The Third Meeting (Part 2)
[“I wasn’t trying to eat it! I was going to bring it to you! But as soon as I touched it, I couldn’t help myself…! It was absolutely not intentional. Absolutely!”]
”…Just shut up for now.”
After silencing the demon, Dalen rubbed his throbbing temples and began to explain. It took quite a bit of a roundabout explanation to reveal the whole story of how the demon had consumed the essence.
There was a delicate balance to maintain—how much to reveal to the transcendent being before him and how to explain the loss of the essence.
Fortunately, the perceptive Everon was the first to lay his cards on the table, showing how much the Golden Palace knew about him.
“Aside from the hundreds of iterations beyond the monitor and what happened in hell, you seem to have a rough understanding of everything.”
From capturing the demon and quelling the civil war within the Holy Knights, to dropping Cheongrin and joining forces with a young dragon, Everon knew most of what Dalen had experienced in the labyrinth. More accurately, it was what the Seer had told him.
“The Seer with the white eyes… He was always aware of most incidents in the game. His vision is indeed vast.”
The abilities of a transcendent being who had lived for over a thousand years were truly beyond comprehension.
Dalen marveled at this level of insight as he confessed that the demon had devoured the essence of Kalkas.
“I understand. It’s something a tree might do.”
Everon’s reaction, upon learning the full story, was entirely unexpected.
”…A tree might do that?”
“The dark star tree, Arbor, cast over the reverse heavens. It’s the most fundamental alias of the immortal demon.”
Everon sipped his tea, a curious smile playing on his lips as he continued.
“I don’t know the details, but they say the immortal demon wasn’t always a demon. Before history, it was called a star tree.”
[Oh.]
The soft exclamation came from the dragon lurking beyond the mindscape.
[Interesting. For someone so young, he knows a lot. Listen carefully.]
“The star tree, which aided the prosperity of many races, suddenly vanished one day. Not long after, its many roots, branches, and leaves were torn apart in the cauldron of Enaxagous. They say that’s when the number of evil gods’ followers, which was only four, more than doubled.”
This was a setting Dalen had never heard before. There were no remaining documents or even oral legends about the immortal demon.
But judging by the reaction of the red spear, it seemed the story was true.
“Though it happened long before history began, there’s a tale that quite a number of demons were born then. Arbor absorbing Kalkas’s essence might not be a coincidence.”
“Are you saying it merely reclaimed the power that was originally its own?”
“In a sense, yes. Once the essence is fully digested, it might reclaim the lost power as its own. But this is just speculation, so take it lightly.”
Everon smiled brightly.
Dalen scratched his chin. It was a complicated situation.
Having a subordinate grow stronger was undoubtedly a good thing. He had even considered cursing it separately in the future.
But considering the value of Kalkas’s essence, it was a situation that couldn’t help but make him feel a pang of regret.
Perhaps sensing his feelings, Everon spoke up.
“You needn’t worry about compensation.”
Everon said with a playful glint in his eyes.
“The Golden Palace will never forget your contribution to maintaining peace on the continent.”
”…Is that so?”
“The Seer would likely agree. We’ll contact you later with appropriate compensation.”
Dalen shrugged. There was no reason to refuse a gift.
[I’m… saved…]
The demon in the pocket dimension also let out a sigh of relief at those words.
Time flew by quickly.
Dalen spent ten days holed up in an inn, studying and consolidating the power he had gained from the labyrinth.
He also took the time to rethink his future plans.
His goals hadn’t changed from before.
The objectives and strategies he had written down in a one-silver-coin room were still vivid in his memory.
“Survive in a world inching towards destruction, prevent the apocalypse, and find the stone of wishes at the bottom of the labyrinth.”
Of course, circumstances were vastly different now compared to back then. When he first arrived in Falcion, he had been lacking in both level and money.
Now, his level was in the mid-20s, and his pocket dimension was filled with piles of gold coins and jewels.
“Plus, I’ve established a small domain and can use unique skills.”
As he rolled a ball of crackling electricity in his hand, Dalen thought.
“The problem is that the difficulty has increased accordingly.”
The continent’s situation was becoming increasingly unstable. Rampaging monsters, the looming threat of war, and the ever-growing number of refugees.
Rumors of reclusive masters beginning to move suggested that the game had fully entered its mid-phase.
But Dalen’s concern wasn’t with wars or monsters.
The most dangerous thing now was that the evil god had taken notice of him.
“Enaxagous.”
The evil god of fate and the reverse heavens.
Known as the most cunning among the evil gods.
If you had to pick the evil god to be most wary of from start to finish in the game, Enaxagous would undoubtedly be the first.
“That creature tried to trap me directly. Even using dimensional transfer magic.”
Magic that allowed travel between the real world, where humans and various flora and fauna lived, and the fantasy world, where impossible things were realized under the name of possibility.
Such magic demanded a significant price just by its nature.
Even the summoning spell for the gates of hell, a similar but inferior version, required a large number of sacrifices to use properly.
Using a fragment of Kalkas’s staff as a medium meant even the basic conditions like fixed space or time coordinates were bypassed.
Naturally, the price to be paid was immense.
Using one of Kalkas’s treasures as the primer for the spell and burning the true form of a high-ranking demon as a sacrifice was just about enough to balance the scales.
“Kalkas was the one who sacrificed the most for this spell. And yet, he casually mentioned welcoming guests, which means the evil god must have promised him something more than what he lost.”
In the end, the red spear’s power obliterated him, so that promise likely became worthless.
The important thing was that Enaxagous had gone to the extent of paying with his own power to set a trap.
This meant he perceived Dalen as a threat worth that value.
To exaggerate a bit, Dalen’s actions so far had chilled the spine of one of the main players in the apocalypse.
