Chapter 121

Life or Death

A hellish scene unfolded before Yernil’s eyes.

What was presumed to have been Dalstream was spread across the walls and floor of the annex conference room like slush.

Then how could one prove their identity?

“I definitely saw you here through Life Detection.”

Because Professor Isilof had confirmed it with magic.

“Caleb was also in this room…”

That was the problem.

Although it wasn’t known exactly where in the room they had been, there were two life force reactions, and they went out one by one.

It was something that happened suddenly just before Isilof and Meldini arrived.

“Isn’t Caleb also included in this sea of blood…?”

When someone made a chilling remark, I turned around to see it was Remus, the Halfling crossbow user.

There were also others from the same party: Barbarian Greg, Dwarf wizard Austin.

Everyone was looking for Caleb.

“There’s too little blood evidence to say two people were murdered. And I don’t see traces of Caleb’s belongings. His coat or magic wand.”

The Magistrate reasoned as such.

Of course, since all of Dalstream’s belongings were also completely shattered, it might not be accurate.

Beside him, Bernard was wandering around the room praying.

“Ahhhhh! Caleb! Wh-where are you? Nataniel. Your servant begs of you. Please help me find that wizard!”

There was also Orc Security Officer Urgash.

“What in the world is this carnage?”

Priest Mikhail.

“Yernil…?”

He made eye contact with Yernil, but didn’t scold her for coming out of the hospital room.

He just hung his head low.

And Neko.

“…”

That beastman wizard was sitting on the floor crying.

“We… We shouldn’t have left. We should have fought together…”

“Command the search like an inspector, Neko.”

Legal Officer Delpin threw out a comment as she passed by.

“I…”

But Neko didn’t have any mental strength left.

“I’m still just a security officer…”

Someone was standing blankly in the conference room with vacant eyes as if their soul had been drained.

“Izel.”

Her father, Edward, wrapped his arms around his eldest daughter’s shoulders.

“You must be tired, go in and rest.”

“I want to… Look for him too.”

“…”

Clarence quietly stared at Izel’s drooping back.

It was the first time since 12 years ago that his big sister had fallen into such despair.

And there was someone else suffering as much as Izel.

Professor Meldini.

He sat in the middle of that carnage, tapping the floor with the tip of his wand. Tap, tap, tap.

“Fox.”

And he shouted to the other wizards.

“Bring Yoho tribe members… Find them anywhere! If Caleb’s corpse isn’t destroyed, we can revive him! We have to find the body!”

It would be possible if Soul Preservation hadn’t been lost.

Perhaps they could find Caleb’s corpse using the Yoho tribe’s unique Soul Tracking ability.

If that corpse wasn’t part of the shredded traces here.

“There is one Yoho tribe member named Soyul.”

Graduate student Jacob from the slave management department said.

“She collapsed earlier during the war and is unconscious now. Her life isn’t in danger, but we don’t know when she’ll wake up.”

“…Then bring someone from Windham!”

Meldini screamed.

“That child…”

The professor’s shoulders trembled violently.

“That child could have become an archmage too.”

“…”

“We can’t lose two archmages in one day…”

Yernil squeezed her eyes shut.

While concentrating all her nerves on both ears.

‘Caleb.’

She had to find him.

If he was dead, he wouldn’t be able to make breathing sounds, but if he was alive, she could find his heartbeat.

Would it be possible to do this amidst so many people pouring out noise from all directions?

Though there was no basis, she was confident it would be possible.

No, she had to make it happen somehow.

Yernil gritted her teeth.

She had to find him.

Find him.

Find him somehow.

‘I will find him.’

The sound of Chrome talking with the Frostian wizard. The suggestion to half-kill that cat and interrogate him.

Professor Meldini’s crying.

The sound of Security Officers running.

The sound of blood sloshing under their shoes.

No trace of Caleb could be heard.

The sound of Izel wiping her eyes.

Bernard’s prayer recitation.

Virtanen tearing apart walls, floors, and drawers.

The wizards’ incantations.

Life detection, undead detection, sound detection.

No trace of Caleb could be heard.

“Yernil.”

Aimus tapped her shoulder lightly.

His complexion was terribly dark.

He was holding a resurrection scroll in his hand. The one Caleb had possessed.

“Caleb… Is…”

Tears welled up in Yernil’s eyes.

“Caleb…”

She wiped her eyes and lifted her head.

No sound could be heard.

