Chapter 316
Chapter 316
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 317
Chapter Title: History's Tomb
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“……That outfit. It’s already back to normal.”
Inside the cave of the dimensional rift.
Han Se-yeon, who had been following behind me, muttered in a whisper.
I shot her a glance before running my hand over the back of my Invisible, where a hole had been punched clean through moments ago.
Just as she said, the Invisible had returned to its original state.
It was the self-repair effect of its “quality guarantee.”
“Yeah, seems like it.”
“I’ve never seen clothes that regenerate like this in my life. And earlier, it looked like it swallowed that food too……”
Han Se-yeon stared at my outfit with eyes full of wonder before continuing.
“But how did you bring a magic artifact into the banquet hall? I heard they were checking with magic artifact detectors.”
“Oh, that……”
I fiddled with the sleeve of my shirt.
“This isn’t a magic artifact.”
I gave the answer I’d prepared in advance. At that, a question arose in her eyes.
“It’s not a magic artifact?”
“No, this is a living being. I can’t explain in detail, but…… since it’s not just any magic artifact but an actual lifeform, it didn’t get detected.”
Even to me, it sounded pretty plausible.
On top of that, she had personally witnessed the Invisible swallowing food in the banquet hall, so from her perspective, it would be plenty convincing.
“……Ah.”
And as I expected, Han Se-yeon took my word for it without question.
“It’s an amazing lifeform.”
“Yeah. Even I’m surprised sometimes.”
I shrugged. Then silence fell again, with only the sound of footsteps echoing through the cave.
An awkward atmosphere.
Han Se-yeon kept stealing glances at me, looking like she had a lot she wanted to ask.
But she fidgeted with her hands, hesitating, and said nothing.
Just then, as a strange itch prickled the tip of my nose, Han Se-yeon broke the silence.
“Jin…… no, Seon-woo?”
“Yeah?”
“……Th-thank you.”
Her sudden gratitude made me turn to her again.
“For what?”
“You protected me from the rift’s mana. And you got hurt because of me.”
“Oh. This? It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”
I rubbed my back. A wound like this was nothing.
Thanks to all my pain resistance and recovery effects stacked up, it didn’t even faze me.
“If we escape from here, we’ll head straight to the hospital. I’ll support you as much as I can.”
Instead of answering, I gave a wry smile. Han Se-yeon watched me for a moment before turning her gaze to the end of the cave.
“But I wonder what’s happening outside? There were other people around earlier. Did they get swept up in the dimensional rift too?”
“Hmm. Probably not. The number of people pulled into a dimensional rift is extremely small.”
Special magical phenomena that occur naturally in the world follow hidden laws that humans haven’t fully researched.
One theory is that the “will” embedded in the mana’s waves directly selects the humans it draws in, but it’s complicated to explain in words.
“It’s tricky to explain, but think of it as a site with a will of its own that specifically chose and pulled us in.”
“……You’ve studied the ‘Will Theory’ too?”
Will Theory.
As the name suggests, it’s the academic field that explores “will.”
But not ordinary human will—it studies the will of towers closely tied to mysticism, the will of nature, or the potential and limits of human will.
“I’m just curious about a lot of things.”
And so, we continued exploring the inside of the cave.
True to it being a ruin, monsters appeared here and there, but the strongest were only C-Grade, so I took them down with simple spells.
Before long, we reached the end of the cave.
I conjured a magic orb to brightly illuminate the surroundings, revealing complex spells etched into the walls.
With Outsider’s Grace, I confirmed they were dimensional transfer spells.
“Looks like a spell that sends us to the next location.”
I said that and extended my hand to her.
Han Se-yeon stared at my hand for a moment before taking it.
I gripped her hand tightly and placed my other hand on the spell.
Then, I injected mana.
Woooong!
The space warped in an instant, and my vision flashed bright.
At the same time, the scenery changed.
A chilling wind blew from somewhere.
Nearby, I could hear the rustle of grass and leaves swaying in the breeze.
[You have entered the hidden ruin, ‘History’s Tomb.’]
