Ch. 320 - Dusk Soil Moon (8)
I Became A Flashing Genius At The Magic AcademyThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Dense darkness enveloped everything, and within it, a faint green light began to seep through.
Dazzled by the warm light, which symbolized life and birth, Baek Yu-Seol clutched his throbbing head as he came to.
“Ugh…”
As he struggled to lift himself up, a powerful vibration echoed in his ears.
“Argh! So itchy.”
When he touched his ear, he could faintly sense mana trickling out, his heightened senses catching the subtle flow. The mana rose high into the sky, fading into the distance, yet the thread was so delicate that it seemed ready to snap at any moment.
‘What is this?’
The device in his ear was a special wireless earpiece, allowing communication even over long distances. It was unusual for the mana emitted from it to feel this vivid.
‘My senses...’
Clink!
At that moment, he felt a thread of mana connect somewhere, and a voice came through. It was the voice of the elf knight.
- Baek Yu-Seol! Are you awake?
“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m fine, so speak a bit gently, please.”
- Static! You’re safe! That’s a relief!
Only then did Baek Yu-Seol look around, realizing how drastically different the atmosphere here was compared to the outside world.
“Wow…”
Moss-covered rocks were piled up layer by layer. Each rock bore strange inscriptions, indecipherable even with his magical 'Sentient Spec'.
‘Well, it’s not like it’s a translator, so I guess it can't be helped...’
Anything that players hadn’t discovered or couldn’t decode was useless, even with the Sentient Spec.
The rocks were stacked in a way that resembled a temple, and the space itself was so incomprehensibly vast that its end wasn’t visible within his line of sight.
The temple seemed to disregard the conventions of three-dimensional space entirely. What he thought was a ceiling turned out to be a wall, with inverted stairs branching off and connecting to yet another ceiling.
Sliding his hand over a rock, a brilliant light radiated from the mysterious green inscriptions.
Mana flowed gently through the entire space, spreading its green glow until the entire temple began to shine brightly.
The temple glowed so beautifully that he could see far without the Sentient Spec.
- Static! Baek Yu-Seol! Static! Have you arrived safely… Static… inside Dusk Soil Moon’s body?
That’s right.
[You have entered the dungeon: Inside the Body of Dusk Soil Moon.]
The temple’s true nature was none other than Dusk Soil Moon’s body—its deepest, innermost part.
“I’m here, so don’t worry and go back.”
- We are currently, Static! Heading back… Static!
The transmission ended abruptly after those words. It was regrettable, but he was already satisfied with the fact that they could report their statuses despite being in such a distant location.
‘Alterisha’s technology keeps getting better and better…’
Removing the earpiece and slipping it into his pocket, he stood up, put on his Sentient Spec, and spoke.
"Create a 3D map of the areas within my line of sight and project it as a hologram."
- Please move your view slowly to enable scanning.
Following the instructions, Baek Yu-Seol slowly scanned his surroundings. As he did, a prickling sensation, like being watched by something menacing, came from all directions.
Whirrr...!
From the nearest spot, a deer-like creature with a fluorescent green glow cautiously peeked its head out. However, its sheer size easily surpassed ten meters, forcing him to crane his neck to see it fully.
- Analysis complete: Identified as a Divine Beast.
In the meantime, his Sentient Spec had dutifully completed analyzing the hostile creature, though there was little need for it. Baek Yu-Seol was well aware that this place was teeming with divine beasts.
This was a space far more dangerous than the infamous [Fourth Layer] of the World Tree's roots, a layer said to be one of the most perilous. Here, powerful divine beasts thrived and their strength was incomparable to anything else.
Divine beasts were not inherently friendly to humans. They were extremely mischievous, ill-tempered, and curious, often posing non-malicious threats to humans.
There were countless tales about them even within the Aether World. While players rarely suffered such incidents, the stories of NPCs told of strange encounters.
It was said that they would often play pranks like splitting a human in half, unaware that it could kill them, or prodding a head off a body out of curiosity.
These creatures were the purest yet most unnervingly eerie species in all of Aether.
Even high-level players were hesitant to venture into this place. Clearing the area typically required a raid party of at least 30 members. However, such concerns did not apply to Baek Yu-Seol.
"Leafanel, are you awake?"
- Mmm...
With a faint pop, a small and adorable sound was followed by the appearance of Leafanel, who was now barely the size of a palm. She landed gently on his shoulder.
Having yet to recover her original powers, Leafanel could no longer maintain the form of an adult woman. However, thanks to Baek Yu-Seol freeing her from the bonds that once confined her to the garden, she could occasionally venture outside with his help.
