Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 114
Chapter Title: The Hero from a Thousand Years Ago
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A low hum filled the air.
Within it, there was light.
Mystical, green orbs of light.
They all floated in the air, emitting a radiant glow.
A warm light. A comforting light.
The lights flickered brightly, yet they seemed somehow pitiful.
"I... I see! The spirits of the World Tree...!"
Behind me, I heard the voice of Palman, who had hurriedly followed me in.
"They were the ones protecting it...! Oh...! Protecting a world that lost its god, us who lost our priestess, the dying World Tree and the elves... they were protecting us until the very end...!"
He fell to his knees, clenching his fists, his body trembling.
"......."
The brightly flickering green orbs.
These were the spirits of the World Tree.
Beings who were once the priestesses of the World Tree.
I walked among them in silence.
*Thud.*
And then, I crumpled to the ground before the spirit that shone the brightest.
I reached out my hand.
It passed through empty air.
I couldn't touch it.
It was simply radiating life force with all its might.
I covered my face with my hands.
A suppressed groan escaped my lips.
"Ah... ugh... ahh..."
Should I be glad that we've met again, even like this?
They say a thousand years have already passed here.
Have you been well?
I was in a lot of pain.
I called out the spirit's name.
"...Sister Igraine."
How much time had passed?
I must have been sitting there for a long time.
By the time my eyes refocused and my mind cleared, I found myself sitting on a tree branch in the meeting area.
How did I get here?
Did Sister Chris carry me?
"...in! Rain!"
Chris was on the verge of tears, constantly poking my cheek.
Then she bit her lip and started pinching and stretching my cheek.
Tugging it hard.
With tears welling in my eyes, I protested with a glare.
"Ow-eh-ow-eh."
"Gasp! Are you back!? Thank goodness! I was about to go pull you out of the capsule! Phew..."
"...Sister, you're so rough."
I turned my head away with a pout.
"But you two were just sitting there spaced out without me. Sob, your big sister was lonely, you know? Come on, Rain, understand!"
Chris tried her best to cheer me up.
As we bickered for a moment, the silent Palman finally spoke.
"...Rain, was it?"
"Hm?"
I stared at him blankly.
He rose from his seat and bowed his head deeply.
"Thank you, truly. With this, the elves can once again borrow the wisdom of the World Tree."
"...I only opened a channel of communication. But you said there's no priestess of the World Tree in this era, right?"
"It will be indirect, but as long as I am here, I can communicate through the spirits of the World Tree. They don't seem to be in a state to converse right now, but it should be possible once the immediate problem is resolved."
"As long as you are here...?"
"You of all people should know the meaning of my hair color, wouldn't you?"
He shook his head, his long white hair shimmering once.
I gasped and clapped my hands.
"Sister Igraine's hair color...! But, you're a mister?"
If a priestess is a man, what do you call him? A priest?
He looked slightly uncomfortable at the word "mister" but answered nonetheless.
"The line of priestesses has been broken. However, an elf born with this hair color can be seen as having inherited a fraction of the priestess's power. I can communicate with the spirits."
He gave a gentle smile and bowed his head once more.
"Companion of the priestess who restored the name of the elves' hero, O Hero from a thousand years ago. It is shameless of me to ask, but would you not save the elves, and this world, once again?"
*Ting.*
[Elf Kingdom Affinity: 100]
I simply smiled without a word.
Palman, he was wiser than I thought.
'A being from the stars.'
The Hero who had leaped across a thousand years to return to this world.
An elf of this era, one that had lost the names of its heroes and the wisdom of the World Tree, yet he had seen through to my true nature with only circumstantial evidence and a few oral traditions.
He appeared young, but that was from a human's perspective. For an elf, whose aging slows dramatically after 200 years, he must have lived for a very long time.
*Step, step.*
I silently took Chris's hand and walked.
Chris stared blankly, looking back and forth between me and Palman.
Will the day come when I can explain all this to Chris?
Even if I told her, would she be able to accept it?
We followed Palman's lead toward the back of the World Tree.
And we reached the point where the turquoise forest ended and the fog began.
There, a bizarrely colored fog of unknown origin mingled with the magical mist raised by the elves.
"Please, take a look at this."
*Fwoooosh!*
An aura of wind extended from Palman's body.
The wind parted the dense fog before us, clearing our view into the distance.
Beyond it, a colossal object was faintly visible.
It was.
"...another World Tree?"
No, it wasn't a World Tree.
It didn't have the beautiful form of the World Tree, whose branches seemed irregular yet stretched out naturally.
Its branches were twisted in unfathomable directions, giving it a grotesque feeling.
Not of this world, the Tree of the Abyss.
