Thumbs Up, Level Up - Chapter 306.1

Chapter 306 – Epilogue (Part 1)

The meteor dragged its long tail across the sky.

It raced for a while, then plummeted toward something?huge, like a mountain.

BOOM!

With an explosion that would have torn an ordinary person’s eardrums instantly, a large portion of this huge, mountain-like thing was torn apart and crumbled.

If one looked closely at the falling debris, they would see that it was not rock or anything like that, but rather corpses of many beings. From two-headed snake-like monsters to eight-legged reptiles, there were many types of corpses. There were also human corpses, and the carcasses of all manner of ordinary creatures, including dogs and other such animals.

This horrible abomination looked similar to the Ghoul giants that Um Ji-Cheok had defeated in the past, but it was completely different in that it was not made up of a single species, but instead composed of who-knew-how-many different creatures.

It was also different in terms of sheer size, at over two kilometers tall and six kilometers long. Collectively, the tangled mass of bodies resembled a lizard, but without a tail or a head.

Countless Specters flew around the creature. It indeed looked like a horrific, grotesque monster that would only show up in an apocalyptic situation.

The monster was tall, but there was someone who looked down upon it from an even higher vantage point.

“Target identified. I have engaged it, but it does not seem that powerful. Estimated level, 200.”

It was Byul Ha-Na.

She had a platinum-colored halo floating over her head, and four wings spread out from her back that seemed to hold starlight. Looking like a Goddess or an angel, she was dressed in pure white, holy-looking robes of unknown material, and held a great bow that was longer than she was tall. The great bow was no ordinary weapon, either; it was engraved with sacred characters and symbols.

She picked up the great bow, and her appearance as she drew it was truly befitting of a Goddess of the Stars.

The weapon she possessed, Artuna, was an SS-Rank sacred bow. It shined with divine radiance and created a shooting star as it was fired. Each shot had a destructive power only slightly lower than Meteor, the ultimate destructive magic spell.

By nature, it was able to obliterate an entire city when it fell, but this attack had only done a small amount of damage to that horrific giant monster.

But…what if there were multiple shooting stars?

Her hands moved faster than anyone could see, and the shooting stars fell in droves, as if aiming to drown the world in starlight.

However, the giant Abomination was not so easily deterred. Around its body, an uncountable number of Evil Spirits converged, clinging to the monster and being absorbed into it. Then countless spikes protruded from the giant monster’s back.

Grotesque and horrifying, the spikes—a mixture of Spirits and corpses—shot unholy rays of light toward the shooting stars falling from the sky.

Boom!

Her attack and the monster’s unholy power collided, creating an explosion.

“That monster is pretty tough. But it is still no match for me!”

She drew her bow to the limit. The starlight gathered and coalesced above her.

“Be crushed to death under the stars!”

A huge ball of light, the size of dozens of meteors combined, fell on the monster.

Unholy rays from the monster’s spikes struck the Great Starlight, but they did nothing to stop it.

The attack landed with a massive explosion that covered a one-kilometer radius.

Rumble!

The parched earth on which the monster walked on started to crack, and block smoke rose. The fragments of the hideous creature wiggled and trembled. The clumped corpses scattered and began to move about.

“The target is mostly under control. I can’t purify the land myself, is there anyone here who can come?”

Her hands were busy again. She ignited the falling debris, sending down more shooting stars than even she could count.

?Point 04. The purifying operation is completed and the World Tree saplings have been planted. I will leave the rest to the guards and head over there?

“Bernade? How long have you been here?”

?I’ve been here for a couple of hours. I will head over there. Be careful of the aftershock from my teleportation circle.?

Bernade’s voice responded to Ha-Na’s surprise like it was no big deal.

A moment later, the void beside her cracked open and someone stepped out. She had horns on her head like those of a mountain goat, and her hair glowed green. She stood six feet tall, and her legs were those of a deer rather than a human. She wore a long, green robe and held in one hand a staff made from a branch of the World Tree.

Bernade Itum.

The Druid Wizard was still in the service of the Gods, and she had been transformed into a hybrid being in the process.

“So this is the place, Ha-Na. Long time no see.”

.

“It has certainly been a while, but I thought you said you were not doing any work for another dimension because you wanted to continue the purification of the Philippines.”

