The Old King's Domain

Talent. Skills acquired after the fact. Stats and every kind of equipment. Talismans that could etch special options onto gear.

There were countless kinds of abilities that helped one find the "hidden things" of Pangenia — hidden paths, hidden options on items, the buried secrets of seals…

But none of those supporting abilities could hold a candle to this one Hidden Trait. I would stake my word on it.

Mutation.

One of the thirteen Hidden Traits I possessed — a power that was nothing short of the authority to unearth every buried secret that existed.

I can see it.

A hidden path. A one-way route designed to be invisible to human eyes.

Whoooooosh—!

A long bridge stretched toward the sanctuary perched atop the cliff, and a powerful downdraft howled up from the chasm below. Without absolute concentration while walking that narrow span, you would plunge straight off the edge.

That was the intended design.

"Wh-what are you doing—?!"

I leapt high from a particular patch of ground beside the bridge, and Isabella let out a strangled cry. To her, I must have looked like a man about to commit suicide.

But the shock lasted only a moment.

"Keep up."

"…Did the Star tell you there was a path like that, too?"

"You ask the obvious."

Isabella stared at me with a strange look in her eyes.

Throughout the sanctuary, tiny invisible blocks of earth floated in midair — barely large enough for a single adult to stand on. Miss your footing and you fell to your death. But to my eyes, every one of them was crystal clear.

Not even an exploration skill comes close.

The last time I entered this place with my previous character, I had been loaded with every tool and skill imaginable. Even the Transcendent exploration skill Insight, raised all the way to skill level 10, had never revealed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a hidden path as sharply as what I saw now. At best it offered a vague description that ground existed somewhere nearby. The gulf between reading something in text and seeing it with your own eyes needed no explanation.

The downdraft was so fierce that wings were useless. Deep-sea fish lurked at the bottom — get sucked down and you died, no matter your level.

Only the ground. You had to walk the ground to survive.

Exploration rate of 100%… is it possible?

Even as a sub-quest, exploring a sanctuary was no small thing. Last time I had reached the end, but the exploration rate had stalled in the high ninety-sevens. At ninety-seven percent I had received the special item Horn's Glory… so filling it to one hundred might yield a narrative-grade treasure.

I hopped up one more block and looked back.

"…? What are you doing?"

Isabella was hesitating, not jumping. She looked at me with an odd expression.

"My leg… cramps."

…I was briefly speechless.

Where was the woman who had flown around like a fish in water while ambushing those soldiers? This was pure nonsense.

"Control your strength when you jump. Misjudge it and the downdraft will sweep you away — so be careful."

The gaps weren't especially wide, but the downdraft was the real problem. The wind was so strong that a single mistake could send you tumbling. No matter how high Isabella's level or how agile she was, death would be certain in that moment.

"Invisible paths in the sanctuary…"

"Jump already. We don't have time."

"Can we really receive the Star's Blessing if we go this way?"

Look at this one.

"Are you scared?"

"Hah. As if."

She forced out a snort of laughter, but I could see it — in the pitch-black darkness, Isabella's moist eyes were trembling ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hard.

Was this the kind of character she was?

To climb all the way to second-in-command of Faisalmer, you had to wall yourself off from fear. You had to catch the Queen's eye and earn the elders' recognition before you even had the right to be called a princess. A woman of iron and blood — that had been my impression of the Snake Princess Isabella.

I smirked and needled her.

"You're more of a coward than I expected."

"…I do not know the word 'coward.' My leg truly cramped, nothing more."

She made a show of stretching her leg, then jumped.

Landing on the first block, Isabella looked up at me as if to say, See? Coward? Hardly.

But she absolutely refused to look down.

Surely she didn't have a fear of heights…?

"Well done."

"How many left?"

"Hmm."

I roughly counted the visible blocks and answered.

"About seventy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blocks and we're there."

"Seventy…"

"No — eighty, maybe?"

"…"

"Could be ninety."

Isabella's eyebrows began to twitch.

How is he completely unfazed?

The Star-Chosen Randolph was a strange and remarkable man.

The sanctuary's poison and demonic energy devoured life itself. To even set foot inside, you either needed to be chosen and blessed, or possess a body strong enough to endure it.

And yet Randolph roamed the sanctuary freely without special equipment or blessings — in a place where even Isabella found breathing a struggle.

He saw hidden paths that had gone undiscovered for thousands of years, and dodged traps flying in from every direction as if he already knew them all, moving with complete ease.

How does he know paths even I never found…?

Paths that Faisalmer's second-in-command herself didn't know — paths that even the sanctuary's high priest might not know — and he strode through them without hesitation.

Most of them were invisible. Every single one was a narrow route where a single misstep meant death. She had to follow the path Randolph stepped on using only memory and sensation, which demanded extreme concentration.

And yet… the feeling was strange.

This situation of chasing after someone else's back.

Had she ever pursued another person this desperately before?

Never.

Not once. Absolutely not.

She was the one who led. The absolute powerhouse who charged forward looking only ahead — a position where no one was allowed to stand in front of her.

All of it to break the curse.

Believing the Queen's promise that seizing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠princess's seat would free her from the curse, she had run like a madwoman.

But the Queen had not kept her word.

"Relax. On three, you jump. I'll catch you."

If the invisible path had taken them down the cliff, this time they had to go up — climbing transparent stairs all the way to the ceiling.

When her pace slowed, Randolph said those words.

Isabella shook her head.

"Go first. I will follow slowly."

"That won't do."

"…"

Isabella pressed her lips shut.

That attitude. Those eyes.

They were unfamiliar.

