D.I.O

Chapter 258

“What the heck… Why are the Chintamani Marble’s aura and power so much greater than I initially expected? Hey, Quiet Heaven, didn’t you say that this marble was just a replica?”

“No way… Wait… Could it be… Is that thing a real Chintamani Marble?”

[Kyak!]

Merlin’s eyebrows furrowed as he realized that his plan had gone awry. He had prepared everything carefully, but the amount of spiritual power in the marble was much greater than he had anticipated. His magic system spell would most likely collapse due to the overwhelming amount of spiritual power that it now needed to contain.

“Oh, my… Even if it took me a little longer to prepare, I should have divided the marble into several pieces, deployed several magic system spells, and created a few more Salk… Ah, wait! A few more Salk…?”

A new hypothesis instantly formed inside Merlin’s mind.

Normally, he’d test his theories, assumptions, and hypotheses beforehand, but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time to do those things at the present moment.

“Younghwi! Shining!”

The two spirits who always hovered around Merlin became visible.

Younghwi and Shining—existences that were initially described as [the work of the archmage Wicalein and dreamed of materializing the soul]—had grown and developed considerably, so they were now able to firmly materialize and retain a spiritual presence. However, despite their considerable developments, Merlin had only utilized them for menial tasks, like moving experiment tools, up till now; he didn’t use them for much else.

This was because Merlin grew and developed at a much faster pace than Younghwi and Shining did. Furthermore, Merlin was a genius inventor. He was the one who invented and completed reinforced weapons, allowing items to produce greater output and increase performance. So whenever he faced a challenge, he relied more on his creativity and abilities rather than the two spirits.

If the experimental subject, Chaos, in the current situation were a simple magic item, Merlin would have taken the approach of revising and remodeling the entire process, essentially starting over from the beginning. However, he had to work with the magic creature Chaos, so he couldn’t scrap the existing process hastily. He had to somehow work within the confines of what he had already planned and executed, which meant that he needed to deploy Younghwi and Shining.

“Eat it.”

Ting!

Whoosh!

The two spirits moved immediately after Merlin gave his command.

Even though the spirits possessed spirituality and possibly the inklings of an ego, there wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in the spirits’ movements; they were absolutely submissive and loyal to Merlin.

“Hey, w-what are you planning to do? Those spirits can’t absorb that much spiritual power. Once they fail to absorb all the spiritual power, they’ll go wild and become uncontrollable!” Quiet Heaven, who knew how Younghwi and Shining grew and developed, groaned aloud.

However, Arc, who had been watching from the side, gave a different opinion. “They’re not being used to absorb the spiritual power.”

“What? They’re not?”

Seeing Quiet Heaven’s lost expression, Arc replied, “They’re seeking control over Merlin’s magic system spell.”

“What does that mean… Oh, that’s right! They could be used to control the magic system spell!”

With a scream-like sound resounding around them, Younghwi and Shining each absorbed half of the byproduct of Merlin’s magic system spell, the Salk named Chaos.

Chaos, which had just been born and was on the brink of collapse due to the Chintamani Marble’s overwhelming amount of spiritual power, was absorbed intact by Merlin’s developed spirits, Younghwi and Shining, without any resistance.

‘This girl…?’

Yet rather than looking and focusing on the amazing sight, Quiet Heaven turned its attention over to Arc, who was observing the process while standing silently off to the side.

Arc had accurately assessed the magic system spell and what approach Merlin planned to take better than Quiet Heaven, a member of the Noblesse who had studied spells and magic systems for hundreds of years.

Quiet Heaven’s ability to observe, properly assess, and understand magic and magic systems was excellent amongst its peers, so Quiet Heaven was surprised that an ordinary human user could read and properly assess what was going on better than it could.

Of course, everything was relative. This didn’t mean that Arc was at some transcendent level or anything.

Wasn’t Merlin the one who was actually using the spell?

Nevertheless, Quiet Heaven still found it strange that Arc’s assessment abilities were so strong, especially since Merlin was one of the few exceptional beings in the entire universe.

Above all, Arc, who specialized in close combat as a magic warrior, could only learn and develop Enhanced Eyesight up to a very low level, so how had she been able to develop and grow that much? How was she able to assess what was going on better than Quiet Heaven?

Whoosh!

Regardless of Quiet Heaven’s confusion, Younghwi and Shining began to control and stabilize Merlin’s magic system spell. For Merlin, the decision to deploy Younghwi and Shining had been an impromptu decision, a gamble. Nonetheless, Younghwi and Shining, who grew up consuming Merlin’s great-mage level magic power and considerable internal energy, were surprisingly good at stabilizing and controlling the magic system spell.

‘Concentrate… concentrate the power…’

While Younghwi and Shining stabilized the magic system spell, Merlin went into the process of completing his image-making.

Merlin imagined a giant planet that amplified internal energy; he was planning on controlling the enormous spiritual power of the Gold Dragon’s Chintamani Marble.

‘There’s a lot more spiritual power than I expected. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing, but…’josei

Ting!

Consciously, Merlin entered a state of self-contemplation and looked inward within himself. Soon, he saw a new sight before him.

His image training brought up a vast universe, surrounded by darkness.

In the center of that universe was a bright light.

‘Hmm, is it because my internal energy has increased a lot recently? The light is quite strong.’

Merlin’s Gold Core, the center or sun of his inner world, shone brightly. He directed his attention to the planets that circulated around this ‘sun’ inside his inner world.

‘Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Unfortunately, up to now, I couldn’t add additional planets through normal methods and means.’

Normally, the Golden Pill Immortal Technique’s fundamental development of its No Living World was limited to the creation of two planets. Due to the structure of spiritual elements, any number of planets above the initial two outer planetary worlds wouldn’t be able to stabilize and exist on their own—at least, this was what was commonly believed. However, Merlin had transcended that limit and created four planetary worlds in his No Living World.

Then after creating those four planetary worlds, he reached another limitation, another barrier.

Something else was needed for him to be able to create more planetary worlds. The magic creature Chaos and the Chintamani Marble were exactly what Merlin needed to break through this limitation barrier.

Boom!

‘Ugh…’

However, the new planetary world, Jupiter, didn’t converge properly and dispersed.

Even Merlin, who possessed a monstrous image-making ability, couldn’t easily convert the massive spiritual power of Chintamani Marble into an additional amplification-based spiritual power planet.

‘But… oho. If I take this approach…’

Although his initial attempt had failed, Merlin had no intention of giving up. No, rather than feeling defeated, Merlin felt excited.

His mind started to flow and spin, and Merlin soon entered a state of extreme mental focus and exaltation.

In an instant, Merlin knew that he was going to eventually succeed. He knew intuitively that his attempts would yield a positive result.

This was something Merlin didn’t know just yet, but… he was starting a great experiment—one that would later become the starting point of a new area of study called [Amplification Studies].

*** The Heavenly Sword Master’s Snowflake Flower ***

In the center of the Tower of Truth in the Gold Dragon’s Holy Land, a place where all NPCs in the New Continent feared to enter, a young man in a red robe was seated in an upright position.

He was exhaling evenly as if he were in a deep sleep, but seeing as he was still and motionless, it seemed as though the young man had passed out.

Of course, this young man was Merlin—a member of the Heaven above the Heavens and one of the strongest users.