Dawn of Ashes
“Very well. If this, too, is a trial, then I shall endure it willingly.”
Having recovered his senses at last, the Elder closed his eyes as if in prayer and lifted his face toward the sky.
“All of this… for the World Tree.”
The brief prayer ended. His eyes, thick with hatred, locked onto me with searing intensity.
Still playing the victim, huh.
In his mind, he was a loyal patriot who had made a nation-saving decision to preserve the World Tree—and I was nothing more than an obstacle standing in his way.
Not a single thing about him that I like.
I swallowed the thought and raised my staff once more.
“Puhaha. Look at that pathetic state. You truly believe you can break me looking like that?”
“Yeah… even lifting this staff is hard.”
The overuse of concentration had left my body completely drained. My stick-thin legs trembled under my own weight, and my unfocused vision split the Elder into three wavering shapes.
But I can’t collapse here.
The elves were watching. I owed it to their faith in me.
Huuu—
I drew a steady breath. This next spell would be my final, desperate push—every last shred of focus poured into one last act. Regardless of the outcome, it would be my final magic on the second floor.
Either I died…
Or the Elder did.
“Focus. All the way to the end—so I won’t have any regrets.”
“You…! You dared hide a final move from me!”
The Elder suddenly blurted out something absurd.
A hidden final move? What on earth was he talking about?
Then Sileia’s magic brought Ivelin back to his senses, and he shouted from behind me.
“At last—you’ve grasped the art of breathing!”
“Huh?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t even noticed your own achievement? Mana is circulating through your body!”
Mana…?
The moment I focused my awareness, I felt it. Mana had filled me without my realizing it—purer than anything I had ever held—and it began to stir.
“Have you already forgotten what I taught you? Don’t let that mana rot—use it!”
Come to think of it, Ivelin had taught me mana breathing once. During physical training, maybe. I had practiced drawing mana into my body. The mana he had forced into me back then had been useless—but mana I had drawn in through my own breathing was different.
“Thank you, Ivelin. I’ve finally learned how to handle the mana inside me.”
I didn’t need to look back to know. That tsundere elf was probably wearing an expression that said, For my disciple, this much is only natural.
What remained in my field of vision was the Elder. His face twisted as he realized the tables had turned. He dropped to his knees before me.
“Stop this, please. Can you not show mercy just this once? This old body may perish—but spare the seed. I beg you, preserve at least the seed.”
“Shut up.”
I had no reason to listen to a senile old man. I let his words slide past one ear and poured every scrap of mana circulating through me into my heart.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
Rune taught me this.
Match the mana’s pulse to the beating of your heart. Recalling her lesson, I almost felt the warmth of Rune at my back.
“Not imagining things, am I?”
Rune had fully recovered her life force and stepped up beside me. She took my hand and whispered close to my ear.
“I told you, didn’t I? Even among elves, I’m an exceptionally gifted mage. Leave the magical support to me.”
“Thank you, Rune. Let’s finish this.”
The Elder who had been begging for mercy was gone. In that brief span he had risen again and leveled his staff at me.
“Y-You think you’ll walk away from this unscathed?! Heaven’s retribution from the depths of hell will follow you!”
“Got it. So that’s your last will.”
His lips trembled as he spat curses at me. He, too, had finished preparing his magic.
“Then I’ll cast now.”
“That’s right, Seha. Trust me—and detonate it as hard as you can.”
Feeling my heart hammer as if it would burst from the mana flooding it, I chanted softly.
⟨ Dawn of Ashes ⟩
“Seha!”
“….”
“Seha, wake up!”
Where… am I?
Whose voice is that?
“It’s me—Belis!”
“Nnngh…”
Ah. So I’d blacked out after casting the spell. Then the place I’d opened my eyes…
“No!”
“Whoa! What was that about?”
I shot upright in a panic.
So this is the legendary lap pillow I’ve only ever heard about.
I’d scrambled up in pure fluster. Should I have pretended not to notice and enjoyed it a little longer?
Spilled water couldn’t be unspilled. I set the regret aside and began assessing the situation.
First—check on the Elder.
Sure enough, only cold ash remained where he had stood. With this much commotion around, there was no way he could still be alive.
As I scanned the surroundings, a question surfaced.
