Nova leaned back slightly, feeling the new power humming through his veins. A satisfied smile tugged at his lips as he murmured staring at the system pannel.

"Hmm... it certainly feels good seeing how strong I’ve grown. My stats don’t even match my level anymore."

Liya’s voice echoed softly in his mind.

{You’re right... If it wasn’t for your special physique — the one you gained after merging with demonic energy in the dungeon and then consuming the Bloodheart Demonic Stone ,

you wouldn’t be here. That transformation changed your race from fully human to a hybrid. Though right now, your demonic characteristics are still only around 2%.}

{It strengthened your physique even further — making you taller, more handsome, and significantly more powerful. Now your stats far exceed what someone at your level should possess. You can already stand and fight against a Grandmaster.}

Nova exhaled slowly, staring at the glowing system panel.

"Yeah... it really does feel great. But I’m still far from where I need to be. When I saw those grandmasters whose strength were on a completely different scale, it hit me just how weak I still am... and how enormous this world truly is, hiding monsters far more terrifying than even them."

Liya’s tone softened with reassurance.

{You have a point. But don’t forget — you only awakened recently. You’re already wielding the power of a Grandmaster. This kind of explosive growth is absurd from every angle. And the best part? It’s only going to keep accelerating. So don’t worry too much, my host. You’re doing better than you think.}

Nova took Liya’s words to heart. He knew just how law-breaking his growth had been. Without his innate skill, none of this would have been possible. Still, he refused to get complacent. In the grand scheme of this vast world, he was still insignificant.

He had three years in Frostholme before heading to the capital, and he planned to become as strong as possible during that time. He might consider participating in the competition Theodore had mentioned, but for now, he had other important matters to take care of first.

"Anyway, why does the profile only show Moonclaw as my Deadborn? What happened to the others?" Nova asked, curious after noticing only Moonclaw listed.

{They’re still there. You just haven’t named them yet, so their status isn’t showing up in your profile.}

"I see..." Nova nodded. "I also need to deal with my army first. Let’s take care of everything here before I leave the training space. I still have to handle that fatty."

"Deadborns, come out!"

The moment the command left his mouth, the training space was instantly flooded with dark, shadowy figures.

Hundreds of demonic beasts that Nova had slain during the Beast Tide materialized in just seconds. Among them stood four colossal A-rank beasts: Moonclaw, Earth Dragon, Hydra, and Chimera.

Even though the training space currently looked like a classroom, it expanded endlessly to accommodate the entire army without issue.

"Hmm... pretty good," Nova muttered, a satisfied smile on his face. "It feels great seeing such a large force... but unfortunately, most of them are still too weak. I need to make some adjustments."

Nova thought for a few seconds and quickly made his decision. He would keep only the strongest Deadborns and let the rest be consumed by them . A few powerful ones would be far more useful than hundreds of weak ones. He only wanted strong soldiers in his legion.

"Moonclaw, consume the Earth Dragon. Chimera, consume the Hydra and all the other Deadborns."

He then looked at the Imp Archons who had helped him investigate in the city and spoke calmly, "Don’t worry. You and the others won’t cease to exist. You will simply become part of something greater. Your existence will live on within them."

Nova knew all of this thanks to his class skill, Monarch’s Requiem, which had granted him complete knowledge of how his Deadborns truly functioned. Besides, the Deadborns held no real emotions — they existed only to obey their Monarch.

The next moment, Moonclaw began consuming the Earth Dragon. Chimera followed its lead. Both beasts opened their massive jaws as the figures of the other Deadborns dissolved into swirling black shadows and dark fog, flowing rapidly into their mouths.

...

In just a few seconds, only two powerful clossal Deadborns remained standing before Nova. Their appearance hadn’t changed much, but their auras had grown drastically.

A heavy, oppressive pressure radiated from them as their power level surged far beyond what it was before.

Nova activated his Appraisal Eyes to check their new strength.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name : Moonclaw

Rank : A

Level: 290

Stats:

Strength: 420

Agility: 415

Endurance: ∞

Intelligence: 406

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Name : Chimera

Rank : A

Level: 250

Stats:

Strength: 357

Agility: 359

Endurance: ∞

Intelligence: 350

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Damn, they grew a lot more than I thought," Nova muttered.

From what he understood through his skill, if a Deadborn consumed another Deadborn more powerful than itself, it would completely gain their levels, reaching the same strength as the one consumed.

On the other hand, when consuming weaker Deadborns, it only gained a few levels depending on how much weaker they were.

"But the same can’t be said for me," he added. "I can’t consume them directly like the Deadborns can. I can only gain a limited amount of levels even if I kill someone much stronger than me — which I’ve already experienced."

{Yeah, more or less.}

Nova turned his gaze toward Chimera. He had chosen it over the Earth Dragon or Hydra for two main reasons.

First, Chimera excelled at using elemental attacks and spell-like abilities, making it extremely valuable for long-range battles. As it grew stronger, it would become even more terrifying on the battlefield.

The second reason was simpler: the Earth Dragon only possessed raw destructive force. Since it wasn’t a true dragon, it held little value for Nova, who already had plenty of physical strength.

Moonclaw, on the other hand, was his first Deadborn and carried chaotic energy within it, which it could channel into its attacks.

From what Nova understood, his Chaos Affinity was still at a basic level, so his knowledge was limited. Even so, he knew that chaotic energy was incredibly rare and powerful. As Moonclaw grew stronger, it would be able to wield this energy more effectively.

As for the Hydra, Nova simply felt Chimera would be the better overall choice.

Nova decided not to give Chimera a new name. The original "Chimera" sounded strong and fitting, so it was officially registered as such.

With everything settled, Nova recalled both Deadborns back into his shadow. He then turned toward Liya and was momentarily surprised — she had changed back into her usual futuristic full-body suit, white with glowing blue line patterns.

"Why did you change back?" Nova asked curiously. He had quite liked seeing her in the hot teacher cosplay.

{Hm... I got bored of it.}

Liya smiled playfully.

{But since you seem to like it, I can change back if you want~?}

Nova let out a helpless sigh at her teasing and shook his head. "Anyway, how much time has passed?"

{You’ve been here for three hours, so roughly 6 minutes have passed outside.}

"Hmm... it’s still so crazy that I have something this wonderful — my own personal training space with time dilation," Nova said, a wide grin spreading across his face as he imagined the possibilities. "It would be insane if the time dilation gets even stronger later."

{Just wait for the second upgrade. You won’t believe how much cooler I’ll become~}

"By the way, when will I have my second evolution?" Nova asked. "Don’t tell me it’s when I reach the Grandmaster realm."

Liya laughed. {No, you idiot. If evolutions were that easy, they would break the entire world order...you’ll go through your second evolution when you reach level 1000... and that’s when I’ll get my upgrade as well.}

"Alright, I’ll do my best to reach that level as soon as possible. Now I’ll be leaving then."

The next second, Nova disappeared from the system space. Liya stared at the spot where he had vanished, her eyes carrying a hint of gloom.

...

Nova reappeared outside. Just as he was about to head back toward the Duke’s estate, he suddenly sensed two powerful auras coming from a nearby.

Nova focused on the two powerful auras. They felt different from Enzo and Ragnar’s , weaker, but there was no doubt about it. Whoever they were, both of them were definitely Grandmasters.

Thanks for reading...