Chapter 184
“What is going on, Radix?” asked Hod, the pale-skinned elf with a golden sheen.
“Irura... I don’t know what Kang-San knows. It’s pointless asking me,” answered Radix, a grey-skinned elf with green eyes.
Their appearances were almost opposites. One was a grey elf, commonly known as a lowly bloodline, and one was a pure-blooded high elf and a member of the Sefirah.
“Irura, huh? It’s been a while since anyone has called me that, my friend,” said Hod, whose name used to be Irura before he became the lord of House Hod.
Radix’s expression hardened as she remarked, “I saw... countless elves still willingly offering their power to the World Tree... without knowing where it was going.”
“Radix...” Irura stared at Radix with an expression filled with shame.
“Viridis, huh? What are you doing, using the name of our home dimension, to which we can never return? Are you planning a coup d’état to restore the lost glory of House Hod?”
Irura remained silent as he accepted Radix’s chilling glare.
Radix shouted, “Answer me, enemy of my parents and sister!”
Irura closed his eyes and thought, As I’d thought, you still feel that way, my friend.
Radix’s family had served House Hod for generations. The first time Radix had met Irura was when he was introduced to Irura as a playmate.
“G-greetings... Master Irura. It is an honor to meet you. M-my name is Radix!”
Radix had bowed as low as he could, greeting Irura repeatedly as he stared only at the ground. He still remembered the clear laughter and a voice as warm as sunlight.
“Hahaha! Hey, there. You’re Radix, huh? Raise your head. From today, we’re friends!”
“Friends?”
The young Radix had been charmed by the warmth radiating from Irura’s golden blessing. Irura smelled like sweet fruit to Radix.
“Did you think I would consider you a friend even after knowing the disgusting truth of this place, and what you did to my family?!” Radix shouted.
The atrocious plundering that was viewed as normal was one of the reasons why Radix did not want to return to Elvenheim. However, it was also because the pain of being betrayed by his friend and the sorrow of losing his family were far too overwhelming.
“I thought Qetseb was the lowest level. I was grateful to you for getting me out of that place. But... I’ve seen it! I’ve seen the level below it, Domen!”
Domen, or manure, was the fertilizer underneath the roots. Domen was Hell itself. Radix had been there once after following his father there. Radix remembered the large sack his father was carrying and his father’s voice, trembling in fear.
“Take a good look, Radix. This is the true nature of the World Tree. Those who have realized the truth are imprisoned here with the criminals of Elvenheim. This will be your job when you grow up. You must swear to me that you will never defy the high elves!”
His father put down the sack, and when Radix saw what he took out from inside, he vomited so hard that it looked as if he would vomit out his intestines. After visiting Domen, Radix could no longer feel the warmth from Irura’s smile or smell the scent of sweet fruit. He could only smell the putrid stench of rotting corpses from Irura.
A few months later, Radix’s parents and sister went missing. The people around him told him that they returned to Qetseb without him, but Radix knew that House Hod had done the same to his family, who handled their dirty work.
“They thought I knew nothing because I was little, but I knew everything!” Radix shouted.
Hence, he waited for the right moment to escape Elvenheim and wandered throughout the Mirror World. As if making up for the misfortune he had suffered in childhood, he was fortunate to meet GM and other great comrades.
Radix’s green eyes glinted red with bloodlust as he said, “Don’t you dare think I brought Kang-San for the sake of high elves like you. I’m only here for my people who will be sacrificed in the war while knowing nothing!”
Irura—no, Hod couldn’t find the words as he watched Radix turning around and walking away.
***
“Here you go, Friend Pwoo! Say, ahhh!” Thumper said as he brought a spoonful of vanilla ice cream toward Bulgasal.
Pwoo?
Bulgasal smelled the vanilla ice cream with its plump, caterpillar-like trunk.
“Huh? Don’t eat the spoon, Friend Pwoo!” Thumper panicked as he watched Bulgasal munching on the spoon and looked around the coffee shop counter.
The patissier, whom Thumper was close to, placed his hand on his forehead and shook his head.
“Seong-Hwi! Friend Pwoo ate a spoon!”
“Yeah, because it’s metal,” Seong-hwi answered nonchalantly.
“Huh?”
Pwoo, pwoo!
Seong-Hwi stared at Bulgasal, moving its trunk toward the table’s hinges.
“Ahhh! No! Stop!” Thumper shouted as he grabbed Bulgasal’s trunk.
Pwoo?
Bulgasal’s innocent eyes blinked, and it stared at Seong-Hwi.
“Stop that and stay put, you,” Seong-Hwi said.
Pwoo, pwoo! Bulgasal answered cheerfully and jumped onto Seong-Hwi’s lap, going into Seong-Hwi’s hoodie pocket as if it were its home.
