10 whole years had passed, and many things came and passed. Waves were now considered an opportunity to gain wealth and power. No more people thought of them as things meant to destroy their homes.
Even the feared possibility of Wave 10 being special didn't change much, as its special feature was an introduction of a SS rank dragon.
As sad as it was for many, for some reason it had chosen the Southern Gate, which was still under the 'kind' care of technological weaponry.
Kilotonnes' worth of TNT had managed to injure it and yet why didn't it expect a 100 kilotonnes worth of TNT drop on its head in a form of their newly developed ICBMs?
This system not only proved its might over the years against illusive foes trying to invade continents. They also used it as a deterrent against any kind of 'evil' organisations sprouting throughout the world.
The unity of the entire human race was unprecedented, and for a few good reasons. While SS ranks could be threatened with the advanced ICBM system capable of covering most of the world, Magnus was not the only SS rank.
2 of the 5 Lord of the North had gained this title, one after he challenged Magnus to a fight.
The fight itself lasted about 10 hours before they decided that without the use of special trump cards, both sides weren't capable of killing each other.
However, it was still clear that Magnus could go on for possible days whilst the Lord was running out of energy at the end of the fight.
The other Lord of the North grasped the opportunity for development as an alchemist. His potions and breakthroughs were enough for an honorary SS rank title in the Logistic division.
Don't underestimate this title. Its presence alone was a sign of wealth the 5 Lords of the North possessed.
The ever so quiet and weakened Roman Empire had brought back its glory and exceeded it multiple fold.
Out of seemingly nowhere, their changes were massive a few years ago and yet went mostly unnoticed. They changed their doctrine and became close to the teachings of the past.
Their elite army was under a training program similar to a Spartan one. And further elevated it with modernisation, their squadrons moved like one and with the introduction of formations they had grasped the power of S ranks.
There was even talk of an SS rank output if the entire first legion, aka their only elite army at their current disposal, joined together.
Furthermore, their number of elites wasn't far behind the 5 Leader of the North as they had 2 SS ranks, both of which were combat oriented.
The sole weakness they now possessed was the lack of talents in the logistic field, but that was outweighed through their massive gains with each Wave.
With the plan of introducing 4 more legions in the next decade, experts predicted that it might challenge the might of the Beacon Empire.
A name of Magnus' faction, which was more or less widely accepted as such. Over the years, while the Beacon Empire didn't make many waves, their control over Australia, South America and practically Asia brought them immense geographical power.
And with the new generation of babies which were born in the mana like environment which boosted their average aptitude, they gained the most 'future' talents.
Make no mistake, though, the number of powerhouses was the highest. Excluding Magnus, they had 5 SS rank powerhouses with the talk that a sixth one would be born soon.
Of course, these were the direct disciples of Magnus. Aki became a legendary SS rank feared by many as her curses were now capable of travelling large distances.
As long as one was within the range of her powers, which no one knew the limits of, they would never be truly safe.
Curses and other intangible powers were quite unique and not reproduced so easily. Many times, young talents who had chosen this kind of path ended up stuck at rank B with barely any power.
The third SS rank of the Beacon Empire was Oliver. His potential power was unparalleled. While his own personal powers already touched the SS rank barrier, which kept rising. His summoned army, combined with formations, was capable of representing another SS rank.
Other superpowers tried to give rise to such an individual with overwhelming power, yet only the Roman Empire produced some results with an A ranker capable of withstanding an onslaught of an SS rank for 3 minutes.
Next was Caroline, who after some time returned to Beacon Empire as a diplomat and was counted as an unofficial third SS rank of the Five Lords of the North, wasn't to be trifled with, either.
She broke through once her path became a bit clearer, no longer pursuing Magnus in his special field of mastering everything. Her focus turned to extremity.
Like a unique concept of hers, once she dedicated her attention to a specific power like casting a fireball, she was able to bring its essence to the extreme.
Except for some potential curses and other weird powers, she couldn't be countered unless many gang up on her. Different from Magnus, her 'extremity' was a product of an artificial upgrade compared to Magnus', where he had to master a field before gaining the power of an SS rank.
While incapable of exerting complete SS rank power in all the fields, she puts extremity in, except the fields that she dabbles the most. She can become comparable to a S rank with a snap of a finger.
Doesn't matter if she came in contact with the field for the first time, within a minute she could already summon an S rank level of power.
Both hers and Oliver's total potential was sometimes debated to be closer to the SSS rank side. A rank that no one was worthy unless they could suppress all SS ranks on Earth.
The other remaining SS ranks were Jeremy and Han. Both men became very close, as their fighting styles weren't too far apart.
Han used his body, forged it to be the toughest thing known to mankind and unless forced to. Liked to fight with SS ranks enemies solely with his body.
