Chapter 760: One-Man Show (12)

(Munch munch)

“……”

(Crunch crunch)

[…….]

(Gulp!!)

“……Hmm.”

The eggshell constantly vibrated, and noisy eating sounds echoed from within.

The Guardian Spirit Beast showed a different reaction every time it picked at various things, as if truly enjoying its meal.

[Master, this isn’t going to work?]

Davi, who had returned to Lennok’s shoulder, glanced back and said.

[Now that I look, it’s not picky at all. Could that immortal have lied?]

“……”

A series of exploratory tests to investigate the Guardian Spirit Beast’s preferences.

Before feeding it the diluted Elixir and observing the changes, various catalysts and snacks were given as a trial.

And surprisingly, the Guardian Spirit Beast eagerly devoured everything Lennok offered.

Nearly half of the items prepared for the Guardian Spirit Beast had already disappeared.

This reaction was completely different from what Dylan had described – that it was extremely picky.

Davi, looking suspiciously at the Guardian Spirit Beast, hopped onto the eggshell.

Tapping the shell with its front paws, Davi began interrogating the inside of the eggshell.

[Are you just pretending to enjoy it because Master’s here?]

(……?!)

It jumped in surprise, quickly twisting its body to signal a denial.

But Davi, as if unable to comprehend, tilted its head while looking at the spirit snacks the Guardian Spirit Beast had devoured.

[Strange. How can it possibly enjoy these snacks…?]

“It seems you’re the picky one, actually.”

As Lennok said this, he subtly grabbed Davi’s tail, which was sniffing towards his phone battery.

With Davi dangling from its five tails, Lennok fell into contemplation.

“It eats everything well, whether it’s imbued with magic or not. This complicates the plan…”

The items Lennok fed the Guardian Spirit Beast weren’t just catalysts, spirit snacks, or various herbs.

It also seemed to enjoy artifacts like necklaces and even storage boxes, things normal creatures couldn’t possibly consume.

Isn’t this completely different from the picky eating habits Dylan described?

Could the Guardian Spirit Beast have been deliberately pretending to be picky?

As Lennok pondered this discrepancy, Davi suddenly spoke as if something had occurred to it.

[Ah, maybe it’s because Master is directly giving it the snacks?]

“An interesting perspective. Is it a matter of who gives the food?”

[From my perspective, as someone who eats Master’s phone battery, other people’s batteries aren’t really appealing.]

Davi, hanging upside down, waved its front paws as if it had realized something important.

[It means for the Guardian Spirit Beast too, what matters might be who’s feeding it!]

“How commendable.”

As Lennok gripped Davi’s tail and chided it, the Guardian Spirit Beast, having seemingly finished its meal, slowly tilted the giant egg backward.

This was unusual behavior, not seen before. Could eating the spirit snacks have caused some reaction?

The moment Lennok focused intensely on the Guardian Spirit Beast’s movements and amplified his arcane sight.

(Zzzzz)

[It’s sleeping?]

“……”

Thinking about it, he had fed it quite a lot of leftover items and artifacts.

No matter how strong the Guardian Spirit Beast’s appetite, it should be full by now.

But to think it would fall back asleep right after filling its belly, even in front of Lennok.

It was an outcome where he couldn’t decide whether to accept it positively, thinking it was just growing, or to worry about not having figured out the Guardian Spirit Beast’s true nature.

“Still, the magic power felt inside the egg has definitely changed. It’s not just eating, it’s growing little by little…”

The amount of magic power had swelled compared to when he first arrived with Dylan, and somehow, the eggshell seemed to be glistening with oil.

In any case, since the Guardian Spirit Beast has its origins in the Ouroboros magic system, feeding it artifacts or catalysts might eventually show results.

Thinking so, Lennok retrieved the items and catalysts he hadn’t yet fed the Guardian Spirit Beast and put them away.

“Let’s stop here. Waking the sleeping Guardian Spirit Beast and feeding it more probably won’t get any reaction.”

[So you’re just going to leave it like this?]

“No, this wasn’t the original purpose of the experiment, was it?”

Answering thus, Lennok took out the diluted Elixir and reached out his hand towards the eggshell lying on its back.

Whoosh…!!

The magic power coiling around Lennok intensely undulated for a moment, making his clothes flutter violently.

The moment the golden double helix, starting from his fingertips, rotated and bit its own head and tail, the Ouroboros magic system activated.

Whoosh!!

Immediately after, a massive golden halo floated behind Lennok’s back.

[Master?]

Lennok was now rotating his magic power with both of his Mystic Eyes opened.

Aside from holding a golden glowing vial in one hand, it wouldn’t be strange if he immediately entered battle.

