Chapter 127

Chapter 127

‘Well, I guess it’s not my concern.’

Upon closer inspection, Merlin noticed that Nell and Perrin’s magic systems were overly complicated and inefficient. Their magic techniques were different from the [Complete] cultivation techniques and schools of thoughts that were available to users. Though Merlin didn’t know it, the magic techniques that Nell and Perrin used were actually considered [Complete] for their time; the ones that Merlin had access to were just revised, perfected versions. The revisions were performed by beings who had reached divine status in their respective fields, so the cultivation techniques and schools of thoughts that users had access to were dramatically different from their originals.

Flap!

With the fluttering sounds of wings flapping, a red-colored eagle came down from the sky. It was Merlin’s pet, Quiet Heaven.

“Hey, where have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while.” Henry said.

“Ugh, my wings. I materialized mid-air somewhere when you logged back in, so I had to fly a considerable distance. This freaking whale moves fast!”

Merlin couldn’t help but smile as Quiet Heaven complained while perched atop his head.

“What? Hahaha! I guess your login location follows spatial coordinates.”

“It can’t be helped. It would have been nice if you [Recalled] me, then I’d materialize next to you, but it didn’t seem like you were going to do that anytime soon.”

“Oh, right. You said I can use the recall function once every hour, right?”

In DIO, a user’s pet could be summoned by the user’s side at any time, regardless of distance. In case a user lost their pet, the DIO system gave users a recall skill that allowed pets to materialize next to their owners at any time.

“Oh, is that your hawk?” asked Nell.

“Hawk?! I’m an eagle!”

Seeing Quiet Heaven get angry, Nell quickly apologized.

“Oh, really? I’m so sorry. I don’t know much about animals.”

“Animal?!”

Quiet Heaven began to bicker with Nell and Perrin. It seemed that Quiet Heaven had piqued Perrin’s interest, as she asked many questions as she conversed with Quiet Heaven.

“I’m starting to feel a lot of different auras around us.”

When he turned his head, Merlin saw Red Blood, the large lion, who he had met the day before, and a weasel running beside him with its short legs. A little further ahead of them, Merlin saw a man with a dragon’s head and a human body with a black leopard beside him. In the sky, different species of birds with black wings could be seen flying around.

“The other representatives are gathering. Don’t make a scene like yesterday. Fortunately, we were able to deal with that mermaid prince yesterday without much fuss, but we should avoid making trouble as possible on our way to receive the prophecy,” Miho commented.

“Huh? But you started the quarrel, didn’t you?”

“There are many variables that could lead to trouble, I wouldn’t have taken things that far if I knew what would happen. It was just a competition of pride; I didn’t mean for a real clash to occur. So… uhm, don’t fight from now on. Y-you’re my colleague, so I’ll protect you.”

Miho’s flushed face looked cute, but Merlin, oblivious, simply nodded and returned to looking around. In no time, representatives from each power gathered on top of Moby Dick’s head.

‘Wow, what a spectacular scene.’

Merlin saw a man wrapped in white armor, as if he were a saint. There was a dwarf running around that looked less than a meter tall, and a fairy flying about. A red lion and a winged creature were chatting, and an elf with a slender body whispered to a fairy that was sitting on its shoulder.

‘It’s interesting to see users in fancy clothes, but this is also interesting in its own way. Is it because they’re all from different races?’

Typically for humans, the more people there were, beauty remained scarce, but ugliness became more plentiful. However, unlike humans, all the human-like NPCs were physically beautiful. It was interesting and refreshing just to look at these NPCs. Merlin felt that one male elf in particular, sitting on a railing, looked infinitely cool.

“Man, how come I can’t choose another race? I want to be an elf.”

As Merlin muttered casually, Miho, who was next to him, asked, “Huh? Elf? Why?”

“They’re so cool and pretty, elven men and women.”

