Chapter 169
Chapter 169
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 169
Chapter Title: Paju Flood
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[You have achieved an astonishing feat. Even as past information faded and your sense of self crumbled, you refused to give up and overcame a horrific ordeal.]
Yeah, it was truly horrific.
[Achievement Unlocked! You have destroyed the Sea Well!
You have obtained the 'Advanced Achievement: Closer of the Sea Gate.'
As a reward for the achievement, you comprehend the Gate Creation spell.]
[Achievement Unlocked! You have destroyed the 'Avatar – Pale Wave'!
You have obtained the 'Advanced Achievement: Tamer of the Waves.'
As a reward for the achievement, you enter a hostile relationship with all Deep One forces and obtain the 'Jewel of the Waves' and a large quantity of magic stones.]
Rumble—crash—
The body of Dagon's avatar, [Pale Wave], was collapsing. Along with it came a torrent of ownerless mana being released.
Flutter-flap—
The sound of wings beating from the sky, followed by my voice.
"Red! Let's go!"
[Absorption]
Whooooosh!!
*'That guy's feeding it all to Red again.'*
One-third of my consciousness had apparently decided to feed all that mana to Red.
Well, not a bad call.
I'd let Red have the mana, while I collected what I needed to grab.
[Invisible Hand]
Crack! Crunch!
Telekinesis formed from mana extracted the rewards from [Pale Wave]'s corpse.
"The magic stones I blew up earlier can be replenished with these. And..."
[Jewel of the Waves]. A tremendously powerful artifact. But since it's water-attuned...
"Feed it to Red."
"Won't overloading it with one element turn it into a Deep One?"
"Ugh, you're right."
Talking to myself like this.
Rumble—grrrumble—
[Pale Wave], stripped of its mana and with its core gone, lost its form entirely, transforming into a massive volume of water and the corpses of thousands of fish. Mixed in were bodies of Deep Ones and mud.
To think it manifested using that as a base.
The crumbling fragments flowed beyond the barrier along with the waves surging from the north and the downpour from the sky.
Roooar—
[You have thwarted the great cataclysm following the Great Collapse—the Great Flood. And you have felled the avatar of an abyssal being, 'Pale Wave.' This is truly an astonishing achievement. Especially in that situation where your memories and sense of self were crumbling. No one thought you would accomplish such a miraculous feat.]
[Achievement Unlocked! You have breached the Great Barrier!
You have obtained the 'Advanced Achievement: Barrier Breaker.'
As a reward for the achievement, you enter a hostile relationship with the Foreigner Management Bureau and obtain the 'Barrier Core' and 'Sealing Stone.']
"Heh heh..."
It wasn't exactly "breached" in a massive way. Relatively speaking, compared to the entire length of the Great Barrier. A hole about 10 meters wide?
Roooar! Roooaaar!
The tsunami slammed into the Great Barrier with immense pressure.
Crashhh—whoosh!!
The hole in the Great Barrier widened at tremendous speed. 20 meters—no, now 30 meters. Ugh. It's still expanding. And the hole isn't the only problem.
Kaboooom—
I thought it was low compared to the barrier's height, but as it started pouring in, the wave's height rose in an instant.
The waves eventually surged over the barrier, flooding into Paju.
Creak—squeeeak—
Creaking sounds came from the ship. It was trying to get dragged along by the current, but I was pumping mana into the magic stone engine to fight against the flow.
And the rain still pouring from the sky.
Glancing back, the water spout shooting into the sky had vanished. Instead, even more waves were rolling in. The pressure of the spout had weakened, but now it was spewing out vast amounts of water in all directions.
"Flood's coming."
[You stopped the Great Flood, but you couldn't prevent the localized disaster in Paju. The Great Barrier has crumbled, and an enormous volume of water is flooding into Paju. This is no ordinary water. It all originates from the abyssal sea. Great changes will come to Paju.]
Sorry for the people of Paju, but there's nothing more I can do.
If things had gone as planned, it wouldn't have been just a flood—the entire world's landmasses would have sunk beneath the sea, or [Pale Wave] would have crossed the barrier and destroyed everything in Paju.
[Quest Completed!
[Special Quest: The Strange Village]
Reward: 5,220,000 XP + Village Treasure + Additional Bonus Based on Performance.]
[You have accumulated enough experience to reach the next level. Level increased by 1.]
[You have defeated the 'Avatar – Pale Wave.' Your understanding of abyssal beings greatly increases.]
[You have defeated most members of the 'Dagon Cult – Innsu Village.' Your understanding of abyssal beings and Deep Ones greatly increases.]
[You have accumulated enough experience to reach the next level. Level increased by 2.]
[Discovery: Acquired Innsu Village's Secret Item (1). Experience gained.]
[Discovery: You have found a secret space. Experience gained.]
[Experience Bonus: You have achieved a total of (2) achievements in Innsu Village.]
[You have accumulated enough experience to reach the next level. Level increased by 1.]
[Level 48 reached! As a level-up reward, you obtain 1 bonus stat point to freely allocate.]
Just a bit more and I'll be able to use 5th-circle magic.
I dumped the new bonus stat point into Mind. Factoring in the artifact boosts, my Mind is now at 20.
