Translator: CinderTL
Shock surged through Roland's heart like a tidal wave, countless questions flooding his mind. He took a deep breath, carefully choosing his words as he prepared to probe the truth behind this millennium-spanning mystery.
However, Monen seemed to have anticipated his reaction. His broad hand clapped heavily on Roland's shoulder, the force perfectly timed to interrupt the question about to escape his lips.
"Alright, lad," Monen's voice regained its usual hearty tone, but his eyes now held an unyielding depth. "Everyone has their little secrets, don't they?"
He paused deliberately, his gaze drifting meaningfully toward Roland's arm, which had briefly displayed draconic traits during his dragon transformation. "Just like... that inhuman strength you possess."
"I won't pry into where or how you obtained it. Therefore..." The Old King leaned forward slightly. "I expect you to refrain from digging too deeply into my affairs as well."
With these words, Monen raised his thick eyebrows at Roland and abruptly steered the conversation in a completely different direction.
"Speaking of which, if you don't have a specific destination in mind, I suggest you consider visiting the Aetheron Continent."
"Aetheron?"
Roland's thoughts were drawn to this unfamiliar name.
"Exactly," Monen nodded, casually sketching a rough route on the ground.
"First, head north through the dwarves' Stone Kingdom to their Roaring Seaport. From there, take a ship to Aetheron's west coast."
He looked up, his gaze sweeping across the charred, newly formed land around them, his tone carrying a hint of comparison.
"Unlike this continent beneath our feet—merely a 'newborn' forced up from the seabed by the Abyssal Eye's invasion and the resulting distortions of natural laws—Aetheron is an ancient continent that has existed since the dawn of the Starry Vault and the birth of all things. It is a land truly steeped in countless epochs of history and wisdom."
A trace of nostalgia flickered in Monen's eyes, and his voice deepened slightly.
"There, in the remote depths of towering mountains and within forgotten forest sanctuaries, lie countless ancient ruins. These ruins preserve legacies and secret treasures that have long been lost to the temporal flow. If you seek to rapidly enhance your strength and grasp the essence of power, Aetheron is undoubtedly the place to go."
Having finished speaking, Monen didn't wait for Roland's response. With a hearty laugh, he stood up briskly.
After casually brushing the dust from his robes, Roland strode purposefully in the direction Gloria had indicated with her commanding gestures.
As he watched the Old King's tall, enigmatic figure recede, Roland didn't immediately speak. Instead, he withdrew his gaze and sank into deep contemplation.
"Aetheron..." he murmured, savoring the ancient resonance of the name.
Having witnessed firsthand Monen's unfathomable power—a force capable of turning the tide of war—a burning desire for even greater strength had been kindled within him, like magma stirring beneath a dormant volcano.
Moreover, his reading of Bronson's ancient texts had ignited an insatiable curiosity about the forgotten history of this vast world.
A continent that had existed since ancient times, riddled with ruins of lost legacies...
It sounded like a place tailor-made for his current thirst for knowledge and exploration.
Danger was inevitable, but the potential rewards were equally immense.
After careful deliberation, he grew increasingly convinced that venturing to Aetheron might be the most fitting next step for him.
Just as he solidified this decision in his mind, lines of dazzling golden text suddenly materialized before his eyes, without warning.
Acquired Trait: Time Traveler
Due to your recent experience with spacetime displacement, your existence has become subtly misaligned with the normally stable temporal flow. Though you did not actively traverse time yourself, the "present moment" you inhabit has been replaced by a span of a thousand years. This extraordinary journey has left a unique imprint on your soul, establishing a faint resonance between you and the fabric of spacetime.
From now on, you will gain a limited but genuine advantage in perceiving temporal and spatial anomalies, allowing you to sense related phenomena with vague clarity.
However, by venturing to the fringes of the River of Time through unconventional means, your presence has spread like ripples, attracting the casual gaze of Phaeton.
This being, who typically disregards mortal affairs, now finds you... quite intriguing.
As the golden text faded from his vision, Roland's thoughts surged like a turbulent sea.
He recalled the chillingly real sensations of that graveyard, the black-haired man's familiar greeting, and the rough texture of the wooden shovel handle in his hand...
That was no ordinary dream.
"So that's it..."
A clear deduction gradually formed in his mind.
That brief, bizarre experience was likely caused by the spacetime turbulence unleashed when the nodes connecting the Abyss, the Nine Hells, and the Material Plane completely collapsed.
Under the impact of a force capable of tearing apart the fabric of reality, his consciousness was instantly flung off its original trajectory, hurtling through time to an unknown point.
It could have been a fragment of the past, a shard of the future, or a projection from a parallel dimension.
Then, as Galvis had explained,
the Guardian of the World's Laws intervened, brutally "correcting" the anomaly.
His nascent interdimensional journey was forcibly cut short, his consciousness snapped back to the scorched battlefield like a stretched rubber band.
In essence, his soul had inadvertently experienced a brief "temporal shift."
Remembering his own status as a transmigrator, Roland chuckled and shook his head. He then refocused his attention on the description of the Time Traveler trait, carefully analyzing its effects.
"Gains an advantage in judgments involving time and space. Possesses a vague sensitivity to anomalous phenomena..."
These abilities sounded esoteric, but their practical value in combat would likely depend on the specific circumstances.
For now, they seemed more like a consolation prize than a game-changer.
With these thoughts, his gaze finally settled on the final line of text:
"Attracted the casual glance of Phaeton..."
"Phaeton..."
Roland murmured the name to himself.
"Is this the Guardian of the Spacetime Law, the owner of that colossal eye from before?"
Though he instinctively made this assumption, Roland immediately felt a primal sense of dissonance.
He recalled Galvis's words.
If "Phaeton" truly represented the embodiment of a world law, its form should be indescribable, shifting according to the observer's perception—certainly not any specific creature known to humankind.
Yet the memory of that cold, pale blue vertical pupil, swirling with the light of stars being born and dying, remained vivid in his mind.
Its unmistakably biological features, and the primal dread that gripped him under its gaze...
"No, that's wrong..."
Roland instinctively rejected his initial theory.
That colossal vertical pupil, that oppressively intense gaze, felt more like the presence of an ancient, terrifying giant beast.
A dragon, or perhaps... a serpent.
The aura it exuded wasn't the cold indifference of abstract laws, but a far older, more primal force—a pressure that seemed to emanate from the very essence of the world.
As Roland stared at the sky, his mind racing with a thousand thoughts, a light, brisk footstep interrupted his reverie.
Having tactfully avoided Bard Galvis earlier when he saw him talking to Monen and Roland, Galvis now eagerly approached, his enthusiasm for stories undiminished.
"Roland!"
The bard's eyes sparkled with curiosity as he produced his small notebook and quill from who-knows-where.
"Now you can finally tell me everything! Every single detail of your battle with that abyssal devil!"
"How did you evade its wicked spells? And how did you land that final, decisive blow? This is the perfect material for a timeless epic poem!"
Seeing his companion's unwavering obsession with stories, Roland suddenly recalled Galvis's casual remark outside Golden Grain City—how it had sounded as if he'd personally witnessed the previous Abyssal Invasion.
Roland had wanted to press him for details then, but the urgency of the battle had made it impossible.
Now that the fighting was over and the dust had settled, he finally had the chance to ask the question that had been lingering in his mind.
Instead of answering Galvis's questions about the battle, Roland lifted his gaze, met the bard's eyes calmly, and asked softly, "Galvis... have you ever heard of a hero named Rudolph?"
(End of the Chapter)
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