The impact of the demon's appearance quickly spread across the world. At least 500 million people, both civilians and Enhanced individuals fell unconscious from the Voice Impact — it was what the event would be called in the future.

An hour after the Voice Impact, official statements from the hero association and countries across the world were made, informing the world that 10% of the people affected by the Voice Impact had died from heart attack and brain damage for most civilians, while Enhanced suffered from Magic Core Dysfunction and then died.

This was a truly devastating event for humanity after the first and second catastrophes. Not only an unknown entity suddenly appeared in the sky and said they would conquer their world, but they also lost 50 million populations in one night — no, in an hour.

Not to mention they still had not completely assessed and calculated them all. There might be more numbers in the next announcement. Or, they might have finished assessing the total of victims but kept it a secret from the public. Who knows, right?

Fortunately, the event didn't affect the communication signal on Earth. Thanks to that, the world wasn't completely in darkness, unlike the catastrophes.

The Hero Association Omega and Wizard Circle Lunaria called upon all the countries and organizations — excluding Dystopia and criminal organizations alike — for Global Meeting that would happen a day later at Octagram Island.

That.. we will save that for later.

It was 2 AM.

Despite the global-scale event occurring two hours ago, Ember was napping peacefully on the long sofa after she received a video call from her grandmother.

The War Goddess Nuria and the three other people had defeated the Monster Flood in the great desert. Although, they didn't expect there would be a second wave. Fortunately, an unknown strong person who appeared out of nowhere helped them clear the monsters in the vicinity.

Zio was surprised when Ember told him about the situation in the desert.

As far as he knew, there should only be a wave of Monster Flood. And what was that about an unknown strong person in the great desert? He never wrote anything about that!

So here he was, leaning his elbow on the windowsill, trying so hard to recall anything related to the Monster Flood event as the night breeze softly brushed his skin.

'The second wave of Monster Flood and an unknown powerful person? Sh*t!'

He sighed.

'Is this truly the world I've created?'

Thud—!

He slammed the windowsill frustratedly, causing Ember to wake up from her short slumber.

Hearing the sweet yawn coming behind him, Zio turned around and found Ember staring at him while rubbing her eyes gently.

Other than the smile she showed back when he returned the earring after the Hunting Practice, Ember's morning countenance also momentarily stunned him, captivating him the moment he watched her yawning cutely. Bad thoughts quickly slip into his head.

Shaking the thoughts away, he cleared his throat and said:

"Sorry for waking you up."

Ember didn't respond. She just tilted her head like a puppy.

"You can just go back to sleep, though," Zio continued.

"I think it's you who should sleep.. just look at yourself," Ember responded, a hint of concern was heard in her voice.

Zio glanced at himself through nearby glass furniture. He was quite disheveled and out of place after everything he had gone through the past these days. His messy hair and tired eyes were a clear indication of his exhausted state.

He let out a self-conscious chuckle and ran a hand through his hair, attempting to tame the unruly strands.

"Yeah, I guess I do need some rest," He admitted. "But.."

Rumble—!historical

As though it was planned timing, his empty stomach rumbled after he consciously paused his word. Neither of them made any reaction to the sound.

"Oh yeah. I haven't eaten anything for.. 4 days, maybe?"

Ember sat up on the sofa, fully awake now. She let out a thin smile.

"Can you cook?"

Zio grinned. His face looked proud as he said:

"Of course!"

But then he continued, "...not"

Soon after, he suddenly felt dizzy. He started staggering and the world around him was getting blurred.

Thud—!

Before long, he collapsed, falling forward.

Noticing Zio's wobbly posture, Ember quickly ran and caught him in time before he hit his head on the floor. After checking his condition, Ember let out a relieved sigh.

'He's just sleeping..'

She put him down on the sofa, covering him with layers of warm blankets she took from his bedroom. Her gaze lingered on his sleeping face for a while before she rose to her feet and walked to the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Zio was currently having a dream in his sleep.

..

'Where am I?'

Everything was dark.

'...'

