Chapter 103
Chapter 103
Ark’s Flag (2)
The ancient creature remark had been amusing. Aro readily offered an apology.
“Slip of the tongue. Sorry.”
She gave an awkward smile and trailed off. Winter looked puzzled by Aro’s reaction, but after glancing at me, she kept her mouth shut.
“Ah. Senior. The Administrator said I could come by anytime since they’d explain various things.”
“Is that so. Go now.”
“……What?”
Winter made a baffled face at my instruction to go right now. After hesitating and watching my reaction, she slowly stood up.
“Th-then I’ll be off.”
“Yeah. Be careful.”
Leaving my farewell behind, Winter exited the inn. Aro fussed with the fur on her chest while gauging my mood.
“What do you mean by ancient creature?”
“Uh. In the blood. That. Um.”
At my question, Aro seemed troubled. She fumbled for words. I waited patiently for her to continue.
“Blood that blocks magic. That’s a trait of ancient creatures.”
I listened to her with interest. What she was saying wasn’t something I could find in books.
“I don’t know the details either, but it’s called Ancient Magic. It refers to blood produced by beings with unusual hearts.”
“So the name of the blood is ‘Ancient Magic’? It’s not actually related to magic?”
“No, it’s both magic itself and blood at the same time. Since it blocks magic. In other words, Ancient Magic is blood that ignores everything related to magic. Your blood itself is Ancient Magic.”
I understood why Ancient Magic remained even though I had offered up everything related to magic using Adaptive Body.
To begin with, Ancient Magic was not magic but the name of the blood. Then why was it called Ancient Magic in the first place?
“Now I see why you wanted to sell your blood. Your blood is an incredible material not only for alchemists but also for mages.”
Aro seemed to think my idea of selling blood was reasonable.
As both a mage and a sorcerer, she knew just how extraordinary this blood was.
“So can I learn Blood Magic?”
“Blood Magic? Ah! Right.”
This was the most important thing right now—whether or not I could learn Blood Magic.
It didn’t matter whether I had Ancient Magic or not. Adaptive Body was intact, there were no side effects, and my blood could block magic. If anything, that was a good thing.
“So that’s why you came to me.”
Sitting cross-legged, Aro stroked her chin and muttered. She looked deep in thought, so I didn’t interrupt.
“Alright. This looks doable.”
Aro grinned and gave me the answer I wanted. I smiled back at her.
***
The Sanctuary wasn’t a dungeon, so there were no monsters worth hunting.
Even so, the reason religion-related characters favored the Sanctuary wasn’t simply because of the Mark of Pilgrimage.
‘It should be here.’
The library established within the Sanctuary. Standing shoulder to shoulder with the Imperial Library, this place was one where rare skill books could be obtained.
“Looking for something?”
Winter loved her meetings with Aira. Since Aro said she was sick of religious talk, she came with me instead of Winter.
At Aro’s question, I glanced at the librarian. It was because I remembered getting kicked out of the Academy library with Winter.
“I heard there are interesting books here, so I came.”
“Sure looks like it.”
Aro kept shifting her gaze. Most of the books were related to religion, so she had no intention of reading them, yet each one looked extraordinary.
Most of them were quite old, and such books were usually valuable.
“This section looks interesting.”
After passing through all kinds of religion-related categories, we arrived at a section about constellation myths.
As she read the titles while walking past the shelves, Aro visibly brightened. The book that caught her eye was ‘The Correlation Between Constellations and Magic.’
“Found it.”
I had come to the least popular section among the many religious skills. If I had been playing a game, I would never have come here.
Other sections had powerful buffs, from wide-area shields to imbuing weapons with holy attributes.
“‘Olispa’s Cosmos’?”
I took the book and headed to a sofa by a table. I also brought along the book Aro was interested in. Seeing my book’s title, Aro tilted her head.
“Cosmos? That modest flower that blooms?”
“That too, but this one means the universe itself.”
Leaning back against the sofa with my legs crossed, Aro quickly approached and settled near my lower abdomen.
She showed pure curiosity, so I told her what I knew. After hearing me out, her expression suddenly turned subtle.
“Are you, by any chance, from an observatory?”
“Observatory?”
“The ones who study stars. That’s what they call them in the Empire.”
I shook my head. If we were talking about an observatory, it was a dungeon you could access in the latter half of the episode.
It was an organization that worshipped Astral as a god, and also the place where you fought Astral as a boss.
“Since ancient times, stars were something only those who sailed out to sea could learn about. The ones who received permission and studied them separately are the observatories.”
