The Lord Who Levels Up by Devouring - Chapter 343

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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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Chapter 343. Archive of Truth (2)
The Archive of Truth.
The last place where Iliana was sighted.
Within this archive lay every character that existed and every possible combination that could be formed from them.
Whatever sentence one could imagine.
It was bound to exist somewhere within this archive.
Therefore, there was no book that did not exist in this archive, regardless of its content.
Theories yet to be revealed to the world.
Books not yet published.
Prophecies about the future.
And even the complete truth that formed the very foundation of this world.
Every expressible piece of knowledge and every possible piece of information existed entirely within this archive.
But existence alone.
Did not mean one could actually find it.
Nearly all of this archive’s contents were….
No, practically every book was garbage written in nonsensical words.
I surveyed the archive’s landscape once before asking.
“Why does this archive even exist?”
All character combinations that exist in the world are infinite.
And thus, the books within the Archive of Truth are also infinite.
Therefore, even if the Archive of Truth contained all the world’s information, the probability of finding desired information was 0%.
I knew this firsthand from experiencing a Hidden Quest with [0% Success Rate].
That truly doesn’t work.
It’s impossible.
In other words, the Archive of Truth was utterly.
Just a completely useless archive.
“It exists to demonstrate its own uselessness.”
Gwendolyn spoke.
Her words seemed as if she had read my thoughts.
“Have you perhaps seen the inscription written at the main entrance of the Magic Tower?”
“Do you mean the main entrance of Langritd Magic Tower?”
“Yes.”
I recalled the inscription I had seen at the main entrance.
[Place no limits on curiosity. However, infinity is exempt.]
“…Is that not it?”
“That’s right. Then do you know who engraved that inscription?”
I had heard about this from Iliana before.
From what I heard back then, it was probably.
“I understand it to be Arcanis Rilsein.”
“Precisely.”
Gwendolyn clapped her hands together and continued speaking.
“Arcanis Rilsein inscribed it upon the main gate when he built Langritd Magic Tower.”
Arcanis Rilsein, the first Mage.
He was also the original founder of Langritd Magic Tower.
And the reason he had carved such words into the gate.
“Arcanis Rilsein forbade the pursuit of infinity.”
But.
“The Mages never ceased their attempts to explore infinity.”
What kind of beings were Mages if they would abandon such a pursuit?
Above all, it is human nature to desire most what one is told not to do.
“The Mages attempted to explain and study infinity through the framework of arcane magic. But regardless of their success, they caused countless problems.”
Cases of opening uncontrollable dimensional rifts.
Catastrophic events born from rampant energy surges.
The outbreak of plagues that destroyed the cycles and order of nature.
The birth of entities of unknown origin, and so forth.
None of the Mages and arcanists who pursued infinity met a good end.
“So Arcanis wished to teach them directly.”
“Teach them directly… what do you mean?”
“How foolish the pursuit of infinity truly is.”
Gwendolyn turned her gaze.
Looking toward the endless depths of the Library stretching before her, she spoke slowly.
“Truth is not always the right answer, so sometimes wisdom lies in knowing how to turn away from it.”
In that sense, no creatures were more foolish than Mages.
For Mages would relentlessly dig into truth, even if it were poison itself.
“Arcanis wished to make them understand how meaningless the concept of infinity truly is.”
One cannot imagine what one has never experienced.
And knowledge gained only through experience is not knowledge at all—it is experience.
In the end, Arcanis sought to prevent future Mages from pursuing infinity by allowing them to experience it directly.
“He created the Archive of Truth here.”
A space containing books in infinite arrangement.
Yet a place where finding even a single meaningful book—let alone truth itself—is impossible.
“Infinity serves as a warning letter, telling you that you have strayed onto the wrong path in your journey toward truth. He hoped you would come to understand its meaninglessness on your own.”
In other words, the Archive of Truth was not established to reveal truth.
