---
STATUS
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→ NAME: NOVA ASHBOURNE
→ AGE: 23
→ RACE: HUMAN/MUTANT
→ MUTANT ABILITY: WISH
→ ENERGY: 670
→ MENTAL POWER: B-78
→ STRENGTH: B-64
→ DEFENSE: B-57
→ AGILITY: B-68
→ STATUS: 3RD RANK
→ COMBAT STRENGTH: MID 2ND RANK
→ ARTIFACTS: FOUR LEAF CLOVER (SOUL BOUND), DEMON DWELLER SWORD, OMNITRIX (SOUL BOUND)
---
Nova smiled faintly as he studied his updated status screen, though the number that truly caught his attention wasn't his Energy or Strength — it was his age. Twenty-three. He let out a sigh, realizing he'd aged two full years in just twenty-four days of real-world time. Along with counting the time he spent in Black Clover world. It's been three years since he awakened his power and all.
It hadn't been wasted, though.
After securing the Sanctum Vault, a high-grade dimensional trunk, and purchasing nearly every magical book he could find in Flourish and Blotts — from first-year textbooks to obscure tomes managed to buy— Nova had quietly vanished from the public eye.
He chose a secluded clearing near a forested cliff, dug a deep hollow, buried the trunk beneath the earth, and used his space manipulation abilities to slip inside undetected.
Once within, he adjusted the internal time ratio using his system's chronospatial interface: one day outside equaling one month inside — the maximum limit his system permitted.
For the next two subjective years, Nova devoted himself entirely to studying every scrap of magic he'd acquired. To streamline the process, he uploaded the content of his books into his laptop. The device, analyzed the texts, cross-referenced them for contradictions, highlighted redundant theories, and flagged critical insights.
But reading it all page by page, even digitally, would've taken far too long.
So, Nova turned to a spell he had developed during his time at the World Tree Core — a technomancy-based spell that allowed him to directly link his consciousness to electronic systems. It was the same technique he'd casually used to unlock Ned's phone during that one overnight stay.
Back then, he rarely relied on it. The mental strain of maintaining a stable connection while interpreting machine language had been too taxing, even with Allspeak assisting his comprehension of digital code. More than that, while Allspeak allowed him to "understand" machine language, it didn't inherently reveal the operational logic behind complex hardware or software systems.
Altough he could have easily done that too using his soul-sight ability but he decided to be lazy— and in hindsight, a missed opportunity. He belatedly realized he could've tethered Grey Matter's consciousness to the laptop months ago and saved himself a world of effort.
Lesson learned.
Now, inside the trunk with time on his side, Nova fine-tuned the spell and re-established a clean, efficient connection between his mind and the laptop. He effectively downloaded the raw information directly into his brain. The flood of data would've been overwhelming if not for a secondary passive spell — that was very similar to Archive Magic — that automatically sorted and organized incoming knowledge by category, creating a vast mental library within his mind.
However, even with the information stored, raw knowledge meant little without comprehension.
Normally, Nova would've transformed into Grey Matter and powered through the theoretical studies in record time. But the Omnitrix's recharge cycle made that tedious and unreliable. So, he commissioned Grey Matter to engineer a workaround.
The result was a compact, sleek device inspired by a combination of Cerebro from the X-Men universe and various fan theories Nova had once read about Ravenclaw's Diadem.
He named it the G.M.D. — Grey Matter's Diadem. Not the most creative name, but naming things had never been Nova's strong suit.
The device's primary function was to enhance mental strength, memory retention, and comprehension speed. Later, Nova modified the G.M.D. by integrating his technomancy spell into its matrix. This allowed him to essentially borrow the laptop's processing power as supplementary mental bandwidth while studying.
The result was remarkable. His already-augmented mind, boosted by the G.M.D. and stabilized by the technomancy link, could absorb, categorize, and comprehend magical theory at speeds that would leave most scholars breathless.
Even so, it wasn't limitless. The human brain — enhanced or not — needed rest. Constant data transfers and mental amplification rapidly drained his Mental Power stat and led to painful side effects: migraines, neural fatigue, and, occasionally, momentary blackouts. Nova had to pace himself, scanning knowledge in batches, allowing his mind time to recuperate before diving back in.
Even with those limitations, Nova managed to read, scan, and comprehend all the knowledge from his collection of magical books within three subjective months. What normal magical people take seven years to learn, he did in three months.
In theory, he could have done it faster — but the risk of cognitive burnout, neural fatigue, and mental strain wasn't worth gambling. For once, patience proved to be the wiser strategy.
Once the theoretical foundation was firmly in place, Nova devoted the next year entirely to practical application. He started at the very basics — first-year Hogwarts spells like Lumos, Alohomora, and Wingardium Leviosa — steadily progressing year by year through the curriculum until he comfortably mastered advanced seventh-year magic.
