Night Ranger

Chapter 658: Deception and Wisdom [2 in 1]

Translator: Shiraishi Editor: TheAlliance

When Marvin reached Thousand Leaves Forest, he clearly felt that this originally very peaceful land was now brimming with dangers.

There were even more Elven Iron Guards patrolling than ever before, and they looked a bit exhausted.

But there was the cover of the Source of Fire to help them, so Thousand Leaves Forest hadn't been overrun by monsters.

From the information Madeline had briefed him with, after the bloodbath of those elders, Ivan was officially crowned as the new Great Elven King.

Marvin thoroughly understood that matter.

The bloodbath was his handiwork, and the purpose was to root out the dissidents.

In this cruel era, democracy and freedom had become luxury goods. The Wood Elves needed a leader that could lead the people on a path of survival, not an inefficient Elder Council that could only fight for power with their own people and each other.

But what shocked Marvin was that the Sea Elven Queen surprisingly became Ivan's consort.

This information was spreading around the Elven Iron Guard by mouth, and Marvin couldn't confirm whether the news was actually reliable.

Ivan and Marvin had interacted several times, but they both weren't idle people anymore. They had their own important matters to take care of.

The only thing they could do was to wish each other well.

When Ivan was crowned as the Great Elven King, Marvin was still fighting in the Crimson Wasteland, so he hadn't been around to see it.

The only good news was that even if Ivan wanted to hold a wedding, that would also have to wait until all of this turmoil settled down at least somewhat.

Marvin wouldn't want to miss the wedding of a friend… Although he was curious what the Sea Elven Queen did to become engaged with that one, who had been rumored to not like women, Marvin suspected that the story given in the rumors was true.

Ivan was outstanding, but one of his only flaws was that he was a bit undisciplined.

It seemed that the Sea Elven Queen was truly the most suitable woman for him.

Whether it was character or status, they both complemented each other well.

…

However, Marvin did not inform Ivan when he arrived at Thousand Leaves Forest.

Before leaving for the First Mountain Range, he would naturally greet his old friend, the High Elf that the Bloody Emperor had mentioned, Butterfly.

But before this, he had to take a trip to the Night Walker Underground Palace.

In fact, as he got closer to the Underground Palace, the feeling in his heart became more and more intense.

The runes from the Wisdom Chapter almost seemed to be trying to come out from his body.

Those strange runes were now tightly sticking to Marvin's skin, flickering with silver light. From afar, Marvin even looked like a bunch of huge fireflies!

He felt a bit speechless about his odd appearance.

He couldn't control the runes of the Wisdom Chapter. If they remained in this state, how could he be stealthy or hide himself?

So he first had to settle that problem.

That page of the Book of Nalu in the Underground Palace should be the answer.

...

Because he obtained the key from Old Sean, Marvin didn't need to pass any tests this time and directly entered the Underground Palace.

He quickly found the bookcase with the Ruler of the Night Advancement Manual and then located that page of the Book of Nalu.

This was the 1st page of the Book of Nalu, [Origin]!

When he held that page in his hand, something mysterious happened.

The other five pages of the Book of Nalu in his storage automatically scattered, coming out on their own.

The six pages of the Book of Nalu floated in the air, forming a pale yellow circle.

Some sounds were emitted from the pages.

It felt as if the pages of a heavy history book were constantly being flipped.

A powerful attractive force rose up between the six pages of the Book of Nalu, and under Marvin's careful watch, the pages suddenly began fusing!

This time, it was a true fusion!

In that split second, River Shore City's Madeline, those two Legends in White River Valley, and Raven in the Underdark, all of them suddenly became pale and powerless, falling to the floor!

They could each feel their own lifeforce becoming incomparably weak.

They felt as if death was before their eyes.

But they couldn't resist!

After they gave their souls to the Book of Nalu, they no longer had any that they could call their own.

They were only bodies that kept on living, an echo of the person that once was.

...

Marvin was also very surprised.

The Book of Nalu had a total of eleven pages, and gathering the previous five pages hadn't caused such an extreme effect.

This event should have been triggered by finding the 1st page.

'What is the Wisdom Chapter hinting at?'