Aro continued her explanation, lightly tapping my leg with her swaying tail. There was no one else in the library besides the two of us anyway.
Even so, I kept an eye on the librarian. He showed no interest in us at all.
“Permission from whom?”
“Who else? The stars, obviously.”
I let out a small laugh at Aro’s words. It would’ve been absurd in modern-day South Korea, but here it was different.
I had actually met someone who could be called the owner of the stars.
“Anyway, that kind of knowledge and terminology can’t be known unless you’re part of an observatory. Maybe simple constellations, but otherwise, forget it.”
With that, Aro opened her book and began reading. I also opened the book I had brought.
In the game, you could learn a skill just by opening it, but I wasn’t sure if that still applied now.
[The Witch of Mercury first observed Mercury.]
I flipped through the pages endlessly. Starting with a brief introduction of Olispa, the author, the book continued with various stories related to stars.
In essence, it was a collection of interviews with those who first observed each star, and how they collectively defined what the universe was.
[They realized that many stars were connected to various natural elements of the world. Among them, Mercury had a close connection to ice.]
As I read through passages about the Sun and Moon, then Mars and Jupiter, and finally Venus and Mercury, I shifted my gaze to the magic I felt from Aro.
Between her small, outstretched hands, her magic was flowing in a strange shape. Even then, the librarian showed no reaction.
[The Witch of Mercury called Mercury “Mercury.”]
“Mercury.”
I absentmindedly muttered the word while reading. It was something I had often heard in modern times, so it slipped out without thinking.
“Huh?”
I heard Aro’s dumbfounded voice. Seeing the small sphere formed between her hands, I carefully lifted her up.
The sphere looked familiar. It was a skill I had seen in the game—one I had tried to obtain.
“Stay still.”
After returning both books to the librarian, we immediately left the library. Aro broke into a cold sweat as she realized the chill emanating from the sphere was unusual.
It wasn’t the pure coldness of ice. It was something deeper, darker, and more viscous. Clearly not ordinary, we hurried to find a place with no people around.
“What did you just do?”
“N-no, I just……”
Only after arriving at a wide, open area were we able to relax slightly.
At my question, Aro looked deeply wronged. More precisely, she looked like she was about to burst from the injustice of it.
“The book said there’s a spell that converts magic into the power of stars, since star power is deeply connected to magic.”
“So?”
“I tried it. It looked easy. And then… it worked?”
I shook my head. No matter how easy it looked, doing something like that inside a library—
The reason a librarian exists isn’t just to keep readers quiet. Their true role is to ensure the books are preserved without damage.
“The book said that if you have the created star power and an activation word, you can form a fragment of a star. It even suggested that maybe stars themselves are actually created through magic. Based on that, it explained that magic beyond grand-scale magic could exist.”
Even in this situation, Aro chattered excitedly as she explained what she had read. She must have really liked the book’s contents.
As I listened, one particular term stuck in my mind.
“Activation word?”
“Hm? Yeah. The activation word. The first name of a star. That wasn’t in this book though. I tried calling every name that showed up, but nothing really happened.”
It seemed she had already experimented with everything. With a doubtful feeling, I stared at the sphere still in Aro’s hands.
“Mercury.”
“Uh—?”
Aro let out a dazed sound as she panicked at the sphere absorbing her magic.
I sighed as I looked at the strangely glowing sphere. It reacted to the word Mercury.
“No way, that’s…?”
“Yes. This is probably the first name of the star.”
Either way, it was the skill I had been looking for. Though the attribute was quite different.
I looked at the sphere with an ambiguous expression. In the game, it hadn’t been implemented like this.
“Do you know what it is? Is it really a fragment of a star?”
Despite Aro’s curiosity-filled question, I remained silent.
This was a skill called [Cosmos Core—Fragment of 000]. A crafting skill that created a fragment of a star, usable only once.
“It should be a fragment of a star.”
A fragment of a star was an enchantment item that granted bonuses related to its attribute. It also restored a significant amount of magic.
It could imbue the used equipment with the corresponding attribute and increase resistance to that attribute. And Aro had just created one of those.
“Whoa—!”
As I tried to touch it, the star fragment suddenly moved and latched onto my gauntlet. In that moment, both of us froze in place.
I looked at Aro.
“I-it wasn’t me! It jumped on its own!”
Flustered, Aro defended herself with everything she had. I nodded roughly.
It was a skill mages would go crazy for, but ironically, the Sanctuary where this skill existed could only be accessed by religion-related classes.
Since those classes used Divine Power instead of magic, they had no need for it. That was why the skill had been abandoned by many.
