Chapter 159
Chapter 159
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: The Tiger's Eye
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Swoosh-
Peek-!
Harkes stood on his tiptoes, gazing into the distance.
Swoosh-
Rustle-
He looked at the words and drawings on the old leather parchment.
Then he glanced around again, surveying his surroundings.
He had been at it for hours.
He had been combing through one snow-covered mountain after another, ascending and descending, searching meticulously.
Fortunately, the sun set late here.
It was still bright outside.
Trudge, trudge-
Having found nothing, Harkes returned to where Do-jae was, his shoulders slumped.
The place was a stark contrast to its surroundings.
"That's it! Just like that!"
Herteias's excited voice echoed.
At his urging, Magol gathered its mana once more.
Rumble-
Mana swirled, and the sky vibrated.
Soon, a bright, white point of light appeared, growing larger and larger.
A small meteor, the size of a compact car, fell toward the snowy mountain opposite them.
It was the 'Meteor' spell.
BOOM-!
The meteor crashed into the mountainside, creating a massive explosion that blew away half the mountain and left a huge crater.
Its destructive power was truly worthy of a spell exclusive to dragons.
"Stop. You've used too much."
Do-jae said, a slightly tired expression on his face.
Every time Magol cast a large-scale spell, Do-jae's mana was drained.
While it was good that the golem was learning more spells, Do-jae was beginning to feel his limit after the relentless barrage of magic.
"Already? I still have so many more spells to teach it."
Herteias said, disappointed.
He was enjoying teaching Magol magic because golems shared a similar nature with dragons.
Dragons were living beings, but they were also masses of mana.
As dragons aged, they gradually became more like mana itself, and golems, being aggregates of mana from the start, manipulated mana in the same way.
Especially the Dragon Tongue.
The Dragon Tongue was a method of spellcasting used by adult dragons or older, whose bodies had undergone mana materialization.
Dragon Tongue magic allowed one to feel and activate mana itself without formulas or incantations, and Magol could replicate this structure perfectly.
In other words, Magol's magic was also Dragon Tongue magic, which meant it could bypass all the knowledge humans needed to accumulate to use magic.
"At this rate, we're going to completely change the environment here."
Do-jae gestured at their surroundings.
After dozens, even hundreds of spells had been cast, the area where Do-jae stood was completely transformed.
The slope had become a flat clearing, the snow had melted only where they were, creating flowing streams, and there were even places where new sprouts had emerged.
Dragon magic was powerful enough to alter the very environment.
"Hmph. Making excuses! Then again, it's hard for a mere human to handle this much mana consumption. No, for a human, it's incredible! When I first sensed you, I thought you were a hatchling, I tell you."
Clap, clap, clap-
Herteias clapped sarcastically.
Do-jae, thinking he would one day humble the dragon, looked at the dejected Harkes.
"Any luck?"
Harkes shook his head, his gaze lowered.
As one of the three leaders of the Titans, he had set out confidently to ensure the survival of his race, but now he realized how powerless he was.
It was partly due to being overshadowed by the dragon, but he felt pathetic for constantly receiving help and being unable to contribute.
"Then let's think about it together. Can you explain the materials you brought?"
"Understood."
Harkes took out a book, a map, and other items from his backpack and began to explain them to Do-jae.
At first, it was difficult to piece everything together due to ambiguous sentences and cultural differences in vocabulary, but slowly, the outline began to take shape.
"Harkes, no, you wouldn't know this region well... Herteias, do you know where the seven highest peaks in this area are?"
"You mean the Seven Northern Peaks?"
Herteias, who had been exchanging simple spells with Magol, approached.
He stepped onto the map spread out before Harkes and pointed to them one by one.
"These are the mountains known as the Seven Northern Peaks of Tranpeion."
Do-jae took the club-like pen from Harkes's hand and circled the mountains Herteias had indicated.
He then drew lines connecting them and added a few more to create a picture.
"Here, here, and here... Now, what do you see?"
"This is..."
Harkes stroked his chin, his face a picture of astonishment.
Surprised that Harkes recognized it immediately, Do-jae smiled and said.
"You recognized it? The tiger drawings from all over the Titan village... right?"
It was true.
Despite Do-jae's terrible drawing skills, connecting the dots and adding a few lines had produced a plausible symbol.
And it was the tiger, a drawing and symbol that could be easily found throughout the Titan village.
"I never would have thought of it."
"In my world, we have something called constellations. It suddenly came to mind, so I tried drawing it. Looks about right, doesn't it?"
"It does. But what can we learn from this picture?"
Finding the Titan symbol in a distant northern mountain range was a good start.
However, it didn't reveal where Eurabia was sealed.
Just then, Do-jae showed Harkes a sentence from the book and spoke.
"Doesn't this word seem strange?"
"Where?"
"Here. I think this word doesn't quite fit in the part you told me about."
Do-jae asked, recalling a strange part from what Harkes had read to him.
