Chapter 299 – Omen of Ill Fortune

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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We have to trace back to the days when Arcana was merely a game.

“I think the General Manager would know better than anyone else, but the Mage Tower is special. Everything about it! Because a great deal of effort went into it from the planning stage. In various aspects, I mean.”

The Mage Tower.

A background fitting the setting of being Arcana’s greatest military group was needed.

The Empire’s capital, Antonjum. It had to show an overwhelming appearance in a different sense from the Golden Palace of the ancient kingdom, Yusra.

“It was certainly difficult to express it with magic alone. Because back then, we also had to consider something called balance. Because we had to avoid the situation where all players choose to be Mages due to rumors of magic being omnipotent.”

So, ‘that setting’ was used for the Mage Tower too.

“The setting that the Mage Tower is a creation of the Omen of Ill Fortune.”

Grab.

Park Min-jae picked up a paper cup.

He wanted to moisten his dry mouth a bit…….

“Hot hot hot!”

No, why is it so hot?!

‘Oh my, making a fuss without formality.’

Regaining his senses swiftly was also brief.

Park Min-jae’s wondrous gaze heads toward Ho-yeol sitting opposite him.

Just how did he swallow such scalding green tea without even a change in expression?

‘……No, this is not the time to be amazed by such things.’

Isn’t it time to explain about the Omen of Ill Fortune?

I shall earn my keep.

Having resolved himself, Park Min-jae continues speaking.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. The Omen of Ill Fortune is, so to speak, an existence for a kind of plausibility. Simply put……. A setting solely for balance patches, should I say?”

Although Arcana claimed to be another world, Arcana was strictly a game.

Meaning during the days when it was merely a game, balance patches and updates by the developer Cosmo had been made continuously. Of course, the one holding full authority over that process was Raymond Sean.

“Anyway, deletion is essential in the patching process.”

Arcana is not an ordinary game. It means they had to unleash ‘something’ equipped with the ability to delete onto the Arcana continent, rather than simply ending it with deletion.

“Should I say briefly that what the Omen of Ill Fortune swallows is deletion, and what it spits out is creation?”

The one that took on that role was none other than the [Omen of Ill Fortune].

“In reality, an existence capable of anything is the Omen of Ill Fortune. Because it was a setting granted because such a role was needed in the first place. The wondrous functions of the Mage Tower also originated from the power of the Omen of Ill Fortune.”

A distant past.

The site where the Omen of Ill Fortune had stayed.

What was built on that site was none other than the Mage Tower.

Park Min-jae awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“This is……. now that I am telling you the story, I’m embarrassed, General Commander. I have no face because it feels like our adequate handling of matters by using elements players couldn’t know about has been laid bare.”

If they had granted a more concrete and reasonable setting instead of attaching an adequate setting like the Omen of Ill Fortune……. they could have given more decisive help to the General Manager.

But even if it was the past, it was from a very long time ago.

Of course, there was no time to be lost in thought though.

“Yes?! Then is it okay now?”

Oops.

Park Min-jae looked at the fuss-making Sung Hyun-joon and pressed a hand to his forehead.

To think he prepared the green tea so hot it practically burned the roof of his mouth.

And now he’s even interrupting the conversation without formality?

Park Min-jae narrowly suppressed his boomer instincts and flashed a smile.

“What is okay, Employee Sung?”

“C-. Didn’t we already acknowledge that Arcana is another world that existed in reality, Branch Manager Park? Because elements of the Arcana continent that we didn’t know about were actually updated into reality.”

“Yes, we did.”

“Then that incredibly tremendous Omen of Ill Fortune will also later……!!”

I wondered what kind of question he was asking, but with that kind of curiosity, I could soften my anger. Even if he hadn’t asked, I was just about to add an explanation regarding that to the General Manager anyway.

Park Min-jae puts on a good-natured smile that doesn’t fit him.

“That is a good point, Employee Sung.”

“……Employee Sung? Just call me Sung Hyun-joon normally like usual.”

“Hehe, what a joke.”

Sneakily.

Park Min-jae’s gaze heads toward Ho-yeol.

Seeing no particular signs, he continues speaking.

“If it’s about that, there is nothing to worry about. Would we have wanted an Omen of Ill Fortune with an absurd setting unleashed onto the Arcana continent? I mean we buried it meticulously.”

“You buried it? Underground? Or in Hell?”

“How could that be.”

Didn’t we already confirm that the Underground and Hell actually exist?

Yes, the Omen of Ill Fortune had to exist yet not exist.

Park Min-jae added to Ho-yeol.