It was a mechanism designed to make one realize how foolish the pursuit of infinity truly is.
If it was built with such intention.
I could accept it.
But precisely because of that, something made even less sense.
“What was Iliana hoping to learn here? Or rather, what could possibly be learned in such a place?”
I had no idea what Iliana wanted to discover.
But whatever she sought.
The probability of finding the information I desired was zero percent… or so I thought.
“But it’s not entirely impossible.”
Gwendolyn opened her mouth carefully.
“Magic that doesn’t exist in reality has actually been discovered here, and there are cases where theories found here have been put into practical use.”
“Is that truly the case?”
“Yes. Though it’s extremely rare.”
I pulled a random book from the nearest shelf.
===
Therefore, if one swallowed the needle.
That silence is not it.
The paragraph merely flows in that direction.
===
…How could this possibly be considered a practical theory?
I could agree that it doesn’t exist in reality.
“Oh! You’re incredibly fortunate!”
This too was a case of good fortune.
At least it maintained the form of sentences, and even if it made no sense, there was meaning to it.
“We should preserve this in the Archive rather than discard it.”
Gwendolyn received the book carefully.
I tilted my head and asked.
“What is the Archive?”
“It’s a place where only meaningful books are collected separately. Whether the contents are understood or not, any book that at least makes sense goes there.”
And.
“It’s also the last place I saw Iliana.”
Gwendolyn moved forward, gesturing for me to follow.
* * *
Archive within the Library of Truth.
“This is it.”
The place I followed Gwendolyn to was a space clearly demarcated from the rest.
The bookshelves were tall, but they did not stretch infinitely.
The books contained within were limited enough to take in at a glance.
Yet they were not few in number.
The books packed densely into each shelf easily numbered in the tens of thousands.
The scale far surpassed that of Langritd Magic Tower’s Library Section.
In other words, it possessed a collection greater in both size and scope than any library on The Continent.
And yet it remained finite.
“Would you wait a moment? I’ll put this book away and return.”
Gwendolyn took the book she had brought and disappeared deeper inside.
It seemed there was a system to how things were organized.
I waited for Gwendolyn to return.
I pulled a book from the nearby shelf.
====
Hello, this is Ujungnanguin.
Recently, we’ve encountered an error where incorrect chapters were being uploaded repeatedly.
Upon investigation, we confirmed that the error occurred during the scheduled upload process.
However, despite having sufficient time to correct the issue, we failed to do so repeatedly.
There is no excuse I can offer.
.
.
I sincerely apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused.
====
…It was definitely different.
Unlike the books I’d seen before, every sentence here was complete.
The grammar was also correct.
In other words, everything made sense, but—
‘What is this supposed to mean?’
I turned the page.
Then, a voice came from beside me.
“The books over there all have complete sentence structures.
It was Gwendolyn.
Her hands were empty, as if she’d finished storing away the book she’d been carrying.
“Grammatically, there’s nothing wrong with them, and they’re readable without difficulty, but their meaning is incomprehensible.”
I looked down at the book.
It certainly made sense.
Yet I couldn’t interpret its meaning.
“That’s why this book nearly disappeared.”
“You mean to say it’s language?”
“Yes. In the past, there was an opinion that only proper books should be kept, and all the rest should be destroyed.”
….
“The idea was that by eliminating useless books one by one, we could find the book containing absolute truth.”
I tilted my head and asked.
“Does that make any sense?”
And for good reason—the number of books in the Archive of Truth is infinite.
No matter how many finite numbers you remove from infinity, infinity’s magnitude doesn’t decrease by even one.
“Exactly. It was all futile effort.”
Gwendolyn laughed briefly and spoke.
“So now we’re searching for a catalog of the Library Section instead.”
“A catalog, you say?”
“Yes. The Archive of Truth should contain a book that lists all the books within it, and if we find that, we could easily obtain the knowledge we seek.”
“I see.”
…In any case, Mages were Mages.
