24-Hour Friendly Market, Specializing in Dimensional Items - Chapter 149

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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24-Hour Friendly Market Specializing in Dimensional Items Episode 149

 

Episode 149. Trigger (1)

 

The spirit that Eldarin summoned to guide me to Berilsha was a bird named ‘Sylvester’ that possessed the power of wind.

 

Let me correct that – it was a supreme-grade spirit.

 

Eldarin apologized several times, saying he was sorry for not being able to provide a more comfortable method.

 

This was despite my reassurance that it was a safer method than me just falling straight down.

 

After hesitating several times, Eldarin handed me some kind of necklace, adding that it would enhance my affinity with spirits.

 

No one would know how tormented I was trying to suppress my greed after appraising it.

 

[Breath of Wind (S)

 

A necklace made from stone that fell from the altar by the elves of Aetheria who have received nature’s love for ages.

 

The wearer receives nature’s love and the protection of spirits.

 

It maximizes spirit affinity while ensuring a certain level of favor from spirits of all attributes.

 

It takes effect even in places where nature has turned its back, capable of awakening spirits that have lost their power and fallen asleep.

 

However, it cannot be used in dimensions where spirits have completely vanished.]

 

What he just handed me was an S-grade necklace!

 

Eldarin kept apologizing that the journey would take some time, but this was actually great.

 

What was there to be sorry about when he was giving me such an amazing necklace?

 

Anyway, having received an unexpected gift, I was now freely soaring through the sky on the bird’s back.

 

My mood had reached its peak.

 

It was even hard to consider Sylvester just a summoned creature, as the colors flowing through its transparent feathers were incredible.

 

No, the name itself was in a different league from the start.

 

No matter how I thought about it, it was unfair that you couldn’t ride such a stylish and cool wind spirit unless you were in Aetheria.

 

“Sylvester, there are no people who can use spirit power in my homeland. Why is that?”

 

I muttered while clinging tightly to the transparent bird’s neck.

 

“It seems your dimension has earned nature’s displeasure. Nature embraces and watches over us all, but is not generous to those who don’t appreciate its grace.”

 

Sylvester answered in a polite tone I’d heard somewhere before and banked into a glide.

 

I squinted my eyes to protect them from the stinging wind.

 

I was thinking of taking the necklace back and looking around to see if there might be any spirits nearby.

 

But then again, it would be a bit greedy to expect wind spirits or earth spirits in our country where we cut down mountains and build apartments.

 

‘Unless they were spirits of apartments, churches, or chicken restaurants.’

 

How many minutes had passed since I swallowed that nonsense instead of saying it out loud and squeezed my eyes shut?

 

A heavy voice resonated through the surrounding air.

 

“We’re almost there. I can see the place you wish to reach.”

 

“Already?”

 

Compared to traveling for hours on the Nokga Stream, this was incomparable – a few dozen minutes was practically like being in front of my house.

 

As I felt Sylvester slowly flapping his wings and reducing speed with my whole body, I lifted my head with anticipation.

 

The floating island of Berylsha, the city located at the very bottom of Aeteria, was now quite close.

 

I reflexively admired the miniature-like scenery of purple banners and emerald-colored roofs for just a moment.

 

“Ugh.”

 

I frowned.

 

To call it miniature-like, the presence of the black monstrosity rising beneath it was far too overwhelming.

 

“That thing…”

 

As if only now confirming it, even the composed Silvester trailed off his words in apparent confusion.

 

I had glimpsed it briefly while falling before, but seeing it up close, the Tower of Babel’s presence was even more tremendous.

 

A black, bumpy cone-shaped pillar that had grown through Berylsha’s floor like wildly growing vines.

 

I couldn’t even see anything resembling an entrance.

 

A bizarreness on a different dimension from our country’s Tower of Babel, which had the proper shape of a tower.

 

Even though we were looking at it from quite a distance, it was hideous enough to give me goosebumps.

 

Then Silvester suddenly stopped in mid-air.

 

Contrary to his leisurely movements of slowly flapping his wings, Silvester spoke firmly as if he wouldn’t approach any further.

 

“How terrible.”

 

“What is, its appearance?”

 

‘Well, that’s true.’

 

Even a spirit who uses noble and polite speech wouldn’t find it easy to maintain composure when seeing something like that.

 

Silvester even turned his head away in disgust.

