Chapter 205
[Sefirot has absorbed the Earthquake Stone Fragment.]
[Canceling World Quest: Lumber the World Tree, following the termination of Sefirot’s rampage.]
...
The war ended once the cancellation of the world quest, Lumber the World Tree, was announced throughout the Mirror World. The invaders of Elvenheim realized they had been a step too late after receiving the Akasha Messages.
“Earthquake Stone Fragment? So, it wasn’t a fully intact Race Stone?”
“That human tricked us!”
“The humans have negotiated with the elves!”
The invaders, who had realized they had been scammed, were about to vent their rage at Elvenheim to get at least something out of their efforts. However, the World Tree vibrated as a tunnel formed in its center, and an individual walked out. It was the Fifth Lord, Keter, who had been silent until now. The sky above Elvenheim contorted as if an invisible star had risen over it.
Keter, their expression filled with immense rage, warned, ”I give you one day to leave Forestis. If you are still here by then, I will slaughter you all.”
The bloodlust filling their voice was genuine, and the caliber exuding from their entire body was on another level, even compared to the corrupted Insectum, the Insect King.
Every invader ran away with their tails between their legs. Raziel, Ursi, Andrealphus, Bodonchar, Chiron, Adi Dahak, and many other World Rankers were no exception. Now that the justification they had to unite them was gone, they couldn’t face Sefirot alone. With that, the ember of war, which had shaken the entire Mirror World for months, had been put out just like that.
***
“Are you serious, Master Keter?” asked an elf woman with pink hair, eyes, and even skin that carried a pink hue.
She was Floriana, a consul of the Sēmen, standing before the expressionless Keter inside Cherec, filled with an emerald light.
“I am. Sefirot expresses full support for Underground. Announce it to the Sēmen,” Keter said.
“Underground... They have been a topic of discussion lately. I’m sure it will become an even hotter topic once word of Sefirot’s support for them gets out. As well as... the birth of a new elven union,” Floriana remarked.
Keter scanned Floriana and said, “You seem happy, former Chesed.”
“Do I? I am simply surprised that the humans managed to accomplish what I couldn’t back when I was a Sefirah.” Floriana smiled with her eyes as she covered her mouth. “Hoho, the Tortoise Emperor, Lee Kang-San, never fails to amaze me. To think he managed to gain this much from you.”
“Lee Kang-San, huh?” Keter mumbled as they brooded.
Of course, Kang-San had been an unexpected variable in his own right. After all, everything had gone awry because Keter had let him escape from their clutches. However, Kang-San was not the human filling their mind at the moment. All they could think of was the thief who had negotiated with them as if he had no regard for his life, and swallowed the Fruit.
Cheon Seong-Hwi! What I don’t understand is why my Veritas Oculus couldn’t see through him. How did he ingest the Fruit without dying?
Keter had examined Seong-Hwi thoroughly with Veritas Oculus once he came back to life, but the traces of the Fruit had been nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps... one of the Ten Lords and Fiends is associated with this?
They couldn’t think of anyone else who could fool their eyes. They suspected one of the Ten Lords and Fiends had used the human, Cheon Seong-Hwi, to steal the Fruit. Keter wanted to capture and interrogate the human, but they couldn’t harm him in any way for thirty days.
Floriana noticed the expressionless Keter’s face slowly changing by the minute and thought, Underground has thrown their hat in the ring quite noisily. Will they be the new wind that the Mirror World needs?
***
“Wahaha! I can’t believe I got to meet the Tortoise Emperor, and be asked a favor from him!” shouted Tae-Jin, running through the thickets of Forestis, shirtless and in shorts.
His long hair was messily tied back, and he laughed cheerfully.
Tigrinus, running on all fours beside Tae-Jin, recalled Kang-San as he replied, “Grrr! He was powerful. It felt like I was looking upon the great tiger, Master Ranko, third in the beastfolk ranking.”
They had observed the situation from outside after destroying the barrier around Elvenheim from the inside. A battle broke out, and countless died. As they wondered whether to retreat before they were caught up in it, an Akasha Message mentioning the cancellation of the Lumber the World Tree quest appeared.
Tae-Jin, certain that Seong-Hwi’s plan had succeeded, had waited tenaciously as he consoled Tigrinus, who wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. As a result, he encountered a massive group escaping Elvenheim, using the darkness of night. They were the elves of Domen whom Kang-San had led out.
Pwoo! Bulgasal, who seemed down, had lifted its trunk high as it ran to the front of the group.
