Chapter 350: Star, the Reunion (7)
Badump, badump, badump…!
Chang-Sun’s heart began racing. All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind. The ‘Dream Realm’ was Crom Cruach’s divine ground, Keter was a collection of knowledge that could not have been restored by ordinary Undead, and…
‘...The Dragon Monarchs showed up as soon as I restored my Divine Class, as if they were waiting for that moment…’ Chang-Sun thought.
In that case, a question arose. Why had the 'Den of the Evil Dragon,' the Dragon Monarchs’ Dungeon, appeared on Earth… and specifically in Korea? It was possible that Richardus had done that to provoke Chang-Sun, but ‘Den of the Evil Dragon’ was also an uncleared Dungeon that had made an appearance a long time ago in Earth time. In other words, the temporal axis had been twisted.
When Chang-Sun thought about time magic, there was one thing that came immediately to mind, which was [Sky of Pneuma], the ancient magic that Crom had desperately tried to complete. What if Crom had somehow used a part of the ancient magic?
Even before her death, Crom would likely have predicted that Richardus planned to turn her into an Undead, since Keter was too valuable for Richardus to just discard her. Thus, perhaps she had stored all her consciousness in a small part of her body and pretended to have died. With her unique Trait of [Hibernation], entering a state of suspended animation would be a piece of cake.
‘While making preparations, she rewound the Wheel of Time partially to store all her message and valuables in the Earth of the past… By the time Richardus found me and the Undead, I would have finished restoring my Divine Class, which would increase the likelihood of running into her message…!’
Things were coming together one by one. Of course, Chang-Sun could be overthinking things. No matter how great Crom was, it was still too far-fetched to believe that she had thought Chang-Sun would be able to return from the
‘…No, I’m right. It would be possible for Crom.’
Chang-Sun reached that conclusion because he knew that Crom had trusted him and the others, who were her comrades and younger siblings, more than her own self. And above all…
‘Xerxes also came to Earth to find a trace of me, but he suddenly disappeared. If that was because he found a trace of Crom…!’
Just as Chang-Sun reached that train of thought…
「Twilight!」
Kali yelled, bringing Chang-Sun back to reality. When Chang-Sun turned to look at her, he saw Kali’s serious expression.
「Go. We’ll protect this place no matter what while you’re gone.」
It seemed Kali had reached the same conclusion as Chang-Sun after listening to Odin through the Soul Link.
“You want to go too, don’t you?” Chang-Sun asked.
「Of course I want to. I was the one who followed Crom more closely than anyone else.」
Due to her free and quiet personality, Kali did not really socialize with others, but she had opened herself up to Crom the most. As Kali had even discussed the issues related to Durga with Crom, it was clear how much she respected and felt attached to Crom. Thus, Kali was naturally the one who wanted to reach the ‘Dream Realm’ the most. However, she firmly shook her head.
「Still, someone has to stay behind and protect this place. Besides, the spiteful
Kali’s eyes curved like crescent moons as she smiled brightly.
「The one Crom has been waiting for is probably you, not me. So go, Twilight.」
Chang-Sun tried to say something more, but he saw Kali smiling and Gyeo-Ul nodding.
“Okay. I’ll come back soon,” he said with a heavy heart and a nod. He then looked at the birdcage’s ceiling, where a glimpse of the ‘Dream Realm’ had been revealed. He said, “Simon, hold on a little longer, please.”
「Just go already! I already feel like hell.」
Simon made a fuss, sweating profusely, but the birdcage disassemby process was progressing little by little. It was now a matter of finishing the process within the remaining time limit.
“Thanks,” Chang-Sun said before reaching out his hand to the birdcage ceiling.
When he pushed his entire consciousness into the ‘Dream Realm’, Keter poured into his mind once again. Perhaps because he had already gone through it once, it did not feel as overwhelming anymore.
[You have successfully accessed the old Divine Ground left by the old Celestial ‘Thousand-Year Slumbering Dragon’!]
[Activated a Hidden Piece! You have successfully located a hidden place, receiving a part of the Ancient Dragons’ knowledge as a reward..]
…
[This is the Divine Ground ‘Dream Realm’.]
Whooooosh.
The world where Chang-Sun was standing was certainly filled with darkness, but it was different from
‘How am I supposed to find Crom here?’ Chang-Sun wondered.
Since Crom was in hibernation, she would never wake up unless Chang-Sun directly approached and woke her up. The problem was that Chang-Sun had to go upstream of these rapids to reach where she was… They were filled with a chaotic torrent of information, making it difficult to do so.
‘I guess this is why she was able to hide herself from Richardus.’
Chang-Sun used his [Gnostic Eye] to the maximum extent, but he could not acquire significant gnosis because he could only see part of the divine ground. Before he could obtain gnosis from anything, it was swept away by the rapids and disappeared from view.
‘I think you would know a way.’ Chang-Sun sounded out Odin, who had taught him about how the whole situation had all been prepared by Crom.
―Haha, well…
Odin just chuckled, which meant he had no intention of telling Chang-Sun. Chang-Sun tried digging up Odin’s memories by force, but…
―If you have time to waste on useless stuff like that, wouldn’t it be better to solve the mystery of that torrent before the birdcage’s time limit elapses?
…it failed. Chang-Sun frowned slightly as he thought, ‘The power of omniscience isn’t limitless. There aren’t that many, but there are some things that are protected to be unreadable.’
Most such cases involved people with strong personalities.
‘In the end, I should take care of this on my own… It’s not easy, though.’
Chang-Sun also had a significant understanding of magic. Otherwise, he would not have been given the choice of Rune Master during his first class acquisition. Still, he really felt at a loss right now. The level of Crom’s magic was too high, and even if Chang-Sun tried to analyze it, the breadth of magic Chang-Sun knew was too narrow, as it was limited to rune magic. Thus, it was hard to apply his knowledge to this case.