However, something caught her eye.

Above the wall cabinet where Backstab was searching.

In a corner at the very top of the room’s ceiling height, there was a small ventilation duct.

One that looked like it could fit a person lying down.

“Guard Repositioning.”

It was a kind of instinctive intuition. Some fateful bond was pulling her toward that place.

Whether it was Wizus or Nataniel, it seemed like some god was giving her a revelation.

That she would be able to find Caleb there.

It pulled her like a magnet.

Clang!

And when she hung from the ventilation duct and crawled up.

“Caleb!”

Yernil found him.

The genius wizard’s corpse was perfectly preserved without even a speck of damage.

***

Do you know about the second law of thermodynamics?

Also known as the law of entropy.

Within a closed system, all matter and energy inevitably disperses and scatters in disorder.

For example, if you spray perfume in a corner of a room, the perfume particles spread throughout the entire room.

Why?

Because being concentrated in one place is ‘orderly‘, and being spread out is more disorderly.

If you open the door, the perfume molecules will spread out onto the street.

Because that’s more disorderly.

From small twigs to rocks, huge buildings or mountains, seas too.

Unless someone intervenes, everything will scatter completely over time.

Even Earth.

Billions of years from now, it will disappear without a trace and spread throughout space.

The law of entropy is a force that inevitably destroys all things.

‘That’s why humans die.’

I remember something I heard in a philosophy general education class.

Though neither religion nor science knows the answer about where we go after death, I now know.

Where humans go when they die.

“Spirit Galaxy…?”

A vast ocean unfolded before my eyes. No land, only water.

That ocean flowing with a mysterious sapphire color was the Spirit Galaxy.

My body was floating on the water, but my clothes weren’t wet at all.

It was strange that I was wearing clothes at all.

-This way.

I heard someone calling from the end of the ocean. Though I hadn’t tried to swim, my body began moving slowly following the current.

Then a white sandy beach appeared.

It felt like I was dreaming.

In dreams, all scene transitions happen instantly, right? Even without plausibility.

The sequence of this ocean was like the flow of thought jumping around.

I arrived at the sandy beach in an instant, and there was a god there.

I could tell without asking.

That god’s name was…

“Wizus?”

The sapphire-colored body was human-sized, and bluish smoke and light poured from it.

That god was sitting on the sandy beach, touching the sand.

Only then did I realize.

‘This isn’t a sandy beach.’

Chills ran down my spine.

Beyond the sandy beach, something like a mountain was standing, but looking again now, it wasn’t a mountain.

Glass. A giant glass fragment.

Its identity was…

“It’s an hourglass…”

An enormously huge hourglass was broken. The sand that poured from it created a sandy beach, forming an island in the middle of the Spirit Galaxy.

An hourglass large enough to create land… What in the world is this…?

“You weren’t supposed to come here originally.”

Wizus said.

“Huh?”

“How does a preserved soul leave its body and come up to the Spirit Galaxy?”

Oh?

Wait a minute.

Come to think of it, that’s really strange.

Even in the game, there was no event where you moved to the Spirit Galaxy when you died.

And here too.

People like Abisson had already been resurrected twice that I knew of. Deep-layer adventurers must have experienced resurrection countless times.

But among them, there wasn’t a single person who said ‘Wizus looked like this’, ‘The Spirit Galaxy was like that‘, or ‘I went there and there was an hourglass island’.

“Have other resurrected people never been here?”

“…That’s obvious.”

Then why am I here?

Did my Soul Preservation get released?

No.

If that were the case, Wizus wouldn’t have said ‘Why is a preserved soul here?’

Soul Preservation was maintained. But why?

Wait.

‘Is it because I had the hourglass turn activated when I bit the poison when I died?’

I lifted my head to examine the hourglass.

[Turn-Based Hourglass Cooldown: 44 seconds]

Even after death and coming here, the hourglass ‘turn’ was still maintained.

Amazingly, it seemed that hourglass could dominate not only the physical world but also the world of the Spirit Galaxy, as even the galaxy had initially been stopped.

Though with only 3 seconds left, the waves immediately began rippling.

What if I had met Wizus then?

Would Wizus have been frozen too?

-Caleb!

Someone’s voice could be heard.

-Caleb!

It was Yernil.

-Caleb!

***

“Gasp!”

When I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of the chaotic Security Headquarters annex.

Yernil was hugging my neck.

“Brother! Are you okay!?”