The affectionate way he moved, as if he had known her for a long time…

"Why…"

She almost asked why he looked at her that way, then closed her mouth again.

Instead, she said something else.

"Have we met before?"

"We have never met in the same space."

"…What does that mean?"

"It means I have seen you, but you have never seen me."

If anyone else had said something like that, she would have split their skull open out of sheer curiosity about what they were thinking. But her counterpart was the Star-Chosen.

"Then did the Star show you?"

"Something like that. Come. We need to arrive before dawn."

Once dawn broke, the warriors' deaths would be discovered. Isabella's absence would draw suspicion, and before long the Queen's pursuit squad would be assembled. If the sanctuary were sealed off, escape would become even harder.

"One, two…"

The moment Randolph called three, Isabella leapt into his arms before she even realized what she was doing.

Barely managing to stand on the narrow tile, she could feel his breathing right beside her.

"Just climb on my back. It'll be faster."

He was right. If she had ridden from the start, they would already have reached the ceiling. At this point, there was no room left for stubbornness.

The problem was that Isabella had never once in her life climbed onto a man's back.

In the desert, a woman mounting a man's back meant a special relationship. She would rather have died than ride on a stranger's back — and never had.

"…"

Biting her lip, Isabella climbed onto Randolph's back.

Then she buried her head low.

When they finally reached the ceiling, the world inverted.

A domain barrier!

A barrier covering the entire area — another region that only appeared to those who had followed the designated path.

To think something like that existed inside the sanctuary…

There was a flower field. And hills.

Rumble! Rrrumble—!

In an instant, the things she had taken for hills began to heave and rise.

Golems.

Three golems. Judging by the size of the runes carved into their chests, they were at least upper-tier.

Now it was her turn.

Shing.

Dropping from his back, Isabella drew daggers into both hands.

I watched the golems get dismantled and nodded.

So this is what auto-hunting feels like.

The moment enemies appeared, Isabella handled them on her own without a word. Even golems that would have been difficult for me to face at my current level were soft tofu in front of her.

She shattered their cores in an instant and sheathed her daggers again.

That was the moment.

Just as expected.

The sanctuary's hidden dungeon. Originally this place was designed to grant skills. If I had already possessed a class, I probably would have received something like "Golem Destruction Technique." But because I had no class, it offered me the Class of Golem Craftsman instead of a skill.

Whether the developers intended this, I honestly couldn't say.

To begin with, surviving the sanctuary's toxicity required a minimum level of 7. There was no such thing as a level-7 character without a class — and even if someone somehow managed it with Hidden Traits the way I had, they would still need to find the hidden path and hunt the golems. That was far easier said than done.

Decline.

Golem Craftsman. By grade, it was an upper-tier class. Classes that summoned things or fought alongside companions were rare in Pangenia.

But it wasn't the class I wanted.

Something of this caliber would never put me in first place on the Hall of Fame.

It treats Isabella's kills as mine, though.

Still, one thing puzzled me.

Pangenia did have a party system, but everything was divided by contribution. Skills or classes could only be obtained by hunting with high contribution. I had planned to chip in with a finishing blow at least — do that a hundred times and I'd get it once.

Yet it succeeded on the first try. With zero contribution from me.

Did we suddenly enter a party state somehow?

When she killed the warriors outside, and when she cleaned up the minor monsters inside the sanctuary, nothing had changed. Then this shift appeared out of nowhere.

I didn't know the reason, but good things were good things.

The System's voice and text chimed with every hunt that followed.

Decline them all.

They were excellent enough — but still not the class I was looking for.

After walking for a long while, we finally arrived at a colossal mountain.

The master of the colossal mountain. To kill that titan, you needed to be level 10 at minimum.

But in the past, I had never killed the Old King.

There had been no need.

The Old King had recognized the gulf in rank and simply never attacked. At the time I had consumed three Stars and Transcended — so far beyond the Old King that it wasn't even a contest.

So now that I'm weak, it thinks I'm easy prey.

…So it hadn't been a helper NPC after all.

Honestly, back then I had thought of it as a kindly guide NPC that pointed the way toward the Star. It was simply strong against the weak and weak against the strong.

A voice that rolled through the entire mountain.

A body that glittered like gemstone.

A colossal serpent of pure obsidian!

"Ah—"

Faced with the titan, Isabella's body locked up completely.

Level 10 was the rank just before Transcendent. Isabella might be level 8, but the number 10 was an uncrossable wall — a difference of rank itself.

Moreover, the howling that poured from the serpent made the creature look almost like a dragon.

Tremble—!

Isabella shook. She knew that standing still meant death, but she couldn't move. Prey facing the apex predator of the pyramid always reacted the same way.

Tsk.

I clicked my tongue and stepped forward. Isabella's eyes flew wide. No human should have been able to move so casually inside the Old King's absolute domain.

And yet he was clearly moving.

"Stand aside. You have no right to guard that place."

The Old King flicked out its tongue.

It was closing in, ready to swallow me whole in a single bite.

"Wilhelm."

But before it could even reach me, the Old King froze.

How did I know that name?

"Is the true master of this mountain not Wilhelm rather than you?"

Well — because I was Wilhelm.

I had died and been deleted, but the master of this mountain was not the Old King. It was me.

The Old King had transferred ownership to me, and thus I had become the master of the Star.

Therefore, the illegal trespasser was not me — it was that thing.

Freed of its bonds, the Old King opened its jaws wide.

In the instant it lunged to crush me—

"Your master has returned, Old King — Dramut."

KRAAAAAASH—!

Its head, forced into a desperate course correction, scraped and dragged across the ground.