Chapter 148
Chapter 148
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 148
Chapter Title: The Ancient Emperor's Revival (2)
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Whiiiish.
A pleasant breeze blew just in time, sweeping across the sand on the ground.
The area where Rokan stood wasn't a full-blown desert, but it was close—a sandy terrain where the sand was as fine as dust. Even without a gale-force wind, a fair amount of it billowed up into the air.
And beneath it. Something faint appeared, different from ordinary earth.
Chirp. Peck peck.
What Kai had pecked at was a chunk of rock buried under the sand.
Not just any rock—it was more accurate to call it a tombstone made of a special metal, half-buried in the sand.
That must have been why Rokan hadn't matched the mural's image to this spot perfectly.
Only a tiny tip was visible, but Rokan knew instinctively. He tore the scroll he'd prepared.
Gust of Wind.
Whiiiiiish!
A gust roared through. If he hadn't cupped his palm around Kai first, the little guy's body would've been hurled to who-knows-where.
But Rokan's rough hand served as a sturdy fence and roof, successfully blowing away every pile of sand around them.
[I saw another sky here.]
Examining the stone closely revealed crude handwriting. Ancient script again, but Rokan read it thanks to his title's effect.
"Found it right."
He knew what those words meant.
It was something he'd only learned at the end of his previous life—no one else could've guessed.
The sky above the sky. Another sky.
It was a surprisingly common expression. Easy to infer from the Ancient Emperor's perspective, thinking he was the greatest.
An opponent stronger than him. An untouchable powerhouse.
'...Easy to think that way.'
It had been the same in his past life. A minor fuss had erupted while searching for that being.
If the Ancient Emperor called it "another sky," how strong could it be? A dragon, maybe? Didn't it leave some legacy behind?
If he could claim it. If he could awaken it.
Wild fantasies had spread, but the conclusion was anticlimactic.
'Because it was literally talking about the sky.'
The sky beyond the sky. Another world. What the Ancient Emperor had seen was the world beyond the Central Continent.
The Central Continent had so many cities that "several continents" didn't fit, but it was definitely a new world, a new continent. Inhabited by beings far superior to those in the Central Continent.
But not yet. The path to the sky would open later.
Knowing that, Rokan calmly stared at the tombstone. He looked around, then gripped a protruding orb-like spot tightly.
Woooong.
Mana drained rapidly in an instant. Nearly half of what Rokan had—a massive amount.
A gate appeared.
Knowing it wouldn't last long, Rokan hurled himself through. He moved to whatever space it connected to.
"Hmm."
Chirp. Trot trot trot.
Fluttering up, Kai settled on Rokan's shoulder.
Now that his level was decently high, he wouldn't fall unless Rokan did something wildly rough. Rokan glanced at him briefly, then kept walking.
'Looks right.'
It was dark inside, but that was no issue for Rokan with his Night Vision. He also knew nothing would trouble him until the emperor revived.
A fact revealed through interviews with those who'd done the Ancient Emperor Revival quest.
Chirp!
Then, Kai chirped right in his ear upon spotting something.
What the little guy found: about a thousand metal dolls. The ones called Red Crusaders, now dolls guarding the emperor's tomb.
"It's fine. Let's go."
But Rokan patted Kai reassuringly and headed deeper in.
He itched to smash those dolls below, but he knew they had an "indestructible" status until the Ancient Emperor revived.
So instead of wasting energy, he hurried ahead.
"Chirp!"
Kai chirped again only after some time had passed.
The emperor's real tomb wasn't flashy but was enormous. Black Horse summons didn't work here, either.
Seemed like various functions were restricted to prevent nonsense. It was that important an episode.
'Hold on.'
Then, an amusing hypothesis popped into Rokan's mind. High chance of failure, but success would mean huge gains.
Grinning slyly, Rokan moved toward the end.
"That's it."
At the path's end. On the altar lay the Ancient Emperor's corpse.
No—precisely, the Ancient Emperor's head.
The rest of the body had been torn apart and hidden across the Central Continent by those who feared his revival, but the head remained here, preserved.
The Ancient Emperor's corpse the council had obtained was one of those severed pieces.
But since it was just a body part, they figured they could regenerate flesh and bones and infuse blood, but infusing the emperor's soul properly was tricky. That's why they gave Rokan this quest.
