Barbarian's Adventure in a Fantasy World-Chapter 105: Myst (2)

“W-wait...!” Arkemis stammered as she spoke. Her golden eyes quivered in disbelief. She slipped a trembling hand into the pouch and carefully grabbed a handful of its contents.

A soft, glittering cascade of iridescent particles spilled between her clenched fingers. She gasped at the sight.

“Wow...” She stood there in a daze for what felt like ages, mouth half-open. Finally, her neck creaked as she turned toward Ketal. “You... you! How in the world...?”

“I was summoned to the royal palace,” Ketal said calmly. “I helped them with a situation involving these particles and managed to get them as a reward.”

“What do you mean?” she asked him, blinking in confusion.

“It’s a bit complicated, and I’m not sure how much I can disclose,” he replied. “It’s related to those iridescent particles you’ve been studying.”

“Is it top secret?” Arkemis pressed.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Ketal admitted. “Either way, it’s not my place to spill the details.”

He remembered the Tower Master mentioning how they planned to announce the existence of the Demon Realm’s Anomaly in Lutein. It would be done on their terms, so there was no need for Ketal to speak first.

“I see,” Arkemis mumbled, lost in thought.

Did he help the kingdom clear a Dungeon or something? she speculated. She had heard similar stories from Milayna—that when a Dungeon was exceptionally dangerous or contained precious materials, kingdoms sometimes hired skilled, tight-lipped mercenaries to tackle it in secret.

Ketal had enough trust from the royals to be summoned, so it stood to reason that he was quite capable. Arkemis knew he didn’t wield Myst, but being a good mercenary wasn’t just about strength. Often, a wide range of skills was required to conquer Dungeons.

It made sense since Ketal probably helped the palace clear some hidden Dungeon, and these iridescent particles were his reward. That explained why he couldn’t tell her its exact location. She was an elf, an outsider; the kingdom wouldn’t necessarily trust her.

“Must have been a tough Dungeon,” Arkemis said, eyes still fixed on the sparkling contents of the pouch. “You got a massive haul of these particles as a reward.”

“Hm?” Ketal tilted his head. He had never actually cleared a Dungeon, but he saw no need to correct her.

“Wow...” Meanwhile, Arkemis couldn’t stop marveling at the particles. Her eyes shone with excitement. There were so many of them that the bag was almost too heavy to lift—far more valuable than any gold or jewels.

Ketal leaned forward with a hopeful look. “Is that enough?”

“Enough? Absolutely!” she exclaimed, nodding vigorously. Fixing her gaze on the particles, she gently ran her fingers across them. “With this amount, I can account for almost every variable in my experiments. I’ll start working on it right away.”

“Glad to hear it,” Ketal said, smiling in satisfaction.

***

From that moment on, Arkemis practically locked herself away and devoted all her time to researching the particles. She dissected their structure and searched for ways to use them as a path of Myst. She was so consumed by her work that she barely touched Ketal’s cooking, which she had always enjoyed.

At one point, Ketal approached her. “You might want to take a break.”

“But I—”

“You look exhausted. You can’t focus properly if you’re that tired.”

“You’re right.” Shoulders dropping, Arkemis slumped onto the sofa.

Ketal asked, “So, did you make any progress?”

“Some,” she replied, eyes closed. “These shards are really extraordinary. The deeper I dig, the more new properties I find.”

Hard to believe you can actually get these from a Dungeon, she thought, still baffled.

“So, did you go into a Demon Realm or something to obtain these?” Arkemis joked with a weary laugh.

She meant it as a playful jab. It wasn’t truly possible to enter any Demon Realm, and that was her way of saying the particles were unbelievably rare.

Ketal merely gave her a cryptic smile.

“Anyway,” she continued, “I’m close to understanding them. I should be finished analyzing soon.”

“Really?” Ketal’s eyes gleamed with excitement. Finally, the special power known as Myst seemed within reach.

Arkemis then asked, “So once you gain Myst, what do you plan to do with it?”

“I’m still deciding,” Ketal admitted. He was torn between learning swordsmanship and magic.

