Chapter 220

Isaac barely made it to the shore through the storm. Fortunately, the beach was shallow, but the northern terrain grew increasingly rugged, with steep, towering mountains.

However, what caught his eye first was the 'Broken Mountain' lying on the plain ahead. Gentle hills suddenly gave way to a harsh gray rocky mountain, creating a bizarre sense of disparity.

Eidan murmured, looking at the mountain in dismay.

"So that's the 'Broken Mountain'. According to legend, when the 'Night of the Angel's Collision' storm hit the Kingdom of Elil, the wind lifted and hurled the mountain. Of course, it's a far-fetched tale, but it's uncanny enough to inspire such imaginations."

"...It might actually be true."

But Isaac's interest was not in a legend that might or might not have happened hundreds of years ago. He fixed his gaze on the ruins where Calurien's laboratory used to be.

Though now just ruins, this place was once filled with terrifying legends befitting a dwelling of a celestial being. Thieves and Holy Grail Knights who sought Calurien's relics had come here, but since its collapse, no one had ventured in.

"Eidan, you stay here and shelter from the storm. I'll visit that tower briefly."

"Yes, understood. When should I expect your return?"

"Tomorrow."

Isaac answered briefly and headed towards the tower with Hesabel.

Hesabel seemed amazed that the Broken Mountain Calurien had cast aside actually existed. Despite the wear and erosion over the years, the smooth cut from May's sword was still visible.

The events in Urbansus seemed to deceive not only people's minds but the world itself.

"Is there something specific you're looking for here?" Hesabel asked.

"Yes."

From the moment she heard they were going to Calurien's old hideout, Hesabel had been gathering information.

"The Elixir of Immortality? Or the secret to becoming a god? I also heard rumors of a Dragon Heart."

Of course, most of these were based on legends and were nothing but absurd stories.

The common belief was that no celestial being would have stored precious relics carelessly, and anything valuable had already been looted. Anything left would be buried under the rubble.

But Isaac was not after absurd legends or ghost stories.

He was here to find what he 'knew' existed.

The 'Upper Dungeon, the Wizard's Tower.'

Isaac intended to use his 'knowledge' for a change.

Unlike other thieves, Isaac knew exactly what and how to search. And what he sought was not an object but something 'edible.'

***

After a grueling climb up the steep mountain path, they finally reached the base of the tower, but the debris from the collapsed tower showed no openings. Isaac took out the Luadin Key. While Kaldwin was a higher-grade relic, in situations like this, the Codex of Light's relic, which revealed secrets and illuminated the darkness, was useful.

As the flames from the Luadin Key spread brightly, Isaac didn't hesitate to swing his sword.

The tower's debris split smoothly, creating a crack. When a staircase leading down opened up, Hesabel followed Isaac, marveling at the sight.

Ordinarily, breaking the seal would require a cumbersome process. However, the Luadin Key, enhanced by May, easily broke through the old seal left by Calurien with its superior unsealing capability.

["...What have you come here for?"]

Only then did Calurien send a telepathic message.

Calurien had promised to assist and advise Isaac as much as possible under Elil's command. However, he hadn't expected Isaac's first move to be visiting his old hideout.

"I'm here to deal with what you left behind."

["There's nothing here. Of course, all the valuable items have been taken care of, and even the useless trash has been looted by grave robbers. Only the discarded waste remains because there was nowhere else to dispose of it."]

"That's exactly what I came for."

As soon as Isaac finished speaking, something leaped from the wall and tried to bite him. However, Isaac dodged it effortlessly and struck it with his left hand. In an instant, his five fingers transformed into five tendrils and devoured the chameleon-shell-frog chimera clinging to the wall.

['???(B-)' has been consumed.]

[Due to the 'Intestines of the Dead God' perk, absorption efficiency has increased.]

[Insufficient information, no perks acquired.]

The creature was a chimera left behind by Calurien.

Calurien had been so passionate about biological synthesis that he had attacked Isaac's party with a horde of chimeras. He had thrown the leftovers, which he dared not release into the Kingdom of Elil, into his old hideout. However, even then, the chimeras survived by breeding enthusiastically or preying on each other.

'Thanks to that, the Wizard's Tower became quite a challenging dungeon...'

However, it seemed the chimera, with so many things mixed in, had uncertain information, resulting in minimal predation effects.

In any case, it had been a long time since Isaac could expect noticeable effects from such minor creatures.

Isaac's main purpose was simply to fill his stomach.

The chameleon shell served as a sort of alarm bell, as commotion began to stir from below the stairs. In this place, where external prey rarely entered, such an intruder was very unusual.

Of course, it wouldn't take long for them to realize the roles of predator and prey had reversed.

***

A chicken-snake-centipede chimera dropped from the ceiling, attempting to wrap around Isaac. However, Isaac used his tendrils to seize and devour it before it could do so. Its grotesque appearance was enough to kill any appetite, but Isaac's first thought was, 'Isn't combining a snake and a centipede a bit redundant in functionality?'