“Davi. Observe the flow of the barrier from outside, and notify me immediately if there’s an intruder.”

[What are you going to do?]

Lennok opened his mouth, leaving Davi clinging to his head in confusion.

“After feeding it the diluted Elixir, I plan to share consciousness with the Guardian Spirit Beast and directly observe its inner world.”

Answering thus, Lennok carefully touched the Guardian Spirit Beast’s egg with both hands.

“Since the foundational spiritual body is the Phoenix Scroll’s consciousness, it’s highly likely that the Guardian Spirit Beast also has its own consciousness space.”

The Phoenix Scroll, which became the Guardian Spirit Beast’s foundation, was also an entrance to the Hall of the Sun, the consciousness space of the Blaiver Magic Tower.

Considering that, it’s highly likely that the Guardian Spirit Beast also possesses its own unique consciousness space.

Lennok, thinking this, intended to directly manifest the Ouroboros magic system and forcibly share the Guardian Spirit Beast’s consciousness.

“Since the Guardian Spirit Beast is based on my magic power and will, it will be able to fully benefit from the Elixir’s effects.”

Lennok said this as he slowly poured the diluted solution into the cracked parts of the eggshell.

“Immediately after consumption, in the brief moment its magic power stabilizes, I’ll infiltrate its subconscious. Establishing the most stable state to peer in without backlash and return.”

Wooooosh!!!

Without waiting for Davi’s reply, Lennok carefully injected the Elixir, observing the egg’s form with his Mystic Eyes.

The golden liquid of the diluted Elixir slowly seeped into the cracks of the egg.

The moment Lennok’s magic power made contact with the unknown, curled-up form inside.

Lennok’s consciousness, with his Mystic Eyes of Possibility and Revelation simultaneously activated, was instantly sucked into the egg.

Fwoosh!!!

The consciousness of a spirit body, asleep in an impenetrable darkness.

His own presence, with his hand on the egg, overlapped with the sensations from beyond the consciousness, blurring the boundary.

Peering into the memories or subconscious of other beings had become quite familiar to him by now.

Mixing in the techniques he remembered, he navigated through the Guardian Spirit Beast’s consciousness.

An intense, boundless gluttony and curiosity.

A very powerful golden will, whose origin even the spirit beast itself did not know.

Even an imprint, close to instinct, that it should not yet emerge from within the eggshell.

Passing through all the information the spirit beast normally saw and heard, Lennok’s eyes gleamed as he reached the very root of its subconscious.

This was because he felt a distinct, alien emptiness underlying the foundation of its consciousness, unlike anything before.

‘There’s something here, after all.’

He had considered that there might be something based on the Phoenix Scroll of the Seven Great Magic Tower Lords.

However, he had refrained from rashly approaching its foundational consciousness, considering it dangerous given that the Guardian Spirit Beast had only just been born, but Lennok himself didn’t have much time to spare.

Aside from juggling various businesses and research, he might have to leave Vulcan again soon.

With no telling when things would conclude, he needed to take care of what he could in advance.

‘Gathering the indiscriminately scattered mental imprints and constructing them into images. Filtering and organizing only the information that can be perceived visually, and then arranging it according to the magnitude of the will…’

He understood the sensation of peering into others’ memories and consciousness from the Ascension Gate in Machina.

By recreating the sensation of reorganizing scattered memories, he could first glimpse the root of the spirit beast’s consciousness, which it wasn’t aware of.

The moment he gathered the fragments scattered beyond the subconscious and output them as visual information, like fitting together a puzzle.

Fwoosh!!!

Lennok stood before a colossal, endless plain.

“……”

Beneath his feet was a hard stone floor.

A vast, desolate plain, with sparse grass roots protruding, bearing the clear traces of desolation.

A landscape stretching so far into the distance that the blurred sky and horizon were barely visible.

Was this barren plain, with nothing else visible around, the appearance of the Guardian Spirit Beast’s consciousness space?

Lennok, who had been silently gazing at the plain, slowly began to walk, looking around him.

Feeling the warm breeze from afar, Lennok murmured.

“Is it because the magic tower hasn’t been properly completed yet?”

A vastly different scene from the Altar of the Sun that existed in Blaiver Magic Tower.

He couldn’t distinguish if it was because the magic tower wasn’t properly constructed yet, or if he hadn’t intervened in the tower’s consciousness world.

It would be good if he could consult Tatiana, but she also didn’t know much about the authority of a Tower Lord.

Here, he had no choice but to push through and find out for himself.

“Where should I go first…?”

A vast plain with nothing visible around.

All he felt was a warm breeze blowing from a distant place.

