Chapter 459: Central Bureau (1)

From the inhabitants of the Tower, the players climbing it, and the rankers watching the situation to the Guardians managing the system and the dropouts who had stepped away from the frontlines—everyone could feel it. The rule of the Eight Clans that had been in place for hundreds of years was beginning to fall apart.

An era of war had come! With Arthia's appearance, many of the large clans collapsed, and the hyenas waiting for their chance began to move. Natives who wished for peace swallowed their tears and grabbed their weapons again. The only thing that could protect them was their own strength.

Players began to climb the floors again, and rankers began to gather forces. Mercenaries, alliances, clans...everyone wanted to pull together a group to replace the empty spots left behind by the large clans.

The fight didn't stop there. In the territory most players couldn't sense—the heavenly world—chaos had exploded. The spark was the war between Olympus and L'Infernal. The tensions among the many societies grew more strained. It was the beginning of a great war.

* * *

Boom.

〈 Heaven King Path 〉

Phante pushed forward with heavy footsteps and violent movements. Waves of sound thundered fiercely through the wind. Each punch made space tremble. He shot his right arm forward following the laws of the Extreme Fists and crushed the rock in front of him like a pumpkin and even partially blew the forest behind it away. The impact was so great that the ground he stood on quaked.

Sssss. Phante pulled back his right arm with a satisfied expression. The heat still hadn't cooled, and the end of his fist was smoking.

"How is it?" asked Yeon-woo, who'd been watching him train from behind. Edora stood next to him, tears slightly glistening in her eyes.

Phante smirked. "Need I say anything?"

"That's true." Yeon-woo grinned, knowing that his question had been unnecessary. The right arm he and Brahm had created for Phante seemed to be a better fit than expected. They'd made it as close to his original arm as possible, but since it had just been attached, it would take time for Phante to adjust to it and recover. However, he managed to do it at the monstrous speed of just one week.

In fact, he was even stronger than before; he'd likely learned something from his combat with the Bow God. He had smoother control of his internal strength, looser movements, and blazing blood-red lightning.

'He's reached the peak of skillfully using his thoughts.' He was probably at an expert level, demonstrating a growth that was worthy of attention even compared to the other tribe members. It was like the days of the young Martial King or Head Elder.

He had always declared that he'd exceed both of them, and it seemed like he was already keeping that promise. If he continued to grow like this, he might really surpass the two.

"Actually, I think this arm is better than the other one."

"We put a lot of care into it." Yeon-woo and Brahm thought it would be nice if Boo could add more features to the arm and equip it with multiple functions. Most of them were minor, but they would help Phante when he used Mugong. Because of that, Phante's arm was classified as an artifact, and an S-ranked one at that.

"Hm."

"What?" Yeon-woo's eyes narrowed at Phante's contemplative face, wondering what was going on. Was there a problem?

"Nothing. I was just thinking that since this has so many good features, I should change the rest of my body too."

What kind of new bullshit was this? Yeon-woo was speechless as he watched Phante ponder whether or not to replace his entire body. It was clear that Phante wasn't joking.

"I'm serious."

"You idiot!" Edora stepped up angrily. She scolded him, wondering how he could say such things after his near-death experience. She asked him where he'd left his brain and said that if he were going to act that way, he should have come back decapitated instead of only losing his arm.

Phante was flustered at her rapid nagging. His eyes, which had been full of glee just a few moments ago, now shook.

Yeon-woo felt like Edora's calm composure was being shattered frequently because of Phante these past few days. He smiled ruefully.

"OK, OK. Stop nagging! You're not Mother...!"

"Are you serious?! Why, should I cut your limbs myself? Huh? Huh?"

"Hey! Hey! That's dangerous! Stop! Ahhhh!"

Edora pulled out Divine Evil and ran towards Phante. Worried that his little sister was serious, Phante quickly escaped, full of fear. Yeon-woo shook his head as he observed the noisy training area. Edora continued to chase after Phante. It was a small incident in Laputa, which floated around the Outer District.

* * *

"You're here?" Brahm said as Yeon-woo climbed down the spiral stairs into the basement research lab.

Yeon-woo nodded and scanned the lab. The lab in the basement of Laputa was of grand size, as one could expect from a space that Kalatus made. It contained books the Draconic species had written and collected, research notes and dissertations, along with a refrigerator that stored rare materials and various reagents.

Yeon-woo had handed the lab over to Brahm, and Brahm happily moved from the dungeon at the One-horned tribe's village. He had the ancient knowledge that he'd acquired as a god, the mastery of alchemy that he'd attained while roaming the lower world, and now the knowledge of the dragons. He could do much more. As soon as he settled in Laputa, he immediately began a new experiment. Phante's right arm was one of the byproducts of this research.

"Have you had any progress?"

"Of course." Brahm grinned and swept the flasks and beakers off his messy desk, grabbing a book that lay under them. It was called the Book of Jupiter.

