494 - The Beginning of a New Era #2

As I've often mentioned, the first floor of the Cabin is Luna's workshop. Her personal studio, that is.

It has a makeshift plumbing system for washing, and a few days ago, a personal furnace was added, making it a wonderful space where she could handle both water and fire simultaneously.

Luna, an honorary member of the Alchemist's Guild, also brought a ton of various tools, including beakers, from the Alchemist's Guild and stocked them on the first floor.

"Wait a minute-. Over here in the corner, I've got something covered with a big lid, it's fermenting-."

Now, this place was so professionally equipped that it wouldn't be strange to call it a potion maker's workshop.

Except for the fact that it smelled like grape juice.

The grape juice smell was probably because of the grape juice water cannon Paranoy had spewed out last night. It felt like it would take several days for the smell to dissipate.

"It's perfectly aged! Look at the color. Isn't it super pretty!"

Luna opened the jar she had stored in the corner.

Inside, there was a bubbling liquid with strong carbonation, its color a radiant gold and so thick it felt like molten metal.

It felt like if you poured it into a mold, let it harden, and then hammered it, it would turn into a magnificent gold bar.

Jilpeok-jilpeok-.

Luna, who had plunged a long, oar-like spatula into it, flailed her hand, stirring the liquid, and the thick texture loosened a bit.

"The thick stuff on top, I'm going to skim it off-! Skim it off, and when it hardens later, I'll give it to Keongkeong-i."

━Keureureung...!

"That's amazing."

I admired the work Luna was creating with a pure heart.

Luna's elixirs often had such a terrible smell and taste that Nymphs would recoil in disgust.

But this one had a rather refreshing and clear scent. Although it seemed quite far from being a fruit wine, it was perhaps like a mojito with added mint flavor?

Jureureuk-.

Finally, Luna scooped out a cup's worth with a ladle. Then, she poured it into a nearby wooden cup and offered it.

"Hassan, try drinking it-!"

Boglebogle-. Inside the wooden cup was a golden liquid bubbling with effervescence.

It was pretty, but as I said earlier, it looked like molten metal or magma, so honestly, I didn't feel like drinking it.

"Hurry! This one turned out really well. Since I came back, I haven't slept, and I've poured my heart into it, not caring about the falling pebbles!"

"Yes, Hassan, hurry and drink it. I'm curious too."

Luna's and Hippolyte's gazes were filled with anticipation and excitement.

They probably wanted me to quickly prove whether this was true nectar or not.

Boglebogle-.

I swallowed once, looking at the suspicious liquid in the cup.

Do I really have to drink this?

My body instinctively felt a rejection. If I drank this, I would surely experience something bad-.

However, it was also impossible to ignore the hopes of the women sending me expectant glances.

In the end, with a 'screw it' feeling, I gulped down the hot cup as if pouring it into my mouth.

Beolkkeok, beolkkeok-.

Then, the intense carbonation and sweet-and-sour taste spread throughout my mouth. The cool sensation of mint was quite surprising and unexpectedly plausible.

It's more delicious than I thought?

I felt like it would be good to drink it cold and refreshing with ice.

Should I have another refreshing glass?

"...."

But why, sibal, can't my body move?

What is it?

My mouth won't open. No voice comes out either.

What the hell.

Luna's and Hippolyte's faces, looking at me, slid away as if receding.

Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that my body was plummeting downwards as if falling from an endless cliff, rather than them moving away.

I fell.

The culprit was....

Luna Noxdoti....

* * *

"W-what the sibal is this?!"

Pudeududak-.

I flinched and trembled. If anyone had seen me, it might have looked like a wet rooster shaking off its feathers. It must have been ridiculous.

"Why am I stark naked?"

For whatever reason, I felt embarrassed being naked. To become like this the moment I realized I was unclothed. Did the first humans who ate the fruit of good and evil feel this way?

Of course, what was important now wasn't dignity or anything, but that I had regained consciousness and unfamiliar surroundings were visible around me.

Swaaaah, swaaaah-. Cheolseok-.

