Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Diary from the Ancient Kaltura Empire
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A diary discovered in a restaurant of the old unified empire, Kaltura.
Leyzon frowned deeply as he read it.
The flow of the diary felt utterly bizarre.
Pushing aside his furrowed brow, Leyzon turned to the next page.
Kaltura Imperial Calendar, Year 1033, January 30th
An untalented human went berserk.
He killed talented humans and extracted their talents from within them.
The untalented human didn't stop there.
He began slaughtering talented humans one after another, stealing their talents.
In the end, the knights stepped in and killed the untalented human.
This is dangerous.
We might be creating something gravely wrong.
Something was starting to go awry, little by little.
Leyzon's mouth went dry.
He couldn't fathom what the Kaltura Empire had been up to.
Kaltura Imperial Calendar, Year 1045, May 18th
His Majesty has ordered the extraction of all humans' talents.
Other races are incomplete, so more research is needed, but His Majesty will not rescind the command.
His Majesty's condition has grown strangely dire.
We must save the world.
Those were the only words he repeated.
The timeline jumped ahead abruptly.
Leyzon froze.
He hurriedly flipped to the next page.
"Ah."
But then he realized too late that the following pages had all been torn out.
Gone.
The subsequent pages were missing.
In a panic, Leyzon quickly scanned the surroundings.
But there was only this one book nearby.
"......"
Leyzon fell silent, staring quietly at the book.
The contents left behind were shocking even to him.
Especially the final command to extract all humans' talents.
Had the diary's author truly carried this out?
He had no idea.
Leyzon slowly lifted his head.
Above all, the last words nagged at him.
The emperor who kept insisting they had to save the world.
How on earth were extracting talents and saving the world connected?
'Just maybe.'
What if the Kaltura Empire had truly gone through with it?
What if every citizen of the empire had their talents stripped away?
But the Kaltura Empire had ultimately fallen.
And the current Dungeon Replay world was an extension of that era.
'......Assuming it was ultimately carried out.'
This world should have been filled with untalented humans.
But was the world really like that?
Even Leyzon had to tilt his head at the thought.
'It's not a world without talents......'
Then, suddenly.
A single line flashed through Leyzon's mind.
「He began slaughtering talented humans one after another, stealing their talents.」
Killing talented humans to steal their talents.
Leyzon realized a situation like this already existed in his mind.
He shot up from his seat.
His face had gone deathly pale.
"Leyzon?"
Syria called out to him with puzzled eyes.
But Leyzon's expression remained frozen stiff.
'Untalented humans and talented humans.'
Leyzon looked down at his own hands.
Pioneers in the Dungeon Replay world.
They hunted dungeon bosses to acquire skills.
'The untalented human killed talented humans to steal their talents.'
Didn't this situation feel all too familiar?
Leyzon covered his mouth.
When creating a human character.
Stats always started unified at 1 Ascension, 1 Stat.
An empty skill window.
1 Stat.
What did these things signify?
'Untalented.'
It pointed to humans born without any talents whatsoever.
Humans had complete freedom in their choices.
Any class change was possible, and stats could be grown in various ways.
This could conversely be seen as a sponge devoid of talent, absorbing everything.
'Skills and stats might be......'
Remnants of the Kaltura Unified Empire.
'......And the mention that other races were still incomplete.'
Innate unique traits of other races.
The Sword-Tooth Clan's tail and battle sense.
Dark elves' affinity for darkness.
Dragonkin's innate flight ability.
All these were unique traits exclusive to their races.
'The fact that other races possess their own attributes or special aptitudes......'
Might be the rushed result of an incomplete process.
They may have stolen skills and stats from them.
But they couldn't erase the unique traits ingrained in their races.
'That's why, to the extent of those traits.'
'Other races have predefined class restrictions.'
The difference between humans and other races.
'If it's the presence or absence of completion.'
His mind grew complicated from the chain of thoughts sparked by the book.
'Then what exactly are the dungeon bosses?'
What were dungeons in the first place?
According to this, dungeons had clearly existed long before.
'They even said the number of dungeons was increasing.'
Phantasmal Beasts, unlike humans, possessed talents.
Then, were they also products created by the Kaltura Empire?
Or had Phantasmal Beasts absorbed the world's lost talents?
Leyzon stared blankly at the book.
The Kaltura Empire might harbor depths far beyond imagination.
Above all, what worried Leyzon most was something else.
'Does the Niflheim Empire not know about this?'
These were deductions he'd reached from just one book.
'They, with far more extensive records than me, couldn't possibly be unaware.'
Leyzon was certain.
He knew the Niflheim Empire's information network well.
They were obsessively dedicated to intelligence gathering beyond imagination.
They surely knew about this too.
And Leyzon's thoughts now leaned toward Ascension.
'......When pioneers ascend, they all head to the Pioneer Guild.'
To complete the Ascension quest assigned by the Pioneer Guild, no less.
All Pioneer Guilds were directly operated by the empire.
A chill ran down his spine!
Leyzon felt goosebumps erupt across his body.
This world might be.
Merely dancing on the palm of the empire's colossal hand.
Leyzon glared at the book.
'An equal world?'
Had the Kaltura Empire's emperor truly desired an equal world?
'This is.'
Not equality, but rather a world where talents are managed, isn't it?
Having glimpsed the underside of the world made his head ache.
'It feels like I've learned something I shouldn't have.'
This was absolutely not a story to breathe a word of outside.
It could shake the very foundations of the empire.
'Come to think of it, the empire already knows through the Pioneer Guilds.'
'Why haven't they rounded up all the necromancers with that?'
