That was exhausting.....
Ash thought as he slumped on the soft sofa in the living room. Elysia was at the academy doing her training. While she could have stayed here and practiced in the basement, she preferred to practice away from Ash.
Because, according to her.....Ash disturbed quite a lot whenever she was home and trying to do any work.
That’s not called disturbance, it’s called love...
Grumbling, he closed his eyes and entered his soul space. Even though his body was resting, his mind was not going to rest.
The soul space was still the same as ever, with a pitch-black soul sea that seemed to have grown even darker. The previously floating and playful fragments of his memories were nowhere to be seen, as they had already been absorbed into his Soul Library.
Now, there was nothing but endless black water, like the collected weight of all the suffering and pain he had gone through.
Why do I always get an ominous feeling as if I am gazing into the abyss whenever I look at my soul sea.....
Shifting his gaze away from it, he focused on other things.
The rest of the scenery remained unchanged. The Soul Space appeared infinite, stretching with no end in sight. The sky was a glowing azure, radiating a gentle warmth without the presence of a sun. At the very center stood a pitch-black tree that seemed to have grown even taller than before.
Its countless multicolored runic leaves shimmered faintly, while intricate runic lines glowed across its surface. Some runes even floated around the tree itself, circling it like a protective shield.
At its base were two small doors, with the words {Library} and {Vault} etched clearly above them.
Ash entered the library. His steps echoed softly as he walked toward his seat at the heart of the endless chamber. Towering bookshelves floated in every direction, stretching beyond sight and disappearing into a ceiling that did not exist.
He lowered himself onto the comfortable chair, crafted from the wood and leaves of his soul tree, and turned his eyes to the parchment resting on the desk before him.
On it were scribbled words...
’Another Quest??’
’Runes?’
’Festival...’
Right, I need to think and make decisions about these things too...
"I guess Ray has gotten a quest to enter that space crack. As for why, I don’t know. But I have a guess of what it could be."
Ash muttered as he thought about the words and events in the novel. Even though the plot and everything that was now happening were no longer the same as in the novel, it still gave him a perfect understanding of many things. Like how the System behaved, what the nature of people was, and about the world as a whole.
From the words inside the novel, the system Ray has only issues quests when it leads to three things...
"First, a training quest that gives him stats and enhances his skills. It also includes fighting quests related to monsters and other beings."
"Second, quests which lead to Ray finding a Rune."
"And third, the last kind, which is related to fate. Whether it is about going according to the flow of fate or whether it is something about emergency and unexpected situations, it all comes under this category."
So, if we think it all through...with him saying that the crack has a space entanglement and it leads to somewhere else, not exactly to the position of the beast....
Ash did not fully understand what space entanglement was at first, but he managed to grasp the idea. Later, when he read about it in the dragon’s collection of books, many things became clearer to him.
Space entanglement is a phenomenon that occurs when space itself becomes unstable, contracting and forming temporary connections between different locations. Sometimes, more than two places fuse, which leads to the entanglement of space.
In such cases, if a person enters from one side, he may appear in a completely different place rather than the one shown by the portal.
In the case of the space crack in the Untamed Forest, it connected three different places. While the beast could step into Akumia, anyone entering from here would not end up in the beast’s dwelling, but rather in another unknown location.
Thus, three places—Akumia, the semi-divine beast’s dwelling, and one unidentified region—were temporarily connected through unstable space.
"...Then, the quest given to Ray could come under all three categories. It might prove to be something useful for Ray, a chance for his skills to shine."
"It might lead to another Rune, one never mentioned in the novel."
"And it might also be something tied to fate itself."
All three possibilities were valid. It was up to Ash to discover which one it truly was.
He closed his eyes, his thoughts running furiously, one possibility after another flashing through his mind. At last, he reached a conclusion and scribbled something on the parchment lying on his desk, just below the previous notes.
**
-First: 30%
-Second: 50%
-Third: 20%
**
He wrote down the probabilities of what he believed might be found there.
"Looks like I got another reason to enter the crack..." Ash muttered.
