Chapter 626: Orichalcum Mine

Vadalla.

The one who had reigned as a figure of terror in Elvenheim for so long was falling.

He had never seen anything like it before. A single swing of the sword had not merely cut the targets—it had severed the entire space around them.

Enduring the pain that arrived belatedly from the wound, Vadalla looked around.

The monsters he had spent years taming across the continent...

They scattered into nothing more than handfuls of ash.

“No... Do you have any idea how hard I worked to gather them...?!”

Vadalla staggered but remained standing, shouting through bloodshot eyes.

He could still endure.

He could still survive.

Clinging to that thought, he turned toward the others.

The Ent King.

The King of Centaurs.

The Fairy King.

And the countless wolves that lived within this forest.

All of them were staring at him with what seemed like contempt.

It was proof that they had already been purified.

“Don’t look at me like that!!!”

Vadalla screamed.

Ever since he had been born with dark skin, unlike the other elves, they had looked at him with those same contemptuous eyes.

The older he grew, the more his dark skin stood out.

Vadalla could never blend in with the other elves.

He alone was dark.

He alone was hideous.

“I said stop looking at me with contempt!!”

He screamed.

At that moment—

FWOOSH—!!!

Flames ignited from the wound and swallowed Vadalla whole.

They said burning alive was the most horrific pain of all.

“AAAAAARGH!”

Vadalla’s eyes rolled back. He was certain they would laugh at his miserable, gruesome end.

But then...

[The Ent King wishes to ease your suffering, however little power remains.]

The king of the trees.

When the monster formed entirely of wood extended its branches, a fraction of the agony scorching Vadalla’s entire body faded away.

[The Fairy King wishes to ease your suffering, however little power remains.]

The being resembled a radiant butterfly.

As the Fairy King fluttered his luminous wings, light enveloped Vadalla’s flame-covered body, and another portion of the pain receded.

Then Vadalla’s gaze met the King of Centaurs.

A centaur possessed the upper body of a human.

That allowed Vadalla to see the king’s expression clearly.

There was no contempt on his face.

Only sorrow.

The king raised his sword toward the sky, then slowly lowered it.

Once again, Vadalla’s pain subsided.

[The King of Centaurs wishes to ease your suffering, however little power remains.]

Why?

Why do they look so sad?

A voice interrupted Vadalla’s thoughts.

“Were they really the ones who despised you?”

“...”

It was Hyun.

At first, Hyunsoo had also assumed that everyone would celebrate Vadalla’s death.

But they had not.

And somehow, Hyunsoo understood why.

There had been a time when he had been like Vadalla.

His entire body had been covered in scars, and he had sunk into self-loathing, convinced that everyone he met would despise and hate him.

Sometimes he had shouted at them, demanding to know what they could possibly understand.

He had lashed out in anger and hurt them over and over.

Yet not once had they despised him.

“They wanted to help you. Maybe the only one who ever truly despised you was yourself.”

Vadalla had been about to scream that Hyun knew nothing.

Then he saw the bitter smile on Hyunsoo’s face, and he faltered.

The proof lay in the sorrowful expressions of everyone around them.

Yes.

After hearing those words, Vadalla remembered.

The elves had never cast him aside first when he was a dark-skinned child.

Instead, when he sat curled up beside a tree and cried, they had approached him and asked him to play with them.

And when he had wailed beside a tree deep in the forest—

“Why am I the only one with dark skin?!”

RUSTLE...

An ent had swayed its branches, blocking the blazing sunlight and comforting him.

On a dark night, when he had lost his way...

Thousands of fairies had made their wings shine brighter than ever, creating a path that guided him back to the village.

Then there had been another day.

Born with dark skin, Vadalla had wanted to prove that he possessed something greater than ordinary elves.

Driven by that inferiority complex, he had gone hunting and found himself surrounded by monsters.

He should have died that day.

But then—

NEIGH—!!!

Hundreds of centaurs had charged in behind him as he fled for his life.

They opened a path and cut down every monster that lunged at him from either side.

None of them had ever despised him.

They had always protected him.

“Why... Why...?”

