Cold wind blew across the battlefield, ruffling the clothes of the dead knights and carrying the pungent smell of blood further away.

As the clang of weapons and the roars of the remaining knights echoed in the distance, Nova cast one last glance at Rollyet's body, which lay near him, and stood up. He looked over the dozens of fourth stage knights' corpses scattered before him and muttered, "With Letto not here, I need to get my hands dirty."

Taking his time, he slowly moved among the fallen, looting anything that even remotely seemed useful from each knight and tossing all the items into his Inventory, all while cries of agony occasionally reached him from hundreds of meters away.

'I'm surprised those knights are still holding on. By now, they should have reached their breaking point. I bet they're thinking that as long as they persevere and wait for their superiors to finish their fight, they'll win. That's probably how they keep themselves from giving up,' Nova thought as he rummaged through the last knight. Finding nothing, he muttered, "Hope is both the best thing there is and the worst, if one is blind to it that is. They may look strong at the moment, but nothing could be further from the truth. One small push in the right direction, and their minds will crumble."

He shook his head slightly. "There's no need to play any more games or wait for them to kill each other."

Leaving the area where he had just fought, Nova, Dreadscape in hand, walked back toward the battlefield, where only a few thousand remained.

When he got close enough for a clear view, he noticed that the Empire, even after being severely weakened by him, still had more than half the numbers of the three kingdoms combined.

"They've proven themselves to be elite, alright," Nova said, stepping into the fray without a care for who he encountered first. He swung his spear with one hand. The impact reduced the remaining knights to pulp, as if a hammer, not the side of a spear, had struck them.

Dealing with second and third stage knights had already been easy for Nova when his Aura was at the third stage. With his Aura now at the fourth stage, taking care of them was as effortless as flipping his hand, and that was without even accounting for his Mana.

One after another, knights fell beneath the spear and the wind that mercilessly tore them open before they could even react, granting them a swift death.

Day turned into night, and only then did Nova stop, the last of the knights now lying breathless at his feet.

Contrary to the corpses, Nova's breathing was ragged, sweat rolling down his forehead. He planted Dreadscape on the ground and sat, leaning against it slightly. "Fuck. How can people think of running from a single person when there are hundreds, if not over a thousand? Shouldn't they band together to kill the enemy? Who taught these people how to fight?" he muttered.

He stared down, taking a moment to rest despite the curses that continued to spill from his mouth. At some point, he stopped cursing and simply breathed in and out, and the battlefield fell into a silence so deep that he could hear his own heartbeat.

Unbeknownst to him, several wisps of black energy rose from the battlefield and silently drifted toward Nova, entering his body without him noticing. The process was smooth and left no trace behind it but that took several minutes, until the last wisp had merged with him completely, unnoticed.

'With all this fighting and running around, I forgot to check my Aura details and Status,' he thought, immediately bringing the information up in his mind.

Skill: [Aura – Fourth Stage] (Vastly increases defense against illusion. STR, VIG, DEX, SPD +3500%)

Nova frowned slightly at the description. "Only a 500% increase from the third stage? It's not bad, but it kinda feels underwhelming. Then again, the jump from first to second was also only 500%. I guess I should wait and see. If things stay the same, the jump from fourth to fifth will probably be just as big as the one from second to third."

"Then… what about my Stats?" he muttered, gripping Dreadscape that was behind him with one hand as he mentally called up his Status.

[Status]

Rank: 0

Name: Nova Grey

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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

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

Stat Points: 2,089

Attributes:

Strength: 232 (+15,856)

Vigor: 205 (+12,536)

Dexterity: 255 (+17,415)

Speed: 215 (+14,687)

Intelligence: 171 (+4,472)

Wisdom: 215 (+5,662)

Will: 19

Luck: 10 (+10)

Skills

Active: Spear Thrust (27) (63,989,20,778/67,108,864,000), Spear Jab (27) (2,546,624,013/67,108,864,000), Spear Sweep (27) (1,806,101,657/67,108,864,000), Spear Lunge (27) (47,199,103,324/67,108,864,000), Spear Overhead Strike (26) (5,780,373,564/33,554,432,000), 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 (9) (188,131/256,000), Woodworking (0) (54/500)

Passive: Regeneration (22) (1,702,085,981/2,097,152,000), Keen Reflexes (14) (6,084,123/8,192,000), Momentum Streak (18) (97,998,652/131,072,000), One with the World (Spear) (MAX), One with the World (Footwork) (MAX), Aura (Fourth Stage)

After mentally reviewing it, he nodded and smiled in satisfaction.

"Good, good. The Stats have increased a lot, but the biggest gain is the Stat Points," he whispered. "The more I have, the safer I'll be. They're my biggest trump card right now but they are also a double-edged sword..."

[System updating…]

[Update failed]

Two notifications abruptly rang in Nova's mind.

"Hmm? Why is the system trying to update itself now? And how is it even failing? This doesn't make any sense," he said, a mix of curiosity and slight nervousness in his voice.

The last time the system had an update was when he unlocked the Mana section of his Status. Back then, at least there had been a reason for it. But now… he had done nothing, only checked his Status after a long war. So what was going on?

[System updating…]

[Update failed. Target is from a trial world.]

[Updated target localization.]

[System updating…]

[Update failed. Target is currently in a failed world.]

Notifications kept ringing in his head, and Nova couldn't help but think, 'Trial world? That should be Earth, then this must be what the system calls a "failed world".'

He thought back to the words of the Troll King, Vragor, and muttered, 'Makes sense. They did indeed fail, and are now being used as training for us.'

He read those few lines over and over, sensing that they held some deeper meaning but then more notifications began popping up.

[Force update]

[System updating…]

A loading bar appeared below the message.

Nova barely glanced at it, lost in his thoughts. 'Why would the system both prevent the update and force it? If it wanted, it could do anything, even Gods can't stop it, and they can only try small tricks, like the many classes they added to choose from. So what's the reason behind it acting against itself?'

The more he thought, the less clear the situation became. It was too odd.

When the loading bar reached 100%, another series of notifications appeared.

[Update completed]

[System updated. Concepts has been added to the Status.]

Before Nova could say or even think anything, his Status window flashed in his mind once more as if to boast its new section.

[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

Concepts: Death (0.001%)

Class: None

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

Stat Points: 2,089

Attributes:

Strength: 232 (+15,856)

Vigor: 205 (+12,536)

Dexterity: 255 (+17,415)

Speed: 215 (+14,687)

Intelligence: 171 (+4,472)

Wisdom: 215 (+5,662)

Will: 19

Luck: 10 (+10)

Skills

Active: Spear Thrust (27) (63,989,20,778/67,108,864,000), Spear Jab (27) (2,546,624,013/67,108,864,000), Spear Sweep (27) (1,806,101,657/67,108,864,000), Spear Lunge (27) (47,199,103,324/67,108,864,000), Spear Overhead Strike (26) (5,780,373,564/33,554,432,000), 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 (9) (188,131/256,000), Woodworking (0) (54/500)

Passive: Regeneration (22) (1,702,085,981/2,097,152,000), Keen Reflexes (14) (6,084,123/8,192,000), Momentum Streak (18) (97,998,652/131,072,000), One with the World (Spear) (MAX), One with the World (Footwork) (MAX), Aura (Fourth Stage)

His mind went blank for a moment before returning to normal shortly after.

"Concepts? Death? How did I even come into contact with that, and what are these concepts?" he mumbled to himself.

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