“The cleansing of my country is now complete. Our Lord has helped.”

“You mean Ji-Cheok?”

“Yes, him.”

“Hm…” Ha-Na nodded. “Then, thanks for helping me out.”

As soon as she finished speaking, Bernade disappeared in a flash of light and appeared above the giant corpse monster that was recently killed.

Although the distance between it and Ha-Na was more than fifty kilometers, she naturally had the ability to see what Bernade was doing with her skills, so she stood there and watched her do her work.

Raising her staff, Bernade recited a spell, and green holy light flowed from her body. Then, she cut off one of her fingers and dropped it on the ground.

A new finger grew back in its place. Meanwhile, the fallen finger fell to the charred ground and sprouted.

Swoosh.

As if this severely polluted ground was the most powerful fertilizer, the sprout quickly grew into a stem and leaves. Its growth was blindingly fast—in the blink of an eye, it had become a tree over ten meters tall and its roots and branches both extended far.

That was not all.

Kieeeeakk!

The corpses around it staggered, spewing black smoke. The ground was also gradually losing its ominous black color and turning into more fertile-looking soil.

The curse on the land dissipated. The corpses quickly began to decay, rotting and falling to the ground.

By that point, the Tree had already grown to an enormous size, about a hundred meters tall, and it bore fruit. The fruit fell to the ground. Then, small trees began to grow from it, fresh saplings that resembled the giant tree at the center.

It looked like something out of a myth.

As she watched the process, Ha-Na reported her status on the spiritual network that she was connected to.

“Point 09. World Tree seedling growth confirmed. Purification begins. 11 hours and 31 minutes until the purification is complete. Target, Abomination 09 destroyed. Any news from the other dimensions?”

?Ah~ I’m still fighting~ Abomination 12 is tougher than I thought~?

?Point 07 is purified. I am going to move to Point 12 and help them out.?

“Whew. I guess we’re almost done,” Ha-Na sighed as she watched the forest grow below her.

She thought about what had happened one year before, when the world was about to end.

The Demon King of the Apocalypse had arrived and humanity had been on the brink of destruction. In the end, it had been somehow averted, but that had not resolved everything, not by a large margin.

The reason was that the dimension where Earth was located had been open since that event.

The dimensional barrier created by Ji-Cheok only prevented dungeons from being created. It did not prevent connections to other dimensions.

Dungeons were merely fragments of fallen worlds. Countless dommed races wished to resurrect their civilization by invading other dimensions. That was what dungeons were. However, at the end of the Tutorial, the coordinates of Earth were released to all civilized dimensions, allowing travel in both directions.

Originally, human civilization on Earth would have been wiped out by then, and races from other dimensions would have pushed in and made it a living hell.

That was what Ji-Cheok had prevented with his dimensional barrier.

However, that did not stop the two-way connection. Because of that, the connection to the other dimensions led to a number of events.

Some dimensions were significantly less powerful than Earth, while others were frighteningly powerful. Of course, for various reasons, such as conflicts among the dimensions and the inability of the higher dimensions to wield much power in the lower dimensions, Earth had been fairly well protected.

That did not mean it was completely safe. At the very least, however, they were relieved to know that they were not going to have any dungeons popping out inside Earth and causing random genocide.

With this in mind, Earth still had to be defended from otherworldly beings. Thus, humanity had decided to form an alliance. They wanted to join forces with like-minded beings from other dimensions.

Thanks to all of this, Erath had yet to be invaded or waged war on by the armies of another dimension.

And this was what they were doing to unite with those forces. They were here to purify the abandoned dimensions and make them habitable again.

“Sigh… I had no idea that I would still be doing this after my salvation. Haha…” Ha-Na said.

“I see you are grumbling about the drudgery of your daily routine.”

“Are you finished?”

“Of course.”

Bernade, who had already returned to Ha-Na’s side, had heard Ha-Na’s complaint.

“But Bernade, listen to this. Isn’t this a little unfair? Why can’t I get a break?”

“That is because you are strong enough to represent humanity.

“I should really go on strike…”

“If you want.”

Bernade elegantly advised Ha-Na.

While the two chatted, the World Tree grew, turning the surrounding area into a forest. Little by little, this planet of death was changing.

