The gentle breeze sweeping across the meadow was refreshing. Baek Yu-Seol sat idly in the field, letting the wind tousle his hair.
"What… is this…?"
[Search Result: Gentle Breeze]
[A gentle breeze was categorized as wind force level 3, with an average speed ranging from 3% to 5%... ]
"No, I'm not interested in that."
He absentmindedly reached up to remove his Sentient Spec, only to realize that the message floating before him wasn't from glasses he was wearing… it was just hovering in midair.
Touching his face, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out his actual Sentient Spec, and stared at them intently.
"Hey."
No response.
Of course, the Sentient Spec weren't designed to reply to such trivial calls.
"Sigh..."
Resigned, Baek Yu-Seol put the specs on and posed a more practical question.
"Can you figure out where this place is?"
[Unable to determine location.]
[If the terrain within a 200-meter radius is scanned, it may be compared with the world map to estimate the location.]
"I see…"
Well, it wasn't as if the Sentient Spec had a built-in satellite. Expecting them to instantly pinpoint his location was asking too much.
'One thing was certain. This place was far from that temple.'
But why? How? Why here?
He needed to figure out why he had been transported to this place and where exactly he was as quickly as possible.
And so, Baek Yu-Seol began to walk.
Whoosh… rustle…
The wind swept through the grass, causing the blades to sway gently as the endless meadow stretched out before him. He walked and walked, with nothing but the vast expanse of green to accompany him.
[Searching…]
The 200 meters required by the Sentient Spec had long been exceeded, yet it still couldn't determine his location.
Was there ever such an empty meadow in Aether World?
Most of the grasslands on the Aether Continent had been affected by the contamination of dark magic or the development of magic itself. These had given rise to uniquely mutated plants and powerful monsters roaming the plains.
Hadn't the Lower Waning Moon Plains been home to flowers towering up to the sky?
Although these phenomena were technically caused by magical anomalies from the advancement of civilization, their beauty and the way they enriched the environment meant no one had ever complained about them.
[Searching...]
"Still no results?"
[More data is required.]
"This doesn't make sense. How many grasslands this vast exist in the Aether Continent? With such a large meadow, can't you at least narrow it down to a general location?"
[Searching with additional data provided.]
[Searching...]
[Search Result: None.]
[There is no location in Aether World that matches this area.]
"...What?"
Baek Yu-Seol froze in his tracks.
[Does not exist.]
The absurdity of those two words swirled in his mind.
"Wait, are you saying… this place isn't on the Aether Continent?"
[Correct.]
[A flat grassland spanning a radius of 349 meters, with no obstructions or anomalies within an adjusted visible radius of 3,289 meters, does not exist on the map of Aether World.]
Baek Yu-Seol hastily scanned his surroundings before suddenly leaping high into the air, using consecutive flashs.
Soaring dozens of meters into the sky, he finally realized just how strange this place was.
"Hah…"
Grasslands. Grasslands everywhere.
No forests. No trees. No villages. No animals. Nothing.
It was a vast, empty expanse… just a plain field with nothing else in sight.
Thud!
Landing back on the ground, Baek Yu-Seol looked up at the sky with a hollow expression.
"Constellations… If night falls, I can use the constellations to determine my location."
Even as he said it, he couldn't bring himself to believe his own words.
And why would he?
The sky above was completely clear, not a single cloud in sight.
Apart from the glaring sun overhead, there was absolutely nothing else in the vast space. Feeling as if he were on the brink of losing his mind, Baek Yu-Seol addressed the Sentient Spec again.
"Cancel the location search and instead… scan for spatial distortions and mana anomalies in the area."
This was no ordinary space.
It might be an artificial pocket dimension created by someone or a naturally occurring extradimensional space that had separated itself from reality.
[Search Results: No spatial distortions detected.]
[Search Results: No unusual mana waves detected.]
"Is that so…"
If that was the case, the likelihood that this was a naturally occurring extradimensional space grew even stronger.
Artificial pocket dimensions created by human hands always left behind detectable distortions or anomalies in mana patterns.
But this realization made his situation even worse.
If it were an artificial space, he could potentially analyze and reverse-engineer its structure to escape. But if it were a naturally formed extradimensional space, how could he possibly find a way out?
'...Don't tell me.'
A sudden thought struck him… he remembered the stories about the witch hunters who had gone in search of Scarlet, only to meet their deaths.
Rumor had it that Scarlet's prison was guarded by sentinels who had killed all those who came looking for her, but the details were never clear.
After all, if everyone who went after Scarlet had died, how could anyone truly know what had happened?
"Actually… was there never a guardian to begin with?"
There was no sentinel protecting the prison.
Instead, anyone who tried to find Scarlet was gifted the same fate… a prison of their own.
The other witch hunters who had sought this place were likely trapped here as well, endlessly wandering for eternity until they perished and faded away.
In other words, while this space wasn't artificially created by humans, it did have an entrance and an exit.
