Chapter 78
Chapter 78: The Carefree, Lazy Elf just Wants to Sleep.
Viktor studied the drowsy Elf before him, her features gradually aligning with the figure he held in memory.
Cocotte Yadh was a Natural Elf.
Even among Elves, different races existed. Natural Elves, with their affinity for the natural world, found it far easier to attune to elemental forces—and far easier to become Mages.
And her status was no ordinary thing.
An Elf Queen who wanted nothing more than to sleep and had no intention of inheriting the throne—a reclusive layabout who had fled on her own to the City of Mages, a place almost no one could find, just to escape her kin's pursuit.
Rather interesting, all things considered.
"Council Member Yadh. I hadn't expected it would be you coming to receive us."
The drowsy Elf pried open 1 tired eye, dark circles heavy beneath it, and glanced at Viktor.
"Oh?"
"How curious. When Heim mentioned it, I didn't think much of it—but seeing it now, you really do know everyone on the Council."
That Viktor even knew of her genuinely surprised Cocotte.
As the Council's most reclusive member—the one least required to show her face—she spent her days either napping in the garden or drooling in her sleep in the garden.
Yet Viktor not only knew her given name; he could also produce her family name.
That family name carried far too much weight to dig into lightly.
The Elf gave the human Princess hiding behind Viktor a brief once-over, then narrowed her sleepy eyes.
"Lord Viktor certainly has fine taste—coming all the way to Endymion and still finding time to bring a lover along."
A layabout Elf with a sharp tongue to boot.
Viktor straightened slightly. He offered no explanation, but something dangerous crept into his gaze.
"I burned Heim's letter without a second thought. I can just as easily burn your back garden."
"……"
Cocotte snapped upright at once. Still drowsy, but she managed to force out something resembling a smile toward Auréliane.
Though it came out rather crooked.
"Welcome to the City of Mages, little sis—"
Viktor's cold voice cut in.
"Consider your age before settling on a form of address."
"……What a nuisance."
The layabout Elf pursed her lips. It was just a slip of the tongue—did he really have to harp on it like that?
He really was one to hold a grudge.
She rearranged her expression into something marginally more agreeable than before, dropped the strained smile entirely, and gave a simple nod.
"Welcome to the City of Mages—Endymion, young lady."
"You may call me Cocotte. Today, I'll be your guide through the chaotic Magic Power rifts of the City of Mages."
Endymion being called the City of Mages was not without reason. The concentration of magic in the air here was outright excessive.
Immense Magic Power, compressed endlessly within a confined space, had given rise to a certain degree of chaotic collapse.
Those iridescent bubbles drifting through the air were the byproduct of that Magic Power disorder.
And so all newcomer Mages required a guide to navigate the correct path.
As Auréliane breathed in the air, she could feel herself wrapped at every moment by an inexhaustible surge of Magic Power.
Her body had no choice but to stop drawing from the ambient magic, lest it be torn apart from within.
She had been hoping to absorb some magical energy from the City of Mages to expand her Magic Power reserves.
That notion was best abandoned.
Still, Auréliane bowed toward Cocotte to express her gratitude.
She had not known before arriving what the City of Mages truly was.
Strictly speaking, Auréliane was not a Mage in the traditional sense—it was only because the Emperor recognized her talent that she had been directed toward the path of a Mage.
Cocotte took the lead, and the layabout Elf chattered nonstop along the way.
She had no intention of walking herself—she sat atop a floating cloud, using it as her personal means of transport.
Auréliane stared at the drifting cloud in faint astonishment.
"That thing can actually move?"
Cocotte only gave a small smile. After all, it was Auréliane's first time here; never having seen this sort of conveyance was perfectly understandable.
She had no particular desire to explain these assorted magical creatures to Auréliane, and simply said with an offhand air:
"The City of Mages is divided into 7 layers. The concentration of Magic Power in each layer is on an entirely different level from the last."
"The higher the layer, the greater the demands placed on the Mage. A weak Mage who recklessly ventures onto a layer beyond their capability risks, at best, broken limbs—and at worst, being severed from magic entirely."
As she spoke, she snuck a sidelong glance at Auréliane.
Cocotte's instincts were telling her something.
This girl in front of her—
Something was off.
Very off.
This young lady's strength was only at the 1st Tier.
By all accounts, even an average 2nd-Tier Mage would struggle to endure the turbulent Magic Power on the City of Mages' very first layer.
Yet the young lady before her was holding steady against that immense magical density, looking entirely at ease, as though nothing were the matter.
Cocotte's reaction did not escape Viktor's notice.
Her reaction was exactly what he had anticipated.
After all, no one would expect Auréliane to possess a magical talent that could only be described as heaven-defying.
At that moment, Auréliane was being looked at over and over by Cocotte like some rare exhibit at a zoo.
Auréliane paid it no mind.
Endymion, for all its name as the City of Mages, held no actual city to speak of.
It was nothing more than a cluster of extremely fragmented rock structures.
The 3 of them walked for a stretch, and along the way they encountered no other human figures—
Only more strange and novel magical creatures.
