Chapter 82: Truth

Kent’s scream immediately drew the attention of everyone nearby.

No one understood what had happened.

Several of the dwarves hurried over to his side, worried that something had gone wrong.

Strangely, however, Kent’s scream lasted only a short while.

A moment later, he opened his eyes.

But in that brief span of time, his entire body had been drenched in sweat.

“Little fellow, what happened?”

Several people around him asked anxiously.

As they spoke, more than a few suspicious glances were cast toward the First Elder.

After all, no one knew whether Kent’s sudden scream had been caused by some trick on the old dark elf’s part.

Kent shook his head.

Then he closed his eyes again.

A few breaths later, he slowly opened them.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, and an extremely strange expression appeared on his face.

Seeing the concern in the eyes of those around him, Kent forced himself to speak.

“Thank you for your concern, seniors.”

“It’s an old problem of mine.”

“Every once in a while, I get these headaches.”

“Hmph.”

The First Elder snorted.

“Sounds more like an excuse to me.”

The expressions of the people around them immediately became strange.

In truth, the First Elder was only humiliating himself further.

He had lived for more than a thousand years.

Yet here he was, still arguing with a boy who had not even reached adulthood.

Even several of the dark elves looked embarrassed.

The First Elder had simply been angered beyond reason.

After making the remark, he even felt as though he had finally vented some of his frustration.

His mood improved slightly.

But when he noticed the peculiar looks everyone was giving him, he immediately realized that he had misjudged the situation.

So he awkwardly fell silent.

Kent, meanwhile, closed his eyes once more.

On the surface, he appeared completely calm.

Inside, however, his mind had already been turned upside down.

The alchemical formula recorded in that scroll described something so unbelievable that even Kent himself could hardly accept it.

It was something that existed only in legend.

Calling it an “object” hardly seemed appropriate.

It was far too vast for such a simple word.

Yet Kent could not think of anything better to describe it.

The ancient scroll contained the control methods and construction techniques for the legendary Sky City.

And in that brief instant just now, the spiritual imprint had forced all of that knowledge directly into his mind.

Even more astonishingly, Kent could now understand the writing on the scroll.

Those characters were not ancient Elvish at all, as historical records had always claimed.

They were Divine Script.

The written language of the gods themselves.

Sky City.

As the name suggested, it was a city that floated in the heavens.

According to ancient legends, its defensive power had been nearly unimaginable.

Its offensive capabilities were even more terrifying.

Originally, Sky City had supposedly been a strategic weapon belonging to the so-called Demon Race.

Legends claimed that it could accommodate several hundred thousand warriors at once.

During the Great War of Gods and Demons, however, the gods had eventually struck it down from the skies.

Whatever the truth of those ancient stories might have been, one thing was certain.

In this world, Sky City represented absolute military power.

Kent now understood what it truly was.

A flying war fortress.

A massive mobile stronghold capable of operating at an altitude of roughly fifty thousand meters.

And the weapons mounted upon it were Forbidden-Spell Magic Crystal Cannons.

Just the thought of that made Kent’s heart pound.

The materials required to build Sky City were equally terrifying.

Many of them were substances Kent had never seen before.

Some he had never even heard of.

And those were only the rare materials.

The most basic construction materials alone included magic silver, mithril, and adamantine.

Beyond those were things like Star Sand, Thunderwave Stone, and countless other materials whose names Kent barely recognized.

Some he could not identify at all.

Worse still, the spiritual imprint itself remained partially sealed.

The knowledge that had entered Kent’s mind represented only a small portion of the complete inheritance.

Most of the deeper information was still locked away.

But even from this limited introduction, Kent had learned one crucial fact.

To even begin constructing Sky City...

one first had to become a Saint-rank Alchemist.

Kent was thoroughly frustrated.

There was no question that Sky City was an extraordinary thing.

It was a weapon powerful enough to contend even with gods.

But there was one rather serious problem.

Even if Kent someday became a Saint-rank Alchemist, there was no conceivable way he could construct something like Sky City all by himself.

It was like having an enormous mass of gold suddenly fall from the heavens.

Not a small chunk.

A mountain-sized block of pure gold.

The problem was that it was all one solid piece.

No matter how valuable it might be, all you could do was stand there and stare at it helplessly.

You could forget about moving it even an inch.

That was exactly how Kent felt now.

Still, his discovery had not been completely useless.

The inheritance contained within the scroll introduced an entirely different system of alchemy from the one practiced in the present age.

Modern alchemists relied heavily on external tools.

The ancient method did not.

Instead, it used spiritual power and mana directly throughout the entire alchemical process.

A simple example was the smelting of magical metals.

A modern alchemist who wished to melt a particular magical metal would normally require a mana furnace.

According to the ancient method, however, the alchemist could simply use fire-element magic to melt the metal directly.

Then, relying on sufficiently powerful spiritual power, the alchemist could refine the metal, remove impurities, shape it, and even inscribe magical formations directly onto its surface.

In other words, this school of alchemy treated spiritual power itself as one of the alchemist’s most important tools.

Naturally, the stronger the alchemist’s spiritual power, the more effective the method became.

That alone made the inheritance immensely valuable.

Unfortunately, Kent now had an entirely different problem.

He already understood what the scroll truly contained.

But he could not simply reveal it.

The moment he activated the spiritual imprint, the greatest value of the ancient scroll had effectively been consumed.

The inheritance hidden within it had already transferred into his mind.

