◈ Chapter 204. This Is My Path
Somehow.
I had thought the lava frozen by Absolute Zero looked far too splendid.
It was difficult to put into words, but—
The red lava that had been rippling like the sea, still retaining its color,
frozen solid just as it was.
So, to put it in Granfel’s style…
it was like a sea of rubies.
Which meant I had a hunch, even without opening my status window to check.
Click—
It was no different from walking across ice.
Along with the even clearer sound of my shoes,
I crossed over the frozen lava.
Still, you really do have guts, Granfel.
‘Aren’t you scared?’
I knew better than anyone how anomalous Absolute Zero was.
Even knowing it would never melt,
walking over it was a different matter altogether.
This was a different kind of fear from the stairs of the Magic Tower.
‘First, I have to keep walking until I see something.’
To manifest Teleportation or a portal, I needed the coordinates of my destination.
But the sea of lava showed no end.
Meaning I couldn’t manifest a portal right away.
Was it scarier because I kept looking down?
For now, let’s move my gaze.
Just then, an appropriate message appeared.
[Aesthetic: Upper]
I opened my status window to check.
Aesthetic had definitely risen.
I was wearing the Dawn set, whose very name was anything but ordinary.
Even if I had one jacket merely draped over me rather than properly worn,
there was no reason it couldn’t raise Aesthetic.
[The effect of Aesthetic reaching Upper is activated.]
But I never imagined there would be an additional effect just because it had reached Upper.
More than anything, I hadn’t activated Aesthetic.
The effect had activated on its own.
‘Don’t tell me a passive effect was added?’
So what exactly was that effect?
Forgetting even my fear of the crimson lava, I searched with my eyes wide open… but somehow, other than the fact that it was beautiful, nothing seemed to have changed.
I recalled Aesthetic’s effect once more.
In magic, Aesthetic was like the divine art of copy and paste.
A complex interference process that consumed an absurd amount of mana
could be replaced with an extremely small amount of mana.
‘That’s actually why I haven’t used it much recently.’
The me of the past, who struggled with mana, was different from the me of now.
If judged purely by stats, my mana pool would still fall behind Marcelo’s, of course,
and even most senior mages’.
‘Not content with elixir herbs, I even greased myself with spiritual medicine.’
Most decisively,
[First World Tree’s Blessing]
Wasn’t that an outrageous buff constantly active on me?
Thanks to that, even after reaching the realm of the Circle and manifesting high-level magic, I no longer had to struggle with mana.
‘There was no need to go out of my way to activate Aesthetic.’
The days of scraping by on mana had passed.
So I had been slightly looking forward to unlocking an additional effect.
But somehow…
‘I can’t get a handle on it at all.’
Fortunately, my doubts did not last long.
Even if my own eyes had missed it,
I had reliable doubles on both shoulders to serve as my eyes.
“My lord, I see a path.”
……
You see a path?
The Path of Pride.
If you say nonsense like that, I’m really going to unsummon you, Diend. You.
I swallowed my grumbling and shifted my gaze.
And then, there really was a path.
In a form that left me no choice but to be astonished.
“To manifest such an elegant path in the span of an instant. Compared to you, my lord, it seems my own Aesthetic is still sorely lacking.”
What the hell is that gaudy grand avenue?!
The shape of the surging lava was like a sculpture.
If I were to compare it, perhaps like a triumphal arch?
Yes, having complicated magic manifest like a sculpture.
That was also one of the characteristics of Aesthetic.
But the problem was its scale.
‘It’s huge.’
As expected, it was absurdly magnificent.
Even considering the excellent mana efficiency of
[First World Tree’s Blessing]
and
[Aesthetic],
I wondered whether a massive amount of mana had been drained.
And yet—
‘……There was no additional mana consumption?’
It was the same.
Other than the mana consumed when manifesting the anomaly, Absolute Zero, no additional mana had been used. In other words, unlike what Diend was noisily proclaiming—
“This, too, is the path my lord has opened……!!”
It was not a path I had manifested of my own will.
Then there was only one possibility.
Opening a “path” leading somewhere.
So that was the effect of Aesthetic reaching Upper?
*
Yusra Kingdom.
The Explorer’s League main force.
The explorers of the League were in the midst of their final preparations.
“Looks like the competition is about to begin in earnest, Aaron.”
“You, competing with me? Know your place, Rombus.”
“Well, my place is indeed more refined than yours.”
Veteran explorers Aaron and Rombus, of course,
as well as Fabian, the League Master who had returned to active duty as an explorer.
