NOVEL NEXT Chapter 316: Dusk Soil Moon (4)
‘Giants.’
Once, they were the mightiest race to exist on the surface of the world.
Today, they remained only as history, passed down through tales and legends. But there was a time when the entire continent trembled under their footsteps.
Their necks stretched high enough to touch the clouds. They could shield the sun with their palms, and if they desired, split mountains and seas in half. Their physical power was unmatched, and nothing could stand in their way.
Fortunately, only a hundred giants ever existed in the Aether World from the beginning. Most of them were gentle by nature and disliked conflict.
The problem, however, was that ‘most’ of them were gentle. A very small minority were not.
The war between giants and humans predates written history.
Around a thousand years ago, when humans had just begun crafting ballistae, the giants uprooted mountains to smash through castle walls. Arrows were mere pinpricks to them and could be easily pulled out as if they were nothing. At the time, it seemed impossible to oppose them.
‘Until the Progenitor Mage appeared.’
History was divided into two periods: before and after his arrival.Before his time, magic existed only as a form of shamanistic rituals. Nobody had mathematically systematized it or spread it across the world.
The Progenitor Mage summoned flames and brought down meteors to drive back the giants. The war ended with humanity's victory, and peace seemed to return at last.
‘Until the emergence of the Dark Mages.’
---
Screeeeeech!
A piercing, ear-shattering scream echoed through the air, causing Baek Yu-Seol to grimace.
Had he not already inserted ghost-dampening earplugs into his ears, his eardrums would have burst long ago.
[The item ‘Ghost Earplugs’ has reduced the wail of the "Wraith of the Dead Giant" by 71%.]
Clearing the floating message from his vision, Baek Yu-Seol focused on the path ahead.
‘... Seeing it up close is nauseating.’
It was as if black mist was imitating a human form. Its unsettling features, flickering as if they couldn’t settle into a proper shape, and its uneven, irregular limbs exuded a sense of uncanny discomfort.
The creature bore all the characteristics of a wraith just shy of fully materializing.
"Fall back!"
An elven knight shouted to Baek Yu-Seol as they hurled a crimson orb forward. It collided with one of the giant wraiths, eradicating it. But as soon as it vanished, an even larger wraith emerged from the shadows, twice the size of the first.
"Urgh... There’s no end to this."
In the Aether World, ghosts did exist. Although they were extremely rare, professions like shamans and ghost hunters had emerged to deal with them.
Most ghosts took on the form of humans or other species, but their power could grow immense depending on the grudges they harbored.
And what about the wraith of a giant—one of the strongest species to ever exist on land?
The giants who cursed the Progenitor Mage as they fell continued to wander the earthly plane even in death, spreading chaos. Most were sealed away by mages, but some were so overwhelmingly powerful that even sealing them was impossible.
As a last resort, the mages fragmented the wraiths of giants into dozens or hundreds of pieces and sealed them in the land where ‘Dusk Soil Moon’ slumbered. Centuries have passed since then.
As the awakening of ‘Dusk Soil Moon’ progressed, the seals gradually weakened. Occasionally, wraiths awakened even within the game, triggering rare events.
Typically, these events were in the form of ‘sub-quests’ that required high-level players to defeat them. The wraiths were so strong that they were nearly impossible to handle unless players had endgame-tier specs.
——-
"Baek Yu-Seol, we can easily defeat the smaller wraiths, but it seems more efficient to avoid the larger ones. If we try to fight them all, we might never reach our destination."
The wraiths of the giants varied in size, which was only natural since a single giant had been divided into hundreds of fragments.
However, the grotesque sight of these fragments squirming and moving independently, like tentacles of an octopus, was deeply unsettling.
"Let’s fall back for now."
"Back? If we retreat, we’ll have to face more wraiths."
"I think we need to adjust our route."
Even with the Sentient Spec’, there were limits in a space as chaotic as this. The ‘Land of the Dead Giant’ was cursed by ‘Dusk Soil Moon’, constantly shifting its terrain. It was known as the ‘Labyrinth Without Walls.’
‘But as long as I have enough time to explore, it’s not a problem.’
