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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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Chapter 298
[Delphos: You have completed the hidden episode.]
[The hidden episode will be registered in the collection.]
[Episode completion rate increases by 10%.]
It was done.
With this, the number of hidden episodes registered in the collection became four.
[Memory]
- You can review the memories of episodes registered in the collection.
Currently viewable episodes: ‘Edenharc,’ ‘Liandorf,’ ‘Hixmion,’ ‘Delphos.’
Now, reaching 100% episode completion was only a matter of time.
‘Of course, I need to become even stronger before that.’
Guided by Grand Duke Delphos, Jeong-hoon entered the castle.
The duke’s eyes were filled with trust—now, even reverence had settled in.
“I have something to present to the hero.”
Requesting a private audience, he handed Jeong-hoon an old book.
“What is this?”
Jeong-hoon tilted his head.
“This is a treasure of Delphos.”
“…Are you sure it’s fine to give me your treasure?”
“Of course. However, you must become its rightful owner to claim it.”
“Owner?”
“Yes. That book cannot be read by anyone who is not its rightful owner.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Jeong-hoon accepted the book.
Just as the duke had said, when he opened it, he found he could not read it.
To be precise, the pages were completely blank.
[???’s Book]
- Currently unreadable.
It seemed true that he had to be acknowledged as its owner before he could read it.
“If you are recognized as its owner, I will hand over the treasure to you without hesitation.”
“So if I’m not chosen, I can’t take it?”
“…Yes. Since it is a treasure, we cannot simply give it away.”
“Understood. Then I’ll try to be chosen before I leave.”
It seemed another task had been added to his list.
Jeong-hoon temporarily stored the book in his inventory and returned to his room.
Inside, Ha-jin and Bong-Goo were resting.
“Hun-ah!”
“Hyungnim!”
The two immediately got up to greet him.
“Did you get some good rest?”
“Yeah. Though, someone just left a short note and disappeared.”
“This is truly unfair! We came all the way here together—why did you go alone?”
Neither of them hid their disappointment.
“Thanks to that, you got to rest well.”
“Are you just going to let it slide this time too?”
Ha-jin furrowed his brows.
“I had no choice. It was something I had to do alone.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Just like Bong-Goo said, once I completely removed the barrier, the hidden episode was completed.”
The process of removing the barrier.
Ha-jin nodded, while Bong-Goo puffed up with pride.
“Isn’t this all thanks to me?”
“Yeah. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have been able to finish this so quickly.”
Jeong-hoon readily acknowledged his contribution.
Thanks to that one comment, he had found the key to solving the problem.
“You’re actually giving out praise so easily?”
Ha-jin asked, looking surprised.
“If someone heard you, they’d think all I do is crack the whip.”
He had handed out plenty of rewards before too.
“So, what’s the next plan?”
They had taken a fairly long break.
Given Jeong-hoon’s nature, he would usually rush ahead, claiming it was time to move on to the next step.
However, Jeong-hoon shook his head.
“Nothing for now.”
“Nothing?”
“Yeah.”
Of course, it wasn’t that he had no plans, but a new task had come up.
Until he solved that, he intended to stay in the Grand Duchy.
There was also the request he had given to Ligriner to extract the enhancement stone.
“Then we can rest here even longer?!”
Bong-Goo asked, unable to hide his excitement.
Jeong-hoon smirked and nodded.
“Yeah. Let’s take it easy here for a while.”
“Yes!”
It seemed he was really enjoying life in the castle.
Jeong-hoon lay down on the bed and took out the book he had stored in his inventory.
“What’s that?”
Ha-jin showed interest in the old book.
“It’s something I got from the Grand Duke.”
“You got it?”
“Yeah. Apparently, I have to be chosen as its owner before I can read what’s inside.”
“…That’s a strange book.”
“No kidding.”
Jeong-hoon opened the book again.
Even when he channeled mana into it, nothing changed.
* * *
When he came to his senses, he found himself standing in an unfamiliar place.
‘Where is this?’
Jeong-hoon tilted his head and looked around.
He was sure he had been lying on the bed, thinking about the book.
‘Ah, a dream.’
Normally, he wouldn’t be aware that he was dreaming, but this time, he realized it immediately.
However, for a dream, it felt far too vivid.
As Jeong-hoon clenched and unclenched his fist, an old man suddenly appeared before him.
The old man scanned Jeong-hoon up and down and muttered to himself.
“Hm, better than I expected.”
“Who are you?”
At Jeong-hoon’s question, the old man let out a hearty laugh.
“I thought you were decent, but it turns out you’re just an oblivious fool.”
Oblivious?
Jeong-hoon furrowed his brows.
No matter how he looked at him, the old man was completely unfamiliar.
Yet, the old man’s gaze suggested that he knew exactly who Jeong-hoon was.
“Don’t tell me… the book?”
“Oh! You finally caught on.”
Bingo.
“You approached me to choose me as the owner?”
“No way. I’m not that easy.”
“Is that so?”
Jeong-hoon’s lips twitched.
Approaching him without the intention of choosing him as the owner?
That made no sense.
This meant he had already passed the first hurdle.
If he hadn’t, the book wouldn’t have reacted to him at all.
“Anyway, I called you here to test you a little.”
“A test?”
“Yes. A test to see if you’re worthy of taking the book that I, Moras, personally left behind.”
“There must be something quite valuable recorded in it.”
“Of course! My entire life is in there.”
“Alright. What’s the test?”
Jeong-hoon readied himself for battle.
Normally, when someone proposed a test like this, it was usually decided through a duel.
