Chapter 201: KP Dump

The first soldier died before he finished swinging.

Holden’s Solar-Forged Sword caught the halberd mid-arc and kept going. Through the weapon. Through the armor. Through the soldier.

Shhhk.

The soldier split at the waist. His upper half fell left. His lower half fell right. Dark energy dissolved the remains before either half hit the deck.

[Imperial Elite Soldier (Rank 2, 3-Star) Defeated! +600 KP!]

[2x KP Booster Active! +1,200 KP!]

The second soldier was already there.

His halberd thrust toward Holden’s chest.

Holden sidestepped, caught the shaft with his free hand, and pulled. The soldier stumbled forward, and Holden’s sword found his neck.

Shhhk.

[Imperial Elite Soldier (Rank 2, 3-Star) Defeated! +600 KP!]

[2x KP Booster Active! +1,200 KP!]

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Three soldiers charged in a triangle formation. The front soldier aimed low while the two behind aimed high, creating a pincer designed to trap a single combatant between three weapons.

Holden jumped, clearing ten feet of air as he went over the triangle and landed behind all three soldiers. He swung once, and all three soldiers fell.

Shhhk. Shhhk. Shhhk.

[Imperial Elite Soldier (Rank 2, 3-Star) Defeated! x3!]

[+1,800 KP!]

[2x KP Booster Active! +3,600 KP!]

The deck erupted into chaos.

Three hundred soldiers had surrounded a single target. They had expected a fight. A desperate, outnumbered, last-stand kind of fight.

What they got was a slaughter.

Holden moved through them like a blade through grass.

Every step was calculated. Every swing was placed exactly where it needed to be. His 10,000x processor tracked every soldier on the deck, mapping weapon positions and predicting attack trajectories before they happened.

A squad of ten rushed him from the port side.

Holden’s sword ignited.

FWOOM!

A single horizontal Hellfire Cleave swept across the formation. The fire wasn’t the wide, devastating arc he used against monster swarms. It was compressed, tightened into a blade of fire ten feet long and barely three inches wide.

It moved faster than the eye could follow.

The formation split.

All ten soldiers were cut cleanly through their armor and weapons. The fire cauterized the wounds as it passed, leaving no blood behind.

Ten bodies collapsed in two neat rows.

[Imperial Elite Soldier (Rank 2, 3-Star) Defeated! x10!]

[+6,000 KP!]

[2x KP Booster Active! +12,000 KP!]

The notifications stacked so quickly that they blurred together.

The soldiers stopped charging in small groups and formed a single massive wall.

Two hundred remaining soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder, their shields interlocked and halberds pointed through the gaps.

Holden walked toward the wall.

His sword was still blazing. The soldiers in the front rank squinted against the heat.

He raised his sword and swung in a wide arc.

FWOOOOOSH!

The Hellfire Cleave slammed into the shield wall like a tidal wave of fire.

The front rank’s shields, reinforced with Rank 2 defensive wards, flared blue on impact.

The wards held for one second.

Then the fire went through them.

The shields didn’t melt.

They evaporated.

Metal turned to vapor. Enchantments burned away like cobwebs in a furnace. The soldiers behind them had barely enough time to understand what was happening before the fire reached them.

The formation broke instantly.

The fire cut through the first three ranks before dissipating, leaving a smoking trench in the deck where thirty soldiers had been standing.

The remaining ranks stumbled backward.

Their formation was shattered.

So was their confidence.

[Imperial Elite Soldier (Rank 2, 3-Star) Defeated! x30!]

[+18,000 KP!]

[2x KP Booster Active! +36,000 KP!]

Holden walked through the smoke.

The remaining soldiers backed away. Some dropped their weapons. Some kept fighting. Those who continued fighting were cut down. Those who tried to flee found nowhere to go.

The ship’s railings were behind them, and Holden was already moving through the formation.

A handful threw down their weapons and surrendered.

Holden didn’t waste time killing them.

He knocked them unconscious with the flat of his blade and left them near the mainmast.

The rest weren’t so lucky.

Five more minutes.

That was all it took.

