MTLNOVEL Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Stage 2. Celestial Stone (11)
[DESIRE]
[THE GREATEST URGENCY]
It wasn’t a word.
It was a pressure that sprang from deep within his heart and crushed Dominic.
It was a message in a violently coercive manner that a human couldn’t dare to refuse.
But in that pressure and fear, he felt anger.
What he had desperately desired and longed for had already vanished like a bubble.
Seeing his parents’ smiles even just once.
Even if it was just an illusion.
But what was he supposed to desire?
“Who the hell are you?”
[‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ ‧ !]
Darkness shook like thunder at Dominic’s question.
Strangely, he felt ‘surprise’ in that shaking.
It seemed unable to understand how Dominic had spoken to it.
In that instant, his mind snapped to attention.
Dominic had originally intended to ask the Being on the 10th Floor if it was the one who had started his infinite regression.
But he shouldn’t ask that.
If this being hadn’t started his regression, it would be giving it information.
To an unfathomable, godlike being, no less.
What he could ask here wasn’t about himself.
It was about the other party.
“What do you want?”
[THAT IS THE WRONG QUESTION]
“Then why did you bring me here?”
[THAT IS THE WRONG QUESTION]
“Then what’s the right question?”
[WHAT YOU TRULY DESIRE]
What Dominic truly desired was why the regression had started and how to end it.
But an instinct that he shouldn’t ask that seemed to seize him.
So he asked the second thing he was curious about.
“How can I…….”
Even before he could speak, Dominic felt enormous pressure.
As if he shouldn’t dare to say such a thing, the whole world seemed to be interfering with his linguistic imagery.
But Dominic blurted it out.
“Can I obliterate you?”
Space vibrated.
[DARE]
He could feel anger.
[SINGULARITY PUPPET]
[DO NOT DEFY FATE]
Darkness collapsed.
A terrible death came within it.
* * *
“Commander?”
“Just…… just a moment.”
As Dominic staggered and leaned against a tree, Search Team 8 buzzed with worried expressions.
It was because the usual Dominic had never shown a weak side in front of them.
But this was an inevitable event.
A vastness so unfathomable that he couldn’t dare to recognize or perceive it.
The aftereffects of clashing with it were shaking Dominic’s soul.
He felt extreme anxiety, as if he had claustrophobia, and his mind was devastated.
It seemed that just thinking about the image of
Even though he hadn’t seen anything or felt anything.
All Dominic had seen was darkness.
‘What the hell is that being?’
The witch Velicaya alone was an unbelievably strong existence.
After facing physical death, she transferred her memories to an artificial body engraved with magical circuits.
Thanks to this, she became proficient in inhuman magical arts that ordinary magicians couldn’t attempt.
But even this Velicaya feared the Being on the 10th Floor immensely.
According to her thoughts, the origin of
However, it was the true owner of the Tower of Paradox, and Velicaya was an existence that parasitized the tower.
Looking at it this way, even the witch wasn’t in her right mind.
She didn’t know what she had seen in the Celestial Stone, but to live under the nose of a being whose identity she couldn’t know in order to achieve that.
‘Then what am I?’
What the hell was he?
Could he get involved in a mythological world just because he picked up a ring?
Besides…….
[SINGULARITY PUPPET]
[DO NOT DEFY FATE]
What did Singularity Puppet mean?
Dominic had come to deeply understand the Singularity thanks to peeking into Velicaya’s thoughts.
The Singularity that he understood was an ‘ideal that changed the class of existence.’
For example, what would happen if a poor nobleman in the countryside, ranked around 500th in the line of succession to the throne, set a goal to ‘become king’?
He would have to run toward an impossible goal.
He would have to kill all 499 of the higher-ranking successors above him, and he would have to crush their forces.
But it wasn’t impossible.
It would converge infinitely close to 0, but it wasn’t impossible.
What if he achieved that goal?
His very existence would change.
From a poor nobleman in the countryside to a king responsible for the dignity of a nation.
The Celestial Stone showed him that.
It showed him the moment of ascending to the throne and looking down on all the people in the world as if it were ‘reality’.
That feeling and emotion were so unfamiliar and touching that he couldn’t help but chase after it.
But…….
It was still strange.
The deeper his understanding of the Singularity shown by the Celestial Stone, the stranger it became.
‘What I saw was the past.’
Because what Dominic saw was the past.
But it wasn’t an unquestionable past.
If he rolled up his sleeves to examine his arms, there were still faint burn marks.
The problem was that these burn marks were made not by ‘Dominic at the age of 7’, but by ‘Search Team 8 Commander Dominic’.
In other words, a strange proposition was born: the past was established because the future existed.
‘Does this make sense?’
Even if it made sense, why did the Celestial Stone show him this?
It seemed that what it showed Velicaya was the future that would make her feel a desire that shook her very existence.
‘Is it possible that all of this is an illusion?’
The burn was from a childhood he couldn’t even remember, and the illusion plausibly pieced together all the elements?
“…….”
It didn’t add up.
There was no way that a stone that had driven a witch like Velicaya crazy would show a shallow illusion.
Besides, after being ejected from the Celestial Stone, he was able to read Velicaya’s mind as if he were a god.
