In retrospect, the battle was fierce, but quick to resolve. The confrontation ended a few seconds after it began. With the necessary tools, a new Spectrum, and a lot of luck, Nova was able to escape alive, but not unscathed. He lay on the ground, trying to gather enough strength to get up.
'Ouch. It hurts so much. I've never been so badly injured after a battle in my life.'
If you thought about it, Miyu, Elara, and Rober were the ones who always ended up hurt. Nova was just support, staying in the back, issuing orders and boosting his allies. He was rarely struck hard enough to be knocked unconscious or cut badly enough to bleed.
Now that he had fought alone on the front lines, he understood how difficult battle was for those with Spectrums focused on combat.
'Seriously… I have to apologize to Rober for all the times I mocked how he explodes alongside the Aberrations.'
He complained as he turned in the snow. He knelt, dislodging some of the snow that had covered him. He took a deep breath, a small puff of steam of vapor from his breath, and finally stood up.
He staggered a couple of times, disoriented and injured. His clothes were torn; his shell backpack and staff lay buried in the snow.
In pain, he managed to crawl to his belongings and examine them more closely. One item stood out among his belongings: the shield.
"I thought the shell would be more durable."
Perhaps the serpent far exceeded the Sand Octopus in power. The shell could not withstand the titanic force of this giant reptile, and it cracked on the surface. The staff suffered the worst damage; only splinters remained.
"Well, I can still use it," he said, glancing up at the tree. "The portal's still there, but smaller. How many days have passed since I blacked out?"
The last time Nova could count the days was before his communicator ran out of battery. At that point, he'd counted a little over twenty days. Counting the other days he spent moving through the tunnels, it had probably been over a month since he arrived in this desert hell.
He had been away from home for quite some time.
"Anyway, looks like I won't starve."
The tree that stood gloriously among the serpent's corpse looked more epic than anyone would expect. The light from the stone in the ceiling turned it into a kind of frozen oasis in the middle of nowhere, staining the snow on the ground white.
Among the branches of the tree, the Sweet Flakes waited to be harvested, and the portal lay on the largest branch. This mystical apparition, generated by the excess energy in the environment, had grown smaller with each passing day, but it was still large enough for a person to enter.
Nova continued toward the tree. Limping and enduring the pain of his broken bones rubbing together, while his feet sank knee-deep into the snow, he managed to reach his goal. He placed a hand on the trunk and used his foot to push off and begin to climb.
The trunk was as thick as twenty people standing shoulder to shoulder. In addition, the snow—cool and vaguely healing—seemed purer than the snow on the surface.
'I just have to get some of these fruits.'
He stretched out his hand, holding on to the protrusions on the trunk. In fact, that tree always had a very curious shape. It was as if dozens of branches were spiraling together and climbing upward. Hence the protrusions that a person could easily climb.
'Crap.'
Nova felt his throat suddenly fill with liquid. Holding on tightly to the tree, he coughed, staining the trunk with blood.
'Damn... Am I torn apart inside?'
How could he not be? A battle was a battle. If there were no wounds, there was no gain in strength. In that respect, Nova had become a little more resilient. Of course, he had the right tools at the right time. If not for that, he would be three meters under the sand, or in the belly of a giant Aberration.
With misfortune often comes experience. That experience, distributed correctly, can be converted into power. Just as botany had become Nova's signature energy-control skill, combat techniques or new strains of killer plants might develop over time.
For now, Nova had to climb that tree, eat the fruits to heal, and move on.
Hours—perhaps even days—passed. Nova needed to recover, and that's what he did. The portal kept shrinking, but nothing seemed to be coming out of it, so it seemed relatively safe.
At some point, he took the time to look for the boot he had lost in battle. Apart from that, he bandaged his wounds, mostly on his torso, and stowed away as much fruit as he could carry.
Sitting on a rock, he stared at the sword embedded in the frozen Aberration's remains.
"It's been a while, huh? You and that black gas rendered my Serenity useless, but thanks to that, I now have the Spectrum of Anticipation."
He could have insulted the serpent in many different ways, but in the end, this battle taught him many things.
'Now let's see how my mind has organized the information.'
He looked at the cold snow and summoned the Personal Information window. When the ethereal panel appeared, he opened his eyes in astonishment.
"What is this?"
The screen showed nothing but a question:
[Who do you think you are?]
Nova stood silently staring at the screen. With everything that had happened, nothing should surprise him anymore, but this took him by surprise.
"Who do I think I am? Is this a joke?"
Angry? No. Confused? Yes, very much so. His questions were accompanied by a wry smile. And it seemed that the screen was following the information in that question.
The words glitched, replacing the previous question with a new one.
[How far do you want to go?]
For someone who hadn't interacted with another rational being in over a month, Nova felt like he was talking to someone else. What if the screen was being controlled by a higher being? Maybe he was about to receive a powerful system like those in web novels.
"Where do I want to go? Well, obviously, to my house."
No matter how strange this was, it felt more normal than it should have. Nova was aware of how weird this was, but he wanted to get to the bottom of it.
First, there were the voices when he arrived in this world, then the field of flowers after obtaining the Spectrum of Anticipation, and now this. If something strange wasn't happening, all these events wouldn't be happening this way.
