119
119 ― A Spiritual Beast?
The verification over several days revealed that Kalesian's words were only half correct.
He had said that time was frozen, stopped, but that wasn't the case. More precisely, time was flowing very slowly.
'It wasn't like this until I came to this place.'
Until the day before entering the domain of this 'snow mountain', it hadn't been to this extent. It was true that days were getting longer and nights shorter, but it was still within the realm of common sense.
But upon setting foot in this place, the Lord's land, everything changed overnight. An endlessly long day began where no matter how desperately one waited, night would not come.
'However, if I leave this place, it returns to normal.'
Over the past few days, for verification purposes, he had also tried moving away from the snow mountain.
The campsite where they had last camped before entering the Lord's land. He had retreated to that place with Kalesian, and there, time still flowed normally.
The sun moved properly, and night came normally, though briefly.
"I wondered if we might be trapped, but it seems that's not the case."
"That's right."
He had thought they might be forcibly imprisoned in the Lord's land, but that wasn't the case either. It meant that if they wanted to, they could escape and get away at any time.
After various verifications, he had also tried talking to Johan about it once, but he couldn't understand.
"What? The day is long? What are you talking about?"
"You've already been working again for over 10 hours."
"What nonsense. I think it's been about 10 minutes now."
His sense of time was clearly abnormal. What was even stranger was that he felt no curiosity at all about Jin-woo's appeal.
His attitude when encountering this topic was like a wooden block, seeming to feel no discomfort at all.
As if it were an emotion not permitted to him.
"Haah, it's good that I get to work under such an excellent Lord, but to think I have to endure for 10,000 years..."
"10,000 years?"
"Yeah. He said that after that much time passes, he would grant me freedom."
Now that he thought about it, he remembered when Johan was dropped below the gates of hell. At that time, Belkarim, the God of Ice Valley, had said exactly that.
At least 10,000 years... He could make use of him.
'10,000 years is an unimaginably long time, and not in an ordinary place but in a place like this?'
There was no more outrageous fraudulent contract than this. A 10,000-year punishment in a space where time flows at least hundreds of times slower. Didn't that practically mean he had to spend millions of years in labor?
In any case, Johan felt no discomfort about all of this. Should he say he couldn't feel it?
Practically, he would end up digging the ground here for millions of years, but he seemed to regard it as merely serving a few years in prison.
Despite that, he took pride in his work and styled himself as a model prisoner.
...There was no need to forcibly inject the truth. If he was satisfied with that.
'I don't even know how to awaken him anyway.'
He didn't know the method and had no reason to devote himself to it.
If the guy had been his family or a relative, he would have seriously considered it, but he was an assassin who had tried to kill him. What was so precious about him that he would rack his brains for his sake?
More important was their future course of action.
'Kalesian seems to want to try various experiments.'
Kalesian had originally come to experience the Spirit Realm. Therefore, he had tremendous curiosity about this peculiar domain imbued with the Lord's power.
He could even conduct research that would take a very long time here without a burden. No matter how much lifespan and time dragons had, there was much research that was difficult to reach, even with ten thousand years of life.
"No dragon in the dragon realm can manipulate the flow of time. This place is a mystery just for that alone."
He had clearly expressed his desire to remain here.
Jin-woo had reasons to oppose and reasons to agree. The former included the fact that his purpose was to find the World Tree, and that this was the Lord's land, so no one knew what dangers might come.
On the other hand, the latter was...
'I also have several things I want to try.'
The point was that Jin-woo also felt great merit in this space.
When he verified that time was slow, the first thought that came to mind was that he could use it.
It wasn't that he had thought of some great plan. He just thought it would be perfect as a place for cultivation.
You know, doesn't everyone have similar fantasies when they're young? If there were a space where time didn't flow, or flowed slowly, one could easily finish studying or homework and come out...
"Anyway, even if we leave this place, we don't know what dangers might come. Also, if we run into someone like Silvern again, that would be dangerous in its own way."
"That's true, but it would be easier to find the blue portal if we move around as much as possible rather than staying in one place."
"Hmm... That's also right."
Anyway, this was a place where time flowed hundreds of times slower. Staying for a while wouldn't create any time burden.
It would just make finding the blue portal more difficult.
"Then let's do this."
"What?"
As a result, they came to a compromise. It was good to stay for a while, but once they achieved reasonable results, they would leave immediately. However, if even the slightest dangerous sign appeared, they would flee immediately.
Combining their opinions, the two decided to rest for a while and have time for themselves.
It was time that was needed not only for Kalesian but also for Jin-woo. Especially since there were things he had learned from the battle with Silvern, and facts he had realized without knowing.
Thus, the two decided to stay at Johan's cabin for a while.
"Damn, why does it have to be my house?"
Johan openly showed his displeasure, but he couldn't refuse. From his position, Jin-woo was the man who had killed him just yesterday and then chased him to this place the very next day to try to kill him once more.
He even had a living dragon with him, though he didn't know how he had brought it, so there was no way to refuse.
He had even lost the dragon's soul, which had been his trump card, to Jin-woo.
Thus began a strange cohabitation in the snow mountain, both long and short.
