Level -99 Archmage - Chapter 63

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 63. The Mystery Codex
In the Abyss, a Name holds tremendous significance.
Whatever it might be, a Name serves as a measure of one’s Grade—a symbolism incomparable to anything else.
This is why Creators hide their true names and use only Pen Names.
Names carry power, and when crafting an Abyss tied to a Pen Name, one can wield far greater authority.
Just as Adora had now gained the Pen Name “Creator of Death,” she would command vastly amplified effects when crafting an Abyss related to death itself.
If even the Creators who command the Abyss are so bound by names, what of the Abyss’s objects?
‘Arrogance and star. The combination of those two words is certainly no ordinary pairing.’
A blue jewel: the Star of Arrogance.
Park Chan-woo had never encountered a treasure of this kind before.
He had opened countless boxes and claimed countless rewards, yet he had never seen an object bearing such a name combination.
Certainly, there were quite a few pieces of equipment bearing the name of arrogance.
But items with the word “star” attached were virtually nonexistent throughout the entire Abyss.
In truth, it was far more special than anything merely named for arrogance.
It could hardly be otherwise.
‘There are no stars in the Abyss.’
In the realm called the Abyss, ‘stars’ do not exist.
An object bearing the name of ‘star’ in a starless world?
It was unthinkable.
The demons of the Abyss know nothing of a star’s beauty.
Their imaginations were impoverished and narrow-minded to the extreme—there was no chance they would ever inscribe the name ‘star’ upon a jewel.
And yet, every object that bore the name ‘star’ had displayed enough presence to shake the world.
‘The Star’s Magic Staff… a staff inscribed with Meteor magic, no less.’
For instance, the staff wielded by the man who had changed classes to ‘Star Mage.’
The Star’s Magic Staff!
He was the only Mage who could wield Meteor.
True, the first time he used it, he destroyed an area roughly ten times the size of the Korean Peninsula and caused five million casualties before being vaporized along with it—but the sheer destructive power had been breathtaking.
Park Chan-woo clenched his fist lightly, recalling the spectacle of that moment.
‘The Star’s Guide. That was certainly an object as well.’
The transforming weapon known as the Star’s Guide was no exception.
The Star’s Guide was a weapon capable of altering its form freely, and since its user was a soldier, she handled it in the shape of a gun.
The problem was that in an emergency, she changed its form to a nuclear weapon and it detonated, obliterating an entire Abyss in the process.
Those inside were said to have been annihilated entirely.
In short, objects bearing the name ‘star’—
‘All things bearing the name of star have one killing blow.’
…They had ‘one killing blow.’
Devastating destructive power.
That much he knew.
Which was why the jewel named the Star of Arrogance commanded his attention so thoroughly.
Honestly, it intrigued him far more than the Black Witch’s pinky finger.
It was not merely a matter of fabricating false credentials.
This was genuine.
A name capable of destroying everything!
And yet—
…The Star of Arrogance began to glow, and something emerged from within it.
‘An egg?’
It was indeed an egg.
A pristine white, perfectly round egg.
About the size of an adult male’s fist—roughly twice the size of a large chicken egg.
The only difference from an ordinary egg was—
‘It has wings.’
Flutter, flutter!
And it was actually flying.
The egg circled around him before diving—whoosh!—back into the blue jewel.
‘…Is that all?’
He stood stunned.
A winged egg had suddenly burst forth from the Star of Arrogance, made one loop, and vanished back inside.
He had expected some special effect to manifest.
That was when—
“What on earth was that? Did it really come from the Star of Arrogance?”
Adora, who had been watching, spoke in a grave tone.
As if she couldn’t believe it.
Park Chan-woo opened his mouth, still clutching the Star of Arrogance in his hand.
“Do you know anything about this?”
“The Star of Arrogance is a necklace that the Black Witch treasured dearly. But something like that has never—not once—burst out from inside it…”
The Black Witch’s necklace, then.
If the Black Witch had cherished it, it had to be no ordinary object.
Though he still had no idea what it was meant to do.
Or why a flying egg had suddenly shot out of it, for that matter.
‘I’ll figure it out once I use it.’
Park Chan-woo slowly put on the necklace.
And at that moment.
A brilliant roar erupted!
A blue aura began spiraling around his entire body.
Then it blazed up like blue fire.
《A refreshing energy envelops your entire body.》
《All mana has been restored.》
《The Mystery carried by the Star of Arrogance has been applied.》
《System ‘Settings – Status Window’ is updating.》
《You have discovered something that does not—or has not yet been discovered—in the Abyss!》
《You can now register ‘Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance’ in the Mystery Codex.》
《Achievement unlocked! ‘First Discoverer’.》
《Achievement unlocked! ‘Equipped Ultimate Grade for the First Time’.》
《From now on, you can view the information on ‘Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance’.》
Shiver—shiver—shiver!
Park Chan-woo’s entire body trembled.
All the mana he had expended had been restored in an instant.
But what was even more astonishing was the content that followed.
An unknowable Mystery had been applied, and his personal Status Window had updated.
Which meant only one thing.
‘The Star of Arrogance has never appeared in the Abyss before.’
That’s what it meant that the Mystery Codex had been filled.
An item never before discovered in the Abyss, unknown even to the demons themselves!
Something unknown even to the demon merchants who must know everything of the Abyss, unknown even to the Abyss’s lords!
An existence that is the very embodiment of Mystery, hidden in the shadow of the world.
That is what the Star of Arrogance truly was.
