Chapter 45: Nox
Over the course of the conversation, Jake had gradually come to believe Ethan’s facade. The way he replied, his questions, and his response—everything felt natural.
But little did he know that his information really proved more than just beneficial to Ethan.
In contrast to his dreadful voice, his lips curled into a devious smile.
’So that means, until I reach a certain rank, I can run rampant without worrying about powerful awakeners or monsters coming after my head?’
Now that he thought about it, Ethan came to know just how monstrous his growth would be if he were to accomplish that.
But a single doubt remained unsolved in his mind.
"How does the class rank affect one’s stats? And what are the overall ranks?" Knowing that Jake had begun to trust him, he asked directly.
Logically, such questions should be common knowledge among humans. But the more Ethan asked them, the more his viability would rise.
"Depending on the rank of a class, an awakener gets their total limit for all the stats increased. By that concept, two different awakeners of the same rank would have totally different strengths—given that they have different class ranks. Over the years, we’ve been able to conjure its details."
"All the awakened humans follow a set ranking system for their overall strength: F → E → D → C → B → A, with the latter being the strongest. Each of these breakthroughs is followed by a form of evolution. These evolutions are unique to one’s class and experience, resulting in a similar form of boost in one’s strength."
"There are also the first-generation awakeners, but given that we haven’t been able to contact them for decades, we are unaware of their rank or powers." Jake’s voice began to grow sturdier.
With his mind becoming calmer than before, his body had surprisingly started healing him once again. It was an unexpected development, but even Jake was yet to discover it.
"Along with every evolution, everyone’s max stats increase depending on their class’s rank."
Jake briefly explained the details, expressing the slight differences with the movement of his hands to better form a picture of a chart in Ethan’s mind.
F-Class: +5
E-Class: +10
D-Class: +20
C-Class: +30
B-Class: +40
A-Class: +50
The chart wasn’t anything fancy, but its details were relatively shocking. When Ethan heard this, he couldn’t help but be amused.
The class privileges were simply too much!
Although it didn’t look all that different in the beginning, one had to factor in the future perspectives as well. The more they evolved, the vaster their difference became from the lower-class-rank individuals.
Not to forget, only the individuals up to A-rank class were mentioned!
’There’s a chance that further information might simply be unavailable to normal awakeners, but this is great news regardless.’ Ethan smiled, already planning his next move.
"What about monsters?" Ethan asked.
"Their path is similar to ours. We haven’t been able to figure out the details, but we believe that monsters evolve in three stages. Every major rank is divided into three minor realms, allowing them to build up more strength. Because of this, most humans avoid fighting monsters of the same rank head-on."
By now, Jake’s answers had begun to revolve around his previous words. Clearly, the information he possessed on this topic was limited.
"But then what happened to the earth? Surely, creating such buildings even in a span of decades would’ve been difficult." Ethan slowly stood up from his throne.
Walking barefoot on the dirt floor allowed his footsteps to be suppressed. Avoiding Jake’s attention, Ethan slowly walked closer. But at a certain distance, he instinctively stopped.
’Any further and he’ll sense my presence... So three meters is your limit?’ He thought inwardly, his bright green eyes shining through the dark.
Jake’s position was slowly crumbling in Ethan’s mind. The more he gave his information, the more his value decreased.
From the start, Ethan was hesitant about Jake leaving this place. But the information he held was important enough for him to concede.
However, what about now?
The information was slowly reaching its end. His value had plummeted off a cliff!
If Ethan wanted, he could easily turn him into a zombie... Gaining a D-rank class awakener as a subordinate didn’t sound like a bad idea.
But strangely, Ethan was against it.
’Humans will barely ever try to get in contact with monsters. From what he has said, it is safe to assume that they’ll attack the monsters without a second thought.’ He brought his hands behind his back, holding them together.
’But for me to be able to communicate with other humans, I need a vessel who knows me. What would be better than ’a prideful human that owes me his life’ in this case?’
"That’s because of the Nox..." Jake answered truthfully before going silent.
Ethan was naturally not satisfied with such an answer. To avoid getting caught, he forcefully altered his voice, making its pitch low yet stable.
This way, he could sound the same as when he did sitting on the throne.
"Nox?"
"It’s the name of the energy that we all wield, one that leaked from spatial cracks and flooded our world along with the monsters. And it is also what awakened us, humans."
Hearing his words, Ethan was surprised. After all this time, he had finally gotten the name for the energies that he occasionally felt from different individuals.
’But then... why does the energy that I possess have a different name?’
"Even we aren’t sure of its origin. But it’s said that whoever awakens their powers, regardless of humans and monsters, possesses Nox. It’s a mysterious form with uncountable variations, one of which allows us to manifest our skills and powers."
---
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[#/System Notification/#]
———————————————————
[New Information Registered.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[New Energy Identified.]
■ Nox
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Description]
An energy possessed by all awakened beings, regardless of whether they are human or monster.
It is the fundamental energy through which their powers manifest.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Further Information]
Insufficient understanding.
[...]
---
The system window materialized before Ethan’s eyes almost instantly.
"Then how can I familiarize myself with this energy?" He further inquired.
"By using it. The more you use it, the more your body gets used to it. In rare cases, it may even trigger a special phenomenon."
"Hmm..."
The hall fell silent.
This amount of information was crucial, and to avoid forgetting its important parts, Ethan decided to memorize it in silence.
Even Eris, who had been standing this entire time silently, was doing the same. While her memory wasn’t as strong as Ethan’s, she wanted to be of some convenience to her king.
Jake, on the other hand, was anxiously waiting to hear the result. A part of his mind was already anticipating betrayal and was ready to self-detonate his body, if needed.
"Fine, Jake Mercer," Ethan spoke, his voice distant but clear. "Your information has definitely proven its worth. Answer one last question for me, and you’re free to go."
Hearing this, Jake’s anxiety only worsened as he nervously stammered. "What is it?"
"How did this so-called Nox affect Earth?"
Almost immediately, Jake felt like sighing in relief. Fortunately, the question wasn’t anything difficult.
"Because of the Nox suddenly overflowing into our world, the Earth slowly began to expand in size. Climates changed exponentially, and the lifeforms began to mutate. Over the decades, the Earth has already expanded by ten times its size, and it’s still continuously expanding. Many new continents have been formed, changing the entire geography of our original Earth."
As soon as he stopped speaking, a familiar sound rang in Ethan’s mind.
*Ding!*
---
———————————————————
[#/System Notification/#]
———————————————————
[Sufficient Information Registered.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
A sufficient amount of information regarding the current world has been registered.
Required conditions have been met.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Overlord System]
The Overlord System is searching for suitable paths for the host.
[...]
[Suitable Path Located.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Mission Generated.]
■ Evolve Your Subordinates
[Description]
Evolve at least one subordinate under the host’s command.
Strengthen the host’s forces and establish a foundation for future growth.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Requirements]
└ ■ Evolve at least 1 subordinate.
[Time Limit]
└ ■ 7 Days
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[Failure Penalty]
All of the host’s attributes will be temporarily reduced by 50%.
Duration: 30 Days
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[Rewards]
└ ■ Determined by performance.
---
Ethan smiled as his eyes skimmed through the screen’s content.
’Great job, system,’ he praised inwardly. He had been looking forward to using his new authority all this time!
"As of this moment, Jake Mercer, you are free to leave this place. I’ll heal your wounds and have my subordinates guide you out of this forest. I, Noah Reed, am indebted to you. If you ever face any difficulties, feel free to reach out to me."