Chapter 246
Chapter 246
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 246
Chapter Title: The Millennium Mage Bears the Transcendent Lineage
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The Millennium Mage was of the Transcendent Being's bloodline.
Leyzon now understood why he could wield Transcendent Magic.
It made sense—with the bloodline of a Transcendent Being, of course he could.
And that explained why Gorgodon had looked at him so strangely.
"Customer, are you of the Transcendent Being's bloodline too?"
Still unable to recall his name, she continued calling him "Customer." Gorgodon.
In her eyes, Leyzon appeared the same as her—a bearer of the Transcendent Being's bloodline.
Leyzon fell silent at the question.
"...Gorgodon, is Transcendent Magic something only those with the Transcendent Being's bloodline can use?"
Garjun knew about Transcendent Magic but not the details.
Gorgodon seemed to know even more.
"The very concept of Transcendent Magic is the power of the Transcendent Beings. It's obvious."
A magic that couldn't be used without some connection to a Transcendent Being, no matter the form.
That was what they called Transcendent Magic.
But what about Leyzon?
'I came to wield Transcendent Magic purely by chance.'
Leyzon had originally possessed an EX-rank skill.
Then, using the Peerless Gem, he had perfected it into a ?EX-rank.
But now, at this moment, Leyzon's expression hardened.
Was it truly just chance?
'A chain of events.'
Leyzon had once felt a strange hunch.
Were the events happening to him really coincidences?
His recent actions were mostly driven by his own initiative.
But in the beginning, there had been far too many incidents reliant on chance.
Among them, the Peerless Gem had started to nag at him intensely.
'Is it really a skill obtainable purely through a bug?'
Bugs arise from errors in computers.
But that was only true for computer games.
This was reality.
Even Dungeon Replay—he was starting to doubt if it had truly been a pure game.
Could something like the Peerless Gem really enable him to use Transcendent Magic?
'Though the Peerless Gem itself ultimately stems from a Transcendent Being.'
It didn't make sense that there had never been similar cases before.
What if this wasn't coincidence at all?
Inevitability—that Leyzon would reach ?EX-rank somehow.
Leyzon's mind grew complicated.
'A world where even Transcendent Beings exist.'
Being swept along in the giant wheel of fate was entirely possible.
But if so, another question arose.
Then who was orchestrating this inevitability?
Leyzon's gaze slowly lifted to the sky.
Exactly one person.
Truly, just one.
The possibility of the one person intentionally shaping Leyzon's inevitability came to mind.
'...The real Leyzon.'
The real Leyzon, who had vanished.
What if he was the one behind it?
The game world of Dungeon Replay.
The player who had controlled that game world.
What if their power was akin to what Transcendent Beings wielded?
Characters moved by players in Dungeon Replay were unaware of the existence beyond.
Thus, they didn't realize they were being inevitably directed.
Leyzon pressed his lips together.
'Tessa has allied with the malevolent Transcendent Being to find the real Leyzon.'
In truth, maybe Tessa had known where the real Leyzon was from the start.
That's why she set out to find the real Leyzon after switching places with player Ryu Han-hyuk.
'Real Leyzon, does that mean you're in my original position right now?'
And manipulating things through the computer?
But excluding a few incidents, it was hard to see everything as intentional.
This world had expanded beyond the original Dungeon Replay.
There were too many impossibilities from the original Dungeon Replay.
It wasn't enough to definitively conclude he'd switched places with the real Leyzon.
'Plus, viewing everything as inevitability feels like too much of a stretch.'
If all this was inevitable, Leyzon might as well throw up his hands.
Leyzon slowly tapped his chin with his index finger.
The real Leyzon's inevitability and the current Leyzon's intentions.
These two cleverly intertwining in the present situation.
What was the most fitting explanation for this?
'The real Leyzon probably never reached my world. Or chose not to.'
Dungeon Replay was a game that transplanted this world.
Whose intention that was remained unknown.
It could even be some Transcendent Being's prank.
One certain thing: interfering with Dungeon Replay was impossible.
'Then, the world the real Leyzon reached by switching souls with me—where is it?'
A world between the two worlds.
That interstitial world.
Leyzon was certain of it.
'The realm of the Transcendent Beings.'
Transcendent Realm
A world that could interfere with this one without reaching Ryu Han-hyuk's world.
Nothing else explained it.
Leyzon clenched his fist tightly.
Speculation and intuition drawn from various pieces of information.
This line of reasoning was steadily solidifying into conviction.
This even made the Transcendent Magic comprehensible.
The soul contained in the real Leyzon's body resided in the Transcendent Realm.
Transcendent Magic piercing through was hardly surprising.
'In a way, my backer accidentally became a real Transcendent Being.'
The suspicions from the ossuary back then were entirely justified.