“The place where the Omen of Ill Fortune is located is the distant deep sea. It is the Dead Sea where not even anything can exist, deep within the Southern Sea of the Arcana continent.”

The moment the main topic ended.

Ho-yeol finally opened his mouth.

With a voice no different from usual.

“It was a good story, Branch Manager Park Min-jae.”

“Thank yo…….”

“Except for the fact that you overlooked one thing, that is.”

“……Pardon?”

“The Southern Sea is not a sea of death.”

He detonated a bomb once again.

“Therefore, the Omen of Ill Fortune must also be alive and breathing in the deep sea.”

.

.

.

“No, that cannot be. It is not an exaggeration to say that the setting of the Southern Sea in the first place was a setting added because of the Omen of Ill Fortune……!”

Park Min-jae spat out words like rapid fire with a flustered expression.

But what can you do.

I, I saw it with my own eyes and say this.

The land of elves, Sicily.

That’s right.

Sicily was located above the Southern Sea, you see.

Let’s look at the Southern Sea from the perspective of the strange this time.

‘It’s a place where unfulfilled foreshadowings are gathered, right?’

Simply put.

Elements that would later be updated in the Arcana continent biography could be seen as having been trapped in the Southern Sea. However, even among them, the guy called the Omen of Ill Fortune would be a guy on a different dimension…….

‘At least that’s a relief.’

Let’s imagine if that Omen of Ill Fortune was related to demons.

Wouldn’t Granfel’s meddlesomeness, whose limits cannot be gauged, have unfolded without fail?

‘My head throbs just by imagining it.’

Whether it had the ability of deletion and creation, or whatever it was.

Because the high and mighty pride would absolutely not have backed down.

Feeling relieved, I checked the quest window.

─Advance toward The Strange (In Progress)

●Grasp the root of the Mage Tower. (Success)

It seemed Park Min-jae’s words were the correct answer.

Although I don’t know what the next quest objective is since it hasn’t popped up yet.

I feel like it’s probably an objective related to the Omen of Ill Fortune.

Park Min-jae stammers and asks.

“To think the Omen of Ill Fortune might be alive and breathing in the Southern Sea……. Do you perhaps know something regarding the Southern Sea, General Manager?”

“Of course.”

Going beyond just knowing, I was the one who uncovered the secret intertwined with the World Tree and the Primordial Evil together with the Elf Leader, Argentress.

Thanks to that, my chest puffed up confidently.

An arrogant voice naturally flows out from between my lips.

“Because my arrangements exist there as well, you see.”

Is it arrangements this time too?

What grandiose expressions you use, truly.

Still, well, it’s not a wrong statement, right?

Because I built up relationships and influence to the point of receiving the [Command Authority] from the elves including Argentress.

Of course, if we even discuss the process, we have to trace back to threatening them using the [Hierarchy of Blessings] as an excuse but……. Explaining every little detail also doesn’t fit my aptitude.

“Arrangements, you say. I couldn’t even imagine such a thing!”

To the astonished Park Min-jae, I conveyed only the core point.

“The Elves, if it is them, they must have also been monitoring the Omen of Ill Fortune in the Southern Sea. Perhaps we could acquire concrete information regarding the Omen of Ill Fortune through them.”

“……!!!”

Park Min-jae.

And Yoon Soo-gyeom and Sung Hyun-joon, was it.

The faces of the three men become dyed with astonishment.

Elves, and the elves’ homeland Sicily, they must wonder what sudden talk this is about.

Even I think the progress is indeed fast.

But it can’t be helped.

‘Because time on the Arcana continent is four times faster than reality.’

Simply put.

It means four times as many things had happened.

I continued speaking.

“If it is overwhelming, you may write it down.”

“……Ah, yessir! I will do so.”

A ballpoint pen, a smartphone, each takes down my statements in their own way.

Looking at such a sight…….

This is starting to make me anxious again?

“After a bitter lesson, the elves regained their pride.”

This damn blabbermouth.

“The World Tree sowed new seeds on the Arcana continent.”

Putting gold powder on my own face (praising myself).

“The dragons and elves, they also recovered the pride of their blood ties.”

It comes so naturally to mind……!

“And I was at the center of it.”

The three men finish taking notes with lost-soul faces.

Shake shake─

Shaking his head to regain his senses, Park Min-jae asks.

“More importantly, General Commander, is it really okay for you to tell us such top-secret information? I am merely guessing, but just hearing the story, it seems a massive quest is intertwined?”

Is it because they were once operators of Arcana.

They know the players’ world well.

Especially information regarding such a large quest?

It’s true that more people knowing is no good.

But who is Granfel.

“Everything is about giving and taking.”