Tae-Jin had chased Bulgasal and discovered Kang-San, whom he had always wanted to meet, and Cheon-Seong-Hwi, who had been on his back.
“Hey, are you sure you’re okay?” Tae-Jin asked as he stared at Seong-Hwi, running beside him as he staggered.
“Huff, huff. I’m fine. I just... need time to acclimate.”
Seong-Hwi looked ill, his skin almost as white as a sheet and drenched in sweat. He clenched his solar plexus and thought, This is insane!
He felt like he had acute indigestion. Something was stuck in his solar plexus, preventing anything from moving. He could see the Fruit of the World Tree when he closed his eyes. It was wrapped in chains made of Curiositas’s black letters, and the faces on the surface of the Fruit gnawed at them.
“Urpp! Bleghhh!” Seong-Hwi vomited from dense reverberations that shook his entire body.
“See?! I told you! You’re sick! Shouldn’t you have followed the Tortoise Emperor?” Tae-Jin shouted.
“Huff, huuu! It’s fine. I’m getting used to this feeling as well,” Seong-Hwi said as he took deep breaths, refusing Tae-Jin’s offer to carry him.
He could barely breathe at first, but his body was slowly adapting to the feeling.
Grace Period, huh? Seong-Hwi thought as he stared at the description of the black quest.
[Indigestion (Black Quest)
Rank: —
Description: The Fruit of the World Tree is being slowly absorbed into Cheon Seong-Hwi’s body over 100 days through Curiositas’s Grace Period. Digest the Fruit of the World Tree in full.
Penalty: Death.]
He needed to digest the Fruit of the World Tree within a hundred days.
I tried to shove it into the Wings of Evolution, but it failed.
The first thing he had done was to force the Wings of Evolution to absorb the Fruit of the World Tree, but it had been nowhere near successful. It felt like moving an ocean through a small straw. Although he had failed, he had not come out empty-handed.
[The Wings of Evolution have evolved.]
[All stat calibers heightened.]
[Converting Thirteen Wings to Fourteen Wings.]
[Available Stats: Battle Force, Sorcery Force, Harmony Force, Draconic Mana, Demon Force, Wraith Force, Kinetic Force, Holy Force, Chaos Mana, Mineral Force, Beast Force, Seismic Force, Nature Force.]
The Wings of Evolution had absorbed the elf genes inside the Fruit of the World Tree, adding to his wings and heightening his caliber.
That’s not all.
The Earthquake Stone Fragment calmed Sefirot, the World Tree, cancelling the Lumber the World Tree quest as a result. In other words, the contribution points of those who had been aiming to clear the world quest were void. However, Seong-Hwi had been almost the only one who had benefited from its cancellation.
[You contributed the most to calming Sefirot by supplying the Earthquake Stone Fragment.]
[You changed the destiny of the Mirror World.]
[An undeniable benevolent feat.]
[Eternally recording this feat in the Akasha.]
[Drastically heightening the caliber of Destiny Force.]
[Drastically heightening the caliber of Destiny Force.]
...
[Destiny Force S(1) → B(53)]
...
[World Hidden Quest: Prevent the Great War, complete.]
[1,000,000,000 Karma obtained.]
...
The long list of Akasha Messages proved Seong-Hwi’s accomplishments. First of all, the caliber of his Destiny Force, which had been stagnant ever since it reached the superior caliber, had heightened dramatically. Not all superior calibers were the same, like the difference between a twenty-year-old and a twenty-nine-year-old, despite both being in their twenties.
The results of a battle were sensitive to even the smallest of variables. If two individuals of superior caliber and the same stats were to fight, the one with the ever-so-slight higher caliber naturally had the advantage.
The caliber of his Health, Strength, Dexterity, Sense, and Magic stats had also heightened by absorbing the elf gene, but nowhere near as much as his Destiny Force stat, which had fallen from rank S to B.
And this is the second time I’m seeing a world hidden quest!
Hidden quests were extremely rare, much less a world hidden quest. He had once somehow cleared a world hidden quest called Defeat the Devourer of the Mirror World, earning him three hundred million Karma. However, he had earned more than three times that amount this time. It was not Coins, but Karma; he had never heard of a single quest, not even a quest chain, giving this much Karma.
Prevent the Great War. It means the war that had lasted for over two years in my past life had been wiped from history because I brought the Earthquake Stone Fragment.
In other words, he had prevented the deaths of countless people through the World Tree War. Thinking of it like that, even the unbelievable billion Karma felt little.
Tsk, I’m being too greedy. I suppose my habits won’t change, even when I’m facing death by stomach explosion.