'Could it be that the key to assembling the entire Artifact is this 1st page?'

Marvin didn't puzzle on it for long.

The six pages of the Book of Nalu rotated, and a chanting voice echoed mysteriously.

That wailing chant had changes in intensity, like a spell, or maybe a song.

At this moment, Marvin felt like his mind was bursting!

It was like an entire chaotic Universe, a vast place, suddenly bursting with a formidable force, and then life was born.

A crazy amount of information poured into Marvin's mind, and Marvin knelt down painfully.

His eyes started turning white.

Fortunately, those runes reasserted themselves in Marvin's mind at this time and intercepted that flow of information!

Perhaps it was afraid that Marvin couldn't handle that information, but the Wisdom Chapter's runes cut off the influx of information.

The information disappeared completely, and the swelling feeling in Marvin's mind also disappeared.

The only thing he saw in the vision was...

A secret newborn place slowly split up and created a Prime Material Plane.

The owner of the secret place was a man that seemed very young. He was called Lance.

Some silhouettes stood behind him, seeming high and mighty like Gods.

At that time, this secret place was still very simple, only filled with black and white.

Lance stood in the middle of this world, frowning as he sensed all the Chaos Magic Power.

"Too chaotic."

"The Magic Powers are way too chaotic. This won't do, I need to set up a huge Magic Pool to protect that new land being born from that place."

"That huge Magic Pool will be called the [Universe Magic Pool]."

"As for that continent that is gradually rising in the middle, what should be its name?"

Lance thought for a long time before a name just popped in his mind.

He clapped his hands and decided:

"It'll be called Feinan." 1

...

'That's…'

'The scene of the Wizard God creating the world?'

Marvin was stunned.

He hadn't thought that the Book of Nalu could contain such ancient information!

He had only seen the tip of the iceberg. What about those pieces information that were intercepted, what kind of secrets from the ancient eras did they contain?

He tried hard to remember the rest of the information, but to no avail.

They had been destroyed by the Wisdom Chapter.

The runes had decided to do this on their own initiative to protect Marvin's mind. Marvin couldn't do anything about that.

He most likely didn't have the capability to handle that much information surging in at once.

While Marvin was thinking over the scene he had just witnessed, the Book of Nalu completely changed.

The rough parchment was still the same. The only difference was the additional characters above the spine of the book:

[Book of Nalu]

He held the book in his hand, finding out with pleasant surprise that the Book of Nalu finally counted as a piece of equipment!

In the interface, the details of the Book of Nalu could now be seen:

[Book of Nalu]

[Quality: Artifact (Damaged, 6/11)]

[Requirements: Extremely resolute willpower]

[Property 1: Holder ignores effects from all Mind Laws]

[Property 2: Holder is able to automatically distinguish lies]

[Ability 1: Heart of Deception – You can have a certain number of permanently contracted slaves. The specific number depends on the will and strength of the holder]

[Ability 2: Deceiver Soul – Upon using this ability, your lie will become the Book of Nalu. No one will be able to question it. Usable one time daily, lasts 15 minutes.]

[Ability 3: Violent Mind – Make the targeted group feel irritable, unable to control their power, and then self-destruct and die]

...

The properties of the Book of Nalu were certainly worthy of a fabled Artifact.

Even though it was only half complete, it still had the most mysterious abilities in this world.

Seeing through lies and deception.

Looking at its properties, regardless of whether it was being immune to Mind Laws or automatically seeing through lies, they were both very powerful.

The former could make Marvin completely immune to all kinds of mind control or alteration. No matter whether it was a Legend Wizard's Mind Magic or the Gods' illusions, they would now be completely ineffective against Marvin!

With the Book of Nalu in hand, Marvin could definitely take care of the Dream God!

Because Marvin was now immune to his best and most specialized abilities!

And the ability to see through lies was also very important.

In the future struggles against Gods and Devils, lies would become common occurrences that were very important. If Marvin could clearly see the truth, then he would have an advantage when it came to intel.

Marvin could use information to the fullest.

As for the abilities, Heart of Deception was something Marvin had already comprehended.

Deceiver Soul could let Marvin deceive others, and it would do it perfectly.