Jeremy, on the other hand, took his body on the adaptable path. When fighting, he is like a cockroach capable of surviving and gradually adapting to it.
He became the first man theorised to be able to survive an actual nuclear explosion without receiving long lasting damage from radiation.
Jeremy and Han spent most of their time suppressing the African continent where they challenged any kind of invader exceeding an A rank power.
And thus their reputation was the most clear, although Magnus was still regarded as the strongest. He was more of a spiritual figure in the hearts of others.
More famous as a teacher than a fighter, and the passing decade was a testament to that. When the apocalypse first began, his power level was something like a 100 if the second strongest was 1.
But now the power difference between the second strongest and him was more or less like 1.5 to 1. While being so powerful was good, the sheer number of SS ranks was more important to keep the 'peace'.
Peace that was still being fought over, academies were being built as more and more systematic research was complete.
The largest and most prominent Academy, where the next generation of A to SS ranks and potentially SSS ranks were nurtured, was located in a 'different' dimension.
Given by Magnus, it was an academy with mana dozens of times more abundant than the Earth, even when its mana was on a constant rise throughout the last decade.
This mana difference gave a much easier time in getting more powerful, thus prompting S ranks seeking to breakthrough to SS rank to become teachers.
In fact, each of the 3 superpowers had one of their SS ranks in the academy teaching and at least 1 SS rank was in the academy grounds at all times.
A prevention against both the invaders trying to cut their future young before they could grow up and against the negative karma rankers.
Gaia's Will under the lead of Myrkr kept exploiting the weakness of humans like a stick poking them and keeping them on alert.
Most corrupt people were brought under the wing of Gaia's Will and they either exploited big holes in the system or became hidden spies.
To the bafflement of the world, there was a reason it was the sole big evil organisation. ICBMs were not capable of taking down its leader.
Over the years multiple SS rank threats on negative rankings appeared, only to be encircled by a few S ranks or SS ranks for a few minutes before they were blasted apart by ICBMs as powerful or even more so than the one which was used against the SS rank dragon.
However, each time they used such tactic or even put moles in Gaia's Will and even blasted Myrkr to pieces with ICBMs one of which even held the payload of 1 megatonne of TNT, they would find a few days of peace before he popped his ugly head out once again.
No matter how many times they 'killed' Myrkr, he would appear as if truly blessed by some kind of God giving him immortality.
Quite the number of lunatics joined Myrkr for this one simple reason. He was unkillable. Something usually denied talks of using higher payload weapons, as repairing or stopping damage from more powerful weapons was outside of their current strength.
To take a shot at killing something which was 'killed' hundreds of times over the decade with the sacrifice of cities where he appeared the most was not worth it.
Not to mention that no country was willing to be the test dummy sacrificing a major city just to confirm a theory which could very well be wrong.
On the other hand, the higher ups sometimes wiped off their imaginary sweat off their heads when Myrkr reminded them of their own mortality.
Magnus' goal to keep sharpening Humans was going even better than he thought, truly adversity and some 'suggestion' contained in the willpower attribute most A ranks and everyone S rank above had worked perfectly.
ICBMs and other such bombs or weapons had another major weakness. They had almost no effect on the mysterious lady on the African continent.
Her power was not stagnating either, though the development of humans was so staggering that she posed a problem mostly to D ranks and below.
C ranks could hold on for a minute or so on average whilst staring into her eyes and B ranks and above were capable of thinning out her horde of 'followers'.
The ICBMs did, however, worked quite well against the feathered serpent. And as sad as it was that it wasn't capable of killing it, 1 or 2 ICBMs were like annoying slaps to its face which would force it back.
Cities equipped with such weaponry now viewed the Feathered Serpent with a minimal amount of threat.
Even SS ranks were now capable of somewhat fighting the Feathered Serpent for a few hundred rounds before they had to run.
Humans weren't the only group to grow as, beside them, 2 other superpowers were recognised to be at a similar level if the ICBMs and other weapons of massive destruction weren't counted.
These weapons were simply unreasonable, from 10 thousand or so joules of energy humans used to swing with their swords to producing explosions millions of times more powerful.
Back to the two superpowers though, one of those were the Mana Beasts, which established a sort of union and the Atlantis Divine Kingdom.
Humans didn't care much for the Atlantis Divine Kingdom because of it being underwater and there were rarely conflicts with Mana Beasts with the ridiculous size of the new Earth.
That didn't mean that they held no respect for either of those, especially the Atlantis Divine Kingdom. As powerful as those ICBMs are, they weren't capable of travelling thousands of meters deep into water to kill an SS rank level aquatic creature.
Moreover, there were sights of a hundred or so SS rank level threat creatures casually hanging out on the surface of the ocean over the past decade.
If that kingdom ever wished to rule the Earth. They might force humans to initiate global self-destruction. Maybe they were weaker, but humans knew how to bite when cornered...