Chapter 138

That Earth uncle comes to mind after so long.’

That man possessed knowledge far superior to anyone else, yet he amounted to nothing. He was such a genius that he could read academic papers on his own and solve complex equations, but so what? Coming from a poor family and unable to even attend university, he had no “proof” to validate his knowledge.

‘Knowing a lot.’

On Earth, that alone wasn’t enough.

You needed the right environment.

To create new theories, you needed research funding, assistants, and facilities to help with your research. It was the same if you wanted to develop new products.

But that Earth human had nothing.

Without a diploma, you needed social skills and political savvy, but he didn’t have those either. He had merely diligently accumulated knowledge discovered by others without moving beyond that.

Earth allowed him to learn, but when he tried to go further, what stretched before him was a vast ocean he couldn’t cross alone.

In that sense…

‘Ironically, the Star Continent is truly a wonderful world.’

The people here are never alone. No matter the situation, magical powers are always watching us.

If I possess accurate knowledge… even if the whole world doesn’t acknowledge me, the magical powers will.

The miracle called magic happens.

Ancient secrets wait only for their names to be called.

The Circle opens its mouth. It speaks the name with the teeth of the 3rd Circle, the palate of the 4th Circle, and the tongue of the 5th Circle.

[xiiiiON]

“Floating Island Sion. By the authority of a Level 1 Administrator, I command you. Open your eyes.”

Rumble!

A gentle seismic wave passed beneath my feet. It traveled across the Sand Plateau, passed through my homeland Saharan Plains, shook the Green Wetlands and Alpine Mountain, and spread to the edge of the 7th Continent.

Rumble!

It sounded like an impossibly massive creature roaring.

Squeak! Screech! Boom!

The Sky Bridge connecting Floating Island and Sand Plateau remained intact. It absorbed the seismic waves by flexibly stretching and contracting like rubber. The problem wasn’t the Sky Bridge but the magic metal webbing around it. The reinforcements that forcibly held the Floating Island from detaching from the 7th Continent bent and broke. Most snapped on either the Floating Island or Sand Plateau side and dangled, while some completely tore off and floated upward.

The magical structure, estimated to have been built during the first or second civilization after the gods’ extinction, was completely destroyed. But that wasn’t the end.

Rumble! Rumble!

Soil poured down. As the massive mountain encompassing the entire Floating Island shook, metal structures built with unfathomable technology appeared between the cracks. They hummed and emitted a soft glow. Despite the chaos, not a speck of dust settled on Lanciel City, the city rising from the mountainside.

“W-what is this…!”

Ann Jack and Fel Jack’s eyes widened to the point of tearing,

“To think such a massive relic existed here… My goodness. Lanciel City was merely a fragment!”

Pan-Dalus exclaimed with excitement.

It goes without saying, but Lanciel’s Cube was first discovered on the Floating Island where Lanciel City is located. The subdimensional workshop Lanciel’s Cube, used for the creation project even before the war between gods, had been sleeping in this relic.

Such a relic couldn’t possibly be ordinary.

-Yaaawn~ Slept well~ Hello? This is main ego Nadia of Floating Island Sion greeting you! It seems like this is the first time I’ve opened my eyes since crash-landing after being bombed? Hmm… but what should I do?? I can’t connect to the main network. I don’t even know what time it is or what’s going on. Hehe. But things must be pretty bad? Even though a Ragnarok alert has been activated, to think a mere Level 1 Administrator would wake me up… I’m actually quite a high-level facility, you know. Ahem!

See? Even the ego is extraordinary.

-Oh my? Workshop, you were there too? Have you been well? If you don’t mind, could you share the situation with me? Wow~ Look at those stars in the sky. So the world has finally shattered? Why is our Level 1 Administrator like that? How shabby, like some mere creation. Hehehe. But this is really strange. Workshop, please explain. What’s going on? Hahahaha.

It was so extraordinary I couldn’t even adjust to it.

“Cube. Do you know her?”

-I do not remember.

-Wow! Wow! That hurts! How could you say such a thing! Were you just playing with me?

“…Workshop?”

