Episode 103:
Tuk-tuk.
X touched a large rock with his foot.
“I think I’ve touched just about every rock...”
There was no such thing as finding a needle in the desert. X, sitting on a rock, put dried beef jerky in his mouth.
Tiroling!
A notification sounds, but confirmation is a luxury.
‘The ones that seemed most likely were these rocks.’
The stones that X had touched were all weathered buildings from an ancient kingdom. To be exact, it was the top of the building, but there was no response even after checking all the stones in the vast desert.
“Well then, is cactus next?”
Cacti growing sparsely!
That was the only thing that stood out. Part of me wanted to get up right away and pick that cactus that was so thorny in my eyes. The heavenly cooking effect was slowly coming to an end.
“After all the hard work, it’s time to eat.”
X, who prefers efficient labor, opened his inventory. Let’s raise your stats while cooking heavenly dishes! The purpose was to find new ingredients to add.
Then, an item stuck in a corner caught my eye.
Wait, why did I just think of it now! X took out the item and sighed.
“...diary!”
The diary of the ancient kingdom guardian defeated right here!
The diary probably contains memories of the day when the ancient kingdoms were destroyed by another being who was the cause of their destruction.
X took out a copy of Sioras’ interpretation. Diary of an Ancient Kingdom Guardian, a quest item. It seemed like it would give a hint to find the passage to the base in some way.
‘Let’s read it first.’
Okay. X unfolded the diary and the interpretation side by side.
I read the diary written in unknown characters line by line. X muttered softly.
“It feels like the warm sunlight will last forever.”
At that moment, the diary began to glow.
Shashashasha.
Unknown letters floated through the light, making my vision blurry. It may have been an embarrassing situation, but X smiled.
“...I found the hint!”
*
Total darkness.
Flash! X opened his eyes.
‘I thought the diary would do something!’
As expected, the diary was a quest item obtained in the Desert of Oblivion. It is also the item that started the Ancient Kingdom quest.
I don’t know what the situation was, but it certainly seemed like the quest was progressing.
‘More than that, where is this place?’
X looked around with squinted eyes. And it wasn’t long before I was shocked.
“...What is this big city?!”
No, it’s a huge city where even the word ‘big city’ is not enough!
It was a scale that could not be compared even with Arba, the capital of the Arba Kingdom.
All visible buildings towered into the sky, and waterways flowed between the streets.
Brilliant civilization!
X racked his brain and pulled out information about Fate.
However, there is no way that there is any information about a megacity that surpasses Arba. Then the answer came naturally.
“Ancient Kingdom.”
An ancient kingdom before its destruction.
Among them, it is the nation of the guardians of the ancient kingdom in the Desert of Oblivion.
X was looking at the ancient kingdom before its destruction through the Guardian’s diary.
X looked at his clothes.
‘It’s definitely a knight’s outfit.’
Now that I look at it, the sensations in my body felt awkward. It struck me that I had possessed the body of a knight from the past.
X first walked down the street.
‘It’s a diary that shows the past.’
Perhaps today, which seems so peaceful, will be the day of destruction.
X smiled bitterly.
“Anyway, I can’t believe it.”
But to carve the stigma of destruction on so many people in such a short period of time.
“It means there was a tremendous amount of preliminary work.”
What I could guess from the information I knew was that it was a rune stone. The basement of the royal palace was the most likely location for the runestone, so X ran to the royal palace.
The royal palace is getting closer. Subjects came running out from everywhere.
“Please save me!”
I was in great confusion due to a stigma that appeared out of nowhere.
X entered the palace amid chaos. I chased after the energy of another being that was growing at an uncontrollable speed.
Then I was able to find the stairs leading to the basement.
‘...I’ve never felt this much energy before.’
I have never felt the energy of another being so strong.
Despair, helplessness, emptiness, destruction... I felt like all kinds of negative emotions were taking over my body. But X wasn’t the type to be scared.
“I will watch you until the end with these two eyes.”
Because confirmation was essential in order to blow away the proud face of another being!
Jerk. X approached, hiding his presence as much as possible. At that moment, a strange language was heard.
“*@$#! @@#*&!”
“!”
It was the language spoken by a worshiper I had encountered in the past.
X hurried down the stairs.
Through the huge, half-open iron door, a strangely dressed worshiper could be seen.
The colorful silk clothes contrasting with the white mask without any decorations were impressive.
I heard words that I could understand.
“The insignificant life of a lowly sacrifice. Please accept it with joy. “O great primordial being!”
A great beginning.
It seems that worshipers call other beings that way. But it’s a sacrifice.
All that was visible around the worshiper were rune stones that had already been contaminated.
Considering that it was protected with care, and based on my own guess, it seems that the runestone is not a sacrifice...
“...there is.”
No, there was a separate offering.
Aren’t there countless people who are branded with destruction?
Only then did the information floating around in my head start to fit together like a puzzle.
‘In order to summon another being, an offering with the brand of destruction is needed. That’s a lot of sacrifices too. However, just because you are a worshiper, you cannot overuse the stigma of destruction.’
So, by abusing the power of the rune stone, the brand of destruction was engraved on people at the national level.
The people of countless ancient kingdoms disappeared as if evaporating, leaving only their ruined home.
It was the moment when one of the unsolved secrets of Fate World was revealed.
“...Now that I know, I won’t let it happen again.”
It’s not just the past that worshipers carry around. The same goes for the current Fate that X is playing.
X had no intention of wasting the information he had just gained.
“!”
Rumbling!
X, who had strengthened his will, stumbled. Was the human sacrifice over? The huge palace began to tremble.
Another being that will destroy the entire Fate World. It seemed like he was finally showing up.
“Ugh...”
So the sacrifice could no longer move.
dump. X knelt in front of the iron gate. Slowly my eyes close and my senses fade away. I could feel this fantasy coming to an end.
“Do you think you’ll be kicked out like this?”
There is already a huge difference in power, and it is not profitable to go through all this trouble and not even be able to see the face!
X gritted his teeth and tightened his eyelids. shaking. I raised my trembling head.
It was all in vain.
“Open the way.”
...Surely he knew what he was seeing from the beginning? It was the voice of a worshiper without any emotion.
As soon as his voice blocked my vision, I felt my body expand as if it were going to explode.
X gritted his teeth.
“Damn, you have such an expensive face...”
Darkness has come.
Munchkin that I eat all by myself