In truth, Merlin liked pretty and cute things. One might say Merlin had a little girl’s taste; he liked dolls and always gushed when seeing pets. Even when Merlin first met Miho, he thought she was so cute that he momentarily couldn’t gather himself.

“Hmm. Do you dislike your background?”

“A little bit. It’s not too annoying, but… to be honest, I think my height, eyes, nose, and mouth are uselessly big. This isn’t a joke… but honestly, I’m a scary guy. It would be nice if I were a bit softer around the edges…”

“It’s okay.”

“What?”

Merlin’s eyes grew round after hearing Miho’s unexpected reply. He didn’t understand what was okay.

“What are you talking about?”

“I-I think you’re really okay.”

“That’s what I’m asking about. What do you mean by that…”

“Ah, we’re here!”

Right then, a loud voice drew everyone’s attention to one place. Merlin also turned his head.

“Whoa! What’s that?”

It was a huge crystal tower shaped like a cylinder. It was hundreds of meters in diameter, and several kilometers high. The tower was so massive that Merlin could not even see its peak.

“Why haven’t we been able to see this until now? Something this massive should be visible from far away, no?”

“That’s because the Tower of Truth isn’t visible to those who haven’t entered the Holy Shrine. Only existences like Moby Dick are able to enter.”

“Wow.”

Merlin looked at the Tower of Truth with an impressed expression on his face. There were many large buildings in the real world, but this tower was taller and more splendid than anything else he’d ever seen.

Rumble!

Moby Dick cried out as if stating that he had returned home. After making one revolution around the Tower of Truth, it landed in a lake located in front of the tower. Curiously enough, the lake’s water didn’t overflow, even though Moby Dick’s giant body was immersed in it fully.

“What’s with this lake? Something’s off about it.”

“It’s the place that Moby Dick usually resides in. It’s called the abyss. It looks like a simple lake, but it's tremendously deep.”

“That’s what it seems like.”

Merlin nodded as he looked at the lake where Moby Dick had half immersed itself. It was not very big. In fact, it seemed barely large enough to contain Moby Dick if it fully submerged itself. If it were an ordinary lake, Moby Dick would have displaced a tremendous amount of water.

Whoosh!

When Moby Dick stopped descending, the representatives disembarked. Of course, Moby Dick was a divine spirit animal, so even though its body was half submerged in water, the distance from the top of its body to the ground was considerable. However, the beings atop Moby Dick weren’t normal either. They made their way off the massive whale in their own unique ways, some jumping, some flying.

“We should head out, too,” Miho said.

Merlin nodded. “Okay. Hey, Quiet Heaven, let’s go.”

“Alright, but what about these girls?” Quiet Heaven asked.

“Shall we go together? I’m planning on using a spell anyway.” said Nell.

With a bright smile, Nell stood beside Merlin and began to mumble under her breath. She was casting a kind of gravitational spell. However, the spell didn’t follow the kind of gravity reduction concept that was commonly used among users. Nell was casting a kind of anti-gravity concept spell instead.

‘Oho, there’s even a spell like that.’

Merlin analyzed and interpreted the mechanism of Nell’s spell. Fortunately, it was very simple, at least for Merlin.

Whoosh.

Miho, Merlin, Nell, and Perrin’s body rose in the air. Slowly, they began to descend.

Merlin suddenly stated, “I think it’ll be better to divide your right magic power pillar in two and rotate them a little to the left.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Magic power?”

Perrin and Quiet Heaven asked their questions at the same time. Merlin’s comment was out of the blue, so it had confused both of them, but Nell’s expression was completely different.

“… Do you know this spell?”

“No, but it looks a little incomplete and unstable. I’m an Enhanced Eyesight user, so I’m able to look into magic power patterns.”

Saying this, Merlin pointed to his right eye. His black eyes turned golden for a moment and then returned to normal.

“…”

What Merlin didn’t know was that this anti-gravity magic spell was unique to Nell’s school. Furthermore, the spell had an esoteric structure, as it was considered a hidden card-type of spell. In addition, gravity manipulation spells were famous for their high difficulty, so it was virtually impossible for one to observe and grasp them immediately.

