Chapter 426: Commencing the Scheme
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
“So this is the Tempest Hydra?”
In my hands was a decayed piece of rock that resembled a stone sculpture. I should say that it was a gray rock shaped like a bow and even had moss growing on it. Plenty of dust had rubbed off it onto my hands, and it had zero hints of elemental energy. Others would see it as simply a useless piece of trash.
However, this was one of the four Foundational Elemental Items of Dragon World. Dragon City had finally made up their mind to cooperate with me, so they gave me this wind element G.o.d Equipment, one of the four pillars of this plane.
“This was once an incredibly powerful wind element G.o.d Equipment. It’s said that zero ammunition is required for it to summon furious winds capable of piercing the clouds. Plus, its attacks sound like the angry roars of dragons, which is how the Tempest Hydra obtained its name.”
The silly cat apparently had maxed out points in knowledge about ancient treasures. She even knew about such a strange G.o.d Equipment.
“By the way, I should mention that the Gold Elves were more skilled than anyone else at archery back in the day. This G.o.d Equipment probably belongs to my ancestors. Back in that generation, the G.o.ds were all born naturally, and there weren’t Divine Concepts or G.o.ds that existed through the power of belief.”
As one of the first species created in this plane, the Gold Elves had an incredibly long history. It was impossible to know about what they were like as far too much time had pa.s.sed; all that had to be said was that they were from Ayer’s generation. As for their recent history… the last Gold Elf was right before me. When considering that the silly cat’s temper was becoming worse and worse as she heard more news about the elves’ internal warring, I felt that it would be best for me to not tread on this landmine.
“Yep, it sounds amazing. But now I bet even a museum wouldn’t accept it. It’s just way too ridiculously ancient.”
This G.o.d Equipment sounded quite amazing. However, it was evidently no longer usable. No matter how amazing a G.o.d Equipment was, not maintaining it for several tens of thousands of years still meant it would turn into a fossil.
“Normally, it wouldn’t be like this. All G.o.d Equipment have divine power within them, and one of the most basic qualities of divine power is its undying nature. Almost no G.o.d Equipment will ever naturally break. However, this G.o.d Equipment’s current condition is due to the situation in this plane.”
Major problems were occurring with this plane’s structure as the t.i.tans struggled to break free. As one of the four foundational pillars which created this plane, this former G.o.d Equipment had obtained the plane’s dimensional rights. It had become a measure for the plane’s health. It appeared as if it would decay to dust, and this represented that this plane was reaching its end.
Since the t.i.tans had the nickname of Children of the Earth, the main element they consisted of was naturally earth. Considering that earth was the element that countered wind, I was absolutely certain that this fossilized wind element Foundational Elemental Item was the one which was damaged the most out of the four.
From a certain standpoint, when giving me this item Dragon City didn’t have good intentions. Since I felt that the G.o.d Equipment of Fire would be the most difficult to obtain as it was in the Water Elemental Plane, I told the dragons that my most preferred Foundational Elemental Item was the fire element one, and that the second best would be the water element one. But obviously they didn’t care about what I wanted.
Still, the wind element item was enough for me. Actually, it would save me a lot of trouble. I couldn’t rely on the Wind Elemental G.o.d Camdian, and it would be for the best that I wouldn’t need to negotiate with him for the G.o.d Equipment of Wind.
I took out my little notebook and wrote down another checkmark. I had completed another one-fourth of my task.
Out of the four top-level elemental items I needed, I already possessed the G.o.d Equipment of Earth. And it wouldn’t be that difficult to obtain the G.o.d Equipment of Fire. Yesterday afternoon, our measurements indicated that the Elemental Tide lost its balance yet again due to the death of another Elemental G.o.d. Judging from the elemental fluctuations, it must have been the Water Elemental G.o.ddess. It would seem that Solo successfully convinced her to commit suicide. I would need to mark down his achievement for that. [1]
Fortunately, this imbalance helped balance the Elemental Tide in Dragon World and would help slow down its collapse.
The reason? The fact that the Emordilorcan incident affected the Elemental Tide so much wasn’t actually because of the Earth Elemental G.o.d’s death. It was that I had destroyed the Earth Elemental Throne. An a.n.a.logy would be a governmental agency. If an agency’s leader died for some reason, they would only need to be replaced. However, if the entire agency was destroyed, the consequences would be ma.s.sively troublesome.
Opposing water was the fire element. There was no Fire Elemental G.o.d, and now the Water Elemental G.o.ddess had perished. Neither element’s Elemental Throne was now active, and this helped balance the two. Meanwhile, both the Wind and Earth Elemental G.o.ds were alive and rather weak, so the four elements just happened to achieve a perfect balance.