He had already planned to step into it, wanting to absorb the Rune of Time and to challenge something opposite to his deep-rooted nature. Although the Rune of Life and the Rune of Death had made him fearless on the surface, deep within, he was still a coward at his core.
It did not mean that he feared battle. He considered himself a coward because he despised the thought of dying before living a complete and faithful life with Elysia. He wanted to remain by her side always, to walk every moment with her. His cowardice came from not wanting to risk a reckless act that might lead to his death and force Elysia to suffer alone, reliving the very same pain he had once endured when she died.
He refused to let her go through that again.
There is a high chance that I might find a Rune there, and if not that....I might stumble upon something that makes me stronger. Or perhaps I will discover a hidden legacy, if the quest was given according to the first reason....
And if it is something tied to fate, the last reason...Then I do not know what to expect....still, it will be fun....
Ash smiled lightly at the thought, his expression carrying a mixture of resolve and quiet anticipation.
But it was not as simple as it appeared to be; he needed to go to the Neutral Continent to get that
He was also saving his last skill-making chance for creating that skill alone.
By now, he had already collected almost all the Runes present on this planet. Only three remained—the Rune of the Neutral Continent, the Rune of the Dwarf Continent, and the one hidden deep within the sea.
He was already working on finding the Rune of the Dwarf Continent, and he was preparing to head to the Neutral Continent soon...and someone else was, at this very moment, moving into the deep sea to retrieve the last Rune for him.
He closed his eyes once more and shifted his focus elsewhere. His vision blurred, turning grey and black, while the sensation of rapid descent filled him, as though his consciousness was plummeting downward at high speed.
It was Snow, who was currently moving deeper into the sea.
Ash had discovered something interesting about Snow’s growth. She could become stronger and larger by killing and consuming other monsters or beasts. He had realized this when Snow emerged from his Soul Space and devoured the corpses of the monsters he and Ray had killed. The way her body pulsed with power after feeding had startled him at first, but soon he understood what it meant.
Thus, Ash made a decision and sent her into the sea. The ocean was overflowing with creatures that no one had the time to kill, and countless dungeons lay hidden beneath the waves. The whole sea was considered a danger zone, often called a Death Zone by those who knew of its horrors.
No one had ever returned alive from there. It was such a perilous place that even Ray, who was blessed with the system, had only obtained the final Rune of the sea when the world itself was already collapsing.
But Ash had a different path to take. He sent Snow because he was confident she could retrieve the Rune swiftly. Snow carried the abilities of all the Runes Ash had collected, which made her nearly immortal. Her concealment ability was even more refined than Ash’s own, letting her move unnoticed through hostile territory.
The sea would serve not only as a place to find the Rune, but also as a battlefield for Snow to grow stronger. More importantly, it would save precious time, as she could also store the Rune and any other useful items in Ash’s Soul Space.
And if she encountered a beast too powerful, one capable of endangering her life, Ash could summon her back instantly.
All of this was possible because of the special connection they shared.....the Soul Bond.
"And then there is this..."
Ash thought as he opened his eyes and looked at the invitation letter resting on his desk. The parchment felt heavy in his hands, its seal glowing faintly. It had not been sent by Melissia, but by Saint Lucan himself.
Now, what should I do...
Ash thought with a complicated expression. He wanted nothing more than to ruin that festival and shatter their celebration, but another feeling pressed on him, one far softer and far harder to ignore.
He was growing greedy for something else entirely—the chance to spend time with Elysia at that festival, to live through one of the dreams they had never managed to fulfill in their previous life.
It was not as though they had never gone to festivals before, but this was the first festival of this life filled with fantasy.....and it was bound to be grand. The thought of walking through the colorful stalls with her, hearing the music, seeing the lights, and simply holding her hand made his chest ache with longing.
I will just go to the festival, not to the party....
Ash decided at last, after thinking it through again and again.
***
A/N: Sorry about the delay. I ended up sleeping after coming back from college and only woke up the next day, so I’m posting yesterday’s portion now. Don’t worry, though, today’s Chapter will still be released at the usual time.