There was no need to distinguish between players and Arcanians.
Everyone was checking their gear amid the tension.
Bak Hwigang was included among them.
“At last, the time has come for us explorers to earn our keep!”
The hundred thousand caves of the Zero Mountains
were the optimal place for explorers to display their pride.
With the atmosphere lively for the first time in a while, even Fabian felt himself growing somewhat heated.
“Strictly speaking, this isn’t even my first move after returning.”
The Teppern Labyrinth Rift.
When he recalled what happened then, Fabian felt ashamed before Hoyeol.
He had confidently thought that, at most, it was only a labyrinth.
Yet if not for Hoyeol, far from clearing it,
he would not even have escaped the labyrinth.
“Is that why this feels like a first step?”
But things had to be different in the Zero Mountains.
After all, the hundred thousand caves of the Zero Mountains were not an unknown forbidden zone like the Teppern Labyrinth. Hadn’t Fabian himself cleared more than a dozen caves there?
Fabian shrugged.
“Though by now, they must all be submerged beneath the sea.”
Even for Fabian, the legendary explorer, the middle slopes of the Zero Mountains were a place he had never set foot. However, from exploring the caves in the lower regions of the mountain range, he had grasped their characteristics in his own way.
Fabian stood before the explorers.
“Before we set out for the Zero Mountains, I shall tell you something.”
At his voice, the explorers’ gazes focused on him.
“As you all know, each of the hundred thousand caves has its own unique rules. In the language of adventurers, you might say their field types differ. How is it? Am I correct?”
At Fabian’s question, Bak Hwigang answered readily.
“Yes, that is exactly right!”
Fabian nodded and continued.
“Dungeons, labyrinths, battlefields… What rules exist in which cave is something you cannot know without entering. Though that anticipation may be the charm of exploration, we explorers can no longer cling to exploration merely for its charm.”
Everyone nodded.
A solemn air settled over their faces as well.
Reality and the Arcana Continent.
They had learned that each of their worlds was in danger of annihilation, and they had even participated in the Holy War.
However, for explorers, a non-combat class, to play an active role in an all-out war was nearly impossible. Because of that, hadn’t they swallowed their frustration?
‘This is different from an unfamiliar rift.’
‘Dungeons are my specialty.’
‘I’m the one who gathered two hundred thousand subscribers with labyrinth-clear content.’
The opportunity had come to quench that thirst.
Fabian felt the same as everyone else.
A faint chuckle escaped his lips.
“This must be the moment when we deal prejudice a blow as explorers. That is why, for the first time in my life, I have decided to do something unlike myself. So from now on, all of you should keep my words in mind.”
As could be seen just by looking at the rivals Aaron and Rombus,
explorers were competitors with one another.
Though the Arcana Continent was vast,
in the end, the number of places to explore was finite.
Because of that, they did not chatter about their exploration know-how to other explorers.
Even in the League, which had been established for the explorers’ coexistence, such matters were never openly discussed.
A kind of taboo.
“First, within fields, there exist unknown paths.”
However, as League Master, Fabian broke that taboo.
“……!!!”
He paid no mind to the explorers’ shock.
Fabian began laying out the experience he had accumulated as a legendary explorer. It was a concept so new that even Aaron and Rombus, who had been quietly listening, flinched.
“Unknown paths……?”
“Dungeons and labyrinths may have countless forks in the road, but… in the end, isn’t it common knowledge in exploration that there is only one path leading to the end?”
“That’s right. By common sense, it is.”
Unknown paths.
It was only natural for them to be bewildered.
Even he, who had cleared countless fields,
had witnessed an unknown path only once.
Bak Hwigang asked cautiously.
“……Then could it not be that only that place was special?”
“No.”
“!”
His answer was so firm
that a gasp escaped Bak Hwigang’s mouth on its own.
“The reason I only witnessed it once? I can declare that it was simply due to my own lack of ability. But the reward was certain. At the end of that path, I obtained the most valuable spoil of all.”
……
The most valuable spoil of all?
“The truth.”
Even after hearing that much, the explorers still could not grasp it.
Fabian felt relieved once more.
Indeed, it was a good thing I returned to active duty.
I cannot leave everything to these fledglings.
Then he asked generously,
“Have you all ever thought about it?”
“What do you mean, League Master Fabian?”
“Aaron, Rombus. Have you two never thought about it?”
“??”
“The being that must not be awakened within the Teppern Labyrinth.”
Aaron and Rombus exchanged glances.