“Phew. I think the baby elephant is hungry, Friend Seong-Hwi. He even ate a spoon! You’re not starving him, are you?” Thumper asked as he stared at Seong-Hwi, full of doubt.
“What are you talking about? He ate an entire mine,” Seong-Hwi answered as he stared at Bulgasal’s trunk swinging from outside the hoodie pocket.
My lucid dreams disappeared again. It appears I need to feed it metal consistently, he thought.
The lucid dreams, one of the main side effects of Borrowing Destiny, vanished again after Bulgasal devoured the Iron Vein Seal. Seong-Hwi now knew for sure that it was thanks to Bulgasal, a divine beast that devoured nightmares.
I never thought something like it would come out of an item cube. Weapons with an ego are rare.
Bulgasal was rather unique. Although it was unkillable, it would die if its soul partner lost their dream.
Its soul partner is probably me. It’ll die if I lose my dream, huh?
Seong-Hwi’s dream was to shine brightly, as his name suggested. He wondered if Bulgasal would die if he gave up on that dream, comparing it to a canary that died from toxic gases, warning miners of imminent danger. Bulgasal was like an alarm bell that warned him if his heart was ever corroded.
Corroded? Come to think of it, I wonder if Rust of Ruin would work on it.
The curious Seong-Hwi wrapped his hand with dark red energy.
Pwoo? Bulgasal’s tail shot up after sensing the unsettling energy. Pwoo, pwoo! Pwooooo!
It struggled to escape the hoodie pocket. Seong-Hwi canceled Rust of Ruin and held Bulgasal.
“Alright, alright. I won’t do it,” he said.
Pwoo, pwoo, pwoo! Bulgasal cried sorrowfully as if asking Seong-Hwi why he would do that.
Just then, Seong-Hwi heard mumbles from around him.
“My, he’s an animal abuser!”
“No way. He wouldn’t think of doing such a thing beside Thumper, a rabbit beastfolk!”
“More importantly, who is that? He seems close to Thumper.”
Seong-Hwi and Thumper were at the cafe terrace at the lobby of the Fence Hotel. Seong-Hwi was hiding his face with his hood because he had lent the Myriad Cheoyong Mask to Kang-San.
“Seong-Hwi~? Are you abusing Pwoo the baby elephant?” Thumper asked as he narrowed his eyes.
Seong-Hwi shrugged and fondled Bulgasal’s trunk, answering, “Of course not. I’m just touching it. See? It loves me.”
Bwoo~! Bulgasal sounded like a boat horn after calming down.
Thumper crossed his arms, still suspicious, and said, “You’d better be careful, Friend Seong-Hwi. I have lots of friends in the Capital. They’ll scold you if you hurt Friend Pwoo. It’s still a baby.”
Thumper adorably waved from the cafe terrace, and a few women, who seemed to be Lambs, waved back with smiles. He loved to explore the Capital and made about ten friends per day. Thumper, the rabbit beastfolk who loved ice cream, was already famous throughout the Capital.
“Okay, okay, Thumper the baby rabbit,” Seong-Hwi answered nonchalantly as he started his cube-opening session, which he had been putting off.
[Karma: 285,450,588]
[Cubes: Item cube (A), Item cube (B), Stat cube (A) x 14]
Just seeing the amount of Karma he had and his fourteen A-rank stat cubes made him full.
First, I’ll raise the stats that fell from my caliber heightening.
Cubes were shuffled like crazy.
[Health A(10) obtained.]
[Health A(9) obtained.]
[Strength A(8) obtained.]
[Strength A(10) obtained.]
[Dexterity A(10) obtained.]
[Dexterity A(8) obtained.]
[Sense A(10) obtained.]
[Sense A(7) obtained.]
...
“W-what the hell?” Seong-Hwi, shocked by the results, halted the cube-opening session. “Four tens, nine, eight... and the lowest value is seven? Wha...”
He had not opened low-ranking cubes, such as wood or stone cubes. He had opened gold cubes, which were A-rank, and randomly gave stats between one and ten points. Despite that, four of the eight cubes had given him the highest value, ten.
This probability is abnormal. I haven’t even borrowed William’s destiny, so why?
Just then, his gaze caught Bulgasal’s trunk, which he had been fondling.
Wait... Could it be?
Seong-Hwi re-examined Bulgasal’s description.
[Bulgasal (Item - Divine Beast)
Rank: S(5)
Description: A divine beast that devours metal, misfortune, and nightmares. It dislikes conflict and cannot be killed. However, it will die if its soul partner loses their dream.]
The divine beast that came out of the S-rank item cube had eaten two other items with S-rank potential and took quite a lot of Karma to hatch.
Yeah. I was satisfied just from the fact that it eliminates the side effects of Borrowing Destiny, but if anyone else got this item, they would have thought the investment wasn’t worth it.