The empire managed the Pioneer Guilds.
Naturally, they had access to all registered pioneers' information via the guilds.
They could easily capture necromancers that way.
Yet no imperial forces pursued Leyzon.
They hadn't even caught all the necromancers yet.
'Could the empire not fully grasp the information recorded in the Pioneer Guilds?'
Leyzon's eyes slowly widened.
'Perhaps the Niflheim Empire isn't the complete successor to the Kaltura Empire's legacy.'
The Kaltura Empire had fallen long ago.
Which meant some information could have been lost over time.
'Then, the empire.'
Would surely seek to perfect this imperfect system.
'It's lacking.'
He needed more information.
'In 100 years, the empire falls.'
Every time he rolled back the game timeline, it ended with the empire's fall.
The reason for the empire's downfall might be.
Connected to the contents here, he thought.
"Leyzon, what have you been pondering so deeply?"
Just then, Syria called out to him.
Hanok was looking at him with equal curiosity.
Come to think of it, there were locals right here.
"Syria, Hanok."
Leyzon handed the book to the two.
"You two, could you read this and give me your thoughts?"
He needed their perspectives.
Syria and Hanok read the book, puzzled but compliant.
It was a short record anyway.
They finished quickly and each tilted their heads.
"What does this even mean?"
"It reads like a fairy tale."
Syria was baffled, while Hanok likened it to a storybook.
From their reactions, Leyzon realized.
'Of course, to them, this world is just how it is.'
Leyzon was an outsider from another world.
So his line of thinking could veer in different directions.
But for those to whom this life was normal, such thought processes were impossible.
Leyzon took the book back from them.
Their reactions told him everything.
This wasn't something to bring up lightly yet.
Leyzon cleared his mind neatly.
"Alright. You two, let's finish this dungeon first."
The lab of the fallen empire still had more to reveal.
There might be more Kaltura secrets inside.
Leyzon set off through the dungeon once more.
As always, he was the type who never stopped, always pressing forward.
An ancient, luxurious corridor in Kaltura style.
Floor tiles etched with intricate patterns.
Crimson-black walls and paintings.
The dungeon stretched on endlessly.
"This is endless."
They'd already taken down over ten maid puppets.
Yet this damn corridor showed no sign of ending.
"Sniff."
Hanok occasionally sniffed the air, his tail twitching.
They weren't looping the same path, but it still felt like they were going in circles.
'There must be a reason they hid the dungeon so elaborately.'
Leyzon pulled at his lower lip, lost in thought.
Considering just the book's contents gave clear gains.
But for a high-tier dungeon, it felt somewhat lacking.
"Ah, Leyzon!"
Just then, Syria shouted as if she'd finally spotted something.
Leyzon looked up to see a single door, just as she'd said.
"Syria, any traps?"
"Doesn't seem like any!"
Syria replied, having already checked with her shadows.
"Let's go in."
Syria eagerly took the lead and flung the door open.
In that instant, Leyzon caught a musty scent of paper from beyond.
The smell of stacks of aged paper.
Leyzon's eyes sharpened.
"......A library."
As Hanok said, the space beyond the open door was a library.
One filled end to end with densely packed bookshelves.
Leyzon drew in a sharp breath at the sight.
These books were surely from the Kaltura Unified Empire era.
Which meant.
Reading them could yield information tied to the diary he'd seen.
Then.
Leyzon saw a book vanish before his eyes.
A book from the shelf melted away like wax.
For a moment, Leyzon rubbed his eyes, thinking he'd seen wrong.
But when the next book beside it melted away too.
Leyzon's eyes flew wide open.
"Syria, Hanok!"
Leyzon shouted, grabbing a nearby book and flipping it open.
"All these books are under a vanishing spell that erases them after a set time!"
A dissolution curse triggered the moment an intruder entered.
Placing such a curse meant.
There were surely books here they didn't want seen.
Leyzon read the title of the book he'd pulled.
[Philosophy on Living Beings]
Useless.
Leyzon tossed the book aside and reached for the next shelf.
"Grab every book you see, from the close ones to the far ones, and bring them to me!"
Syria and Hanok couldn't read Kaltura script anyway.
So Leyzon delegated the gathering to them.
Syria and Hanok dashed off hurriedly.
Meanwhile, Leyzon pulled books one after another, checking only the titles.
'Kaltura history, something on talents. There has to be an important book somewhere.'
He had to find it.
With that resolve, Leyzon frantically scanned the titles.
But the books kept vanishing relentlessly.
Books turned to dust in an instant, swirling in the air.
The information he wanted might already be gone.
Yet Leyzon didn't give up.
As he pushed forward, continuously checking titles.
[Academic Theory on Poison Necromancers]
His eyes caught a book underfoot.
A book that plainly stated his class.
Leyzon paused at the sight.
'Were there Poison Necromancers even back then?'
More books vanishing nearby caught his eye.
'Start with what I can see!'
Don't get distracted by the vanishing ones.
That way, he'd gain nothing.
Leyzon began devouring the books at a rapid pace.
This one could vanish anytime too.
As he read, Leyzon's eyes gradually widened.
'This is.'
Every line in the book tied directly to Poison Necromancer skills.
As if it were the original source of the skills themselves.
The more pages he turned, the higher-grade poison skills were described.
Disbelief filled Leyzon's eyes.
This was essentially a Poison Necromancer textbook.
'Hold on.'
And slowly, his expression hardened.
'If in this era, they could wield these as magic without skills.'
Then following what's written here would let him cast magic, right?
This might just be a jackpot.