Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 43

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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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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (43)

How Many Times Now

“I-I’ve already checked multiple times! There’s really nothing in the treasury!”

“That can’t be right.”

“Ugh…!”

Deep underground in the Orbes Royal Palace.

Following the Snow Flame Empress down here, there was indeed a massive treasury just as shown in the message window.

On the way here, the Snow Flame Empress said she couldn’t see anything in this place, but Lee Si-hyeok thought differently.

‘There’s definitely a core of an Origin Artifact somewhere here.’

According to her, the last place the Alchemy Association conducted research on the imitation world was somewhere in this royal palace.

If so, they wouldn’t have stored the core in some conspicuous place, so this was the only remaining location.

Only the sound of two sets of footsteps echoed quietly in the long corridor.

Lee Si-hyeok activated 『Eyes that Pierce the Essence』 and thoroughly scanned the surroundings.

“How about looking for Elec instead? If what you said earlier is true, Elec should know something.”

Meanwhile, the Snow Flame Empress spoke anxiously.

He had told her about Elec earlier.

His speculation was that Elec was probably managing this imitation world right now.

When the Snow Flame Empress recalled her memories at those words, Elec was apparently a Junior Alchemist who had just passed the Alchemy Association entrance exam at the time.

That gave credibility to Lee Si-hyeok’s reasoning.

However…

“How would I know where Elec is? When I went to look for him at the workshop, he had already disappeared.”

…For some reason, Elec had vanished without a trace.

At this, the Snow Flame Empress frowned and let out a small sigh.

“It can’t be helped then. So, did you find anything? Any clues?”

“Well, a little.”

“A-As expected!”

Indeed, to Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes with his skill activated, he was beginning to predict where the core might be located.

But before moving immediately, he stopped walking for a moment.

“Why are you suddenly stopping?”

“I should do what needs to be done, shouldn’t I?”

Leaving the puzzled Snow Flame Empress behind, he activated the skill he had obtained from achieving the Achievement earlier.

[『Subspace』 is activated.]

Then the surrounding area seemed to ripple for a moment, and a purple hole appeared in the air a step away.

It looked like a greatly miniaturized Gate.

“What is this…?”

The Snow Flame Empress’s eyes widened.

Lee Si-hyeok’s reaction wasn’t much different from hers.

He was momentarily filled with tremendous curiosity about this unfamiliar form of mana design, but since there was no time right now, he continued with his next action.

“Um, Snow Flame Empress.”

“…”

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to take some of these items with me. Considering what’s ahead, it seems like things might get dangerous.”

“…”

“They’re all precious artifacts. What if they get lost if we just leave them here like this? And, um. Why aren’t you answering?”

As he spoke while moving busily, the Snow Flame Empress, who had been staring blankly, muttered in an incredulous tone.

“…You’re already stealing them, so why are you asking?”

“Ahem.”

That’s true. Lee Si-hyeok avoided her gaze with an embarrassed expression.

In fact, he had been busily moving around and stuffing various treasures into the subspace for a while now.

Even the display cases with tremendous seals were useless before Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes. So there was nothing particularly stopping him.

Still, what he had said to the Snow Flame Empress wasn’t a lie, so he spoke as if feeling wronged.

“Stealing? I’m safekeeping them for you because it might be dangerous.”

“I don’t care, so just hurry up.”

The Snow Flame Empress snorted in response.

“Huh? Is it really okay? For me to take them?”

“I’m uneasy about it, but I’ll trust you. Even if I tried to stop you, you wouldn’t listen anyway. Just from how you set fire to the royal palace, you’re already beyond comprehension.”

“I didn’t actually set a fire though…”

Anyway.

Having received permission, he quickly swept up all the treasures in the treasury.

Later on, the Snow Flame Empress even came forward to help directly.

‘I’ll have to analyze these one by one when I return to Earth.’

Since most of them were directly created by that Alchemy Association, they seemed like they would be tremendously helpful. This alone was an enormous harvest.

And they arrived at what seemed to be the middle passage of the treasury.

“This place…”

The Snow Flame Empress swallowed hard as she looked at the wall.

There hung a group photo of the Alchemy Association, faces that were all too dear to her.

“I can sense the world’s core beyond this.”

Honestly, Lee Si-hyeok’s words were hard to believe.

Even though she knew he had insane talent for magical engineering, this group photo was in a place where she had lingered many times.

But their final treasure was sleeping beyond this?

“…I need to check it out right away.”

Instead of answering, Lee Si-hyeok activated 『Mana Sensitivity』.

Soon after discovering the hidden door, he used 『Mana Control』 to release the multiple layers of seals one by one.

Though the skill’s rank itself was low compared to average, when Lee Si-hyeok’s unique thinking was added to it, the seals were broken in an instant.

—Clang!

With a loud noise, the sturdy wall began sliding to the side.

The hidden space was being revealed as if a door was opening.

“It, it was real.”

Lee Si-hyeok entered inside without hesitation, and the Snow Flame Empress also took a deep breath and followed him in.

“…”

When they confirmed the interior space, their eyes widened greatly.

Everything around was pure white, a space of pristine whiteness.

Everything was white except for the glass display case placed in the center.

And in the middle of it all.

“…Elec.”

Elec was waiting.

Lee Si-hyeok looked at him with heightened wariness.

Elec, holding a tea cup in his hand, was quietly gazing at Lee Si-hyeok and the Snow Flame Empress at the entrance, but his expression was different from usual.

He stood there saying nothing with a terribly indifferent face showing no emotion whatsoever.

“So you were here.”

Thud. The door they had opened suddenly closed.

Instead of answering, Elec took a sip of tea. The steam that always used to rise wasn’t visible now.

A completely cold tea cup. It seemed he had been waiting here for quite a long time.

