Chapter 120: To reach the end
’Think about a solar system.’
There is a central star, maybe more. There are planets, which have moons, which might have a little something of their own, perhaps.
There is cosmic trash in the form of meteorite belts, ok?
Then there are planets with rings. Pretty planets that are different from the one that we live in.
However, what is so different about our planet that makes it different from the rest of the places in the world?
’Life? No.’
Life exists out there as well. In different forms, yes, but, it does.
Then what? A good atmosphere? A perfect condition for life to grow? The fact that we exist in a so-called golden zone?
No, none of that.
Then is it us? The intelligent humans who have popularised the world?
That cannot be. It is said that the ancestors of elves came from a different world altogether.
Then what?
What is it that makes a solar system, specifically ours, so special?
’Everyone may answer differently, but the answer that I like the most is much simpler compared to complex concepts.’
Stories.
The world that we have built, the world that has survived for so long, has existed all thanks to stories.
’We live the stories and we give birth to them.’
Symbols are the beginning. Words stand as the foundation. Verses are the backbone of sentences. And sentences form songs, stories, epics...
We, as members of the mortal kind, have an innate urge to pass on something to our descendents.
The contribution to the everflowing river of the greatest myth that will be told in a distant future seen by none of us.
’The people of the past were nothing different from us.’
They knew they had a short life to live, and they did not want to be forgotten. Thus, throughout history, to keep themselves alive, they made places like these... places that told everything there was to tell about them.
’That’s right.’
The so-called trap that I had been trying to decipher for so long was nothing more than a story that was rearranging itself depending on what I wanted to know.
’The question and the answer.’
As I thought about different questions, the colorful glasses on the windows all around me changed in a way that would answer those questions.
’This is a materialised memory palace.’
It represents someone’s will, materialized in a unique form.
’It’s similar to mystique arts.’
We call this [Domain Implementation], the highest level technique that a mystique arts user can use to change the very reality of the world, something I’ve only ever heard about from the headmaster.
When we talk about mystique arts, much like the spirit arts or martial arts, there are different levels that must be reached to unlock different aspects of the arts.
Every mystique tamer starts with a [Domain].
Most never go past that. That is the basic limit of one’s mind.
However, some who do manage to overcome the limitations of their mind can expand their domains outwards.
Through [Domain Expansion], one can materialise their domains into the real world, though, in a limited space only.
An expanded domain is limited by both space and time. However, none can interact with it from the outside in most conditions.
However, even that limitation goes away when one is freed from the limits of space-time and materialises their domain onto the world itself: something the headmaster does constantly.
She becomes the wind that flows through the world. She reaches the level of a concept, almost touching the status of divine.
Her will becomes the will of the aspect of the world that she has implemented her domain on. And the only way to defy this [Domain materialization] becomes a domain of one’s own.
Only those at the level of my father can go against someone like the headmaster, at least, for a few minutes.
In the case of the headmaster, things do not make any sense. That’s the reason she is compared not to the humans of this world but with the entities like the Guardians of our sun sanctuary.
"She’s cool."
But she isn’t limited to just that. She was the one that told me how she had reached the level of Domain Implementation a long time ago.
I know a little about that realm, but seeing what I am seeing right now, seeing this fraction of that realm, I realise how small my thinking had been in the past.
’The guardians reminded me of my limits as well.’
They told me to ask the right questions. Why?
’I think I understand now.’
It’s not because the right questions lead one to the right answers. In fact, there are no right answers, only the most relevant ones.
The closer you are to the truth of a certain ’moment’ the closer you can be to the truth that the one asking the right question wanted you to be.
’So for that logic, all I had wanted to do all this time was to ask the right question to reach the end.’
And that right question wasn’t about them, the people that made this place.
Nope.
From what I have understood from studying the symbolic interpretation of the colored glasses is how the creators of this place already knew of their shortcomings.
They were only a small part of a big group that lived somewhere else. This was not their home so this wasn’t the place that defined them.
’Right question wasn’t who they were or where they came from.’
It’s what they wanted from this place.
’Why did you make this dangerous place?’
After being here for over a day and a half, I knew this wasn’t merely a simple dungeon like the ones that I have dealt with in the past.
It was a different kind of dungeon that was made with... hope.
The people that made it did not place those giant golem scorpions at the beginning to kill the creatures. If that were the case, the scorpions would have rained their acid on them.
They also did not want the deadly poisonous snakes to block the intruders. They wouldn’t have made a good exit at the bottom of that pit.
They did not set any traps throughout the dungeon, so it was clear that they did not ’unintentionally’ want to kill anyone.
And that wasn’t a small thing.
’The dungeon was a test, yes, but at the same time, it was a filter.’
They wanted someone who could get through all the trouble, pass through all the absurd contraptions that were set here, and lastly, they wanted someone who could actually reach the end goal, to the innermost part of the dungeon.
’But why?’
-Oooooooooooooooong...
That was the question.
"Meow?"
Why did they want someone to go through so much trouble and still have the heart to chase what was present at the end?
What was it that they were saving for that particular adventure with the heart of a true explorer, a madman with skills and intelligence to rival what they had in the past?
’Is it a relic? An artifact? Or an Artifactor? What was it that was so important that they needed someone like that for it?’
A legacy?
A treasure?
Or... was it a burden that only that person can carry?
I don’t know the answer to those questions but, the question I had just asked was the right answer for the riddle that, if not thought carefully, would keep you here forever.
"This is absurd."
A door had just opened up that would lead us to the stage and the innermost part of the dungeon. But, along with it, all the colorful glasses of the window were now arranged in a way that told a story of their own.
A story that was comparatively pretty new. But at the same time, in the minds of those ancient people, it was an epic passed down from a period that was following right behind the times of the six kingdoms.
’A time when the world was just taking its first steps.’