The head was different. There was the superstition that the soul resided in the head, and unlike other parts, it couldn't be cultured or replaced.
And the one piece of the emperor's gear that remained: his sword.
With this, they could surely extract and revive the emperor's soul.
"Who said you could?"
But Rokan had no intention of faithfully completing the quest.
Sure, at this point, reviving the Ancient Emperor and his Red Crusaders would give humanity a force powerful enough—on its own—to pressure the entire Black Dragon Legion.
Other races wouldn't even dream of resisting until they completed their own racial quests.
"Then where's the fun?"
But wouldn't that be too boring?
Maybe the human-supremacist Ancient Emperor would turn against the Golden Lion faction too, not just the Black Dragon Legion, trying to rule over all races—and trigger a unique quest to slaughter and subjugate every other faction. But by Rokan's standards, that sounded dull.
Fun as directly facing Masters and High Masters was, there weren't enough of them.
If the thousand Master-level Red Crusaders and ten High Master commanders drew swords before Rokan could step up, he might not get a chance at all.
Sure, Condol would then issue counterattack quests for other races' survival, accelerating their growth. But none of that would benefit Rokan.
So what to do? Hide the head and sword forever? Delay the human racial quest indefinitely? No. He wouldn't have bothered coming here for that.
"Orb of Corruption, use."
Resolved, Rokan used the Orb of Corruption confiscated from Count Astape.
Green energy flowed into the emperor's head. Infused with corrupting power.
"Did it work?"
Even Rokan couldn't be sure. The corruption didn't directly create undead.
It was just planting a possibility anyway—the result would show when it bore fruit.
"Two's not too much."
Pocketing the now-corrupted Ancient Emperor's head in his inventory, Rokan picked up the sword the emperor had wielded and grinned.
[Sealed Ancient Sword][Unique][Quest]
An ancient sword with its power sealed. Most power is sealed, but it still boasts exceptional performance.
-Attack Power: 2,900
-Durability: 10,000/10,000
-[Sword King] effect: 500% increase to attack power when using swords
-[Sword's Blessing] effect: All stats +100 when equipped
-Equip Restriction: Lv. 300
Sealed or not, the stats were terrifying. The equip level was Master-tier, and as a sword, its attack power was only slightly below the sealed Battle Axe of Wild Wind. Options were just as good.
Shockingly, it was Unique, not even Epic.
So he considered it. Did he really have to bring this sword to the council?
If anyone said yes, Rokan would rip their mouth open. Unless they were a fanatic dreaming of the emperor's perfect revival, why would he?
So Rokan pocketed both items, returned to his territory first, hid the Sealed Ancient Sword—the Ancient Emperor's weapon—deep in his lord's chamber, and only then headed to the council in Taimura.
"I've brought the Ancient Emperor's head."
"What?!"
The council flipped at Rokan's casual report, delivered like a deliveryman.
They'd been desperately searching for the Ancient Emperor's head.
To them—who'd planned to extract a soul from one of his relics somehow—this was a golden opportunity. No, an unprecedented one.
A relic had a high success rate for soul extraction; the head would be near 100%.
Croban wanted to hog all the credit if possible, but this was too big.
Reviving the Ancient Emperor in one go—the scale was immense. He lacked the confidence to handle it alone.
"W-wait. We'll report to His Imperial Majesty."
So Croban unusually set aside his greed and reported directly to the emperor.
He slipped in how he'd commissioned Rokan, touting his own role, but didn't steal the credit outright.
Soon after, the heavy-hipped emperor himself came, taking the Ancient Emperor's head from Rokan as if entranced.
"It's real."
Others might not know, but he could tell. He felt a powerful pull from the bloodline's inherent force.
"Well done. Truly well done."
Power rode the emperor's thrilled voice. Not just power—grief too.
His faction barely held a seat in the Golden Lion bloc through past glories, but the pent-up resentment of being scorned even within it began to erupt.
'Dangerous.'
Watching calmly from the side, Rokan sensed it clearly. The emperor was on the verge of rampaging, stepping into very dangerous territory.
"Now we humans will rewrite our history. The world will learn exactly who the supreme intelligent race is, who the strongest race is!"
The explosive emotion reddening his eyes was all too familiar to Rokan.
Madness.
Madness toward something.