Evan lifted the heavy stone lid of the box.
Creeaak!
As the sound of stone scraping echoed, the inside of the box slowly came into view.
He wondered what kind of hidden piece he would find inside.
‘If there was a Hydra as the boss monster, there’s got to be something worthwhile in here.’
When Evan peered into the box, he tilted his head in confusion.
The contents stored inside were different from what he expected.
There were two stone tablets, a staff with a sprout, a greatsword, and various other items.
“There’s a lot of random stuff here.”
Evan slowly examined them, picking each up one by one.
First, he checked one of the stone tablets.
An old stone tablet engraved with runes.
“Runes?”
The moment his hand touched the tablet, the runes began to emit a faint light.
‘Is it reacting to my power?’
But something felt off.
It was neither aura nor Mana.
It had nothing to do with those at all. The foreign energy within his body was reacting.
This was the first time this had happened.
Evan surrendered himself to the strange energy.
Then, the runes on the stone tablet shone even more brightly.
- Divine Power has been consumed.
- Fragment of Prophecy is being activated.
Amazingly, the foreign energy was Divine Power.
It was a force he’d never used before, so it still felt unfamiliar to Evan.
‘So the condition was activation through Divine Power?’
At that moment, a crack appeared on the stone tablet in his hand.
Crackle!
And at the same time, the runes were absorbed into Evan.
The content of the prophecy flowed into his mind.
“Ugh!”
A massive amount of information rushed in all at once, causing him pain.
It felt as though something was being forcibly injected into him.
A gentle light began to swirl around Evan’s entire body.
After a brief moment, he was able to comprehend the entire prophecy.
Scenes flashed before his eyes like a fleeting panorama.
“
“
- Interest
For a moment, Evan just stood there, dazed.
The prophecy contained the future of a world already destroyed.
‘The future indicated by this prophecy, in today’s terms, would be the past.’
But he couldn’t simply dismiss it as the past.
If the world’s destruction was a cycle, then prophecies of the past could become prophecies of the present.
Of course, he still hadn’t determined how reliable the information was.
However, looking at the flow of events in the prophecy, Evan felt they resembled what was currently happening.
Evan recited the core of the prophecy.
‘The end of the world shall come when the greed of all mankind becomes one and challenges the authority of the heavens. The moment their wicked Tower of Babel reaches the sky.’
Seeing this, Evan became certain.
The history of this world was repeating itself.
The Tower of Babel mentioned in the prophecy.
The expression “reached the sky” implied that a massive tower had been built in the past as well.
It was a commonality linking to the present age, and was still ongoing.
‘No, maybe it’s exactly the same? If it’s the place where all the greed of mankind is concentrated, it’s obvious.’
The Main Transmission Tower of Adela Guild wasn’t literally a Tower of Babel, but it was fair to call it a modern Tower of Babel.
It boasted a height of over 4,000 floors, and everyone was desperate to build it higher for the value of guild currency.
Seeing this prophecy, Evan felt threatened.
‘Those guys are indeed acting according to this prophecy.’
Evan recalled what he’d heard from the Sacred Maiden.
Though she hadn’t said it openly, she had hinted at unifying the entire continent.
Just as they’d swallowed up the entire Southern Region for the sake of alliance.
From the South, now to the Central Region, and even to the North. They had united the continent and continued to raise Adela’s Main Transmission Tower.
The future was clear.
‘Maybe this generation really is standing at the final crossroads.’
The fate of the world was at stake.
Evan felt he needed to get to the bottom of what these people truly wanted.
‘What exactly will they gain when the tower is complete?’
Evan decided he needed to investigate what had happened in the past.
‘……I should hurry and get out of here.’
Shaking off his thoughts, Evan pulled out the other stone tablet from the box.
This time, it was a different language than runes.
What appeared to be pictograms could be seen.
It seemed to be the language of the ancients.
Evan frowned.
‘No matter how I look at it, I have no idea what this means.’
He decided to take it for now.
If he brought it to Darwen or Elisa, they might be able to decipher it.
“The rest are just items……”
The hidden pieces he’d hoped for hadn’t appeared.
Given that this was a dungeon where Hydra dwelled, he’d expected items of equal caliber, but nothing looked particularly special.
“This staff just looks like a stick.”
Evan picked up the wooden staff sprouting new leaves and checked its information window.
-Rank: S
-Type: Miscellaneous
-Durability: 1/1
-Effect: Can revive dying life when used.
-Other: A branch imbued with the life of the World Tree. Its origin is unknown, but it is so rare that there is only one in the world.
Evan’s eyes sparkled.
What he’d thought was just a wooden stick turned out to be an incredible find.
‘A branch of the World Tree.’
It wasn’t just any tree, but the very tree that supported the life of the world.
And true to its symbolism as the tree of life, it had the effect of reviving life when used.
This would be more valuable than any other item.
The power to revive meant having one extra life.
And the more of these life-related items he possessed, the more chances he would have.
Evan stored the World Tree Branch in his inventory and examined the rest of the items.
“What’s this?”
A large sword hilt caught his eye.
