The Ancient King's Ruins
Talents, skills gained later, stats and all kinds of equipment, talismans that can engrave special options onto equipment, and so on.
There are many kinds of abilities that help you find Pangaenia's "hidden things."
Literally finding hidden paths, or finding an item's hidden options, or uncovering the hidden secrets of a seal······.
But an ability of that helpful sort, I dare say, cannot compare to this one hidden trait.
Mutation.
One of the thirteen hidden traits I have, an ability like authority itself that digs up every hidden "secret"!
"I can see it."
A hidden path. A dead-end passage designed so human eyes couldn't see it.
Huaaaaaaaa!
There was a long bridge connecting the holy land atop the cliff.
A powerful wind that sucked downward was blowing together with it.
If you didn't focus and walk across the narrow bridge, the structure was such that you'd be swept right off, down the cliff, but.
"W-what are you doing right now······?!"
When I jumped high at a certain spot beside the bridge, Isabella let out a shriek. I probably looked like someone about to commit suicide.
But her shriek calmed in an instant.
"Follow closely."
"······ Did the stars tell you there was a way like that too?"
"Asking the obvious."
Isabella stared at me with a strange look.
All around the holy land, tiny blocks of land that couldn't be seen were floating in midair.
They were so narrow that at best one adult could barely stand on them. If you didn't step properly you'd fall to your death, but to my eyes they were crystal clear.
'This doesn't even compare to some Search skill.'
When I came here with my previous character, I had every tool and skill imaginable.
For example, even the transcended 'Search' skill 'Insight,' after reaching skill level 10, couldn't point out the hidden road as clearly as what lay before my eyes right now.
At most it explained that there was ground roughly over there, and the gap between reading something in words and seeing it with your own eyes needs no explanation.
The downdraft is so strong that flying with wings is pointless.
And at the bottom there are 'deep-sea fish,' so the moment you get sucked in, no matter what level you are, you can consider yourself dead.
Only ground. You have to step on ground and cross to live.
'Exploration rate 100%, possible?'
Even a sub-quest, and it's the exploration of a holy land, no less.
When I came in before, I did see the end, but the exploration rate stopped in the 97% range.
Because what I got at 97% was the special item 'Horn's Glory'······ if I fill 100%, maybe they'll give a narrative-grade treasure.
I jumped up one more block, then turned my head.
"······? What are you doing?"
Isabella wasn't jumping, she was hesitating.
She looked at me with a peculiar face.
"My leg······ cramped."
·· For a moment I was dumbfounded.
When she was flying around like a fish in water while ambushing soldiers, that was fine, but now this?
It was pure nonsense.
"When you jump, controlling your strength is essential. If you mess up, you'll be swept away by the downdraft, so be careful."
The gaps aren't that wide, but the problem is the downdraft.
The wind is so strong that if you slip up, you can be swept right off.
No matter how high-level and agile Isabella is, death would be guaranteed in that moment.
"To think there's an invisible path in the holy land······."
"Jump quickly. We don't have time."
"If we really go this way, can we receive the 'Blessing of the Stars'?"
Look at this girl.
"Are you scared?"
"Hah, no way."
She's forcing a snort, but I can see it. In the pitch-black darkness, Isabella's moist eyes are trembling hard.
Was she this kind of character?
If you rise to be Faisalmer's number two, you should be someone who's cut ties with fear. You must catch the queen's eye, and be recognized by the elders, to earn the right to be called a princess.
A woman of iron blood, a snake princess, that was the impression Isabella gave.
I smirked and teased her.
"You're more timid than I thought."
"··· I don't know the word 'timid.' My leg simply cramped."
After pretending to stretch her leg, Isabella jumped.
Landing on the first block, she lifted her chin at me like she was showing off.
See? What fear? That was the feeling in her expression.
But she absolutely doesn't look down.
Don't tell me she has a fear of heights?
"Good."
"How many are left?"
"Hmm."
I counted the blocks I could see, then told her.
"If we go about 70 blocks, we arrive."
"70······."
