Eyes closed, Noah sat in a lotus position on the floor beside his bed. Inwardly, he focused on his status screen and observed the different stats and classifications.

He was meditating.

In hindsight, he had been blazing non-stop and increasing his power throughout his life after he had gotten stranded on the isolated planet. However, a flaw of his progressive lifestyle was that he never tried to understand the full depth of his powers.

Things became even more complex ever since he obtained and fused with the Ouroboros Core. Still, he was not bothered. If he did not know something, all he needed to do was ask.

System, can you explain the overall situation to me?

Noah called out to the Artificial Intelligence that was now embedded in his head. Unlike Crow or Tin, the AI did not harbor any autonomous thoughts. It was a very basic AI working with a set of rigid rules. But Noah liked it like this. One foreign voice in his head was already enough. Having two voices bickering inside his mind would erode the last bits of his sanity.

The only problem with a limited AI was that it could not resolve problems without his direct input. Another similar problem was the occasional refusal of the system when he asked him something, all due to the rigid rules that blocked out his access to those answers.

[Analyzing…]

[Host Reached the limitation of the current Growth stage.]

[Next Growth Stage: Youth]

[Analyzing…]

[Permission for a higher level of information granted]

[Information available]

[1. Information about Stats

2. Information about Growth stages

3. Information Advancement methods

4. Information about Path.]

[Which information would you like to have access to first?]

Noah was quite surprised by the number of notifications he received. It seemed like someone had intentionally limited the amount of information he had access to until he reached certain milestones.

But why?

Why is the information I have access to limited?

Stolen novel; please report.

[Answer: To avoid information pollution and corruption. The host’s mind is deemed too fragile at present. Information of higher dimensions would cause extreme mental damage and eventually madness.]

Noah wanted to protest at first, but he remembered his discussion with Venus. She had also been limited with the information she could share with him. However, more than that, the deep nausea that overcame him when he witnessed that thing remained fresh in his mind…

“Ugh…” Noah groaned as he again felt the nausea rise from within. Just trying to remember the insignia he witnessed back then made him feel like he was about to pass out and vomit.

Just what was that thing?

He gritted his teeth in frustration. As much as it hurt his ego, he had to admit that he was indeed not ready. If simply looking or even remembering that abomination could affect him to such a degree, it was hard to even imagine what would happen if he gleaned more information of such a category.

Sighing, he continued his communication with the system, high-level information aside. What about simple miscellaneous information about the empire?

[.... Analyzing…]

[Basic information will be made available once the host reaches Bishop rank. Higher level information will be available at Knight rank.]

An arched eyebrow was Noah’s response to this new piece of information. The Pawn title in his status had intrigued him from the moment he laid eyes on it. However, the system had practically confirmed that the hierarchy of the Gaia Empire was divided into chess pieces and their relevant ranks. That or this only applied to soldiers, perhaps.

What tier is Bishop and Knight? He asked, wondering if he would get an answer.

[All Bishops of the Empire were Tier 5 or those who could effectively pilot a Tier 5 Mecha.]

[The Knight title was conferred to an individual who had reached Tier 4 or could control a Tier 4 Mecha. Tier 4 will also be considered as the Adult cycle in your Growth Stage.]

Noah snickered at the last piece of information. So only after he became a so-called Adult would he be allowed to obtain the truly secret information, huh?

Still, Tier 4

This was… quite something. Tin did tell him that one would be considered Tier 5 only after they were able to destroy a small planet at minimum. Tier 4 meanwhile was considered the theoretical peak of this Galaxy, if one did not count the Shadow Queen.

Those who reached that level could affect entire Solar systems. One had to be strong enough to destroy a star or have something that could destroy one if one wished to be qualified for this tier.

Now the system was telling him that only after reaching such a level one would be considered an Adult?

How ridiculous.

Noah chortled at those requirements but his heart was practically drumming heavily against his chest.

Since those requirements existed, this meant that whoever created this core was sure that he could reach them or at least could reach them.

But more importantly…

Apollo, Venus, and the others would be higher, right?

They were the leaders of the new civilization so he doubted they stopped merely at the rank of Knights.

What kind of leader would I be if I were weaker than my dear friends?

A grin formed on his lips as his chest became filled with confidence. He was once the leader of the Constellations and the strongest of them all. But he had also once been the weakest right at the start.

Things were no different now. He would reach even higher. His pride as a leader was at stake here, after all.

System. Let’s start with stats.

All his previous goals had been so vague and out of his reach. However, he now had a clear understanding of the circumstances, which uplifted his mood. He would go at it one step at a time.

[Stats]

[The current stats shown on the screen represent an estimate of the maximum value of your body as analyzed by the system.]

Estimate?

[Indeed. In the current instance, those values are not as perfectly accurate as the stats of a body, unlike that of a machine, you are in constant flux.]

Noah nodded his head in understanding.

What followed was an obvious explanation of the meaning behind the different stats. The explanation of some such as Strength, Speed, and Endurance were quite clear. Dexterity was a bit more puzzling, making him wonder how one could even quantify someone’s dexterity. But from what the system said, these stats did not just represent the agility of his body but also that of his mind.

Dexterity represented his reflexes, agility, and his reaction speed. It was a complex jumble of interconnected skills, but Noah was satisfied with the overall explanation regardless.

Speed represented the maximum movement speed he could reach.

Endurance represented his healing factors, resistance to strikes, resistance to outside factors, and many such resistance and resilience factors of his body. In a way, the calculations behind his endurance seemed even more complex than dexterity.

Strength represented his striking power, lifting strength, and so on.

The breadth of information was interesting to Noah, making him glad that he asked the system for detailed information. Noah was satisfied with the attention to detail that had been placed in analyzing and representing one's stats.

Finally, his eyes landed on the last stat, the one that piqued his interest the most.

Aether.