Arcana Online
Just as I was about to move in and search the hidden place, the entrance I’d come through slammed shut behind me, trapping me in a pitch-black darkness so complete I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face.
Now, did I have anything on me that could light the way? I rummaged through my inventory and found something decent.
Cheering Lightstick
Used to cheer someone on. It might have a special effect?
I took out the cheering lightsticks and pressed the button, and they burst into brilliant light.
They came as a pair, so I held one in each hand and started searching the area.
“Al...?”
There were so many of them I couldn’t even count them, though there was probably enough for at least one adult to fit inside.
I stepped closer and poked at one with a lightstick, but it didn’t react at all.
“Feel anything?”
“Kkyu-ung.”
Yongyong said he didn’t feel a thing.
As I waved the lightsticks around and walked on, searching for another path, a message suddenly appeared.
The special effect of the cheering lightstick has been activated.
Light far brighter than anything I’d just seen poured out, and with it came a strange, comforting warmth.
It felt almost like being held in my mother’s arms.
And then, right at that moment, something changed.
From the eggs that had seemed lifeless until a moment ago, I heard a sound.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
With the sound of a beating heart, the countless eggs began to tremble.
One by one, cracks started to spread across them, and just as I was staring at the hatching scene in stunned silence, the first one to break open revealed a mermaid...?
The mermaids, who’d been too dazed to notice anything until now, were suddenly looking at me.
Among them was one particularly special presence.
All the mermaids were beautiful in the way handsome men and lovely women were beautiful, but only one of them carried an air of true nobility.
Her blue hair streamed behind her as she approached me.
“Hello?”
After hearing my greeting, the mermaid lowered her head to me.
I was still scrambling to make sense of it when the other mermaids all bowed in unison as well.
Then a lovely voice reached my ears.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Savior of the Sirens.”
“S-Savior...?”
“This will be a long story. Would you mind if we moved somewhere else?”
I nodded, and the mermaid—no, the Siren—led me away.
Following her, I discovered a passage hidden deep inside the place, one I hadn’t noticed before.
When we passed through it and emerged outside, a vast underground city spread out before me at a glance.
Unlike the ruins I’d seen when I visited Atlantis, this underground city was still completely intact.
“Welcome to the city of the Sirens, Savior.”
You have visited the city of the Sirens for the first time.
You have gained 100,000 reputation points.
I checked the newly acquired title and followed behind the Siren, when I suddenly heard the sound of something approaching.
Turning toward the footsteps, I saw an old man walking toward us.
He had a scar over one eye and a solid, sturdy build.
When he reached us, he dropped to one knee in front of the Siren who had been guiding me.
“I greet Your Majesty.”
“This is a place where the Savior is present.”
With those words, he stood and looked at me, and I felt it immediately.
We’d never met before, and yet he felt strangely familiar, like someone I’d seen somewhere else.
Then he greeted Yongyong, who was nestled in my arms.
“You owe our old friend a great debt.”
“Kkyu-ung.”
“I see.”
The moment he looked at me, I knew for certain.
“Are you the Kraken I met at the entrance?”
“That’s right.”
“Huh.”
“Yes...”
I had been slipping in and out of casual speech while gauging the Siren’s reaction, then correcting myself to polite speech, but...
Ah, right. Dementia.
I gave him a look that said I understood, and he stared back as if he couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but hey—I was the one who had to understand here.
“You’ve worked hard guarding the city all this time.”
“It’s my repayment for rescuing me when I was young. And it’s a contract, Your Majesty.”
From the way he looked, Kraken seemed older than the Siren Queen to me. Or was he not?
I wanted to ask, but I held it in.
Asking a woman her age was rude, after all.
Kraken accompanied us as well, and after a long walk we arrived at the temple.
There were numerous Siren statues on display, and following the path inward, we found a huge round table with chairs arranged around it.
I sat down in one of the strange chairs designed to make it easy for Sirens to sit, and since it was so large, it wasn’t uncomfortable at all.
The Siren took a breath and began to speak.
“First, I will explain why we were asleep, Savior.”
And then came a story that sounded like a fairy tale.
Atlantis, the city of legend, had once been a place where many different races lived together.
They lived in peace, until one day an unidentified plague broke out and claimed every life except that of the Sirens.