The habit of needing to eat as much as possible when he could was from his days of starvation. Although he had an endless supply of Karma and caliber now, he had once been on the verge of becoming an escaper in his past life.
“In any case, let me know if you get tired. I’ll give you a piggyback. The Tortoise Emperor himself entrusted you to me, after all,” Tae-Jin remarked.
“No need. At least offer after you put on a shirt,” Seong-Hwi replied.
“Wahaha! Are you jealous of my back muscles?”
“Enough nonsense. This way,” Seong-Hwi said as he took the lead once his nausea waned.
I wonder if Lee Kang-San has escaped Forestis yet, he thought.
Kang-San had headed west with the hundreds of thousands of elves they had rescued from Domen because it was the fastest path out of Forestis. Seong-Hwi chose to go east, going back the way he had come. He had to stop by the Spirit Land to meet Elementum and bring Leo and the fairies with him.
I must return to the Capital as soon as possible. I need to find a way to resolve this indigestion issue!
Seong-Hwi had one hundred days; a race against the clock with his life on the line had commenced. If he succeeded, he would obtain unfathomable power that he had not experienced even in his past life, and if he failed, he would die a dog’s death.
I suppose I’m destined to be unable to rest, he thought as he smiled, picking up the pace as he recalled Onie Yuki’s warning.
“Even mannequins break if they’re overworked to that extent. Keep living like that and die in a filthy alleyway, for all I care!”
Seong-Hwi had planned to take Yuki’s advice and take a short break, but that was off the table. He had only a hundred days to live. The timer began to move inside his head, alongside a single thought floating around his mind.
Pwoo...
Bulgasal’s trunk came out of his hoodie pocket, and it stroked Seong-Hwi’s forehead as if to console him.
“Are you worrying about me? I’m fine. I’ll forget about it, so you should, too.”
He pushed Bulgasal’s trunk away as he thought, I don’t have the leeway to think seriously about Curiositas’s tricks... but is my birthday really on Christmas Eve?
He clicked his tongue and shook his head, his expression crumpled like a wounded beast.
***
A black eye, reflected on a small, circular mirror, blinked. The eye disappeared with a closing sound, and a white compact came into view.
“Mmm... Huuu, I don’t know,” Hwa-Yeon sighed as she scratched her head.
Her hair used to be dyed blonde, but it returned to its original black color after over a year. She opened the window, and the cool wind eased her frustration.
“No, am I just pretending not to know?”
She leaned on the window with both hands on it and looked down at the Garapan scenery—the wide streets, the palm trees planted everywhere, the blue signboards, and the bright yet pleasant sunlight. However, what caught her eye most were the humans filling the streets.
“Recruiting party members! We’re looking for an interno healer!”
“Is anyone interested in looking for an unexplored dungeon? We’re thinking of looking around the dungeon that Clan One Tree excavated last week!”
“Hey, have you heard? A dwarf artisan opened up shop in the central area!”
“For real? No wonder. Garapan also has a charming market. It’s gotten rather big, too.”
“It’s thanks to Clan One Tree’s management. The dungeon entry fees are cheap, too.”
One Tree grew one step higher after earning Karma at Subterra, and they used the power they gained to develop Garapan, the city they had reclaimed. They prioritized attracting lambs above all else, spreading news about their support businesses and training facilities, which allowed Garapan to become what it was now. Although the world quests sent an uproar throughout the Mirror World, regular people simply focused on surviving day to day.
Hwa-Yeon smiled as she stared at the crowded streets and thought, Yeah, so what if I can’t use my D Weapon? I’m a Baptist, and it’s not like I can’t fight without it.
She threw her D Weapon, a compact, on the bed and stretched.
I contributed to this city’s reclamation. I’m a member of One Tree!
Her smile widened. She had completely changed from her days at the Dark Forest, where her self-esteem had plummeted by the day. Her hair was not the only thing that had changed about her in a year. Not only were her skills and stats different, but most of all, she gained confidence that she could do anything as long as she was with her comrades.
As she thought about her comrades, one person came to mind—Na Seong-Tae, a stocky, tough-looking man with tattoo sleeves on both arms.
“What’s taking that inked pig so long?” she mumbled as she scanned the streets.
Seong-Tae had gone south of Garapan with his party members because there had been an exponential rise in Lucanids, the Invasive Chaos of stag beetle insectoids, after the entire insectoid race had become Chaos monsters. Seong-Tae was among the strongest in One Tree; he was more than capable of leading a team.
“You’d better not be late to our dinner date,” Hwa-Yeon mumbled.
Once he returned, she planned to tell him her secret once and for all.