know better and there’s no shame in that.”
Nova nodded to himself as if agreeing with his own words and left the light room.
This time, he didn’t enter any other room. Instead, he strolled toward the stairs that led to the ground floor.
As he made his way up, he pulled out the communication device.
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