Chapter 1224 — The Ancient God's Pursuit

"You reached that place in your dream... and then you actually brought something from there into the real world!" Victoria's eyes widened slightly, her thoughts racing. "Does that mean... the 'distance' between you and 'over there' is..."

"Yes, I'm afraid I'm getting closer and closer to 'over there,'" Mo Jin nodded gently before Victoria could finish, yet no tension or fear showed on his face. "At first I could only hear sounds and see images. Later, the notes I left over there were projected into the real world. And then... look, I've even brought things out from there. And when I think about the 'pull' I feel toward that place, it looks very much like a gradual, step-by-step process..."

"And you can still be so calm?" Victoria's face, which had always lacked expression, finally showed a change. "The power of that ancient deity is pursuing you—whether or not it means you harm, for a mortal this is absolutely not a good thing!"

"No, I'm afraid it isn't a good thing. I've run into plenty of thrilling and perilous situations in my life, but this time, getting tangled up with a god—that's a bit too thrilling," Mo Jin said helplessly. "I'll think of some ways to respond, do everything I can, but I suspect it won't have much effect—what we're facing is the power of an ancient deity, and the strangeness of the gods exceeds mortal imagination... We'll take it one step at a time."

"No, that is far from enough," Victoria rose from her chair. "I will report this upward at once, and also inform the upper echelons of the dragons. They will all find a way—rest assured, even if what stands before us truly is the power of a god, we are not powerless. The Empire likewise commands power equal to that of the gods..."

Mo Jin looked at Victoria in surprise, sizing her up and down several times, and could not help saying: "But aren't you just an ordinary administrative official in the government hall? How does this sound..."

"...Just trust me," Victoria interrupted the old man somewhat stiffly. "This has nothing to do with my identity. What has happened to you is extremely unusual, enough to draw the attention of His Majesty, of the dragons' upper echelons, and even of many leaders of the Alliance—your value is far greater than you imagine."

Mo Jin gazed deeply at Victoria, and only after a moment did he withdraw his gaze, a faint smile appearing on his face as he let out a soft breath. "Since that's the case, of course I believe you. But before those great personages you mentioned react, I still need to find my own ways to protect myself..."

"I will be staying in Tarronde for the time being," Victoria said at once. "Since I was able to wake you from the 'dream,' then staying by your side should serve some purpose..."

"Let's set that aside for now," Mo Jin waved a hand. "Before I'm dragged into that 'dream' again, I need to gather as much intelligence as possible—intelligence about... myself. Apart from those things I cannot be permitted to touch, I hope you will fill in as much of my missing memory as you can."

"Of course," Victoria nodded at once. "Where would you like to begin?"

"Start with my 'disappearance,'" Mo Jin thought for a moment, then spoke slowly. "That is probably the 'starting point' of my memory loss... Victoria, what was the last clue I left behind in the eyes of the world?"

"In Mosswood Forest. Your last adventure was in the northern part of Mosswood Forest..."

...

Southwest of New Agondor, a shrieking roar of giant wings tearing through the air descended from the sky, accompanied by a surge of magic and two whirlwinds, and two enormous black figures landed one after the other on a hill at the edge of the desolate wilderness.

They were two black dragons. One was smaller in build, yet clad in terrifying steel armor and intricately structured arcanomechanical devices; the other was massive and powerfully built, yet its strong, broad wings were covered in wounds, and its back bore hideous scars that ran the entire length of its torso.

"This is the boundary of the safe zone," said the black dragon whose body was covered in scars as it came to the edge of the hill, its deep voice rising. "See those beacon lights flickering in the distance across the wilderness? That's the boundary the adventurers and the soldiers of the advance forces carved out together. Every time we clear a region of its monsters and repair the local elemental rifts and spatial tears, we set up these beacon lights along its border. When we clear a new area, we push the beacon lights a little further out—but this expansion doesn't always go smoothly. Often roaming monsters will suddenly appear and reoccupy a safe border that isn't stable enough, and then we have to push the defense line back again... Sometimes this back-and-forth drags on through several rounds before a safe region is truly stabilized.

"Because of this, the new council has assigned each region a clear 'safety level.' Major cities like Agondor and the coastal counties, along with their surrounding outskirts, are green safe zones. Such areas are fully stabilized—there are no elemental creatures or malevolent spirits, the corruption has been cleared away, people can live there in peace, and the facilities are relatively intact.

"The more distant wilderness is classified as orange zones. These areas still have scattered monster activity, or unstable geological structures and corruption sources not yet fully purified. Disasters happen occasionally, but activated elemental rifts rarely appear anymore. The chance of these areas deteriorating is very low—they are basically all transitioning toward green—and most newly arrived adventurers operate in these zones. Their main task is to maintain stability in the orange zones, clear out small-scale monsters within them, and ensure that the various resources produced in the orange zones can be safely transported to the green zones.

"Further out are the unsafe 'red zones'—essentially the very edge of the 'survivable area.' These regions have only received basic clearing and guard posts; apart from the few supply lines that can barely be kept open, the wilderness still holds elemental creatures and malevolent spirits operating in organized numbers, and unstable elemental rifts and spatial tears can appear at any moment. These areas are mainly the responsibility of the dragon warriors of the advance forces, though a small number of seasoned adventurers who have passed the assessment also assist, handling reconnaissance and mopping-up work."

Here, Coletta paused briefly, then continued with a touch of emotion in her voice: "Before those adventurers and the support supplies from the Loren Continent arrived, our advance work was extremely difficult. Nearly all our warriors' energy was consumed at the borders of the 'orange zones,' and insufficient supplies were another important cause of the slow progress—it was only when support from the Loren nations arrived that our dire situation was finally alleviated."

(End of this chapter)