Then, the words glitched once again. This time, the information Nova wanted appeared.
[
—Name: ____
—Age: ____
—Rank: ____
—Spectrum: Serenity, Anticipation.
—Spectrum Skills:
❖ Attenuate.
❖ Spectrum Enhancement.
❖ Spectrum Fluctuation.
❖ Omen of Danger.
—Calem Energy Control:
❖ Low Calem Energy Control.
❖ Medium Manipulation of the Plantae Realm.
❖ Low Resistance to Status Effects.
—Personal Skills:
❖ Martial Arts (Basic)
❖ Knowledge of Botany (Advanced)
❖ Born Survivor (Basic)
]
"My name isn't here... Neither is my age or rank. What does this mean?"
He looked at the tunnel entrances on all the walls to see if anyone was watching him, but in the end, he found nothing. Wanting to relate this strange situation to something external, he only ended up with more questions.
"Anticipation's already listed here. Omen of Danger? I see — that's why each vision hurt so much; it's different from Future Vision."
Omen of Danger was the skill Miyu unconsciously used the moment Nova was thrown toward the portal. It is a basic skill of Anticipation that causes a lot of damage in exchange for a detailed vision of imminent danger. That is why the skill activated every time Nova was in danger of dying.
'Does this have anything to do with the questions from before? What's more, why the hell does my own mind ask me two questions and then delete my own name?'
At that, he opened his eye, understanding something.
The first question was: 'Who do you think you are?'. Since Nova didn't answer, the screen, by process of elimination, removed his identity. That's why neither his age nor rank appear anymore, not to mention his name.
But it still doesn't make sense.
Nova spent the next few hours wondering what the hell had just happened. As the minutes passed, walking around in circles impatiently, he tried to connect all the strange things that had happened to him.
Once again, his questions would go unanswered.
'I'm tired of this. There are always unanswered questions.'
So, before entering the portal, Nova took another night to rest. Since the place was so cold, he bundled himself in the fabrics he'd gathered from the ruined city and tried to sleep.
Sometimes he woke and stared at the serpent's corpse, silently hoping it wouldn't move. Then he would go back to sleep, and the cycle would repeat itself every hour.
After another eight or nine hours, Nova had climbed the tree. He stood in front of the portal, armed with his sword and shield, and carrying all the supplies he could fit in his makeshift backpack.
'I never thought I'd become some kind of wilderness survivor.'
So far, luck had been on his side, but how much longer would that precious luck last?
'But this is all I have now. If I want to go home, then I'll continue to be a survivor.'
He clenched his fist, gripped the hilt of his sword, and stepped through.
"Here I go."
He stepped into the portal and was swallowed by a darkness that caressed his skin. A deep, faint purple light covered his one eye. In the next instant, the darkness transformed into a vast, bright starry sky. Great mountain ranges stretched out before and behind him, accompanied by dry, twisted trees bent like skeletal hands reaching from the ground.
He looked down at his feet. The ground was barren—dry and lifeless—as were the leafless trees and the dull mountains that rose like sleeping titans.
Nova had a bad feeling about this place.
'This doesn't look like anywhere in my world,' he thought. He looked behind him, then at the sky, and finally at the portal. 'But it looks better than the desert.'
He took a few steps away from the portal to get a better look, but there was nothing; no sign of energy or life.
'This place seems like a dead end. I don't feel anything. Is that why no one crossed the portal?'
If that was the case, then lucky for him. Nova was on a lucky streak.
As he moved deeper into the mountains, he touched the dry trees with his fingertips. A branch snapped at the slightest touch. Now there was no doubt that this world had been dead from the beginning.
'Dry, brittle trees. Dead soil. Lack of energy. No signs of wildlife.'
At first glance, it didn't seem like the world would wither away like this on its own. This dead land bore the mark of foreign hands.
'Are there people in this place?'
What kind of people would there be? There was no other way to find out but to explore.
'If there are rational beings, I could ask for help, but...'
The problem is how rational they might be. But before thinking about making contact with other species, Nova looked at the road.
'First, I must find out if this world also has an asteroid.'
Just as in the desert world, he concentrated hard. Immediately, he felt a deep, faint pulsation of energy behind him. He looked in that direction and frowned.
'There is an asteroid, but I can barely sense its energy.'
Without fear, he moved forward. He narrowed his eyes to see better in the dim light, illuminated by distant starlight.
'It doesn't matter. If I don't run into any Aberrations, I can keep going. Even if the next portal doesn't take me home, I'll keep trying.'
He found himself running toward the source of energy. His body had barely healed, but he was once again pushing himself to the limit. His eyes glowed with the golden light of Serenity. Every muscle in his body increased in strength. Then he moved as fast as he could.
This time he wouldn't allow himself to waste time. He headed into the beyond; whatever awaited him didn't matter.
That's how it should be, but sooner rather than later, he found himself in a landscape totally different from anything he had ever seen before.
Nova opened his eye, surprised. After the mountains, the dry trees, and the dead zone, an immense metallic monster rose from the ground, studded with neon lights. Towering buildings that seemed to tear at the sky rose from the depths of the monster — which revealed itself to be a mysterious city.