𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟕
Aizen gave me Enhancement Stones: 7 for weapons, 12 for armor, and 15 for accessories.
Usually, if you had this many Enhancement Stones piled up, you’d enhance your own equipment, but it seems like Aizen saved them up meticulously.
Or maybe he bought up every Enhancement Stone that appeared on the Cash Transaction Window.
Even now, there are no Rare Enhancement Stones on the Cash Transaction Window, making them hard to come by, so the Enhancement Stones Aizen sent me became an opportunity to boost my power even further.
Also, after using the Enhancement Stones to upgrade my weapon, shield, armor, and finally, three Rare accessories to +15, I was progressing through the Main Scenario as Aizen requested.
‘What I’ve found so far is……’
I was determined to find them, so I managed to find a few more.
One was an empty, barren ruin.
The remaining three were unidentified items.
Since they were found in this Main Scenario area, I thought they might be useful somewhere, but unfortunately, I had no clue at the moment.
‘Tsk, this isn’t worth the trouble.’
Furthermore, I wasn’t the only one struggling.
“It’s frustrating.”
“Shouldn’t we look for more?”
Yua and Sina were tilting their heads, looking at the items I found.
The item Yua was looking at was a stone tablet with strange writing, and the one Sina was examining was a crystal ball the size of a fist.
Since there were three items in total, naturally, the remaining one was in my hand, and it was a clay doll whose purpose I couldn’t even guess.
[Curse Warding Clay Doll] (Magic)
Description: A doll made to ward off curses. Made by performing rituals for several days with clean, fine clay, this clay doll is said to be able to block specific curses.
━Disappears after blocking a specific curse.
━Single-use consumable.
‘But I’ve never seen a curse here.’
However, among the items found, the description of the clay doll in my hand was relatively easy to understand.
The stone tablet Yua was holding was said to be inscribed with unknown characters, and Sina’s crystal was described as having lost all its magic power and becoming dysfunctional.
If these items hadn’t been found in this area, I would have probably discarded them as trash.
‘The ruins are also ambiguous.’
Anyway, I tried to solve the Main Scenario somehow with what I had found so far, but I couldn’t find a single proper clue.
Should I just run to the walls and wipe them all out?
Maybe that would be the easiest way.
“Let’s try to decipher the stone tablet first.”
“Are you going to ask an NPC?”
“Yes, maybe an NPC can read the writing.”
“Since it’s a script we’ve never seen before, NPCs are our only option.”
And if we’ve found this much, it’s normal to expect some progress.
But since we were stuck instead of progressing, we decided to decipher the stone tablet first and headed straight to the Elf Forest, where we easily met Ladels.
“Are you here to collect attributes again?”
“Are the attributes we’ve given you so far insufficient?”
“They’re far from enough.”
“We’ll collect more next time. But we have something we’re curious about.”
After answering smoothly, I held out the stone tablet with the unknown writing.
“Could you possibly decipher the writing on this stone tablet?”
“This is…… Ancient Language.”
“Ancient Language?”
“Yes, the Ancient Language that a small number of humans researched hundreds of years ago. I also had a connection and was able to learn a little of this language.”
Ladels gazed at the stone tablet with a nostalgic look in his eyes.
I asked him to decipher the stone tablet, but he was lost in his memories.
However, judging by what he said, it seemed like he could decipher it, so I waited silently without saying anything.
“Since you’ve contributed to the World Tree’s recovery, I’ll decipher it for you right away.”
“Thank you.”
Maybe deciphering this stone tablet will give us some clues.
Thinking that, I and everyone else stared intently at Ladels, and he slowly began to read the stone tablet.
“Abundant…… Earth…… Device…… Hmm, Earth, Magic Power…… Purification……”
“……”
“……”
What is this elf doing?
I asked him to decipher it, and he was just muttering words he knew.
If he knew more words, there would be a way to combine them and decipher the meaning, but listening to the words Ladels was saying, I felt like that would be difficult.
“Hmm, reading this, it seems to be about why this land was once abundant.”
“……Is that really the deciphered meaning?”
“Didn’t you come to me for the decipherment?”
“Well, yes, but……”
The thought that he might be making things up briefly crossed my mind, but it was better not to unnecessarily decrease my Favorability with Ladels.
“Then what’s the reason for its abundance?”
Unlike me, who was inwardly disappointed in Ladels, Sina seemed to want more information and asked about the stone tablet.
“It seems to be related to Magic Power. Hmm, crystal? It seems like a crystal is also needed.”
‘Crystal?’
At the mention of the crystal, Sina and I looked at each other.
Among the items I found, there was also a crystal, and remembering that, I took it out of my Item Storage and showed it to Ladels.
“Is this the crystal you’re talking about?”
“I don’t know just by looking…… but this crystal is unique. It can store a large amount of Magic Power.”
‘Come to think of it, the description of that crystal said it lost all its Magic Power and became dysfunctional, right?’
Conversely, it meant that all we needed to do was replenish the Magic Power.
Well, I knew that as soon as I read the description of the crystal, but the problem was how to replenish the Magic Power.
“How can we store Magic Power in it?”
At my question, Ladels looked at me with cold eyes.
“Wouldn’t it work if you just infused it with Magic Power normally?”
‘He said it so simply that I’m speechless.’
No, wait, isn’t this a setting error?
How can a player handle Magic Power?
We have Magic Power, but it’s just a type of MP.
It’s no different from grabbing a random person playing an online game filled with swords and magic and asking them, “Can you handle Magic Power?”
