How to Survive as a Genius Spy in the Game

Chapter 123: The Sea of Ashes (2)

The ancient text engraved like a tattoo on my wrist was not normally visible. It only became clear when I paid close attention to it. 

Afterward, during my free time, I studied the ancient language. Although I didn’t reach a proficient level, I was able to interpret the ancient text left on my wrist.

[There may be a door at the boundary between the sky and the sea.]

But I had dismissed it, as I couldn’t make heads or tails of what it meant. 

Even searching through Leocran’s biography, I couldn’t find any clues. 

Since he was someone who loved to travel, roaming across the entire continent after driving out the devil, there was no specific place I could pinpoint.

But I never imagined it would be related to this sea.

Now, the tattoo left on my wrist was pulsing with a blue light. Wooong- Wooong- It brightened and dimmed with a slight delay. 

A mysterious power. I thought it might be a form of Great Magic.

This phenomenon may be unrelated to Shahri. Since I had posed as a devil worshipper, there’s a high probability that what Shahri was looking for was the Sea of Ashes. 

However, this bracelet had come from the ruins of Leocran, who lived in the same era.

‘In any case, the fact that the bracelet is reacting means there’s something here.’ 

Under the blazing Sun, I squinted and scanned the horizon. I had traveled quite a distance from the archipelago. All I could see was the sea. 

Only the noon heat, the sound of waves, and the sea wind existed. I judged that it would be difficult to find anything with the naked eye.

While I was distracted, the boat kept moving forward. And at some point, the force dwelling in my wrist disappeared.

It meant this wasn’t the right direction. 

As I turned back, the blue light on my wrist began to pulse again. If it wasn’t the front or back, then it had to be left or right. 

I steered the boat to the right.

Sure enough, in less than 20 seconds, the reaction intensified. The interval at which the blue light pulsed on my wrist had slightly decreased. 

The force imbued in it had also grown a little stronger.

‘The closer I get, the more the bracelet reacts.’ 

Using the bracelet as a guide, I sailed the boat. With the Winds, the speed was quite fast. Yet there wasn’t a significant change. 

I guessed that since the sea was so vast, the range in which the bracelet reacted was also wide.

This was fortunate for me. If the reactive area of the bracelet had been narrow, I might not have found it.

After sailing for a considerable time, I reached an area where the reaction weakened no matter which direction I headed.

‘This must be it……’ 

As expected, there was nothing visible. It seemed I had to find it through the clue written in the ancient text. 

It said there was a door at the boundary between the sky and the sea. 

Hmm. The first thing that came to mind was the horizon, as it refers to the boundary between the sky and the sea. 

But when I moved around earlier, there wasn’t much change. Should I continue sailing westward?

With that thought, I sailed for quite a distance, but the reaction on my wrist only weakened. It didn’t seem like anything would change even if I went further. 

I returned to the same spot and fell into contemplation.

‘What could it be?’ 

When I had investigated Leocran’s biography, there was nothing related to the sea. In fact, there wasn’t much useful information to begin with. 

There weren’t many detailed accounts from the era of the Founding Emperor. 

It was the period when even the Great Devil had descended, bringing calamity to the continent. Only tales of victory after the triumph were written.

The historical records from that time most of them focused on the victory, the Founding Emperor, and his companions. 

Many even viewed those records as exaggerated. In such a situation, it wasn’t easy to learn the specifics about Leocran. 

Thinking it might be underwater, I dove beneath the surface to look around, but I couldn’t see anything. 

Even expanding my senses with the Winds yielded the same result. I went back up to the boat and let out a sigh. 

I felt frustrated.

‘It was similar when I was searching for Teme’s Spear.’ 

This was the bracelet left behind by Leocran, a close friend of the Founding Emperor. I wondered if it was made deliberately difficult to solve, like that situation. 

If that was truly the case, it would be quite a headache. 

Back then, there was the Founding Emperor’s statue and I had the Devil’s Blood, which allowed me to open it. But now, I had nothing. 