Even though her powers were so weak that she couldn’t use any of it…
Whirrrr...!
Rumble. Rumble...
The divine beasts hesitated and began to retreat. The sheer presence of the divine spirit was enough to command a palpable aura of intimidation.
[Flash]
Baek Yu-Seol, who leaped to a nearby pillar, was startled to discover a massive hippo-shaped divine beast hiding just nearby.
It was estimated to be at least a 3 Star, or possibly even a 2 Star, divine beast, but it had concealed its presence so well that it completely evaded his senses.
"That scared me."
The hippo began to bare its teeth but, upon seeing Leafanel, it lowered its head deeply and retreated.
“Your presence sure works wonders.”
– Mmm…
"Feeling sleepy?"
– So sleepy…
"Hang in there just a bit longer."
Leafanel already appeared half-asleep but was barely keeping conscious.
If she were to fall completely asleep, she would return to the garden, so Baek Yu-Seol could only hope she could endure.
Baek Yu-Seol repeatedly used his Flash, darting between the spaces of the temple structures.
The architecture was so three-dimensional and complex that it was difficult to determine direction, but at the very least, he didn’t have to worry about getting lost since he could retrace his steps.
The Sentient Spec he wore clearly distinguished north, south, east, west, and up and down. They also displayed a 3D map showing the paths he had traveled so far.
‘It’d be great if the specs had a mana detection feature…’
That would have made reaching his destination much easier, but for now, he had to rely on his intuition.
Due to the cooldown of his Flash and its limited uses, so he utilized various equipment, including wires, to quickly move around. Eventually, he managed to find the object he had been aiming for.
"Found it."
A circular altar floated in midair.
A thick tree branch had risen to form a pillar, and atop it, a vibrant blue crystal was glowing and emitting light.
‘It looks a bit different from what I saw in the game…’
During the time he played ‘Aether World Online’, the crystal he had seen in this place was colored in a dull, earthy hue and emitted no light.
‘What’s the difference?’
Carefully approaching it, he reached out his hand. With a flash of light, the space reversed in an instant.
The temple, which was once bathed in green, turned purple in the blink of an eye. The world flipped upside down, and he nearly fell toward the ceiling.
Clutching desperately onto the branch rising from the altar, Baek Yu-Seol broke out in a cold sweat.
"I completely forgot about this."
In the game, this gimmick caused chaos when the map flipped, scattering the raid team. He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten about that feature.
Struggling to steady himself, he raised his head. The divine beasts were now transformed into a purple hue and floated stiffly in zero gravity, drifting weightlessly.
"Alright. Now..."
As he reached out to touch the crystal again to find the next path, his instincts flared with a sudden warning.
He quickly stepped back and watched as the neatly stacked massive rocks in the temple began to tremble and move.
Thud! Rumble!
First, one. Then two. Then four.
Eventually, dozens of rocks, as if they had a will of their own, began dragging themselves across the ground or flying through the air. Gradually, they stacked up to form a staircase right in front of Baek Yu-Seol.
"What... What’s going on...?"
Originally, the next step was to find seven keys hidden within the temple, place them back into their original slots, then return to the crystal to reverse the space back to green and pass through the newly opened door to reach the next area.
‘But a staircase...?’
The towering staircase shimmered faintly, inviting Baek Yu-Seol to ascend.
Gulping hard, he cautiously began climbing the steps. The situation inside the dungeon was already so drastically different from what he knew of the strategy guide that he had no choice but to adapt to these new developments.
The staircase extended incredibly high, and even with Baek Yu-Seol’s superhuman thigh muscles, it was a grueling climb. At the top, a large domed door awaited him.
Beyond the door, everything was shrouded in green haze, making it impossible to see what lay ahead. However, Baek Yu-Seol instinctively knew that this was the destination.
‘Already?’
Originally, he would have had to go through dozens more intricate gimmicks. And along the way, battling divine beasts was inevitable.
Since Leafanel wouldn’t stay awake indefinitely, he had packed equipment that would allow him to hide as much as possible when she fell asleep.
Yet somehow, all of those steps had been skipped.
Is this a good thing?
No, it’s not.
Rather than skipping ahead, Baek Yu-Seol thought it would have been better to navigate through all the gimmicks despite the danger and reach the destination.
Because… In the game, when he finally arrived at the destination, Dusk Soil Moon had been completely unaware of his presence.
But now, not only was Dusk Soil Moon aware of him, he was even guiding him along the way?
‘This is the worst-case scenario.’
The only plausible explanation is that Dusk Soil Moon had regained some degree of consciousness.