A bone-chilling cold and demonic energy flowed from it, seeming to reach all the way to where we stood.
Palman sighed as he looked at it.
"Its roots are touching the World Tree's roots deep underground. The World Tree is having its life force drained by it."
"Have any elves tried to approach that tree?"
"None have returned."
"...For the reclusive elves to decide to ask for help means."
"It has grown rapidly in the last few years. At the same time, the World Tree began to lose its life force quickly. It's already grown that large. If you hadn't come, we were planning to gather all our able-bodied elves and attack after clearing the demonic fog."
I stared at the 'Tree of the Abyss' with a hardened gaze.
"Rain. This."
Chris spoke to me.
She wanted to confirm with me if what she was seeing was correct.
I nodded.
[You have discovered the Raid Dungeon, 'Tree of the Abyss']
[Entry Level: 50]
[Raid Dungeon (12 players recommended)]
[Tree of the Abyss]
[In 29 days, 3 hours, and 26 minutes, the fog of the abyss will be cleared by the elves' power]
[In 59 days, 3 hours, and 26 minutes, the World Tree will completely lose its life force]
[In 59 days, 3 hours, and 26 minutes, this area will be covered in frigid demonic energy]
A proper raid dungeon, different from a 'World Boss' that involved various conflicting interests.
It opens in 30 days.
If we don't clear it within 30 days after that.
I will never be able to meet Igraine again.
***
The research lab of the 'Klaus Capsule Corporation'.
This is where Chris worked.
"Hmmmm..."
*Tap, tap, tap.*
Chris sat in her lab chair, tapping her pen against the desk.
She had a lot on her mind these days.
Her little baby bird, Rain, had started investing all her time into leveling up since that day.
She even skipped her regular three meals a day, eating only once.
Rain would collapse from exhaustion every day, falling asleep inside the capsule. Chris would then move Rain's sleeping body from the capsule to her bed.
Even when resting, Rain didn't log out.
She would just sit in the heart of the World Tree, staring blankly at the green light.
Whenever Chris asked a concerned question, she would just smile silently and shake her head.
It was as if she felt she had to finish her tasks as quickly as possible so she could hole up in there.
Chris was so worried about Rain.
'Astria Online'
The day she first saw the World Tree there.
That day was the turning point.
Rain had been acting strange ever since that day.
The conversation from that day, which Chris couldn't understand.
The look in Rain's eyes as she gazed at the green orb in the heart of the World Tree.
What could be read from it was.
Sadness, regret, longing.
Chris could read Rain's emotions, but she didn't know what caused them.
And the elf named Palman seemed to know Rain.
Chris couldn't help but be lost in thought.
"How does Palman, an NPC, know Rain, a player? An easter egg?"
Chris shook her head.
It wasn't something like an easter egg.
It was something more... fundamental.
Chris respected Rain's secrets, but she was also a proactive person.
She felt that if she left things as they were, her little baby bird, Rain, would slip through her fingers.
She apologized to Rain in a whisper to herself.
"Rain, I'm sorry. But."
I need to know about you.
She brought up a hologram and was looking up Rain's personal information through illegal channels.
"...Iseulbi, age 19. Admitted to the hospital 1 year and 6 months ago with severe injuries. L2 spinal cord injury. Discharged immediately after regaining mobility. No next of kin. Registered as a welfare recipient under the Special Act for Refugee Orphans."
The records before her hospitalization were empty.
Only her resident registration existed.
Chris tilted her head.
"Strange."
The many refugee orphans that had appeared since the Republic of Korea began accepting refugees.
Seeing Rain's exotic appearance, she had assumed she was one of them.
Even so, it was rare for there to be no records at all.
At the very least, there should have been records from a shelter or school from her childhood.
Unless someone dug into it as persistently as Chris, no one would question it.
But Rain was fundamentally out of place in this world.
She was a being who blended in more beautifully with the 'Astria Continent'.
Chris was a researcher.
She didn't believe in things that defied science, like other worlds or ghosts.
Enjoying 'Astria Online', a game set in a fantasy world, was also a means of escaping her own mundane world.
But.
The way Rain treated the 'Astria Continent' as reality.
"I don't think it's just a mental issue with Rain."
For the first time, Chris trusted her intuition over science.
She began to look into the structure of 'Hana Games', the company that created 'Astria Online'.
A company that was unremarkable until they developed Astria Online.
Did they create an NPC that knew Rain?
If so.
Is Rain's past connected to them?
"CEO Kim Dong-yeon... AO Director Shin Gyeong-hun..."
And then, Chris's gaze froze on one name.
"...Team Leader Han Yeo-reum."