How could they forget?
Those enormous pupils.
But at the words that followed, the two explorers flinched.
“The reason that creature was buried within the rock wall of the labyrinth.”
“!!!”
Only then did they guess what truth Fabian was speaking of.
Dungeons, labyrinths, all sorts of fields contained monsters.
As Fabian cleared them again and again, he had felt a sense of incongruity.
Why was there always a monster at their heart?
‘That’s obviously because it’s a game……’
“……!!!”
The players who had been thinking that flinched.
No, Arcana was no longer a game.
Bak Hwigang gulped down dry saliva.
“You are saying there is a reason for all of it, League Master?”
The Teppern Labyrinth.
Bak Hwigang had also been there at the time.
Which meant he had witnessed all of it as well.
[Teppern Black Contractors].
What actions they had taken.
They, the being that must not be awakened,
and the story entangled with Teppern—he had expected there would be something, but……
“That is correct, adventurer. I have cleared countless dungeons, labyrinths, and all sorts of fields until now. But the exploration that allowed me to resolve that question happened only once.”
“……Don’t tell me that one time was?”
“That ‘don’t tell me’ is correct. The truth was on an unknown path.”
The truth.
What on earth had Fabian witnessed?
Amid the flood of gazes,
Fabian’s eyes shone.
“It means I reached a clear in the truest sense.”
*
Siren.
Since when had it been?
The worn-down memories of the mermaid always turned toward the blue sea.
Toward a sea she had never once seen.
Truly ridiculous, wasn’t it?
Bubble, bubble.
From atop the risen rock wall, she looked down at the red lava.
Within memories that could not possibly exist,
the Siren recalled the sea.
The sea had not been this hot.
Nor had it been so meaninglessly vast.
In the true sea, not this sea of lava,
other living creatures besides herself had swum as well.
In a space where nothing could be seen except lava, her sense of time had long since disappeared. The only fortunate thing was that, when she imagined the sea, her heart grew peaceful.
“!”
However, that peace was often broken.
To be precise,
the moment someone stepped into the sea of lava.
For some reason,
the Siren would become ferocious before she knew it.
Why was that?
Why was I
desperately trying to protect this place that is only hot?
It was like a curse.
The Siren sincerely wished.
Anyone would do.
She wished that anyone would cut off the breath of one who lived because she could not die.
Then, all at once, a sound reached the Siren’s ears.
Click—
The sound of something stepping forward with resolve.
How strange.
It was an unfamiliar sound she had never heard,
neither in the sea she had never visited,
nor in the lava.
Whether sea or lava, neither had a place to step.
It truly was strange.
A figure approached from afar.
And yet the man was clearly walking on the lava.
Splash—
Regardless of her true feelings, the Siren threw herself from the rock wall into the lava.
The mission engraved in her mind was only one thing.
She had to protect the sea of lava.
She had to rampage even more ferociously.
Only then could someone free her from this curse.
That was all.
And yet, it was truly strange, wasn’t it?
“……?”
The lava that should have been hot enough
to burn her skin and scales
was not hot.
No, beyond merely not being hot, it was cold.
“……!”
As though she were swimming
through the sea she had longed for in her imagination,
enough to make her fall under that illusion…
Aesthetic (審美).
審, to examine.
美, beauty.
It means to examine and seek out beauty.
It does not matter whether the path to beauty is splendid, harsh, or complicated.
If it is Granfel, he will reach it one way or another.
Just like now.
[Quest: Siren of Lava]
Among thousands of crossroads,
you who have witnessed the one and only path.
Only you can save the Siren.
─Encounter the Siren of Lava. (Success)
─Slay the Siren of Lava. (Failed)
─Fulfill the Siren of Lava’s wish. (In progress)
Of course, for me, who must bear that stubbornness, it would be quite a nuisance.
Even so, it meant I had no choice but to move forward.
Even if I had to force the absurdity of cooling lava into seawater.
─Fulfill the Siren of Lava’s wish. (Success)
[You have fulfilled the conditions.]
[Rewards will be distributed.]
…
At the summit of the Zero Mountains, the Dragon’s Nest.
“……”
The Old Dragon quietly lifted his eyelids.
A beautiful song came from the heart of the mountain range.
It is the Siren.
“……”
The Old Dragon mulled over his thoughts.
Indeed, my mother.
World Tree, your choice was not wrong.
Then, raising his enormous body, the Old Dragon spoke.
“Awaken from your eternal sleep, my kin.”
At last, the time has come.
“Dawn has arrived.”