****
Kim Shin-hwa
Class: Abyss-Gazing Mage
Level: 48
Magic Tier: 4th Circle
Madness: [Mask Obsession (Latent)]
Strength 5 + 4 (Embers of the Northern Laksamun Gate)
Vitality 7 + 3 (Fourfold Thrusting Sword (Green Honor))
Agility 8 + 2 (Night Veil Wing Suit)
Intelligence 30
Mind 18 + 2 (Necklace of the Body Usurper)
Charisma 19
****
[It is not only Paju that will change. Great changes will come to you as well. And the way people around you look at you will change too. Some will remember you with infamy, others as a righteous savior. The more people remember you, the more you will have to do. What events await you next? You can look forward to it. A chaotic future awaits you.]
"What the hell am I supposed to look forward to every time? You little shit."
[System: You have comprehended the Gate Creation spell. You can open a dimensional gate to a location whose coordinates you have acquired or where a medium has been placed.]
[Tutorial: You have acquired the coordinates of your residence. Now try using Gate Creation to open a gate connected to your residence.]
Flutter-flap—
Red was flying over. It felt brimming with power after consuming plenty of mana. Seems like it'd leveled up as much as it could in that state.
Once this is wrapped up, it might be good to find a safe spot to grow it further.
My voice emerged from Red's mouth.
"With Gate Creation, we can head straight home."
Creak—clatter—
One of the necrotic golems walked up and replied in my voice.
"Should we take all the villagers home too?"
"What else? You gonna leave them here?"
The self-Q&A started up again. No, even worse. We could share consciousness just by thinking internally. So why were we talking through separate bodies?
I couldn't stand it anymore and yelled.
"Cut it out, all of you! There's no more danger, so come back!"
The 'Kim Shin-hwa' inhabiting Red's body expressed bewilderment.
"Come back?"
Chills ran down my spine.
I'd spoken to it like it was just an extension or summon of mine, and it was voicing its displeasure at that.
If 'it' had fully established an independent ego, it might see fusion as death or annihilation.
How should I handle this? Subdue it before it does something stupid? I slowly gathered mana.
"Calm down. No more dumb talk from either of you."
The 'Kim Shin-hwa' in the necrotic golem wedged itself between us.
"Dumb talk?"
"Telling us to 'come back' is nonsense to begin with. You're misunderstanding something. We never left anywhere. You're just doing a ventriloquism act right now."
"Ah..."
It was a hard concept to grasp intuitively, but there was no coming or going to begin with.
We were all me.
I'd just been handling events in separate locations simultaneously thanks to excess Intelligence stats. No issue of absorption or subordination.
*'I was thinking that way from the start, but got swept up in the mood at some point.'*
All three wanted to return to the original state.
I stopped empathizing and syncing emotions with my Red and necrotic golems, then released the spell sending out my consciousness.
The parallel processes merged back into one.
I had been me from the beginning.
"Ugh."
Still dizzy, though.
My view of myself from Red's perspective tangled with the view of that me from the necrotic golem's perspective. I had no idea what I was even saying.
Anyway, I am me.
"Better hold off on using it this way in the future—don't know what it might do to my mind."
Alright, time for cleanup.
I ordered Red and the Child of Darkness to revert to egg form. The Child of Darkness did so without complaint...
"Kreeee!"
But Red made its reluctance clear.
Red's ego had grown strong too. I stroked its head for a moment, kissed its now much larger wings, and said,
"Yeah. Sorry, Red. But things are about to get chaotic, so sleep for a bit. I'll wake you as soon as we get home."
"Kreee..."
Red finally reverted to its original red orb form. I tucked both away and headed into the cabin.
Thud thud thud—
Helicopter sounds.
"About time they come sniffing around."
A chopper was flying in despite the massive downpour. Too scared to fly beyond the barrier, it was clumsily circling the area where it had collapsed.
What concerned me more was over there.
The towering high-rise apartment.
The same one where I'd dealt with the ghouls in the basement last time. Despite the ghoul outbreak underground, it had sold out successfully?
Faces of Moon Seung-hee and Kwak Dae-yong came to mind. And one more person.
Come to think of it...
"The helicopter's not the problem."
An apartment built unusually close to the Great Barrier.
From the upper floors, they could see beyond the barrier. They probably couldn't see Innsu Village shrouded in fog, but they'd have witnessed everything that just happened.
They would've seen what I did.
And [Pale Wave] manifesting beyond the barrier.
"Normally, that sight would drive anyone mad enough to bash their own head in."
But no 'normal person' would live in an apartment built in such a terrifying location.
Who had seen me?
This was unsettling.
Time to bail? Lucky I got Gate Creation. I began gathering mana to prepare the spell.
I'd teleport the whole ship near my house.
But at that moment.
[System: Penalty trait 'Shattered Mind' activates. You currently have 1 Madness, so a random Madness manifests.]
Here it comes. Why hadn't it triggered until now?
Did it wait until things were done?
Maybe related to splitting my mind into three? Plausible hypothesis. My state had been off, after all.
Anyway, deal with this and then bail.
What Madness this time? Make it something easy. Like Turkish delight phobia or baumkuchen phobia? Pho phobia wouldn't be bad either.
[System: 'Madness – Hemophobia' is imposed on your mind.]
"What?"
What? What phobia?