Was it not wondrous?
Especially for a human to fill the Mystery Codex—that was extraordinarily rare.
Park Chan-woo had only known that such a thing as the Mystery Codex existed.
Transcendents of other races.
He had heard that Beings of the Other Side among them—those who sought out Mysteries—were registered there.
Nothing else was known.
The reason was simple.
《Do you wish to register ‘Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance’ in the Mystery Codex?》
《Upon registering this name, you will gain the qualification to view the Mystery Codex.》
Only those who filled the codex could ever view the Mystery Codex.
‘Insane.’
Naturally, this was Park Chan-woo’s first time seeing such a message.
The only names that could be registered in the Mystery Codex were unknown to both humans and demons.
In other words, names that didn’t exist in the system.
This was far more than simply obtaining top-tier equipment.
‘This is huge!’
It was an incomparably greater achievement.
There was no need to hesitate.
Park Chan-woo nodded immediately.
《’Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance’ has been registered in the Mystery Codex!》
《Your name can be recorded alongside it.》
《Should you register your name, those who can view the Mystery Codex will come to know of you.》
《Furthermore, your Mystery Fame will rise greatly, proportional to the value of the registered object.》
《You need not register your real name.》
A prompt appeared alongside it, asking for the discoverer’s name.
Park Chan-woo stroked his chin, weighing the decision.
If Beings of the Other Side learned his true identity…
Revealing his real name could expose who he was entirely.
A pen name was necessary.
‘The Grand Mage.’
Park Chan-woo recalled his second identity.
The Grand Mage.
His dream, his aspiration, his ultimate goal.
And then.
《Your pen name for the Mystery Codex has been set to ‘The Grand Mage.’》
《’The Grand Mage’ has been registered as the discoverer of the Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance.》
《The total number of entries discovered in the Mystery Codex thus far is 976.》
More entries than he’d expected.
It meant that 976 Mysteries had been discovered so far.
Soon another window appeared.
【Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance (976)】
【Mystery Fame: 9,999】
【Date of Discovery: Abyss Era, 44,444,424】
【Discoverer: The Grand Mage】
A total of 976 entries including the one he’d just registered.
Park Chan-woo began slowly reviewing the earlier entries.
‘…Sephiro?’
Surprisingly, he saw Sephiro’s name among them.
Quite frequently, in fact.
He didn’t need to look far to find them.
【Spear That Tears Twilight (975)】
【Mystery Fame: 8,100】
【Date of Discovery: Abyss Era, 44,444,004】
【Discoverer: Sephiro】
【Shattered Hope (974)】
【Mystery Fame: 7,500】
【Date of Discovery: Abyss Era, 44,443,995】
【Discoverer: Sephiro】
【Beyond the Cosmos (973)】
【Mystery Fame: 7,777】
【Date of Discovery: Abyss Era, 44,443,989】
【Discoverer: Sephiro】
……
Most of the discoverers in the 900s were Sephiro.
Other names appeared only sporadically.
Clearly, Sephiro had been diligently filling the Mystery Codex with genuine dedication.
The shock of Sephiro’s appearance was only momentary before Park Chan-woo collected himself.
He steadied his mind and prepared for the final verification.
‘The Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance.’
It was time to learn its true nature.
The Mystery Codex had only recorded its name—no details about what it actually did.
Only the owner could know such things.
Park Chan-woo looked down at the pendant again.
And then he coughed sharply.
Unable to suppress it, he let out an involuntary gasp at the information that appeared.
* * *
……
In the Dragon God’s Palace.
Sephiro, who had been observing the cosmos from within, tilted his head slightly to one side.
《A new entry (976) has been registered in the Mystery Codex.》
A message that appeared without warning caught his attention.
After entry 975, no new Mystery had appeared for over four hundred years.
It meant there was nothing new left in any dimension, any universe.
Sephiro had come to the same conclusion and ended his quest to fill the Mystery Codex.
……976.
Something appeared that he had never found, never known.
Sephiro checked the Mystery Codex at once.
‘Ultimate Sacred Object, Star of Arrogance.’
And a name he’d never seen before burned itself into his vision.
Sephiro stroked his chin.
Quite a bit. Rather a lot. No—a great deal.
Interesting.
Living forever, bored and restless, he had once devoted roughly two hundred years to the task of ‘filling the Mystery Codex.’
Convinced that he could not abide ignorance of anything, he had discovered some hundred mysteries and succeeded in completing the tome.
After that, he had been certain it was finished.
Yet it seemed there was more.
There were still things unknown to him who was called the Dragon God.
That after spanning a gap of four hundred twenty years, a new ‘Mystery Codex’ should be filled—he never imagined it.
Sephiro gazed at the discoverer with interest.
“The Grand Mage?”
But the Grand Mage, of all things.
Was it not a name that seemed to provoke him, master of magic himself?
Who could it be?
Who was there who had discovered something that even Sephiro had not?
Moreover, the first to register under the name ‘Grand Mage.’
That was not all.
‘Mystery Fame: 9,999.’
Mystery Fame was reckoned as equivalent to the value of the thing discovered.
Of course, the assessment of value was not conventional.
It was not scored merely on the basis of strength and weakness.
Rather, the numbers were determined by weighing ‘potential’ or ‘particularity’ more heavily.
Among the ‘Mysteries’ Sephiro had uncovered, few exceeded ten thousand in value.
If even Sephiro had never done so, yet this first registrant approached ten thousand—
“……It seems I’ve picked up a rather amusing toy.”

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