As it turned out, his backer really was a Transcendent Being.
How far the real Leyzon's intentions went was unknown.
Still, one thing was certain.
'He's helping me.'
The real Leyzon wasn't trapped in endless revenge.
He too was desperately seeking a way forward.
Leyzon had lived his entire life with a positive mindset.
'Back in the day, I got a lot of joy from playing Dungeon Replay.'
In a way, Dungeon Replay had been a comfort in life.
A sanctuary providing rest amid a relentlessly forward-pushing existence.
If he'd been drawn into this world by the real Leyzon's intent, fine.
If it wasn't revenge, he'd gladly play along to the end.
That was his repayment to the real Leyzon, who had given him that sanctuary.
Leyzon grinned, baring his teeth.
It was utterly characteristic of him.
One worry remained: Tessa, searching for the real Leyzon.
Having allied with a malevolent Transcendent Being, who knew what situation they'd face.
'I need to make contact with Tessa somehow, soon.'
To do that, he'd need to intervene in the Transcendent Realm.
Then, a Prophet came to mind.
Prophets directly granted power by Transcendent Beings.
They'd know plenty about the Transcendent Realm.
'That Puppet Troupe Leader bastard.'
Now there was one more reason he absolutely had to catch him.
"Looks like you've finally finished sorting out your thoughts."
By then, Gorgodon had lit another mana cigarette and approached.
Leyzon had been lost in thought longer than he'd realized.
"Yeah. Thanks to you, I had some realizations."
"I don't feel like I said much."
"Seeing the big picture from the small details is my specialty."
As Leyzon smiled, Gorgodon stubbed out her mana cigarette in the ashtray.
"Anything more to tell me about the Millennium Mage?"
"I know about his food preferences, if that counts."
"Not particularly useful."
"Use it to poison him as a gift."
Gorgodon truly seemed to have a deep connection with the Millennium Mage.
"Know anything about the Millennium Mage's intentions?"
"Intentions, huh."
Gorgodon pondered with a thoughtful expression.
Then, as if recalling something, her face changed.
"Got it. It was something I said in passing as a joke, so it took a while to remember. Guess my brain's gotten old too."
Gorodon's hand pointed to the sky once more.
"Killing a Transcendent Being."
Leyzon froze solid.
This was entirely unexpected.
And he had a feeling what it implied.
"...The corpse of a Transcendent Being."
The Transcendent Being's corpse beneath the Empire.
The corpse sustaining the Empire.
But even that corpse was nearing its limit.
The Pioneers constantly infiltrating from outside the Empire were proof.
Replacing that Transcendent Being's corpse.
That might be the Millennium Mage's goal.
"Madman, right?"
Gorgodon let out a cackling laugh.
Definitely a madman.
Leyzon had felt the power of Transcendent Beings, directly and indirectly.
The malevolent one and the one of ruin.
Even a clash of mere fragments had been an overwhelming force.
To kill such a Transcendent Being.
Even uttering it aloud wasn't easy.
"Must have big ambitions."
But Leyzon wasn't much different.
He planned to confront the malevolent Transcendent Being and become one himself.
He wasn't in a position to criticize the Millennium Mage.
'Whether the Millennium Mage is protecting the Empire or has some other aim.'
It was still unknown.
"For taking down a guy with ambitions that big, your research needs to succeed."
The research on talent limits he'd entrusted to Gorgodon.
For Leyzon too, this research had to succeed.
Gorgodon shrugged nonchalantly.
"With a success sample already, it shouldn't be hard."
If so, he'd be grateful.
With that, his conversation with Gorgodon ended.
Now he just had to wait for her research to bear fruit soon.
Knock knock—
As Gorgodon left, Leyzon heard a knock.
Someone had come, knowing their talk was over.
"Come in."
The one who entered was Crow.
He greeted Leyzon before delivering one piece of news.
"Lord Leyzon, the Northern Noble Faction has announced a visit to the Eastern Noble Faction."
They were finally starting to move.
The Eastern Noble Faction was growing larger by the day.
Leyzon's promotional efforts were paying off handsomely.
The Northern Noble Faction naturally felt threatened.
"Crow, from what you've seen, any suspicious movements from the Northern Noble Faction?"
"Nothing directly related to the Prophet you mentioned. However, we've spotted some dubious points in how the Northern Noble Faction acquires information."
"No direct involvement, but you can see the tail's end, right?"
The Puppet Troupe Leader was unlikely to be with the Northern Noble Faction.
So where was he?
The traditional Emperor Faction and Crown Prince Faction.
He was hiding in one of them, deliberately feeding them information.
To uncover that, the task was simple.
"Crow, we're going to the Eastern Noble Faction's meeting too."
"I'll prepare immediately."
Pull the Northern Noble Faction in reverse.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Time to put that into practice.