Backstab was shaking my shoulders frantically.

“Ah.”

Aimus let out a deep sigh of relief. In his hand was a torn resurrection scroll.

Friendly faces were gathered all around.

Professors Isilof, Meldini, and even Hailey. And teaching assistants including Jacob and Scarlett.

Virtanen, Zikal, Emma… Wasn’t there (the temple must be the busiest right now). Instead, I could see Priest Mikhail, Urgash, and Neko. Hijikata shrugged his shoulders. ‘Soyul and Gildal got hurt a bit’. He muttered quietly.

I could also see Head of House, Edward, Clarence, and Izel.

“We need to talk later, just the two of us.”

Izel said quietly.

“Yes.”

It seemed I had worried many people. And the one who found and saved my corpse was indeed…

“Yernil found Caleb. She suddenly rushed to the ventilation duct alone and pulled him out.”

Aimus said.

As expected, it was Yernil. I was counting on her.

“I worked at the annex for 2 years but didn’t even know there was a ventilation duct here.”

Urgash shrugged his shoulders.

“Caleb. Professor Dalstream is…”

Isilof asked with a worried expression, carefully.

“…”

I withheld my answer.

I couldn’t shout out that Professor Dalstream protected me and was killed after exposing the labyrinth’s secrets!

That knowledge was the reason Dalstream was murdered.

Let me not carelessly blurt out what I know anywhere.

I should quietly consult only with trustworthy people. For example, Professor Isilof or Meldini. Or Izel with 100% trust.

Several lines of messages were floating next to the hourglass.

[First Death]

[The hourglass’s dominance ability has been expanded.]

[Please select a person to subjugate.]

1.Aimus (Trust Level: 100%)

2.Backstab (Trust Level: 100%)

3.Izel (Trust Level: 100%)

4.Neko (Trust Level: 100%)

5.Bernard (Trust Level: 100%)

The range of turn-based commands had expanded. To two people.

“Caleb.”

Yernil lifted her forehead from my shoulder and spoke. Her eyes were glistening with tears.

And her condition was a bit strange.

“How did I… Find Caleb?”

“Huh?”

“It wasn’t like I heard a sound, but somehow, you know, I felt like I absolutely had to go there…”

Because I made you do it.

“Is this fate?”

Calm down, Yernil…

***

Somewhere in an inter-floor village in the labyrinth.

The Windham duo had finally organized the elevator after all kinds of hardships and found the village.

“It’s been a while since we came to a village.”

“We almost had to evacuate everyone. If the elevator had been discovered by Security Headquarters before us.”

Bipa had recovered some of her lost power due to the light of the cliff. However, she still looked clearly exhausted. Moreover, her fan was broken.

Late dawn hours.

While a war was breaking out in Soren due to the labyrinth eruption, the residents of the inter-floor village were sleeping quietly.

Knock knock.

Mugol, who had stopped in front of a shabby house, knocked on the door.

“Are you already asleep?”

“If she’s asleep, we have to wake her up.”

Click!

The moment Bipa tried to turn the doorknob again, someone popped out from inside.

She was a Yoho tribe member with eight tails.

Originally, most Yoho tribe members had exceptional beauty, but that woman couldn’t be described with such terms.

Perfect bilateral symmetrical proportions and a small, straight nose. Inside her painted lips, neat teeth shone white.

And her eyes.

To borrow Bipa’s expression, those large, blue pupils were like ‘Spirit Lakes’.

“What’s the matter?”

Hyedam, the Yoho tribe shaman who was once called Windham’s strongest.

She was there.

“Is it Hyedam now? Or Hyoin?”

“Hyedam.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“What’s the matter all of a sudden?”

“Well…”

Bipa pondered where to start this story, touching her fan.

Meanwhile, Mugol threw a straight ball.

“Hey, we met Caleb.”

“What…?”

“Ah, this guy, you can’t say it like that.”

“Wait. What are you talking about?”

Hyedam cut off Bipa’s words and stepped forward.

Her heart sank.

“Caleb… Is alive?”

“Yeah. He’s alive. Your former boyfriend.”

“He wasn’t just a boyfriend.”

Hyedam shook her head.

“He was my fiancé.”

Bipa thought.

If this woman’s eyes were Spirit Lakes, then her current gaze was in the form of Wave Whips.

She looked ready to smash everything in front of her and go find her fiancé.

“Calm down a bit…”