Awe

Isaac and Isabella exchanged a look.

They're multiplying by the second.

······.

Maybe we should just bolt on our own?

Isabella shook her head, and Isaac's brow furrowed.

The situation was turning strange.

The moment the Tower of Mysteries began to change, monsters from every corner of Kramdel had come flocking. And that was only the beginning. Gunggi had appeared, and now every last one of the Four Lords — the true rulers of Kramdel — stood assembled.

There was no hole left to crawl through.

Someone might see through my disguise······.

Isaac was quietly uneasy. Among this throng of monsters, there might well be one that could tell he was human. If that happened, he was dead on the spot. He would never leave this place alive.

But he was not the only one in danger.

I can't shake the feeling that I've gotten myself thoroughly entangled.

The half-dragon woman before him, and the King of Corpse Crows. The moment those two had entered his life, Isaac's ordinary days had been upended in an instant. For a full year, no one had found him. Now he could not shake the sense that his carefree existence in Kramdel was over.

Still, he had already taken what was offered. He could not simply walk it back.

And so Isaac was dying to ask.

Did the Corpse Crow create this whole mess?

He wanted to put the question to the half-dragon woman. Isabella. Because a peculiar certainty was settled in her eyes.

But he could not ask. The instant he opened his mouth — no matter how soft the sound — they would catch it. They would be reading even the subtlest movements of the tens of thousands of monsters gathered around them. The first hint of anything suspicious, and his head would come off. Or he might be turned to stone and hung on a door for eternity.

Either way was the worst possible outcome.

I need to figure out how to get out of here.

Isaac rubbed his chin. He turned over every means of spiriting away the self-proclaimed Sacred Awakener — the King of Corpse Crows. The moment the tower opened, the hundred monsters who had already entered would come pouring out all at once. A way to peel only the Sacred Awakener free from among them. A way to move him past the eyes of the Four Lords and the eyes of nearly a hundred thousand monsters······.

As if anything like that exists.

He shook his head inwardly. However skilled Isaac was at running, he could not outrun the Four Lords. Throw everything he had at it, and he would be caught inside ten seconds.

···Honestly, it probably would not even take five.

He had not the slightest intention of racing Gunggi, said to be the fastest thing in the world. Dodging Medusa's eyes as they swept across the whole area was equally impossible, and a single breath from Dae-to-ryong would seal every escape route. If the Death King snared his soul, his end would be even more wretched.

He knew thousands upon tens of thousands of ways to flee — and not a single one of them would work here.

Gulp.

But······.

Isaac swallowed hard, studied the Four Lords carefully, and tilted his head.

Are all of the Four Lords… tense?

Something was off. The Four Lords gathered before the tower felt strangely on edge. But that made no sense.

What kind of beings were the Four Lords?

Each one of them was an absolute sovereign. Monsters capable of wiping out an entire city on their own. The Death King, for one, had once scoured the great city now called Necrovalley in a single sweep. It had been the thriving capital of a kingdom; in a single day, the Death King had turned it into a mountain of corpses. Now it was a city of the dead, nothing left but bodies and graves.

Ever since, humans had never once set foot in Kramdel, where the Four Lords resided.

And now four beings of the Death King's caliber stood together. Monsters that looked capable of killing even a Demon King — and they were tense? Over nothing more than a change in a tower?

The moment the rings became five.

What was certain was that they had not been this tense when there had been four rings. The instant the rings became five, their tension had grown visible enough to read on their faces. Even if this was a Mythic trial, did that change truly mean enough to put the Four Lords on edge?

Whoooooosh—!

Then it happened.

The five rings hanging at the tower's peak began to change. All five flared with a greater light at once, then started to merge. The single ring that remained reshaped itself into something like a crown.

······And that crown.

He had seen it somewhere before.

That's the crown the Sacred Awakener — the King of Corpse Crows — wears.

He was going to lose his mind. From every angle, it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was unmistakably the Corpse Crow's crown. He had suspected, half-dared to hope he was wrong — but had the self-proclaimed Sacred Awakener truly caused this change? Had a single being drawn the attention of every monster in Kramdel and all four of the Four Lords?

"It's coming out!"

"The tower's open!"

At the monsters' cries, the ones who had entered the tower began to emerge one by one. The moment they stepped out, they could not help but freeze.

"Th-the Four Lords······!"

"What are they all doing gathered here?"

Countless monsters, the Four Lords among them. But these were not the same kind of monster. The gulf between them and the Four Lords in particular was absolute — the mere sight of them was crushing. It was fair to say that no monster present could stand before them without trembling.

The Mythical species, including the Imoogi, and the Phantasmal species such as the phoenixes fared somewhat better — and even they could not so much as twitch.

One by one, the Four Lords examined the monsters frozen outside the tower. Among them, without fail, there would be a Transcendent. The true monster who had formed five rings — who had soared far past even the White King's achievements!

"······Were you all waiting for me?"

Then it came.

Every gaze locked onto the being who had just stepped from the tower. Even with the Four Lords right in front of him, he showed not a shred of intimidation. If anything, he was lounging in the attention, tossing out a half-joking remark.