***
Jin-woo was climbing the entrance of the snow mountain. There was some distance between the snow mountain and Johan's house, but this much was nothing. It was reachable in one sprint.
The reason he had specifically come to the mountain was that there was nothing around Johan's house.
No animals, no fruit-bearing trees, and no mushrooms grew. It was a space with nothing but dirt and rocks, aside from some sparse weeds.
So he had come to the mountain where the vegetation was more abundant. There was something he wanted to investigate.
"Indeed, being a mountain, there's much more edible stuff."
Even a snow-covered mountain didn't have only snow and ice.
Mushrooms with strong vitality and small fruits similar to wild strawberries. Plants and animals that lived in cold environments were spread out.
He roughly gathered everything edible. He tried things similar to wild strawberries and picked mushrooms, brushing off only the dirt before putting them in his mouth. He hunted and roasted a white-furred rabbit that was passing by.
It wasn't simply to fill his stomach. Of course, he felt full, but Jin-woo's purpose lay elsewhere.
'It's not as clearly felt as with elixirs, but there's still a slight reaction.'
The inexplicable emptiness he had recently felt when eating elixirs. He was trying to understand its identity.
The Spirit Realm is a land full of mana, and the various plants and animals living there also possess considerable amounts of mana. He couldn't say they were all elixirs, but they were at a level that could somewhat replenish mana.
Among them, there were occasionally things that wouldn't be out of place being called low-grade elixirs. Like mushrooms that had grown for a good 20 years, or the nectar of a single flower that bloomed from an ancient tree hundreds of years old.
Eating those, he felt again the emptiness he had felt before. And he contemplated exploring its identity.
'It's somewhat similar to hunger.'
When he had obtained and eaten precious elixirs in Kalesian's lair. And when he had cut down Silvern and absorbed his soul.
Even then, there had been the same sensation as now. A sensation like pouring water into a bottomless jar.
'What on earth is it.'
He couldn't understand its identity.
If he had to guess, could it be related to erosion? Could the characteristic of Erosion that infinitely absorbs all things in the world be intercepting and stealing away the power of elixirs entering his body?
'At least mana is steadily increasing.'
To simply say it was stolen by Erosion, the effects of the elixirs themselves were steadily manifesting.
It might be a somewhat different problem from that...
"Hm?"
At that moment, he felt a gaze staring intently at him.
Though he was meditating, he hadn't forgotten to be vigilant about his surroundings. His senses clearly felt something looking this way.
Looking back, it was a wolf. It was quite large, with fur that was a mixture of white and gray. Blue, jewel-like eyes were gazing at him.
"Ho, a spiritual beast?"
"Kalesian."
Kalesian spoke, having flown over at some point. He, too, had deep curiosity about the snow mountain and explored various parts of the snow mountain whenever he had time, like Jin-woo.
"Since this is such a heterogeneous space, there might be some spiritual herbs or spiritual beasts. Especially since the Spirit Realm is imbued with abundant mana."
As Kalesian said, this land was a strange space where time flowed slowly.
Due to its influence, there were many spiritual herbs that possessed considerable mana despite being young shoots.
It was no different for beasts, and there were many intelligent ones that wouldn't seem strange to be called ordinary beasts or spiritual beasts.
"Oh, it's gone."
When they seemed to be observing the wolf, the wolf quickly turned its head and disappeared somewhere.
With just a couple of movements, it disappeared like the wind, clearly not an ordinary wolf.
"From what I see, it seems to be hundreds of years old. Shall I chase after it once? Wouldn't it make excellent research material?"
Jin-woo shook his head at Kalesian, whose eyes were shining.
"Do as you please. I have my own business."
He understood his curiosity, but for Jin-woo, now, contemplating himself came first. It wasn't the time to worry about others' affairs.
"Is that so. I understand."
Watching Kalesian fly away with a grin, Jin-woo fell into meditation again.
***
How many days and weeks had passed like that? Anyway, it was meaningless to count. Even if they spent several more months in this space, not even a day would have passed outside.
During that time, Jin-woo had gathered and tried eating all the unfamiliar plants and fruits in the snow mountain. The same went for mountain beasts and fish flowing in streams.
But no matter how much he ate, that emptiness wasn't filled. Could it be something that couldn't be identified simply by eating and meditating?
Kalesian was still showing curiosity about all sorts of things. He would chase after the wolf they had seen before when he encountered it, and when he saw something else interesting, he would fly over and investigate it.
The sight of him chasing after butterflies he was seeing for the first time looked like a child, inappropriate for his age. Though a hatchling's body was indeed that of a child.
In that flowing time, Jin-woo encountered the wolf several times. The tall, beautiful wolf with jewel-like eyes.
The creature that would run away whenever Kalesian came, conversely, seemed curious about Jin-woo and circled around him several times.
In a way, it was an endearing sight, like a well-behaved pet.
But Jin-woo had no heart to welcome it. Rather, he was full of wariness.
"Instead of secretly hiding and watching, how about coming out here?"
The thicket where it was hiding didn't move at all.
"Belkarim."
Rustle—
The thicket swayed slightly.
Hidden within was a being with black flames similar to other Lords, like the God of Sky or Rondar.