Chapter 350: Origin
Within a few seconds, Charles arrived in front of the tall building and walked in.
As he stepped on the carpeted floor, he noticed that the whole surrounding went silent.
/n/o/vel/b/in witnessed the first publication of this chapter on N0vel--Bjjn.
Charles looked at the grand hall filled with tables and chairs and noticed more than twenty red humans were already seated. All of them held books in their hands and were reading silently.
Charles stepped forward without disturbing their reading and moved towards the right side.
He walked past many bookshelves, soon saw a straight staircase, moved near it, and went upstairs.
Soon, he reached the second floor and continued to move upstairs through the straight staircase.
A few minutes later, he reached the sixth floor and was about to step into the hall filled with bookshelves, tables, and chairs but stopped.
At that moment, a voice came from the right side.
"W-Who is it?"
A second later, a crimson-haired kid came from the right side corridor while tapping the floor with a black stick and soon arrived near the staircase.
Meanwhile, Charles looked at the blind kid and smiled.
"If you take a step forward, you will fall."
Saying so, he activated the [Arcane Eyes] skill and analyzed him.
'Hmm? Why his body attributes are showing question marks? Is he that strong? No, his body is too weak. Wait.. 55,504 years old? He is older than Mr. Runeth?' Charles's expression stiffened.
At that moment, he knew that the person in front of him was not some random kid, but a terrifying final boss monster!
Although he wasn't strong now, he knew that he should never take this guy lightly!
Meanwhile, the blind kid blinked his white eyes, looked in the direction he was standing, and spoke.
"Paragons are forbidden to come here! Please go back, mister!"
Even though he spoke in a childish tone, Charles strangely felt the voice as eerie.
Without waiting for his reply, the kid turned around and started walking in the opposite direction.
Of course, he constantly tapped the black stick to check the bumps and went deep into the library hall.
On the other hand, Charles managed to calm down a little and asked.
"Casper, right? I came here to look for you."
Upon hearing his words, Casper halted his footsteps, gripped the black stick with his tiny hand, and asked.
"What do you want?"
His voice contains a trace of annoyance.
Meanwhile, Charles took a step forward, arrived behind him, and responded in a serious tone.
"A heart. It should be something unique and precious."
For a second, an eerie silence appeared in the library hall!
Alas, Charles sensed a slight anomaly appeared on the kid's face for a short time before returning to normal!
'This guy sure knows something.' He patiently waited for the answer.
In the meantime, Casper maintained his silence for a few seconds and shook his head.
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"I, too, don't know much about this heart, mister. That's why I came here to look for this heart. You are my only clue." Charles said in a dead-serious tone.
On the other hand, Casper sighed deeply, turned around, and spoke.
"Do I look like someone who can help others? I'm nothing more than a blind child."
His voice contains anger and helplessness.
'Child? Lies.' Charles clicked his tongue and spoke coldly.
"55,504 years is not a child's age, Mr. Casper."
Just as he finished his words, Casper suddenly looked in his direction in surprise and blurted out.
"I'm 55,504 years old?! Do you know me? No! Impossible! After that great cataclysm, no one should've known about me. How did you find my actual age?" Curiousness and confusion appeared on the child-looking face.
Meanwhile, Charles was quite baffled by the questions.
'He doesn't know about his real age?' He stared at the kid for a moment and asked the main question.
"Are you truly blind?"
Casper nodded his head and responded as he turned around.
"I was like this when I wake up from the long slumber. It happened 3230 years ago. I lost most of my memories at that time, and I only remember a few important things." He paused as he arrived near a metallic chair, climbed on it, sat down, and continued to ask.
"Why are you looking for me? Where did you hear about that 'heart'?"
Meanwhile, Charles released his wisdom power, isolated the whole library hall from the outside world, and introduced himself.
"I'm Charles, and I came from another world." He paused for a moment and explained more about how he came to this world, what he experienced in Edhen World, how he became cursed, and so on.
"To put it simply, I got targeted by the Edhen World's will and is destined to die in 3 months 28 days. To evade this destiny, I made detailed plans five years ago, searched for clues in the future, and managed to get some clues. Among them, one is you, and the other one is this 'Heart.' After learning this news, I came to this world and started searching for you everywhere." Charles said with a gloomy look on his face.
Meanwhile, Casper faced his direction, nodded his head in understanding, and spoke.
"I vaguely understand your situation. I think you came here to look for is that being's heart, mister. Unfortunately, even if I tell you about its location, it'll be impossible to reach there."
"Which being's heart? Moreover, why is it impossible for me to reach there?" Charles raised his eyebrows in surprise.
On the other hand, Casper let out a deep sigh and spoke.
"Before I tell you more about that being, I'll tell you some secret about this land." Saying so, he climbed down from the chair, took the black stick, and started walking towards the nearby bookshelf.
Soon, he touched the books one by one and finally picked up a golden-covered one.
"18,000 years ago, this Fire-Elemental plane was inhabited only by Fire-Elemental beings and wild animals. There were no Red Humans, Night Goblins, Lava Orcs, Giants, or other humanoid creatures. In truth, there was no Red Human race at that time." He paused for a moment, flipped open the pages, and finally stopped at a particular page.
"In this page, you'll see who the Red Humans' real ancestors are." Saying so, he moved the opened book and showed it to Charles.
Meanwhile, Charles saw many humans entering an artificial portal on that page and became stunned.
No, he also saw goblins, orcs, giants, and even golems entering the portal!
But what surprised him was that all of them seemed to be cooperating!
"The Red Humans were descendants of Humans? Wait. These five races came here as refugees?" He instantly noticed something was amiss and asked.
Meanwhile, Casper nodded his head and answered.
"Yes. I don't know why the five races left their homeland. But they came here for one purpose, and that was to survive. Unfortunately, the hot atmosphere of this Fire-Elemental Plane became their first obstacle. In just a few weeks, many of the children and elderly people died."
"Died? The humans that came here weren't powerful?" Charles asked with a frown.
"Yes, the powerful one among the human was only a Rank-3 Mage. The same goes for the other four races. Although they tried to create a fire-resisting shelter, the fire-elemental creatures started to attack their haven and became their second obstacle. For the next ten years, these five races united together and managed to survive in this land. Although deaths often happened, they faced all the obstacles and finally accepted this world as their new home. During this time, many new mages were also born from all races and gave hope for the newly unified civilization."
"Not only that, but these five races also finally managed to communicate with the five guardian deities of this Fire Elemental Plane."
"Guardian Deities?" Charles asked in confusion.
"Yes, there are five guardian beasts who lived in this land. They were Sun Lord, Mother Earth, FireBird, Dragon God, and Morgas. The Sun Lord was a Noble Sun Griffon, Mother Earth was an Earth Fairy made of pure sand and rock, FireBird was a Phoenix bird, Dragon God was a Fire Dragon, and the Morgas was a Basilisk. These guardian deities welcomed the otherworldly beings as their guests and even created a comfortable place for them to live. The current low-temperature in this area was actually because of their doing."
"But the peace didn't last too long, though. Another disaster appeared. It was an unknown enemy with pure intent to destroy the life forms from this world. In this book, they mentioned that enemy as 'World Eater.'"
Upon hearing the kid's words, Charles suddenly felt a strange chill in his heart!