Chapter 259
Chapter 259
Chapter 259
Transcendence (1)
'…The problem is time.'
Even if he had figured out the breakthrough for this task, if time here flowed 1:1 with the outside, he couldn't drag it out for long.
'What should I focus on to be able to defeat that guy?'
Swordsmanship, magic, spirit arts, psychic powers, Outer Force, elemental arts, necromancy...
Through quite a few adventures, he had now acquired all the powers of the Seven-Colored World.
'But...'
In reality, without the help of items and Adi, he was nothing more than a half-wit who couldn't even awaken divine power.
'I really... was someone who couldn't do anything without Adi.'
He sometimes felt such self-loathing, but in situations like this, that emotion became even more intense.
Reading Rudian's confusion, the administrator quietly spoke up.
"You're troubled."
"Yes, I'm troubled about how I can advance to the next stage..."
"Haha, the next stage..."
He wasn't thinking about how to defeat himself, but how to advance to the next stage.
"What an interesting fellow has entered."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes, normally a greenhorn like you wouldn't be at a level to challenge this difficulty yet."
"......"
"There haven't been many who reached this place... but still, everyone except you had already completed their own path before entering. That's why I didn't set any time limit."
Rudian fell silent at words completely different from Baal's.
"To put it nicely, you've exploited a loophole in the rules. To put it badly, it's a greenhorn without proper qualifications throwing away his life."
"Are you saying that growth in this place wasn't an intended rule?"
At Rudian's question, the administrator shook his finger in denial.
"That's not it. It's just that the meaning of growth isn't about completing your own perfect form, but rather advancing toward 'transcendence.'"
"...Transcendence?"
"I speak of transcending divinity. The Seven Great Gods aren't the end of strength, after all."
"...!"
Rudian's eyes widened.
"Are you saying that if I can defeat you, I can transcend divinity!"
"Ah, that's not it. Don't get ahead of yourself with premature expectations. It just means you can lay the groundwork for it."
"......"
Only then did Rudian realize he had been overly excited.
Certainly, if his words were true, it would mean that a mere administrator, who was like an avatar of a Demon King, possessed power transcending the Seven Great Gods.
"So that means the first thing I need to do now is achieve my complete form."
"Mm, probably so? Otherwise, your head would have flown off in one strike."
Come to think of it... he suddenly realized he hadn't properly grasped what level his opponent's capabilities were at.
'...Why didn't I notice?'
Assessing an opponent's capabilities should be the first task in combat.
Strategy and tactics only come after that.
'I must have underestimated my opponent. My instincts... certainly felt it would be worth trying if we fought.'
If this judgment was wrong, it meant his opponent's capabilities were at a level that could deceive even his instincts.
"How can I reach my complete form?"
"Haha, why are you asking me that?"
"Because I think you would know."
Rudian knew this wasn't the time to worry about pride or dignity.
If there was a possibility, he had to grab onto anyone's coattails and persist.
"Asking questions and receiving teachings should also be possible if it doesn't violate the rules, shouldn't it?"
"But I don't want to. I'm not benevolent enough to give teachings for free."
"If I end up stuck in this place for thousands and thousands of years, wouldn't that be just as troublesome for you?"
Rudian persisted to the very end.
"Hmm, could that happen? No matter how much this place has a high time ratio... if it's about a thousand years, everything outside would have become meaningless."
"That means... there's at least 6-700 years of leeway."
"......"
The administrator finally realized he had been led along by that damn greenhorn's leading questions.
"Ha, ha, ha... This one's quite impudent, isn't he?"
"Thank you. Well, do you feel like beating me up a bit?"
"A little... No, very much."
Though not quite killing intent, a rather menacing aura appeared in the administrator's eyes.
"If you could teach me while beating me up... I'd be happy to take any amount of beating."
"......"
At Rudian's words, the administrator's expression changed to one of bewilderment.
The administrator, whose interest had immediately cooled, spoke in a deflated voice.
"Hey. No, you... Don't you have any pride?"
"I didn't particularly consider pride..."
"No matter how relatively low your level is... if you've reached this place, that means you're a great hero of your era... Good grief..."
"I didn't grow up easily to begin with."
He was someone who had fallen into another world with nothing but his bare body—no home, nothing to eat.
Though he had received help and affection from many people to climb to this position, that didn't make his origins disappear.
"Look, here's an annoying face. Try hitting it once."
"...And the price for getting hit is teaching?"
"If causality is established through that, it would be quite a good deal."
There was a reason Rudian was provoking him to hit him this much.
He had sensed that this space was a place where causality was applied more strongly than anything else, unlike ordinary spaces.
In the outside world, going back on one's word or breaking promises might be a matter of personal credibility, but he realized that doing such things in this place was absolutely forbidden.
This was a fact he had instinctively awakened to through all the powers, worlds, and adventures of this world.
The administrator slowly untied the scabbard hanging at his waist.
"Wow, this is really... What a troublesome fellow has entered."
"You're originally in a position where you shouldn't touch me first, right? Here, I've created the causality of 'beating' for you myself... so try hitting me once."
"Right, you bastard."
SMACK!
The moment those words ended, along with lightning-fast movement, Rudian's jaw spun around.
The culprit was the end of the scabbard that the administrator had swung.
Truly a strike so swift that not even an afterimage could be seen.
GRIN!
Despite taking such an attack, a small smile formed on Rudian's lips as he flew backward.
***
The administrator's beating wasn't just that one hit.
As if he truly intended to grind Rudian to dust, he continued to thoroughly stomp on the fallen Rudian afterward.