Although Baek Yu-Seol had never experienced this before, the possibility had been mentioned in the Sentient Spec guide. The problem was that every player who encountered this situation had failed to fully conquer Dusk Soil Moon.
‘No. I'm different from them.’
Unlike those players, Baek Yu-Seol had come well-prepared, in many ways at that.
In front of him, the green haze swirled as if beckoning him, ‘What are you waiting for? Come in.’
Taking a deep breath, Baek Yu-Seol steeled himself and stepped forward cautiously, one step at a time.
Flash!
For a moment, it felt as though the light of the world had vanished. Then, the atmosphere changed in an instant.
"You’ve arrived?"
Baek Yu-Seol instinctively stepped back, only to realize that the door he had just passed through had turned into a wall.
"What’s got you so startled?"
The space was small, about 30 pyeong (roughly 99 square meters). Everyday objects were scattered around.
There was a table, chairs, a bookshelf, a carpet, a fireplace, and even a hunting trophy of a deer head mounted on the wall. The books piled on the desk and the pens strewn about made it feel like someone's personal office.
And then, there was a man, who sat casually on the edge of the desk, sipping coffee.
He had brown hair, a monocle, and a neatly trimmed brown beard. His outfit was immaculate: a white dress shirt, a brown vest, dress pants, and polished brown shoes. He appeared like a sophisticated professor at first glance.
"… Are you Dusk Soil Moon?"
"Indeed. Your eyes are kind. A noble soul, is it? A human with a noble soul… How rare. Sit down, please?"
When Baek Yu-Seol nodded, Dusk Soil Moon gestured toward a chair with his chin.
‘I need to stay calm.’
Baek Yu-Seol knew exactly who Dusk Soil Moon was.
As befitting a female-oriented simulation game, Dusk Soil Moon was categorized as a ‘conquest target.’ Countless female players had tried to win him over, but they all failed miserably.
‘Doesn't matter. I'm not here to seduce that lunatic.’
The important thing wasn’t seduction but persuasion.
“Coffee? Tea?”
"Don't you have canned beer?"
"Alcohol in broad daylight?"
"If not, coffee will do."
"Fine. I’m not much of a drinker anyway."
Sitting across from Baek Yu-Seol, Dusk Soil Moon clasped his hands and spoke.
"Why don’t you tell me the reason you’ve come here?"
"Let’s hear your thoughts first."
"It must be to stop my attack, no? Human hopes tend to be predictable. They are unable to remain indifferent to the deaths of their loved ones: family, friends, and those close to them."
"... What?"
"Why? Am I wrong?"
"No. You’re not wrong."
But Baek Yu-Seol knew he was wrong.
That’s because—
‘Dusk Soil Moon… will attack?’
The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind.
‘Why?’
In the game, his activity often awakened the Wraith of the Dead Giant, but that was a common sub-episode.
However, an ‘attack’ was something entirely different. For Dusk Soil Moon to rise and move directly was exceedingly rare.
‘Could it be… That the attack is happening now?’
Suddenly, the urgency in the elf knight’s final voice made sense. There was no other reason for them to flee in such terror.
Baek Yu-Seol’s back was drenched in cold sweat, but he forced himself to remain composed.
"You seem flustered."
"...?"
"Isn’t that so? You may be hiding your inner thoughts with the blessing of Pink Spring Moon, but I can see it all. Hmm… I wonder, which of my words flustered you?"
Dusk Soil Moon stroked his beard and muttered.
"You must already know our fate, so it’s not like you wouldn’t have known about the attack. Could it be you’re unaware of the direction of my attack? No, that’s unlikely. Or perhaps..."
"No. That’s not what surprised me."
Regaining his composure, Baek Yu-Seol calmed his mind and steadily opened his eyes. One of the best ways to gain someone’s favor was to establish a sense of rapport with them.
"Your words were simply… Strange. Death of family and friends? Though my life is insignificant and brief compared to yours, isn’t death a common occurrence? Death is something that always coexists with us, isn’t it?"
"True. That’s a fair point."
"Death is not something significant to me. Yet you assumed otherwise. How could I not be surprised by that?"
"Hmm… Is that so?"
Dusk Soil Moon stroked his chin and stared at Baek Yu-Seol intently before elegantly sipping his coffee.
"If you’d come here begging for your life, I was planning to torment you before devouring you. But… You’re different."
"Is that so? I always thought of myself as an ordinary human."
"Well, it doesn’t matter. Either way, my goal remains unchanged."
"And that purpose is…?"
Placing his coffee cup down with a soft clink, Dusk Soil Moon spoke with a faint chill in his voice.
"To uproot that repulsive World Tree entirely."
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