Chapter 1332
Ritual Time Limit: Ten Thousand Years
Within the merging realms of dream and reality, Eivass gradually regained his consciousness. He didn’t even know how long he had been in slumber. It was only when Eivass awoke again that he felt a familiar scorching heat.
What is this?
When Eivass opened his eyes once more, he saw a sun. It was an immeasurably vast and intensely hot sun. It was even larger than the sun Eivass had seen in the Sky-Piercing Tower ruins. If a normal sun was the size of a chicken egg yolk, this sun was even larger than a goose egg or an orange.
Beneath its scorching heat, Eivass felt an extreme discomfort in his skin. This was because the body he was currently inhabiting was exceptionally weak. It even had no Mana Pool at all! Without Mana, Eivass could barely use any extraordinary skills, including Illusion Cards. Eivass rarely experienced such environmental discomfort after reaching the Fourth Tier. Now, inhabiting this mortal body, Eivass felt an extreme weakness. To describe it, it was as if his entire body was wrapped in plastic wrap and then roasted under the sun. After sweating, the sweat was sealed within the plastic wrap, and the evaporating heat prevented the internal warmth from dissipating, causing an indescribable and intense suffocating sensation.
However, there was nowhere to hide from the sunlight. Gazing around, there was only an endless wasteland. Barren rocks. There were no traces of civilization—no repaired roads, no rising kitchen smoke, nor any human sounds. There wasn’t even a single tree in the vicinity; as far as the eye could see, it was all wilderness. Eivass didn’t even know where to walk—no, he couldn’t even walk.
When Eivass tried to move forward, he realized where that sense of incongruity originated. The body he was now using was not Human, but rather belonged to a Those with scales. His scales were all dry and discolored from dehydration. He had legs and a tail—rather than resembling a snake or a fish, he was like a bipedal lizard, crocodile, or dragon.
As a Those with scales, he couldn’t even survive under such intense sunlight. This body desperately craved the sea. Only by returning to the sea could he possibly survive. So, is my mission now to find the sea?
Eivass painfully moved this body, which had already traveled an unknown distance and become utterly exhausted, walking towards the front. He didn’t know the correct direction, so he could only trust what he perceived as “forward” upon landing, which was the direction this body had originally been heading. He continued to walk forward.
And at this moment.
A voice suddenly echoed in Eivass’s ears. “Oh, right—did I forget to tell you something?”
That detestable coldness and indifference, it was the voice of the Ring Heavenly Envoy. “For instance, the time limit for this ritual is…” At this point, the Ring Heavenly Envoy paused maliciously. “…—is 3.8 million days. However, the good news is—the ratio with reality is one to ten thousand. This means, in the worst-case scenario, you’ll only need to stay here for a little over a year to get out.”
Eivass did not speak. His remaining strength left him no room to retort, so he could only focus on the difficult progress forward through the wilderness. The Ring Heavenly Envoy seemed to be flipping through a book, mockingly reading the Host’s introduction to the ritual. “You will play a certain character in this story and complete your mission. Hmm, of course, there are no Points. Because all missions are mandatory.”
“The nature of this ritual is an Absent Seat Ritual, allowing mutual slaughter—but unfortunately, there is no one to accompany you. So you can’t kill anyone.”
“The difficulty of this ritual is ‘Transcending Reality.’ All injuries sustained during the ritual will be reflected in your physical body in reality. This means that even if you don’t die in the ritual, you might already be dead in reality. However, you don’t really need to worry about this problem—after all, you’re quite resilient.”
“The dream of this ritual will be constructed by me. All mission and character arrangements, as well as point-deduction and addition rules, will also be my responsibility. I will do my best to maintain the unfairness of the ritual and will completely disregard the safety of this Ascension Ritual—” the Ring Heavenly Envoy said, speaking with sinister sarcasm as he introduced it. This was clearly stating: I will definitely make you die here.
Yet, hearing his almost threatening voice, Eivass not only felt no tension but his lips curved upwards slightly, and his eyes brightened—like a Detective who had discovered a criminal’s flaw. Seeing Eivass’s lack of reaction, the Ring Heavenly Envoy snorted, “Then, the ritual begins.”
After his voice faded, Eivass heard no background narration nor saw any main quests. This clearly meant his introductory plot had not yet concluded. Since there was nothing else he could do, he could only continue walking forward. Eivass didn’t know how much further he had walked. In this torturous march, he felt his skin had completely dried and cracked. His scales rubbed against each other, drawing blood, and the blood would dry up in the blink of an eye, forming markings on his body like battle scars.
Eivass’s consciousness gradually blurred. He felt tinnitus, and the entire world fell into a strange silence. It was as if he had lost his hearing, and even his eyesight was about to fail. The only benefit, perhaps, was that the wasteland before him was not a desert. The changes in the scaled stones served as a reminder that Eivass was still moving forward and not stuck in place. But Eivass was truly at his limit.
At this moment, a sense of self-doubt arose in his heart. Could it be that from the very beginning, he had taken the wrong path? Could it be that from the very beginning, this was precisely the opposite direction—he just felt dizzy upon waking up and accidentally turned 180 degrees? If the direction was wrong, all his efforts would be in vain. Perhaps this Dungeon did not involve any “beyond the boundary” areas. If he continued forward, the scene would just repeat—yes, after all, the Dungeon area itself couldn’t be that large. Some Dungeons only occupied the space of a hotel.
And if he had truly taken the wrong path… turning back now might still be in time! With all his might, he could probably return to the starting point before his stamina was completely depleted. If that direction was correct, walking a little further…
Eivass stopped. His Adam’s apple bobbed. With a rough voice that only he could hear, he let out a faint laugh. “So, this is the Whisper of the Void?” At that moment, Eivass’s distracting thoughts and fragmented words vanished in an instant. There was no escape. “—I’ve caught you.” Eivass clearly and definitively implanted the words into the depths of his mind.
And at this moment.
A voice, carrying a refreshing coolness, suddenly descended beside Eivass. “Why are you walking so far all by yourself, child?” From the sky came a gentle language that Eivass had never heard before. Strangely, although he had never heard it, the moment he heard it, he understood the other’s meaning. Eivass looked up. At that instant, he seemed to see a Savior: a giant serpent with purplish-red scales all over its body and a dragon’s head. In addition to its scales, its entire body was covered in feathers that shifted from light green to dark blue. Its tail had a fluffy tail feather, as magnificent as a phoenix or a peacock, in a blue-purple hue.
Two brilliantly colored, dark blue wings were spread wide, and two extremely long, pure golden feathers hung down like a sacred mantle, its posture as if it were “a proof of friendship.” —The moment he saw it, Eivass knew his identity. He was the Father. The Father of both Those with scales and Winged Ones.
