Chapter 164: The Nameless
"Eh? You don’t know? Weren’t you the one who killed it?"
"Eh? I did?"
Jake also blinked and stared at her blankly.
Grace stared back at him, equally confused.
For a moment, both of them just sat there on the soft sofa, tilting their heads slightly to the side at the exact same time.
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After listening carefully to Grace’s explanation, Jake finally understood what had happened.
According to her, a massive pillar of light had suddenly exploded upward from the sea at the exact place where he had been fighting the Drowned Stalker.
The light had been so intense that it briefly lit up the entire sky and cleared the storm, and when it faded, the Deep Aberration beast was already dead.
Everyone who witnessed it had simply assumed it was Jake’s doing... some kind of hidden trump card or secret skill he hadn’t shown before.
Because of that, no one had pressed him for details afterward.
In this world, prying too deeply into another person’s skills was considered extremely rude, especially when the person in question had just saved the day.
Grace had thought the same thing.
Since Jake never mentioned it himself, she had quietly assumed there must be a reason he didn’t want to talk about it... and she trusted him completely, so she never asked.
Hearing that, Jake immediately waved his hand in front of him.
"No, no, wait! I wasn’t hiding anything from you!"
Jake spoke quickly, still waving his hand a little as if to emphasize the point.
"I seriously don’t remember doing that. The last thing I clearly remember is fighting that thing... and then everything went black. When I woke up, I was already on the ship."
At those words, Grace blinked at him, her golden eyes filled with quiet surprise.
She slowly lowered her cup and tilted her head slightly, watching his face carefully.
"...You really don’t remember?"
Jake nodded.
"Nope. Not at all."
For a moment, Grace simply stared at him in silence.
Her expression was soft, but there was a faint trace of worry mixed into her usual gentle look.
Then she spoke again, her voice quieter than before.
"But... that light. It felt familiar. Like the same power I have... only much stronger."
Hearing that, Jake fell silent for a moment.
Then he decided there was no point in keeping it to himself any longer.
"...About that," he said quietly. "When I checked my status just now, there were a few things I didn’t recognize."
Grace looked at him curiously.
Jake sighed and told her what happened.
"My Light Manifestation evolved. It’s not called that anymore. Now it’s... Wielder of Light."
Grace’s eyes widened a little.
"And that’s not all," Jake continued. "There are two more skills that weren’t there before. One is a passive called The Final Stand... and the other is an Ultimate Skill."
He paused for a second, then spoke the name carefully.
"Avatar of Light... ’Nameless’."
Grace looked thoughtful.
She lowered her gaze slightly, her soft fingers resting against the side of her cup as she quietly repeated the names under her breath.
"...Wielder of Light... The Final Stand... Avatar of Light, Nameless..."
Her golden eyes narrowed just a little, as if she was trying to dig something out from the back of her memory.
"...I feel like I’ve heard those names before," she murmured.
Jake smiled helplessly and scratched the back of his head.
"They all sound pretty cool, I’ll give them that. But I feel the same way as usual... I don’t really know how to use any of them. Especially that last one."
He paused, then let out a short, confused breath.
"And what the heck is a ’Nameless’ supposed to mean, anyway?"
But the moment that word left his mouth, Grace’s eyes suddenly lit up.
Her soft expression shifted into something sharp, almost startled, as if a buried memory had just been pulled to the surface.
She turned toward Jake fully, her golden eyes wide and filled with an incredible, almost disbelieving look.
"...I remember now," she whispered.
Jake turned to look at her carefully.
"During one of the imperial history classes when I attended as a kid... the teacher was talking about the Dawn Knight’s greatest feats," she said, her voice growing a little more serious.
"And at that time, there was a line from an old poem that was recorded alongside the legends of his heroic feats... and it was said to be written personally by him..."
She paused for a moment, as if carefully recalling the exact words, then spoke them softly:
[To raise the blade of light is simple... but to wield the "Nameless"...]
[...one must first give it a name.]
Grace looked a bit hesitant and glanced at Jake.
"It was my father’s poem, so I paid extra attention to it when I was a kid. And I think the ’Nameless’ might be referring to your skill."
At those words, Jake stared at her and blinked.
"What?"
His expression only grew more confused.
He slowly leaned back against the sofa, one hand raised slightly to rub his chin.
"So basically... it’s a skill that I cannot use until I give it a name?"
He looked at Grace with a completely lost expression.
"What kind of skill needs a name first before it works?"
Grace just nodded and smiled wryly, but her golden eyes remained serious.
"That’s what the records said. The Nameless probably isn’t like a normal skill. It seems like it won’t fully respond until the wielder acknowledges it... and gives it a true name."
At those words, Jake opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He sat there in silence for a few seconds, clearly struggling to accept what he was hearing.
"...That’s the strangest skill I’ve ever heard of," he finally muttered.
Grace couldn’t help but let out a soft, almost amused chuckle at his helpless expression.
But then her face grew quiet again as another thought reached her.
"Jake... if what you really told me is true, then... there is a high chance that light from the sea really came from this skill... and that meant it already moved once to protect you."
She looked at him carefully.
"Even... without a name."