System vs Rebirth

Noel gradually opened his eyes, only to be greeted by a pitch darkness. Still, some light managed to enter his eyes, making him realize that he wasn't isolated.

Because he didn't understand the situation, Noel opened his eyes with a serious expression, trying to assess his current situation.

"This place…" Noel muttered. He could see some charred walls and black soil. The smell of burnt had been trapped inside, but surprisingly, he wasn't that much bothered by it.

Despite being burned, there was no smoke produced, so Noel didn't feel anything from the current situation.

Noel tried to check his body's condition by circulating his Spiritual Energy, but as he expected, there was no change except for the new Spirit Link.

"Ardagan, Heisk," Noel called their names in a low voice.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any reply from them. It seemed that the two spirits had worked too hard to forge the Spirit Link.

As a result, he could sense a deep connection with his fire. If before, the fire was something that had been given to him, the current feeling made him think that it had become a part of him.

"I see. The Spirit Link is a kind of direct connection between me and that part of absolute fire. In other words, the current Undying Fire has the characteristic I've set up, but also the intensity of that absolute fire. Although it won't be enough to suppress other flames, it should be enough to influence them. It's no wonder that Ardagan needs me to reach the Spirit Grandmaster Stage first before attempting this."

Noel took a deep breath, calming his heart down. While he had confirmed that everything was alright, he still didn't know where he was.

It appeared that he was sealed in a room with some windows, but looking around, he could only find charred soil and rocks.

As if noticing Noel's movement, someone's voice echoed from above.

"He's got up!"

"?!" Noel was confused and hurriedly raised his head, only to have a blank mind for a few seconds to process everything he saw.

He was actually inside a giant hole. Its size was about three meters in radius and the depth almost reached ten meters. He couldn't help but think he was inside a giant well at this point.

But if he thought about it, he realized that he was the one who created this hole. The charred wall had shown that his flame was burning so fiercely that it reduced everything underneath him into nothing. If he continued, he might not be able to come out.

In fact, he should feel lucky that the ground underneath him didn't contain any water.

As soon as he noticed a movement coming from Noel, Raincart immediately used his ice element to form a ladder and shouted, "Come up! There are a lot of things I want to say."

"Ahahaha…" Noel made a wry smile, never thinking that he would cause all this. Without missing a beat, Noel climbed the hole. Although he could fly with his wings, he decided to take his grandfather's kindness.

After reaching the surface, Raincart said, "Get ready to fill up the hole."

"Yes, Sir." The soldiers seemed to have prepared a lot of dirt to fill up the hole. They must have brought it from the hill nearby so that this hole wouldn't cause any trouble.

Meanwhile, Raincart brought him to another spot while checking his condition.

"Grandfather, I'm alright." Noel felt a bit embarrassed.

"What kind of materials do your clothes have to be able to endure that intense heat?" Raincart asked.

"That one?" Noel couldn't help but laugh due to how ridiculous the question was. "The spirit protected it with a small amount of energy."

"I'm joking." Raincart chuckled. "It seems that you're fine. How do you feel right now? Do you have any weird symptoms or something?"

"No. In fact, I feel amazing right now." Noel smiled. "If I had to fight against those people from the Supreme Devil Organization again, even if I couldn't defeat them, I wouldn't have any problems escaping. I finally understand why Spirit Grandmaster and Spirit Link are the biggest breakthroughs you will have."

"But you have a Spirit Link with your Ice Spirit already, right?"

"Yes. That's allowed me to buy time from them." Noel nodded with a serious expression.

"So, is this everything?"

"I do have one more thing to do." Noel raised one finger. "In my bag, there is a small bottle of pills. Those pills are used to forcefully awaken my spirits and expand my Spirit Link. According to my partner, it can assimilate our body with the spirit to the limit. You can even call it Pseudo True Spirit Body."

"Pseudo? Pills? Are you taking drugs? Do you know that if you are taking weird drugs, you will be in trouble? Have you taken any of it?" Raincart instantly changed his tone like a strict parent.

"Ah, you don't have to worry about it, Grandfather. Do you know Alchemist?"

