Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The Progenitor's Prison
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“Why did the master of the labyrinth keep you locked away?”
How long had it been since we entered the Starlight Spring? It felt like just yesterday that I hadn’t even known how I died.
Zero deflected the dagger thrusting toward his throat and paused to think before speaking.
“Because we’re doppelgangers?”
Gamur smiled warmly at Zero’s words. With his fingertips, he seized Zero’s collarbone and crushed it as he replied.
“It’s both right and wrong.”
If Zero dies, he reverts to seed form. Then Gamur and Bahadi retrieve the seed and immerse it in the Starlight Spring.
That way, he revives in as little as a couple of hours or up to half a day at most.
“The pain you feel is an illusion. I keep telling you, Zero. Don’t act like a run-of-the-mill doppelganger.”
Gamur casually covered Zero’s mouth right before he could scream and continued.
“You’ve been locked up too long to grasp it properly. What it means to be a doppelganger—the progenitor, no less. Why they had to confine you there.”
Focus.
His voice was gentle, yet laced with icy detachment.
Zero gasped for air after escaping Gamur’s grip. His crushed collarbone had been partially mended by his regenerating body.
“This time, have some of my blood, Zero.”
Zero downed the fresh blood from the small cup Bahadi handed him in one gulp and wiped his lips with his sleeve. Gamur spoke up.
“Unlike other doppelgangers, you now realize you grow stronger the more you devour. But I won’t recommend it. Keep swallowing only the bare minimum of information, like now.”
Yet Zero recalled there was one person he mustn’t so much as taste.
“Especially that black-haired man.”
Gamur didn’t speak Cain’s name. Was it reluctance, or...
“Not even a single drop of his blood. Not unless you’re pushed to the absolute brink—never.”
Or perhaps wariness.
“You, who devoured a fragment of my memories—you should understand why.”
Was it because he’d sustained himself on elf blood and flesh instead of proper meals the entire time here? With each death and revival, Zero drifted further from his original form. His jewel-like eyes trembled.
* * *
“Adelian-nim! I’ve missed you so much. Let’s get out of here—right now! Outside!”
No, what the hell is this?
“I’m so sick of it. I can at least use one hand now. I’ve been surviving here without even a bowl of soup. They don’t give us any food.”
“Ah, now that’s crossing the line.”
Food isn’t the issue.
Even in my bewilderment, I found myself responding on reflex. Ah, so Koreans really do run on rice... they’re that serious about meals.
“First things first—explain yourselves.”
I shoved Zero aside as he tried to hide behind me. Bahadi glanced at Leaf with her doll-like face before replying.
“What explanation do you mean?”
“Why we emerged smack in the middle of the forest. There was a whole ambush waiting for us—what did you do about it? And...”
I grabbed Zero’s ear and shook it. His hair had turned a silvery gray, his face was sleek and handsome, and he’d even grown taller. If not for his faintly jewel-like green eyes, his speech patterns, and his voice, I wouldn’t have recognized him.
“Why’d this guy end up like this?”
I thought elves only upgraded items, but they level up units too?
Bahadi fell silent at my sarcasm, while Zero whined that it hurt.
After returning to the Spirit Forest following the battle with Chaser, I let out a scoff.
To be honest, I hadn’t expected rising smoke, collapsed buildings, and a ravaged forest.
But seeing the fairy folk strolling along with smiles on their faces, as if nothing had happened...
‘This pisses me off.’
When I headed to the site of Gamur’s former mansion, it was still standing there intact.
Wait—if that’s the case, what the hell was that forest entrance we came out of? I had a rough idea, but if something’s worth tearing out, you tear it out.
“You used us blatantly. Now it’s time to pay up. Snatching the dagger from your throat thanks to us wasn’t enough—you even turned it back on them.”
Gamur sat in his vine chair and smiled gently as he replied.
“The moment you desire, just that once. I’ll provide every ounce of support.”
“Great Elder?”
Bahadi whipped her head around in surprise and called out to him.
“Did you clear that with the Elder Council? Even the Great Elder doesn’t have authority like that, does he?”
Gamur responded in a tone as serene as an undisturbed lake.
“The Great Elder lacks such authority, but the name of Arch Pension carries that much weight. I promise you in the name of the last remaining elf royalty.”
“What in the—!”
Bahadi’s voice turned uncharacteristically sharp at his words. Gamur raised a hand to silence her and continued.
“Will that satisfy you?”
The air grew strangely tense.
I kept my smile fixed in place as I spoke.
“Shall we talk privately?”
I rubbed my hands together like I’d just reeled in a massive sucker. Bahadi narrowed one eye, but she had no power here right now.
“Call if you need anything.”
I told them to leave, and Luna whispered anxiously about leaving me alone. I nodded lightly. Once the room held only Gamur and me, I sat facing him.
“Soundproofed?”
“I’ve taken measures to prevent any leakage. No one in this forest will overhear us.”
He was smiling, but the voice that emerged was chilling enough to surprise even me.
“What exactly do you know?”
“I knew you’d return from there without major losses. That’s why I trusted you to handle it. But that’s not the answer you’re after, is it.”
Some might find his soft voice pleasant, but to my ears right now, it grated like noise.
