System vs Rebirth

Paul glanced at his group before saying, "You'll be with me for the time being. Follow me and learn about what we're doing. If you don't understand anything, don't hesitate to ask. We'll do our best to explain it to you."

"Understood." Noel nodded with a serious expression.

"Since you've known about it, I welcome you to the Zero Squad, Iadre." Paul extended his hand. The reception was slightly different than previously, but considering what happened during the last mission, he could understand why they wanted to get some distance from him.

They didn't want to be hurt in case an accident happened again. Just like Noel, Iadre was also targeted by people.

So, Noel could feel they were treating him as a teammate, not a friend or family.

Although he deserved it, Noel still felt a bit sad and angry at himself for even using that plan.

Noel shook Paul's hand with a smile. "Yes. Thank you for welcoming me. I hope I can learn a lot from you."

"Since we're done, we would like to know about your abilities first so that we don't give any instruction to do tasks beyond your levels to avoid incidents. And let's do it as quickly as possible…" Paul thought for a moment and glanced at Noel. "Do you think you're up for a spar?"

"A spar?"

"Yes. I know you're pretty tired after your trip, but we can help you more after learning about your strength."

"I don't really mind to be honest. I'd like to know about the strength of the Zero Squad as well." Noel nodded with a serious expression. Although he knew their power after fighting together, he never fought against them. This would be a perfect chance for him to understand how far he had gotten after consolidating his power.

Paul glanced at the other members and asked, "So, who would want to test him? Since he is also a swordsman… Do you want to do it, Stella?"

Stella had some prejudice against new members, thinking there was no one who was as good as Noel. But since she was the only one who used swords, except for Ben who could use anything but wasn't good at any of them as well, she believed she should fight Noel to understand his ability.

"I don't mind." Stella agreed. "The battle limit will be fifteen minutes. You should use all your strength within those fifteen minutes so that we can measure your abilities."

"I understand. Please take care of me." Noel nodded and gently pulled his sword out.

"…" Paul felt a bit nostalgic when seeing that white sword with a blue stripe. It reminded him of Noel's ice. In fact, this sword would look better if Noel was the one wielding it.

However, Noel released a black flame in his left hand after that. The contrast between the white sword and the black flame was so glaring that it hurt to watch.

Seeing Noel had finished his preparation, Stella pulled out her sword and asked, "You should know about the Spirit Levels, right? I'm a Spirit Master, so you don't need to hold back your strength."

"If that's the case…" Noel nodded and summoned two runes: Increase Agility Rune and Strength Blessing Rune.

"Hmm?" All of them instantly furrowed their eyebrows when seeing these runes. They looked similar to the Spirit Enchantment but even more complex and completed.

Because they were too focused on Noel's runes, they didn't realize Rose was watching from afar with her extraordinary senses.

"What are those? They're like Spirit Enchantment, but a bit different. He also has black fire instead of ice… Does that mean he has a spirit with two elements? It's not unprecedented, but it's still extremely rare. I can see why he's being targeted by a lot of big shots.

"Having two elements, using something similar to Spirit Enchantment, creating unique swordsmanship, and reaching Spirit Wielder at a young age… They have enough reasons to kill Noel. No wonder he's hiding his identity." Rose sighed, not expecting Noel to be hiding all these abilities. She wanted to see what kind of battle he would show them.

Noel and Stella exerted their Spiritual Energy as if trying to tell each other they were ready.

The tension began to rise as Noel made his first move.

He jumped forward with his fastest speed, showing speed far faster than Noel.

"!!!" Stella widened her eyes in surprise. This would take everyone by surprise and a Spirit Wielder would have a hard time reacting to it. However, Stella was a Spirit Grandmaster.

*Clink!*

Their swords collided with each other, stopping each other's movement.

"You're fast…" Stella smirked as the adrenaline kicked in.

"Thank you for the compliments." Noel smiled. He tried to use his strength to overwhelm her, but the sword didn't budge the slightest. So, he jumped back to gain some distance.

"You're not going anywhere!" Stella followed Noel to pressure him. The more Noel was under pressure, the more he would make a mistake after all. And that was where she would finish this sparring.

'Yeah, yeah. You're trying to force me to make a mistake. I know you.' Noel obviously knew her intention, so he would strike her with something she didn't expect.

Noel pointed her left hand toward her as if planning to release the flame.

"The flame? No, you can't hurt me with your flame!" Stella smirked and waved her blade, releasing a small gale to disperse the fire.

But before the gale could hit Noel's arm, Noel summoned the Spiritual Energy Dispersion Rune.

*Fwoosh!*

The wind suddenly scattered in all directions.

"Hah?!" Stella was surprised, but the one who got shocked the most was Jonathan.

"Impossible. What is that? It looks like a Spirit Enchantment, but that thing can disperse the wind… No, the Spiritual Energy itself?" Jonathan, who understood Spiritual Energy the most, commented while gasping.

"What? The Spiritual Energy itself?" The rest couldn't believe what they heard. Noel's sword might be able to cut through elements, but Iadre was able to disperse the Spiritual Energy. They didn't know how all these talented people seemed to gather in one generation.