The book had a paragraph briefly describing Eurabia's life, but it inexplicably contained the word 'twilight'.
Reading it without much thought, one might assume it referred to the twilight of Eurabia's life. It could be seen as an expression of her final moments before being sealed, but Do-jae felt the word 'twilight' was unfitting for a being called a god.
"You said the author of this book was a brilliant scholar, right?"
"That's right. Operias was an exceptionally brilliant scholar who was active during the end of the Hundred Years' War."
"Like with the constellations, brilliant scholars from the ancient times of my world used to use something called anagrams for fun."
Anagram. He'd heard the term somewhere before.
He seemed to recall reading about it while studying history for the Suppression Corps exam.
An anagram is the act of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to create a new word or phrase with a different meaning.
In essence, it completely changes the original word's meaning.
What Do-jae focused on here was the word 'eye', written at the very beginning of the sentence containing the word 'twilight'.
To the Titans, the spellings of 'eye' and 'twilight' might not seem significant, but to Do-jae, for whom the letters were unfamiliar, he could notice their similarity.
No, he realized that by simply rearranging the order, 'eye' could become 'twilight', and 'twilight' could become 'eye'.
"Look, if you move this letter like this..."
Do-jae wrote the two words spaciously on a blank piece of paper and explained it to Harkes, one letter at a time.
Harkes then let out a sound of admiration and nodded.
"Ooh...! Yes! You're right!"
"So, the tiger on the map. And the eye this sentence refers to. The tiger's eye. Herteias! Where is this mountain here?"
Herteias nonchalantly pointed to one of the mountains.
A single peak, soaring high among several others.
A mountain whose midsection was obscured by snow clouds.
"Alright, teleport us there."
"Tch. You think Teleport is like some Fireball spell!"
"Briareus never complained when I asked him to take me somewhere... I guess Teleport is a difficult spell for Herteias. Can't be helped. Harkes, let's walk..."
"Hmph! That guy's magic skills are far, far inferior to mine!"
Herteias shot up, annoyed.
He gestured for Do-jae and Harkes to come closer.
He didn't even bother drawing a magic circle anymore.
Do-jae smiled inwardly and slowly approached Herteias.
***
Flash-!
Do-jae's party reappeared in a blizzard, with snow whipping around them violently.
Appearing slightly above the ground on a slope, Do-jae was startled but landed with a fluid motion.
This was thanks to mastering the movements of the Gray Elves, which he had learned in the Nightingale Forest and at the tournament.
"Aviation."
Herteias, too, was elegantly suspended in mid-air with the 'Aviation' spell.
He could have easily cast it on the other two, but he spitefully kept it to himself, floating leisurely.
Just look at him.
Harkes was in a sorry state.
Thud-
Slide-
Caught off guard, Harkes fell and slid down the snowy slope, barely managing to grab onto a tree to stop himself.
Covered in snow, he climbed back up without a word of complaint, quietly brushing himself off.
"So you're saying it's somewhere on this mountain?"
"Probably. If our interpretation is correct."
"Then we must search again. I'll get moving."
Harkes began to walk energetically down the path, the snow rising to his ankles.
This was one of the seven highest mountains among the countless peaks of the north.
How long would it take for Harkes to search this entire mountain on foot?
It would surely take several days at the very least.
"Harkes, wait!"
About thirty meters down, Harkes turned back at Do-jae's shout.
Do-jae sighed at the earnest but reckless Harkes, then opened his subspace.
Vwoom-!
Splat-
Splat- Splat-!
Golems poured out of Do-jae's subspace.
He summoned all the golems he possessed and issued a command.
"Report immediately if you find anything that looks unusual."
At Do-jae's calm command, the hundred or so golems began to move out in different directions.
"Harkes, sit down and rest. You must be tired from walking around all this time."
At Do-jae's words, Harkes glanced down the slope for a moment.
Then he nodded and walked back up toward Do-jae.
"Alright. I seem to be constantly indebted to you on this journey. Thank you."
"It's all for the greater good."
"The greater good?"
"You said it yourself, didn't you? That you want to open the Titan village to the outside world."
"I did."
"You'll have to start preparing as soon as this journey is over."
Do-jae explained the situation with Gellahan and the Apostates to Harkes in detail.
Just as Sarieta and Oson had begun preparing for war, the Titans would be a formidable addition to their forces if they could join.
To achieve that, Harkes's role was crucial.
Whether he could break Eurabia's seal or not, if he could confirm and prove her existence, the Titans would likely lend him their support.
Then, with Harkes as the central figure, they could bring the Titan race into the allied forces of the different races.
"I understand what you mean."
"For now, think it over. Finding Eurabia comes first."
After their conversation, they each took a rest.
Do-jae had also pulled his cozy robe over his head and was leaning back to rest.
Thump-!
A golem approached Do-jae.
"Good, looks like it found something. Harkes, Herteias, let's go."