Chapter 301
Chapter 301
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 301
>Chapter Title: The Great Mage and the First Archmage
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The Great Mage and the First Archmage.
The two stared at each other, sizing one another up. But predicting what would happen if they clashed with raw force wasn't hard.
In every scenario, Uru would lose.
Even if Karen and Karuna joined in, it would only delay the inevitable—the outcome would be the same.
Whooooosh...
Just sensing the mana made that future easy to envision. No one in the world was as sensitive to mana as Uru, so it was even clearer to him.
‘What the hell is this ridiculous mana...'
If it were just vast reserves of mana, he might have had a shot. But Azran's mana was special.
It protected him like it was alive, coiling around his body like a serpent infused with frost.
Facing him now, there was no chance of victory.
Uru knew that full well.
But he couldn't back down.
Sometimes, you had to step into a fight where defeat was certain.
Right here, right now, the Void was Kang Seol's final bastion. Uru was the general defending it.
That's why he glared with wide eyes, blocking the Duke of Frost's advance.
Countless scenarios of facing the Duke of Frost flashed through Uru's mind. Rules of engagement formed: if he attacked first, respond with an even fiercer bombardment, even if it strained him.
Swish...
But Azran's reaction was odd.
No, it was something Uru hadn't anticipated at all.
Azran dipped his head in a light bow, like a guest acknowledging his host. Karen glanced at Uru in confusion.
Wasn't this weird?
It was exactly the gesture you'd expect from someone who'd been invited.
- Let's watch and see.
Uru sent a thought to Karen.
She nodded and swung her sword.
Whoosh-!
Clang...
The swung sword slid straight back into its sheath, and the flames positioned to keep Azran at bay vanished with that single motion.
Whirrr...
Crackle...
Only then did Azran slowly approach.
As he drew near, biting cold invaded the space.
But it didn't affect Uru or Karen—their bodies showed no signs of harm.
Since the enemy was presenting himself as a guest, Uru couldn't just stand idle.
Zing...
With a wave of his hand, a table appeared, along with a chair for the Duke of Frost.
The chair was rough, not exactly guest-worthy, but offering it at all was what mattered.
Swish...
Crackle...
As Azran sat, the chair transformed into a finely crafted work of art. It suited him perfectly, feeling like a natural extension of his presence.
Having him right there in front of him, Uru felt relieved he hadn't attacked rashly.
Whooooosh...
What an overwhelming presence.
Uru hadn't thought much of the Immortal or the Duke of Frost that Kang Seol had mentioned. He hadn't seen them as that impressive.
The first shift came when he experienced the Void created by the Immortal firsthand. The second was now.
Anyone standing before the Duke of Frost, Azran, would have all their attention drawn to him.
Uru acknowledged it.
Unless he recovered his full power, fighting him now would mean freezing solid in an instant.
"Azran."
Azran introduced himself first.
A perfect sentence might have seemed more polite, but that didn't seem to matter to him. Why would an absolute being bother with etiquette?
"...Uru."
"...Uru."
Azran looked around.
Uru added one more thing.
"The master of this spirit world you're in right now is a guy named Kang Seol."
"...Kang Seol."
Azran methodically scanned the surroundings. When the silence stretched on for about a minute, Uru started feeling something off.
- This damn bastard... what the hell is he doing?
Uru tossed a thought at Karen for no reason.
She shook her head, gesturing for him not to act rashly.
Rustle...
Rustle...
Uru grimaced.
It felt like someone was groping the back of his head.
Swish...
He turned to check, but no one was there. Then his eyes widened.
"...You probed my body with mana?"
Azran had done it—scanned him directly with mana itself.
An insanely difficult feat unless you were the mana itself.
Masterful mana control.
It was like treating mana as his own limbs.
Azran spoke.
"...Spirit?"
He'd probably probed because he was curious about Uru's true nature. Confirming the bespectacled, talking thing before him was a spirit, Azran blurted out his inner thought.
"Impressive."
"......"
At this point, Uru dove into the conversation proper.
"...Yes, this body is a great spirit vessel. My mana sensitivity is unmatched."
Of course, even so, he couldn't pull off stunts like Azran's. Not yet, at least.
Azran's admiration was genuine.
Like a child's reaction.
"Hmm..."
The absolute being's praise puffed Uru up a bit.
Sometimes dignity.
Sometimes innocence.
The Duke of Frost he'd met in person was utterly unpredictable.
Getting entangled with someone like this meant doom.
But outright hostility was risky too.
It could endanger Kang Seol.
This was Kang Seol's spirit world, after all.
Reckless actions would ripple back to him directly.
Uru pondered how to handle him.
