Chapter 479 – Mythology Academy
Thorgrim mumbles something. He crosses the portal quite naturally and walks to the lighthouse.
“Let’s go together!!”
Seong-il quickly follows him, quietly opens the inventory in his bosom, and takes out a branch of the world tree prepared in advance.
‘Perhaps Purple said it well…’
Seong-il, who asked the eggplant to make the Kukuru tribe purple so that the eggplant of the world tree would not reveal its secret. He carefully caresses the world tree and breathes his will into it again.
Sreureung…!!
Then the will of the branches felt like a breeze. It was as if he was telling Seong-il not to worry.
“Thank you.”
Silently reciting thanks to Gaji, Seongil follows Thorgrim and looks around.
“…You managed to establish a base in a place like this?”
“Yes. But, I think I know why they made it.”
“Why did you make it?”
“As you can see, this place is more like a small reef than an island. It’s a condition that people can’t live in. It’s optimized to be a ‘secret’ base.”
“Ohh…”
“As you know, hiding a secret in a place where no one will suspect is a hundred times more effective than hiding it blindly.”
“But…”
The situation in the hideout reminds me of the adage of hiding a tree in the forest. Seong-il sticks his tongue out at the meticulousness of the elves who built the base.
“Because it’s a reef, there’s no water or food, and this place is always famous for bad weather, so outsiders can’t access it…”
“…Even in such a situation, it is essential to have a lighthouse keeper to protect the island, so the officials will not be suspected of visiting this place often. At the same time, naturally protecting the secret junction is a bonus.”
“It’s like that. Besides, the elves are very friendly with the spirits of the earth and water, so bringing food and drinking water shouldn’t be a chore.”
While chatting with Thorgrim, the two arrived at the front of the lighthouse before they knew it. Then the lighthouse door opens and a middle-aged man who seems to be a half-elf greets them.
“Are you Professor Thorgrim, an alchemist at Mythology Academy?”
“Yes. That’s right. Are you Asreel?”
“Yes. That’s right. Follow me.”
The appearance of a lighthouse keeper that seems to have elven and human lineages. Perhaps, as a half-elf, the reason why he was placed here was a kind of device to prevent outsiders from doubting his identity.
‘It’s really badly hidden.’
It’s not the world capital, but it’s just a town portal that accesses the world tree.
Passing through the cellar below the lighthouse, through a secret door hidden there, they steadily walk along a cave that is presumably the island’s basement.
‘Sea water flows… Is it a natural cave…?’
Back then when I was careful not to get my shoes wet with the sea water. A fairly large hollow appears in front of Seongil’s eyes.
“Wow… This place really feels like a garden.”
“Wrong?”
A large hole in the ceiling and sunlight pouring down from it. And the beautiful oak tree growing under the light, and the grass and flowers that grew around it.
Seongil and Thorgrim looked at the garden with interest. Asreel, the lighthouse keeper, brings a twig full of life and hands it to the two.
“Please hold this and swear.”
“…Which?”
“Of course, it’s an oath never to reveal anything about this place. Just pick up a tree, let your magic flow, and recite your oath.”
Now, when they ask for magical coercion, Seong-il puts on a slightly dumbfounded expression. And that seems to have been the case with Thorgrim as well, grumbling with a slightly sullen expression.
“Isn’t that too much? Well, the world tree is withering day by day, etc., And bad things continue, so security is tight… But that’s something only outsiders do? It’s not even someone I don’t know… This is what I brought. If you don’t trust the child, that means you don’t trust me, right?”
“Sorry, but the foreign media’s henchmen recently approached the World Tree and tried to put a powerful curse on it. Not even once.”
“What?! There were crazy people like that!? What kind of curse did they put on them?”
“I tried to infuse it with the power of an evil demon to reverse the will of the life-loving World Tree, and then turn it into a cursed tree. Perhaps it was the Apostles of Nygr who tried.”
“These rip-and-kill motherfuckers…”
‘There was an event like that.’
Naigre, the god of plague and corruption, who was extremely angry with the World Tree for blocking his curse in the past, and was also known to be fascinated.
In the game, he was notorious for trying to curse the World Tree, now powerless and in a long slumber, to make it his minion.
‘In the bad ending where the main character is corrupted, the world tree actually corrupts, giving birth to a race of cursed evil insects and contributing to the destruction of the world, right? Spreading the plague was a bonus.’
Recalling that fact, Seong-il understands the elves’ paranoid reaction. However, Seong-il, who was curious about the situation, asks him a question, as the game only explained the situation lightly with text and did not say a word about the process.
“Didn’t the World Tree be hidden in a way that separates it from the dimension through great magic? In addition, the Elves are firmly defending it without a day off. But how can the foreign media…?”
“Surprisingly, there was a traitor.”
“What!?”
Thorgrim roared with a look of astonishment at Asreel’s answer.
“…We didn’t want to believe it either. It’s true. We don’t want to tell who it is or how. Anyway, please understand that we have no choice but to raise security to a paranoid level.”
“If so…”
Thorgrim nodded as if he understood Asreel, who gave a convincing reason. He obediently holds on to the branch as Asreel said and swears. Seeing this, Seong-il also quietly recited the oath, and perhaps feeling relieved by the sight, the lighthouse keeper approaches the large and beautiful oak tree and places a mysterious leaf on it.
“Oh…”
Surprisingly, a strong vibration occurs at the root of the tree, and the floor cracks open, revealing a secret passage with thick roots below.
“Oh, that’s strange.”
As if that scene was new to Professor Thorgrim, he looked around and followed Asreel. And visible portals.
‘At las…!!’
A view of the green city seen through the portal. Seong-il feels that the end of the quest he has cleared after struggling for several months is in sight.