What greeted me when I came to was a black, dark, surging sea.

Of course, it didn't have the characteristic salty smell of the sea, and it was a strange space with a black sun rising in the sky, but my vocabulary was insufficient to describe this place as anything other than a sea.

This place....

Anyway, this was a place I knew something about.

It was unfamiliar, but not entirely new. Because I had been here before. This was probably the domain of Chaos.

And that pale, shimmering entity floating on the sea over there must be Chaos.

The fact that I had come to the domain of Chaos meant.

That I, Hassan, had died again. For me, who had experienced death multiple times, this was a kind of respawn waiting area.

Surely, I didn't die after drinking the nectar Luna made, did I?

Poisoning, perhaps?

Ah, sibal, this is why I didn't want to drink it. I knew this would happen.

"Hmm-."

Having no other choice, I stood up and walked across the calm surface of the water. Walking towards Chaos, standing far away.

Every time I moved my feet, chalbak, chalbak. The sound of stepping on the ground was loud.

When I lowered my head, I saw colossal creatures swimming beneath my feet, that is, beneath the dark and deep surface of the water.

It was as if fucking huge whales with multiple eyes, octopuses, and giant fish were intricately crisscrossing.

So this really was something like a sea.

To think I'm walking on top of such a sea right now. Did I know how to use water-walking skills? How on earth am I walking on the sea?

I was suddenly scared.

Chwareureureu-.

At the same time, my feet, which had been naturally walking on this dark sea, slowly sank below the surface, as if falling into a swamp.

"Th-this damn it, I'm fucked."

I had to flail around to stop myself from sinking, but the more I moved, the deeper and darker my body sank.

That was because monster bastards like fish, whales, and sharks were grabbing my feet from beneath me and pulling me down.

"L-let go of me! Let go, you mackerel bastards! Sibal! Fish of terror! Fiiish...!"

Humans have intuition.

I instinctively felt that if I were dragged by these bastards and submerged into the abyss of that deep sea, something irreversible would happen.

Therefore, I resisted.

━Pishiiiiii-.

━Shiiiiiii-.

However, the strength of those fish bastards trying to drag me down to the bottom of the sea was so immense that I could even feel malice.

"Goreueureureu-."

Finally, at the moment I thought my face was submerged in the sea and I could no longer breathe-.

Suuk-.

Something grabbed my arm and powerfully pulled me above the surface.

Thanks to that, I, Hassan, was able to rise above the surface as if erupting, like an old pirate's treasure being hoisted by a salvage ship.

"Peuheoeoeo-."

As I was spitting water from my mouth like Paranoy, someone gently set me upright again on the surface of the water.

"You are-."

━I am.

━Chaos.

━Cosmos.

Its body writhed with multiple eyes, lips, and strange, tentacle-like appendages.

But rather than finding it grotesque and terrifying, I first felt a sense of wonder, thinking, 'How can such a being exist in this world?'

The entity opened its many mouths and spoke several words simultaneously.

MnZBMElkRjFKc3ZCR0RiWklQRlA5WlZINzRaZThhUzZ1cnMyS01IbEgxYnlTb1BVaTF6WlpGckZyYnA0WG5OQg

━I am the primordial point.

━The first explosion.

━The error of causality.

Of course, as befitting the words of a strange entity, there were many incomprehensible points. It didn't even feel like it opened its mouth expecting me to understand in the first place.

━Hassan.

━Zigres.

━A large vessel.

Seureureu-.

More than six eyes blinked at me.

Then, long tentacles began to caress my face and shoulders, and tentacles approaching me while I was completely naked were fucking creepy.

"Ugh, sibal-."

So when I slapped it away with my palm, the tentacles that had been vigorously writhing just moments before seemed to lose some energy, shrinking small as if a snail's antennae were retracting.

That was only for a moment.

━Zigres.

━Hassan.

━Died again.

"You're saying I died again, aren't you? Can you send me back? To the upper world-. You've sent me back every time I've come here, haven't you?"

━It is possible.

