CHAPTER 88: LESSON

After the dry reunion with Hilda and Nadine that was supposed to be more touching, but in the end didn’t go as planned with the situation as it was, Noel found himself back in his room.

The door had once again been fixed, but his thoughts were not on that trivial matter. Instead, his mind churned over the changes happening in the Averna continent.

After a moment though, Noel moved on quickly to the more important matter... Lilith.

His current situation — or more like the previous situation where he was restricted from all the Hidden Society and kept in dark — had been orchestrated by the hands of Selena and Lilith.

Selena had played a larger hand in that.

But Noel still considered himself to have been betrayed the most by Lilith after all. So he was pretty satisfied with her earlier reaction.

Noel’s situation was different from before. Now, they couldn’t do anything to him anymore.

No matter the method they tried, they simply couldn’t. His strength, feeble as it still was, remained enough to guarantee him his freedom... but it couldn’t guarantee anything else beyond that.

That’s why he made the move that provoked her the most... making love with Selena.

Were he to be actually stronger than her, and his situation better, then he would have taken a different approach entirely. But his current circumstances didn’t allow for that luxury.

Had he actually come to hate her?

Hardly, but that didn’t mean he didn’t plan to give her a lesson she would never forget.

And this? This was just the beginning.

Noel didn’t forget grudges easily, after all.

He planned to continue on this road until he felt it was enough, before he would finally embrace her back into his life.

But for now? Let Lilith and Selena fight between themselves while he grew stronger, surpassing them both.

As long as they didn’t kill each other, then he was fine with the arrangement.

And even if they were going to reach that dangerous point, he would be able to find that out through the simulation beforehand.

So could he say the situation was under some semblance of control?

Noel wondered with a smile spreading across his face as he extended his senses with all his might, but still couldn’t detect anyone nearby.

While confirming once again that those watching over him had been removed, Noel suddenly noticed something else, he had missed previousely.

He was actually unscathed from the earlier encounter.

Lilith’s violent outburst had not affected him at all.

’So even in that situation, she still held some control over herself.’ Noel praised Lilith internally for a moment before he shook his head with disappointment.

Lilith was far weaker than he had expected her to be, after all.

She had gotten his talent through that transfer ritual, so how was she still performing like this?

He wondered, unable to comprehend the disappointing situation.

He knew for a fact that she wouldn’t be able to inherit all of his talent completely. Because even if everything was stripped away from him, that didn’t mean she would inherit everything in return.

In the transfer process, huge amount of his Soul Power would go to waste.

But to this extent? The loss was more significant than anticipated.

Noel suddenly felt a wave of disappointment wash over him.

But in the end, he still moved on from these thoughts.

There was something far more important than all of that after all.

It was time to upgrade the features of the Codex Null!

Holding the storage ring with the hundred thousand Soul Crystals nestled inside, he was going to offer them all to the Codex Null.

But just as he was about to proceed, he suddenly stopped.

Was offering the Soul Crystals the most efficient approach?

He asked himself, fingers pausing over the ring.

After all, at this point in time, he already understood the mechanics behind the Codex Null from the moment it had linked with him.

Null Points were obtained when he offered the Codex Null any items containing Soul or Law Power.

Soul Crystals were a currency that could buy all kinds of these empowered items.

So which approach was more profitable to him in the long run?

Noel pondered for a moment as he suddenly decided to appraise the storage ring itself.

[Storage Ring]

An unranked relic, forged through a delicate process. Its interior space measures precisely 10 kilometers square, stable and resistant to distortion. Objects stored within remain unchanged, unaffected by time, temperature, or decay.

Null Point Value: 5,000

Maybe he should simply stick to Soul Crystals after all?

Noel wondered as he read the appraisal results, noting the relatively small number of Null Points it offered.

Five thousand was by no means a small amount, but that was all relative to context.

With the price of the storage ring being at least a thousand Soul Crystals, and this particular one in his hand being far more expensive than average, then it was clear which option was more profitable for him to offer to the Codex Null.

But deciding to give another option a try, Noel shifted his gaze to the necklace resting against his neck.

No matter the potential profit, he didn’t plan to offer it up.

But a pocket dimension... just how much would it be worth?

Noel wondered with growing curiosity.

[Lioren Thread]

A necklace with a world shard anchored into it, fractured from a greater whole and sealed through complex stabilizing methods. Though its structure remains intact, signs of erosion spread through its boundaries — evidence of gradual collapse.

Null Point Value: 1,200,000

Why was it this cheap compared to expectations?

Noel wondered with a frown.

The necklace, at the end of the day, was a dimensional pocket, and one anchored into a necklace rather than some bulky item or fixed location.

This kind of portable pocket dimension was among the priciest in the hidden society, but it was only worth a little more than a million Null Points?

Feeling genuinely disappointed by the valuation, Noel shook his head in resignation.

For now, he would stick with Soul Crystals as his primary offering, and maybe later he would venture out to see if he could find some items in the hidden society being sold for cheap prices that might yield higher amounts of Null Points.