231 – Change
While I was trembling for a moment at the realization of the evil plan, Minerva, who was smiling single, looked at me, erasing the full-blown smile from her face, and her eyes lit up.
“By the way, kid. Surely it hasn’t been long since you let the child use the ability check orb?”
“Yes. Not too long ago. Why?”
“Your child’s body has changed a lot in that short period of time. A lot has changed. What happened?”
It was an eye full of curiosity that I had seen before. Silver-white pupils scanned me up and down. Parnari also followed Minerva and nodded her head a few times.
“Right. You have become very strong What happened?”
Both seemed to instinctively sense that my stats had gone up dramatically.
You can’t notice that your power has gotten stronger, and you can’t even detect that your divine power has gone up, so you probably noticed that the amount of magic power has changed.
Guessing from the reactions of Minerva and Parnari, for some reason, the increase wasn’t applied until I finalized the stats.
‘I almost grabbed you by the neck.’
Then what would I do if I saw the ability check orb after a while?
Thinking of the possibility that she had fallen to the ground without even checking her stats equivalent to 150 levels, chills ran down her spine. If I did, I would have a fever and lay down for about a month.
“It must be in line with the reason why the popes stood in front of the central hall to take me to the Holy Land.”
At my answer, Minerva put on a very simple expression of understanding.
“I understand. If the sun and moon directly descended and blessed it, then it should be.”
And then Minerva came closer to me, overlapping her face sideways. Her cherry-coloured lips touched his ears. Her husky whisper was heard.
“Your child always exceeds my expectations. If you think about it, it’s been that way ever since we first met. The months I spent with my child were much more enjoyable than the last two hundred years.”
Her lips came closer, and a warm breath was blown into her earlobes.
“So, just like the child did all along… ….”
Minerva bit my ear lobe with her lips. Her body trembled at the strange sensation. Her lips parted after several tsks, her tongue licking her ear lobe and sucking what was in her mouth.
“Please make me more happy in the future. I will be waiting forever.”
“… ….”
An enticing smile appeared, and Minerva moved back, licking her lips. Her saliva began to dry out and she felt a slight chill.
Parnari didn’t know why we looked like this, so he just tilted his head.
“Come on, kid. The light conversation is over, so now…….”
“I know. You should go find the ancient scroll.”
At my words, Minerva couldn’t hide her ecstatic expression.
Up until now, she had been calmly waiting, but as the time to obtain the second scroll was right in front of her nose, she seemed to be having a hard time controlling her emotions.
“Before that, would it be all right if I ask you a favor?”
“Please?”
“Yes. I want to take one more person besides us.”
“If the child wants it, he can do it as much as he wants. Everything is up to the child to decide, so I don’t care. Who do you want to take with you?”
“Uh…… Lol. Hello Minerva…….”
Nyx gave a timid greeting. Minerva’s face hardened slightly.
At least it was because I brought it myself, and I was standing next to it, right before I set off to find the ancient scroll.
“Is that the one who said you would take one more person, kid?”
“Yes.”
“It’s the child’s decision, so I’ll obey it calmly…… Just know that I’m not very familiar with that one.”
“I will put it next to me so that you won’t come to the side. So don’t worry.”
I sneaked Nyx behind me. Nyx immediately grabbed me by the waist and dug in with his side, only slightly poking his head out. Suddenly, black eyes looked at Minerva’s eyes.
‘What the hell happened to such a reaction?’
At least, the Minerva I knew was far from the kind of person who stood up like that, and Nyx was also a timid person who couldn’t even stand up to others without being serious.
However, Minerva growled as soon as she saw Nyx, and Nyx kept looking at Minerva, so naturally I had no choice but to question.
According to the goddess, Nyx came from another world. Did he have an accident in the process of coming over?
Usually, I wouldn’t have bothered to put the two together, but this time there was a reason to bring Nix. If it was a dungeon where the ancient scrolls were stored, there would be no concern about someone eavesdropping.
“Let’s stop talking about it, kid. Where can I go?”
“This is a place that even Minerva knows.”
“I know, what do you mean?”
“Because it’s here.”
I pointed my finger at a part of Minerva’s map. Seeing that location, Minerva tilted her head with a subtle expression.
“Oh, that place… ….”
“I know. It’s the place where Minerva already uncovered a secret in the past.”
Minerva slammed her wand down the beans even as she put on her complex nuanced expression. Immediately, blue mana enveloped the four of us. Nicks hugged me by the waist and closed his eyes tightly.
In less than a second, a vast plain spread out in front of us. Parnari’s eyes widened as if this was the first time he had ever experienced such ultra-long-distance teleportation.
At the center of the green grassy plain, I saw a strange triangular pillar-shaped structure with a two-story tower rising from its center. There were exactly 30 triangular pillars.
The magic barrier that protected the triangular pillar and tower disappeared like snow as soon as the owner of the barrier stepped on it.
“I didn’t expect to visit this place again. I thought I’d already found everything I could find.”
Muttered Minerva in a voice half mixed with wonder.
