NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46: Status
Warning! Info dump Incoming ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Kael blinked up at the ceiling, his vision hazy with the soft morning light filtering through the rune-curtained windows.
His room was still new enough that the scent of polished wood and fresh linen hadn't fully faded, a subtle, comforting aroma.
Sleek, clean, and quiet, it was leagues above the barracks-like dorms assigned to general cadets—a true perk of being part of a faction and passing the entrance exam with distinction.
He rolled onto his side, burying his face in the pillow with a groan.
'Still nothing.'
For the past month, he'd been trying.
Trying to sleep the same way.
Trying to meditate before bed.
Trying to replay that elusive memory in his mind before drifting off.
But nothing worked.
No brilliant gold horizon, no boundless silence, no overwhelming sense of clarity.
Just normal sleep and dreams that dissolved into forgetfulness upon waking.
He was obsessed, determined to experience that feeling again, even if just for a minute.
The feeling of finally being whole, of belonging and profound satisfaction.
Right now, he felt like someone had opened a door and let him glimpse something he wasn't supposed to see. And now, no matter how hard he tried, the door wouldn't open again.
With a tired sigh, Kael reached out and called it.
"Status."
A pulse of energy flowed from his chest, and a translucent window, shimmering faintly, blinked into existence above his outstretched hand.
Simple. Sleek. Gold-trimmed, it hovered in the air, displaying a wealth of information.
Over the past month, he had learned a lot about the Archive and its functionalities—not from dusty boring books or droning lectures, but from watching how it worked, how it was used and from the raw data it presented.
...
[Status Window:]
Name: Kael Darven
Race: Human
Age: 17
Level: 1
Rank: Novice Sigil
Class: Knight
Archive Credit: 13
Attributes:
Intelligence: 40
Strength: 47
Agility: 39
Stamina: 17
Health: 41
Mana: 0
Luck: 10 (Max)
Skills:
-Wrath of a Dying God (Passive)
Traits: Unknown
Weapon Mastery:
Sword: 4.3%
Spear: 0%
Bow: 0%
Gauntlet: 0%
???: 0%
Tasks:
[Pending] World Task —
-Advance to Master Sigil in 6 months — Penalty: Death
-Increase Sword Mastery proficiency by 15% — Penalty: Death
-Increase another weapon proficiency by 5% — Penalty: Death
Title: None
...
Kael stared at the glowing text for a long while, lost in thought.
One of the things he had been most confused about at the start was the use of Levels.
Normally, and according to his understanding from reading countless fantasy novels, Levels were usually tied to a person's raw power and went up as their strength increased.
But here, it was totally different.
In fact, Levels and Rank didn't directly rely on each other at all.
According to what he'd been taught so far, in the Archive system, Level isn't about brute strength or combat prowess.
It's about how much of the world's hidden logic—its foundational truths, its metaphysical laws—you've begun to understand and internalize.
Your Level reflects how much of reality your soul is capable of processing, how deeply you've synchronized with the Archive's complex framework.
For example, each level comes with a skill capacity limit—a cap on how many techniques, spells, or abilities your current level of understanding can safely handle.
At Level 1, a human can learn a maximum of three skills, nothing more.
Trying to force more skills or techniques than your Level allows can result in severe backlash—mana collapse, soul fragmentation, or, in some rare cases, a terrifying loss of records, erasing your very connection to the Archive.
Now, the obvious question was: "How do you Increase your Level?" Well, the answer was easy, if frustratingly vague: You don't grind. You grow.
You needed to have a deep, intuitive understanding of your own skills. Mastery over form and movement, not just in practical use, but in comprehending why it works the way it does.
Mental and emotional breakthroughs through discipline, clarity, and sudden realization.
The Archive monitored your growth passively and only upgraded your Level when it deemed you truly ready.
So, it was pretty obvious he was going to be stuck at Level 1 for a while, no matter how many snowmen he sliced.
Next were his Credits.
He had managed to move up from two to thirteen in one month, a significant jump, but the problem was he didn't know if he should be celebrating or feeling utterly doomed.
He had no idea how many he needed to survive the World Task, and worst of all, time was quickly ticking.
One month had flashed by in the blink of an eye, and he still felt like he was stumbling in the dark, unable to gauge if he was truly making sufficient progress.
Sigh.
His eyes dropped down to his Attributes.
At least that part made him feel a little good, a small comfort in the overwhelming mystery.
The average stats for a Novice, specifically in the Knight Class, usually ranged from 25-35.
Which meant majority of his stats were almost double what an average Novice had. His Intelligence was particularly high, a quiet satisfaction. But just as he began feeling a surge of pride, his eyes dropped to his Mana.
"..."
Zero.
Still zero.
It was a constant, baffling anomaly.
Anyway, next up was Luck... Well, he still had no idea what the use of that stat was, especially since he'd had nothing but dogshit luck everyday for the past month and a half.
Next were his Skills.
There was nothing new, and he still wasn't really enthusiastic about the one he currently had.
The conditions for activation for "Wrath of a Dying God" made him feel… wired, and he would prefer if there was never a situation where he had to use it.
But one thing that he did notice though was the fact that he could actually use spells and skills without any visible mana.
There were different tiers of spells in this world, and the lowest of them were considered "chore spells" since everyone could cast them with or without the Archive, as long as your body had a little mana in it.
These spells usually included simple tasks like sweeping and cleaning, or minor light manipulation.
The point was, he had tried them a couple of times before, and succeeded every single time, despite the status window explicitly stating his mana was zero.
It had been stated clearly in many different books that a human without mana cannot cast spells, let alone activate skills, since mana is what fuels them.
But here he was, doing both.
He couldn't be sure, though.
The skill "Wrath of a Dying God" was given to him directly by the Archive, so maybe it operated on a different mechanism, bypassing conventional mana requirements.
He was only going to find out the truth after he tried to learn a new, basic skill by himself.