Chapter 249: The Goddess of Mages

—HUUUUUUuuuu~~

For several seconds, I remained motionless, still trying to understand what was happening. The commotion outside the cave was intense, accompanied by the sounds of rocks being struck and furious roars.

Something had discovered my hiding place. I quickly stood up and began gathering my belongings. While doing so, I heard the enormous Rock Basilisk guarding the entrance move.

Even it, which was supposed to remain protecting the passage, pushed half of its body outside the cave and began ferociously attacking something.

By the time I had finished packing everything, I left the cave, and the battle was already over.

There were seven battered Solar Light Hound corpses scattered across the ground. Around them, the scorching Solar Light, partially melted and glowing like liquid embers, flowed freely in all directions.

For those creatures, rocks were like their bodies. And that molten scorching Solar Light was the equivalent of their blood.

Seeing how much had spilled out, I didn’t need much knowledge to understand that the chances of those seven beasts surviving were extremely slim.

But there was something that bothered me far more.

Why were there so many Solar Light Hounds here? Could my small cave really have been the home of that group? Several questions arose in my mind simultaneously. But I quickly dismissed them.

The previous night, when I had searched for a place to serve as a temporary shelter, I had been extremely careful and deliberately avoided most of the regions where Light-element creatures usually moved.

So why, after taking all those precautions, had a group of Solar Light Hounds appeared here?

And there was another, even more important question. My order to the Rock Basilisk had been very clear. It was only supposed to fight if it was attacked.

That meant those Solar Light Hounds had initiated the confrontation.

The more I thought about it, the more tightly my brows furrowed.

I immediately asked the Biochip to conduct a quick search through its records. After a few moments, I found a piece of information that made my expression change.

Humanoid Light Spirits possessed the ability to summon and command Light-element creatures. If my presence had been discovered, those Solar Light Hounds could have been sent to test my strength or simply drive me out of the region.

At that moment, new howls echoed through the nearby Solar Light tunnels. I immediately turned around and jumped into the enormous mouth of the Rock Basilisk.

"Let’s go!"

The Basilisk opened its jaws and swallowed me almost in a single motion. Soon after, the enormous Basilisk began advancing. Its long, heavy body squeezed with difficulty through an extremely narrow tunnel.

When its entire body had finally passed through the tunnel, the Basilisk swung its tail.

"POW!"

The walls trembled, and a large section of the entrance immediately collapsed. Tons of rocks came crashing down, completely sealing the passage.

Almost at the same instant, dozens of Solar Light Hounds leaped out from nearby tunnels.

But it was already too late. The collapsing rocks had blocked their path. They looked like enraged beasts trying to tear down an entire mountain with their own claws.

They began desperately digging through the rubble while simultaneously sending information to their master.

I, however, was already far away.

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POV — Humanoid Light Spirits

An adult and two young humanoid spirits appeared at the scene. Due to the size of their bodies, they simply could not enter the small tunnels.

Their bodies were far too large. Normally, they had to use the enormous natural tunnels formed by the erosion of the underground scorching Solar Light.

As for enemies hiding in narrow passages, they could only rely on their Light-element creatures to drive them out.

Under the orders of the adult humanoid spirit, Mondrik and the remaining Solar Light Hounds gave up digging.

The beasts turned around and began leaping into other tunnels of scorching Solar Light that were still intact.

The intention was simple: intercept the intruder through another route.

— There is only one enemy.

— He is merely a human acolyte, so there is no danger ahead.

— Take my message to Saara.

— He doesn’t need to bother our people. I will hunt him down myself.

Then he turned around.

He began walking toward the blocked tunnel.

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POV — George Gill

I was already far away, but I could still sense the terrifying change behind me.

The humanoid spirit simply melted its own path through the rocks.

It was a frightening ability. It advanced rapidly, leaving behind a tunnel filled with scorching Solar Light. I, however, had already managed to flee approximately eight kilometers.

The problem was that, in that underground world filled with winding tunnels, traveling eight kilometers did not mean being eight kilometers away in a straight line. I was probably only four or five hundred meters away from them in terms of direct distance.

That was dangerous.