 

I almost slipped and hastily grabbed onto his neck, causing Silvester to mutter with an obviously enduring tone.

 

“Can you not feel the vile aura flowing from that black pillar?”

 

“…You can feel an aura?”

 

I narrowed my brow and stared at the Tower of Babel once more.

 

But from the black cone that just looked disgustingly shaped, I couldn’t feel any kind of aura.

 

However, there’s no way Silvester, a supreme-grade spirit no less, would be talking nonsense.

 

‘But I can’t feel it.’

 

Perhaps it only affects life forms of this dimension?

 

Since I have Merchant’s Mark activated, I’m not someone who gets affected by dimensional elements in the first place.

 

Most importantly, I had come here with the grand goal of visiting the Tower of Babel in a dimension before it was destroyed.

 

The reason I readily accepted when I asked to ride Silvester was all because of this!

 

I subtly stroked Silvester’s feathers and suggested.

 

“Could we go just a little closer to take a look…”

 

“Impossible!”

 

Oh my, what a surprise.

 

At Silvester’s spirit as he even cut off my words while shouting, I shut my mouth tight.

 

“If you were to face that sinister aura any closer, you might become tainted by that darkness.”

 

It had even evolved from vile to sinister.

 

Just because I’m fine as an outsider doesn’t mean Silvester is fine too, so I couldn’t demand he take me there by force.

 

I scratched the back of my head and timidly protested.

 

“But both you and I are fine right now, aren’t we?”

 

“I am a spirit made of nature’s pure power. That’s why you’re also free from its influence. However, if a being with weak mental fortitude were to face that thing, they would surely become corrupted.”

 

…Wait a minute.

 

Does this mean that beings with weak mental fortitude could become corrupted if they receive the Tower of Babel’s aura?

 

If what Sylvester said is true, then the Tower of Babel is the source of corruption.

 

Sylvester added while increasing the distance a bit more.

 

“It’s truly a terrible yet seductive aura. The stronger one is, the more easily they would be influenced by that aura.”

 

As soon as I heard those words, all the ‘bosses’ from every scenario I had faced so far came to mind.

 

Falcon’s Dark Mage Perkinyes, Ganashia’s Agemor, Laoko’s Kraken.

 

Until now, I had suspected that the Tower of Babel might have been controlling them to destroy dimensions.

 

That it had originally outsourced some kind of work to those kinds of bastards.

 

“…So it wasn’t that, but the Tower of Babel was causing corruption?”

 

Selecting only beings who were strong enough to destroy dimensions, but mentally weak…?

 

No.

 

There’s no way the prerequisite of being strong but weak would apply.

 

The most effective bomb for devastating a dimension is that dimension’s strongest being.

 

The speculation that the board is designed so that only the strongest being in that dimension is affected seems more plausible.

 

Then it would mean that Babel selects dimensions to destroy, plants towers, and the evil aura emanating from the towers corrupts the strongest being to completely destroy the dimension.

 

‘Then our country’s final boss is Seo Jae-hyuk…?’

 

Suddenly, an absurd future flashed by where a crazed Seo Jae-hyuk destroys South Korea.

 

No, it is an absurd future, but.

 

‘It really could happen like that.’

 

Seo Jae-hyuk is considered the strongest hunter throughout the entire world.

 

If we can’t climb one more floor within the deadline set by Babel, Seo Jae-hyuk might split Earth in half someday.

 

Just worrying about dimensional destruction is overwhelming enough, but the perpetrator is none other than someone from our own country.

 

Who would have thought that coming to give out growth stickers would lead to discovering that Seo Jae-hyuk is scheduled to be the meteor that destroys Earth.

 

Somehow… no, it’s just blatantly ridiculous.

 

‘…Can’t I just tell Seo Jae-hyuk in advance?’

 

This seems like too difficult a fact for me to handle knowing alone.

 

Would it be okay to tell Park Ji-woon, who already shares secrets with me?

 

While I was sorting through my suddenly complicated thoughts with all these various concerns, my body suddenly tilted to one side.

 

“I can’t endure it any longer.”

 

As if it had been difficult to endure until now, Sylvester turned toward the bright blue sky.

 

“Let’s go to Berilsha.”

 

I wanted to ask just once more if we couldn’t get a little closer, but Sylvester quickly moved away from the position where the Tower of Babel was visible.