Possessor of a tiring personality that must keep the words he spits out.

“Since you gave me trust, I am merely giving trust in return.”

Of course, I, Lee Ho-yeol, am not a saint like someone.

There’s a reason behind cheerfully sharing the story.

As it should be.

The elves, World Tree, and dragons entwined with the Primordial Evil.

The quest related to that guy is…….

[Class Quest: The Fruit of Good and Evil]

The last survivor of Akshan.

The last Demon Hunter.

It’s a class quest only I can perform, you see.

In that sense let’s be thankful again, Ho-yeol.

‘Seriously what would I have done if a demon popped out here too?’

An upper Demon King, a Great Evil, the Primordial Evil, and so on.

There isn’t just one or two demons to pay attention to.

If even the Mage Tower’s root, the Omen of Ill Fortune, was intertwined with a demon, there wouldn’t be any time to catch my breath left. Yes, I don’t know what kind of tremendous guy you are, but thank you for now. Omen of Ill Fortune.

‘And please stay quiet for as long as possible, quest.’

The three men who fully came to their senses.

Their eyes twinkle differently from before.

It seems vitality has returned to their dying faces.

“To have you say such a thing, I am deeply moved, General Manager. Then I will immediately announce the General Manager’s achievements on the Arcana continent to all AAU branches!”

“If we gather information from each branch, a meaningful result might come out.”

“It seems leaving work today is also out the window but…! It’s okay. Rather, I am honored just to meet you like this, General Commander!”

……How will these achievements spreading out like this return to me again?

I can’t guess, but one thing is certain.

It seems I won’t be able to live with my face held high for a while…….

*

Looking down at the rippling sea.

Forcibly ignoring her throbbing head.

She bites her lips as if crushing them and speaks.

“Say, haven’t you become more talkative recently?”

The Witch of the Southern Sea.

She spoke toward the great omen of the deep sea. Her homeland, family, friends, lover……. The Omen of Ill Fortune that took away all her everything was constantly whispering even at this moment.

“Destruction, you say. You are full of greed.”

She lights a cigarette with trembling hands.

Huu─

The reason she smokes strong cigarettes is simple. Because though it was only a moment, her mind would clear up. Thanks to that, the Omen of Ill Fortune, the ones swallowed by that guy clearly crossed her mind one by one.

“Did you know? Macana’s quill pen was a tremendous masterpiece. Because it was made from a griffon’s feather. Do you remember the Kingdom of Snow Flowers? Snow flowers would be in full bloom all over the land by now.”

It wasn’t just stories of ancient kingdoms from the distant past.

Even recently, not even a hundred years having passed.

The Omen of Ill Fortune had crawled out from the deep sea and revealed itself.

The witch blew out smoke and asked.

“But ‘that thing’ you swallowed at the end. Are you not satisfied even after swallowing that? I can’t even guess what you are doing it for.”

The cigarette that had burned to the end before she knew it.

Tap─

The witch threw the cigarette towards the Southern Sea.

“But did you know? Regardless of everything else, you explicitly touched the wrong thing swallowing that at the end. Because the rumors are widespread wherever you go. Those crazy bastards.”

If it was them.

Even if they fell into Hell, they wouldn’t forget the humiliation. Because setting aside strong and weak, they were a group more persistent than anyone she, the witch, knew.

So…….

The witch smiled bitterly.

‘I will no longer hope for your help.’

Oh Claudi.

.

.

.

I doubted my two eyes.

……Has presbyopia come.

No, that can’t be.

The quest window before my eyes was flickering.

A sigh comes out even before checking it.

Yes, of course that’s my destiny.

‘I really have so much work it makes me unaware if I die from overwork……!’

It was the moment I was about to lament like usual.

……But.

The twinkling quest wasn’t what I thought it was.

[Class Quest: Akshan-style Diversionary Tactic]

……A Class Quest, you say?

At this timing?

And what is a diversionary tactic?!

At the same time, the blabbermouth that babbles.

“I see.”

The updating quest objective.

─Track the Omen of Ill Fortune of the Southern Sea that swallowed Akshan. (In Progress)

Only then did I realize.

Omen of Ill Fortune, you touched the wrong people, extremely the wrong people.

Of all people to touch, you touched our seniors?

‘Just what kind of folks those folks are.’

Even if they turned into demons and fell into Hell.

They are folks who hunt demons.

But you swallowed them without fear?!

That grudge was already appearing in the quest objective.

“Is it a new prey.”

●Track the whereabouts of the Omen of Ill Fortune through the marks left by Akshan. (In Progress)

“That is exactly what I wish for. Oh Akshan.”