—Slamming me into the ground.
A smirk formed on Noah's face as he began to follow up with a punch to my face, but—
Mana surged around me as my core began to shake from the mana that I was willing out of it, and the device followed my call by raising the rank of my core to... Gold 1.
Boom!
The sudden burst of mana threw Noah away from my body, before I quickly rolled on the ground and stood up, while loosening the grip on my sword.
Flexibility in combat was more important than raw strength.
A loose grip was always helpful to divert attacks before following up with a strong counter.
"Impossible."
Noah's rugged whisper echoed across the area, adding to the silent atmosphere that had taken over for a moment.
I knew my evolution to the Gold core was much faster than Noah's, and it was bound to raise several questions, but it was better than being thrashed by the protagonist only because I had to limit my power to a Silver 3.
