Chapter 121: Another Eye - XVI

[Absolute Awareness: Divination]

’Let’s take a look at the whole picture, shall we?’

A small smile appeared on my face. <Fate> made me sacrifice my potential... but so what? 137 Levels were nothing compared to the thousands I would earn from now on.

There was no need to dwell on this little failure—though unfortunate, I could still live with it. In fact, I had to actively make use of this newfound advantage to make sure nothing like it ever happened again.

Or use this advantage to make it keep on happening.

Again, and again, and again.

Whilst profiting from it every single time.

Thus.

My senses—bolstered by thousands of units of mana—swirled around the white-grey threads of <Fate>. First, they travelled along the threads directly connected to me.

But then they jumped around, seeking out different places, different people, and different things.

Images rapidly appeared in my mind.

***

The first scene I saw was of three SSS-Rank beings discussing the processing, price, and distribution of a dead Dragon’s corpse. The Prince of the Underworld, the Dragon Ballenvauch, and the High Winged Lion King Arvishue’rre glanced in my direction, sensing my gaze.

"Who?!" Ballenvauch’s first reaction was to roar, and with a flap of his wings, he sent a great mental pressure barreling straight towards my senses.

Alas, he could do nothing, for my gaze was merely that—a gaze that arrived before them through <Fate>.

Arvishue’rre’s snout crumpled as he seemed to frown with his beastly lion face. It seemed like he, too, was taking offense at my rudely prying gaze.

Only the Prince of the Underworld seemed less affected. Perhaps it was because he wasn’t there in person, but the main emotion exuded by the Nine-Eyed Behemoth skeleton he was commanding was curiosity.

"And who might you be?"

His voice sounded from within the Nine-Eyed Behemoth’s skull.

Unfortunately, I did not have a way to communicate with them at the moment. Most of my Magic Spells were from the <Archmagus> Daimyuon—someone who did not have the same Gift that I did.

Of course, I wasn’t saying he was weak, no.

In fact, judging from the knowledge I had stolen from Daimyuon, he sat around the SSS-Rank, which could indeed be just a few steps below the Goddess, Minerva.

However, because he did not have [Absolute Awareness], he did not have anything that directly supplemented it. For example, his Thought Transmission spell always originated directly from the user.

There was no way for me to transmit my thoughts to these three SSS-Ranks since my body was much too far away. Only my senses, through [Absolute Awareness], were able to linger about this place.

Thus, after the Prince of the Underworld asked me a question, I lingered for a moment and moved my senses side to side.

The SSS-Ranks felt the shift of my gaze, as if the thing looking at them was moving the same way. For a moment, they were silent.

"...Do you not have the ability to speak?" asked the Prince of the Underworld.

I moved my gaze up and down.

"...Ah,"

Then, there was silence.

I took this opportunity to travel elsewhere, searching for other relevant events.

** *

The second scene from my Divination brought me to the site of yet another death.

However, this one lacked the violence of a city’s annihilation.

Instead, I found myself gazing upon an ancient—truly ancient—being. But not in the traditional sense.

With a preliminary scan, this being had been alive for more than three hundred thousand years.

These years weren’t spent in this world, no, but in a sub-dimension where time flowed differently.

She was a prisoner who was forced into several lifetimes’ worth of reform.

After living for so long in a miniature world, she was now facing the end of her lifespan.

Now, what kind of being could live for over 300,000 years?

A Stardust Elemental, born in outer space, with lifespans that only a few others of the myriad races could rival. They were born from Cosmic Mana and radiation, as well as various high-temperature gases and stellar winds.

Thus, they were rarely seen on this planet, and whenever there was one...

They would spend the rest of their lives as living batteries.

It was a cruel fate, but at least this Stardust Elemental’s lifespan was coming to an end. After 300,000 years, its essence had been used up.

I watched as its radiant humanoid form—akin to a human whose insides glowed with the likeness of a galaxy—dimmed with every moment.

The various stars that could be seen through its translucent skin had long died out.

Only a few more, located where a human’s heart, eyes, and brain would be, were still glowing.

But even these few remnant glows died out in the following seconds of my observation.

Then, I watched as its body of pure darkness disintegrated into motes of shadowy dust. In half a second, nothing was left of it...

Except for a jagged shard of glass.

—Tiririring!

Upon hitting the stone floor of its cell, the glass shard chimed like a bell. A sonorous ping resonated against the stone, ringing even against my senses.

Its death seemed to draw attention as I soon heard a steel door clank open.

"...So it has finally surrendered."

A deep, exhausted sigh escaped the lungs of an old High Elf woman.

"I can finally begin the next step."

Then, she looked straight at me.

"As for those who wish to pry... Well—"

—Swish!

An invisible energy surged towards me. However, my senses still existed through <Fate> itself.

As long as one could not directly influence the threads of <Fate>, I could continue to scry. Thus, that surge of energy did nothing to deter my gaze.

The old High Elf frowned.

"...What are you?"

She blurted out, but I had already lost interest.

It was just another player of the Game of Walvaskaz, but this one wasn’t even SSS-Rank.

She was SS-Rank, perhaps a bit stronger than the <Wyrm With No Name> and about to break through to SSS-Rank... But that already spelled a world of difference.

It was clearer when quantified by the Gaea System, after all.

If this High Elf and the <Wyrm With No Name> had a Level of approximately 9500, sitting at the peak of SS-Rank, then the Prince of the Underworld, the Dragon Ballenvauch, and the High Winged Lion King Arvishue’rre were at least about Level 20,000, with Arvishue’rre being much higher than the other two.

I moved on to the next vision.