System vs Rebirth

966 Last Progress

Anna gradually opened her eyes as the one he had known this whole time finally returned before him.

The first thing she did was make a sad smile. Even though this was her victory, she couldn't help but feel guilty for driving the original soul away from her body.

Anna looked at Noel's horrified expression as though he couldn't meet her anymore. Anna said with a soft tone, "See? You've known everything as I promised."

Noel walked toward her. It looked like he wanted to confirm if it was her or not. But the first thing he did was actually surprising.

*Pak!*

The crisping sound of a slap echoed. Anna and Andreas widened their eyes in shock. That was right. The first thing Noel did was actually slap her.

Anna covered her cheek with a surprised expression, but soon Noel hugged her as tightly as possible.

"Do you know that one mistake will completely erase you? What am I going to do without you?"

Anna's body shook. The one who was most pained by this agreement was not the original Anna. It was Noel.

Ultimately, they had played with Noel's feelings. Anna knew that she deserved this slap but thought that Noel would hug her afterward.

He was indeed angry, but more importantly, he was just glad that he could see her again.

"I'm sorry." Anna closed her eyes. Tears began to flow out of the corner of her eyes.

"Never do this again!"

"I know. I won't ever do this again. I promise!"

Noel took a deep breath. As much as he wanted to continue, he knew that this was not the right time. He released her and stepped back. "So, Andreas. What are you going to do?"

"As promised, I'm going to stay in your territory. I will help you defend your city, but I won't become a part of the Ardagan Family."

"That is good enough. In that case, I welcome you to our city. I will ask Dimitri for your accommodation."

Andreas nodded. "The soul transfer is done. It might take a toll on the soul, so let her rest for one or two days before doing anything."

"Understood. Thank you, Andreas."

Andreas nodded.

"In that case, let's go back."

Noel led the group back into the city. Dimitri was obviously surprised to see Andreas here, especially with that disguise. But Andreas was strong. If he could become a Spirit Grandmaster after learning from the Sword Saint, he would definitely be a powerful ally.

After experiencing a rollercoaster of emotion, there was no way Noel could be calm enough to do his work. In the end, he chose to spend the rest of the day with Anna.

Obviously, he wanted to know everything that happened during the trip, making sure that Anna was fine. He also wanted to know about his mother.

"Did my mother really tell you everything about me?" Noel frowned.

"Yes. Do you want to sleep on my lap?" Anna made a cheeky grin while patting her thighs as though she were inviting him.

"Hmph! You shouldn't trust people's vision too much since there is a limit to what they can observe." Noel harrumphed as if he were denying it.

But Anna looked down while saying, "It would be more convincing if you didn't put your head here."

Yes, Noel actually accepted her invitation out of habit, confirming his mother's words.

"So, what did she do during the trip?" Noel asked.

'Changing the topic?' Anna shook her head helplessly. "Well, the trip was much safer than our trip since all three of us were Spirit Grandmasters."

Anna began to recount everything that happened during the trip. They had killed a lot of demons on the way. Anna wanted to show her prowess by defeating a Superior Demon easily.

However, Leysha turned out to be more monstrous than she expected. In the past, Dimitri might have been the strongest fighter in the family. But after a few years of continuous training, it seemed that Leysha had reached Dimitri's level.

That alone would make the Ardagan Family much more powerful. If his parents made their appearance, the Ardagan Family would become the target of admiration and envy. The nobles would definitely switch sides after seeing two peak Spirit Grandmasters, a lot of Grandmasters and Masters, and the fact that the current head was someone like Noel.

They wouldn't even bother fighting for the head wife position with Anna as long as they could become concubines. That was how strong the Ardagan Family was.

Unfortunately, they couldn't really do it because of one big reason. They had been executed by the kingdom. If they announced to the world that the execution was fake, it meant that the Ardagan Family had fooled the kingdoms. People would wonder if they could put their trust in them or not.

In addition, it gave the royal family a reason for launching an all-out attack on the Ardagan Family, demanding the lives of Leysha and Luke. The marshal would definitely come to this place.

Even Commander Oscar or the Tower Association could only let them do whatever they wanted.

That was why Luke had been restraining Leysha the whole time.

Just the rumor of her being alive alone was enough to create suspicion in everyone's minds.

"It seems that I have to be careful for the time being." Noel fell into deep thought.

"Agreed. I believe most of the preparation is done, right?"

"Yeah. We're just trying to progress as far as possible. The north wall should be completed next month. All the main buildings should be ready to be used. What we need left is…" Noel paused for a moment.

"Let me guess. The dam, the ditch, and tunnel?"