Their ideas were ingenious.
But that was where it ended.
“Of course, the probability of finding it approaches zero percent.”
Yet they persisted in their pursuit of truth without surrendering.
…In any case, Mages were Mages.
Well, regardless.
“What book were you reading here, Iliana?”
“I’m not sure exactly which one… but it’s this way.”
Gwendolyn moved deeper into the Archive within the Library of Truth.
* * *
Gwendolyn came to a halt before a particular bookshelf.
The entire shelf was densely packed.
But one section stood conspicuously empty.
…It was Iliana’s doing.
If Gwendolyn’s words were true, that is.
I expanded my senses.
But I could not detect Iliana’s presence.
I questioned Gwendolyn again.
“What sort of books does this shelf contain?”
“Ah…”
Gwendolyn scanned the shelf once before answering.
“We keep only conceptually complete works here. There’s no precise categorical classification, but the books contain arguments and structures that possess closure.”
Gwendolyn pointed to the middle section of the shelf.
“The middle is mostly metaphysics. The upper portion contains magical theory. The lower section holds works in speculative essay form.”
I gazed once more at the empty space.
The book Iliana had taken must certainly fall within that category.
‘Yet I haven’t the faintest idea what any of this means.’
True to form for Iliana.
My brain cells had begun to seize merely from hearing the categories, let alone the actual content.
It was at that very moment.
“…Hm?”
Gwendolyn suddenly tilted her head in puzzlement.
She stood motionless, staring at the shelf.
“What is the matter?”
“Ah, well…”
Gwendolyn cocked her head as if something seemed amiss.
“There’s a book here I’ve never seen before.”
“…A book you’ve never seen before?”
“Yes.”
This time, it was my turn to tilt my head in confusion.
“Do you remember all the books here?”
“Ah, not all of them. I do remember the sections I visit frequently.”
Gwendolyn laughed sheepishly.
“Since I’m also the deputy archivist, and more importantly, the books in this Archive within the Library of Truth hardly ever change.”
….
“In fact, this section only contains books that truly make sense, so there’s absolutely no change at all.”
Books that make sense in the Archive of Truth are exceedingly rare.
The books here are rare among those rare few.
Zero percent probability of change.
It was right to consider it essentially unchanging.
In other words, this was no coincidence.
The likelihood that this was a book Iliana had found and a clue she had left behind was extraordinarily high.
“Which book is it?”
“This one here.”
Gwendolyn reached out her hand.
A pristine book without a speck of dust came into her grasp.
I immediately examined the book’s contents.
====
In the distant past, ages beyond reckoning.
There was one who opened the wellspring of all knowledge.
He divided the stars and dimensions, tore through the seams of the world, and peered within.
Thus at last he could touch the boundary of truth.
He did not retreat before that boundary.
Rather, he delved deeper still.
More relentlessly did he burrow until he could stand before truth itself.
He asked truth a question.
‘What is the most perfect state that existence can attain?’
But truth remained silent.
He asked again.
‘Where lies the ultimate purpose of existence?’
But truth did not even stir.
He did not cease.
His question became obsession, and obsession transformed into coercion.
Then at last, truth opened its mouth.
‘Pitiful mayfly, child of chance, child of suffering. Why do you not know that silence is mercy for you? Why do you force me to speak such cruel truths?’
‘That is something you can never achieve. So ask no more. Seek not to know. Truth is without mercy, and enlightenment is no salvation.’
Truth turned away.
But he did not retreat.
After a long silence, truth spoke once more.
‘Foolish and dangerous one, hear me. This is the far side of the world. A curse and an answer bestowed upon you who have reached the boundary of truth.’
And truth spoke.
====
The story continued into the next chapter.
I turned the page.
It was then.
A presence brushed against my heightened senses.
Just for a moment.
-Truth is not always the right answer, so sometimes wisdom lies in knowing how to turn away from it.
An eerie voice whispered past my ear.

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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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