“The gauntlet……”
The Astral Gauntlet and the star sphere matched perfectly. Aro’s mouth fell open as she saw the gauntlet freeze to the point it turned pure white.
▶You have obtained [Cosmos Core—Fragment of Mercury].
Originally, I had planned to use the power of Venus for metal magic, which the hidden mastermind mainly used. Since it increased resistance to the metal attribute.
I tried to rationalize it somehow.
‘Thinking about the late game.’
This wasn’t bad either. Star fragments were enchantment magic, and giving a metal attribute to a weapon that was already metal wouldn’t mean anything anyway.
‘Besides, it’s rare.’
While high-grade enchantments added bonus damage of a specific attribute, Mercury changed the attribute of the equipment itself.
Compared to all that talk about the power of stars, it seemed unimpressive, but within the scope of the game, it was extremely rare.
Imbuing a weapon with a specific attribute was an ability as rare as a Quadra-class magic user.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
After answering Aro’s concern, I looked at the Mercury attached to my gauntlet. At this point, the gauntlet had become ice-attributed.
“What? Why won’t it come off?”
I tried attaching it to my club as well, but Mercury wouldn’t budge. Even when I tried to pull it off with force, it only lifted slightly.
The moment I loosened my strength, it snapped right back onto the gauntlet. Come to think of it, there was a groove on the gauntlet that perfectly matched Mercury’s size.
“……A set item?”
Just in case, I examined the gauntlet, but aside from the groove now filled with Mercury, there was nothing else.
I recalled Astral, the owner of the gauntlet, but nothing helpful came to mind. I clenched and unclenched my fist.
“Oh.”
When I threw a punch, a burst of cold shot out in the direction of the strike. With no target, the cold formed several shards of frost before dissipating.
“Try putting Divine Power into it. It looks like a divine-type skill.”
Aro voiced her opinion. After a brief moment of thought, I infused Divine Power.
The Divine Power that had become Faith Communion due to my position as an Apostle gathered on the gauntlet.
—Tap.
Suddenly, it felt like someone hit my head. I turned around, wondering which lunatic had done it, but there was nothing there.
When I looked back at Aro, a scripture was in her hands.
“I-it just suddenly fell onto your head.”
“……What are you trying to pull this time.”
Startled, Aro hurriedly held out the Holy Scripture of the Anaye Faith. I had no idea what Anaye was upset about this time.
“Oh.”
“Oh.”
As I instinctively grabbed the scripture with my right hand, it suddenly began resonating with the gauntlet.
With a fierce momentum, the scripture devoured the star fragment resting in the gauntlet. No—literally chewed and swallowed it.
—Crunch.
The book opened and closed as it chewed the star fragment, then it was absorbed into the scripture.
Afterward, the scripture made a strange sound as if satisfied and disappeared.
“……Did that book just burp?”
“I don’t think so. It better not have.”
“Right?”
▶The skill [Trace of Anaye] is being enhanced.
At the long-awaited system message, I quickly opened my status window.
[Davide Duhein]
Gender: Male
Year: 2nd Year
Title: Apostle of Anaye, Anash
Trait: Crack Head
Skills
[Trace of Anaye] [Lv. 10] [Religion] [Apostle]
A trace of the Ancient God, Anaye, the Thunder Deer.
Born from a lake and raised while drinking lightning, Anaye controls water and spits lightning. She paid special attention to her first child.
—Blessing of the Deepest Cold: Water attribute resistance increased. Ice attribute resistance increased. Recovery increased by 60%. ‘Chill of Paillet’ available.
—Thunder Horn: Lightning attribute resistance increased. Consumes 30% of current health to leave a ‘Thunder Horn Mark’. The ‘Thunder Horn Mark’ deals additional damage equal to 10% of maximum health.
—Lightning Spike of Anaye: Summons a spike that deals damage equal to lost health x60.
—Circle of Reincarnation: Summons the Circle of Reincarnation. The circle stores a copy of recovered health.
[Covenant of the Golden Rule]
A contract with the Goddess of Justice. Since the contractor did not state a desired compensation, an equivalent return is granted arbitrarily based on what was offered.
Offering: Everything related to magic
Desired: Undecided → Adaptive Body (Anaye)
▶Adaptive Body (Anaye)
—Iron Body: Solid muscles, tough skin, strong vitality.
—True Vessel: The Trace of Anaye is permanently engraved.
The ‘Blessing of Paillet Lake’ in Trace of Anaye had changed to ‘Blessing of the Deepest Cold.’
An ice attribute resistance had been added, and I could now use a skill called ‘Chill of Paillet.’