After a brief moment, Elec’s lips finally parted.

“It’s been a long time, Princess.”

“…It has been a long time.”

His words were directed toward the Snow Flame Empress.

“How have you been? The last time I saw you was already fifteen years ago.”

“Fifteen years. Has only that much time passed in the outside world?”

“The outside… time?”

A sneer instantly crossed Elec’s lips.

“You must know that this place is a replica world, Princess. And that the timeline repeats endlessly. No matter how young you were back then, you should at least know that much.”

“…I know.”

“Then, which iteration of the timeline do you think this is?”

The question was thrown out casually.

The Snow Flame Empress’s shoulders trembled faintly. Lee Si-hyeok was equally shocked.

‘Come to think of it.’

It was something he hadn’t considered.

He had figured out that this was an endlessly repeating world, but he hadn’t thought to determine which repetition this current world was.

And the fact that Elec was asking such a question meant…

“…Does time flow faster here?”

Elec turned his gaze to Lee Si-hyeok and chuckled softly.

“You really are quick to grasp situations.”

If that statement was true, then all of Elec’s suspicious aspects made sense.

Despite being middle-aged, his peculiarly aged way of speaking, and the invisible years he occasionally mentioned.

All of it was traces of time accumulated through countless destructions.

“Just how many times has this been?”

“Well, I’m not sure myself. I got tired of keeping track anymore. I think the last time I counted was the six hundred and first time. Though that was quite a while ago too.”

“Gasp.”

The Snow Flame Empress let out a small scream.

While Lee Si-hyeok was also shocked, he quickly calculated the numbers in his head.

‘It takes roughly 3 months from the start of a timeline until destruction. So that means…’

…At least 150 years.

And since he said that was quite a while ago, it would be even more staggering.

Then, the horrified Snow Flame Empress collapsed to her knees.

“I’m, I’m sorry. It’s because I was irresponsible…!”

The guilt that had been building up seemed to finally explode. From Lee Si-hyeok’s perspective, she hadn’t really done anything wrong, yet she had been feeling tremendous responsibility from before.

However, Elec just stared at the Snow Flame Empress expressionlessly, not offering any response.

Lee Si-hyeok furrowed his brow and glared at Elec.

“Why did you approach me?”

“Hey now. Why is your tone suddenly like this? We haven’t even fought, yet you’re being needlessly aggressive. You’ve always been polite until now.”

It was natural for Lee Si-hyeok to be wary of Elec. He had been approaching while hiding his identity all this time.

When he just glared without answering, Elec shrugged his shoulders.

“Curiosity. When you repeat the same life for hundreds of years, you get bored enough to want to die. But then an outsider like you showed up, didn’t you? Nothing could be more entertaining.”

“…Is that all?”

“That’s how it started. But your skills turned out to be quite exceptional. So I tried teaching you various things.”

Elec took another sip of tea.

“Actually, I was the one who was more surprised.”

Then he gestured with his eyes toward the Snow Flame Empress sitting weakly.

“Who would have thought you had a connection with the Princess.”

“You noticed that too.”

“Of course! I had already figured out that the Princess had entered this timeline, but I never imagined it was because of you! I was screaming internally at the plaza.”

“…”

“I suppose this is all a connection formed in that place called Earth.”

Earth.

Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes narrowed at that word.

Looking back, wasn’t it because of the ‘Corridor of Selection’ at the GateTech Expo that Lee Si-hyeok had managed to reach this Orbes?

There, he had passed the hidden route called ‘Selection’ to earn qualification, and subsequently reached the Obsidian Mining Site.

He asked Elec about it.

“Ah, the Corridor of Selection?”

He closed his eyes briefly as if recalling something from long ago, then began to speak.

“Right, that existed. I remember now. You came here through that.”

Then he answered quite readily, surprisingly.

“I was a newcomer who had just been accepted into the Alchemy Association back then. So I wasn’t capable enough to participate in the seniors’ sacrifice. Simply put, I lacked sufficient mana in my body.”

So instead of sacrificing himself with the other alchemists, Elec remained alone to take on the role of managing the completed world.

“I had no idea such a long time would pass. If I had known, I probably would have somehow given my life alongside them.”

But since that wasn’t possible, he ended up remaining alone.

Elec diligently performed his assigned role.

“One of those tasks was opening dimensional gates to other dimensions.”

“…That dimension was Earth?”

“I didn’t deliberately connect to your dimension. It was just coincidence. There was no time, and I randomly selected a dimension where mana was just beginning to emerge.”

The next task was to install various arrangements on Earth.

These were arrangements to seek out someone who would discover this imitation world and revive Orbes.

The Corridor of Selection and the Obsidian Mining Site were fulfilling exactly that role.

“It couldn’t be too easy. We had to entrust someone with a task that even the Alchemy Association had given up on, and for that, strict standards were necessary.”

Thinking about it now, it was incredibly difficult.

In the Corridor of Selection, one had to pioneer hidden routes and acquire all three qualities.

And even after meeting those qualifications, one had to overcome the powerful brainwashing of the Obsidian Mining Site.

“But to think there was actually someone who passed through all that!”

Elec exclaimed admiringly while gazing at Lee Si-hyeok.

However, rather than feeling proud about it, Lee Si-hyeok recalled one point of doubt.

“The dimensional gate connecting to Earth. How did you open that?”

“You should know that yourself.”

“…What?”

That was the moment.

—Flash!

[The hidden function of 〈Pale Trace〉, the original of the 〈Hollow Trace〉 you created, is revealed!]

[Accordingly, the information for 〈Hollow Trace〉 will be modified.]

[The existing function ‘Spacetime Penetration Technique’ can now leap across dimensions as well.]

[This message is also shared with ‘Isaac Reynolds’, the current owner of the artifact.]

“…!”

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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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