Jupiter was one of the greatest planets in the solar system, and a book with its name would have incredible information.

"After I squeezed that guy for information, I put everything he said together. I'm really certain now that the Emerald Tablet that the Crawling Chaos gave to him is different from the one Faust received."

The Emerald Tablet was the system of knowledge that Brahm had recently begun to study again. The system of knowledge that they thought ended with the creation of the Philosopher's Stone was actually only the beginning. Because of this, Brahm was spending days and nights restoring the text.

Yeon-woo peeked at the glass cube in a corner.

「 Spare...me. Please...! 」 The soul trapped in the cube groaned, surrounded by fire and unable to escape. It was Bayluk.

"He keeps asking to be spared. Does he not get sick of it? What a tenacious bastard."

Spare, and not kill—that was how strong his desire to live was. Despite the pain of the Purgatory Furnace, he still couldn't accept death. However, it was thanks to him that Yeon-woo and Brahm managed to happily pull out so much information.

"Anyway. After comparing the two Emerald Tablets and merging them, I learned that they are sections taken from a larger text." His eyes darkened. "They're not complete."

Yeon-woo nodded. The Crawling Chaos had said the same thing.

"You want the original revelations? The revelations aren't mine....Do you think it's a simple item that I can just pull out of my pocket if you ask me to? Do you think a mere mortal can bear an item that contains all the knowledge of the universe and the dimensions, the words of the great beginning and the holy oracles of the end, and the records of all space, time, and history? You must be crazy! How insolent, human!"

The original revelations were a collection of all the knowledge of the universe and dimensions, the record of the beginning, end, history, space, and time. The Crawling Chaos had admitted that the Emerald Tablet was only a tiny fraction of it, and he said that Yeon-woo didn't have the authority to even approach it.

If the system of knowledge that created the Philosopher's Stone was only a part of it, how much knowledge did the original have? It was unimaginable. Yeon-woo and Brahm tried to guess its size and contents based on what they already had in their hands, and the result was the Book of Jupiter.

They were at the simple stages and struggled to even piece the whole together, like blind men touching an elephant, but Yeon-woo and Brahm didn't expect it to fail.

"But of course, I've learned an ample amount just with this."

Yeon-woo turned to look at the thing Brahm was staring at. There was a glass tube in the center of the room where Jeong-woo slept deeply, immersed in a strange liquid. The liquid was a new Philosopher's Stone made with the information from the Book of Jupiter. It was completely distinct from the one in Yeon-woo's heart. Technically, it was a magic power organ that wasn't really quite a Philosopher's Stone. As they progressed with their research on the Emerald Tablet, the liquid would probably grow stronger. Then, the completed clone would be a vessel for his brother's soul and vestige that would someday return.

If there was one thing Yeon-woo was grateful to Bayluk for, it was that he had helped a lot with Jeong-woo's resurrection.

「 I want...to live! 」

Of course, that didn't mean he planned on letting him go. Bayluk would be trapped in that fire forever.

"Can the Stone of Sin be controlled like that, too?" Yeon-woo was studying another item, wondering how to use the Stone of Sin efficiently.

Vieira Dune had become a superior divine being with just a single Soulstone. It was true Mother Earth had been willing to participate, but still, Yeon-woo was too slow compared to her. He was only skimming the surface of the stone's potential. If he could use it properly, not only could he gain the divinity he lacked, but also fulfill his final wish.

However, Brahm just smiled ruefully again and shook his head. "Unfortunately, the text doesn't have anything other than information on completing the Philosopher's Stone. There's nothing specific about using it, so you'll have to find more information."

"So that's how it is."

"Nothing else can be done."

"I'll have to find a path to the Black King's darkness and search for the rest of the Emerald Tablet."

"It'll be difficult...but necessary."

"Yes, sir." Yeon-woo nodded solemnly.

Brahm nodded back and changed the subject. "How do you plan on finding the darkness? I understand you're returning to the Tutorial, but don't you need the Bureau's permission for that?"

"Yes. That's what I plan to do."

"But...you probably know already; the Bureau despises you. Even with the system, they're also just people."

Yeon-woo had been involved in the destruction of three stages and had recently caused a great war. Thanks to him, disorder had spread throughout the Tower, affecting even the heavenly world. The Bureau was already so busy, and now they'd have to watch out for the heavenly world as well.

If he asked for permission to enter the newly opened Tutorial, the Bureau would be furious. If Yeon-woo caused trouble there, the new round would become useless.

"I have to go to the Bureau and explain my situation politely and reasonably."

Brahm felt like the words "politely" and "reasonably" had another meaning. "Won't they try to avoid you?"

"I'll make it so they can't." Yeon-woo grinned. "There are a lot of ways, right?"

'Looks like another stage is going to be destroyed.' Brahm wished luck to the Guardians who'd have to work overtime again soon.