Chapter 84: World before the system
Arthur yawned casually, stretching his arms slightly as he looked at the young man and said, "Those other items... I’m surprised you have them."
His golden eyes lingered on the other legendary items on Leon, acknowledging the rare and powerful equipment the young player had managed to gather.
He paused for a second, looking around the dark void with a thoughtful expression as he added, "In fact... this whole world keeps blowing my mind. Systems... talents... so much technology, those certainly didn’t exist when I was alive. I feel like I’ve missed out."
He let out a soft chuckle, speaking like a man marveling at the bizarre evolution of a civilization he had left behind centuries ago.
Leon frowned deeply at the revelation, his brow furrowing as a sudden, unsettling realization struck him.
He stared directly at the ancient king on the throne, his voice tense as he said, "So you’ve been experiencing the world... through me all this while?!"
The thought that a legendary king had been silently watching his every move, struggle, and fight from inside the blade sent a strange chill down his spine.
He had never realized the legend King Arthur Pendragon existed within Excalibur all this time. He had simply assumed the holy sword was just a powerful legendary blade, unaware of the ancient consciousness dwelling within its core.
Arthur nodded naturally in response to Leon’s outburst, his relaxed posture remaining unchanged on the golden throne as he said, "I’m something like... a will of the original within the sword."
Leon’s eyes widened slightly in realization, his mind rapidly connecting the dots as he digested the king’s words.
’So... to earn Excalibur’s acknowledgment, I just need King Arthur to acknowledge me...?’ he thought.
The true nature of the system’s requirements suddenly became clear—the sword’s power wasn’t just tied to stats or levels, but to the approval of the legendary king standing right in front of him.
If that was truly the case, then he was already off to an extremely bad start, since Arthur had already explicitly stated that he was unworthy of wielding Excalibur.
The king had outright rejected his motives, branding his burning desire for revenge as an impure corruption that degraded the holy blade’s true purpose.
Arthur was right in his observation, however, as the system indeed hadn’t been existing until about two hundred years ago.
The modern world of players, status windows, levelling up, were all a relatively recent phenomenon in human history, far removed from the era of ancient knights and medieval legends.
Mana itself had only arrived on Earth about two hundred and fifty years ago, seeping into the atmosphere and fundamentally altering the planet’s ecosystem before the creation of the system.
The world was nothing but chaos for the first fifty years after mana first seeped into the planet’s atmosphere, with uncontained dungeon gates tearing open across every continent and hordes of monsters running wild.
Earth had been turned into an apocalyptic wasteland overnight, as humanity was utterly unprepared for the sudden influx of monsters that invaded their cities.
The awakening of talents used to be a lot more complicated back then, since there was no system to assist them.
People had to blindly experiment, often suffering fatal backlash or failing to awaken their true potential due to a complete lack of guidance or structured training.
Those referred to as ’players’ now were formerly called ’awakeners’, and they consisted of the very few people who managed to discover their talents on their own.
These rare individuals became humanity’s sole defenders, relying entirely on instinct and grueling trial-and-error to develop their abilities in a world that was rapidly falling apart around them.
The rest of humanity were simply prey, left helpless with no way to properly fight against the endless hordes of monsters or gather crucial information about their weaknesses.
Without a way to know each monster rank, or dungeon rank, people couldn’t tell when they were facing something far above their league, resulting in more deaths even among awakened.
Everything changed dramatically, however, when Sysmus Grande created the system, an revolutionary interface that was designed to help players grow efficiently and provide basic information on monsters.
This system introduced status windows, the mechanic of gaining experience points to level up, and even attribute point, forever transforming the chaotic struggle for survival into a more organized path.
Ever since the system was first created, every new discovery about the world and dungeons were uploaded directly to it, resulting in the refined system that they had today.
Over the past two centuries, this vast repository of knowledge had allowed humanity to reclaim their territory, establish player guilds, and rank talents properly.
Leon frowned deeply as he recalled the history of the world, shaking his head to clear his mind before refocusing his attention on his pressing situation.
He glared at the golden-haired king standing in front of his throne and said, "First thing’s first... what’s happening now in the real world? Am... I dead?"
Arthur yawned casually again, stretching his arms above his head in a lazy manner before looking down at Leon with an indifferent expression.
He shrugged his shoulders slightly as he said, "I don’t know... maybe you are, maybe you’re not."
Leon’s face twitched violently in pure annoyance, his jaw clenching as Arthur’s completely lackadaisical attitude irked him.
The king spoke with such casual disregard for his life, treating the terrifying possibility of death like it was nothing more than a passing thought.
Every second spent idling in this dark space meant Teon could be recovering from his injuries or preparing a final blow, making the king’s relaxed demeanor utterly intolerable to Leon.
He gnashed his teeth in anger, his jaw muscles aching under the intense pressure as he glared at the golden figure sitting before him.
He gripped the hilt of his weapon until his knuckles turned white, muttering through his grit teeth, "I waited so much for this day... and you’re just going to ruin it for me?!"