They hadn’t even been able to identify the disease, much less find a cure, so when they hurriedly hid themselves in the underground city, they thought they’d be safe.
Time passed, and one day, after they’d grown used to life and nearly forgotten the plague, it broke out once more.
In order to save their kin, one by one, the Sirens received an oracle at the temple.
The oracle said that a Savior would descend and rescue the Siren race.
To follow that prophecy, they struck a contract with Kraken, who lived in the abyss, for protection, and every Siren entered a state of suspended animation, enduring until now.
The moment she finished speaking, the Siren coughed up blood.
I panicked and tried to think of what to do, but nothing came to mind.
All I had to give her was magic stones, at best.
I took some out of my inventory and handed them over, and as soon as the Siren absorbed the stones, something changed.
With a bright flash, she shed her old shell like a molting skin.
As the light faded, the Siren, who had had her eyes closed, slowly opened them.
She checked her own body in disbelief, then began to cry.
“Ah... so you truly were the Savior.”
And with that, she begged me.
She asked me to save the Siren race.
I agreed and said I would, and the Siren Queen began to sing in her beautiful voice. The melody rang through the temple.
Hearing it, countless Sirens rushed in from all directions.
I opened the magic-stone pouch I’d newly received after wiping out the secret organization Pentagram and checked the count.
It looked like it would be just about enough.
Of course, that was only if Yongyong agreed to give up dinner.
“Kkyuuung!”
“J-just for one day, please!”
“Kkyu-ung!”
After a dramatic compromise, I handed out the magic stones one by one to the Sirens crowding around me, and each of them looked as though they’d just been given a sacred relic.
The Sirens who used the magic stones shed their old skin one by one and were reborn anew.
When I used the last magic stone on the final Siren, a message appeared.
You have saved the Siren race.
You have gained 100,000 reputation points.
You have acquired a title.
Savior of the Sirens
The way they checked their own bodies and then treated me like some kind of god was overwhelming, and even when I begged them to stop, saying they really didn’t need to do this, a grand plan was already taking shape.
“We must build a statue of the Savior beside the Siren statues!”
“Exactly! We have to place the Savior’s statue in front of the temple!”
I practically had to wrestle them to the ground while pleading with them not to do it, and at last they backed off with regretful expressions.
Just as I let out a sigh of relief, the Siren Queen bowed her head to me once more.
“Thank you for saving our people, Savior.”
“I only did what I had to do.”
At that moment, I thought of the Siren I’d met on land.
The Siren who had handed me a bead.
“Was the Siren sent to the surface by Your Majesty?”
“Sirens cannot go to the surface.”
She said it was because of a curse that they couldn’t go to land. Then what exactly was the Siren I’d seen...?
She told me she had something she wanted to give me, and led me into the temple.
Inside, there was a staircase leading down, and when we descended it, enormous statues stood guard over a set of doors.
I was staring at the statues, which looked as if they might spring to life at any second, when our eyes met!?
“W-what the hell!?”
“They are guardians protecting the treasures of the Sirens.”
Reassuring me, she opened the door, and inside were countless glass cases. In the foremost one, a golden bead I recognized from somewhere was displayed, glowing softly within the glass.
“Kkyuuung!?”
Our Yongyong was shocked out of his tiny dragon mind.
When I stepped closer, item information appeared.
A treasure given by a lover to an imugi who, after completing 1,000 years of cultivation in cold waters, gave up ascension.
Its information differs from the Yeouiju I’d seen before.
A Yeouiju that said its owner had abandoned ascension for the sake of a loved one.
“This was a gift from the lover I once cherished.”
“I-I can’t accept something like that!”
Was I really supposed to just gobble up something with a backstory like that? Could I even still call myself human if I did?
“You will surely need this item, Savior.”
She looked at me with solemn eyes.
Come to think of it, the Orb of the Divine Dragon needed a Yeouiju, didn’t it?
“Ahem. If you put it that way, then I suppose there’s no helping it.”
Carefully, I took the bead out of the glass case, and it reacted to the Orb of the Divine Dragon in my inventory.
The Orb of the Divine Dragon absorbs the Yeouiju.
Using the effect of the Golden Yeouiju, the Orb of the Divine Dragon has been released.
A hidden advancement quest has been created.
The effect of the Orb of the Divine Dragon allows you to advance to the hidden class, Dragon Maiden.
Would you like to accept?
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