-…Though my memory is incomplete, one thing is certain. Egos have no physical bodies and no sexual feelings. I did not have an inappropriate relationship with the ego named Nadia.

-Not an inappropriate relationship. Puhahaha! Is this for real? Workshop, you still speak in such a humorless way? Wahahaha.

Nadia chattering away like a mischievous girl.

Hahahaha

Awkward laughter spread among the Pathfinder group.

…The Star Continent is truly wonderful. With knowledge, you merely need to call,

And you can even watch ancient secrets awaken and perform stand-up comedy.

Ugh.

After creating such a mysterious atmosphere, what is all this? How embarrassing.

As I was feeling embarrassed all by myself, Refinement suddenly expressed his admiration.

“Amazing… Did you anticipate that the stairs would collapse, rendering existing trade routes useless? If this Floating Island can travel between continents without going through the Tower, it’s truly a decisive advantage. Now I understand the Senior Elder’s intentions.”

Pan-Dalus joined in with an excited face.

“A brilliant move. With this Floating Island, we have nothing to fear. After all, we can obtain the food that will be most scarce for the time being with ‘that.'”

Pan-Dalus nudged my elbow.

“Show it now.”

“Now?”

“Yes. Now is the perfect time.”

I thought it seemed a bit abrupt, but… I decided to respect Pan-Dalus’s opinion. He wasn’t the Chairman of Pathfinder for nothing. As a respected wizard who had weathered countless storms, he knew all about perfect timing.

Following Pan-Dalus’s request, I prepared another spell.

* * *

He called, it answered.

Isn’t this the purest form of magic?

All the mages gathered before the Sky Bridge intuitively sensed it. That they would never forget this moment.

Although the mythical being turned out to be a frivolous character prone to jokes, even that seemed impressive to the mages here. No, it was impressive. The being who called herself Nadia responded only to the Divine Mage as if the numerous mages gathered here were invisible. A mage exchanging jokes with a mythical being. That was the Senior Elder of Pathfinder.

Only then did everyone truly realize.

Why a boy who had just turned 17 became the Senior Elder of this group.

Why Pan-Dalus, a renowned wizard even within the Tower, prioritized the Divine Mage’s judgment over his own.

Over the past few days, everyone had witnessed it. The sight of human achievements collapsing like rotten straws.

Originally, the stars in the sky were connected through the Tower of Covenant, and each floor of the Tower of Covenant was connected through stairs. But what they had witnessed in recent days was the tragic spectacle of those connections, developed over thousands of years, breaking one by one in just a few days. A bone-chilling fear gripped their spirits that all their achievements and those of their ancestors might be lost in an instant.

But the phenomenon unfolding before their eyes now was the opposite.

Rather, a forgotten ancient being had reopened its eyes. It was the first “recovery” witnessed by those who had grown accustomed to destruction and regression over the past few days.

The banner that Pathfinder had raised from the beginning.

“We will prevent extinction, ascend the tower, and restore the world.”

But even the most zealous mages hadn’t truly grasped this goal. Both the scale of extinction and the true nature of recovery were too vague to easily imagine. In the end, even when saying the same words, everyone thought differently.

But now everything had changed.

Watching the splitting continents and collapsing stairs, they etched the nature of extinction into their eyes, and seeing the vivacious Nadia, they understood what recovery meant. The path forward was clearly engraved in the hearts of all Pathfinder mages.

“But… what can we do?”

However, shadows crept into their weakened hearts. They didn’t believe they could imitate what the Divine Mage was doing.

Being mages yet unable to do anything but watch… a sense of powerlessness gnawed at them.

That’s when the Divine Mage brought out another spell. It was a spell that seemed almost childish like a nursery rhyme, and the result was miraculous like a fairy tale.

“Let the sand hold water and grow vigorously. Spread widely. Live long. Sowing.”

[Soooo-wing]

Bulge. Bulge.

Wind reeds began to grow in the endless desert of the Sand Plateau. Just as they sprouted cotyledons, they grew stems, and soon they became fully ripened wind reeds.