"What kind of logic did you use to conduct these biological experiments?"

By the time he faced a rabbit-bear-marmot chimera, Isaac couldn't help but ask. The scene was reminiscent of a mad scientist's deranged brain dungeon.

Despite its cute appearance, the rabbit-bear-marmot chimera seemed to hold a predator position in this dreadful dungeon and boldly charged at Isaac.

Isaac easily blocked it with the Dead Man's Hand and thrust his left hand into the chimera.

Since the primary goal was to use the tendrils for predation, Isaac rarely used his sword.

["Even I had a time when I was inexperienced and full of curiosity. Back then, I believed the survival of my species depended on me. These are merely the remnants of that time."]

"Creating a dragon?"

["...I'm surprised you know. How did you find out? Did an angel tell you?"]

Since Isaac had learned this knowledge through the game, he gave a vague answer. Calurien, however, seemed not to have been hiding it much and let it slide.

Dragons are inherently mysterious beings, but their descriptions often include a mix of elements like a snake's head, a lion's body, and bat-like wings. Biologically speaking, they resemble chimeras made deliberately for combat.

Calurien seemed to have thought similarly.

["I suspected that dragons were artificially created chimeras by some ancient entity. Of course, considering that even gods are younger than us, it's absurd. But when our species started having difficulties reproducing, I couldn't help but investigate that possibility."]

Isaac was hearing for the first time that dragons had trouble reproducing. In Nameless Chaos, the dragons were all ancient and extremely rare. Isaac had always thought their decline was due to the gods, never considering their reproduction issues.

["These creatures are the remnants of my attempts to see if dragons could be synthesized. I buried them in a pit and forgot about them, never imagining they would become food for Chaos..."]

Calurien muttered in a complex tone as he watched the chimeras get devoured by Isaac's tendrils one by one. Although the chimeras didn't grant Isaac any special abilities, they provided far more nutrition and satiety than wild animals due to their inherent strength.

However, Isaac thought it was taking too long to reach his true target.

["By the way, how far do you plan to go? Haven't you filled your belly enough?"]

"I'm going to eat up the ultimate trash you created, Calurien."

[......]

Calurien did not respond. These chimeras were neither a disgrace nor a concern to him. What he truly didn't want Isaac to uncover was at the bottom of this dungeon. The chimeras were merely sentinels to conceal that presence.

Meanwhile, Isaac was growing tired of dealing with these sentinels one by one. With no need to consider anyone else's judgment, Isaac decided to experiment with a trick he had learned in Urbansus.

Taking a deep breath, Isaac willed his armor.

Glooop.

The color beyond, darkly hued, began to flow out from Isaac's armor. Like a cloak or a waterfall, the color spilled over, rapidly filling the dungeon and flooding down the stairs.

The ancient magic applied color he had created while fighting Calurien was much denser and stronger than ordinary colors. It also moved at Isaac's will like his own limbs.

Isaac let the color flow to its limit.

Although he lost much of the satiety he had filled, it was worth the cost.

Finally, when almost all the dark energy had spilled from Isaac's armor, he extended his tendrils into the color.

[Shadow of the World (B) / Envelop your tendrils in the color from beyond, making them invisible or hiding them in shadows.]

A perk that had been useful only for trickery became a weapon of mass destruction in this confined space.

Crack, crunch, snap, crunnch.

The eerie noises of tendrils tearing through walls reverberated. The sound lasted for about ten seconds before it quieted down. Isaac withdrew the color back into his armor and resumed his steps.

The dungeon, now cleanly swept, no longer saw any more chimeras. Though a significant amount of faith was consumed, it had allowed Isaac to fill his stomach quickly.

"Good. Now we can proceed faster."

Watching this, Calurien wondered if Elil had really chosen this warrior in his right mind.

'Or perhaps, it is exactly why he chose him.'

***

Calurien's dungeon was unexpectedly deep and vast. It took Isaac two more 'feasts' before reaching the bottom he had aimed for. The further down they went, both Isaac and Hesabel could sense an unusual energy.

High-density, immense magic power.

Just like when Elil was sealed with numerous layers of seals, though not as powerful, a considerable number of spells and magic overlapped here.

"What on earth is here?" Hesabel asked, her skin crawling from the magic she felt. Calurien, naturally, did not respond, but Isaac casually revealed what Calurien wanted to keep hidden.

"Calurien's creation of sin."

As Isaac swung the Luadin Key to break another seal, a hidden space was revealed. The ground crumbled away to expose a vast cavity. At its bottom lay a creature bound by faintly glowing chains, seemingly asleep.

It was a massive being, half-transparent and half-normal in appearance.

Yet, compared to the other bizarre chimeras they had encountered, it looked 'relatively' normal. This was because, aside from being partially transparent, it was a creature they were already familiar with.

"...A dragon?"

Hesabel murmured in disbelief. Isaac added an explanation to her faint words.

"Technically, it's an angel-dragon chimera."

-TL Notes-