"Alchemist? That crazy bastard from Zaecuria?" Raincart clenched his fists. "It seems that they are planning to trick my grandson…"

"Not at all. I have made an agreement with a former Royal Alchemist and Anna. This agreement is related to the pill. And I believe Anna has taken the pill." Noel explained.

"What?" Raincart fell silent for a moment. Anna was the most monstrous person among the younger generations in all four kingdoms, he didn't believe that this kind of person would succumb to pressure. After all, there was simply no one who matched her unbelievable strength.

So, taking this pill should only boost his strength.

Even so, Raincart was still worried because he didn't know anything about this pill. "I…"

"I will explain everything later, Grandfather. To summarize everything, this pill is created based on the research related to drugs from the previous civilization. There is no side effect and I'm thinking about making it the specialty of my territory later."

"You do know that you're going to be threading in a dangerous zone, right?"

"I'm well aware. But I still have to get stronger… I'm not trying to become a tyrant or anything, but I just want to get stronger so that I can achieve my goal." Noel smiled.

"Is that so?" Raincart didn't know what to say. On the one hand, he wanted to stop Noel because of the unknown drugs. On the other hand, Noel was adamant about ingesting this drug.

If the drugs had been certified by a kingdom or even multiple kingdoms, he wouldn't have had any problem with Noel taking them.

After some consideration, Raincart stated, "Alright. I will permit it, but I have to warn you first. This drug is unknown." Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

"Yes, I'm prepared for the consequences. For now, I'm going to wait for my Spirits to recover before continuing." Noel nodded, gratified by his grandfather's concern. In fact, it wasn't a baseless concern. If he didn't know anything about the pill, he wouldn't have taken it as well.

However, Anna had assured him, with her experience and memory, that this pill was safe and would spread in the future. Even she had ingested the pill.

That was why Noel was ready to take this one step forward to prove the pill's efficacy.

Raincart had decided to trust Noel. He was an intelligent kid, and his talent was among the top, so he didn't believe that Noel would fall for low-level temptation. Though, he would definitely stay by his side during the process.

"In any case, let's see what kind of strength you get after forging the Spirit Link." Raincart smirked. "You have also become a Spirit Grandmaster now, so I expect you've become quite strong. Let's see if you have that strength."

"How do you plan to do that?" Noel asked while recounting what he got from Heisk's evolution, advancement, and Spirit Link.

[Mission: Advancing to the Spirit Grandmaster]

[Description: After mastering the Undying Fire, it's time to become the Spirit Grandmaster.]

[Reward: Spirit Step]

[Mission: Forging Spirit Link]

[Description: Once becoming a Grandmaster, Ardagan is fulfilling its promise.]

[Reward: Undying Fire Will]

Spirit Step was a footwork that emphasized speed. It significantly increased Noel's speed, which would be useful in battle, but he was unable to use it if his grandfather wanted to test his strength.

As for the Spirit Link, the Undying Fire Will actually implied the connection between him and the Undying Fire. In other words, it was the aforementioned part of the Absolute Flame.

After inheriting that power, Noel's flame evolved one step further.

As for Heisk's evolution, he didn't get any reward, but he got the continuation of Heisk's mission.

[Mission: True Spirit Body]

[Description: Heisk will receive the blessing of the Spirit God to receive her True Spirit Body.]

[Reward: True Spirit Body: ???]

It seemed that if he decided to follow this mission, it would be the time Heisk disappeared. So, he waited until everything was over before letting Heisk go.

From the wording of the reward, it was clear that the True Spirit Body had a specific name, but he didn't know what it was for the time being.

While he was in deep thought, Noel heard his grandfather's voice. "Just attack me with your fire. I'm quite curious what kind of transformation your fire has after that Spirit Link."

"Is that so?" Noel was also curious about his power. And his grandfather, being stronger than Dimitri, would be a perfect person to test him. "In that case, I will use my phoenix. It has the best firepower."

"Good."

As soon as he heard the agreement, Noel walked away, putting some distance between them. Even the soldiers, who had been working in the field, couldn't help but stop for a moment, wondering what was going to happen.

"Here I go, Grandfather!"