That was definitely not a shallow trick like an illusion or hallucination.
Dominic’s worries deepened…….
“Ha.”
A faint smile came out.
It wasn’t for any particular reason.
It was just that he thought Kedral Diamond's blood was flowing through him.
“Emotion is trash when judging something.”
“Especially fear is the most foul-smelling trash.”
Until just now, he had been feeling fear of
‘If Kedral Diamond was in my situation, how would he have acted?’
There was no need to think deeply.
The answer came right away.
He would organize the information, but he wouldn’t be trapped by it.
He wouldn’t act to satisfy his curiosity.
The most valuable thing he could do right now.
He would move towards that.
Then what he had to do now was determined.
“Jarrot.”
“Yes.”
“Bring back as much edible food as possible with the team.”
“You mean food resources?”
“Yes. Fruits, mushrooms, tree roots. Anything is fine. As long as you can put it in your mouth.”
“Understood.”
Jarrot seemed to think it was a strange order, but he didn’t object.
As Search Team 8 left, Dominic remembered the word ‘Singularity’.
All current situations were connected around the Singularity.
Velicaya was a monster with only an obsession for the Singularity left, and the Being on the 10th Floor called Dominic a ‘Singularity Puppet’.
He saw an incomprehensible past at the Singularity.
He didn’t know the causal relationship between these three yet.
But he had a feeling that a huge flow related to the Singularity would one day engulf his destiny.
After some time, Search Team 8, which had carried out Dominic’s orders, returned.
“All team members have completed their return. We have secured approximately one week’s worth of food in addition to the combat rations.”
Originally, the food they had prepared was one week’s worth based on combat rations.
In other words, two weeks’ worth of combat rations had now been secured.
“If you spend more time, can you secure more food than that?”
“I think it’s possible. Shall we do it?”
“No, this is enough for now. Good work.”
Dominic, who praised their efforts, led Search Team 8 to Slash-and-Burn Village.
Dominic’s goal in this life was simple.
To fill the Ring's pattern to the maximum.
To capture and capture the central monster until the secured food ran out and become stronger.
No matter how he thought about it, this was the valuable thing he could do at this point.
-Caw!
A monster appeared, the Black Moon rose, and space movement began.
‘Could I meet Sebastian?’
If he could absorb the white orbs that Sebastian had, he could enjoy tremendous benefits.
But Dominic had met Sebastian when he entered Slash-and-Burn Village as quickly as possible.
So, to meet Sebastian and absorb the white orbs, he had to run to Slash-and-Burn Village as soon as the turn started.
Of course, Sebastian would exist no matter when he entered the forest.
He was a magician who lived in the tower with Velicaya.
But the reason Dominic was able to steal Sebastian’s orbs was because he mistook him for a ‘newbie’.
What if time passed and the ‘newbie’ had already arrived?
Things get complicated.
So, he had to promise to meet Sebastian in the next turn.
‘Still, I wish I could meet him in this life.’
Dominic entered the ominous forest while thinking about that.
* * *
A total of 27 central monsters were processed in 3 days.
He was hunting at a pace of 9 monsters a day, and he could catch more if he physically overdid it.
But he was managing his stamina because he had a long-term battle in mind for 2 weeks.
The morning of the 4th day came like that.
Dominic stared at the sun, faintly felt beyond the ominous sky, and got up from his seat.
As he looked at the Ring while heading towards the central area, he saw that the pattern was almost full.
Perhaps he would be able to absorb the pattern after today’s hunt was over.
One thing he learned this time was that the degree of strength of the central monsters varied from individual to individual.
Also, if you kill a strong individual, you can fill the pattern more, and if you kill a weak individual, the pattern hardly fills.
It was different from the shadow monster, which gave a quantitative amount no matter which individual you caught.
“Because they are beasts that have been intoxicated by the tower’s magic and rolled into the crack in space. They are unknowingly building up their inner core while licking the tower. Like practicing mana.”
Perhaps the larger the amount of ‘inner core’ that Sebastian mentioned, the stronger they were and gave more patterns.
‘By the way, Edgar’s party isn’t showing up.’
Since he hadn’t met them, he didn’t know what time it was now.
Dominic entered the central area while thinking about that and felt deja vu while searching for a suitable prey.
A central monster was located nearby, and its appearance was so familiar.
The lower body of a wild animal, the upper body of a scarecrow, a scythe instead of a hand.
‘It’s the guy I caught last time.’
What was strange was the next thing.
A defensive individual who used the bone on his chest like a shield.
A guy who used his hand like a spear and had a style of defending first and then counterattacking, he had caught this guy once too.
Of course, since he had gone back in time, he might meet the guys he had met again.
However, central monsters show behavioral patterns similar to those of beasts.
Beasts wouldn’t act according to an exact routine, so why were these guys here again?
The time he entered Slash-and-Burn Village was different?
Dominic pondered for a moment, but the most urgent thing was the battle.
-Kuaaaaaa!
The central monster fell, and Dominic stared blankly at the black orb that fell on the floor.
Then, instead of absorbing it into the Ring, he picked it up.
A familiar voice was heard from behind.
“Hey, what are you?”
It was Sebastian.