[You acquire 5,000 points as a reward.]
[Future changes have been detected.]
[Karma increases by 1.0.]
“……We’re outdoors now.”
I nodded at Han Se-yeon’s words and looked up at the sky.
A pitch-black night sky.
I wasn’t sure if it was due to observation suppression, but not a single star was visible.
I slowly surveyed the surroundings.
Countless stone slabs were scattered everywhere.
As if living up to the name History’s Tomb, the landscape truly evoked images of graves.
I conjured a magic orb to light up the area and examined a stone slab.
It was inscribed with text formed from complex spells.
There were signs of destruction, so it wasn’t a perfect spell, but I could interpret it from the remaining parts.
[……The cause and effect of the world are interlocked like gears. Freedom is an illusion, and we are bound by the predetermined framework……]
“What is this?”
The spell on the stone slab was damaged, so I couldn’t get a full interpretation.
But I could vaguely grasp the meaning.
It was a story I’d heard countless times while encountering mysteries up to now.
I moved on and checked another stone slab.
[……Even if it is a perfectly constructed framework, a single small foreign object intruding from outside can shatter all the rules……]
“Seon-woo.”
Han Se-yeon’s voice snapped me back to attention.
I turned to see her looking at the hand I was still gripping tightly.
“……Your hand.”
“Oh, sorry.”
I let go immediately.
I’d been so focused on the stone slab that I hadn’t realized I was still holding on tight.
Han Se-yeon rubbed her hand before looking around.
“But where is this place?”
“Judging by the lack of stars in the sky, it seems like one of the central island ruins.”
“I’ve never heard of a place like this on the central island……”
“It could’ve gone undiscovered until now due to double concealment barriers or spatial overlap phenomena.”
That was when it happened.
Woooong!
A blue light flashed somewhere nearby toward the sky.
At the same time, a massive pillar of light shot up into the heavens, emitting a beautiful glow.
I couldn’t sense any mana at all, so I was utterly shocked.
That was…… the trace of a battle.
The trace of a battle waged by a fairly high-level wizard.
“……Mana concealment phenomenon?”
I already knew from the original story that the central island had magical phenomena that blocked mana detection.
Which meant someone was fighting over there.
But who?
And for someone capable of that level of magic to be here?
“Let’s go.”
Full of questions, I ran toward the direction of the light pillar.
The closer I got, the more an intense aura tightened around my breath.
The pillar of light vanished quickly.
Upon arriving at the location, I saw a human’s back in the distance and something grotesque with multiple holes punched through it, crumbling apart.
It was made of gray stone, reminiscent of a golem.
I instantly recognized the golem’s identity.
It was the guardian of the floating island ruins.
I hurried toward them. But a powerful wave between the two repelled my body.
“What the hell is this……”
It wasn’t a barrier. What was going on?
No matter how many times I tried again, I couldn’t approach them.
“Tch.”
With no choice, I used [Third Eye].
[……Impressive. How did a human body accumulate so much freedom?]
As the Third Eye drew closer to them, a voice rang out clearly.
“I absorbed the waves of freedom that thing created. Well, today’s events burned through all the freedom I’d built up until now.”
A calm-voiced human.
A face I knew.
I gritted my teeth.
“Kim Chang-hyun……”
“Seon-woo!”
Only then did Han Se-yeon catch up to me.
She doubled over, clutching her chest as if the erupting mana waves choked her, kneeling in agony.
“……Are you okay?”
She gasped for breath for a while.
Then she lost consciousness and collapsed into my arms.
It was because she hadn’t trained in magic, leaving her with low mana resistance.
I cast a spell to suppress the mana waves directed at her.
[You’re truly insane…… How can a single human……]
The guardian’s voice came through.
[……that absurd plan…… all the way here……]
“There’s still a long way to go. I’ve only just started stepping onto the path. And for the record, this isn’t my plan. It’s His.”
[Kuhuhu…… Obsession transcending time and space…… Should I call it awe-inspiring…… or reckless……]
The guardian laughed again.