Then, perhaps feeling slightly refreshed, he dusted off his hands and said:
"Draw your sword."
"...A sword, you mean?"
"Fists, or any of the eighteen weapons—it doesn't matter, but since what I learned is swordsmanship, if I'm going to teach you, swordsmanship would be more convenient."
"A sword..."
Rudian, who had thought that sword was an ornament, slightly reflected on himself.
'Come to think of it, Diablo, who was said to be a direct descendant of the Demon King, also held a sword after transforming into human form.'
Though he was immediately defeated by Berus so it didn't make much of an impression...
"Is there a reason for drawing a sword?"
"Of course there is."
The administrator slowly drew his sword from its scabbard.
The scabbard was black, but the blade was also jet-black like Diablo.
"Do you know why swordsmanship—or more precisely, martial arts—is included in the 'seven powers' that are universally effective? Even though magic, which uses the same magic, exists separately."
"...Because you can reach the realm of gods through swordsmanship too."
"Ho, you know that much?"
Crux was proof of that.
And Elvin too, though not a pure martial artist, had that possibility.
"Then why do you think I told you to draw a sword?"
"...That's..."
Rudian hesitated without being able to answer.
In fact, swordsmanship was the most inferior among the powers Rudian possessed, along with magic.
Though he had practiced it the longest, psychic powers, necromancy, Outer Force, and others that he had acquired much later were so convenient and powerful that swordsmanship had been pushed to quite a low priority.
'Moreover, even those powers weren't used much because they were overshadowed by Adi and the Seven-Colored World...'
Looking back like this, the saying "pearls before swine" couldn't be more fitting.
"The reason I told you to draw a sword is simple. Because swordsmanship can fuse with any power. Dao arts or spear arts... mm, those won't work. Their level is inferior."
"......"
It was words that showed a strange pride and obsession with swordsmanship.
Isn't this guy actually more like a martial god or sword god rather than a Demon King?
"More precisely, you could say it's very suitable for gathering and refining the miscellaneous energies within you into one."
"...!"
Setting aside calling Outer Force and necromancy miscellaneous energies, those words themselves were certainly correct.
Because...
"Everything ultimately leads to divinity and demonic power anyway."
"...That's right."
"Considering the magnitude of power you possess... you should have long ago realized divinity and ascended yourself. But do you know why you couldn't?"
"...I don't know."
Among the strong people he had seen so far, many had expressed doubts when looking at Rudian's condition.
Their assessment was that he should have long ago realized divinity and ascended.
Rudian himself roughly thought he had reached that boundary—that is, the causality critical point, but...
The administrator chuckled and told Rudian the truth.
"That's precisely because of Arcadia, the main personality of Deus that you obtained."
"...What did you say?"
"To be precise, you could say it's a paradox that occurred because he was too competent."
That the reason he couldn't realize divinity was because of Adi... What kind of nonsense was this?
The administrator continued his explanation to the confused Rudian.
"Originally, whether human or other races, when they aim for 'above' and train their bodies."
Even if it's not that, but simply seeking survival or having no choice but to move their bodies, it's the same.
Though the reasons differ, if circumstances are created and they train their bodies accordingly, once they pass a certain threshold, they naturally come to realize magic on their own.
Of course, as civilization developed and internal cultivation methods for professionally absorbing magic advanced, the basic principles themselves didn't change.
"Hmm, in your case, that threshold was so high that the time to obtain magic was delayed..."
"What? What do you mean by that?"
"Exactly what I said. Someone who flowed in from the outside like you has considerably high potential. Though that would look like magic insensitivity or being an idiot in ordinary people's eyes..."
"......"
Rudian recalled the memory of being judged as having a body incapable of accumulating magic shortly after becoming a servant of Iskar.
The event that brought him his first despair in life.
Without Adi, he would have remained just one of the countless extras in this world, buried in the flow of history.
"In short... you're saying that because my potential was high, the threshold for realizing magic also became higher?"
"Right."
"How does that make sense? If that's a kind of talent, the threshold should be much lower to be normal!"
Rudian felt slightly wronged and argued with the administrator.
No matter how much it was irrelevant now, what was unfair was still unfair.
But the administrator chuckled and said:
"Is putting one bowl of water into a cup the same as putting one bowl of water into a reservoir? Naturally, for you, it's not one bowl but several that need to be poured in for it to show."
In short, this was it.
Water was magic, and just as that water needed to exceed the amount marked on the vessel's scale to be considered "full," realizing and recognizing magic also needed to be accumulated enough to be properly recognized before it manifested properly.
Until then, it spread throughout the body and remained undetected by other senses.
"Whatever the case, it's true that the threshold you possess far exceeds the range that ordinary humanity can handle... Yet it's also true that you've accumulated power to a degree you couldn't handle until now."
Originally, warriors who naturally accumulated magic advance to the next level through life-threatening trials when they reach that threshold.
Though the standard for that threshold, Grand Master, is so high that maybe one person per generation reaches it.
Anyway, if they safely pass that trial, their body evolves to be able to accommodate even greater magic.
Rudian had accumulated dozens of times more power than such Grand Masters, and various types of power at that, yet there were no particular abnormalities in his body.
"That's because my vessel was expanded by Leviathan's core..."
"No, that's not it. It's true that it expanded your vessel further, but that can't be the fundamental reason."
"Then..."
"Naturally, it's because Arcadia reduced your burden... no, eliminated it."
"......"
"Because he took away even the trials that should have elevated your vessel to divinity, you've become such a half-wit now."