Otherwise, it would have been impossible to forcibly bring a living being from reality into this place.
"If I managed to come here, there must be a way out."
Could an ordinary human like him replicate the method used by the transcendent being who had imprisoned Scarlet, someone with overwhelming power?
Rather than dwell on his doubts, Baek Yu-Seol clung to the faint hope that even a slim possibility of escape existed.
"Think, Baek Yu-Seol."
Figure out a way to find the exit.
Baek Yu-Seol stood still, surveying his surroundings.
This endless field offered nothing but grass and sky. With no detectable spatial distortions, it was practically impossible to locate an exit just by walking around.
'If I could find a small passage hidden in the fabric of this space… but I can't use magic.'
If someone like Hong Bi-Yeon or Flame, who could unleash enormous amounts of mana, were trapped here instead, they might have been able to recover mana daily and search for spatial tears.
But for Baek Yu-Seol, that was an impossible scenario.
In that case—
"…I just need help from another being capable of using magic, don't I?"
Why was he always trying so hard to solve things on his own?
There was no need for that.
After all, he had come here to rescue Scarlet.
The mere fact that he had been trapped in this strange space meant he was already one step closer to reaching her.
"That's it..."
The other witch hunters who had been trapped here must have reached the same conclusion.
"Someone intentionally trapped me in this naturally occurring pocket dimension, so I just need to find the exit!"
However, there was a significant difference between Baek Yu-Seol and the witch hunters who had come before him.
The witch hunters had entered this place to kill Scarlet, but upon being trapped, they never even considered seeking help. Instead, they perished here.
But…
Baek Yu-Seol believed with certainty that if he could rescue Scarlet, he would find a way out of this place.
The White Witch who had lived for centuries, Scarlet—
"Something impossible for me would be effortless for her."
"I need to find Scarlet…"
Muttering to himself, he took a step forward. At that moment, a vibration buzzed from his wrist.
"Huh?"
Rolling up his sleeve, he saw a white bracelet glowing and humming faintly.
"This is Scarlet's bracelet…"
He remembered the summer break when he had been focused on training and had crafted various items for Scarlet.
During that time, Scarlet had jokingly gifted him this bracelet, saying she had made it herself.
It had no special properties or uses, but since it was a gift, he had worn it without much thought.
"Could this… be the 'key item' the prophet mentioned?"
The prophet had said that in order to find Scarlet, something directly connected to her would be required as a price.
Snap!
As that thought crossed his mind, cracks began to form on the bracelet.
The bracelet was now acting as the 'price' and slowly losing its durability!
Which meant… the bracelet was breaking apart as it guided him toward Scarlet.
Quickly, he extended his bracelet-wearing arm forward.
The vibrations grew stronger.
There was no doubt that this was the correct direction.
With that assurance, Baek Yu-Seol kicked off the ground and sprinted, covering dozens of meters in an instant. His heart pounded as a faint smile formed on his lips.
'Finally, finally, I've found you, Scarlet!'
He kept running, faster and faster.
Whether directions like north, south, east, and west had any meaning in this place was unclear, but the bracelet pointed unwaveringly in a single direction.
Crack...
The cracks on the bracelet deepened, but its reactions grew even stronger.
Crack, snap!
'Just a little longer, please, hold on!'
If he'd known it would be like this, he would've asked for a sturdier bracelet as a gift!
As that thought crossed his mind while he sprinted—
Suddenly, right in front of him—
Boom!!!
"Ugh?!"
A massive door slammed down from above.
Baek Yu-Seol instinctively came to a screeching halt, stumbling to the ground in the process. He looked up at the enormous door with wide, confused eyes.
"What is this…?"
The word gigantic didn't even begin to describe it.
The door was so massive that it seemed to stretch beyond the sky, perhaps even into space itself. It was so tall that even as Baek Yu-Seol stood close to it, he couldn't see the top.
How had something so colossal evaded his notice until now?
It must have been concealed by magic… an occurrence that, fittingly, seemed magical itself.
"Ha… That took forever."
With effort, Baek Yu-Seol picked himself up from the ground and began walking slowly toward the door.
[Scanning for magic...]
[Scan complete: Trial of Worthiness detected.]
The Sentient Spec detected a peculiar type of magic, labeled Trial of Worthiness.
Of course, it was a type of magic Baek Yu-Seol had never heard of before, but for some reason, he felt as though he could intuitively understand how it worked.
He could feel its gaze.
The entire door felt like a massive, watchful eye, as if some immense being were peering down at him.
That presence, dormant for centuries, had awakened to determine whether Baek Yu-Seol was worthy of passing through.
And the result—
Screeeech—!!!
Naturally, he passed.
The enormous door, so massive it seemed impossible to open by physical means, swung wide open.
Before him was a pure white space, pristine and untouched, though its clarity felt almost sharper than blood itself.
It was a space perfectly suited to Scarlet… pure and untainted, yet drenched in a crimson undertone.
Taking a deep breath, Baek Yu-Seol stepped forward into that world.