Several minutes passed before Beroga finally forced his way through the summons.
He reached Isaac and threw a heavy punch that landed squarely against Isaac’s guard. The impact sent Isaac sliding backward across the ground, leaving deep marks beneath his feet.
Emily’s expression changed slightly. She had been worried Isaac would collapse after taking a direct hit from an Ascender.
Instead, Isaac steadied himself, rolled his shoulders once, and charged forward again as though nothing serious had happened.
"...You’re still standing?" Beroga stared at him in disbelief. There was no way Isaac should’ve not been taken out with one hit.
Confusion filled Beroga’s mind.
Isaac grinned.
Beroga clicked his tongue before attacking again. He tried to understand what was wrong with Isaac.
Although he landed several more clean hits, Isaac simply refused to fall. His summons constantly interrupted Beroga’s rhythm, preventing him from following up properly whenever he gained an advantage.
After several more exchanges, Beroga suddenly roared in frustration. "How much mana do you even have, you freak of nature!? Are you really just an Adept!?"
Isaac ignored the question and cast another round of buffs.
More Fire Spirits appeared around the battlefield, and Alice’s choir skill strengthened them once again. Beroga felt as though he wasn’t fighting a single person but an endless army that refused to stop growing.
Finally, he forced everyone back and quickly widened the distance between them.
His eyes remained locked on Isaac with a grave expression.
"...You. How many Titles have you stacked?"
The battlefield became quiet once again.
Beroga looked at Isaac as though everything he believed about the world had just been overturned.
"Title Stacking is only possible in Sectors that have already completed their Test. How do you have it? Are you from another Sector? No... that’s impossible. Travel between Sectors isn’t possible," he muttered.
His voice gradually became quieter as confusion filled his face. "Then... how?"
"Oh, you know about Title Stacking? How does it work?" Isaac asked casually.
For some reason, those words irritated Beroga far more than they should have. People would sacrifice almost anything for the chance to stack even a single Title.
This bastard had managed to do it repeatedly, yet he was standing here asking what it actually did.
Did he stumble into it through some absurd stroke of luck? Was that even possible?
Beroga looked at Isaac with an expression that practically screamed, Bastard, are you playing Apocalypse on Easy mode while the rest of us are stuck on Hell mode?
"So?" Isaac asked again when Beroga remained silent.
"Each stack increases the performance of the Title by ten percent," Beroga grunted. He had already lost the mood to continue fighting, so he canceled all of his active skills and simply stood there. His pride as an Ascender had taken a heavy blow.
"Is the boost applied to the base Title or the new stack?" Isaac asked.
"The new stack," Beroga replied. Then he narrowed his eyes. "So, how many stacks do you have?"
"Three for Extreme Resonance, three for Extreme Formlock, three for Extreme Mana Resonance, three for Extreme Mountainbreaker, and three for Extreme Wind Kissed," Isaac answered.
Beroga let out another low grunt. "So you have the Extreme Titles for maxing the Initiate Rank stats, and you stacked all of them three times? How did you—"
"Three of Wind Kissed, three of Needles Dancer, three of Ironbound, three of Veilbreaker, and three of Unshaken," Isaac continued, cutting him off before he could finish.
"You have three stacks of the Extreme Adept Rank Titles too...?" Beroga was stunned. However, to his horror, Isaac was not finished.
"Five of Perfectionist. Two of Grandmaster Monster Hunter," Isaac said.
"Grandmaster Monster Hunter? How did you even get that Title, let alone stack it?" Beroga asked, almost stuttering.
Isaac merely shrugged without answering.
Beroga frowned, waiting for an explanation that never came. Just as Isaac looked ready to speak again, Beroga suddenly interrupted him.
"You have more stacks?"
"Yes."
Beroga slowly opened his mouth before closing it again. He wanted to call Isaac a liar, but that explanation no longer worked. The only reason Isaac had survived Beroga’s punches was because those ridiculous stacks were apparently real.
After a long sigh, Beroga rubbed his forehead. "I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anymore. What are the remaining ones?"
"Three for Perfect Resonance and three for Symphony of Self," Isaac said.
Beroga nodded almost absentmindedly. Perfect Resonance was awarded when every stat reached its maximum at Initiate Rank. Symphony of Self was earned for accomplishing the same feat during Adept Rank. Considering Isaac already possessed every Extreme stat Title from those ranks, these two were hardly surprising.
Then Isaac casually added one more sentence.
"Oh, I also have three stacks of Conqueror Candidate."
"????"
Question marks practically appeared above Beroga’s head.
"Conqueror Candidate can be stacked?" he muttered.
Then his eyes suddenly widened.
"No... wait."
His figure blurred. The next instant he stood directly in front of Isaac and grabbed both of his shoulders.
"You’re a Conqueror Candidate, and you have stacked it’s Title? What the hell are you? Did some God reincarnate? Are you secretly some Devil King? Wait... are you from another world?" Beroga shouted.
Isaac couldn’t help chuckling. Watching Beroga completely lose his composure was strangely satisfying. Just a few minutes ago, the man had been acting like someone who knew everything worth knowing. Now it looked as though every piece of common sense he had built over decades had been thrown into a fire.
Beroga continued glaring at him, clearly unwilling to let go until he received proper answers.
"Alright, let me go. We still need to tame Ki Beli," Isaac said with a smile.
Only then did Beroga finally loosen his grip.
While Isaac had been busy dismantling Beroga’s understanding of reality, Emily had already finished her own work. The five surviving members of Florathi Team had all been killed and subsequently tamed through the ability of her Legendary Equipment.
Zahard, X-019, Beila, and the two tanks now stood quietly behind her with frustrated yet obedient expressions. Elyndra had died the previous day, so her soul had already passed beyond the time limit for taming.
Emily had used five of the six available uses from her Legendary Equipment today, deliberately leaving the final slot for Ki Beli. Nearby, Isaac’s clone handed the harvested materials over to Sage Sea without interrupting the conversation.
"So, what exactly were you all doing yesterday, and why?" Isaac asked as he looked toward the newly tamed prisoners.