At first, it seemed like just a few stalks were growing, but soon they formed clumps, and eventually a field of wind reeds stretched before our eyes.

Whoosh-

The wind reeds waved their green leaves in the incoming breeze.

“Ah… it’s food!”

“Oh… ohhhh!”

The first to react were Ann Jack, the acting mayor of Lanciel City, and her attendants.

Until just moments ago, they had been standing awkwardly next to the Divine Mage, but suddenly they gazed with excited faces at the wind reeds blooming everywhere.

They had been perplexed and fearful when Floating Island Sion awakened, but now they were purely moved.

–It’s food! It’s food!!!

Someone shouted from the distant horizon. Dust near the horizon. Nomads and caravans wandering the wilderness had seen the green of the wind reeds and were shouting with all their might. Their desperation was so great that they instantly spotted the newly bloomed wind reeds from a far distance.

Tears welled in Ann Jack’s eyes.

“Divine Mage, can you create food?”

Each word was filled with sobs.

When the Divine Mage silently nodded, Ann Jack covered her mouth with both hands and wept.

“Ah… can we survive…?”

The mages attending Ann Jack also sobbed.

Lanciel City was certainly peaceful compared to other regions. But that was only relative. Even here, the situation was becoming extreme.

The Jack family’s territory included the Sand Plateau and Floating Island. However, given the Sand Plateau’s inability to sustain itself without external trade, self-sufficiency was impossible. But with the trade routes cut off due to rampaging calamities from the great cataclysm, and even stored food being destroyed by calamities, a catastrophe where people would starve to death was inevitable.

To make matters worse, upon hearing that Pathfinder was coming, Ann Jack had been anxious thinking she would have to provide food for them as well.

But now the Divine Mage had brought forth wind reeds. It was the miracle most needed at this moment.

“Divine Mage… where does his limit end?”

Everyone stared blankly at the will to live created by the wind reeds. And they felt the sting of their own powerlessness.

It was then that the Divine Mage shouted,

“Come on! Everyone, spray water over the wind reeds! Hurry! My skill is insufficient to maintain them continuously! Let’s give them as much water as possible before they wither. These are special wind reeds that can hold moisture in the sand for a long time! Come on, hurry! We’re going to turn the Sand Plateau into fertile land!”

Those words awakened the mages from their daze.

“Wa-Water Cut!”

The first to move was actually a child.

About 10 years old?

The child of a mage couple was already using 1st Circle magic.

Though 1st Circle might seem low, in the wilderness, it made one strong enough to lead a school nomad.

A high-pressure stream of water that could easily slice through human flesh struck the sand.

Moisture seeped into the golden sand.

That was just the beginning.

“Water Ball!”

“Breaking Water!”

“Drowning Breath!”

“Dew Surface!”

“Rainfall!”

All sorts of water-manifesting magic poured forth.

A <Water Ball> capable of blowing away several people sank into the sand, <Breaking Water> used to shatter rocks penetrated the sand, and <Drowning Breath> that clings to respiratory mucous membranes seeped into the roots of the wind reeds.

The desert became moist.

Of course, compared to the scale of the Sand Plateau and Floating Island, this was far from enough.

But this was just the beginning.

If you can sprout seeds in the desert, you can sprout them anywhere.

The mages thought beyond the Sand Plateau to the Tower of Covenant.

The Tower of Covenant where food could only be obtained on the 20th, 50th, and 70th floors.

This magic could bring hope even there, where an unprecedented food shortage would occur due to the great cataclysm.

With rising passion, everyone began to shout whatever came to mind.

“Divine Mage!”

“Senior Elder!”

“Pathfinder!”

“Hurrah!”

“We’re regenerating the world!”

No one felt powerless anymore.

Baek Jun-woo would lead, and the rest would firmly support him.

They would overcome any extinction with magic.

-Huh? Our Administrator is better than I expected? That level is trustworthy enough. Now, please repair our Sion quickly. Then I can also contribute to the world’s regeneration with enthusiasm~. Oh, but the war is over now, right?

Even Main Ego Nadia’s mood-breaking voice sounded as sweet as a victory spell to the mages here.