They had only been walking for a short while, yet the scenery around them kept shifting without pause—one moment giving way to a boundless starlit sky of quiet depth, the next to a dense, overgrown jungle.
Their shapes refused to hold still. With every step, lines and colors seemed to endlessly change.
After some indeterminate time, Auréliane gazed ahead at the path before her and fell into thought.
The path around her had disappeared. She now seemed to be standing on a single slab of rock, with nowhere to step in any direction.
Not a single person beside her.
At some point, she had gotten separated from her teacher?
Impossible.
She had been right beside them the entire time.
The battle she had experienced before had bolstered Auréliane's courage considerably. She reached out a tentative foot toward the endless void before her.
What looked like nothing seemed, upon contact, like solid ground.
She looked down. Beneath her feet, an infinite starscape was spinning slowly. The island behind her had also vanished without a trace, leaving only stars scattered across a dark veil.
It was as though she had been wrapped inside countless beautiful wishes—the scene before her utterly tranquil, utterly mysterious.
Auréliane felt her mind stir with a tremor, as though she had tumbled into layer upon layer of hazy enchantment, and the world before her eyes turned dreamlike in an instant.
It was a wonder that transcended description—a sensation that surpassed the reach of ordinary thought. Auréliane had only looked for a moment, yet her mind felt pinned to the spot.
But her consciousness told her she could not linger here. She forced her body to step free of that hazy, dreamlike radiance, and the paradise-like wonder dissolved into nothing at once.
Then a brief moment of disorientation—
"We're here."
The haze before Auréliane's eyes gradually cleared. What met her sight was the crackling snap of viper-like lightning and the heavy, suffocating weight of ten-thousand clouds hanging low.
A solitary stone bridge hung suspended in the air, terrifying in its isolation.
Cocotte began introducing the sight to the 2 of them:
"This is the Magic Power Gorge. Some human stories call it by another name—the Rhea Gorge."
At those words, Auréliane's body gave a faint shudder.
"The Rhea Gorge—it's actually real?"
She looked at the treacherous land before her with disbelief, a sense of unreality washing over her.
She had heard this story as a child.
The Rhea Gorge, spoken of only in legend—those who passed its Trial were said to earn the right to ascend to the 7th-layer sky.
But now, seeing it with her own eyes, the Trial seemed to hold an answer that had only just come into focus.
This place was the path every Mage had to walk before reaching Endymion.
It was not merely a natural passage—it was also Endymion's first test of all who came to enter.
Endymion, this City of Mages, was not simply a floating island suspended in the sky.
It was, above all else, a Sky City possessed of consciousness.
For each visitor who arrived, a Trial of different difficulty awaited them within the Rhea Gorge.
The stronger the individual, the more dangerous their Trial.
This meant that any Mage could enter Endymion—but the Trial would differ, and through it, the City of Mages would actively determine the highest layer each visitor was permitted to reach.
Viktor knew this place well. In the game, he had come here too.
Though the Rhea Gorge lay within Endymion's floating island, it did not belong to the City of Mages proper.
In the eyes of the players, this place was simply a Grinding spot.
He turned his gaze forward once more. The dangers that might await up ahead were things he had long since committed to memory with perfect familiarity.
Even the Lord of that gorge—Viktor still remembered it clearly.
Within the gorge, turbulent Magic Power surged in ceaseless eruptions. Lightning and gale winds encircled the single narrow passage running through the gorge's center.
No one could say whether the stone bridge, weathered by years of erosion, might crumble the very next second.
Cocotte stayed close behind Auréliane and Viktor. Should danger arise, she would be ready to act.
Though the Magic Power Gorge rarely posed any real danger—this place was nothing more than a series of Trial grounds.
The Magic Power churning within the Gorge was wild and volatile. An ordinary Mage who stepped inside might find the raging currents tearing apart their own magical foundation, severing them from magic entirely.
Even a 4th-Tier Mage's magic would face severe restrictions here.
But in the game, the Magic Power Gorge was an exceptionally valuable Grinding location.
The Magical Creatures inside averaged Level 35 and above. Having spent their entire lives in a region of chaotic Magic Power, they had learned through instinct to master certain elemental forces—and even to wield them, using that power to hunt their prey.
Steeped in Magic Power, their temperaments had grown all the more savage.
This gorge—in his memory, Viktor had walked it he didn't know how many hundreds of times.
"Auréliane."
Auréliane looked up, a little puzzled.
"Teacher, what is it?"
"From here on, stay close to me. Don't move without reason."
Cocotte glanced at Viktor, then said to Auréliane in her languid drawl:
"Listen well to what he says. Otherwise……"
"You've seen fireworks before, haven't you? Move carelessly, and you might end up……becoming one yourself."
At those words, Auréliane couldn't help but give a startled shiver.
Cocotte lay sprawled on her cloud, eyes fixed on Viktor with a long, studied look—whatever was going on in her mind, no one could say.
"My lord need only walk to the far end of this gorge. It should take roughly 2 hours."
"If your qualifications are sufficient—then pass through here, and you will reach the legendary 7th Layer: the Sky Grounds."