If he'd attacked Kang Seol outright, that'd be one thing, but as far as Uru could tell, his miracle wasn't life-threatening.
After much deliberation, he asked.
"What's your purpose?"
"...Purpose?"
"Yeah, after freezing Kang Seol and his ragtag crew solid, you gonna play innocent?"
"......"
The Duke of Frost showed no emotional fluctuation. His responses were doll-like, dry.
He delayed his answer. Instead, he questioned.
"This place..."
"It's called the Void. A special space."
Swish...
Azran stood abruptly and moved.
Uru had no choice but to follow.
"What are you doing?"
"...Observing."
If that was truly his only goal, Azran began roaming the Void's nooks and crannies.
He caressed the world Uru had built with delicate hands and said.
"Impressive."
This spot.
"Impressive."
That one.
"Impressive."
Like a crying baby wailing 'impressive,' Azran kept admiring as he moved.
And that reaction...
Got Uru excited.
"Hm... Ahem... I improved it beyond the original."
"Impressive? And it's not even fully restored yet? Truth is, some functions here are my own inventions over the original..."
"For someone so rude, you have a good eye. A mage who recognizes this greatness. Guess I shouldn't dismiss you entirely."
Yes.
Even the pettiest effort feels exhilarating when someone appreciates the work put in. Especially reconstructing the Void—a feat that would leave anyone tongue-tied, no matter who they were.
Kang Seol appreciated it but didn't grasp the effort involved.
Uru was facing, for the first time, someone who understood it all.
"Come here. I'll show you something more interesting."
"......"
Azran nodded and followed Uru.
It started with Uru anxiously trailing Azran out of worry, but now Uru was excitedly showing off the Void to him.
Even Karen found the bizarre shift bewildering.
"Look at this. This section gave me real trouble, but surprisingly, it wasn't mana that..."
Uru, buzzing with enthusiasm in his explanation.
"Impressive..."
Azran, purely admiring it.
"...Damn it."
"......"
"Why is the only one who gets my level an absolute being like you?"
That was Uru's true feeling.
"Everyone else probably croaked ages ago..."
Uru muttered quietly and led Azran deeper into the Void.
"I'll show you more, even more."
He turned and walked ahead.
Karen watched his back and escorted slowly.
Surprisingly, Uru and Azran were hitting it off.
Azran didn't speak in long sentences.
Things like 'How's this?' or 'What's the method?' prompted Uru to explain in detail.
When Uru spoke, Azran nodded.
For those walking the path of mana, even this conversation was training. In that exchange, Uru felt immense satisfaction.
For them, intellectual discourse was like stumbling upon a great fortune.
To an outsider, it might look like Uru monologuing while Azran just listened, but it wasn't.
Azran understood precisely what Uru meant and drew out more at the right moments.
Like Jamad devouring stronger shamans, or Karen and Karuna advancing their sword arts, explaining knowledge bred wisdom.
Flinch...
Karen paused, watching Uru rave excitedly.
For some reason, she felt like Uru's body was growing larger.
An illusion?
No, it was definitely expanding.
Something was changing.
"Ah, don't inspect too closely. Some spots are just roughly shoved together."
"Can't look?"
"...Embarrassing. The sloppy parts."
Nod.
"See? You get it. That's why conversing with intellect is fun."
Karen wondered if Uru had completely dropped his guard against Azran.
Halt...
Azran, who'd been going smoothly, stopped dead.
His head turned toward a firmly shut door.
"Ah, that inside is..."
Before Uru could speak, Azran cracked the door open.
Roooaaar-!
A thunderous roar erupted from within.
Uru and Karen grimaced, covering their ears.
"......"
Inside the door, a knight cloaked in dark energy faced a massive giant.
But the giant moved on pure instinct, devoid of reason.
Uru continued.
"That's why the Void was created."
Slash!
Splatter!
"Haa... haa..."
The black knight bisected the giant's body.
The sight of a small being felling a colossal one was always awe-inspiring.
But Uru didn't seem satisfied.
"Tch... Growing too fast is a problem too..."
"Problem?"
At Azran's question, Uru explained.
"Ah, like I said earlier, I didn't create this place. The current Void is just me patching up what the previous owner left behind. But even that's not unlimited. Battles with strong beasts accelerate growth, but since the Void is conceptual, beasts that provide real-combat experience are limited in number."
"Conceptual..."
Azran nodded at the word and stepped forward a bit more.
Soon, they reached what was arguably the Void's largest space.
Creeeak...
Opening the door revealed heaps of musty corpses, the air thick with decay and rot.
"This was originally full of beasts."
"This place?"
"Yeah, that troll you met cleared them all out, so now it's just for piling bodies."
