Noah squeezed his eyes shut for a long mont, forcing the image of the brown-haired woman to dissipate into the back of his mind.
He quickly brushed the matter off. There was no ti to dwell on his own embarrassnt while his body was still being ravaged by the agony of the backlash.
He needed to focus on the reality of his situation and the fragile safety he had managed to secure for himself.
He couldn’t help but think about how lucky he was that his mother and sister weren’t around.
If they had been ho, his secret would have been in imdiate jeopardy.
His mother had gone to their farm earlier that morning to tend to the crops, a task that usually kept her occupied until the sun began to dip low in the sky.
anwhile, his younger sister was at school, safely tucked away in a classroom far from the violence and the ice mountains he had created.
It would have been terrible if they had seen him crash down from the lightning.
To them, he was just a normal boy with a weak mana core foundation who couldn’t even cast a spell.
Seeing him descend from the heavens in a bolt of lightning, only to collapse in a state of paralyzed agony, would have caused a level of panic and confusion he wasn’t ready to handle.
He didn’t want them involved in this dangerous world of shadow assassins and guild politics.
Fortunately, the few neighbors they had in this secluded area had also gone out to work at this ti.
The small houses scattered around theirs were empty, the occupants busy with their own labors in the fields or the nearby town.
No one had been standing in their yard to witness the lightning strike behind Noah’s house.
The thunder had likely been heard, but it was probably dismissed as a natural phenonon.
They also weren’t close with anybody in this area. They exchanged nods and brief greetings, but they didn’t share als or trade secrets.
Because of this social distance, there was no reason for anyone to co to their house and check for anything, even after a loud noise. They minded their own business, and for that, Noah was deeply grateful.
Noah had considered all of this while he was thinking of where to land.
Even as the tir kept ticking down in his vision, flashing red with every passing second, he had been calculating the safest coordinates for his return.
He knew he couldn’t just drop anywhere; he needed a location that combined total privacy with absolute security.
He couldn’t possibly land in the forest.
While the trees would have provided cover from human eyes, the woods were far from empty. Landing there would have been an act of extre desperation, since it was reckless.
He would be immobilized for five minutes.
Even though five minutes sounded like such a short ti in a normal conversation, it was an eternity when one was completely paralyzed.
It was more than enough ti for the mana beasts that prowled the deep woods to catch his scent.
Without his magic or the ability to move a single limb, he would have been a defenseless feast, and the beasts would have killed and devoured his flesh before the paralysis even wore off.
At the end of the day, the back of his house was the best option.
It was a familiar territory, a blind spot for the neighbors, and a place where he knew he wouldn’t be disturbed by mana beasts.
It guaranteed his safety during his most vulnerable mont, allowing him to endure the backlash without the fear of a predator’s teeth or a neighbor’s prying questions.
Minutes passed in a blur of silent, grinding pain.
Finally, the internal needles began to dull, and the crushing weight on his chest started to lift. The five minutes of backlash from the limit-breaker had finally ended.
Noah felt the sensation return to his limbs, starting as a faint tingling in his toes before surging upward through his legs and torso.
The rigid paralysis snapped, and his muscles finally went limp, exhausted from the tension.
He took his first deep, unrestricted breath in what felt like hours, the cool air filling his lungs and clearing the last of the fog from his mind.
Slowly, his fingers twitched against the grass, and he slowly pushed himself off the grass.
He stood up and stretched his limbs, his joints letting out a series of sharp, satisfying cracks.
The lingering phantom of the needles still tickled his nerves, but the crushing paralysis was gone.
He took a long, deep breath of the rather cool air, feeling the strength steadily returning to his muscles.
’I never want to experience this... again...’ he thought to himself.
The mory of the internal grinding of his bones and organs was still fresh, a haunting reminder of the price he had paid for a few minutes of god-like power.
He reached up with the back of his hand and wiped the tears that were still dripping down the sides of his face.
His skin felt cold and sensitive, but his mind was already sharpening, returning to its usual state.
He made up his mind right then and there.
This would be the last ti he would ever be forced to resort to the Limit-Breaker skill.
It was a trump card that demanded too much from his physical vessel, a shortcut that felt like a betrayal of his own growth.
He didn’t want to rely on a borrowed invincibility that left him a broken ss on the ground for everyone to see.
Fortunately, the skill had a mandatory one-year cool-down period.
During that one year, Noah was certain his circumstances would change. He wasn’t just planning on getting stronger; he was planning on ascending.
By the ti the skill was available for use again, he would have surely beco a Supre Magus!
If anyone heard his thoughts right now, they would think he was being extrely foolish and arrogant.
The rank of Supre Magus was a title that had drifted into the realm of legends and fairy tales.
It was a position that no one on the entire continent had reached in about two hundred years.
History books spoke of the last Supre Magus as a person who could move the stars, but since their passing, the world had seen only silence from that tier of power.
It was the ultimate peak of magic.
It was a state of existence that many magi spent their entire lives striving and sweating to reach.
They dedicated decades to ditation, consud countless rare elixirs, and risked their lives in ancient ruins just for a glimpse of that final threshold.
They all failed, though.
The world of magic was a harsh and unforgiving teacher.
The difficulty of advancing beyond the Arch Magus rank was so imnse that most considered it a natural ceiling for humanity.
Even now, reaching the Arch Magus rank itself wasn’t guaranteed for a lot of people; it was the highest peak most ever reached in their lives, often at the very end of their years.
Yet, Noah was talking about the Supre Magus rank like it was nothing.
He spoke of it as if it were a simple milestone on a checklist, a destination he would reach within a single year.
To a traditional scholar or a seasoned magus, his confidence would sound like the delusions of a madman who had spent too much ti in the sun.
Noah, on the other hand, had the system.
With the interface blinking in his mind and the unending daily quests rewards fueling his growth, reaching the Supre Magus rank was not a question of "if," but a matter of "when."
The system didn’t care about the two-hundred-year drought of power or the biological limits of the human mana channels. It provided a clear, albeit dangerous, path to the top.
He smirked, a flash of genuine excitent dancing in his blue eyes.
’Unless there’s so kind of interruption that would affect the system,’ he thought, ’which there isn’t.’
The world had no idea what was coming. They were still debating the identity of "Mr. White," unaware that the boy standing in a quiet backyard was about to flip their entire reality upside down.
’This world better get ready for ,’ he thought, his smirk widening into a confident grin. ’The next Supre Magus!’
He then went into the house through the backyard, his steps light and silent on the wooden floor, as he head straight for his room.
The house was quiet, the only sound being the ticking of a clock and the distant rustle of leaves outside.
He closed his door and leaned against it for a mont, letting out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.
He sat on his bed, staring down at his open palm.
The air above his skin began to ripple, and the dark gray storage space opening appeared once again.
From the center of the spatial tear, the white demon mask with small, sharp horns slowly rose into the light.
The mask didn’t have a single tear or crack on it.
It looked as pristine as the day he had first acquired it, the smooth white surface reflecting the dim light of his room.
He had stored it away while traveling through the lightning.
He knew there had been a slim chance that soone might find him collapsed in the grass behind his house.
If he had been found unconscious while still holding the mask of Mr. White, his identity would have been exposed to the entire world.
The mask vanished back into the storage space, and the gray portal collapsed into nothingness.
Noah exhaled, the tension finally leaving his shoulders.
He laid back on the bed and sprawled out his hands, staring up at the ceiling with a tired but determined expression.
The journey of Mr. White had only just started, and he couldn’t have it end too soon because of a careless mistake.
He frowned, his thoughts drifting back to the guild.
’I also... need to go back to the guild tomorrow,’ he thought to himself.
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