Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I forced my fading mind to stay focused.

So it had only looked close from a distance.

That was because I had spent two full days walking from the snowy mountain to the city.

My legs had long since grown so weak that the sword had become more of a cane, and I was so tired and sleepy that I felt as though I might collapse at any moment.

“Um... are you a traveler, sir?”

By the time I somehow reached the city and found the temple, it was already deep into the night.

My last memory was of the priest on duty finding me after I arrived looking like a beggar.

“I am sleepy....”

The moment I arrived, I lost consciousness.

***

When I woke again, I was lying on a soft bed.

The quiet surroundings and the faint smell of disinfectant crept into my hazy mind with a strangely familiar atmosphere.

“A dream....”

...A dream? At that instant, the haze in my mind vanished completely.

I shot upright and looked around. Thankfully, this was an unfamiliar ward. Only then did I remember that I had arrived at the temple last night.

“Ishara...?”

As I hurriedly looked around, I finally let out a sigh of relief when I saw the sword standing right beside the bed.

Still, had her name been called in my sleep?

The faint resonance it gave off made me smile without realizing it.

“That is a relief.”

Everything that had happened in the Selection Grounds.

Meeting Ishara, and the time I had spent with her.

None of it had been a dream.

“Ah, you are awake.”

Right on cue, the priest who had noticed me waking approached.

“My name is Robin, and I am the priest on duty. It seemed you had collapsed from exhaustion, so I had you moved to a bed first.”

“...Thank you. I am Lee Su... Isran.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir Isran. How is your body feeling?”

“I think I am fine, thankfully.”

And it was true. I did not even feel sore.

Before I was possessed, I had always lived with dizziness and pain, so waking up in such immaculate condition felt strange instead.

It was as if my body did not feel like my own.

“While you were asleep, I checked your token. It seems you are someone who just graduated from the Selection Grounds.”

“Ah... yes.”

“Ha ha, I was truly shocked. This is the first time I have seen a Platinum Token since being assigned here.”

There were four total token grades: platinum, gold, silver, and bronze.

The Platinum Token I possessed was the highest of them all. In other words, it was equivalent to graduating at the very top.

“Is a Platinum Token really that rare?”

“Rare would be an understatement. The last Platinum Token was issued a hundred years ago.”

“Oh....”

“Congratulations. And it is truly an honor to meet you.”

Robin excitedly offered me a handshake.

According to him, even a gold grade was uncommon, let alone platinum.

Apparently Persica and Dominic had received Gold Tokens this time, and that alone had people calling them a golden class.

‘So they passed too.’

Thankfully, it seemed they had made it through the final test safely.

I had been worried in my own way, so that was a relief.

“But how did you know what tokens they got? Did they arrive before me?”

From what I heard, not just those two, but everyone else had already made it back to the city.

I had walked for two whole nights myself, so they had gotten here even faster than that?

“The moment one passes the final test, one is immediately transported to Ebla.”

“...What?”

“Hm? You did not know? The moment the test ended, the magic circle inscribed on the testing ground should have activated.”

“....”

I thought I knew what had happened.

I had not finished the test in any ordinary way.

The test had only ended after Ishara became a fairy and fell asleep, and only after the owner had changed from her to me.

In other words, I had left the area before the test officially ended.

‘Come to think of it, in the game too, you were teleported straight to the city once it was over...?’

I had thought that was just because it was a game, but reality worked that way too?

When I asked Robin, he said that even if the passing message came late, teleportation would activate again once you returned to the proper location.

The fact that my two-day forced march had been completely pointless drained all the strength from my body.

“Do you know about the benefits of a Platinum Token?”

“To some extent.”

This token was the reward for the final test itself.

If you possessed a token, the temple provided various forms of support depending on its grade.

A Platinum Token, in particular, granted unlimited lodging and meals, and later, when absorbing Mana Stones through a priest, no fee was charged.

In addition, things the temple could provide, such as treatment and curse removal, were either free or discounted.

Was it stingy, considering a Platinum Token only appeared once every hundred years?

Not at all. This was actually an enormous benefit. In the early stages, there were expenses everywhere, and this let you save a great deal of them.

More than anything, this was still only a tutorial reward. Expecting more than this would have been greed.

‘Long live the Golden Order.’

This was possible because the Golden Order, the religious group that served the Golden Rule, owned the temple.

Since the Selection Grounds themselves were maintained by the Golden Rule, they also took care of its graduates.

“You must be hungry. I shall bring you a simple meal, so please wait here.”

Once Robin left and I was alone for a moment, I took the chance to sort through my thoughts.

