Kaelus awoke with the first rays of sunlight filtering through the canopy above. He found Vara Shadowstep and Zathis the Swift were already awake, sitting at the tree inside the protective Vortex Sphere barrier. Outside the dissipating sphere, the ground was littered with hundreds of mana core fragments.
"Morning, Kaelus!" Vara greeted him softly. "You slept well. Your barrier is effective."
"What are all these fragments?" Kaelus asked, surprised by the sheer quantity.
"Monsters were approaching all night, but the moment they hit the sphere's rotating mana field, they instantly died," Zathis explained, looking and trying to scoop the fragments but the barrier was strong. "The barrier also traps the noise, so we didn't hear a thing. It was a silent, automatic kill-zone."
"Kaelus, deactivate your barrier, and I will collect the fragments," Vara said.
Grund Stonebeard soon emerged, already preparing breakfast—bread toasted in a controlled heat, served with honey filling. The team ate quickly, preparing for the day's rigorous infiltration.
"Kaelus, we will be covering another vast distance today," Zane Bladeheart announced, polishing his greatsword. "Let's continue to dig deeper."
Kaelus deactivated the surrounding Vortex Sphere, and the quiet of the morning was immediately replaced by the low, ambient roar of the Eastern Territory. He summoned the Aerial Observation Platform, and the team climbed inside. The wind carriage immediately lifted, and Kaelus activated the continuous Enhanced Wind Needle Rain.
As the platform glided over the forest, Kaelus reached into his supplies and took out a 6-Star High Rank Mana Restoration Pill—a gift from Baron Marcus of the House of Aurumglow—to counter the previous day's training exertion. As he took the 6-Star High Rank Mana Restoration Pill in his mouth, he felt his vast mana pool quickly refilling. He knew a normal 5-star pill would refill only 1% of his reserves, but this one refilled 10%—confirming Sylva's caution that its potency would make them explode. Only the 9-star mages like the Mage Emperor and him can consume and refine this kind of pill. He then caught sight of the elegant Aurumglow crest on the bottle.
His mind immediately drifted to Lady Erice Aurumglow—her short black hair, her vivid blue eyes, and their graceful aerial waltz at the banquet. A strange, pleasant warmth settled in his chest, and his core, usually racing with raw power, beat with a rhythm that was decidedly uneven—a clear sign of infatuation.
I must not think about romance, Kaelus realized, shaking his head. I am a 15-year-old dragon who must stay behind to maintain an intercontinental barrier. I might never return to the Neutral Zone. The sheer impossibility of the timing and the potential consequence of his mission should have extinguished the thought instantly, but it stubbornly lingered. I don't have time and intention to divert my path.
Sylva observed Kaelus, noting the brief lapse in his fierce focus. "Kaelus, you seem distracted. Is everything alright?"
Kaelus forced his mind back to the mission. "It's nothing, Ms. Sylva. Just thinking about the upcoming mission."
Sylva immediately pulled the conversation to the mission brief. "Look at the map. After we pass through this canyon, we are entering the middle portion of the Eastern Territory. As you can see in the Mana Scan platform, the monster density here is high. Team B will not be engaging in battle as planned."
"Why? No, that's unfair!" Zathis protested, eager to fight.
"We need to preserve our strength for the upcoming core battle," Sylva explained sternly. "The middle portion of the Eastern Territory is where the newly spawned dungeon is located. There must be SS-Rank monsters here. We stick to area denial."
"Alright, fine," Zathis muttered, sulking. "We are engaging battle anyways."
The Wind Needle Rain continued, turning the landscape below into a clear path. The platform detected several S-Rank monster signatures, but Kaelus maintained the density of his basic attack, and each signature was eventually silenced by the constant bombardment.
Kaelus then approached Sylva. "Sylva," Kaelus said, his expression serious. "Considering all the details we've gathered from Grolnuk's journal and the Mage Emperor's briefing, what are your ultimate conclusions?"
Sylva looked at him intently, her mind meticulously sorting the arcane and historical inconsistencies. "Kaelus, the Players' threat is just that—a threat, a label placed on them by ancient texts. But there is a glaring flaw, or a significant hole, in Grolnuk's millennium-old story. If they are truly immortal, they should either be alive and active right now, or their immortality might only apply to physical wounds, leaving them susceptible to death by old age or natural causes."
She continued to articulate the main points of confusion, tapping her finger lightly at the Mana Scan platform. "If they already died a millennium ago, it suggests we're dealing with their descendants who may not inherently be hostile to us. Furthermore, if you analyze the journal entries closely, their appearance is recorded as being exactly like ours, and their original mission seemed solely focused on targeting the Verdant Dragon, which they clearly viewed as a powerful monster in their eyes. It's plausible they may not be hostile to Terra, the world of the living, but only to Mythos, the world of Divine Spirits, and we are simply caught in the middle of a conflict we don't fully understand."
Kaelus's mind churned. He remembered the cold, unsettling realization he'd had when he initially heard the story of the Players. The timeline. The Players existed a millennium ago, but the Aethos Ascendant MMORPG was only released three years before his death. This one, huge problem—the timeline—was the key Sylva needed. Kaelus knew he couldn't solve this riddle, but he desperately needed Sylva's brilliant mind to unlock the mystery. To do that, she had to know his perspective as a Player in his past life. Grolnuk's journal and his own Player's knowledge were the only things that could fix this broken history.
He took a slow, deliberate breath.He had to trust them.
"Sylva," Kaelus said, pushing the moment. "Remember what you said last night, when you told me, 'I know you still have a secret, Kaelus, but we choose not to ask. Instead, we will let you reveal it to us.'?"
Sylva's eyes narrowed, sensing the impending revelation. "Yes, I remember."