“What happened right after I cast the spell?”
“The Elder—well, the former Elder—threw magic at you too. A pure wind-attribute blast, from the look of it…”
“A drowning-man tactic, then.”
No path to victory, so he’d decided to take us down with him by fanning the flames? Ugly to the very end, that Elder.
“But for someone who tried to spread fire with wind, the area looks pretty intact, doesn’t it?”
“That’s because Uncle Barkan blocked the magic.”
Right. From where I’d been standing, Barkan was brushing soot off a massive shield.
“And when the spell’s backlash sent you and Aunt Rune flying, Nairak and I caught you.”
“I see.”
So my collapse hadn’t been pure exhaustion—the magic’s impact had played a part too. Beside us, Nairak gave me a bright smile and a thumbs-up.
I was replaying Belis’s words when a strange dissonance hit me.
“Wait. What did you just say?”
“Well, you see, the truth is…”
Belis twirled a finger beside her head with an embarrassed little smile. Then Nairak stepped between us.
“Seha—I took your advice and confessed my true feelings to Beli.”
“That fast?”
“I never expected a disaster of this scale right after we started dating, haha.”
I had needled Nairak a bit by the river—told him that if he liked Belis, he shouldn’t just sit around reading the room and should actually show it. I hadn’t meant for him to confess that quickly, though.
Nairak takes after his father Barkan—got that tough streak in him.
Either way, the result was good. Cheers to that.
This time Ivelin approached. No—he’d been hovering behind me this whole time, fidgeting, reading the mood. As the elf who had respected the chieftain more than anyone, the sudden shift in his heart must have been hard to process.
Time to lighten the atmosphere with a little joke.
“Elf Search Captain! Sign this immediately!”
“What on earth are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“At times like this, you admit that the World Tree is just a big tree.”
Conveniently, I’d packed a sheet of paper from Rune’s study. I pulled it from my pocket and handed it to Ivelin.
“Sign here.”
“What meaning does this act even hold?”
“It’s fun, that’s what.”
“Very well. For the hero who saved us, I can manage at least this much.”
Ivelin summoned a pen from thin air and began writing on the paper.
“The World Tree… is just… a big tree…”
I’d always wanted to try this—making an elf admit that the World Tree was nothing more than a large tree. And honestly, here it really was just a tree with a bit of spiritual power.
Perhaps that was why Ivelin finished signing so calmly, then offered me his thanks.
“Thank you. Without your aid, the elf village would surely have met its end. I will never forget this debt for as long as I live.”
“You’re not just saying that, right?”
“Of course not. It is only proper that I grant you an elven treasure.”
“For real? I was just kidding.”
My earlier playfulness had made me push one more time—and somehow it actually worked. Leaving the second floor with zero rewards would have been meaningless anyway. I’d already finished growing in stats and spirit; now it was time for material compensation.
“Wait a moment. I will bring the treasure you desire shortly.”
Ivelin and Rune conferred briefly, then left for somewhere. Among the elves I was close to, only one remained with whom I hadn’t spoken—Sileia, who had exhausted every last drop of her power to save us.
“How’s your body holding up?”
Sileia could only nod, as if she lacked the strength to move even a finger. A mage who had opened her magic for the first time and cast until she was on the verge of collapse—of course she was like this.
“Seha, do you have any idea how worried I was? Fighting the Elder alone like that, your clothes all burned up…”
“My clothes burned?”
Ah—sparks from the Elder’s final thrashing must have caught on my clothes. I’d thought everything had burned away, but it wasn’t that bad. My beloved hoodie was riddled with soot-ringed holes. If I had to compare it to something—distressed jeans?
I’ve been wearing this since I entered the first floor. Guess it’s time to throw it out.
Soli had even scolded me for only ever wearing the hoodie she bought me. Thanks to the Elder, that problem was solved.
Meanwhile, Sileia’s mouth showed no sign of stopping. She claimed she couldn’t move a muscle—apparently her mouth was the exception.
“Watching you face the Elder, I thought I wanted to become like that too. But all I could do was stick close to Mom. So while I was sitting there feeling miserable alone, I remembered what you’d said to me…”
Yep. Sileia is still Sileia.