━But my divinity. Lost much power.

━The last coin I give you.

━From now on, cherish yourself a little more.

Seureuk-.

Chaos's tentacle pushed something into my chest.

It was an object that could be called a medal or a coin, and it was forcibly pressed, kkuu-uuk-, into the center of my chest.

Like inserting a coin into a vending machine.

Kkuu-uuk-.

Of course, there's no way something like a coin would go into my chest. I'm not a vending machine.

"Hieeek-! Into my body, th-that kind of thing won't go in-!"

━Why won't it go in.

━Is this not the hole.

━The physical structure of descendants. Incomprehensible.

━Anyway, this is the very last fulfillment.

━I shall await you in this space of dawn.

"Hiiiiii-!"

So as I screamed and flailed my body, I felt something splash, chwaak-, onto my face.

"Eueoeok-."

At the same time, I shot upright. When I lifted my head, weren't Luna and Hippolyte looking down at me with worried eyes?

Ttuk, ttuk-.

My body was soaked in something cold, dripping water. I could roughly understand the situation from the large basin Luna was holding.

"Look, look-! Hassan woke up! I told you he wasn't dead-! He just, he just fell asleep for a bit. Right?"

Luna wiped away what might have been water or cold sweat flowing down her forehead with the back of her hand. So Luna had splashed water on me to wake me up.

I felt like I could picture Luna and Hippolyte's flustered faces when I suddenly didn't wake up.

"Eut-."

I placed my hand on my chest, feeling a stabbing pain. Roughly taking off my shirt and looking down at my chest,

I saw a clear, I-shaped mark in the center of my chest, like a coin slot on a vending machine. What the hell is this?

When I touched it, Diring-. Letters appeared.

『Name: Hassan Lv. 46

Strength: 16 +

Agility: 15 +

Stamina: 15 +

Karma: 1520

Blessings: 《Shining Hand》 《Armor of Night》 《Dark Eyes》 《Scorched Skin》』

Oh, shit.

I felt joyful as the letters I thought I had lost forever reappeared before my eyes.

As I expected, this was indeed a type of 'illusion' shown by Chaos's blessing.

Although it was an illusion, it was a type of hallucination that was helpful in many ways, so honestly, without these letters, I was practically half a person.

What stood out to my eyes was the 「 + 」 mark next to Strength, Agility, and Stamina. Does that mean I can raise one?

I slowly raised my finger and pressed the item next to the Agility stat.

Diring-.

Then, my Agility stat increased from 15 to 16, reaching a divine realm beyond that of a superhuman.

"Oh-."

This was a tremendous thing.

It should have been impossible to unlock stats above 16 before consuming Bacchus's divine nectar.

But the fact that I could still raise the stat, could it mean that the golden elixir Luna made truly played a similar role to nectar?

Of course, I couldn't endure it after drinking it and died once, though.

It must mean it was an incomplete nectar.

"Luna-ya, I guess we have to discard what you're making now. If you drink that, you'll die."

"Th-that seems to be the case. Hmph.... Sorry, Hassan.... Hassan, you suddenly stopped breathing and foamed at the mouth.... I, I really thought something terrible had happened.... Was the mint flower from the Underworld too poisonous...."

In the end, Luna had to discard the entire batch of golden liquor she had diligently made into the yard.

Anyway, it was certain that the completion of the nectar was not far off. If that is completed, will the divinity held by the God of Wine pass to Luna?

Luna, the Goddess of Wine and Elixirs.

It suits her, if it suits her.

Still, I wanted to decline dying from drinking the liquor Luna made. In that dark sea, Chaos, the God of Chaos, also talked about this being the last coin or something.

Suddenly, I became curious about this god called Chaos.

What exactly is he, and why does he show me such favor?

So, I decided to go find someone who might know about this god called Chaos.

"Well, my knees have been aching since morning, and sure enough, a great guest has arrived."

"Old man-nim, have you been well?"

He was none other than the Doctor of Theology based in Sodomora.

"Just barely surviving, you know. Come on in."

It was old man Platan.