“Aylos… it would seem that rumors are unreliable. Everyone actually believed her to be emotionless. As usual, Harloys was correct. Aylos was truly deeply in love with her husband. In that case, I’ll modify my scheme a little, since I, too, really like true. Yep, although we’re the FFF group’s elites, one of our traditions is to never burn true love.”
I made a few modifications to my plan and labeled them as third-rank priority. I would consider doing this part if the conditions were met. Any unnecessary emotions would be too much to hope for unless I completed my “grand scheme.”
Of course, this environmental condition where the four elements were in perfect balance greatly resembled the balanced Elemental Tide of the immemorial generation. This was doubtlessly a good thing for anyone who wished to make a breakthrough in power level. I could already foresee that even more of my subordinates would make breakthroughs, which would also be a great help to my scheme. I suppose that this sort of counted as me owing Aylos, so I guess I could help her out if I had the time.
“…You’re trying to find an excuse to help her? Could this be the legendary concept known as tsundere? It’s not fun to look at male tsunderes.”
“Ridiculous! That’s not it at all. I don’t even know if my ‘Soul Burial Ice’ will be able to preserve her soul. After all, she’s foundationally an elemental creature. Right, has the second piece of Soul Burial Ice been delivered?”
“Yes, we’ve already received a reply. That person accepted the letter and the ice.”
“…That person didn’t rip up my letter?”
“No.”
I nodded, as this was already far better than what I’d expected. It would seem that another trouble had been resolved.
“…You’re so evil. If he really acts as what you told him to do in your letter, the entire world will likely be shocked. Your ‘old friend’ will meet with huge amounts of trouble.”
“Ha! That’s exactly what I want. My third piece of Soul Burial Ice will be ready by tomorrow. Someone will be coming to take it when it’s time. As for the fourth and final piece…”
“You’re still keeping secrets from me?”
“No, I haven’t yet decided who to give it to. No simple existences are capable of making use of Soul Burial Ice.”
“If it comes to it, we can—”
“No, that’s the worst possible outcome. Let me think on this some more.”
I shook my head, as I knew I was being far too greedy with too many plans spread all over the place. There would be huge trouble if any single part of my plan went wrong. It was like dancing on a tightrope. One misstep would send me hurtling down into the abyss. At least, however, I seemed to be dancing quite well for the moment.
“I should be able to obtain the G.o.d Equipment of Fire soon, and I already possess top level elemental items of wind and earth. I just lack a top-level water element item. Actually, I can make do with Sidunwar’s Ocean Bottle, but the prerequisite for using it is that it must be filled with the Queen of Storms’ divine power over the sea. In that case, all the conditions have been met for me to commence my grand scheme. Should I notify Orloss and Ayer to begin—”
“Don’t rush. You only have one chance. Make any mistakes and you’ll put the enemy on guard, and this will cause us huge troubles. We should first see how the situations in Bardi and Auland turn out. But it’s time to activate our two critical chess pieces.”
I shut my notebook, which was already filled with countless additional taped attachments and modifications. It would seem that I was still in too much of a hurry. Well, it couldn’t be helped. What I had wanted for so many years was right before me, so of course I would be in a rush.
“You’re right. I only have one chance. We’ll become the number one enemy of the whole world if any information leaks about my grand scheme. Let’s err on the side of caution.”
I never expected that the silly cat would be calmer than me at the critical moment. This was despite the fact that after reading the fairies’ special report, she was so angry she didn’t eat for an entire twenty-four hours … Wait a moment—didn’t she not need to eat to begin with? Then wasn’t she just wasting food whenever she stole what I wanted to eat?
“Right, how does it feel to be a Legend? Since you entered Legend, I’ve broken through to Legend myself. The current me is more than three times more powerful than one week ago!”
The silly cat was quite proud of herself, as breaking through to Legend rank meant that her magic powers had increased by much. Many spells she had been incapable of using were now usable once again. Plus, she regained the ability to use all sorts of forbidden techniques and small-scale forbidden spells. Plus, with her current physical body’s benefits, becoming three times more powerful was just something she was casually saying. That would, in actuality, be a vast underestimation.
“Me? It’s already my fifth time being a Legend. What am I supposed to feel?”
Although I broke through to Legend successfully, I could only smile wryly as I sensed the incredibly unique Soul Imprint deep within my soul.
It wasn’t that there was a problem with my Soul Imprint or that I didn’t increase in power level as expected. It was the opposite. I improved in power level far surpa.s.sing my expectations. I had profited—definitely profited—but my “great profit” proved an inference of mine that gave me rather complex feelings.
“…I can only take things one step at a time.”