The only noteworthy thing was that the wind blew at a rather regular pace.

It didn’t have a consistent pattern or tendency as if calculated, but it felt quite regular to the senses.

If this was the only variable given in this plain, perhaps the essence of this consciousness world also lay in this wind.

The problematic part was which of the two directions indicated by the wind he should head.

The direction the wind was blowing from, and the direction the wind was moving away to.

Once one direction was chosen, it couldn’t be changed for a while.

The time he could spend in the consciousness world was limited, so he had to choose well now to achieve meaningful results.

“……”

Lennok, deep in thought, gazed intently at the stone floor beneath his feet.

His eyes, which had been wandering through his memories for a long time, refocused.

“I see. But why…?”

He tilted his head as if more questions had arisen, but nonetheless, Lennok soon chose a direction and began to walk.

In the consciousness world, distance and time perception were variables based on subjective criteria.

Lennok’s steps seemed to quicken, and soon he was gliding rapidly across the plain, covering dozens of meters at a time.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!

His speed increased to the point where everything around him blurred into white lines, even though he was just walking slowly.

But even amidst this, he constantly checked the wind’s direction as he moved.

After some time quickly traversing the plain, choosing one of the wind’s directions, something began to appear beyond the horizon.

Thump, thump, thump!!!

A colossal structure that appeared to be meticulously built.

Altars inscribed with numerous strange murals, as if embodying an ancient city.

Before he knew it, every landscape that entered his sight was filled with the traces of a magnificent civilization.

But unlike the mysterious ancient city, meticulously and beautifully constructed, no human presence could be felt within it.

A civilization built by human hands, yet a ghost city with no humans remaining.

But Lennok, knowing this full well, continued to move with the wind.

Whoooosh…!!

Inside the ancient city’s massive plaza.

The center of a storm, where wind constantly raged, exiting the city.

Within it, something so immense its form was hard to discern lay curled up and fast asleep.

Lennok silently gazed at the entity, then finally opened his mouth.

“I knew I’d find you if I followed the direction the wind was blowing from.”

[…]

The warm breeze Lennok felt from beyond the plain was not merely a natural phenomenon.

It was the slow breathing of someone deep in slumber.

That alone flowed as a warm wind, sweeping across this entire colossal consciousness world.

The fact that it wasn’t perfectly regular but still blew consistently was only possible because it was the exhalation of someone unimaginably vast.

“For the consciousness of a newly born spirit beast, its scale and breadth were excessively vast. It was a level that wouldn’t make sense unless someone else was adding their consciousness to it.”

The hard stone floor he saw immediately upon opening his eyes.

He didn’t recognize it at first, but perhaps because he had recently conversed about events related to The Clown, he quickly recalled it.

Thanks to that, he knew there would be an answer if he went in the direction the wind was blowing, so he could say he was lucky.

However, such basis for speculation and logic amounted to nothing the moment he faced the slumbering entity there.

An overwhelming presence, so immense that even when his conjecture turned into certainty, he barely registered it.

A Transcendent, curled up in the middle of the city, breathing wind into the consciousness world with just its own breath.

“Then, may I ask why you are slumbering within my Guardian Spirit Beast’s consciousness?”

Beyond the boundless consciousness world.

In the middle of an ancient, now-forgotten city of civilization located on its outskirts.

A massive snake, hundreds of meters long, lay quietly asleep with its eyes closed.

Dark scales that absorbed light, and a muscular, solid, thick body.

Even just quietly inhaling and exhaling, its breath became a storm, sweeping through the city and turning into a gale.

[I am not within you, pitiful wizard.]

The moment Lennok slowly tilted his head, a low telepathic message echoed from the snake, which had given no answer until now.

[You have entered my consciousness, awakening a beast that was barely asleep. Do you not yet realize?]

With those words, slowly opening green pupils fixed on Lennok.

[That this strange encounter is no coincidence.]

“……”

Even though it wasn’t a physical entity, and they were facing each other by sharing consciousness, the overwhelming presence was undeniable.

A great Transcendent whose survival could not be guaranteed the moment one encountered it.

But Lennok knew he had already faced this being once before.

The conclusion of the grand operation that began to launch the fallen Ascendant Kebaek beyond the Outer Sea.

The snake guarding the Well, the gate existing on the boundary between the world and the Outer Sea.

The Spirit Serpent, at the apex of all food chains in the Southern Jungle.

A Transcendent suffering from forgetfulness, having lost its mission over hundreds of years.

Ascendant Pyeonram.

The monster that scattered more powerful force than anyone else from the Well, had coiled itself beyond the Guardian Spirit Beast’s consciousness world.