◈ Episode 183. A Time to Savor a Cup of Debut Tea.
In that time, short if called short, long if called long.
Too much happened to me.
‘……
Formalities are hard. Seriously.’
I had overlooked it.
Granfell’s love of teatime……!
In Granfell’s dictionary, a bomb tea(茶) made by mixing brews
could never exist. I had no choice but to drink, one cup at a time, tea brewed from the Eternal Snow Flower and the Blazing Sunflower.
And then the agony began.
[The effect of the elixir, ‘Eternal Snow Flower,’ is activated.]
[Ice attribute affinity greatly increases.]
[Ice magic manifestation power greatly increases.]
[Status abnormality, ‘Chills,’ occurs.]
…….
I had braced myself, but it was beyond anything I’d imagined.
The Siberian cold wind?
Hokkaido’s brutal winter?
This was a level of cold that couldn’t even be compared to those.
If I absolutely had to compare it, I’d have to bring in something on the level of Senios’s eternal snow.
That was how it felt.
Shiver, shiver, shiver.
And yet I shamelessly spouted nonsense.
“A refreshing coolness, pleasant enough to lift one’s spirits.”
Someone’s about to freeze to death here—what kind of bullshit is that!
I couldn’t just freeze to death like that.
I immediately brewed the leaves of the Blazing Sunflower and sipped it.
And regretted it once again.
[The effect of the elixir, ‘Blazing Sunflower,’ is activated.]
[Fire attribute affinity greatly increases.]
[Fire magic manifestation power greatly increases.]
[Status abnormality, ‘High Fever,’ occurs.]
…….
In my head, it had been perfect.
Was this what they meant when they said theory and practice were different?
It was a pain that truly felt as if my body would shatter.
Clatter—
It was so bad that I lost consciousness right then and there and dropped the teacup onto the floor.
To think the aftershock was something even formalities couldn’t overcome.
I really did something insane, I realized.
But one does not survive because one is strong.
One is strong because one survives.
In the end, I endured it and opened my eyes, so that was all that mattered.
“I was uncharacteristically noisy.”
At this moment, I had never been so glad for that loose tongue of mine.
In any case, I realized it once more.
The effect of [Blessing of the First World Tree]……!
[The Blessing of the First World Tree rejects ‘Chills.’]
[The Blessing of the First World Tree rejects ‘High Fever.’]
…….
Chills and high fever had their own degrees.
If I hadn’t had the World Tree’s blessing.
There would have been no need to even go as far as the Blazing Sunflower.
With the teacup still at my lips, I might have frozen solid and ended up stuffed in a museum as the first human in history to freeze to death while drinking tea…….
‘It wasn’t something a mere warmth buff could block.’
It was the same even after I drank both elixirs.
Yes, the effects did neutralize each other.
The problem was that they neutralized inside my body!
[The Blessing of the First World Tree rejects ‘Internal Injury.’]
……
Through my hazy consciousness, I was sure I’d seen a chilling message.
In any case, there was a reason I was so glad for Granfell’s bravado.
[The effect of the title, ‘Transcendent,’ is activated.]
…….
The message that appeared below it.
Thump—
And more than anything, the heartbeat that was so welcome.
I had many thoughts about what I should check first.
But first, I drew up my mana.
The mana that flowed out wrapped around the shattered teacup.
‘Honestly, no matter what it is, you just can’t bear to leave something disordered.’
Crack, crack—
Reverse magic manifestation.
The teacup that had fallen to the floor and shattered began to return to its original form.
But, wait.
Something about its shape was similar, yet different from before……?
Should I say it somehow looked more expensive?
Reverse magic was literally reversal.
It merely restored something to its original state.
I hadn’t added anything during the interference process.
And yet it had changed as if [Aesthetics] had been activated?
There was only one thing I could guess.
‘……
It’s the effect of the Circle.’
According to the elder mage, Yugweed.
Before and after forming a Circle, magic manifestation power could differ by several times to ten times over. I thought he was simply talking about power, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
‘If it’s like this, its versatility is no joke.’
I found myself admiring it anew.
‘So it really is worthy of being called the realm of a Transcendent.’
……
Good. Let’s check the exact effect.
I soon opened the titles in my status window.
I checked the effect of the unlocked [Transcendent].
[Transcendent: Your transcendent realm is more than sufficient for you to be called a Transcendent…….]