The Tower Master had warned him that trying to master both would leave him mediocre at each, yet he couldn’t bring himself to give up entirely. Even so, he did have a top priority.

“First, I want to learn magic,” Ketal said.

None of the Swordmasters he had met so far had really impressed him. He could imitate Kain’s moves even with bare hands, and Maximus was just incredibly fast—that was all. Magic, on the other hand, allowed him to manipulate nature and create barriers that could hide an entire royal palace. Clearly, it was magic that captivated him.

“Huh?” Arkemis sat up, stunned. “You want to learn magic?”

“Yeah,” Ketal said plainly.

“O-oh,” she muttered. Arkemis looked genuinely flustered. “Why magic all of a sudden?”

“Is something wrong?” he asked her, noticing her reaction.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. So, he’s not going to focus on alchemy after all... but it’s not like I can tell him what to do.

Their relationship was never a formal teacher-and-disciple bond anyway. Arkemis had been teaching him casually to pass the time. He was free to learn anything he wanted. Still, she couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed. Ketal’s only reason for studying alchemy in the first place had been that he wanted to wield Myst.

Why couldn’t he at least say he wanted to learn alchemy more seriously? she grumbled internally. Of course, she kept this to herself, not wanting to come across as petty. Even so, her face betrayed her feelings, and Ketal chuckled.

“Don’t worry. I’m not planning to abandon alchemy altogether. Magic and alchemy are connected, so I can manage both. You will still be my teacher,” he said, reassuring her.

“W-what are you even saying? I don’t mind either way!” she mumbled, turning her head to hide the small smile creeping onto her face. Clearing her throat, she asked, “If you plan on learning magic, does that mean you’re going to the Mage Tower?”

“The Mage Tower, huh?” Ketal murmured.

He had heard a lot about it—an institution overseen by the Tower Master he’d met, where most of the world’s magical knowledge was collected.

“Have you ever been there?” Ketal asked Arkemis.

“Yeah. When I first started studying alchemy—must’ve been about a hundred years ago. I have no idea what it’s like these days,” Arkemis said offhandedly.

A hundred years... Ketal’s eyes sparkled at this casual hint of her elven lifespan. It felt so undeniably fantastical.

“It was an interesting place,” Arkemis continued. “Elves weren’t exactly welcomed back then, but I wasn’t treated badly. My only regret is that I never got to meet the Tower Master.”

“Why? Did you want to meet him that badly?” Ketal asked her.

“Well, of course. He’s the Tower Master—the only ruler of the greatest magical hub in the world!” she exclaimed.

For centuries, the Mage Tower had served as the focal point of all magic, a place that gathered the most powerful mages on the continent. The Tower Master reigned supreme there, a living piece of history who had existed as a lich for centuries—one of the strongest mages in the entire land.

Arkemis murmured in a hushed, almost reverent tone, “I’d love to meet the Tower Master just once. He’s basically living history—the things he must know! His presence and manner of speech must be so dignified.”

However, Ketal thought otherwise, finding the Tower Master more like an ordinary elder, but he chose to keep that observation to himself. There was no need to shatter Arkemis’s fantasy. Instead, he posed another question. “If he’s one of the strongest mages in the world, that means there are others at a similar level, right?”

“By most accounts, the Tower Master stands at the top,” Arkemis replied, “but there are supposedly two other mages who can rival him.”

“So there are three in total,” Ketal mused. They were so-called Heroes. Ketal’s curiosity about them only grew. “So... what exactly are Heroes?”

The Tower Master had mentioned that even Nano—capable of replacing anything it touched—wouldn’t pose much trouble to a Hero-Class individual. Granted, Ketal could also handle Nano through sheer brute force, but what the Tower Master had demonstrated went beyond raw strength.

He had erected a barrier around the palace, cutting off all contact with the rest of the capital, put an entire city to sleep in a single sweep, and then restored every inch of devastated land back to its original form. It was a power that transcended mere physical might.