It might require bringing Cedric, who had obtained the mystic ‘healing’, since it was something left by Leocran.

‘For now, I should think about it as much as I can. I can always come back with Cedric later.’

The boundary between the sky and the sea……. 

Since the horizon was unlikely, I had to think in a different direction. I understood the sea part, but what about the sky? 

Looking up at the sky, I didn’t see anything. 

I’m not well-versed in science, but if the atmosphere is included, does that mean the area above the surface is the sky? 

In that case, the surface could be considered the boundary. The door was on the surface.

I got off the boat and immersed half my body in the sea, but there was no change. Was it because of the Winds enveloping my body? 

That didn’t seem to be the case. While I disliked getting wet, I didn’t think it would prevent any changes just because of that.

‘For now, I’ll put it off until later.’ 

I didn’t really want to submerge myself in the sea. If I truly couldn’t come up with an answer, I could try it right before leaving. 

If the head suffers, the body suffers too. I should torment my head a little more first. I lay down on the boat and gazed up at the sky. 

For a moment, I cleared my mind. The blazing sun, the small boat gently rocking with each passing wave. In the midst of that tranquility, a lone seagull flew by in the distance.

Suddenly, a scene flashed through my mind. 

It was a pirate movie I had watched on Earth. The pirates had gone back and forth on the deck, flipping the ship into another world. 

There may be a door at the boundary between the sky and the sea…… Putting it together, this could be the answer.

‘This might work?’ 

Since I didn’t have any other ideas anyway, I immediately put it into action. Using the Winds, I lifted the side of the boat. 

The boat began to slowly overturn. My body tilted with it. 

The sea drew closer. I held tightly onto the boat and enveloped myself with the Winds. 

My shoulder touched the water first. With a splash, my vision flipped. Now I was underwater.

Sunlight penetrated from the surface. The seabed, where light didn’t reach, was dark. For a moment, nothing happened. 

And then, without warning, a blue light began to shine from my wrist.

‘……What?’ 

In an instant, the boat started descending beneath the sea. The surrounding mana surged. The flow of water changed abruptly. 

It swirled around me and the boat like a whirlpool. It felt like being sucked into somewhere. Even with my eyes wide open, all I could see was the violent current.

In a single moment, the colors of the world changed. Everywhere my eyes could see was filled with ashen gray. 

Instead of the surrounding currents, ashes were swirling violently. 

Paaah-! The boat burst upward. The scenery brightened. 

The ashes stirred up by the impact were scattering chaotically around me. The entire world was ashen gray.

‘The Sea of Ashes.’ 

I could tell at a glance. The place where the boat was floating and everywhere my eyes could see was a sea made of ashes. 

The ashes gently undulated like waves. 

In place of the noon heat, the sound of waves, and the wind, only an eerie stillness remained. 

It was as if I had entered a black-and-white world. In that world, only me and the boat retained color.

The Sea of Ashes, hidden on the other side of the west. 

This place was a space created in the distant past by the sky whales, beings comparable to dragons, to counter the curse of the Great Devil. 

Here, the sky whales faced the end of their lives. The Great Magic they completed with their deaths ensured the seal confining the Sea of Ashes would not be undone. And after a long time, Carlyn found his way here.

‘Well, I got in somehow, but is there really something here?’

Everywhere his eyes could see was a sea of ashes. Whenever the waves crashed, ash dust flew up into the air. 

The blue light on his wrist still pulsed at a steady interval. 

It seemed the bracelet would serve as a guide here as well. He thought he should move around a bit.

Having made up his mind, Carlyn began sailing through The Sea of Ashes.

No trace of life could be felt. The only sound was the ashes flowing back when the waves of ash crashed. 

Shh-shh- Despite the clearly audible sound of the flowing ashes, the world was eerily still.

‘Hm?’ 

While advancing by following the bracelet’s reaction, the blue light on it suddenly intensified. And a blue sphere slowly rose above the sea of ashes. 