Somehow, the very first sentence felt familiar.
Where had I seen it before?
It has the exact same tone as the [Noble] title, doesn’t it?
[Noble: O noble one, the Arcana Continent remembers you.]
Don’t tell me I had to experience its effects directly by clashing with things, just like with Noble? I worried first. But that wasn’t the case. The effect of the Transcendent title wasn’t that short.
[Transcendent: Your transcendent realm is more than sufficient for you to be called a Transcendent.
- Currently attained achievements: Circle (all magic manifestation power increased by 1,000%) / None / None / None…….]
The fact that it wasn’t short was, rather, the problem.
‘Currently attained achievements? There wasn’t only the Circle?’
Well, of course there were various kinds of realms.
Even just among Arcana’s classes, there were too many to count.
Even I, for one, had reached realms in swordsmanship and magic respectively.
Sword Force and the Circle.
But seeing it with my own eyes, through the system, was a different matter.
Because that held great meaning for me.
For Granfell.
“Indeed, my path was correct.”
My path.
As many routes to survival as possible.
Digging as many wells as possible.
‘So it wasn’t in vain.’
With Granfell’s personality, even if only to fill those blanks.
He would never slack off.
Now I wouldn’t be able to use efficiency as an excuse to cut corners.
Which meant I was the one who would be dying, thanks to that……!
‘Lee Hoyeol’s life really is strange and harsh.’
But I didn’t intend to simply whine about it.
As you can see, the effects of an achievement were terrifying.
I continued speaking.
“Certainly, it is still difficult to call it an achievement.”
At the crossroads of life and death.
No, simply because I had died once.
I had managed to skip the middle process and attain the achievement of ‘Sword Force.’
But it would still be difficult to call it at the level of a Transcendent.
After all, even Harkon emitted a clearer Sword Force than I did.
‘It has to be on Shegwin’s level.’
Just how many elixirs would I have to stuff down my throat…… No, just how many varied efforts would I have to make to reach that realm? At this point, I couldn’t even estimate it.
Yet I said calmly.
“However, a sword without pride dwelling within it is lighter than anything.”
Yes, that truly is comforting.
You have confidence in spades, Granfell.
In any case, I checked the last message that had appeared.
Since I had even checked the Transcendent effect.
I thought there would be nothing left to surprise me.
……
You’re overlooking a lot today, Hoyeol.
[You have acquired the Transcendent-exclusive skill, ‘Space-Time Fellowship.’]
A title.
An incredible effect.
A concrete goal.
And now even an exclusive skill.
Perhaps because it was giving me far too much without holding back.
I was starting to feel suspicious.
Filled with suspicion, I checked the exclusive skill.
And then I opened my mouth.
“I do not believe in coincidence.”
Truly, so very shamelessly.
“If I must wait for coincidence, then I shall advance myself.”
*
AAU Korea Branch.
Tap-tap-tap!
Yun Sugyeom hammered away at his keyboard without pause.
Seong Hyeonjun, who had been watching for an opening, quietly
set a cup of coffee on his senior’s desk.
When there was still no reaction, Seong Hyeonjun grabbed someone passing by and whispered.
“Do you happen to know why Senior Yun is like that?”
“Ah, Hyeonjun, you took annual leave, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I came back today…… But the atmosphere feels different from usual.”
Lee Hoyeol’s leave of absence.
For office workers, it was an excuse like no other.
Seong Hyeonjun had also followed Hoyeol’s lead and used up the annual leave he had been putting off.
During those few days of rest, he had tried all sorts of things.
—“……
Tsk, this isn’t the right posture?”
He had watered a potted plant in imitation of Hoyeol, who tended a flower garden, and had even gotten smacked on the back by his mother, who asked what kind of idiot watered a cactus like that.
He had returned to AAU with plenty of stories like that.
But Yun Sugyeom had been in that state since morning.
So focused that it felt rude to even speak to him.
“Why, looks like he finally managed to get in touch after a long time.”
“Get in touch? With who?”
“With his teammates from the Cosmo days.”
“Ah……!”
As national interests became entangled, exchanges between the AAU branches had decreased.
But with the launch of the Yusra Branch, exchanges between the branches had become as active as they had been in the early days of the Cataclysm.
“Me too, and Sugyeom too. Everyone has no choice but to be busy. After all, we all owe quite the debt. To our Chief of the Yusra Branch, that is.”