"No, 80 maybe?"
"······."
"It could be 90."
Isabella's eyebrows started to twitch.
'How is he so unconcerned?'
Star Bearer Randolph. He was a strange and fascinating person.
The holy land's miasma and demonic energy gnaw at life. So you can only enter if you are chosen and blessed, or if you have physical ability strong enough to endure it.
Yet Randolph was freely walking about the holy land without any special gear or blessing, in this place where even Isabella found breathing difficult.
He was even seeing hidden paths that hadn't been revealed for thousands of years, or dodging traps flying in from all sides as if he had them all mapped, calmly.
'How could he know roads even I didn't······.'
Roads unknown even to her, Faisalmer's second-in-command, perhaps even unknown to the holy land's priests, he was pressing onward without hesitation.
Most of them couldn't be seen. And every single one was a single-track path where one misstep meant death.
She had to rely only on memory and sensation to follow the route Randolph stepped on, requiring extreme concentration.
And yet, it felt odd.
This formation, where she was chasing behind someone.
Had she ever chased someone else's back this desperately?
'No.'
Not once, absolutely.
She was someone who led. Someone who ran forward, a supreme powerhouse positioned in a place where there must not be anyone ahead.
All to lift the curse.
Believing only the queen's promise that she would lift it once Isabella seized the princess's seat, she had run like mad.
But the queen didn't keep her word.
"Relax. When I count to three, jump. I'll catch you."
If the invisible path had taken them down the cliff before, now it was a path upward.
Likewise, they had to follow transparent stairs to reach the ceiling.
Their pace slowed, and that was what Randolph said.
Isabella shook her head.
"Go first. I'll follow slowly."
"I can't do that."
"······."
Isabella clamped her mouth shut.
That attitude, that look.
It wasn't familiar.
A gesture full of affection, like he'd known her from long ago.
"Why······."
She was about to ask why he looked at her like that, then shut her mouth again.
Instead she asked something else.
"Have we met before?"
"We've never met in the same space."
"······ What does that mean?"
"It means I've seen you, but you've never seen me."
If someone else said that, she'd want to crack their head open to see what they were thinking. But the other party was a Star Bearer.
"Then are you saying the stars showed you?"
"Something like that. Now, let's go. We must arrive before dawn."
When dawn breaks, the warriors' deaths will be known. Isabella, absent from her place, will be suspected, and soon the queen's trackers will be formed.
If the holy land is sealed, escape will become even more impossible.
"One, two······."
The moment Randolph called three, Isabella jumped into his arms without even realizing it.
When she barely climbed onto the narrow tile, she felt his breathing close.
"Just get on my back. That'll be faster."
He wasn't wrong. If she'd climbed on earlier, they would've already reached the ceiling. She couldn't be stubborn at this point.
The problem was that in all her life, Isabella had never once ridden on a man's back.
In the desert, a woman climbing onto a man's back implied a special relationship.
She would rather die than be carried by a strange man, she'd never even considered it, but.
"······."
Biting her lip, Isabella climbed onto Randolph's back.
Then she lowered her head deeply.
And when they touched the ceiling, the world flipped.
'A domain barrier!'
A barrier over the entire area, and another region that appears only to those who come along the designated route.
To think something like that existed inside the holy land.
A flower field. And a hill.
Kuurung! Kurururung!
In that instant, the things she thought were hills began to stir, rising up.
'Golems.'
Three golems. Judging by the size of the runes carved into their chests, they were at least upper-grade.
Now was her turn.
Sreung.
Isabella dropped from his back and drew daggers in both hands.
***
Watching the golems get dealt with, I nodded.
'So this is what auto-hunting feels like.'
When enemies appeared, Isabella handled them on her own without needing to be told. Even golems at a level that my current self couldn't face turned into soft tofu in front of her.
In an instant, Isabella destroyed their cores and sheathed her daggers again.
It was right then.
"You can obtain the 'Golem Crafter' class."
"Would you like to obtain it?"
As expected.
This hidden dungeon of the holy land was originally a place to acquire a skill.