“Ah, actually, we’re not very good at handling Magic Power. Could you help us?”
Suddenly, Sina stepped forward and spoke tactfully.
It might be better to say that we’re not good at handling Magic Power and ask for help, rather than arguing about how players can’t handle it.
And perhaps the effect of our previous help still lingered, as Ladels nodded.
“It’s not a difficult task, so I’ll help you.”
The problem was how he would help us.
“First, try to generate Magic Power.”
“……”
* * *
Well, as expected, since we couldn’t generate Magic Power, we requested a different method, and as a result, our Favorability with Ladels decreased by 2, but we were able to find a way to fill the crystal with Magic Power.
The method was simple.
Ladels drew a magic circle on the floor and placed the crystal in the center. The structure was such that if we stepped inside the magic circle, our Magic Power would be automatically absorbed into the crystal.
‘But my Magic Power is draining too quickly.’
As soon as the magic circle was created, I stepped inside and saw my Magic Power being sucked away in an instant, so I quickly stepped back out. Yua and Sina followed suit.
The magic circle was so small that only one person could fit inside, but that didn’t matter because the speed at which our Magic Power disappeared was alarming.
“Let’s check it now.”
“Yes.”
To check the crystal filled with everyone’s Magic Power, I took it out of the magic circle and examined how it had changed.
[Hardened Crystal] (Magic)
Description: A crystal made of an unknown material, harder than most steel. It seems to have been originally used to store Magic Power.
━Stored Magic Power: 35,123.
“Oh, the description has changed.”
Originally, the description of this crystal stated that it had lost all its Magic Power and become dysfunctional, but now that we had infused it with Magic Power, that part had disappeared.
Anyway, Yua and Sina also checked the crystal at my words but tilted their heads in puzzlement.
“But where do we use this crystal?”
“Maybe it’s a tool to purify the land?”
‘What would we purify it for?’
Looking at this area, it did need purification.
There wasn’t a single blade of grass.
If we could use this crystal to solve that, it would be a good thing either way, but the problem was that it felt like we were getting further away from the Main Scenario.
‘And the fact that Lee Juho is being so quiet is bothering me.’
It had already been two days, and there were no rumors about him challenging the Main Scenario’s final boss.
Not only were there no rumors, but he hadn’t even been seen.
Even though Aizen had called back all the guild members who were on exploration duty for revenge and was searching for him.
“Rudin-nim, what are you thinking about?”
“Huh? Ah, I was thinking that the enemy side is being too quiet.”
“Come to think of it, you said they found the secret passage, right?”
“Since he said it himself, it’s certain that they found it…… but strangely, there’s no news at all.”
Wouldn’t they at least turn on a broadcast when they encounter the final boss?
The final boss of the Main Scenario.
With that title alone, if they did some promotion, they could probably earn much more than Aizen’s broadcast.
Or maybe Lee Juho had so much money that he didn’t need it.
“Why are you thinking so hard? They’re probably just stuck and can’t progress.”
“Progress?”
“Do you think the Main Scenario ends just because they found one secret passage? The quest I did before took several days of running around.”
‘……Well, that’s true.’
When I helped Sina with her quest before, it did take several days.
Perhaps Lee Juho didn’t mention it, but it was likely that there was something in the secret passage, so I nodded, and Sina added a few more words, as if to reassure me.
“Even so, our Main Scenario progress will be the fastest, so don’t worry too much.”
“I wasn’t particularly worried.”
I understood what Sina meant.
Currently, all countries except the Pronia Kingdom had found the passage, and among them, the only guild that hadn’t crossed over to the Main Scenario area was the Anis Kingdom.
The remaining countries had all defeated the Apostles and moved on to the Main Scenario area, but the problem was that none of them had cooperated normally, so most of them were engaged in fierce battles in that area.
The Ronda and Iot Kingdoms, which had already gone to war before even reaching the Main Scenario area, were a given, and the remaining Karzen Kingdom was divided into two factions, clashing fiercely.
‘Come to think of it, the Emperor Guild’s situation is similar to the Karzen Kingdom’s.’
Perhaps the other side, like us, had also dispatched a small number of people to progress through the Main Scenario.
However, since the difficulty would be similar to ours, they wouldn’t be able to progress easily.
And I also vaguely remembered hearing that the sudden discovery of the passage was because someone had offered to find it in exchange for money.
If they had the ability to find the passage, wouldn’t their Exploration Skill be at least B-rank?
“Let’s look for more clues for now. We’ll find a decisive clue eventually.”
“Yes.”
Agreeing with that opinion, I nodded and approached Ladels, who was still looking at the stone tablet.
What was that elf staring at when he couldn’t even decipher it?
“Ladels-ssi, I think you should return the stone tablet.”
“Hmm, alright. But while I was looking at the stone tablet, there was a word that caught my attention.”
“A word that caught your attention?”
“It says ‘temple’ here. Perhaps if you place the crystal in the temple, something will be activated.”
‘Temple?’
The word ‘temple’ reminded me of the empty ruins I had found.
Could that be the temple?
There was a possibility that it wasn’t, but since we didn’t have a clear goal at the moment, it wouldn’t hurt to visit the ruins.
“What did you say?”
“He said something will be activated if we place the crystal in the temple.”
“If it’s a temple, you mean those ruins?”
“We’re not sure yet, but we’re going to check it out.”
“That sounds good.”
Sina also agreed that it was better to confirm it than to wander aimlessly, so we headed towards the ruins.
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