White triangular pillars made of a strange pure white material scattered sparsely over the wide plain. It was about the size of my thigh, and there was not a speck of dust on the surface.
It was a landscape so foreign that anyone would have doubts that there was something there, and in fact, a secret was hidden.
Because the person who discovered the secret of the triangular pillar and made the tower rise was the eternal mage next to me. According to the setting, was it a hundred years ago or two hundred years ago?
“So, kid. Where can I find an ancient scroll?”
“It’s simple.”
I took the wingless nightmare and approached the pillar.
“As you may know, these pillars will repair themselves no matter how finely you break them. That’s why it remains so fine and clean.”
“Yes.”
“Minerva. Do you remember the order in which you placed the pillars then?”
“I remember.”
A pole placed on the outermost side in the direction the sun rises. I walked over and tapped the surface with the tip of my knife.
Nyx was still clinging to my side, not thinking of falling. The overwhelming mass of his chest continued to crush it near his waist.
“This is the first. Right?”
Nodding, Minerva affirmed. He raised the wingless nightmare diagonally and swung it horizontally, careful not to bump Nyx into his arm.
ㅡQuajijik!
The top of the pillar rolled across the floor. Debris fell into the storm water. Maybe it was because a new secret was about to be revealed, Minerva was looking very excited.
“As I just did, just destroy all of these pillars in the order you placed them. Instead, within the time limit.”
“If there is a time limit, how long is it?”
“Five minutes. It’s more than enough for Minerva-sama.”
Even in the game, it’s a puzzle that takes quite a bit of time if you play it as a long-distance character, not to mention Minerva. Even if it was 5 seconds instead of 5 minutes, I would do it as if it were natural.
“Okay. Just wait a bit.”
A smiley Minerva raised her orb of mana into the air. Before long, magic began pouring from her orb. It was a normal magic that fired projectiles made of mana.
The projectile broke the second pillar, broke the third pillar, and broke the fourth pillar. The pillars were smashed one after another, like dominoes falling.
Without even an inch of error, it was an accurately calculated number up to the time of impact.
Minerva, who destroyed all 30 pillars in the blink of an eye a few times, beckoned her. The mana sphere floating in the air disappeared.
It was horribly smashed, and the fragments and remaining stumps that were rolling on the grass floated into the air.
“…… There is something.”
With Minerva’s murmur, the fragments that floated into the air clung to the tower. Not randomly sticking to it, but following certain rules.
It wasn’t long before the appearance of the tower changed.
It is flattened back and forth, and it is not a cylindrical shape that gets narrower as it goes, but a flattened rectangular shape. The place where the original door had been was wide open, and a passage blocked by a wall of white fog appeared.
The structure, which was no longer a mage tower but a kind of door, stood with its mouth wide open. That was the entrance to the dungeon where the ancient scrolls were stored.
“Inside me.”
I spoke nonchalantly, Farnari was clapping his hands, and Nyx clung to my side laughing.
“… ….”
Of course, Minerva’s reaction was incomparably fiercer than ours. It was because she froze on the spot with her eyes wide open and a very empty face.
Even in the game, she hands you an ancient scroll and when you tell her where she found it, she responds with a big sigh.
Even though there was a scroll right in front of my eyes, I couldn’t find it, so it was only natural that I wasted my time improving the magic I had already improved for over a hundred years.
It’s not exactly Minerva’s fault. Honestly, who would have predicted that another puzzle would be hidden in the place where the tower had risen after solving the puzzle already?
“…… It’s sad. Even though the truth was right in front of my eyes, I couldn’t see it and was like this. The name Eternal Wizard will make you cry.”
Minerva drooped her shoulders with a sad face, just like a drowned mouse. It was the first time Minerva looked like that.
“I found it now, so it’s okay. Now, let’s go in.”
From noble mtl dot com
She held her hand carefully. Minerva flinched, and she stayed still for a moment before she clasped her pods tightly. Her tremors seemed to have subsided a little.
Minerva and I entered the White Mist Wall first, followed by Nyx, naturally hanging from my waist, and Parnari entered last.
Inside the dungeon, the entrance was the highest, so the bottom was clearly visible and gradually descended. In the plaza below, a vast labyrinth stretched upwards.
At the end of the maze, at the point where it almost touched the ceiling of the dungeon, something resembling a scroll appeared.
“That… ….”
Minerva tried to use teleportation with her ecstatic voice, but I restrained it with force in her clawed hands. The wand she was about to swing stopped abruptly.
However, perhaps it was a reaction close to instinct, my eyes were still fixed on the scroll, and I didn’t even think about recovering my half-closed pupils. The light lemon scent that began to waft little by little was a bonus.
I tried to ignore the scent of the lemon and snapped my fingers in front of Minerva’s eyes. Then, the flaccid silver-white pupils regained some vitality.
“…… Why is that, kid?”
“That is a trap. It’s just fantasy. Do not be fooled.”
At the word trap, the silvery-white pupils regained vitality.
“So what?”
“The real thing is different.”