Violent Mind was an Area of Effect ability, ideal for use on a group of foes.

'Why does it sound like the Book of Nalu was prepared specifically for me? These skills are a bit treacherous, but I like them.' Marvin was pleased with the changes.

But at that time, he discovered that a new page of text had appeared in the Book of Nalu!

Unfortunately, these characters were in Ancient God Language and Marvin couldn't read them.

'What about that consciousness that the Book of Nalu had?'

'Did it get swallowed in the fusion?'

Marvin felt a bit strange.

After the appearance of the Wisdom Chapter, that originally intelligent Book of Nalu lost its spirituality and no longer communicated with Marvin.

Otherwise, Marvin would have tried to get it to translate the Ancient God Language.

'Should I go find Butterfly?'

'She is a High Elf, so she should have some understanding of the Ancient God Language, right?'

Marvin felt a bit strange.

The Book of Nalu was an important trump card for Marvin.

Although Butterfly should be a good person, it was a bit inappropriate for Marvin to hand such an important Artifact over to someone else.

'What about… Pearl Tower?'

There should be Scholars there that could also understand Ancient God Language.

'But what about the information appearing on the Book of Nalu?'

'What if it was leaked?'

This was the most troublesome point for Marvin about this.

He hesitated for a moment before he had the glimmer of a strange idea.

He tried manipulating those silvery ancient runes in his mind.

He wanted to have these runes help him decipher the Book of Nalu.

Although he didn't know where that thought had come from, he instinctively felt that it might work.

After all, these silver runes were also what had pushed Marvin to retrieve the 1st page in the Underground Palace.

Marvin's trip here was a great success.

The silver runes began condensing at Marvin's fingertips.

Marvin used his hand to gently brush across the surface of the parchment and those runes automatically formed themselves into lines of Common:

[To the one reading this Book, please believe my words.]

[Perhaps the truth will shock you, but that doesn't stop it from being the truth.]

[I am Dokriss. You might know me by my other name: the God of Deception.]

[I used up all my Divine Power to look through history and foresee the future.]

[This world is on the verge of being drawn into a sea of fire. If you are the fated one that I prophesied, then please, be careful.]

[Because your path is bound to be full of thorns, you can only walk alone on that path.]

[You might meet with betrayal.]

[But you have to remain strong.]

[This is the only thing we can do when we encounter a difficult time.]

...

Marvin looked at the front page in a daze.

Although this passage was directly translated into Common, Marvin had a feeling that it missed something essential.

He could only understand the meaning of the words literally.

'What kind of thing is the Book of Nalu in the end?'

Marvin didn't understand, and others didn't understand either.

Some thought that it was a plot by the God of Deception.

Some thought that it had another mystery.

Since Marvin already had collected six pages of the Book of Nalu, he had to see this through to the end.

With the Wisdom Chapter as the foundation, he felt that he had the opportunity to answer the question. He really wanted to know what kind of person the one thought of as the sliest and resourceful of all time, the Deception God, was.

What was he planning?

Thus, Marvin kept looking through it.

The six pages of the Book of Nalu, Marvin pored over them to better understand their contents.

Fifteen minutes later.

Marvin finished reading.

He felt cold all over.

Because he didn't collect all the pages, the contents of the pages weren't linked.

Marvin could only arrange what he knew from the limited information provided.

But even with these limited pieces of information, Marvin felt it was hard to digest.

'The God of Deception is also the God of Wisdom? Those two Ancient Gods were in fact one?'

'His fall wasn't a natural fall, but rather because he understood the future of Feinan Plane?'

'The world of Feinan was about to face a large, destructive calamity, and the mastermind behind everything… was Feinan's Plane Will itself!?'

'Lance and the God of Wisdom were companions. He wanted to replace Feinan's Will and become the true Supreme God...'

'The aura of destruction wasn't actually released by Lance, but rather by the seed buried by Feinan Plane's Will since countless years ago…'

Marvin was simply going crazy!

What was written in the Book of Nalu was completely different from what the Truth Goddess had told him!

Hero and Villain were completely reversed!

What was the truth in the end?

Marvin was completely at a loss.