If Chang-Sun had known things would turn out like this, he would have learned magic from Crom. When he stayed with Crom, Dragontongue magic had seemed too vast and grand in scope, so he had turned down Crom’s offer of teaching him her magic, saying that it was too impractical. He wanted to smack his past self in the back of the head. If only he could turn back time!
‘In the end, it’s because I have zero knowledge about Dragontongue magic. Dragontongue magic, Dragontongue magic…’ After repeating the word several times, a new thought crossed Chang-Sun’s mind. ‘Wait, this is a Dragontongue magic spell…’
An idea flashed through Chang-Sun’s mind, and he opened his [Gnostic Eye] wide once again.
[You have opened your ‘Gnostic Eye’, observing the rapids of mana!]
―You finally noticed.
“Be seen.” Chang-Sun used [Wordwielding], and at that moment, the view he had been seeing through his [Gnostic Eye] changed.
The pitch-black world turned blue, like the light of the [Gnostic Eye] when it was activated.
[Analyzing the rapids of mana!]
[Printing the analysis will manifest in a certain language for more accurate and faster interpretation.]
The blue light intertwined and took the form of letters. Dancing along the rapids, the rune sentences continued endlessly, and indecipherable word fragments were scattered indiscriminately.
‘This is it.’
Using [Wordwielding] with runes was closer to the original form of the language than [Dragontongue] and [Celestialtongue], so Odin had actually given Chang-Sun a hint long beforehand, figuring out the birdcage’s structure from the start. It was just that Chang-Sun had failed to notice it until now.
―You still have a long way to go. There are times you seem to have a brilliant mind, but you catch on pretty slowly at times like this.
Not paying attention to Odin’s muttering, Chang-Sun focused on the runes. All those runes probably made up Keter, the collection of knowledge left by the Ancient Dragons, who had once been called the race of sages… Thus, he would advance greatly by analyzing and studying every single one of those runes, but he had no intention of doing so.
‘Why would I bother when I have an easier way?’ he thought, smiling crookedly. At the same time, he infused an outrageous amount of his divine power into his [Gnostic Eye].
“Be understood.”
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…!
As the rapids of runes circled around Chang-Sun, they flowed toward him and gradually clashed against him one by one, shattering and being absorbed into his body. Every time it happened, Chang-Sun was able to automatically ‘know’ things he had not before.
Just as he had expected, the system of Keter was too extensive, so it was very hard to absorb the knowledge. It felt different from the time Chang-Sun had seen the gnosis in the ‘Changgong Library’, and it was also different from when he temporarily acquired the power of omniscience.
It felt as if he had begun shoving a lot of food into his mouth with a shovel. Although he began to experience a severe headache which made him feel as if his head was about to explode, Chang-Sun could also feel his perspective of the world broadening.
[Absorbing Keter!]
[Acquiring a significant amount of knowledge.]
[Your Intelligence has increased by ■■.]
[Your Willpower has increased by ■■.]
…
[Your understanding of the world has deepened far more than ever before!]
[Your perspective of the world has developed!]
…
However, absorbing the knowledge required an enormous amount of Chang-Sun’s divine power, so the divine power he had been storing in his integrated circuit finally began to run out. Although Chang-Sun wanted to absorb all the knowledge, it looked as if he would not be able to, so he felt a little disappointed. Nevertheless, he did not linger on it and pushed his hand into the center of the rapids.
‘Once my divine power is depleted, the power of omniscience will be deactivated, so I have to finish everything before that happens.’
When Chang-Sun pushed his hand deep into the list of runes, he felt something sturdy at his fingertips.
“Open.”
Ooooooooong―!
With a clear sound resembling a Buddhist bell, the rapids slowly stopped flowing and disappeared, revealing a slumbering Dragon locked inside a transparent protective sphere. Covering its entire body with a large set of wings, the Dragon lay on its stomach with its tail in its mouth.
It was Crom’s real body.
[You have found the remains left by the old Celestial ‘Thousand-Year Slumbering Dragon’! ]
It was actually just a part of herself or her consciousness, but meeting her like this already filled Chang-Sun with indescribable emotions, just like the time he had resurrected Kali. No, Chang-Sun was actually incomparably more glad than before.
“Crom,” Chang-Sun said quietly.
What was she dreaming about? Despite her reptile facial features, it was clear that she was smiling from ear to ear.
“Crom Cruach, wake up.”
Chang-Sun kept calling Crom, but his sleepyhead big sister showed no sign of waking up. It was just like old times, so much so that Chang-Sun found himself chuckling dumbfoundedly. What could he do to wake her up?
Perhaps Chang-Sun could wake Crom up using [Wordwielding], but he did not want to; rather, he wanted to wake her with his usual method, just like before. Thus, Chang-Sun put his hand against Crom’s protection barrier. Since she was not emerging from her dream, Chang-Sun could watch the dream to find out why and help her leave.
“Show me.”
Pzzzz, pzzzz, pzzz!
The story-protecting barrier dissipated, displaying Crom’s dream.
[Reading the data that makes up the remains of the old Celestial ‘Thousand-Year Slumbering Dragon’!]
Chang-Sun’s consciousness was sucked into an unknown place once again.
“Twilight. Twilight.”
Someone was shaking Chang-Sun, so he looked up. ‘This place is…?’
Chang-Sun knew this place very well. In fact, he would never be able to forget it, since it was where he had first met Crom.
“Get up, Twilight. We need to go wreak havoc. This is what I forced myself to wake up for, so you can’t fall asleep like that,” Crom said, sitting on the ground with a sullen look on her face.
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