However, the old man, Moras, had no intention of fighting.
“Hey, this is a dream. Did you really think I called you here just to spar?”
“Then what?”
“Gather the materials I tell you and combine them. Once you sprinkle the mixture over the book, you’ll be able to read the text.”
With that, Moras handed Jeong-hoon a recipe.
- A special diamond
- A knight’s soul
- A dragon heart
- A fusion potion
“Where do I find them?”
Except for the fusion potion, the rest of the ingredients were ones he had never seen before.
“The special diamond can be found in the Nahal Mine, located in this grand duchy.”
Moras kindly explained the sources of the ingredients.
First was the special diamond.
Unlike regular diamonds, this one was said to contain a unique energy.
Next was the knight’s soul.
It could be obtained at a low probability from a dungeon at the easternmost end of Darvis.
Lastly, the dragon heart.
A hidden script existed somewhere in Darvis.
By locating that hidden script and hunting the dragon within it, one could obtain a dragon heart.
Once all three ingredients were gathered, they could be combined with a fusion potion to unlock Moras’s book.
“Hm, this won’t be easy.”
“Of course not. I made it so that only my special elixir could decipher it.”
“I give up.”
“…What?”
“I said, I give up.”
If this had simply been a process of being chosen as the book’s owner, he might have been tempted. But gathering these materials would take too much time.
‘Finding a hidden script is like plucking a star from the sky.’
Hidden scripts were similar to hidden themes.
However, the difficulty of locating them was on an entirely different level.
Spending excessive time searching for that script would only slow him down. Sticking to his original plan would allow him to grow much faster.
Moras couldn’t hide his shock—he hadn’t expected Jeong-hoon to give up so easily.
“W-wait! Do you even know what you’re giving up? This book contains my entire life’s work!”
“I know. I’m sure it holds incredibly important information.”
“Yet you’re still giving up?!”
“Yes. As soon as I wake up from this dream, I’ll return this book to the Grand Duke and walk away without hesitation.”
There wasn’t even a hint of regret in Jeong-hoon’s eyes.
“Wait!”
Moras hurriedly grabbed him.
“What now?”
Jeong-hoon furrowed his brows, looking annoyed.
“Ugh, fine. You don’t need to gather the ingredients.”
“I don’t?”
“Yeah. If you go to a place where I once stayed, you’ll find an elixir stored there. Use that to decipher the book.”
“There was an elixir…?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you tell me to gather the ingredients?”
“Because I didn’t want to hand it over so easily.”
Moras, that old man.
He must have taken quite a liking to me.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be trying this hard to stop me from leaving.
“Then tell me where that place is.”
“Sigh… I never intended to give it away this easily.”
Moras felt a throbbing headache.
After waiting for so long, someone he actually liked had finally appeared.
He had intervened because he thought that if it was that guy, he could allow him to take the book.
Of course, he had no intention of handing it over so easily.
He had planned to make him struggle first, but he hadn’t expected him to give up so easily.
‘Someone like him won’t appear again.’
He couldn’t let his pride get in the way and kick away the fortune that had fallen into his lap.
In the end, Moras had no choice but to reveal the location of the elixir to Jeong-hoon.
* * *
Jeong-hoon woke up from his sleep.
By the time he sat up, everyone else had already woken up and left.
Checking the time, he realized he had slept for a full 11 hours.
“That was a long nap…”
His body felt stiff from lying down for so long.
Stretching, he got out of bed, washed himself thoroughly, got dressed, and put on Mukho.
[Master, why did you sleep so long?]
‘Even if you woke me up, I wouldn’t have responded.’
Apparently, Ha-jin had tried shaking Jeong-hoon awake for breakfast.
However, Jeong-hoon hadn’t stirred in the slightest and had just kept sleeping.
Clatter.
Just then, the door opened, and Ha-jin and Bong-Goo returned.
“Hun, you’re up?”
“Yeah. Did you try waking me up a lot?”
“Yeah. You really wouldn’t wake up.”
“I was having a good dream.”
“A dream?”
“Yeah. So about that, can I step out for a bit?”
“Again?”
“This time, it’ll only be for half a day.”
“You must’ve found a clue about that book.”
“Correct.”
Jeong-hoon smirked and quickly headed out.
His destination was the ruins Moras had told him about.
They were ancient ruins that had been abandoned for so long that no one visited them anymore, and Moras had hidden the elixir there.
The ruins were located on a small mountain a little ways away from the Grand Duchy.
In fact, they were so small that calling them ruins felt embarrassing.
If one didn’t examine the area carefully, it would be impossible to even find the entrance, as it had been left completely unmaintained.
‘It’s basically a forgotten place.’
The site had already been searched thoroughly, and since nothing had been found, it had simply been abandoned.
Jeong-hoon pushed through the undergrowth and entered the ruins.
Despite the narrow entrance, the interior was larger than expected.
‘There should be an entrance leading further inside, right?’
Following Moras’s instructions, he proceeded along the path.
However, he soon found himself blocked by a wall, making further entry impossible.
At a glance, it appeared to be a simple dead-end, but the reality was different.
Jeong-hoon clenched his fist and struck the wall.
Thud!
Thanks to his overwhelming strength, each strike sent tremors through the entire ruin.
Even so, he didn’t stop and continued to pound his fist against the wall.
Thud!
Rumble—
Suddenly, the obstructing wall crumbled into a mound of dirt and collapsed onto the floor.
“So it was real?”
Just as Moras had said, the path was designed to only open when dealt a certain amount of damage.
Pushing aside the dirt, Jeong-hoon stepped forward.
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
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