“Did he somehow realize I had acquired the hell gate spell by retrieving the corpse?”
He considered the possibility. The answer was no.
If the creature was aware of the successor DLC, it would have devised a scheme far beyond merely setting a trap.
However, it likely anticipated that Dalen and Kalkas would clash at some point.
And it wasn’t wrong.
If the operation had failed, Dalen would have tried to deal with Kalkas before he could devastate the Tsar’s kingdom.
“Tsk.”
Crack!
Dalen clenched his fist, shattering the ball of electricity, and stood up.
A demon who stole a holy sword, a witch of ashes who tried to sacrifice a city.
The fallen vice-captain of the Holy Knights and the rift dragon who regained power with the sword he offered.
Somehow, he had been dragged around by events for the past six months.
Of course, it was true that he had successfully thwarted the grasp of the apocalypse wherever he went. But he couldn’t continue to be led around unilaterally.
“The world is already twisted beyond recognition. I can’t assume it will follow the same path as the game.”
There were limits to preventing the apocalypse with game knowledge. After all, the worlds from which he had obtained that knowledge had all failed to avoid destruction.
What was needed now was a step ahead of the apocalypse.
To do that, he had to be willing to boldly tread uncharted paths.
“Use the knowledge I have, but be wary of letting it limit me. There’s nothing more foolish than having my vision obscured by events that happened in the game.”
Situations he had never experienced. Powers he had never held.
Unforeseen or unimaginable events had already occurred several times in the past six months.
Now, he had to carve out that path himself.
Whatever obstacles appeared on this path, he would rely on his own strength to overcome them.
And that confidence was already ingrained in him. His body and talents, which defied common sense, and the possibilities that stemmed from them continued to expand with each study.
“Time to collect the price of the deal.”
Dalen donned his armor and stepped out of his room. Today’s agenda would add a layer of stability to his potential.
“They said to wait just a week, so by the tenth day, it should be more than ready.”
The reward Dalen was to receive for the labyrinth incident wasn’t only at the Golden Palace.
Compared to that, the deal he made with the bartender at the Crow’s Nest before descending into the labyrinth was a much bigger one.
The reward for the contract made in the name of the dragon was none other than a body capable of withstanding mystical power.
Today was the day the long-standing issue that had plagued him since acquiring the red spear’s blood would finally be resolved.
[Sienna is away.]
The sound of liquid pouring.
As he poured the drink, Bourbon spoke up.
“I heard you have some business at the Philopon Orchard.”
“An orchard, huh. Is it about drugs?”
“Sharp as ever. Yes, it’s about the drug addicts. That’s all I know, so you’ll have to ask for more details yourself.”
Bourbon waved his hand dismissively, as if the topic bored him. Despite being a dragon settled in the heart of the city, he often seemed blissfully unaware of the goings-on around him.
“Probably because he doesn’t need to care,” I thought.
Kylebercus Arburn, the first roar of the dragon god, was a force to be reckoned with. Even among the transcendent beings of the Golden Palace, there were few who could match him, whether in the city’s shadows or its light.
Even in his avatar form, there was virtually nothing in this city that could pose a threat to him. His only concern was the safety of the Feathered Witch.
Whether the city was overrun with refugees, or mysterious drugs were circulating, or even if those drugged refugees caused riots, it was none of his business.
“Drink up.”
With a flick of his fingers, a delicate shimmer of magic sparked from the bartender’s hand, and glittering particles drifted down, dissolving into the glass.
“Given we were just talking about drugs, this looks pretty suspicious.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s an activator to aid the procedure. I prepared it with special care for your peculiar body, so if you don’t want to regret it, you’d better drink it all.”
“Well, if you say so.”
Dalen downed the drink in one go. It looked and smelled just like what he usually drank, but the moment it hit his mouth, it was anything but.
“Ahh…”
It had been a long time since he’d felt this—a sensation like a map of his throat and stomach being drawn in real-time. Even for Dalen, whose physical stats surpassed human limits, it was intense.
This wasn’t just alcohol; it was practically poison.
“If I drink this wrong, it might kill me.”
“Blame your body and mind. They’re so tightly bound that even transcendent beings beyond the fifth rank wouldn’t be like this.”
Bourbon sounded slightly annoyed.
The day after returning from the labyrinth, Bourbon had insisted on examining Dalen’s body for the final touches. Judging by his words, the results must have been anything but ordinary. What was supposed to be a one-day procedure had stretched into a week, perhaps for the same reason.
“You keep saying it’s strange, but I’m just an ordinary person.”
“That’s either deception or ignorance. Which do you prefer?”
”…”
Can’t even joke around without getting scared.
“Anyway, it seems to have absorbed well. Lie down.”
Bourbon gave Dalen a once-over, then with a simple gesture, transformed the table into a makeshift bed.
Performing surgery in a place as unsanitary as a bar table seemed questionable, but doubting a dragon at this point would be absurd. Trusting him with this procedure was already a leap of faith. It was the first time since arriving in this world that he’d entrusted his life to someone else.
“Are you ready?”
“Anytime.”
“Good. Let’s begin.”
Bourbon opened a spatial pocket and retrieved a wooden box.
A low hum filled the bar as the magic resonated throughout the space.
It wasn’t hard to guess what was inside. With his hand resting on the box, Bourbon spoke.
“Let me be clear. It’s impossible to completely reconstruct your body using the heart of the Azure Scale and its followers.”
“The heart seemed big enough.”
“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said this, but your body is different from a typical human’s.”
There he goes again. Dalen just shrugged from his position on the makeshift bed.
“Any other instructions?”
“Of course.”
“What is it?”
A brief silence, then a smile broke across Bourbon’s usually stoic face. It was the first time Dalen had seen the dragon smile since arriving in this world.
“It’s going to hurt. A lot.”