He took in his surroundings, just to find the endless darkness stretched out before his eyes. Although there was no visible light source, his eyes adapted, allowing them to perceive the details of the space around them with uncanny clarity.

Examining the area further, he discovered that there seemed to be no physical boundaries or discernible objects. It was as though he was standing in a void, devoid of any tangible form.

The absence of sound only intensified the eerie atmosphere.

Pondering his situation, Zio began to wonder if he was in a dream, trapped in a subconscious realm of their own creation.

'There's no way this is my Core Space, right?'

To his knowledge, the Core Space was equivalent to the subconscious realm. It was a place every Enhanced individual had inside their magic core, but not everyone could enter their Core Space.

'Even in the novel, only a few Enhanced could enter their Core Space. Lux is a different case, though. He is able to enter his Core Space freely because of the Odyssey system.'

'If this is truly my Core Space, then..'

Zio closed his eyes, trying to feel the mana in the air. At first, he didn't seem to feel them. But after ten minutes of concentrating, he finally felt the mana spread in the air.

Opening his eyes, the once dark place was now filled with bluish glowing trails scattered around.

'Let's see..'

He observed how the traces moved.

Although it seemed like they were moving randomly, just filling in the place. But as he focused his attention, he noticed that they were moving in a pattern. A very complex pattern that required a high focus.

Finally, he caught how was the pattern moving.

The pattern was as though it was dancing, forming a series of interconnected symbols and shapes. It was as if the mana itself was expressing a hidden language or code within his Core Space.

As Zio traced the path of the pattern with his eyes, he recognized two familiar symbols: a vortex, and a spiral of spheres. The other three were something that resembled a disfigured human, an eye, and a grave of weapons.

'A vortex symbol means that I have a full affinity toward wind elements. And the spiral of spheres is darkness affinity. Wind and darkness..'

He pondered about someone.

'It's the same element combination as Neychta.'

Then he turned his attention to the three unknown symbols.

'I'm not sure about the disfigured human. But the eye symbol and the grave of weapons are probably Clairvoyance and Dual Wielding.'

After confirming the symbol, he approached the vortex symbol first. Extending his hand forward, he absorbed the trace of mana that formed the vortex.

[Your affinity toward wind element has been strengthened!]

Hearing the monotonous sound resound in his ears, he smiled.

Not wasting his time to enjoy the moment of glory of achieving good news from the system, Zio quickly did the same to the other symbols.

[Your affinity toward dark element has been strengthened!]

[Your skill Clairvoyance proficiency has increased! 11% ? 25%]

[Your talent Dual Wielding proficiency has increased! 32% ? 50%]

'Haha! Finally.. my Dual Wielding proficiency is at 50%!'

He clutched his fist in victory, allowing himself to be basked in glory for a while.

After all, increasing talent and skill proficiency couldn't always be done by training with dummies. To properly increase them, he needed to fight sentient enemies, living entities, and not an object such as a dummy.

If someone could get stronger by hitting a dummy, then the power balance of the world would have broken and the world would soon fall into chaos.

Someone needed real experience for them to increase their skill and talent proficiency. They needed to learn not only by swinging the same motion every day because the proficiency would eventually stuck when it reached the limit.

'It's not like this is an RPG world where someone could get stronger by killing mobs and getting XPs. There's so much more than a simple thing as that.'

Once their proficiencies wouldn't go up anymore, then it was time for them to look for another method to increase them, or increased the intensity of their current methods, just like exercising — If you felt like 10 push-ups per day were not enough, then increase it to 30 push-ups per day.

'But that won't be enough. Doing a repetitive activity isn't the way to be strong in this world. Creativity and innovation are. Just as how it works for technology advancements and magic research.'

Zio looked at his palm with a sense of pride. He felt like he already had everything in his palm because he got reawakened as <S> rank potential Enhanced thanks to the lady luck.

But that would soon disappear as soon as he absorbed the disfigured human symbol.

[Error! Error! Curse.. You have received a curse 'Broken Soul']