“What's wrong?” asked Merlin.

Nell laughed. “Nothing! You’re a very interesting person.”

“…?”

Though Merlin couldn’t understand Nell’s response, the four continued downward until they arrived on the ground. Merlin could have used the spirits that he had to float down to the ground, as they were now powerful enough to do such things. However, since he had received Nell’s assistance, he respectfully bowed to her.

“Thank you.”

“No worries. See you a bit later.”

“A bit later?”

Merlin was confused, but Nell just smiled and left with Perrin in tow. Merlin observed every other pairing going off in different directions. He concluded that there must be a designated area where each pairing had to go.

“Hmm? Where are we supposed to go?”

“Everyone goes to their designated entrance. The Tower of Truth has a separate entrance for each of the powers. Let’s see… our entrance is… ah, found it.”

Miho walked closer to the Tower of Truth, towards an area that seemed to be designated for them. Quiet Heaven, who had returned to its position atop Merlin’s head, asked Merlin a question.

“I’m just curious… did you receive a quest?”

“No. I received some minor quests when I was on the island, but I haven’t received anything regarding the new continent.”

Merlin sifted through his memories. When Miho had asked him to accompany her to the new continent, he hadn’t received a quest. Merlin had received a lot of minor requests for simple acts, so he felt that it was strange that he hadn’t received a quest for something as important as accompanying a representative to receive a prophecy at the Holy Shrine.

“Hmm. I feel like something is off. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Huh? Why? Do you think we’ve entered a pre-developed zone?”

“I hope that’s the case…”

If a user didn’t receive a request when accompanying a representative to receive a prophecy at the Holy Shrine, then this entire process was something that the system did not intend for users to participate in. However, the system still followed the rule that everything was open to users. Even though this was the case, Merlin still hadn’t received a quest.

‘Perhaps these monsters aren’t neutral but opposing forces for users, so a quest event may not have been created for Merlin… at least, this is one possibility.’ Quiet Heaven thought.

Quiet Heaven didn’t share its thoughts with Merlin. Since Merlin considered Quiet Heaven to be a virtual entity, sharing such thoughts on the system and its overarching principles might have been confusing or weird for Merlin. At worst, Merlin and Quiet Heaven, who was now connected to this world, could be killed, but then they’d just revive again.

Ting!

While Quiet Heaven was having these thoughts, Miho had placed her hand on one of the Tower of Truth’s many doors. After a moment, the sound of a door opening rang out.

“Once we cross here, we begin the [Trial] for the Blue Forest Island’s representative.”

“Trial? Is it something difficult?”

Miho shook her head.

“Not too difficult. It’ll just take some time… uhm, Quiet Heaven, can you leave us alone for a moment?”

“Eh? Why?”

“This space will only accept a power’s representative and his or her accompanying traveler. Only the two of us can enter.”

If this wasn’t the case, then the trial would be rendered moot. It was a necessary process to make sure that the right beings with the correct qualifications were receiving the prophecy.

“I’d really like to enter as my master’s pet… but since there are other species around this place, I guess it wouldn’t be fair to give me any privileges… I guess I’ll just have a look around the place and wait for you both to come out.”

After nodding its head, Quiet Heaven flew up into the air. Quiet Heaven was a skilled flier, and soon became a small red dot in the sky.

“Let’s go in.” said Miho.

“Should I place some sort of defensive protection spell on us?” Merlin asked because of his experience with dungeons, but Miho shook her head.

“We’re probably not going to fight until we enter the last room. This first room is where the Tower of Truth checks one’s heart, spirit, and body, so only I need to do something after we enter. You should just stand back and watch.”

‘But that’s so boring.’

Though Merlin grumbled, Miho entered the Tower of Truth without hesitation. Just like how the outer parts of the tower were made of crystal, the entire interior was constructed with crystal as well, from the floor to the ceiling.