It was because of what Ishara had said at the very end of the Selection Grounds.

‘The abilities of Possessors....’

Ishara had said that Possessors were granted abilities by the Golden Rule when they crossed into this world.

And she had said that Herman, when he brought me here, had reset that ability.

She had even said that if I had still possessed my original ability, it would have activated the moment she died.

“...I cannot say for sure that she is wrong.”

Restart. An ability that turned back time.

If I truly had such an ability, I did not think I would have refused to use it.

I could not remember it, but apparently I had already used it over three thousand times.

‘It does not feel like it is gone forever, though.’

If it had vanished, they probably would have simply said it was gone.

The fact that they had gone out of their way to use the word reset made it seem more likely that the ability itself had not disappeared.

It probably was not the original “Restart,” but there was a strong chance it still existed in some other form.

I simply had not awakened it yet.

“And then... your name.”

Ishara Ethrana.

And the title of the game, Ethrana Exodus.

The full name I had heard directly resembled the title of the game.

Was that a coincidence? Or was there some connection there?

What kind of secret... had you been carrying?

I quietly ran my hand over the sword, which lay silent in sleep.

“I have brought your meal.”

While I was lost in thought, Robin returned with food.

The menu was warm stew and bread.

“It is already past noon, so there was not much left. I apologize that it is nothing special.”

“No... it is fine. Thank you.”

I accepted it gratefully, but when I actually tried to eat, my hand hesitated.

Not because I disliked it, but because it was unfamiliar.

Before I was possessed, I had always eaten bland porridge that was easy to digest, so I had never tried food like this. Even the smell was new to me.

“Ah, is this perhaps not to your liking?”

“It is not that. It is just....”

While I hesitated, my stomach let out a loud growl.

I had not noticed it before, but now that the food was placed in front of me, the body that had gone hungry for two straight days began protesting at once.

As for how to eat it... I knew from watching videos.

I dipped the bread into the soup, then tightly shut my eyes and took a bite.

“...!”

It was delicious.

The sweet and savory aroma spreading through my mouth, the texture of the bread soaked just enough with stew.

I had no idea whether it was considered high quality or not, but the flavor bursting across my tongue was more than enough to leave me wide-eyed.

“....”

The bridge of my nose stung.

I wiped at the corners of my eyes as I took small bites, but by the end I was practically stuffing it into my mouth.

“P-please, eat slowly. You will make yourself sick at this rate.”

What must the priest have thought as he watched me wolfing down ordinary bread and soup?

Judging by the way he gently patted my back, he might have thought I was a rather strange person.

Even so, I did not stop eating.

It kept going down, so I asked for more again and again.

It might have been a simple meal to someone else, but for me, it was the first time.

The first food I had ever tasted, the first flavor I had ever truly experienced, was so unfamiliar and wondrous.

“It is delicious....”

And I was happy.

***

The next day, I got out of bed immediately.

Maybe because I had slept well and eaten properly, my condition felt perfect. I felt as though I could fly.

“You are leaving already? You could rest a little longer.”

“I just cannot sit still.”

I was not saying that figuratively. I truly meant it.

My body had inherited all the physical specs and abilities that Ishara had possessed.

On top of that, the shackle called Mana Stone Disease had disappeared cleanly, so this was not a joke. Energy was overflowing through my whole body.

There was so much of it that staying still was actually difficult.

“If you are heading to the dungeon, then please take this.”

Robin handed me a small card and a silver badge.

The card was an Adventurer ID.

When I had asked about identification yesterday, he told me that a Platinum Token allowed the temple to help issue one on my behalf, so I had requested it.

The Star Rank engraved on it was 2-Star.

Just as I had told him.

‘In the game, you absolutely had to go to the guild yourself, but I guess reality is more flexible.’

The fact that it could be issued so easily just by giving my name and rank felt almost too simple.

So simple, in fact, that it almost felt sloppy... but then again, a Platinum Token was so rare that perhaps the temple simply served as guarantor in those cases.

What interested me more was the badge that had come with it.

“What is this badge?”

“It is the badge that symbolizes an Apprentice Adventurer. It means that the temple protects all adventurers during their first year of activity.”

So apparently something like this existed too.

According to him, attacking an adventurer wearing an apprentice badge was a serious crime, and both the Ebla royal family and the Golden Order enforced it.

It seemed to be a sort of new adventurer protection policy.

“Is there anything else you need?”

“You would not happen to have a spare scabbard at the temple, would you?”

“Unfortunately, we do not keep weapons or equipment in storage.”

