Daniel was sitting by the tree, the sunlight falling on his face, its reflection gleaming in his indifferent eyes.
And facing him was the old librarian, the same ordinary librarian of the Holy Palace library who on normal days was no different from an old man just a few steps away from death.
His simple gray robe swayed in the gentle wind, and his old staff dragged silently on the ground, but the strangest part of the matter was neither his appearance nor his calm smile.
Rather, it was the fact that the tree had accepted him. The roots had moved aside, with no force and no fear; they had parted completely of their own accord.
As if the old man's presence had always been part of this place.
Daniel's eyes narrowed for a moment. He sensed no mana from the old man, no wave of power, no pressure of presence, practically nothing.
And that was the most unnatural part of the matter.
After reaching his current level, even the weakest creatures appeared to him like lamps in the darkness.
He could sense the flow of mana, the vibration of the soul, and even the instability of the laws around a being.
But this old man was completely empty, as if he didn't exist at all.
Or perhaps he was at a level that Daniel's current senses could not perceive.
The old man calmly swept his gaze over the massive roots, then stopped on the fruit.
The fruit was now almost the size of a human head, and golden veins moved beneath its translucent skin. Each pulse made the air tremble for a moment.
The old man smiled quietly.
"It has grown very fast." His voice was calm, but that sentence alone was enough to make the surrounding space heavier.
Because he had spoken directly about the fruit, as if he knew exactly what it was.
Daniel, however, showed no change in his expression.
"Who are you?" He only asked quietly.
The old man chuckled briefly, not mockingly, but like someone who had heard an interesting question.
"Names don't matter much." And then, without permission, he stepped a few steps closer.
At that moment, the tree's massive roots moved, not to attack, but as if following his presence.
And simultaneously, the half-complete core inside Daniel's inner world trembled. Cracks of light appeared on its surface and then vanished again.
Daniel felt this reaction, and that, for the first time, awakened genuine curiosity in his mind.
This old man was somehow in tune with the tree. Not like an owner, not like a friend or ally, but clearly not an enemy either.
As if the tree knew him.
"It's not complete yet." The old man stopped in front of the fruit and looked at it in silence for a few seconds.
Then his gaze slowly fixed on Daniel, as if he was looking into the depths of his being, into that core inside his inner world.
"But it's close."
A cold wind wound through the branches. His sentence was ambiguous: did he mean the fruit? Or Daniel himself?
"Do you know anything about this tree?" Daniel asked without changing his expression.
He realized that this old man, like him, didn't want to talk about his identity, but since he seemed to know the tree, this could be a good opportunity to learn more.
The old man was silent for a moment, his old but deep eyes sliding over the massive roots.
"More than I should." And then, without further explanation, he fixed his gaze on Daniel.
"You are building something dangerous."
Daniel stared at him in silence and listened to his words. It was so obvious that he knew the old man was talking about that core in his inner world.
"Not for this world, but for yourself."
"Power is always dangerous." But Daniel remained calm, even a very faint smile appearing at the corner of his lips.
"No." The old man shook his head quietly.
"The power you are building… erases the boundary between the known and the unknown." His eyes deepened for the first time.
The air grew heavier for a moment.
Daniel said nothing. He understood the old man's words. He was warning him that the beings who stand at the peak of power across all worlds tolerate the known.
But the unknown? They destroy the unknown. And what he was trying to build could be one of those unknowns.
He didn't know if other gods had found a way to obtain divine power other than divine fruits, but now that he thought about it, what if they hadn't? What if they had tried and failed?
So if his idea succeeded, wouldn't that make him a target for all the gods?
"They will move very soon." The old man suddenly looked at the dark sky.
"They?" Daniel asked quietly, but he had an idea who he was talking about.
But the question was, how did this old man know? What was this old man's real identity? And since this old man now knew about the core, was he dangerous to him?
"Those who fear what they don't understand." But the old man didn't answer directly, just gave a faint smile.
It wasn't clear who he meant, and he didn't mention any names.
Daniel looked at him in silence for a few seconds. This old man wasn't afraid of him, didn't try to destroy him, but stood before him with a strange calmness.
Like someone who had been waiting for such a moment for a long time.
The old man quietly turned to leave, but before moving, he paused.
"Once your core awakens, there's no turning back."
"It's a pity this world was destroyed… but it was something that happened." And then he added.
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
"If back then there had really been someone like you to protect this tree… perhaps this world would never have been destroyed." The old man stared into the distance.
Daniel was silent for a few seconds.
"Are you what they call a Half Step-Divine?" Then he said quietly.
But almost immediately, he corrected himself.
"No…" His eyes deepened.
"You must be something above a Half Step-Divine."
"A true divine being."
The old man just smiled, neither confirming nor denying. And this silence… was heavier than any answer.
Daniel fell into thought quietly. Elisira had spoken about Half Step-Divines, but she had never mentioned anything about true divine beings.
He had assumed that Half Step-Divines were the ceiling of power in this world, and that true divine beings must be the gods themselves.
But now that he thought about it, in this world, even beings at the level of gods were called "gods."
So what were true divine beings? Beings lower than true gods… but far above Half Step-Divines?
And if such beings existed, then why were they hidden, and why didn't Elisira know about them? Why were they not in this world's hierarchy?
Or perhaps only one of them remained, and that one had hidden itself.
But why?
"Don't think too much about it." The old man seemed to have read his thoughts.
"Have you rested well these past few days?" And then he looked into the distance.
More than five days had passed since the battle with Walterk.
"I was getting bored." Daniel smiled faintly.
The old man laughed quietly. His laugh was strange, like the sound of something that had lived for thousands of years.
"Then good." Then his gaze fell on the fruit.
"You'd better complete that fruit soon." For the first time, genuine seriousness appeared in his voice.
"Otherwise… you won't be able to stand against that being."
"What being—" Daniel wanted to ask something.
But suddenly he fell silent, because the old man was no longer there. No sound of footsteps, no wave of mana, not even a trace of departure. As if he had never been there at all.
The massive roots calmed down again, the wind stopped, and the desolate ruin once again sank into silence.
Daniel stared at the empty space before him for a few seconds, motionless.
For the first time in a long while, even his mind fell into deep silence.
"…What exactly was that old man?"