The monsters watching from a distance murmured.

"An Imoogi!"

"If it's an Imoogi, the odds aren't zero."

The monster that had appeared was a Mythical-species Imoogi. And not just any — an Imoogi on the very brink of becoming a dragon. As if to prove it, the Wish ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Orb embedded in its chest was swollen nearly to bursting.

As expected of the Four Lords. So they recognized my potential.

The Imoogi threw out its chest. The Four Lords, and a crowd of this size. The reason for a spectacle like this was obvious. They had surely responded to the Mystery it had obtained. What else could it be, if not that they had recognized its potential and come to claim it?

"The Mystery I obtained is the equal of a King's Proof. Qualification itself to surpass even Dae-to-ryong! Need I say more? The Legend-grade Mystery, Phantom Dragon's Mist!"

Mist unfurled around the Imoogi. Within it, seven colors poured forth as if a rainbow were blooming.

Phantom Dragon's Mist! A Legend-grade Mystery, and the remnant of the Phantom Dragon spoken of in legend. By invoking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Dae-to-ryong, one of the Four Lords, it had all but declared its own ambition.

Looking at the swaggering Imoogi, the Four Lords spoke in turn.

"Not it."

"No."

"Mm. Definitely not."

"······."

Unanimous. Dae-to-ryong, Gunggi, the Death King, and Medusa were all of one mind. That Imoogi was no Transcendent.

A True Blood of the Blood Clan emerged next, and again they shook their heads.

"None of them."

Dae-to-ryong's words drew the Four Lords' agreement. Ninety-nine entrants came out in succession, and every last one fell short of expectation. All of them were woefully inadequate to be called Transcendents. Not one of them had stirred so much as a flicker of interest. Even the Mythical and Phantasmal species, whose very racial value set them apart, were the same.

It was thoroughly disappointing.

But it was not entirely over.

The last one out will be the Transcendent.

Whoever emerged last would surely be the Transcendent.

And then.

Thud.

The tower's final entrant appeared.

At last, every one of the Four Lords who looked upon that last entrant had no choice but to swallow their disappointment.

"Mm······?"

"A Corpse Crow······?"

The King of Corpse Crows.

······Of every entrant, he was the most unimpressive of the lot.

The words floating before my eyes declared the trial cleared. And it was the fifth trial. It meant that the five stages of trials — Corpse Crow, Void, Giant, Druid, and finally Celestial — had at last come to an end.

Was the trial of the Celestial… refusing the final reward?

The previous four trials had all been combat. I had strengthened my skeleton soldiers by adding traits one at a time. I had not had the strength left to so much as twitch a finger, so a Celestial trait valued at a full racial score of twenty had seemed utterly impossible to break.

Then those words had appeared: final reward. A completed Myth. They had even stamped my name on a Unique-grade Mystery.

It would have been a lie to say I was not tempted. A hundred out of a hundred would have taken the reward and been done. If no further reward existed, why keep challenging? Every reason I had pressed on until now had been for the sake of elevating the reward.

But something about it sat wrong. Something I could not accept. And so I had refused.

······Was that actually the right answer?

If it was, that raised a problem of its own.

Then what is the Celestial trait?

What I had ultimately wanted to see was the trait belonging to the Celestial. I had wanted to know what a Celestial even was, that it had been valued at twice the points of any other Hidden Trait.

Or was this choice itself somehow connected to the Celestial?

In that moment—

Beyond Spec.

A grade I had never seen in my life. It meant that anything above Unique grade simply could not be classified. And so — Beyond Spec. As if further challenges and choices were meaningless, it had simply been granted.

At last, I had achieved the purpose of coming to Kramdel. Completing Main Quest 5 with an overwhelming result!

Whatever the Constellations were muttering about barely registered. Right now, every scrap of my focus was locked in place.

But······ it said it could not settle. A grade that did not exist could not be converted into a score.

I frowned — and another line appeared.

······.

······.

······.

Overwhelming.

At the same time, every Player across the world reeled in shock.

Along with the news that the rankings for Main Quest 5 had shifted, those who checked the Hall of Fame found themselves staring at a score they could not believe.

Main Quest 5. Obtain a Mystery. No Player staked their life on a quest this simple. You could clear it by buying any random Mystery from a mystic-arts dealer on any city street. And the Mysteries used by the humans of Pangenia had always been unimpressive to begin with. Unless it belonged to a king who had founded a kingdom, or a ruler of a major city, a Mystery did not even come with meaningful options.

"······Master."

And first place on Main Quest 5 had originally belonged to Master. Two hundred forty points. The strongest monster in the human world, who had locked down first place with a lead of more than fifty points over second.

He was the master of the Ruins City Rundela, a king in all but name who already commanded more Players than anyone else and had effectively founded a kingdom. He had been certain this record would never be broken. Even Gracia had given up on it — so who would dare challenge his achievement?

But someone had. Someone had surpassed it. And by an overwhelming margin.

A height that should have been forever unreachable.