It was a moment when a vivid color was added to the ashen landscape.

What is that? Carlyn thought it looked like a magic stone, for it contained mana. 

Unbeknownst to Carlyn, the sphere was the heart of a sky whale – a heart that held the same value as a dragon’s heart. That heart possessed the power of ‘purification’. 

However, The Sea of Ashes was a curse that could not be purified. The sky whales used their hearts as a medium to permanently seal The Sea of Ashes. 

It was the last remaining sky whale that manifested a powerful Great Magic using the hearts of its brethren. 

The blue sphere that had appeared before Carlyn was the heart of that last sky whale.

The reason Leocran had the key to access this place was that he was the first and last human to find it after driving out the devil.

– My comrades! Where are you?

As Leocran searched for the sky whales amid the vast ocean, the last sky whale led him inside.

Leocran wholeheartedly healed the sky whale, whose strength was depleted from the aftereffects of the Great Magic. Though of different species, they were comrades who had faced the devil together. 

As a token of their friendship, Leocran received the key to enter this other world. 

The last sky whale intended to give its heart to the human who had not forgotten their friendship, after its own demise.

And so, presently, Carlyn stood before the heart left behind by the last sky whale. Instinctively, Carlyn grasped the gemstone in his hand. 

In an instant, the blue sphere emitted a brilliant light. Amidst the blinding flash, Carlyn felt a searing sensation on his wrist. 

It was the same feeling as when the bracelet had seeped into him before. And when he closed and opened his eyes, the sphere had vanished.

Instead, the ancient text left on his wrist had changed. Now, instead of black, it glowed blue like when it pulsed.

‘This is……’ 

Carlyn realized he could willfully change the ancient text, tattoo-like, into a bracelet. Similar to how the princess had obtained Teme’s Spear, he could understand it in his mind. 

He turned it into a bracelet once, let it seep back into his wrist, and then examined the ancient text.

[Remembering an old friend, purify The Sea of Ashes.]

Not being proficient in the ancient language, it took him some time. Purify? Carlyn wondered.

And then he suddenly recalled that the sky whales possessed the power of purification. 

The sky whales, known for purifying polluted seas, were beings more revered than the God of Light by the ancient sea people. 

Was that power contained within this bracelet? 

It was certain that the vanished blue sphere was related to the sky whales. 

Carlyn suddenly thought that the sphere he saw might have been the heart of a sky whale.

‘Huh?’ 

After the power had settled into his wrist, Carlyn sensed similar energies existed throughout The Sea of Ashes. 

As he mapped out the locations in his mind, Carlyn became convinced they formed a magic array, with the energies arranged at set intervals. 

His thoughts progressed further, drawing closer to the answer – that the sky whales had sealed The Sea of Ashes with a Great Magic. 

A chill ran down Carlyn’s spine.

‘If……’ 

If Shahri had made it here, a calamity could have befallen the continent. 

For simply removing that sphere might have been enough to recreate The Sea of Ashes on the continent. 

Of course, the bracelet he obtained from Leocran’s ruins was necessary to find this place. 

But as an Archmage, Shahri might have been able to open the door.

Now that the future was changing, he couldn’t blindly trust the information from the game. 

If it had truly happened, it would have been a catastrophe. With three wars and the sea turning to ash, the West would have been doomed.

‘In any case, this power of purification isn’t bad?’ 

The choice he made to try and save Cedric had triggered a butterfly effect, leading Carlyn to a place no one else had reached. 

Separately, he had doubts. Carlyn couldn’t find any connection between Leocran and the sky whales.

Then, a thought suddenly crossed Carlyn’s mind regarding the power of purification. Although he hadn’t tried it yet, if it was the power to purify contaminated things…….

‘Wouldn’t that free me to some degree from my Mysophobia, be it food, water, or even a seat?’

For Carlyn, who had lived uncomfortably for years due to a physical revulsion contrary to his mind’s acknowledgment that it was fine, this was a significant matter.

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