[……Interesting. Whether you’re trying to become gods or create gods, I don’t know…… But I respect your dream…… It’s a shame…… I won’t see the changing future……]
With those words, the guardian was destroyed.
Kim Chang-hyun looked down at the guardian, then pulled out the blue gem embedded in its chest.
As he turned to leave somewhere, he seemed to sense something and looked my way.
Our eyes met.
“……Kim Seon-woo.”
Kim Chang-hyun walked toward me. He glanced at Han Se-yeon, unconscious in my arms, and smiled.
“You followed me all the way here. Impressive. But did you happen to hear our conversation just now?”
Instead of answering, I glared at him.
“……Judging by your reaction, you did hear it. This is awkward…… I don’t know exactly where you started listening from.”
“……Shut up and talk. What the hell are you?”
“Me? Well, that’s a philosophical question.”
Kim Chang-hyun chuckled jokingly. I glared at him and spoke again.
“I know you’re Jin Cheon-woo’s apostle. And I know you’re trying to become a ‘god.’ What exactly is the god you’re trying to become?”
At my words, a glint appeared in Kim Chang-hyun’s eyes.
“You know more than I thought. But like I said last time, I can’t tell you. Especially not you.”
Kim Chang-hyun continued.
“You just need to play your role well. There are plenty of bad guys hiding in the world. Demons, Ja-un…… or disaster-grade beasts?”
“......What?”
“You just need to take down those villains one by one, get stronger, and protect the people precious to you.”
“……Hold on. Weren’t you allies with Ja-un?”
Kim Chang-hyun and Ja-un.
They shared a deep connection to Jin Cheon-woo.
Kim Chang-hyun was Jin Cheon-woo’s apostle, and Ja-un was the group worshiping Jin Cheon-woo.
At my words, Kim Chang-hyun blinked, pondered, then smirked.
“Yeah, I’ll tell you that much. No, we’re not. At least not in this world. Ja-un? Who cares what happens to those guys?”
Those words hit me like a shock.
……Not allies with Ja-un?
But Kim Chang-hyun was Jin Cheon-woo’s apostle.
“……You don’t want Jin Cheon-woo resurrected?”
“His resurrection…… Heh. Sorry, but I can’t say.”
Kim Chang-hyun smiled.
That was when I noticed the blue-glowing gem in his hand.
The reason he’d caused this mess on the floating island was that gem.
I activated Outsider’s Grace.
［Soul Extraction Stone (Relic)］
Description: Extracts souls. Destroys upon successful extraction.
Soul Extraction Stone…….
I had no idea what it was for.
If I reasoned alone, maybe extracting Lee Seo-jun’s soul for Jin Cheon-woo’s resurrection……?
But that was Ja-un’s role.
Kim Chang-hyun looked up at the sky.
“I’ll be off now. With the guardian destroyed, the barrier will collapse soon. And it’s about time for the full moon to rise.”
With that, Kim Chang-hyun turned away.
“Wait!”
I laid Han Se-yeon down and immediately fired a magic orb at his back.
But Kim Chang-hyun deployed a barrier and blocked it effortlessly.
Then he reached out toward me.
A pillar magic manifested above and stabbed straight into my shoulder.
It was magic at a speed I’d never experienced before.
“Guh!”
“That kind of wound should heal in no time, right? Well, it was nice meeting you. See you next time.”
With those words, Kim Chang-hyun vanished somewhere.
I clutched my shoulder and quickly staunched the bleeding.
Once Kim Chang-hyun was gone, the mana pressure enveloping the area lifted.
Only Han Se-yeon and I remained in this ruin.
That was when it happened.
Woooong!
Space warped in front of me, and two people appeared.
“Whoa, where the hell is this?”
“……Outdoors?”
Faces I knew well.
Elin and Hyun-gyo.
Elin looked at me and Han Se-yeon, her face full of surprise.
“……Kim Seon-woo? Han Se-yeon?”
At Elin’s words, Hyun-gyo turned toward me as well.
He glanced at the collapsed Han Se-yeon and grinned slyly.
“Luck’s on our side.”