Bulgasal disliked conflict, meaning it was reluctant to fight alongside its master, and it also devoured astronomical amounts of metal. The only outstanding part about it was that it couldn’t be killed. Any other person would have thought the pull was a dud, but that was not the case. If Seong-Hwi’s assumption was correct, Bulgasal’s true value lay elsewhere.
A divine beast that devours metal, nightmares... and misfortune!
It devoured misfortune. In other words, it could have devoured the misfortune of a low value being pulled from opening a stat cube.
If that’s true... This is insane!
He would get more out of an investment compared to others with the same amount of Karma. The Mirror World’s residents had various rituals to bring them luck before opening cubes, but the result was always random, regardless of their efforts. The value of an item that could interfere with the random chance would be priceless.
Bwoo~! Bulgasal spun its tail, loving how Seong-Hwi was fondling its trunk.
You adorable little thing!
Seong-Hwi clenched Bulgasal’s trunk and opened more cubes.
Pwoo—! Bulgasal trumpeted, having trouble breathing.
***
[Cheon Seong-Hwi
Health: A(24+20) Strength: A(72+20)
Dexterity: A(22+20) Sense: A(28)
Magic: A(99) Destiny Force: S(1)
Karma: 105,450,588
Coins: 570,034,225
Destiny Weapon: Tarot Deck of Destiny A(98)
Skills (7) Traits (6) Items (10) Cubes (0)]
Seong-Hwi hummed as he walked along a dark road in the Capital. His status window looked dazzling. His stat-raising efficiency had almost doubled, and the state of his changed body couldn’t be better.
I have a hundred million Karma left, and I’m one point away from maxing my D Weapon stat. There’s only one choice, Seong-Hwi thought.
He looked inside his hoodie pocket and saw Bulgasal eating a round shield with its trunk as if it were a cookie.
Pwoo! Pwoo!
Bulgasal looked as if it were having the time of its life. Seong-Hwi had opened the B and A-rank item cubes he had, and gave the sabaton and round shield he got to Bulgasal to eat.
Items with high potential must be delicious, considering it’s saving the A-rank round shield.
Bulgasal was so absorbed with eating the delicious round shield that it did not even realize Seong-Hwi was grabbing its tail.
A diamond cube was shuffling. This was the fourth diamond cube he had opened since his return to the past. Seong-Hwi would have been afraid of the chance that he would pull a zero if it had been before he checked Bulgasal’s effects, but he simply smiled as he watched the shuffling cube. A light flew out of the diamond cube and entered Seong-Hwi’s solar plexus.
[Magic S(4) obtained.]
[Magic A(99) → Magic S(4)]
“I knew it! Hahaha!” Seong-Hwi laughed loudly, breaking the silence of the dark street.
Mana, filled with an unprecedented power, circulated throughout Seong-Hwi’s body as if he were being transfused with new blood. Mana of S-rank Magic was burning, like magma traveling through his blood vessels, and boundless, like a sea of unknown depths. He had regained the power he had used in his past life.
“Now, I’m a Double-S human... I’ve caught up to my past self. No, I’ve surpassed him!”
Seong-Hwi’s eyes flashed with a blue light. He had achieved what had taken him ten years to accomplish in his past life in less than a year. His heart pounded like crazy. It felt like he was just beginning.
I’ve been following the same old path. From now on, it’s a chase!
Countless Mirror World residents died during the World Tree War, but many flowers had bloomed from it.
Even someone like Elementum made their name known through the World Tree War!
Seong-Hwi clenched his fists. He was filled with the confidence that the world was in the palm of his hand.
I gained a lot in Subterra. I’m sure other humans did as well.
He recalled the members of Clan One Tree, with whom he had spent some time during the mandatory quest. Including them, those who had collected Karma in Subterra would likely have become much stronger.
He also recalled the faces of his teammates: Chaya, Enrique, Leo, Douglas, Ha-Eun, Yong-Su, Evgeny, and Yuki.
Especially Onie Yuki. I’m sure she’s grown much stronger. After all, her contribution was ranked second, directly below me.
“Hmm... I’m in a predicament,” Seong-Hwi remarked as he recalled her angry expression after leaving the dungeon.
“Even mannequins break if they’re overworked to that extent. Keep living like that and die in a filthy alleyway, for all I care!”
Well, she probably returned to Black Market, so I should be able to contact her through Sonya, Seong-Hwi said inwardly.
He then thought about Kang-San. Although he achieved rapid growth, experiencing Kang-San’s power prevented him from being conceited. He needed to grow even stronger.
“Overworked, huh? At the very least... I can’t rest until the World Tree War is over, even if I wanted to,” Seong-Hwi mumbled as he walked, and suddenly stopped before a sudden dead end. He continued, “This is far enough, isn’t it? Come out already. The sun’s almost up.”
Small silhouettes appeared from the shadows of the dark alley.