Azran nodded and rummaged in his robes.
"Hm? What're you doing?"
He fumbled briefly before pulling out a tiny vial.
It contained a bluish liquid.
Spotting it, Uru froze.
"No way..."
Azran poured the liquid into the vast room.
Drip...
"Hey..."
At that moment,
Whooooosh...
Cracklecracklecraaack-!
Immense cold swirled, freezing the entire room. Karen and Uru near Azran were spared, but the scene was hellish.
Crackle...
Cracklecrackle...
A frost spirit, far stronger than the giant Karuna had slain, condensed immense power and awakened.
Whooooosh...
And as if that weren't enough, the perilous cold birthed an ecosystem.
Ice-crystal reptiles and other lifeforms.
But perhaps unsatisfied with the room's size, some hadn't hatched from eggs, and power was unevenly distributed.
How could he create all this in an instant?
The teeming life, the mana beasts brimming with power—all born from that single drop of bluish liquid.
A voice came from behind Azran.
"...Ice Soul."
Ice Soul.
A single drop could unleash disaster.
"You dumped the whole thing here?!"
Uru muttered.
"This'll mess up the growth... Damn it... Gotta bust the outer wall for balance... Reinforce the door over time... But why scatter Ice Soul out of nowhere?"
"......"
"Is it a gift or something?"
"Gift...?"
Azran tilted his head briefly, then shook it.
"No."
"Then?"
"You said it was a problem."
Uru froze in shock.
"Such..."
He'd scattered Ice Soul to help Uru's 'problem,' and it actually worked.
Moreover, the intent behind it...
Truly shook Uru's heart.
"......"
"Uru?"
"Don't disappear."
"......"
Uru said it because Azran's mana was fading.
"Don't disappear, Azran."
Uru grabbed Azran's sleeve.
"You're trying to vanish!"
Yes.
Even an absolute being like the Duke of Frost, who twisted mana and ignored the world's rules, couldn't persist forever.
Indeed, the rules for Floor 4 ended like this:
- If you're still alive despite the issue, wait calmly for it to resolve itself. The more severe, the faster it'll be handled.
Azran's existence was a severe problem for the All-World Library.
He had to go.
Fake or real didn't matter.
He was doomed to vanish anyway.
Even his eccentric act of scattering Ice Soul in the Void could be dismissed.
Azran would fade, and so would the Ice Soul. But since it was in the conceptual Void, its effects would linger.
Perhaps its only use for the vanishing Ice Soul.
"Time's up."
"Azran... Where do I go?"
"...I'm fake. The real Azran is..."
"Where? Where can I meet you?"
At Uru's desperate cry, the letter-formed Azran paused.
Then, he extended his index finger upward.
That was his answer—Uru finally relaxed.
"...I see."
Fwhoosh...
Azran's form faded from the Void.
Once more, Uru was left behind.
In a world demanding endless instruction.
The brief encounter with the absolute being was a massive shock to Uru—far greater than being reborn in a spirit body.
Karen panicked watching Uru tremble.
His body was growing larger and larger.
* * *
Crack... Crackle...
The ice encasing Kang Seol's face melted away.
"Haa... Haa... Gasp..."
Air filled his lungs.
He was still alive in this icy world. He seemed to be the only one awakening.
Crackle...
The ice around his body shattered fully, and his functions returned to normal.
"......"
Regaining freedom, Kang Seol still couldn't turn his head.
Right before his eyes, there he was.
The Duke of Frost, Azran.
But unlike their first meeting, his form was faintly blurred.
"Azran..."
"Kang... Seol."
Swish...
Azran handed Kang Seol a pristine white book.
It was the one he'd taken from Kang Seol.
After a moment's thought, Azran said.
"Gift."
"Azran!"
"Deliver it."
In that instant, the absolute being dissolved into letters and scattered.
- Azran! The mage who freezes even death...
Fsssh...
Kang Seol watched the letters disperse, then opened the white book.
He flinched.
The book that wouldn't budge before now opened effortlessly, revealing its contents.
Its seal was broken.
But who was he supposed to deliver it to?
"...Ah."
Opening it, an unmistakable seal from Azran appeared on the first page.
The author's autograph—almost comical.
Right beside the Duke of Frost's snowflake emblem, mana-inscribed text read:
- Uru, looking forward to another enjoyable conversation.
This book was Azran's gift to Uru.
Before delivering it, Kang Seol checked the first line to confirm it was truly from the Duke of Frost.
- From Azran.
The legendary legacy left by the Duke of Frost.
A frozen truth containing his enlightenment.
[Forbidden Book acquired! You obtain the Frozen Truth.]
[The Frozen Truth reveals itself to the world.]
……