If I had a class, I likely would've obtained something like 'Golem Destruction Art.' But since I didn't, it offered me the class 'Golem Crafter' instead.
I don't really know if this was what the creator intended.
In the first place, to endure the holy land's toxicity you needed to be at least level 7.
At level 7, there's no such thing as someone without a class, and even if, like me, you somehow solved it with a hidden trait, you'd still have to find the hidden path and hunt golems, and that wasn't easy.
'I refuse.'
"You have refused to obtain the 'Golem Crafter' class."
Golem Crafter. In terms of rank, it's an upper-grade class. In Pangaenia, classes that summoned something or fought together with it were rare.
But it isn't the class I want.
With a class of this level, I can't record first place in the Hall.
'It counts what Isabella hunted as what I hunted.'
Still, there was something odd.
Pangaenia has a party system, but everything is divided by "contribution."
If it's a skill, or a class, you can only get it by hunting with high contribution.
So I planned to contribute even a little, like dealing the last hit. If I repeated that around a hundred times, I'd get it once.
But I succeeded in one try. Without contributing at all.
'Did we suddenly enter party status?'
When Isabella killed the warriors outside, or dealt with small monsters inside the holy land, nothing changed. Then suddenly this change happened.
I don't know why, but, good is good.
"You can obtain the 'Demon Hunter' class."
"You can obtain the 'Rune Warrior' class."
"You can obtain the 'Spear Master of Famine' class."
·····.
System voices and lines pouring in each time the hunt continued.
'I refuse them all.'
They're excellent, but these also aren't the classes I want.
After walking for a long time like that, we finally arrived at a gigantic mountain.
"You have arrived at 'The Mountain Where a Nameless Star Is Buried.'"
"Warning. You are far below the recommended level (10)."
"The master of the mountain, 'Ancient King,' is enraged at the intruders."
The master of this gigantic mountain. To kill that colossus, you'd need to be at least level 10.
But in the past, I didn't kill the Ancient King.
There was no need to.
The Ancient King recognized the difference in status and didn't attack. Back then, I was a transcendent who had eaten three stars, far beyond an Ancient King.
'So now I'm weak, and I look easy.'
····· So it wasn't a helper NPC.
Honestly, at the time I thought it was just a kindly helper NPC who would guide me to the star.
It was simply strong against the weak and weak against the strong.
「You dared enter the Ancient King's seat, and thought you could leave alive?」
A voice that echoed through the whole mountain.
A body glittering like jewels.
An obsidian serpent, enormous beyond measure!
"Ah."
Facing that colossus, Isabella's body stiffened.
Level 10 is the level right before transcendence. Isabella is level 8, but the number 10 is an unscalable wall, a gulf in rank.
And the howling spilling from the snake made it look like a dragon.
Tremble, tremble!
Isabella shook. She knew she'd die if she stayed still, but she couldn't move. Like prey facing an apex predator at the top of a pyramid.
Tsk.
Clicking my tongue, I stepped forward. Isabella's eyes widened. A human should never be able to move casually within the Ancient King's absolute domain.
But he was clearly moving.
"Move aside. You have no right to guard that place."
「A human spouts nonsense. If I do not guard this place, who has the right?」
The Ancient King stuck out its tongue.
It was approaching as if it would swallow me in one bite.
"Wilhelm."
But before it could come any closer, the Ancient King froze.
「······ How do you know that name?」
How do I know that name?
"Isn't the true master of this mountain you not, but Wilhelm?"
Because I am Wilhelm.
I died and was deleted, but the master of this mountain wasn't the Ancient King, it was me.
The Ancient King ceded it to me, and thus I became the owner of the star.
Therefore, the illegal intruder wasn't me, it was that thing.
「I don't know how you know that name, but he is dead and the star has fallen. This mountain is the same!」
The Ancient King, freed, opened its mouth wide.
About to pounce on me.
"Your master has returned, Ancient King—Dramut."
Kwa-rururung!
In a flash, the creature whipped its head around, dragging it along the ground.