Even though she was still grumbling, Ha-Na smiled with pleasure as she watched the tree grow.

Bernade looked at her and smiled back.

? ? ?

“Even if you are not a God, there are many ways to become immortal. What? You want to know if the life of an immortal is boring and tiresome? Kahaha!”

The being looked like a human. Just from her appearance alone, no one could mistake her for anything else than a human. She even confessed that her body was in human form.

Yet, she was not a human.

First, she did not die when her body was destroyed.

Second, she could always reconstruct her body in a suitable way.

Third, her immortality came within her soul, not her body, and her soul could always create another body.

For her, the body was an accessory, like the clothing that humans changed every day. She even swapped gender like it was nothing.

And right now, she was laughing out loud. Her laughter sounded like a hooligan watching a baseball game while drinking a can of beer. When their favorite team hit a home run, they would raise their beer cans in the air, cheer, then gulp them down in one go.

Some people called this a ‘gramps’ attitude, while others referred to it as the ‘ultimate baseball fan’ behavior.

However, this person’s appearance made it clear that she belonged to neither category.

She looked like a woman in her late twenties. She was dressed in a type of business suit, like something from a T.V. show, and she sported a twisted, boisterous smile.

“I was wondering when you were going to ask such a trivial question. I can’t believe it took you this long to ask me. Hahaha! Mortals always ask this kind of thing.”

As she said this, she twirled her hand in the air and grabbed a glass of wine that had not been there half a second before. She gulped down the contents and laughed once again.

“The world is full of surprises! Of course, there may be immortals who are suffering, but even with all my years, I have never seen anyone who suffered from being immortal,” she said as she produced a second glass of wine, which she promptly proceeded to drink.

“Hmph! Anyway, what are you offering in return? My immortality secret is expensive. It is one of the top ten secrets in the Infinite Three Thousand Great Celestial Worlds!”

She was right.

The secret of this woman in front of Mu-Cheok was famous throughout all dimensions as an expensive piece of knowledge that was completely worth the money. It was an immortal technique for achieving spiritual awakening, which allowed the user to rely only on their soul to exist and consequently be able to change bodies like it was nothing.

Of course, merely learning such a secret was not enough. It had to be practiced, cultivated, embodied, and mastered. Every aspect of his inner self had to be brought together as one, and he had to reach a realm of complete trance.

“I will give you this.”

Mu-Cheok pulled out an item that he had prepared beforehand.

It was a jet-black orb. At first glance there was nothing special about it, but a closer inspection revealed that whatever material it was made of had absolutely no luster; rather, it seemed to suck in the light around it, as if it was painted Vantablack. It looked as if he was holding a black hole the size of a tennis ball.

Upon seeing it, the Immortal Adkanek exclaimed in exaggerated surprise.

“Oh, my! I see that 666 bodies of Demons are trapped inside it! Yes! This is precious. Hm… This might be worth a bit of money, huh.”

“Aside from the immortality secret, I would also like you to grant me the knowledge of Body Transmutation as well.”

“Oh~ I see. Well, fair. I suppose that makes it even.”

Adkanek was said to be tens of thousands of years old, so whatever impressed her by this point was likely to be truly impressive.

She winked and held out a small, rectangular piece of metal.

“Here you go.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Hahaha. You have my thanks.”

Holding the black orb, Adkanek laughed and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Mu-Cheok was standing alone in a stark white square room with nothing in it. Even the chair and desk were white. The one with whom he had just traded, known for good reason as the Immortal Adkanek, was a merchant whose name was known throughout the dimensions.

The trade was a success. He now had the knowledge to become immortal, and he had the knowledge of Body Transmutation.

He had been forced to fight through a horrible bloodbath to come this far, but it was all worth it.

“With these… I will not have to die and leave my brother all alone. Sigh… Alright, let’s just stick to the plan.”

Mu-Cheok stood up and walked out of the room.

His older brother, who had attained divinity and become a God, was now immortal. Naturally, Mu-Cheok had then asked himself, ‘what about me? Could I become a God and live forever?’

If it had been that easy, there would have been many more Gods in the world. However, regardless of how difficult it was, Mu-Cheok had to find a way to become immortal.

He was planning on keeping this a secret from his brother for at least a few hundred years.

He was prepared to walk the long, arduous road for his brother.