Chapter: 103
What is the essence of humanity?
What makes a person truly human?
I, who was once human and now am not, couldn’t clearly define that answer, but I had a bit of an inkling.
What makes a person human.
In our short lives, humans rush around like a burning match, frantically and ceaselessly burning themselves out.
At the core of that intense life and emotion… there must be…
Desire.
The longing heart.
What each person wishes for is different, but one thing is certain.
Humans live a life of rushing headlong toward what they desire—every bit of it—even if there’s an endless cliff at the end of that sprint.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
After wandering the world for about a year, I returned to Babel.
Trivial stories about traversing the lizardmen’s territories, sailing under primitive navigation techniques, and feeling the world change rapidly—those are just the appetizer.
Oh, speaking of which, I need to go visit Thetis. If I don’t, she might get upset.
Thetis has a generally nice nature, but it’s been way too long since we last met.
A good-natured person can be terrifying when they’re mad. Yeah.
Anyway.
“Why’d you suddenly come back here?”
“Hmm. Just… had some business to take care of.”
“Business…?”
I headed towards the Temple of Life alongside the puzzled hero.
I wonder how much mana stone has piled up over the past year. If my prediction is correct, there should be a decent amount.
But my expectations were…
“Hmm. This is what’s been collected over a year.”
“Definitely more than before.”
A reasonably sized box. Someone might think that’s a lot for a year’s work.
But you see, according to my predictions and the sneaky little function I added to the inspection device, there should be about five times more than this.
The extra feature counts the mana stones with embedded shards of darkness and reports back to me…
I had added it just in case, but now I can’t just let it slide.
“I need to check in with the mayor.”
“Then I’ll schedule a meeting for you tomorrow.”
“No, that’s not needed.”
I stopped the Red Dragon’s kid from scheduling a meeting and moved quietly.
The hero had left the beast spirit secured in the Temple of Life’s room, told them I’d just be gone for a bit. I could just slip out.
I concealed myself and strolled quietly through the evening streets.
In this era, when the sun sets, people seem to vanish from the streets like magic, making it hard to find anyone except for patrolling guards. This desert city—where even firewood for torches is scarce—is the only place you can use mana stone magic freely.
Instead of torches, the columns and walls had bright mana stones hanging from them.
A simple spell for creating light. But in the darkness of the streets, even these little lights feel precious.
Well, it looks like all I see is money issues. Ugh. Once you get that stuck in your head, everything seems annoying.
I know this attitude isn’t great, but hey, you can’t help but dislike things that rub you the wrong way.
So, I walked the quiet night streets, where only a faint glow existed, headed toward the towering tower in Babel.
Even after the sun dipped in the west, a surprising amount of people were busily working in there.
I ignored the folks down on the first floor lost in their work and climbed the stairs.
After all, there wasn’t a soul who could sense my hidden presence. My steps moved forward without hesitation.
Upwards. Higher.
I climbed the spiral staircase of the tower.
My destination—at the very top. I followed the trail of the mayor’s magic, as I remembered from my last visit. Up the spiral staircase I went.
The higher I climbed, the narrower the drill-shaped tower became—at the very tip, there was just a tiny room.
Despite the rich marketplace that hadn’t even been invented yet, this city’s mayor had accumulated great wealth, but seriously, the room was laughably small.
However, it’s not really about the size of the room.
What’s important is what’s inside it.
And…
“Hehehe… This is going smoothly.”
What lay inside that small room was a little human, completely swallowed by greed.
“I guess the heavens are supporting me. Just when my inspection tool was running low, she shows up again. Plus, she fell for my fancy words and made even more items for me to inspect.”
Boxes filled with a huge amount of mana stones stacked around.
In this room, the guy picked up a mana stone from one of the boxes.
“Thanks to this, I could gather these bits more easily, so I ought to be grateful.”
The dude rolled the mana stone in his palm and then, with a pinch from his thumb and index, brought it to his nose.
And then…
*Hufffff.*
The man inhaled, activating the mana. Slowly, the shard of darkness embedded in the mana stone seeped out.
A little fragment of darkness snuck into him through his nostrils.
“Ahh. Goodness. Very good. This power. This pleasure. This darkness keeps whispering to me. Hehe… Hahaha… At this rate… someday I will surpass humanity…”
“Huh? Was that really your goal?”
I spoke with a cool tone.
“Wha?! Who are you?! How did you get here?!”
“How? I walked in through the tower’s entrance and then climbed the stairs.”
I had hidden my presence and scaled up.
“Tsk. The staff should’ve stopped anyone from climbing the tower! Don’t tell me you took down all of Babel’s Nine Mages?!”
What’s that? Were there such things?
Well, they wouldn’t have noticed my presence anyway, so it doesn’t even matter.
“Let’s forget those meaningless details. Now, are all these mana stones filled with darkness? Looks like you gathered quite a lot.”
I popped open a nearby box to check inside. Hmm… Yep, they’re tiny shards, but they’re definitely in there.
And so he was snorting these things like they were some kind of drug, huh?
What kind of thought process is that?
“I told you to hand them over, but you’ve been hoarding them for yourself. Just what were you planning to do with these shards?… I’m confiscating all of them. And I’ll be terminating our contract.”
“Gah! Hahaha! Well, now that I’m caught, I guess I can’t help it.”
The man’s mana started to spread throughout the room.
Hmm… For a human, that was some serious mana. And… it was mixed with darkness.
Did he seriously use the darkness fragments to boost his own mana? A mere mortal?
“Sigh. What kind of thought led you to this? The power of those bits is way too dangerous for a human to handle.”
“It’s all thanks to you. Since you brought to my attention the darkness fragments in the mana stones, I’ve been researching them nonstop.”
“What? Are you blaming me for this?”
“Not at all. More like I’m grateful. Thanks to you, I’m able to reach for even greater heights.”
He flashed a sinister grin and pointed his index finger skyward.
“Those darkness fragments have been calling out to me. Telling me to gather them all. And ascend to godhood.”
“Seriously, trying to reach godhood using darkness fragments? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Sure, a human can become part of a myth, like some folks who became gods managing the afterlife’s hierarchies.
But this? No way.
Using darkness fragments from Erebus, a deity of darkness? That’s utterly ridiculous.
It’d be a miracle if he didn’t get gobbled up by Erebus first.
“If I’m out of my mind, then, well, a sane human wouldn’t shove these fragments into their own body. But look around! There are those in this world who can wield god-like power with a human form, right?”
The man pointed at me.
“The power to create anything. The ability to freely forge objects that never existed before. Such godlike power resides in you, a mere human. Why shouldn’t I be able to do the same?”
No way, are you pinning this on me, too? I’m not even human, I’m a dragon! I just walk around in a human body!
“That’s why I started gathering these darkness fragments. As these tiny bits piled inside me, I began to grasp the original will of the darkness little by little.”
Following the man’s mana, darkness fragments began to escape from the mana stones filling the room and permeate into the man.
“Those fragments of darkness told me. To unite. To gather everything back to its original form.”
“Hoh.”
Those fragments have a will? They can talk? What on earth?
That’s just nonsense.
Those shards are merely faint echoes of memories. There’s no way they’ve developed a will from that.
If those shards had a will, shouldn’t they first apologize to me?
For what they’ve done. Shouldn’t they owe me an apology?
“Heh. Hehehe… Usually, I only absorbed a little bit at a time… But this time feels a bit much… My whole body is about to explode…”
The man’s body slowly began to change, becoming stained with darkness.
His skinny middle-aged physique grew thicker, muscles bulging out dramatically, and he became taller.
This is… just like an insect molting.
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