There was no blade in sight, so why was only the hilt visible?
The moment Evan picked up the hilt, he was taken aback.
“Why is this so heavy?”
It felt as heavy as lifting a lump of iron.
There was no blade, yet the hilt alone was this heavy—its value as a sword was questionable.
‘What is this supposed to be?’
Evan checked the hilt’s information window.
-Rank: A
-Type: Two-Handed Sword
-Attack: 1400 (+weight)
-Durability: 1500/1500
-No usage restriction
-Effect: When aura is imbued, the blade of the greatsword is formed, and the weight increases according to the density of the aura. As the weight increases, the sword’s attack power increases.
-Other: An innovative weapon incorporating the cutting-edge magic engineering technology of the Lebest Empire. Made for warriors who mainly rely on strength.
‘The blade is formed when you imbue aura, and the heavier it gets, the higher the attack power……’
Evan looked at it with interest.
It was quite a fascinating item.
He decided to try channeling aura into the hilt.
Shing!
Just as described, a massive blade emerged from the hilt.
It was slightly shorter than Evan’s own height, but for an adult, the sword was quite large.
Evan tightened his grip.
“It’s heavier than I thought.”
But this was with only a little aura.
‘If I want to raise the attack power further……’
As he gradually increased the aura’s density, the blade became sharper.
And at the same time, its weight increased so much that Evan’s arms almost gave out.
‘At this rate, even swinging it once would be tough.’
When he raised the aura to the maximum, Evan ended up dropping the greatsword.
Thud!
As the greatsword hit the floor, a heavy thump sounded, leaving a dent where it landed.
Watching this, Evan gave a dry chuckle.
‘This thing’s basically siege weapon-level.’
Thanks to its ridiculous weight, it probably packed more punch than most blunt weapons.
Evan clicked his tongue.
It was definitely a good weapon, but the weight penalty was no joke.
Giving up on the weight would mean changing his entire fighting style.
And because greatswords require big movements, it just didn’t suit Evan.
“This’ll be perfect for Reynold.”
With the aura gone, the greatsword reverted to just a hilt.
Evan picked up the hilt and put it in his inventory.
‘Is there nothing here I could give Alan?’
Since he was already giving something to Reynold, it’d be nice to get something for Alan as well.
Judging by the items stored here, many seemed to be ancient relics crafted with advanced technology.
Evan searched the box for more items.
This time, a pair of leather boots caught his eye.
He picked up the leather boots.
[Rank: B]
[Type: Boots]
[Defense: 400]
[Durability: 530/530]
[Usage Restriction: Aura user]
[Effect: Grants agility to the wearer. Agility +20%. Jump height increases by 10%. When Mana is imbued, movement speed increases by 100% for 1 second.]
[Other: Boots incorporating the advanced magic engineering technology of the Lebest Empire. Specially crafted for warriors who focus on strength.]
‘These look pretty good too.’
Given Alan’s specialty in counterattacks, agility, and his balanced style, there could be great synergy.
Especially with these boots, he could attempt various sword techniques using dashes or special footwork.
That would give him an edge in evasion and counterattacks alike.
Evan, satisfied, gathered up the items.
Alan and Ayra were waiting for Evan in the lounge.
They had carefully slipped out of the secret room and immediately headed here.
Currently, the library was in chaos and under investigation, so entry was forbidden.
Whether it was an attack or not, that was the Order’s concern, so they didn’t pay it much mind.
What shocked them more was the content they had discovered in the secret laboratory.
Especially Ayra, who had read and memorized all the research documents in the lab, was more deeply affected.
It was a historic discovery, shedding light on the deeds of the great alchemist Mars.
But their inhumane experiments had been revealed in full.
Extremely dangerous experiments had been conducted.
Lethal weapon trials beyond imagination, and alchemy-related human experiments.
Alan decided all of it must never be revealed to the world and destroyed everything.
Of course, he took anything that could be salvaged, and since Ayra had memorized everything, they managed the rest.
Ayra and Alan sat in silence.
Reynold, watching them, cocked his head.
“Why’s everyone so quiet? Did something happen?”
Alan shook his head at Reynold’s question.
“It’s nothing. There was just a bit of commotion.”
Telling him would only create confusion.
They decided to report this only to Evan.
“Is that so? Anyway, we should get moving soon, but the young master is really late. I’m starting to worry something happened.”
Ayra nodded in agreement.
“With all the commotion at the library, I’m worried about the young master too.”
“Let’s wait for now. I don’t think it’s a good idea to act rashly at the moment, and the Order seems to be checking up on everyone who was at the library. We got out by luck……”
Alan was cautious.
He had Mars’s notebook and a potion in his arms.
He didn’t want to cause any trouble wandering around without Evan.
All he wanted was to get out of here as soon as possible.
Just then.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
“……Young master?”
Alan, relieved, stood up and approached the door.
But a completely different voice answered.
“Excuse me. We’re conducting an investigation regarding the library. May we ask for your cooperation?”
It was people from the Order.
“……What should we do.”
Alan, cold sweat on his forehead, turned to Ayra.