‘… I cleared it while struggling like this, but if the reward is rubbish because it’s a sub quest, I won’t do it again!!!’
Entering the portal, an elf man with a cold impression greets the holy day in front of him.
“Oh! Arandelle! It’s you.”
“It’s been a while. The elixir you sent me the other day was very helpful.”
‘I guess you’ve been trading plant nutrients often?’
The relationship between the two characters, which can be guessed at a glance. Seong-il looks around while they chat for a while.
‘…I thought it was a mountain, but it was a tree?’
Seong-il thought that the brown lump in front of him was also a mountain because there were huge mountain ranges around him like a basin. However, when he carefully examines it, he realizes that the huge mountain range is the ‘World Tree’ he has been looking for.
‘What kind of tree…Isn’t it climbing through the clouds?’
An almost endless level of trees. The width was correspondingly huge.
“Isn’t it nice?”
“…Yes. It’s a size beyond my imagination.”
Regardless of whether the two of them were chatting or not, the elf who came out to meet them settled down in front of them and walked nonstop in the direction of the World Tree.
‘Oh… That’s an elf’s…’
Interestingly, the elves who live in a large tree that looks like an oak tree. I don’t know how it was done, but there seemed to be a big hole in the center of the oak tree and a house built into it.
“Be polite from here on out.”
Due to their racial characteristics, they were young for a long time, so most of the elves looked young. In the meantime, after the guide’s words were finished, an elderly elf male appeared in front of Seongil’s eyes.
“Is this young human the one who said he woke up one of the branches this time?”
“Yes. That’s right, Chief Elder.”
‘How could I look older?’
I wondered why the elves looked so old, but it seems like they are their elders.
“Um…”
The chief of the elves who sweeps the holy day with an interesting look. He stared at it for a long time and opened his mouth with a really strange expression.
“…The mana emanating from the body is very unique, isn’t it?”
“Is that so?”
“That’s right. It’s just like us. It’s full of nature’s energy.”
‘The nature of the Heaven, Earth, Yin and Yang Intercourse Technique is…’
It is a secret technique based on the intercourse between men and women, and since it is based on the natural order, it is very pure and pure. It seemed that the general, whose spirit’s blood flowed, strongly felt that characteristic.
“No… But our mana has some energy of the earth, but you don’t have that at all? Is this possible…?”
Since the mana is pure and completely invisible, the elder shows a puzzled look while watching Seong-il. However, for a while, he manages to keep himself together like a seasoned person and connects with Seong-il.
“I’m curious, but… There’s something else that’s important, so what’s the point of asking… Anyway, can you show me that?”
“Ah, yes. Here…”
Seong-il did not like to have other people interested in his magic, so he took out the branch of the world tree that he had prepared in advance and handed it to him.
“…!!!!”
And the appearance of the elder accepting the branch of the world tree and making an expression of astonishment.
“Really…Really alive…!!!”
The vivid branches of the World Tree and the clear energy emanating from them. The elder feels the energy that the World Tree had always exuded before his death for the first time in a long time, and he is moved to tears.
“Now… We can plant this child and grow a new world tree. It will take a lot of time, but we can do it…”
“No. That’s not okay.”
“…?”
When the elder says that he will plant a branch of the world tree to make a new tree, Seong-il is frightened and cuts off his words like a knife.
“What do you mean? Are you going to do business with the branches of the World Tree?”
Perhaps feeling Seong-il’s behavior as rude, Arandel, the guide who took her to the elder, glared at Seong-il with a very displeased expression and said as if stinging. Then, like an old man, the elder quickly stops him and opens his mouth.
“…If it’s a price, don’t worry too much. We’re also a race that has a long history of interacting with other races, including humans. We’ll never be disappointed, we’ll reward you.”
Seong-il seems to have misunderstood them, so rather than explain, he wonders because he doesn’t understand the situation.
‘What? Can’t you talk to the branches of the world tree?’
Even though Kukuru, the anti-spirit, communicated with the eggplant without any problems, Seong-il replied with a puzzled look when the elves, the anti-spirit creatures, seemed unable to talk to the branches of the World Tree for some reason.
“No. It’s not like that.”
“…?”
When the frustrated Seong-il finally finishes his thoughts and speaks, the curious eyes of the elves are all focused on Seong-il.
“…Can’t you hear the eggplant’s voice?”
“Voice!?”
“Yes. I told you to take me to the mother tree…”
“…!!!”
The elves looked shocked at Seongil’s words. In particular, the elder asks him in a trembling voice.
“You… Did you say you could hear the voice?! Surely, after the World Tree swallowed all the curses for the sake of the world, all beings in our world lost their connection to the spirits…!! How!? “
‘Ah… Fuck… I’m exhausted.’
Elf, of course. Seong-il thought that a person with the level of a general would be able to communicate with the spirit. However, at present, the elf realizes that he is unable to communicate with the eggplant, and realizes that he has been tortured internally.
‘Fuck… What excuse are you making…’
Seong-il thought about it with his eyes closed for a moment. Instinctively, he spits out lies based on his experience of talking to a divine tree in a southern country in the past.
“I… Don’t exactly understand words, but the eggplant talked to me in my dream.”
On a holy day, he calmly recites an arrangement of his experiences with divine trees in the past world of alchemy, to be exact, in the southern country. After hearing all of that, the elder elf nodded as if he understood.
“Ah, it’s a revelation. I know it. In the past, when the World Tree was healthy, it often gave revelations like that.”
‘Fuck… I’m glad I got eaten.’
Although the world is different, it seems that the behavior patterns of the world tree and divine tree, which are magical trees, are similar. Fortunately, they don’t seem to have any doubts, so Seong-il explains to the elder what the branch of the World Tree requested in earnest.