Moreover, the Light element present in the rocky strata of this region was absurdly abundant. If I ordered the Basilisk to burrow through the ground as it had previously done in the Underground Cave of the Kar-Dur Tower, it would have to consume a terrifying amount of Earth element.

Therefore, I quickly changed direction and continued using the natural tunnels.

The pursuit lasted for approximately an hour.

Then something unexpected happened. They gave up.

That creature seemed to have a very clearly defined boundary in its mind. As long as I remained within a certain region, it would pursue me. But after I crossed that invisible line, it simply abandoned the hunt.

I let out a long sigh.

After all, I was certain of one thing. That was an adult humanoid Light Spirit at the Mage level.

If I were forced to fight against a monster of that level, even if I summoned all my Golems, the result would be a miserable defeat.

But I had also discovered something else.

That humanoid spirit clearly showed enormous concern for the younger generations of its clan. Using my senses, I realized that the two young Pseudo-Mages had not directly participated in the pursuit, and they had not been left alone either.

After all, with my current strength, I didn’t have the courage to plan anything against an adult humanoid Light Spirit.

But those two young Pseudo-Mages...

Perhaps.

It wasn’t impossible.

I just needed to find the right opportunity.

While waiting for my body to fully recover, I began searching for a new route that could lead me back to the ocean.

After all, that enormous mountain had been eroded by the scorching underground Solar Light for countless years. Hundreds of thousands of tunnels had been formed. And as a consequence, almost all of them eventually led to the deep and mysterious world of scorching Solar Light.

This time, I remained submerged for twice as long as before, and the progress of the modification of my Light Body skyrocketed.

[37%.]

The last time, it had been only 23%.

The increase was enormous.

But the price was equally terrifying.

My body once again went through indescribable torture.

Then, when everything seemed to have been pushed to its absolute limit, new organs and tissues slowly began to emerge. They adapted to the latest state of my Light Body.

And there seemed to be a kind of silent intelligence hidden within the flesh itself.

The more I observed it, the more frightening this conclusion became.

The Biochip classified some small changes in my organs as useless or redundant. However, after a few more rounds of modification, those very same parts ended up becoming the perfect foundations for the next stage.

If this had happened only once or twice, I could have considered it a coincidence.

But it wasn’t like that.

After analyzing my entire body, the Biochip found similar patterns in practically every modified region.

That was when I made my decision.

I stopped allowing the Biochip to interfere directly with the process.

From that moment on, I allowed the instinct of my own body to guide the modifications.

And this ended up making me understand something I had already heard countless times from the Mages.

Without a doubt, this was the greatest empress of the Mages, the goddess known as the "Will of the World."

The world I was in now was merely a large-scale world within the vast multiverse.

Even so, such a gigantic world, filled with seemingly limitless resources, was merely a tiny grain of sand in the infinite ocean of stars.

In my previous life, Earth and the universe in which it existed could be classified as a low-magic world.

But this world...

The energy was so abundant that even the Occult had transformed into a terrifying force.

Under certain circumstances, anyone could unleash power far beyond the limits their bodies should normally be able to withstand.

All of this could be encompassed under the vast domain of the Occult.

If someone claimed that the Earth in my previous world possessed its own consciousness and an independent will, they would probably be treated as a joke.

The mass of Earth was enormous.

But for an object of that scale to develop its own will, simply relying on the materials and energy contained within it did not seem sufficient.

In a low-magic world, a planet developing its own will seemed impossible.

But here, the ocean of infinite energy was everywhere.

Perhaps that was precisely what allowed a world to develop its own consciousness.

Of course, in this multiverse, there were not simply planets.

There were worlds.

At all times, floating continents that existed within the barriers of a world absorbed unimaginable quantities of energy.

Their terrestrial bodies contained enormous amounts of matter.

And above all...

Life.

It didn’t matter whether it was a tiny stone forgotten on the ground or a powerful Mage at the peak of their path.

Both were part of that world.

All of this existed within an infinite ocean of energy.

Perhaps it was precisely this combination that provided the foundation for the birth of a collective consciousness.

The most primitive form of the so-called Will of the World could be exactly that.

A collective consciousness formed through the fusion of countless living beings and elemental materials existing within the very body of the world.

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