At the same time, Kent had also come to understand the Divine Script written visibly across the scroll.

And that was where things became even stranger.

The meaning of the written text was completely different from the contents of the spiritual imprint.

The writing on the surface described a relatively low-level alchemical creation known as the Sky Eye.

The Sky Eye was essentially a floating surveillance device.

Once refined and released into the air, it could hover high above the ground and monitor everything within a radius of more than a dozen li.

It could even transmit the images it saw back to someone on the ground.

To Kent, the function was remarkably similar to a spy satellite back on Earth.

Strictly speaking, the Sky Eye itself was considered only a low-level alchemical creation in the ancient system.

But it was also one of the most fundamental components of Sky City.

Tens of thousands of Sky Eyes would surround the flying fortress at all times.

Together, they extended Sky City’s surveillance and early-warning range across thousands of kilometers.

The principle was not especially complicated.

The materials, however, were another matter entirely.

The most essential material was the eyeball of an Evil Eye.

An Evil Eye was a rare spiritual-type magical beast.

It looked almost like a round ball.

The difference was that the entire “ball” was essentially one enormous eye.

Countless tentacles grew from around its body.

The creature preferred to feed on the brains of other animals, though it would occasionally drink blood as well.

They were exceedingly rare.

And spiritual-type magical beasts were among the most difficult creatures in the world to fight.

Their attacks were strange, unpredictable, and extremely difficult to defend against.

As far as Kent knew, no trace of an Evil Eye had been discovered on the surface for nearly a thousand years.

That alone made the Sky Eye almost impossible to reproduce with currently available materials.

And yet the method described on the scroll was precisely the ancient alchemical technique Kent had just inherited.

It relied on direct manipulation with mana and spiritual power rather than the external tools used by modern alchemists.

Worse still, the process was extremely complicated.

There were numerous steps, and every one of them required careful control.

Although the Sky Eye had been considered a relatively basic creation in ancient times, if one judged the technique according to the standards of modern alchemy, it would probably qualify as advanced alchemy at the very least.

And that was exactly what gave Kent a headache.

Should he reveal what was written on the scroll?

Or should he keep it to himself?

To be perfectly honest, Kent did not want knowledge like this spreading beyond his control.

The Sky Eye alone was valuable enough.

And behind it stood the even greater secret of Sky City.

But if he refused to answer, then he would lose this round.

That would leave the score tied.

The third round would then depend on drawing lots to decide who had the right to ask the final question.

And luck...

was the least reliable thing in the world.

If the First Elder drew the right to ask the third question, Kent might very well lose the entire wager.

The more he thought about it, the more troubled he became.

For once, even Kent could not immediately decide what to do.

“Heh heh, boy. Your two hours are up.”

Darkya could barely contain her delight.

“So? Do you know what that scroll describes or not?”

She looked at Kent with a triumphant smile.

“Don’t tell me you can actually read ancient Elven script.”

“Just admit defeat.”

From the moment the First Elder handed the scroll to Kent, Darkya had been struggling to suppress her excitement.

She knew about this scroll.

She also knew that the writing upon it was supposedly ancient Elven script.

Even Darkya herself could not read it.

So how could some human possibly understand it?

Of course, Darkya knew all of this only because the First Elder had told her.

That was why, the instant the two-hour limit expired, she could no longer restrain herself and immediately stepped forward to taunt Kent.

The First Elder was equally pleased.

In his mind, this round was already won.

He had even made up his mind that once Kent fell into his hands, he would hand the boy over to Darkya and let her deal with him personally.

That should teach this arrogant human that the dark elves were not so easy to provoke.

Kent, however, said nothing.

He merely tossed the scroll back to the First Elder.

His mind was still racing.

He was carefully weighing the gains and losses.

Should he reveal the contents?

Or should he remain silent and accept defeat in this round?

Yet Darkya’s smug voice made the decision increasingly difficult.

Kent found her cheerful expression unbelievably irritating.

Seeing her standing there so pleased with herself, he had a sudden urge to reveal the answer on the spot—

and then properly teach this troublesome woman a lesson.

The others in the hall were equally concerned about the outcome.

The dark elf elders, in particular, watched Kent closely.

Whether they could deliver a truly devastating blow to the First Elder’s position might very well depend on Kent’s performance in this round.

“First Elder.”

The Third Elder finally spoke.

Seeing that Kent had not answered, he naturally assumed the boy could not understand the ancient script.

“Are you really not ashamed to bring out something like this?”

He gave the First Elder a mocking look.

“You’ve lived for more than a thousand years for nothing.”

In truth, even among the dark elves, fewer than a handful of people could recognize ancient Elven script.

And every one of them was an ancient old monster.

Not even the other elders gathered in this hall could read it.

So when Kent remained silent, the Third Elder immediately concluded that the scroll had simply been an unfair question.

“Heh.”

The First Elder turned toward him with a cold smile.

“Third Elder.”

“You’ve all done very well.”

There was no warmth in his voice.

The Third Elder’s words had struck directly at his pride.

But what angered him even more was what had happened earlier.

The other elders had publicly declared that his actions did not represent the dark elf race.

Just thinking about it made his teeth ache with rage.

Yes, there were conflicts among the elders.

Of course there were.

But those were internal disputes.

Internal disputes!

Yet these people had chosen to undermine him in front of outsiders.

They had humiliated him publicly.

The more the First Elder thought about it, the darker his expression became.

Before long, his face had turned iron-blue with anger.