Vadalla could not understand why Hyun had chosen to grant him this realization in the final moments before his death.

Hyunsoo watched bitterly as Vadalla turned to ash from the tips of his feet upward.

He was not doing this for Vadalla.

The ents, fairies, and centaurs were grieving.

They had sheltered Vadalla, guided him, and protected him.

Hyunsoo knew they would never have wanted this ending for him.

“It would be sad to die without ever learning the truth.”

“...”

They had been enemies.

Yet just before Vadalla’s death, Hyun had shown him the most precious truth of all.

As his body began to dissolve, Vadalla finally realized that he had never been alone.

He slowly bowed his head.

It was an apology to everyone.

Then—

Tap.

“Why is that? I can smell the World Tree on you.”

Vadalla spoke words Hyunsoo could not understand.

“The only race other than elves capable of harboring a World Tree... No. You may be the only person capable of it. So make sure you succeed.”

With those final words, Vadalla looked at everyone around him.

And then—

WHOOOOSH—

He became ash completely, settling into the Ent King’s embrace, upon the Fairy King’s wings, and across the centaur’s fur.

[The dark elf Vadalla attained the most important realization of his life before departing.]

[He gifts you all the essence he gathered for your sake.]

[You have obtained 646 essence.]

Essence.

It was the final gift Vadalla had left Hyunsoo.

He said I smell like the World Tree?

Hyunsoo could not understand what that meant.

Still, one thing was certain.

Vadalla’s story had ended with something resembling a happy ending.

[Vadalla, who threatened Elvenheim, has died.]

[All those bound to Vadalla have been purified.]

DING!

[You have hunted the dark elf Vadalla.]

[You have obtained 14,136,323 EXP.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have leveled up.]

[You have obtained 32,654 Gold.]

[You have obtained the Transcendent-grade Tamer’s Belt.]

(Tamer’s Belt)

Grade: Transcendent

Durability: 8,000/8,000

Defense: 186

Restriction: Level 500 or higher Tamer

Special Abilities:

· Tamer Mastery +4

· Doubles the total number of monsters that can be controlled.

· Taming success rate +35%.

· Active Skill: Obey Me.

· Passive Skill: Great Master.

Description: A belt once worn by the dark elf Vadalla, a tamer who sold his soul to a demon and sought to rise beyond Legendary grade into the realm of Transcendence.

It doubles the total number of monsters you can control...?

That was practically cheating.

As a blacksmith, Hyunsoo knew which effects users of every class coveted most.

Tamers were obsessed with increasing their monster capacity.

The higher their capacity, the more monsters they could command.

That was why gauntlets granting an 11% increase sold like hotcakes.

The same went for armor granting 20% and helmets granting 10%.

But this was not 5%, 10%, or even 20%.

The Active Skill Obey Me and Passive Skill Great Master did not appear especially impressive, but that hardly mattered.

Doubling monster capacity alone makes this top-tier even among Transcendent items.

A user capable of controlling one Legendary monster would be able to control another one as well!

By then, the purified Ent King, Fairy King, and King of Centaurs had approached Hyunsoo.

Behind them, tens of thousands of ents, fairies, and centaurs filled the forest, all looking toward him.

Hyunsoo did not know.

A moment earlier, they had been unable to convey their feelings to Vadalla.

They could not speak those words to the one who had brainwashed them so completely.

And even if they had told him they had never despised him, Vadalla would not have believed them.

But Hyunsoo had been an outsider.

More importantly, he had approached Vadalla from a place of empathy.

By seeing himself in Vadalla, Hyunsoo had allowed him to understand the truth before his death.

And there was one more thing Hyunsoo did not know.

[The Ent King will not forget you.]

[The Ent King will gift you one Legendary-grade Ent Fruit every year.]

[Ent Fruit is a special item.]

[Consuming it immediately increases all stats by 2 and raises the proficiency of all skills by 3%.]

W-What?

The notification had clearly said every year.

That was right.

Every year, the Ent King would give Hyunsoo one of those extraordinary fruits for free, like a relative handing out gifts during the holidays.

For the rest of his life!

