"Hey, are you new? What's your name?"

"Letto. I just enrolled."

"Lopaz, do you think we should...?"

"Forget it," Lopaz said, brushing the idea aside. "That's not our tradition anymore."

"Alright." Kale turned to Letto, his tone suddenly serious. "You're lucky. We used to have a, uh... welcome tradition for new pages. But you showed up just after we ditched it."

Letto, unsure what they were talking about, simply nodded.

"By the way," Rey said, lying on his bed and staring up at the ceiling, "anyone seen Nova? I haven't seen him all day."

"I was wondering the same thing," Kale replied. "He's been gone since morning."

"I'm here," Nova strolled into the room with a grin. "Did you really think I'd just disappear on you?"

Lopaz chuckled from across the room. "These two miss you more than I do and that's saying something, considering how you beat them up. I can't figure out the logic behind that."

Kale gave a wry smile, but Rey shot back, "Who was the one pestering him to hang out while we were stuck in the infirmary?"

"You keep bringing that up, even after all this time," Lopaz teased, cracking his knuckles with a mischievous glint. "Why don't you find something better to dwell on? How about I make your life a little more exciting and drop you, tied up, in the girls' dorm?"

"No! I'm sorry, I was wrong!" Rey's tone flipped instantly, raising his hands in surrender. "Let's just calm down and think clearly before doing something we'll regret."

"Regret?" Lopaz said casually, a smirk tugging at his lips. "I doubt I'd regret that."

Kale struggled to hold back a laugh, shaking his head.

Lying on his bed, Letto wondered silently, Are these really the kind of people I was so scared about? They don't seem to have anything in common with knights.

Watching Rey, Nova grinned and said, "Don't worry. If Lopaz drops you off at the girls' dorm, I'll return the favor, free of charge."

"Thanks, Nova!"

"What?! Why would you do that?!"

/////////

In the dead of night, when only the sound of even breaths filled the room, Nova lay on his bed with his eyes closed, mentally scrolling through the dozen-plus notifications he had ignored earlier that day.

[Received 1,050,290,000 Stat EXP] [Received 1,021,990,000 Stat EXP] [Received 1,063,780,000 Stat EXP] … [Received 2,190,050,000 Stat EXP]

'I remember the Sky Serpent in my first Blue portal only gave me 51 million Stat EXP,' he thought. 'That was supposed to be a hidden boss, something barely anyone could handle. But now? I'm earning billions just by taking out some random bandits.'

He couldn't help but wonder: 'How much would a knight be worth?'

The thought of the Stat EXP waiting after clearing two kingdoms and an empire brought a smile to his face. But before long, he calmed down and called up his Status screen.

[Status]

Rank: 0

Name: Nova Grey

Species: Human

Affiliation: None

Level: 27 (170/500)

Mana: Mana Core (Medium) (299,631,548/10,000,000,000), ??? Spinal Node, ??? Perception Node, ??? Pulse Node, ??? Voice Node, ??? Vital Organs Node, ??? Power Node, ??? Stance Node, ??? Manipulation Node

Class: None

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Titles: Goblin Exterminator, Kings Slayer, Survivor, Spear Advanced, Troll Exterminator, Orc Exterminator, Rune Novice, Mana Intermediate, Lord (Giants), Hunter, ???, Sword Novice

Stat Points: 977

Attributes:

Strength: 232 (+4,884)

Vigor: 205 (+4,336)

Dexterity: 255 (+7,918)

Speed: 215 (+6,676)

Intelligence: 171 (+1,907)

Wisdom: 215 (+2,397)

Will: 16

Luck: 10 (+10)

Skills

Active: Spear Thrust (27) (63,989,030,113/67,108,864,000), Spear Jab (27) (2,546,516,546/67,108,864,000), Spear Sweep (27) (1,806,045,434/67,108,864,000), Spear Lunge (27) (47,199,032,907/67,108,864,000), Spear Overhead Strike (26) (5,780,335,066/33,554,432,000), 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 (14) (2,030,197/8,192,000), Sword Block (14) (1,997,701/8,192,000), Blacksmithing (5) (6,472/16,000), Woodworking (0) (54/500)

Passive: Regeneration (22) (1,599,066,992/2,097,152,000), Keen Reflexes (14) (6,001,766/8,192,000), Momentum Streak (18) (97,988,663/131,072,000), One with the World (Spear) (MAX), One with the World (Footwork) (MAX), Aura (First Stage)

'977 Stat Points to distribute.' Nova's mind raced. 'If I stop obsessing over clearing every portal and put these points to use, combined with all my Passives and Titles, I'd probably be powerful enough to... destroy Earth.'