“Hmm.” Arkemis pursed her lips, trying to formulate a clear explanation. “In the simplest ways, they’re people who can literally shake the foundations of the world.”

“Shake the world?” Ketal repeated.

“Heroes are those who can visualize Myst into reality. Their very minds can intervene in the laws of existence.”

It wasn’t hyperbole or a figure of speech—they could twist the rules of the world itself.

“They wield enormous influence, beyond what common sense can explain. For example, one Hero mage wanted to create a city entirely under his control. A place with no laws or boundaries, where absolute freedom—and absolute chaos—could reign,” she continued.

“So he just... made a city?” Ketal asked her, intrigued.

“Yes, underground, where the sun never shines,” Arkemis said. “A haven for criminals called Magna Rain. He built it in a single month, simply because he wanted to.”

“Is that even possible?” Ketal wondered.

“Nothing’s impossible for them, I guess. Remember, the Mage Tower itself was built by the Tower Master alone.”

“Whoa...” Ketal felt genuine awe. An entire city created by a single individual, especially one hidden beneath the earth and run by its own lawless code, sounded like something straight out of a grand fantasy epic. The name Magna Rain made Ketal yearn to see it for himself.

Heroes are incomprehensible in the purest sense. Some of them have even slain dragons on their own,” she said.

“Dragons!” Ketal exclaimed, eyes lighting up. He’d half-assumed dragons didn’t exist here, since no one had mentioned them so far.

Among the most iconic of all fantasy creatures, dragons were formidable. Yet a Hero could take one down single-handedly. Such was the apex of power in this world.

“Of course, there are still limitations on what Heroes can do,” she noted, “but they’re so far beyond normal scope that those limits do not really mean much. Even the Empire thinks twice before messing with them.”

“Incredible,” Ketal murmured, truly fascinated. Privately, he regretted not talking with the Tower Master more. Perhaps he’d been too quick to let him leave.

“Oh, right,” Arkemis said suddenly, as though remembering something. “I heard there was a Hero who went into the White Snowfield.”

“What?” Ketal’s expression twisted in confusion. “Why did he go in there?”

“Apparently, he wanted to prove his strength,” Arkemis went on. “He ventured there three months ago, and no one’s heard from him since.”

Three months ago—that was after Ketal had left the White Snowfield.

“His kingdom tried to keep it under wraps,” Arkemis explained. “Heroes are basically a nation’s most priceless treasure. Losing one is a huge blow, so they hid it for as long as they could. But eventually, rumors spread. I think the rumors started to spread when you went to the royal palace.”

“What a strange individual,” Ketal muttered.

“Right?” she agreed.

Ketal truly couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly enter such a bizarre, perilous place. The very thought baffled him, but as they conversed, another question dawned on Ketal.

“Are there any elves who’ve reached Hero status?”

“There’s one,” Arkemis replied. “An elf who formed a contract with the Spirit King.”

“A Spirit King...” Ketal’s eyes lit up, his heart pounding. This world was full of so many fascinating names and titles; it was hard to keep his excitement in check.

However, Arkemis made a displeased face. “But that’s just the spirit’s power. If you get your strength from a contract rather than earning it yourself, is there really any meaning in it? I never thought so. I argued about that a lot with other elves”

“Is that why you left your home?” Ketal asked her.

She was an elf living alone in a human kingdom, which even Ketal—someone unfamiliar with standard fantasy tropes—knew was unusual.

“Well, it’s part of it. My village was just plain boring.” Arkemis hesitated. She flopped back onto the sofa. “I like the outside world more. There’s more stimulation, more to learn. I’m not exactly a typical elf, you know.”

She trailed off, then glanced at Ketal. “Do you think I’m strange?”

“Not really. Sounds pretty normal for an elf,” Ketal replied casually.

After all, in many fantasy stories, it was perfectly common for elves to leave home and explore the wider world.

Ketal saw nothing odd about it. Arkemis smiled, evidently pleased with his answer.

A week later, Arkemis finished analyzing the iridescent particles. All preparations for Ketal to awaken his Myst were complete.