"It was him."

Some Awakeners immediately thought of Noah. They hadn’t failed to notice Noah coming out of the light gate, but they had initially assumed that the one who cleared the 100th floor was the blue water person and hadn’t given it much thought.

They quickly searched for Noah, but by then, Noah had already walked far away. They could only remember Noah’s appearance.

Entering the Civilization Convergence Zone, although it wasn’t his real body, the manifested body was identical to his main body and could not be disguised.

Noah spent the rest of his time at the trading market.

When the day was over, Noah returned to his rented room and chose to exit.

Upon returning to his own body, a feeling of immense security washed over him. Noah couldn’t help but sigh, his own body was truly the best.

After a good night’s sleep and waking up feeling refreshed, Noah began to consider the next dungeon.

The sooner he was promoted to a Five-Order expert, the sooner he could put all his energy into subsequently triggering and overcoming the Human-Level Calamity.

He habitually opened his attribute panel for a look and suddenly froze.

He saw that an attribute had clearly been added to the attribute panel.

[Combat Art: 101%]

"Combat Art... It’s actually at 101% in reality." Noah was surprised.

What shocked him wasn’t the appearance of Combat Art on the attribute panel, but the fact it had reached 101%, just 4% short of the cap.

The value shown on the attribute panel reflected his real, current Combat Art. This was different from the Sky Piercing Tower, where external factors were excluded. In reality, many variables affected performance. Just looking at his physical attributes was enough to understand this.

Noah’s four main attributes were extremely high. His lowest, spirit, had already surpassed one million, while his strength and physique had reached five million. The standard range for Tier 4 was only around one million, meaning he had gone far beyond it.

Normally, such overwhelming attributes would greatly reduce Combat Art efficiency. Being able to utilize over three million out of five million strength already indicated exceptional body control.

Yet Noah’s Combat Art stood at 101%. This meant he could not only perfectly control this immense power that far exceeded his tier, but even draw out an additional 1% beyond his limits.

It was astonishing.

If someone else possessed such control, their Combat Art could likely exceed 300% allowing them to clear more than 300 floors in the Sky Piercing Tower.

Combat Art and controllable attributes were not directly proportional.

At 100%, one could perfectly control their own attributes.

At 200%, one could perfectly control their twice own attributes.

At 300%, one could perfectly control their four times own attributes.

And so on.

Cyrus of the Ancient God Civilization had cleared the 709th floor of the Sky Piercing Tower. His Combat Art must have reached 709%, allowing him to perfectly control attributes up to seventy times his own.

Star Ember of the Star Sea Civilization had a level of control similar to Noah. However, Star Ember’s Combat Art was as high as 318%, far beyond Noah’s 105%.

The difference was clearly due to talent.

Most of Noah’s attributes came from his ability to grow stronger simply by breathing. These attributes were already under his perfect control. Using them as a foundation to control all his attributes naturally made thing much easier. As a result, with just 105% Combat Art, he could perfectly control more than five times his total attributes.

In fact, even beyond that.

At present, Noah’s Combat Art stood at 101%. As long as it did not drop below 100%, it remained within the realm of perfect control.

Without hesitation, Noah tool out the full attribute crystals he had obtained from clearing the Sky Piercing Tower, a total of 159,000 and chose to use them.

He checked his attribute panel again. His Combat Art was still at 101%, showing no sign of dropping.

"This is incredibly stable," Noah muttered, taking a sharp breath as he once again realized the strength of his talent.

If he had more attribute crystals, he would have continued using them just to see how much his attributes could increase before his Combat Art dropped to 100% or below.

As for any potential drop in Combat Art, Noah did not care at all.

When entering a burst state, attributes rise sharply, and Combat Art inevitably decreases. But that does not mean one should avoid using burst states altogether.

There was no need to deliberately maintain Combat Art.

At 101% Combat Art, Noah could only unleash an extra fifty thousand power in battle.

But by increasing his attributes, he could gain hundreds of thousands more strength without affecting his performance.

Even though his Combat Art dropped, his actual strength rose significantly.

The higher the attributes, the greater the power. That much was undeniable. The only issue was that when Combat Art decreased, he could no longer fully utilize all his attributes, which led to diminishing returns.

"Before, I always thought breeders were terrifying. They could stack their attributes to hundreds of millions or even billions at Tier 4 through breeding. But now it seems that if they don’t improve their Combat Art, even with such massive attributes, they still won’t be able to fully use them. At most, they might only reach tens of millions in actual output."

Noah’s expression shifted as realization dawned on him.

With this new understanding, the overwhelming fear he once felt toward breeders quickly faded.

They were still extremely powerful, but they no longer gave him that sense of helplessness or the feeling that they were impossible to surpass.

...

After closing the attribute panel, Noah checked his messages.

He had only been gone for a single day, yet Blue Star had already undergone noticeable changes.

The most significant changes came from the three major rewards of the Civilization Convergence Zone.

While Noah was still there, a system notification suddenly sounded in the ears of everyone on Blue Star without any prior warning.

Plant and animal growth speed increased by 100%.

The success rates of forging, pharmacy, alchemy, and other skills also increased by 100%.

Soon after, someone uploaded a video on the Transcendent Forum showing their pet dog eating far more than usual, its appetite having increased dramatically.

The changes in plants were less obvious, but those with experience could clearly sense the difference.

Forgers and pharmacists who had only recently started found their success rates improving significantly when crafting items.

The people who benefited the most were those responsible for cultivating yellow marrow rice.

Not long after these two major boosts, another system announcement arrived, delivering a universal reward. It threw the entire Blue Star into excitement as vast amounts of Transcendent Aura spread across the land, enhancing everyone’s attributes.