“Give me the answer I want.”
No more dancing around it.
Gamur let out a small chuckle at my irritated tone.
“Just a tiny bit. Like remembering one or two lines that caught your eye from a few pages you skimmed after secretly peeking at a book.”
A faint headache pulsed near my temple, like a vein throbbing.
Was he using the metaphor knowingly, or not?
“Such as?”
I leaned back in the chair casually, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee and tilting my head. Gamur’s jewel-like eyes fixed on me, faintly scattering light.
“Shards embedded in my eyes—I lived with them. I knew what they were, but not their meaning.”
Gamur leaned slightly toward me, his voice turning intimate.
“Now I know. Trust in yourself, Adelian. And... a god, or one who has reached a god’s stature, can hear whatever one desires.”
His low voice resonated like a secret shared between just us. I swallowed hard.
“Never speak all of his names.”
Lest someone overhears and tracks it down.
* * *
“So why’d he end up looking like that?”
“Don’t... say it so outright...”
Ignoring Zero’s petulant mumbling, I prodded him with my sauce-covered fork. Bahadi, who was slicing thumbnail-sized black beans, replied.
“He’s closer to his original form now.”
A doppelganger’s got an “original” form?
Not referring to that round core, surely.
As if reading my skepticism in my eyes, Gamur answered instead.
“The appearance he assumed was crafted from consuming vast amounts of information—a bland, unthreatening guise designed not to raise alarms.”
So his original plain face was a hunting disguise. This current sleek one with gray hair and green jewel eyes is his true face.
“A doppelganger that hasn’t wholly devoured someone’s life is exceedingly rare. It means no contamination from any information, so maintaining that purity will serve him well going forward.”
I glanced at Zero, who kept darting his eyes toward me, gauging my reaction.
[Zero—Doppelganger's Beginning and End]
Main Traits: [Replication (SS)] [Cooking (S+)] [Everchanging (A)] [Mana Body (C+)]
Hidden Traits: [Dignity (C-)] [Gluttony (C)]
Replication’s rank had surged, Everchanging and Mana Body had awakened, and a new hidden trait—Gluttony—had emerged.
His original Kindness and Studiousness were probably still there, just hidden from the trait window, overshadowed by the newcomers.
On the surface, no issues with his traits.
‘But the nuance feels off.’
Combining that Gluttony trait with Gamur’s words, it might relate to something other than literal food.
Zero’s always loved eating—maybe it’s instinct ingrained in his species?
‘Unable to obtain human bio-data, so he craves food as a rebound for that hunger.’
I waggled my fork and skewered a cherry tomato.
“Deaths and revivals awakened his latent traits and reverted him to his original form—fine, whatever.”
I crunched into the plump tomato with my teeth and grumbled.
“But now he sticks out like a sore thumb.”
“The flashier the appearance, the stronger the being, as a rule.”
Always like this when it comes to not handing over one more item.
“Feeling confident, are we?”
“More useful than before, at least.”
I curled up one corner of my mouth.
“Looks that way. But is it safe to let something like that loose outside?”
I nodded toward Zero, who was glumly pawing at his own face. Gamur replied with his signature faint smile.
“I trust you.”
You trust me.
One doubt that had nagged at me before resurfaced.
Why were the doppelgangers confined to that labyrinth? Doppelgangers that devour others and impersonate them...
Is that such a dire threat in this fantasy world? They don’t even possess transcendent might.
But thinking on it now, it wasn’t a prison for the doppelgangers. It was one made just for Zero.
Everchanging. He can borrow powers from doppelgangers under his command or from abilities embedded in bio-data he’s absorbed.
Mana Body. Zero’s current body isn’t based on anyone’s bio-data—it’s flesh forged from mana itself.
That’s why, during the dragon’s fear when Luna fainted and Zero was weaker than Cain with no abilities, he still moved like Cain.
A trait that can partially yield to, reverse, or nullify any magical phenomenon.
‘And as the doppelganger progenitor, he can create them under certain conditions, plus that Gluttony trait.’
Zero can fully devour someone, replicate them, and rebirth them as a doppelganger bound to him.
He’s never done it, so it’s impossible now. But just once...
And if that person’s a villain, their memories could corrupt Zero’s innate kindness, wiping traits away.
He might endlessly devour, replicate, grow more corrupted, and cross the line.
Moreover, as progenitor, Zero can sense and command them, reviving them with enough mana even after death. One misstep, and it’s a main stream catastrophe tied to the evil god cult: five random encounters.
Beastkin war, plague, monster waves, imperial throne civil war, undead uprising.
A doppelganger continental invasion could join the list.
“Uh... why’re you staring like that?”
If I screw up handling that dopey smiling face peeking at me, it could lead to ruin.
‘Cain’ll sort it out.’
Gamur said he trusted me, but I trust Cain.
A poison’s a medicine if used right. Same for Zero. Handle well, and we can shove it down the evil god cult’s throat big time. No need to dwell on the worst case.
‘Plus, Zero’s signed divine contract is in my hands.’
With my thoughts sorted, I downed my wine in one go and turned to Bahadi.
“Still feels unfair. Cough up something at least.”