 

Vivid malice that he must have felt more nakedly as he was filled with pure natural power.

 

I couldn’t bring myself to demand that he approach closer and hugged Sylvester’s neck.

 

‘This isn’t a dream, is it?’

 

Could the things I just speculated really be true?

 

I let out a deep sigh.

 

For now… I think I need to inform them about Seo Jae-hyuk becoming a potential destroyer as part of my survey findings.

 

* * *

 

“I shall remain within your breath.”

 

Silvester, who had set me down in a quiet alley, uttered quite poetic words.

 

“…What do you mean?”

 

“I mean I’ll be resting inside your necklace. If you ever need to return to Floraban, just breathe into it and call for me.”

 

“Ah.”

 

I nodded while fiddling with the crude necklace hanging around my neck.

 

I had only been wearing Kienum’s watch, but now I had a necklace too.

 

Anyone who saw me would think I was serious about accessorizing.

 

‘So if I breathe into the Spirit’s Breath, the spirit will notice.’

 

I had been wondering whether to just go outside and re-enter when returning, but this was a very clean solution.

 

Really despising Berilsha, Silvester didn’t say another word and transformed into blue energy, seeping into the necklace.

 

Perhaps it was my imagination, but I felt a refreshing sensation from my neck.

 

Now, my presence that had been hidden by Silvester’s power would have returned to normal.

 

‘Just to be safe, let me put on the robe first.’

 

I pulled on the Shadow Knight Order’s robe that was working hard today and surveyed my surroundings.

 

Only after being left alone could I properly look around Berilsha.

 

My first impression was literally a wizard’s city that would appear in movies.

 

Medieval-style wooden and stone buildings were clustered together along winding alleys, with S-shaped roofs rising to different heights.

 

Purple banners fluttering in the wind contrasted with the emerald-colored roofs, above which white smoke from chimneys was billowing up in fluffy clouds.

 

It was a scene that looked like a wizard village from some fantasy movie had been transplanted here.

 

It had a different charm from Gearsgard’s machines, Glimmerstone’s gray landscape, and Floraban’s greenery.

 

The signs hanging throughout the alleys were carved with mysterious patterns, all glowing faintly.

 

Strange-colored smoke was rising from shop windows, and bundles of documents were flying around on their own, entering mailboxes.

 

Except for owls not delivering mail, it was just like a wizard world setting.

 

Recalling Brozen’s story, he had said the lineage of wizards was almost completely severed.

 

‘Well, a Gearsgard dwarf wouldn’t properly know about Berilsha.’

 

Since some engineers from Gearsgard had come over, I had expected it to be a city where magical engineering had developed.

 

But this really seemed like a city where magic lived and breathed.

 

Even the people were laughing and chatting so naturally.

 

As I entered a small plaza with a statue, I heard children’s laughter.

 

Children wearing emerald-colored hats were running around, while adults in ordinary clothing were taking leisurely strolls.

 

“This is strange….”

 

I whispered very quietly.

 

Perhaps because they had maintained neutrality for so long, they seemed to be one step removed from the war.

 

Maybe they were acting this way because they didn’t know about the hideous Tower of Babel attached to the ground below.

 

In any case, it was a very human-feeling city.

 

They seemed completely unaffected by the evil energy of the Tower of Babel that Silvester had so extremely despised.

 

Whether they gradually become tainted or remain safe because they’re completely outside the sphere of influence is unknown.

 

But considering that this dimension was staged as a scenario with the backdrop of being on the verge of destruction, the Tower of Babel’s influence must have already taken root in this city long ago.

 

‘Then who is the strongest being in Aetheria?’

 

The single trigger that would bring destruction to this dimension.

 

The ‘strongest in the dimension’ that I had never thought about before.

 

However, in the current situation, I couldn’t even tell which city the strongest was in, what kind of person they were, or even if they were human.

 

Glimmerstone was ruled out for now since it only had feeble alchemists.

 

The strongest in Floraban was probably Eldarin, who made all the decisions, but even that wasn’t certain.

 

Most importantly, I didn’t even know who the strongest beings in Verilshan or Gearsgard were…

 

That was when it happened.

 

‘…What?’

 

I looked down in surprise at the vibration I felt from my neck.

 

Kienum’s watch, which had remained quiet even when facing the Tower of Babel, was vibrating with all its might.

 

That meant it had detected a crisis looming over me.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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