[King of Dragons and the Monarch of Destruction, nods.]
It was correct.
I don't know how Dragon knew, but the identity of the tree that Seo Jiwoo desperately held onto while struggling in his dre
am was none other than the 'World Tree.'
At that moment, a realization flashed through Suho's mind.
'I understand how you reawakened. It's the same way as Vulcan.'
Suho recalled the legend about Vulcan that had been told by the demons led by Esil.
'Volkan, the Demon of greed'
Demons are broadly classified into two categories.
A demon with intelligence and a demon without intelligence.
Demons with intelligence do not regard non-intelligence demons as compatriots, and treat them as insignificant creatures.
Among them, Vulcan was clearly the latter.
The lowest class crawled servilely at the very bottom of the demon world and made a living by licking the scraps left behind by other demons.
'A worm that wriggles with just instinct'
That was Vulcan's true identity.
But Vulcan was very lucky.
Although he was born weak and lowly, he continued to hide to avoid becoming prey to the strong.
The 'end of the world tree' was discovered quite by accident.
and.
Wow!
Volkan instinctively broke the branches of the world tree in front of him and gorged on the leaves hanging from the branches.
Then at that moment.
Wow!
Ahhh!
'... ... 'Evolved into a demon noble.'
Suho was sure.
Volkan ate the leaves of the World Tree and quickly evolved from the lowest-class creature to a demon noble.
And Hunter Seo Jiwoo of the Blue Dragon Guild, who met the World Tree in a dream and reawakened as an S-class hunter.
A clear similarity exists between these two.
world tree.
'It's the same principle. Like Vulcan, Hunter Seo Jiwoo has evolved.'
Suho felt like he had accessed the truth about reawakened people who appear with a very rare probability around the world.
* * *
After a while.
Only Seo Jiwoo remained in the association gym, and the other hunters left to attack the dungeon they had scheduled.
Seo Jiwoo stayed behind to get some clues about ptosis from a conversation with Suho.
Suho summoned the Dragon Emperor.
"Ragna."
"Beep?"
At Suho's call, a small and cute lizard appeared from his shadow.
"No, Antares. "I have something to ask."
At that moment, Ragna's eyes, which had a stupid expression on his face, shone solemnly.
[The spiritual body of 'Antares' appears in the priest's body.]
Dragon Emperor Antares raised the corners of his mouth arrogantly as if he had been waiting.
"Okay. Ask. "Now you have the right to ask."
"It's a qualification... ... Right."
Those words reminded Suho of the advice his father's illusion had given him last time in the world of the Dragon Emperor.
-Suho, I can tell you the location of the World Tree. But the road to get there won't be easy.
It was not only Antares who wandered through the gaps in the dimension during the war but Sung Jinwoo was also the same.
-But standing in front of the World Tree at your level now will only make it more dangerous. So, start building your strength now.
-Antares will tell you the rest.
With those words, Sung Jinwoo's illusion manipulated the system to create a job change quest for Suho's growth and disappeared again.
That's how the Dragon Emperor's trials began.
Suho, who overcame two trials and obtained the 'Title: Qualifications of Dragon Emperor', now finally has the minimum qualifications to ask about the World Tree.
"Where is the World Tree?"
Suho didn't care if Seo Jiwoo was listening to this conversation right now.
In any case, these stories were useless information to those who were not 'qualified', and they were information that only applied to them.
No, there was a possibility that I could get some advice if I listened to Seo Jiwoo, who had encountered the World Tree before.
However, a strange expression appeared on Seo Jiwoo's face when she saw Suho picking up Ragna's body to talk to the dragon emperor.
"I heard you were a summoner before reawakening... ... Why are the summoned creatures so cute? ... Hmm."
Seo Jiwoo unconsciously tried to extend her hand forward but quickly withdrew her hand.
To that extent, all of the summoned animals that Suho has shown so far, including Beru, have grim expressions and are cute in size.
It was a perfect situation to misunderstand how low-level a summoner he was before reawakening to the combat class.
'Still, all the summoned beasts are unusual.'
Still, there was definitely something special about Suho compared to ordinary summoners.
Although Suho's summoned beasts appeared weak on the outside, they were all intelligent and capable of human speech.
'Summons like this are absolutely rare. Strategically usable enough... ... .'
While receiving Seo Jiwoo's gaze, Suho continued his conversation with Dragon Emperor Antares.
"Where is the World Tree?"
Antares raised the corners of his mouth and answered Suho's question.
"The World Tree is everywhere and nowhere."
"I don't want to hear that kind of pun."
"It's not a pun. "Literally."
As Suho looked at Antares' mischievous smile, something suddenly occurred to him.
"Is it really empty? "Are you talking about a dimensional gap?"
"Okay. It's making my head spin quite a bit. What do you think connects the gaps between dimensions that are so far apart in the first place? "This is exactly what the World Tree does."