Three hundred soldiers had been neutralized. Most were dead. The survivors who had surrendered were unconscious near the mainmast.

The deck was a wreckage of scorch marks, abandoned weapons, and bodies.

Then the System tallied the haul.

[Imperial Elite Soldiers Defeated: 300]

[Base KP Earned: +180,000]

[2x KP Booster Active: +180,000 KP!]

[Total KP Earned: +360,000 KP!]

[Current KP: 1,856,290]

Holden stared at the number.

One million was already behind him.

He had crossed that milestone earlier.

But seeing his current balance climb past one and a half million still felt satisfying.

He had awakened the System in a slum apartment, where his first rewards had barely been worth anything. Back then, every few thousand KP had felt like a fortune.

Now he had nearly two million.

And Rank 4 still sat beyond a mountain of requirements.

Holden pulled up the System menu.

[Multiplier Upgrade: 10,000x to 1,000,000x]

[Status: LOCKED]

[Requirement: Cultivation Rank 4]

[WARNING: Attempting to bypass the restriction will result in immediate brain death.]

Holden stared at it.

The million-point multiplier was still there. Tempting him. But he couldn’t touch it.

Not until Rank 4.

"Fine," he muttered. "Then I buy Rank 4."

He opened the Direct Breakthrough menu.

The same menu he had studied back in the villa, filled with escalating prices that climbed higher with every star.

[Rank 3, 2-Star to Rank 3, 3-Star: 130,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 3-Star to Rank 3, 4-Star: 170,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 4-Star to Rank 3, 5-Star: 230,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 5-Star to Rank 3, 6-Star: 350,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 6-Star to Rank 3, 7-Star: 500,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 7-Star to Rank 3, 8-Star: 700,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 8-Star to Rank 3, 9-Star: 1,000,000 KP]

[Rank 3, 9-Star to Rank 4 Breakthrough: 1,500,000 KP]

His 10,000x processor ran the numbers.

From Rank 3, 2-Star all the way to Rank 4, the total cost was 4,580,000 KP.

Holden stared at the figure.

He had 1,856,290.

"Four and a half million points," he said. "The System is basically robbing me."

Holden ran the numbers again. How far could he push himself with what he had?

2-Star to 3-Star.

130,000 KP.

Remaining: 1,726,290.

3-Star to 4-Star.

170,000 KP.

Remaining: 1,556,290.

4-Star to 5-Star.

230,000 KP.

Remaining: 1,326,290.

5-Star to 6-Star.

350,000 KP.

Remaining: 976,290.

Six-Star.

He could reach Rank 3, 6-Star and still have nearly a million KP left.

He couldn’t reach 7-Star. That would require another 500,000 KP, but the jump to 6-Star was already significant.

Four full stars above where he had started.

Enough to make a difference.

Holden closed the Rank 4 calculation. It was a problem for later. Right now, he had a war to win.

Behind him, Commander Dragan Vorth charged.

The Commander had been watching.

He had watched three hundred of his elite soldiers fall in ten minutes. He had watched a teenager walk through his best troops as if they were barely worth noticing.

And now he had decided that he was going to kill the boy himself.

His halberd blazed with Rank 3 energy.

The enormous blade glowed with dark red power, trailing wisps of energy that scorched the air around it.

He swung in a wide overhead arc, putting every ounce of his Rank 3 strength behind the strike.

BOOM!

The halberd smashed into the deck where Holden had been standing.

A trench six feet long and two feet deep carved through the deck plating. The shockwave knocked equipment racks sideways.

Holden had already sidestepped.

He looked at the Commander. At the fury in his eyes.

"Four and a half million points," Holden said.

Vorth swung again.

Horizontal this time.

The halberd tore through the air at chest height, trailing red energy.

Holden dodged.

The blade passed over his head. Vorth roared and swung a third time.

A killing strike aimed at the top of Holden’s skull.

Holden raised his left hand.

His bare hand.

The halberd blade struck his palm.

CLANG!

The Commander’s arms went numb.

The impact traveled through the halberd shaft, through his wrists, through his elbows, and into his shoulders.