Though the Sentient Spec weren’t showing a clear route on the minimap yet, Baek Yu-Seol decided to rely on his instincts.
Back when he played the game, he had repeated this quest dozens of times to level up and memorised all the rules perfectly.
As long as the Sentient Spec scanned the surroundings and updated the minimap, finding the objective would be no challenge.
"Understood. We’ll follow your lead."
The elven knights nodded without protest, even at Baek Yu-Seol’s seemingly absurd suggestion.
They weren’t blindly trusting the words of a teenage boy. Rather, their trust in Baek Yu-Seol stemmed from their faith in Florin, who had entrusted him with the task.
‘As expected, she assigned the right people to me.’
Unfortunately, Baek Yu-Seol himself was far too weak in his current state to handle even a single wraith with ease. Defeating one might not be an issue, but if dozens of them appeared at once, it would be an entirely different story.
For that reason, Baek Yu-Seok was trailing behind the elven knights… But then he had an idea.
‘Is there really a need for this?’
He reconsidered. Sure, the wraiths of the giants might currently be way beyond his level, an impossible challenge for someone of his strength. But even so, just fighting against high-level monsters could grant him a significant boost in stats.
Besides, he wasn’t the same Baek Yu-Seol as before.
Having faced countless incidents and challenges, growing alongside—or even beyond—the protagonists, he had rapidly improved. Thanks to this, Baek Yu-Seol now possessed experience far beyond that of a ordinary first-year.
‘Why not? What’s the worst that could happen? I can die?’
With that bold thought, Baek Yu-Seol unsheathed his Teriphon Sword and teleported forward into the fray. Of course, he didn’t recklessly charge into the wraiths but instead integrated himself into the elven knights’ formation, providing assistance without disrupting their strategy.
Swish!
A blue light danced at the tip of his blade as he swiftly severed the neck of one wraith.
“Oh...”
His satisfaction was short-lived, as the wraith began regenerating through a thin thread of spectral energy he hadn’t completely severed. The faint strand reconnected its form, and the creature began to reform.
“Damn it!”
Only after swinging his sword a second time was he able to completely extinguish the small wraith.
Realizing it wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped, Baek Yu-Seol broke into a cold sweat. However, he was now certain that he could assist the elven knights effectively. Wielding his sword tightly, he prepared himself for more combat.
“It’s dangerous. Please step back!”
“It’s fine. Let me ‘catch a ride on the bus’ too.”
“What? There’s no bus here.”
While the elven knights didn’t fully understand Baek Yu-Seol’s intentions, they assumed he simply wanted to provide whatever support he could, however small.
‘Amazing… For a human his age, he’s barely a child by elven standards.’
‘Do all humans grow this quickly?’
Considering Baek Yu-Seol’s age, his level of refinement was astonishing.
It wasn’t just about personal strength. What impressed them most was his courage to step forward against overwhelmingly powerful foes and his situational awareness, which ensured he didn’t disrupt the teamwork of the elven knights, who had trained together for decades.
“I see the destination!”
Hearing the shout from one of the knights, Baek Yu-Seol, who had been busy swinging his sword, lifted his head.
In the distance, a round mountain peak tilted to one side loomed on the horizon, pressing firmly against the landscape.
But that wasn’t a mountain peak.
As the shadow revealed faint facial features, it became clear: it was so enormous that, up close, one might mistake it for a sprawling canyon.
The rock formation that resembled a human face lying on its side was so colossal that it made one's head spin just looking at it. It was none other than Dusk Soil Moon’s face.
And it was also the sole gateway leading to Dusk Soil Moon himself.
———
That day, as usual, the joint classes between Astral Flower and Stella continued. Despite the weeks that had passed, the emotional gap between the elf and human students remained as wide as ever, and time marched on.
By the fourth and final week, even the professors at Astral Flower were beginning to feel uneasy.
The event were designed as a special effort to foster harmony between humans and elves. However, they appeared to have the opposite effect, worsening relations between the students.
For the adults orchestrating this, it was an awkward and troubling situation, but no one seemed ready to step in with a clean resolution.