I was letting her words drift in one ear and out the other when Ivelin returned. My gratitude for interrupting her lasted only a second—anticipation for the gift he’d prepared set my heart pounding.
“Take it. As the finest gift an elf can offer, I am certain it will satisfy you.”
What rested in his hand was—
“A seed…?”
“Indeed. A seed of the World Tree. More precisely, the original seed from which the World Tree itself was born.”
What? Not a World Tree ring or some kind of drink like before? A completely unexpected gift. What was I supposed to do with this? Plant it in the ground and grow a pet?
“Simply swallow it. It will be absorbed into you without any special process.”
“I’m not going to turn into something like the Elder if I swallow it, am I?”
I distinctly remembered being told as a child never to eat things from strangers. But this was an elf offering it—did that count as an exception?
As I stared at the seed in my hand, wrestling with the decision, Barkan strode over.
“You little—! You fought the Elder braver than anyone, yet the way you act normally is no different from a little girl!”
Once again he clapped me hard on the back and boomed with laughter. My pride took a hit for no good reason.
Fine. I’ll show you.
I lifted the World Tree seed—which, without explanation, looked like an ordinary bean—and swallowed it in one gulp without a second thought.
“Seha, how do you feel? In theory there shouldn’t be any problem…”
“O-ohh!”
“Seha!”
“Nothing’s happening?”
I patted my ears in case they’d gone pointed like an elf’s. I circulated mana through my whole body in case the seed had lodged somewhere inside. Nothing about me had changed.
“A complete lack of bodily change is normal.”
“Then why on earth did you make me eat this…?”
“Don’t you remember what you asked me before?”
Something I’d asked Rune? There had to be more than one or two things. As I floundered for the answer, Rune gave me the decisive hint.
Poof—
A wooden staff materialized in her hand.
That’s right! I’d always wondered about that technique. Not just Rune—every elf could summon a staff.
Is this how you do it?
Poof—
Whoa. That’s so cool!
The mere thought of wanting a staff made one form naturally atop my hand. Rune watched me with a fond look and added one more thing.
“Not only staves. Anything related to wood is possible.”
That tracked. Ivelin had summoned a pen from thin air earlier too. Then… could clothes work as well? The hole-riddled hoodie had been bothering me for a while. While I was at it, I might as well try clothes.
Poof—
“Whoa, it actually works!”
The soft natural fabric of the fluttering one-piece felt wonderfully smooth against my skin. When I spun in a circle, the skirt hem followed. A freshness I’d never experienced before swept through me.
“Thank you so much!”
“In truth, the seed’s true nature has not yet revealed itself.”
“There’s a hidden ability?”
“You will come to understand it naturally with time. Do not worry.”
With the gift ceremony complete, the time to leave drew near. I was never meant to stay here forever. Once the Tower’s problem was resolved, the next step was going home.
Floor 2 Cleared!
Transferring to the waiting room in 10 seconds.
I supposed I should be grateful. Even without capturing the dark elves, the system still recognized a clear.
On the first floor, I hadn’t even managed a proper goodbye to Dingdong. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“The time I spent in the elf village is something I’ll never forget. Thank you all—truly—for everything.”
Everyone seemed to have expected the farewell. Each offered a goodbye that suited them. Rune gave me a bright smile. Sileia kept talking without pause. Ivelin simply nodded in silence.
The dark elves were no different. Barkan raised his shield toward me. Nairak and Belis, hands joined, offered their farewells. Even elves I barely knew waved.
This was really the end.
“We’ll never forget you either!”
Sileia’s voice was the last thing I heard before my vision blurred.
“Seha! You’re back alive!”
“Huh?”
The moment I arrived on the rest floor, Soli was there to greet me. I was glad to see her—but my attention was locked on something else entirely.
The Floor 2 settlement glitched halfway through?
It had been displaying [Achievement Acquired: Salvation] when sudden noise flooded the entire status window—and then I’d been forcibly ejected to the rest floor as if kicked out.
This status window had never worked properly. Even if I was an Easy Mode user stuck among Hard Mode climbers, wasn’t this a bit much?
The shock of the sudden malfunction lasted only a moment. Soli’s next words threw me into even greater confusion.
“Seha, did you know? I saw you on Floor 2.”
“What?”
What was she talking about now?