And that was not all.

[The Fairy King will not forget you.]

[The Fairy King will gift you 1 kilogram of Legendary-grade King’s Dust every year.]

[King’s Dust is a special material.]

[When combined with a light-attribute artifact, it increases all light-related effects by 20%.]

H-Holy...!

This was just as extraordinary.

It was effectively a guaranteed artifact enhancement.

Increasing every effect by 20% meant that if an artifact possessed a skill called Sword of Light, both its damage and its area of effect would increase by 20%.

And he would receive one kilogram of it.

For free.

Every single year.

And there was still more.

[The King of Centaurs will not forget you.]

[The King of Centaurs will gift you Legendary-grade King’s Mane every year.]

[King’s Mane is a special material.]

[When attached to armor requiring fur, it will increase Defense by at least 15% and raise Strength and Stamina by approximately 20%.]

“...”

This was the jackpot of all jackpots.

Every year, he would receive the most extraordinary fruit, dust, and mane.

Then Hyunsoo looked around.

It was not only the kings.

Every ordinary ent, fairy, and centaur was now friendly toward him.

And the rewards were not over yet.

[Hidden Quest: Purification completed.]

[You may receive a reward from Jepae, the Wolf King.]

The reward details stated that it would be something Jepae could do for him.

Hyunsoo watched Jepae approach, anticipation swelling within him.

*****

[The World Tree sapling will wither and die unless it is infused with sufficient essence.]

[Gather essence and save the dying sapling.]

It would take five hundred years for the World Tree to reach maturity, though essence could shorten that period.

More urgently, the nation of Hyun did not yet possess an environment suitable for a World Tree.

The sapling was already dying.

“Please tell us how we can obtain essence.”

The members of Hyun’s Forge guild had realized that these tasks were part of the quest chain required to establish the World Tree.

The Mother of World Trees gave them several missions.

“You should be able to obtain essence by hunting the ferocious demonic beasts inside the Bargol Dungeon.”

“The Vedara Sea. A small World Tree once stood there. You should be able to obtain essence by hunting the monsters inhabiting the place where it once lived.”

“The land of Condre. It was once a small homeland of the elves. You should be able to gather essence there.”

Becoming the only nation to possess a World Tree.

Not even the Parion Empire had achieved such a feat.

The officers of Hyun’s Forge threw themselves into the quests for several days as though their lives depended on it.

When they finally returned, utterly exhausted, they combined all the essence they had gathered.

“I obtained fifteen.”

“I got thirteen.”

“I have twelve.”

“I managed eighteen.”

“That makes a total of 189.”

Nell believed 189 essence would be enough to save the World Tree.

Nell applied all 189 essence to the sapling.

But then—

[You have fulfilled 2% of the essence required to save the sapling.]

“...”

The World Tree was not something granted to mere humans.

Nell was beginning to understand why no nation had ever managed to possess one.

CRUMBLE...

Nell watched sorrowfully as the leaves disintegrated.

The sapling was withering far faster than they could gather essence.

As that realization sank in, everyone present fell into despair.

Perhaps all they could do was stand by and watch the young World Tree sapling die.

At the same time...

Hyunsoo was receiving the reward for Hidden Quest: Purification.

[Jepae, the Wolf King, gifts you 2,000 essence.]

Again?

Hyunsoo still had absolutely no idea what essence was.

Even when he opened the detailed information, all it displayed was Unknown.

Tch. They could’ve just paid me in Gold.

And Jepae was not the only one giving Hyunsoo essence.

Ordinary ents.

Ordinary fairies.

Ordinary centaurs.

[An ent gifts you essence.]

[A fairy gifts you essence.]

[A centaur gifts you essence.]

They also gave their essence to Hyunsoo.

Because Hyunsoo was human, he did not understand the significance of Elvenheim’s inhabitants gifting him their essence.

It meant they acknowledged him as the master of the World Tree.

“Thank you, everyone.”

Hyunsoo gave them a faint grin and checked the total amount of essence in his inventory.

[Essence: 4,071]

He did not know.

His World Tree was already flourishing because of him.