Alongside Hogwarts-taught spells, he also practiced a variety of household enchantments, utility charms, warding spells, and minor rituals not typically covered in standard education.
However, he noticed a distinct absence: there were no books on Dark Magic in Flourish and Blotts. Not a single curse, blood ritual, or forbidden spell collection in the whole lot. As much as he would've liked to study them for completeness, he had no material to work with.
Even so, Nova found a kind of joy in his relentless practice — whether it was effortlessly animating objects, erecting magical barriers, or refining precision control over delicate enchantments. This hands-on spellwork was where magic truly came alive for him.
After mastering the spells as written, Nova turned his attention to innovation. He spent the following year altering existing spells, crafting entirely new ones, and delving into experimental fields of magic.
One particular project Nova grew obsessed with was Magi-Tech — blending magic with technology. With his technomancy spell and his laptop's baseline processing power, it wasn't long before he started enhancing the device itself.
He reinforced the laptop with protective runic inscriptions to shield it from magical interference, EMP effects, and physical damage. Then, using a storage expansion enchantment, he linked its memory to a compact pocket dimension, granting it virtually limitless storage capacity for texts, diagrams, and magical schematics.
More importantly, Nova modified its processing abilities. By weaving computational enhancement runes into its circuitry and binding it to a minor mental amplification array, the laptop's speed, multi-tasking, and data-parsing capabilities multiplied several times over. It could now analyze magical texts, cross-reference spells, and simulate enchantment effects near-instantly when paired with his technomancy link.
He even added a basic self-repair charm, allowing minor system damage to automatically patch itself without physical tools.
The laptop also gained new functions — like an integrated spell matrix simulator, letting Nova test theoretical spells in a virtual environment before attempting them in real life. It could flag unstable patterns, identify conflicting magical laws, and suggest optimal rune sequences or chant modifications.
What began as an ordinary device evolved into Nova's personal arcane workstation — a portable magical lab and research hub. Crude by advanced magi-tech standards, perhaps, but more than enough to give him a massive advantage in this unfamiliar world.
It was efficient, compact, and — combined with his growing skillset — dangerously effective.
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The result of this intensive two-year grind spoke for itself — plainly reflected in his updated status screen. His strength, mental power, agility, and defense had all risen sharply.
During his souls stay in the world core, his body was bathing in pure liquid mana and his passive energy absorption was enhancing his body and energy reserves stats.
During that time, he broke through to 3rd rank power tier. Then after these two years of training, he almost reached the peak of the rank.
But one thing confused him was the invisible gap: his actual combat ability now far exceeded what his listed power tier suggested.
When Nova first noticed this, it puzzled him. His 3rd Rank tier power and 2nd Rank tier combat strength didn't line up. Curious, he voiced his concern to the system — and the explanation cleared everything up.
Power tiers, the system explained, were determined by fixed, quantifiable parameters: physical strength, energy capacity, mental power, and defense. What those values didn't account for was a separate, qualitative factor — knowledge-based and equipment-based combat parameters.
That's where combat strength came in.
Combat strength factored in not just knowledge — like mastery of magic theory, spellwork, technomancy, hybrid Magi-Tech, tactics, and adaptability — but also the advantages granted by artifacts, weapons, or external tools.
For example: Thor without Stormbreaker was undeniably powerful — a literal god of thunder with immense raw strength and energy. But his confrontation with Thanos at the start of Infinity War, even alongside the Hulk, ended in brutal defeat. Despite his high power tier, Thor without a proper weapon struggled against a fully-armed opponent with better resources.
Yet later in the same film, when Thor arrived in Wakanda wielding Stormbreaker, the entire battlefield shifted. He tore through hordes of enemies effortlessly and even overpowered and injured Thanos, who was wielding all six Infinity Stones, something no one else came remotely close to doing.
It wasn't just Thor's raw power — it was Stormbreaker multiplying his damage output, enhancing his abilities, providing new attack options like summoning the Bifrost, and even withstanding the Infinity Gauntlet's power.
The weapon didn't change Thor's base stats — it drastically elevated his combat strength.
That's the difference.
Power tier was about how hard you could hit or how much energy you could hold. Combat strength was about how smartly and effectively you could wield that power, and what resources or artifacts you had to augment it.
And Nova, after two years of relentless study, refinement, and experimentation, had become ruthlessly efficient.
His practical combat strength, tactical adaptability, mastery over utility magic, and access to powerful artifacts like the Demon-Dweller Sword, the Four-Leaf Clover Grimoire, and the Omnitrix had placed him far above others at his rank — enough to punch several classes above if necessary. The system didn't numerically quantify that edge, but Nova knew it intimately.
And now, he is going to come out his retreat and cause chaos in the magical world.
x------x
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