"Be more precise."
Dragon responded to Suho's sharp words with a meaningful voice.
"So, in short, this is it. The World Tree takes root in the sea of the afterlife, and its trunk spreads widely throughout the universe. And what is born from the fruits on those branches are the soldiers of heaven led by rulers."
Suho pondered those words.
The roots are in the sea of the afterlife.
The stem is all over the universe.
In the fruit, the soldiers of the rulers.
'If the rulers' soldiers can be born from the fruit of the World Tree, the evolution of Vulcan and the reawakening of Hunter Seo Jiwoo after encountering the World Tree would be quite possible.'
Suho nodded in understanding.
However, when imagining the vast scale of the universe, finding the trunk of the World Tree that extends across the entire universe was literally picking stars in the sky.
Moreover, there was another problem.
"The dimensional gap is highly volatile. "If we go back to the place where the trunk of the World Tree was previously discovered, the probability of finding the same World Tree there is extremely low."
"I guess so. If that were the case, demon nobles like Vulcan would have continued to be born. "Then there is only one way to find it."
Suho eventually figured out what Antares was trying to say.
"Are you saying we should look for the roots rather than the stems?"
"Yes, that's right. "Rather than a void full of volatility, it is a much more certain and convenient way to find the pillar of the World Tree that stands tall above the empty sea of the afterlife."
Antares smiled and nodded in satisfaction.
At those words, Suho's eyes suddenly turned to Seo Jiwoo who was next to him and he muttered.
"Then, what if I get hypersomnia... ... ."
"Okay. If you suffer from what you humans call ptosis, your soul will wander the sea of the afterlife forever even if your body does not die. "Just like us."
Antares' expression became a little bitter as he said those words.
The expression 'we' he refers to.
In other words, the 'Sea of Death' was a world where dead monarchs wandered around in eternal rest.
"The sea of death is the abyss itself, where the souls of the entire universe wander into nothingness. It is a spiritual universe that is deeper and darker than the shadow world ruled by the Shadow Lord. With his power, the Shadow Lord can arbitrarily retrieve dead souls from the depths of the sea and turn them into his legions, but there are some targets that his power does not work on."
"Souls with polluted mana or the souls of monarchs."
"Okay."
Suddenly, Suho remembered the world of dead monarchs that he occasionally visited using the skill [Unknown].
A world of pure white blankness.
Dead Monarchs sitting lonely in the middle of it, waiting for protection.
But that world was only a temporary home.
Every time Suho left that place, that pure white world would once again turn into deep darkness from afar.
Looking back, the phenomenon was ultimately a phenomenon in which the souls of the monarchs, who had opened their eyes for a moment thanks to the power of guardianship, fell deep into the sea of the afterlife where they originally came from.
"In the end, when monarchs die, does it mean that they get sleep apnea?"
"Same but different. Because we don't have a body to return to in the first place. That woman was fortunate enough to meet her world tree rooted somewhere and returned to her own body, but that is impossible for us monarchs as we do not have her body."
[Little Monarch. By using the divine water of life, even people suffering from ptosis can be awakened.]
Hearing Beru's advice just in time, Suho realized why the World Tree was among the ingredients for the Divine Tree of Life.
In the end, it was said that if only the divine water of life could be created, the increasing number of patients suffering from ptosis worldwide could also be cured.
So what is the conclusion?
"Okay. I understood that to find the World Tree, I had to go to the Sea of the Afterlife. So how do I get there?"
"method? That way, when you die, you can go right away. "Are you the son of the Shadow Lord and yet you're not good at that?"
Antares chuckled.
Suho nodded his head indifferently and tugged on that beautiful hairdo.
"You useless evil spirit. "Please give back to poor Ragna and return to the sea of the afterlife."
"Now, wait... ... !"
Then Antares suddenly panicked.
Beside him, Beru crossed his hands in the shape of a cross with an expression of utmost reverence and sanctity, his eyes shining.
[I will help you too. These days, I learned how to exorcise evil spirits from movies.]
"Huh, stop! It was a joke! "That's what I was just about to say!"
"Still, I feel a little sorry for Ragnar."
[I think so too. Rather, gather the soldiers together and decide by voting. Whether to give Ragnar freedom or not.]
"No, please listen! Yeah, yeah! It's Eternal Slumber! "I know why that woman got Eternal Slumber!"
"What?!"
When Antares shouted urgently and pointed to Seo Jiwoo who was next to him, Seo Jiwoo's eyes, who had been quietly listening to Suho's conversation from the side until now, widened.
"Is that true? "You know why I, or rather we, have ptosis?!"
"It's true! "I know for sure!"
"Give me 3 seconds."
At Suho's one word, Antares cried out desperately.
"Bud of nightmares! "I was struck by the power of the weeds that bloomed in the sea of the afterlife!"
"Nightmare Bud?"