'Who would've thought that in less than three years, the thought of leveling a small planet would even cross my mind? What about after thirty years? Three hundred?'

Nova's thoughts spiraled downward, drifting further into the future until he caught himself and sighed inwardly. 'Now's not the time for that. The most pressing matter at hand is uncovering information about the Bloodstripe and I've got three days here. hopefully enough to learn something… but for some reason, I doubt it.'

With one last glance at his Status, he closed it and began to absorb Mana and manipulating the elemental particles around, slowly refining his control over them.

///////////

Nova wasn't sure whether laugh or cry at his instincts because his guess turned out to be correct, or at least in part. He sent Lopaz, Rey, and Kale out to dig up any information they could find about the Bloodstripe, while he went around questioning other pages and junior squires. He deliberately avoided the senior squires since they were all 'hiding' in their corners, giving their all for a final push to become full-fledged knights.

But neither he nor the others uncovered anything useful about the ferocious tiger. Frustrated, Nova finally decided to take a risk, that is exposing both the bone-tempering liquid and himself, and approached Instructor Morai.

After hearing the question, Morai's unreadable gaze bore into him. "I don't know why you're asking but I won't tell you anything about it for your own good," he said quietly, "if you value your life, you'd do best to forget this too."

Nova sighed, defeated. Pages and junior squires were too low in status and strength to know anything, while the knights would never share such secrets with someone so weak.

It was a mission doomed from the start.

Three days later, just before dawn, Nova and Letto slipped quietly out of their room, making their way toward the city entrance where they had arranged to meet Veliora.

They waited nearly an hour before Veliora came rushing toward them, breathless. "Sorry I'm late, Sir."

"It's alright. Do you need to take care of anything else before we leave?" Nova said, though inwardly he thought, 'Making me waste an hour, you'd better be worth it, little girl.'

She quickly shook her head. "No, no, I'm ready to go whenever you are, Sir."

Nova gave her a smile that made her cheeks flush and said, "Then let's not waste any more time."

As Nova, followed by an expressionless Letto, ignored the waiting carriages and started to leave the gate, Veliora hurried after them, surprised. "Aren't we renting a carriage?"

"Why? Isn't it faster to run?" Nova asked, genuinely puzzled.

Veliora stared at him in disbelief.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he pressed.

"Sir," she began carefully, "the capital is more than fifty thousand kilometers away from here. Even with a carriage and a good horse, it would take four days to get there. You can't seriously be thinking of walking."

'More than fifty thousand kilometers? How big is this kingdom...?' Nova thought, stunned. 'But... on second thought, it makes sense. The people here should be able to cover that distance in a day or two by running.'

Seemingly right, that logic had flaws in it because Nova hadn't considered two crucial things. First, although his strength slightly surpassed Omar's, a citizen, they had never competed in speed, his greatest asset. This led Nova to the common misconception that most people had Stats similar to his, when he didn't wield his spear thus not entering One with the World.

Second, he had applied his own mindset to ordinary citizens. How many people would willingly run for hours, even days, to reach the capital when they could comfortably ride in a carriage?

To Nova, the distance didn't seem much, in fact, he could've easily covered it. But to Veliora, unaccustomed to such exertion, it was overwhelming.

Deciding it was best to ask, Nova turned to her. "Miss Veliora, wouldn't we save time by running? We could reach the capital in less than a day and cut out three days on the journey."

Even Letto gave Nova a strange look at that.

Probably the only ones who would agree with him were strong knights or messengers whose task was to, literally, run as fast as they could.

"Sir! What if something happens and we have to stop? What if bandits—" She shot a wary glance at Letto before turning back to Nova. "—attack us? Look…"

Twenty minutes later.

Staring up at the clear blue sky, Nova muttered, "If this isn't worth it, I'll rob her family clean."

As if mocking him, the horse pulling the carriage let out a loud neigh.

"Shut up, you beast."

Hearing Nova shout, Veliora leaned out of the carriage window and called, concern in her voice, "Sir, is everything all right?"

Up on the driver's seat, reins in hand, Letto's lips twitched as he struggled to suppress a chuckle—seeing Nova finally lose his usual calm over something as mundane as a carriage ride was too much.

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