“Then....”

I asked for a robe, a backpack, and a clean cloth.

The robe was to hide my face, for now.

Most of my fellow graduates from the Selection Grounds knew that I had been Ishara’s fairy.

It would be troublesome if they recognized me on sight, so it seemed better to hide myself from the start.

The backpack was, of course, for carrying things, and the cloth was...

“Is that not the Starting Weapon? Are you trying to wrap it?”

“Yes.”

It was to wrap Ishara in place of a scabbard I did not have.

Robin watched me with interest as I wrapped the sword in cloth.

‘Well, I suppose I am the first person he has seen do this.’

The moment a fairy fell asleep, the Starting Weapon lost its durability.

It neither rusted nor needed sharpening, so there was no problem with simply carrying it around as it was.

Then again, people usually did not use it much after that... so most probably just carried it as it was.

As for why I was doing this, it was nothing special.

I just did not want to leave her exposed like that.

“You are the first person I have seen treasure a Starting Weapon so much.”

“It is my treasure.”

After carefully wrapping the sword, I slung it over my shoulder.

The heavy sensation felt surprisingly good.

“Then I will be off.”

“Grátĭa. May your journey be filled with fortune.”

After exchanging a brief farewell with Robin, I stepped outside the temple and first unfolded a city map.

Ebla, the last city, was divided into four districts—east, west, south, and north—centered around the royal capital where the king and nobles lived.

To the north lay the snowy mountain where the Selection Grounds had been held. The east was the residential district, and the south was the commercial district.

And the place I was now heading for was the dungeon in the west.

“Oh.... Wow.”

Since this was the first journey of my life, everything I laid eyes on was fascinating.

The crowds flowing through the streets. The exotic buildings. Even the voices coming from every direction.

For someone who had spent most of his life on a sickbed, even such simple things were astonishing.

By the time I had thoroughly gotten sidetracked and reached the dungeon entrance, it was already late afternoon.

“This really does look exactly like it did in the game.”

A spacious plaza and various buildings erected on all sides.

There were statues and monuments to those who had achieved great deeds, and I could also see bulletin boards where requests were posted.

And in the center stood a huge signboard with a large map of the dungeon drawn on it.

‘It only goes up to the seventh floor.’

The map showed only up to Floor 7. Even then, it was patchy.

Dungeon maps were periodically revised based on information brought back by adventurers, so places that had not yet been explored were not marked.

In the game, the deepest floor shown was Floor 9.

Even so, the fact that only up to Floor 7 was drawn here meant there was still no information below that.

‘I thought the Possessors who came before me would have updated it.’

I had hoped for at least a little more, since they were people who had supposedly made it to the end, but I suppose it really was difficult.

If that was the case, then the game and the world itself were not that different after all....

I knew it would not be easy to descend further, but that did not make it any less disappointing.

“Anyway... so that is the dungeon.”

Far beyond the plaza.

At the end of the long road stretching ahead was a gigantic pit so vast it could not be taken in at a glance.

A bottomless abyss, as though a sinkhole dozens of kilometers wide had opened in the earth.

That was the entrance to the dungeon.

‘There are so many people.’

The entrance was crowded with people trying to enter the dungeon.

Some parties had gathered to work out their strategies, while others checked their equipment or bent over maps in frustration.

There were especially many people looking at maps.

“This brings back memories.”

Whether in the game or in reality, there was no minimap here, so learning the map was essential.

Take one wrong turn, and you could end up wandering for ages, or even die if things went badly.

The best option was to hire a guide or join a party from the beginning, but... that method did not suit me.

I had always been more of a solo player.

“Excuse me, I would like to go down into the dungeon.”

“Are you applying for entry? Your identification and affiliation... ah, you are an apprentice. Then just your identification, please.”

Before descending into the dungeon, I filled out an entry application.

Since the temple had already taken care of my adventurer registration, I only had to write down my name.

After finishing the paperwork, I left the plaza and headed for the lift platform, the entrance to the dungeon.

‘Let us see. The one I need to take is....’

To descend into the dungeon, you had to use one of the lifts installed along the cliff face.

Which one you took determined your starting point, and naturally, the difficulty varied wildly as well.

“The lift doors will be closing soon! Anyone going down, please board now!”

The shout of a city guide snapped me back to attention.

One, two... was it that one?

I quickly searched my memory and boarded the lift I had used most often.

‘At last, I am going.’

Standing wedged among the crowd, I clutched the edge of my robe tightly.

‘To the dungeon.’

It was time to head toward the true stage of this world.