His Rank 3 strike had been stopped by an open palm.

The Commander’s eyes widened.

"You..."

Holden didn’t give him time to finish.

He opened his System menu.

He didn’t have time for patience.

He had an army outside.

And if he wanted to survive what was coming, he needed every advantage he could get.

He started spending.

[Direct Breakthrough: Rank 3, 2-Star to 3-Star]

[Cost: 130,000 KP]

[Confirm? Y/N]

"Confirm."

Energy surged through his body.

A jolt ran through him, followed by a sharp crack and a violent shift in his core that made his bones hum.

[Rank 3, 3-Star Achieved!]

The pressure around Holden immediately increased.

The Commander felt it.

Before he could react, another System notification appeared.

[Direct Breakthrough: Rank 3, 3-Star to 4-Star]

[Cost: 170,000 KP]

[Confirm? Y/N]

"Confirm."

Another surge.

Stronger this time.

His muscles tightened as energy flooded through them. His Aether-Steel body reinforced itself, increasing the physical strength and durability he could draw from his cultivation.

[Rank 3, 4-Star Achieved!]

Vorth stumbled backward.

He could feel the change.

Holden’s energy wasn’t merely increasing.

It was climbing rapidly.

"What are you doing?" the Commander demanded.

Holden didn’t answer.

[Direct Breakthrough: Rank 3, 4-Star to 5-Star]

[Cost: 230,000 KP]

[Confirm? Y/N]

"Confirm."

[Rank 3, 5-Star Achieved!]

The deck rattled.

Energy pulsed outward from Holden’s body in visible waves, distorting the air and making the metal plating vibrate beneath his feet.

The unconscious soldiers near the mainmast shifted as the deck bucked beneath them.

Vorth’s grip tightened around his halberd.

"What is happening to you?"

His voice had lost its boom.

"Your energy... your rank just jumped!"

Another notification appeared.

[Direct Breakthrough: Rank 3, 5-Star to 6-Star]

[Cost: 350,000 KP]

[Confirm? Y/N]

Holden looked at the Commander.

At the fear in his eyes.

At the realization dawning across his face.

The teenager standing in front of him had never been what he appeared to be.

Holden smiled.

"Confirm."

The breakthrough hit like a detonation.

Energy exploded from Holden’s body.

Pure, concentrated cultivation energy erupted outward in a violent shockwave that tore across the deck.

Metal plating buckled. Cannon equipment slid backward.

The ship’s hull groaned as its flotation arrays struggled to compensate for the sudden surge of energy coming from its own deck.

BOOM!

[Rank 3, 6-Star Achieved!]

[Breakthrough Complete!]

[Total KP Spent: 880,000]

[Current KP: 976,290]

Holden stood in the center of the cratered deck.

His body looked almost the same.

But the difference was undeniable to anyone capable of sensing energy.

His cultivation had climbed four full stars in seconds.

The pressure radiating from him was vastly greater than it had been moments ago.

Rank 3, 6-Star.

Commander Vorth took another step backward.

Then another.

His halberd, which had been blazing with confident energy, was now little more than a dim red glow.

"You," he whispered.

"You were hiding this."

Holden looked at him.

The frustration of the four-and-a-half-million-point wall was still burning in his chest.

The irritation of having spent 880,000 KP in seconds and still being nowhere near Rank 4.

He needed to vent.

And there was an enemy commander standing right in front of him.

"Hiding?"

Holden’s smile widened.

"No."

He raised his sword.

"I just couldn’t afford it until now."

The Solar-Forged blade blazed.

Hellfire Cleave at maximum.

The Star Core Elixir’s enhanced recovery continued feeding his energy reserves, allowing him to maintain the technique far longer than he normally could.

The fire turned white-hot..

The dark deck became a sunlit platform. Heat washed across the metal floor, softening it until it began to glow.

Tsssss.

Vorth raised his halberd.

Defensive stance.

The stance of a man who knew he was outmatched and was desperately trying to figure out how to survive.

Holden took a step forward.

The Commander swung.