Chapter 162: Collapse of the Kalonba Empire

"A Palace Wizard?”

“Yes,” Mazdari replied to Vasen Lak Orazen’s question. “It means a Wizard who works for the palace. His Majesty suggested it first, and I accepted the offer.”

Although Vasen didn’t dislike Wizards, he still wasn't entirely free from old prejudices about them.

As if Mazdari had sensed those thoughts, he continued to say, “What do you think about a Wizard being used during war?”

“Hmm. To be honest, I’m not sure.”

“That’s unexpected. Haven’t you seen magic a few times before?”

“But it was always used to kill something. It’s amazing that it could do such a thing alone, but if we were to focus on a Wizard strategy and lose them, the losses would be severe."

Mazdari nodded in agreement, as it was a point he hadn't really considered before.

Vasen continued to say, “Honestly, if the cost of forming a Wizard unit was the same as forming a unit full of gunners with similar power, it would be better to go with the gunners. If a Wizard is killed with a single bullet, that's the same as losing an entire unit, whereas a gunner unit would only lose one member."

“Is that so?” Mazdari asked. “But Wizards have a bit more skill.”

“Such as?”

Mazdari held out his palm for a moment as if asking Vasen to wait, then began drawing a magic circle on the ground.

Vasen looked around. Theone Itimo was checking for any remaining threats in the area with her crew, but given that the Manticore were assumed to be a guardian, there seemed to be no other threats. From not far away, the sound of scholars discussing various topics while examining the ancient ruin could be heard.

Then Mazdari said, “It’s done. With this…”

Mazdari took a handful of tubifex from his pocket.

“Is that food?”

“What? No, not at all.”

Mazdari scattered the worms onto the magic circle, and as the circle emitted a faint light, the tubifex began to squirm.

Vasen thought they were trying to escape the magic circle, but that wasn't the case. The worms twisted and turned, overlapping with one another and forming letters.

Vasen could read the letters formed.

I have encountered Vasen.

"...What is this?"

Mazdari said, “It’s the sentence I made. Let’s see what the next sentence will be.”

The worms formed a different sentence.

Is everything okay? How is Vasen? And how are you, Mazdari?

Mazdari then asked Vasen, “His Majesty is asking if you are alright. How should I respond?”

Bewildered, Vasen replied, “This is…His Majesty?”

“Well, no, the tubifex aren’t His Majesty.”

“...I know that much. But how is this possible?”

Mazdari tapped on the magic circle.

As the worms continued to move, Mazdari explained, "It's a form of communication magic. You draw two magic circles and link them. Then if you control the creatures on the magic circle, the ones on the other side make the same movements. And that’s why we use things like tubifex, because they are flexible and it’s easy to carry lots of them around.”

"I'm not sure I understand, but that’s interesting."

As Vasen quietly looked at the worms, they busily moved and formed a conversation.

Both of us are doing well.

That’s good to hear. There are…no changes regarding orders.”

Alright.

Then the brief exchange concluded.

Vasen said, “This is certainly valuable.”

“You think so?”

"After all, strategy ultimately relies on how quickly it can be communicated. I'll have to give it some thought.”

Mazdari began to gather the tubifex again.

"It'll be fortunate if it proves useful. His Majesty seems to want more Wizards."

"Hmm, do you think that's a good idea?" Vasen asked.

"It's not for me to say. But..."

Mazdari understood Vasen's concerns.

"There will be some Wizards who are arrogant. They might even think that if they can mimic the power of gods, why not play a god? Such individuals have to be expelled from the learning process. And the existing Wizards should also strive to become great teachers."

"What about you?" asked Vasen.

Mazdari stayed silent for a moment.

Then he looked at his left hand and said, "I had hatred inside of me. I grew up as a cursed child, so I always wanted to strike a blow on those who were so arrogant for being considered normal.”

"But do you think the Black Scale stole that opportunity from you? In a way, I guess you could see it like that.”

Mazdari laughed.

"No, I don't see it that way. I may not totally like it, but having hatred doesn't necessarily mean I need to take it out on someone else."

Mazdari’s revenge on his peers could be considered done through the continental war. The Trolls had now lost their power. While they functioned as an autonomous country, they were still one of the imperial provinces of the Black Scale empire. And Mazdari’s childhood pain was healing. Afterall, Night Sky was said to be the one to save them.

Vasen patted Mazdari’s shoulder and walked toward the researchers.

“It seems that you not only learned how to be a Wizard, but also to become an adult.”

“Maybe.”

In the days that followed, the researchers set their tents up and continued with their excavation. What they discovered had significant value, but wasn’t something that met everyone’s expectations.

Vasen looked at the large golden tablet tied to Hwae-Sa’s back and said, “Golden tablet of Kalonba? Aren’t these stacked inside the storage room in Orazen’s palace?”

Theone replied, "Not quite to that extent."

The tablet contained stories about the great empire of Kalonba, which had had a brilliant civilization in the past until the gods left. This ruin also appeared to be part of the Kalonba Empire and revealed how the empire’s reach hadn’t been limited to one continent, but also this distant southern continent as well.