Chief of the Yusra Branch.
That was Hoyeol’s position in AAU.
“I thought that if we gathered the information that had scattered when AAU was cut off, something might come out of it. As it happens, our team found one useful bit of information too. It’s about dragons, you see……”
“Dragons?!”
“Never mind. I’ll tell you once it’s confirmed later.”
“Ah……”
“Anyway, you work hard too, Hyeonjun.”
The man said that and passed by Seong Hyeonjun.
“Ah, yes! Take care, senior!”
Seong Hyeonjun sat down obediently.
He waited only for Yun Sugyeom to take his hands off the keyboard.
And one hour later.
Tap!
The moment the chance finally came, he quickly opened his mouth.
“Senior, coffee beside you!”
“Coffee? Ah, thanks.”
“By the way, what kind of meeting were you having for so long?”
Sparkle, sparkle.
Yun Sugyeom chuckled at Seong Hyeonjun’s shining eyes.
“It’s not as amazing as you’re expecting.”
“……
Aw, is it a secret?”
“No, it’s not a secret. It’s just really nothing special.”
Yun Sugyeom pointed at the monitor with his finger.
Blink—
The text he was writing came into view.
A sigh of admiration flowed from Seong Hyeonjun’s mouth.
“Whoa, damn. Why didn’t I think of this?!”
Ultra-high-level player content.
That was the fate of every game developer.
Memories of his days working at Cosmo came back one after another.
“It’s still the same now, but every Thursday was a war, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, people raised hell every week, saying there was nothing in the update.”
“We really had to grind our bones to dust, didn’t we? Especially our Korean gamers’ tenacity is seriously…… How do they chew through content meant to take at least a month in a single day?!”
Back when Arcana was nothing more than a game.
The speed at which players consumed content was truly beyond imagination.
Thanks to that, in meetings, they had recorded every idea related to ultra-high-level content that came up. That was also why Yun Sugyeom had contacted the team members from each branch.
“You’re trying to find those old ideas?”
“That’s right. I figured they might be worth digging into.”
“You’re right, senior. The Demon Kings, and the dragons too. They were all content that remained at the concept stage. And things like that appeared in rifts as if they had existed from the beginning.”
In other words, ultra-high-level content that had similarly remained only as ideas might already exist on the Arcana Continent, and might have existed there since long ago.
“The one who would need that kind of information right away is……”
In that instant, Seong Hyeonjun’s pupils widened.
“That’s right. I’m going to deliver it to Chief Lee Hoyeol.”
“I don’t know about the other players…… But it might certainly be helpful to the Chief! No, wait, could it be that he already knows all of it?”
“Either way, I’m going to gather as much as I can for now.”
As expected, this wasn’t the atmosphere to tell the story about getting smacked on the back for watering a cactus.
Besides, Seong Hyeonjun himself had something he was more curious about than idle chatter.
“Senior, can I ask you just one more thing?”
“What is it? I was getting bored because no one was talking to me, so I’ll hear you out.”
“Yes!”
Screech—
Seong Hyeonjun pulled his chair over and continued.
“So, among the ideas you gathered, what information would be the most helpful to the Chief? The Deep-Sea City you were typing about just now? Or if not that, the One Hundred Thousand Caves of the Zero Mountains?”
Let’s see.
Yun Sugyeom stroked his chin.
“They’re all important, but content like that wouldn’t be useful right away, would it? Whatever it is, a related rift would have to appear before he could use the relevant information.”
In that sense, if it existed.
And if Hoyeol had fulfilled the conditions.
The content he could use immediately was, after all……
“……the [Veteran Player Community], maybe?”
*
More luxurious than Yusra’s Golden Palace.
A space with a structure even more unrealistic than the Magic Tower.
At the very least, no such place existed on the Arcana Continent.
Yes, this place was the 『Space-Time Salon』.
In the language of another world, the [Veteran Player Community].
Because it was a space of ‘consciousness’ that only Transcendents could enter.
A salon permitted only to an extreme minority.
“?”
There, a presence unfamiliar to them was felt for the first time in a very long while.
Everyone’s attention turned toward the place where the presence had been sensed.
The Sword Saint, Shegwin’s gaze was no different.
Before long, that presence gradually drew closer.
Accompanied by a sound clearer and purer than any other.
Click—