"The dam is not that urgent right now. However, we need to direct the river toward here. The ditch is our priority because we have to stop the advancing demons. As for the tunnel… Do you think you can lead this project, Anna?"

"Is it that important?"

"Yes. If it can increase our chance of survival, I don't mind spending all our funds and resources. This tunnel will become extremely important."

"If that's what you want, then I will seek its completion."

"But before that, I think we have to focus on the rune weapons."

"Rune weapons, huh?" Anna recalled the weapons from the past. "I think you had a lot of them in the previous life. Your Rain of Light can be shot into the sky to reduce their number. And there are other intermediate runes… which I don't think you have right now."

"Well, I've prepared for it." Noel nodded and looked at the shop. After helping a lot of people multiple times, he received a lot of honor points.

[Shop]

Available Points: 3820 HP

1 Skill Point (2 HP)

Water Bottle (1 HP)

Water Gallon (2 HP)

Water Tank (3 HP)

Random Rune Scroll (30 HP)

Random Upgrade Scroll (30 HP)

This many honor points came from helping the citizens in several steps, triggering the repeatable mission multiple times. And if there were thousands of people in this city and the neighboring city. So, it wasn't weird for him to have this much Honor Point.

He could pull out the Rune Scroll right away, but it would only give him low level runes.

"Ardagan. Do you have any way for me to get Mid Level Runes? All the Mid Level Runes I have right now are supplied from mission rewards. Even if I use everything I have in the Random Rune Scroll, I will only get 1 intermediate level rune every fifty runes, right?" Noel asked.

[Mission: Shop Upgrade]

[Description: Spend 1,000 HP in the shop]

[Reward: Shop Upgrade]

"1,000 honor points? That's too much, right?" Noel fell silent for a moment. It didn't seem too much when he thought about it. He could use this chance to upgrade all his abilities as well as get a few more runes to complete the mission. "But don't you think it's a bit excessive? I mean, I don't need that many Low Level Runes, and what will happen when you run out of runes?"

[You will get multiple low level runes. If you haven't mastered it, the level of that rune will increase accordingly. If you have mastered it, nothing happens.]

"See? That's not really tempting."

[Random Rune Scroll]

Chance of getting a Low Level Rune: 98%

Chance of getting an Intermediate Level Rune: 2%

[Random Super Rune Scroll]

Chance of getting a Low Level Rune: 25%

Chance of getting an Intermediate Level Rune: 70%

Chance of getting an Advanced Level Rune: 5%

"!!!" Noel widened his eyes in shock when he saw the chance of getting an Advanced Level Rune. Still, five percent was extremely low. It was no wonder why Anna didn't find a lot of Advance Level Runes in the past.

When he thought about this, Noel said, "How many do I need to upgrade all my skills from swordsmanship to runes?"

[1530 Skill Points are needed.]

"Come on. I don't use most of my skills. Some of them aren't strong enough anymore like the Swift Strike and Mega Slash. So, don't include them.]

[480 skill points are needed, in which 200 of them are for the last level of Undying Fire.]

"Alright. Convert the honor points and level up all those abilities. Then, buy two Random Rune Scrolls. This should be enough to complete the mission."

[Processing…]

Noel knew that there would be a lot of problems with the influx of information. So, Noel turned to Anna. "Sorry, I will be advancing as quickly as possible. Once I'm done, I should get a lot of intermediate runes. We'll be busy designing items after that."

"Do you need any help?" Anna had known about Ardagan and knew the rule, so she didn't stop him.

"Just a quiet place would be good. It won't take that long anyway."

"Alright." Anna hurriedly walked out of the room while warning the people around the mansion.

[…Completed.]

[Commencing the transfer?]

"Go on!" Noel nodded while closing his eyes.

In that instant, information started to flow inside his head. It felt like his brain was being fried inside, but it was better to do it simultaneously since it saved time and effort.

"Aaaargggghh!"

Anna was standing outside the room with a sad smile. Sadly, she couldn't help him in this process. But of course, she would be busy soon since the original Anna would begin to assimilate with the Thunder Berserker Spirit until it produced a Spirit Mind.

There was one more thing that Anna didn't tell Noel. The reason why Anna agreed to find a new body for the original Anna was because Noel once told her that his power was superficial. And in the future, he might let his son inherit this power from him. When that happened, Noel wouldn't have the system anymore.

Hence, it would be time for Anna to also let go of her rebirth, which meant her original soul wouldn't be helping her anymore.

Of course, they were planning to do it after they reached a conclusion between them. At that point, would the system win or would rebirth triumph?