Flame felt the same.
She didn’t see much point in improving relations with the elves and was still annoyed by the persistent antics of the Blossom Trio.
But something else was bothering her far more.
For the past few days, Baek Yu-Seol had vanished without a trace, leaving no news of his whereabouts.
When she asked the professors about it, they only said, “He has special circumstances,” and refused to provide further details.
The fact that the professors were being secretive about Baek Yu-Seol implied that pressure was coming from someone higher up than them.
‘Is there anyone who could control the professors at Astral Flower?’
If she had to name someone, Jeliel might come to mind. However, she was quickly ruled out as a suspect.
Flame had already seen Jeliel tirelessly searching for Baek Yu-Seol’s whereabouts over the past few days.
‘Just what are you up to?’
---
Ding-dong!
The sound of the bell marking the end of class snapped Flame out of her thoughts. She quickly packed up and left the lecture hall, planning to head straight to the dormitory before the Blossom Trio could bother her again.
But then—
RUMBLE!!! CRASH!
“Kyaaaaah!”
“An earthquake!”
“Get under something!”
A deafening tremor shook the building as windows shattered, and cracks began forming along the walls and floors of the hallway.
Reacting swiftly, Flame cast a shield to protect her head and then swung her staff.
Thud!
Thick trees sprouted from the ground, stabilizing the collapsing hallway and holding it up.
“We… We survived…”
Flame leaped over the shoulder of a male student who had collapsed to the floor, her face pale as she looked out the window.
“This is insane…”
Thud… Boom…
The tremors didn’t stop after just one quake. The source was far away, which dampened the intensity, but the ground continued to rumble faintly.
In the sky, massive ink-like black forms were falling. Upon closer inspection, similar black liquid was also rising from the ground, slithering upward like tendrils.
Wraiths!
Flame, who was attuned to the power of light, instantly recognized their nature even from a distance.
‘How are wraiths here… In the World Tree?’
The World Tree was protected by divine power. It should have been impossible for corrupted beings like wraiths to infiltrate. Wraiths wouldn’t even dare approach its sacred grounds.
And yet, the unmistakable signs of wraiths were now spreading across the World Tree. It was hard to believe.
———-
- Attention all students!
- A Level 3 disaster is currently in progress. Please evacuate immediately to the underground shelters!
- I repeat! A Level 3 disaster is—
The emergency announcement broadcasted across the academy was suddenly cut off, replaced by the sound of crackling static.
“Level 3 disaster? Not an invasion?”
“I… I don’t know. I’ve never even heard of anything like this before…”
Magic warriors were trained for both disasters and invasions. While this was standard for humans, it wasn’t the case for elves.
The World Tree was considered relatively safe from disasters, so such situations were never part of their education.
“Hey, quit dawdling! Hurry up and get to the underground shelters!”
At Flame’s sharp command, a few startled elf students finally began running toward the stairs.
———
- Activating barrier spells.
- The ‘Blessing of the Prime Spirit’ has been deployed to protect Astral Flower Magic Academy.
- All students are advised to evacuate underground…
“… This is insane.”
The ‘Blessing of the Prime Spirit’ was the ultimate defensive system of Astral Flower Magic Academy, known to almost never be activated.
The fact that it had been deployed meant the situation was truly dire.
Flame, too, couldn’t just stand by. She hurried toward the underground shelters, but her efforts were blocked.
“The… The stairs have collapsed!”
“The entrance to the underground shelter is completely blocked!”
“Professor! Professor!”
The aftermath of the previous quake had caused the entrance to the underground shelter to cave in entirely. The rubble piled up, forming a structure that supported the ceiling, making it impossible to clear a path through.
Even at that moment, the students had a fleeting thought.
‘Astral Flower should still be safe, right?’
With the strongest barriers in place and the best faculty around, they believed that even if some unknown black substance had appeared, the academy would still be relatively safer than anywhere else.
That was what everyone thought.
Until it happened.
Drip.
A single drop of black liquid fell from the sky.
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Goal: 20 Bonus Chapters to Celebrate 300 Chapters of Flashing Genius!
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