While looking at the golden tablet, Mazdari said, “Well, the content is still interesting.”

“Can you read ancient language too?”

"What did you think the characters Wizards wrote on their magic circles were?"

"They were characters?"

Theone then poked Vasen’s side in embarrassment. Vasen looked sideways at the Elf who dared to casually poke the prince of the empire in the side.

"Even I can tell...this is different from the golden tablets of the Kalonba Empire that are in the Orazan Palace. Those golden tablets mainly boasted about how brilliant the Kalonba Empire was. As if...boasting to someone. But this tablet here is somewhat different."

"In what way?"

Mazdari squinted for a moment and said, "The text here contains the story of how the Kalonba Empire collapsed.”

***

[Golden Tablet: Collapse of the Great Kalonba Empire (3)

The inscribed text on the golden plate describes the process of the collapse of the ancient civilization known as the 'Kalonba Empire' of the past. This is important information about how the splendid civilization of the Kalonba Empire met its end... (See more)]

Sung-Woon looked at the golden tablet with more interest than Mazdari, and he wasn’t the only one showing such keen interest. The other players had gathered again after the golden tablet had been completely excavated.

Wisdom thoroughly searched through his system window before lowering it and saying, “It’s not in the database. It’s an entirely unfamiliar relic.”

Sung-Woon then said to Eldar, “Eldar, what do you think?”

“Huh? Me?”

“You’re the expert.”

Eldar looked around at the other players with a puzzled expression. Everyone nodded as if that was obvious. From some point on, Eldar had taken the role of explaining the stories and settings of the Lost World.

“Well, in my opinion…”

“Go explain down there.”

“...Alright.”

Eldar then walked down the stairs of the first conference room and stepped onto the podium.

Eldar continued to say, “In my opinion, It is a very important relic.”

“And the reason?”

"Up until now, there has been a missing link in the system of The Lost World. It's about when, how, and why the gods left. It's not usually a big concern for players, and in fact, these kinds of settings usually don’t matter when it comes to enjoying the game."

Jang-Wan said, "But not for us."

"That's right. That’s not the case for us."

Eldar opened a drawing board window that everyone could see and began to jot things down. The handwriting was far from neat.

“Evil gods were speculated to be part of the ancient evil that only existed within settings of the game, but they actually appeared in the form of Jeol Woo-Bi and Sha-Cha, and because of this, we face uncertainty on the conditions for victory. In an extreme sense, this all might just be…a huge conspiracy.”

Lunda raised her hand.

“Do you have a question?”

“Not a question, but could you give a specific example?”

“Well… Just as the being called Aldin who brought us to this place had said, perhaps they have brought us here for some other purpose, not simply to play a game. After all, there’s no reason for them to give us the reward of being a god just for playing a game.”

Crampus summarized, “...So, you’re saying the missing link in the setting could be the key evidence to solving the conspiracy.”

"Yes, exactly."

Eldar drew a long line on the temporary drawing board and continued to say, "Anyway, based on the recently discovered golden tablet, if we look at the rough timeline of their downfall, the Kalonba Empire existed even after the gods left. In fact, it seemed like they were pleased that the gods had left. However, that was a scheme of the ancient evil, and the downfall of the empire came after. Also the reason for the downfall that was just discovered is quite interesting."

Eldar drew a mushroom. The drawing skills displayed were outstanding.

"It was a massive explosion. And in The Lost World, in order to make this kind of explosion happen, it would have to have been a..."

"A nuclear explosion?" Sung-Woon suggested.

Eldar nodded.

“That’s right. Magic can achieve something similar, but if you look at the fallout described, it was surely a nuclear war. The climate situation written down is also similar to what’s called a nuclear winter. Though it did seem a bit warmer than that.”

Wisdom said, “It’s called a nuclear autumn. Even if all the nuclears exploded on Earth, it was theorized that the lowered temperature would be better described as a nuclear autumn rather than a freezing nuclear winter.”

"Then it’s probably that. A nuclear autumn. That's likely why the Kalonba Empire didn't vanish in an instant but suffered a great blow and eventually declined. The important point is that the golden tablet we just discovered is an accusation report of sorts. It contains the name of the one who disrupted the empire and made those in the empire launch nuclear missiles at each other.”

Eldar wrote down the name, Ashurada.

Lunda then raised her hand again and asked, "Could the Ashurada mentioned be the same Ashurada we know of?"

"Well, we can’t be sure. But Dragons, according to the settings of the game, have an infinite lifespan, so it wouldn't be strange if they had survived since then."

"But if they have the knowledge from that time, why would they just leave the Rakshasas that they rule over be?”

"I don't know. The Kalonba Empire probably had a civilization somewhat similar to our Earth. There would be differences, of course. But according to the settings, Dragons exist within causality, so they could freely access their knowledge without using resources like Faith points."

Then Sung-Woon said, “Well…that’s not all that important. We’ll come to know eventually once we open up that Dragon’s head.”

Wisdom, who was looking at the system window, said, “If that’s the case, we have good news.”

“Good news?”

“The Fabirang Union has begun to move. They are advancing with a large-scale deployment of Helix Wings.”

It was news Sung-Woon had been waiting for.