Chapter 245 245 Wish granting tree
[Lucy's POV: ]
[Kaspin], the Card tree that grants wishes, or gives the challenges of one's lifetime, or curses that they regret receiving, or the only source of things that are one of a kind in this entire Worldline.
'This tree, or gacha tree as we call it, is purely based on one's luck's activation value, as well as one's thought process during the process the wish-granting or the 'choice' is taking place.'
This gacha is perhaps one of the worst kind, one of the toughest things that grant someone something that they need the most, don't need at all, might need but do not know they do, or would be better getting instead of the things they are wishing for depending on the luck value activation.
'We did not make this gacha since it is something directly under IAA's owner, the 120th offspring of the Worldline, the [Adventurer].'
One of the few entities in this world whose only purpose of existence is an exploration of the existing Worldline and discovering things, lands, unknowns, mysteries, and checking out the existence of 'elements' in available data.
'The Adventurer wonders the world, does everything a normal adventurer of the Worldline does, and in addition to all that, he also handles IAA, the entity responsible for all the adventurers strong enough to be qualified to be part of their branches.'
He is also a collector, one of the greatest in the Worldline.
And Kaspin is the authority that is similar to his storage house for all the things he collects.
'He is a mischievous bastard, so the tree that grants wishes is filled with all kinds of materialistic things that someone could think about. And the tree follows a certain kind of pattern when granting someone something.'
All those who receive a medal of honor from IAA get the chance to receive something from Kaspin, and when it comes to a party of adventurers, an institution like this one, or a certain organization, then everyone related to it at that moment gets the chance to receive something from this special tree.
'For most, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they know would only come Once in their life. However, for us, this is an opportunity that would open up a path to some other opportunities.'
-Ooooooooooong!
"Ohhh! A silver card!"
"What is it? What is it~?"
"Looks like it is going to be an artifact!"
"I see a drowning on the card. I see a drowning!"
-Ooooooooong.
"Ohhhh! A sword! It is a sword!"
"Wow! A sword~!"
"What a pretty sword~. As expected of him!"
The students and teachers were going in a pair of nine before the tree and after a moment, a unique card cascaded down before them.
Most of the time, these cards were copper colored, on occasions like this one, they were silver, and very rarely, they were gold.
However, copper, silver, and gold did not mean the ones with the better color contained better things. They were just categorized that way.
'There were, of course, the unique cards categorized as a unique color, or a pattern instead of a certain color, and they were far more valuable or dangerous than the other kinds of cards.'
The rarity of the card came from their rarity in the Worldline. They were rare overall.
Kaspin did not care if the rare thing was a curse that could make the person bald or old for the rest of their lifespan or a blessing that would increase their overall growth rate.
The things it had were the things that the people would receive.
It was not the one that gave the others what they were getting. It was the people, the students here themselves were responsible for what they were getting ultimately.
That was how Kaspin was programmed to function.
It was just a tool or an extension of storage space at the end of the day.
[ "So, you gonna talk with him, or should I start?" ]
It had been five minutes since the students started receiving their presents and we were just standing beside master Grandalff.
Even the headmaster had vanished after finishing his work here so we were just standing on one side, away from the students and the teachers.
And we were just standing there doing nothing.
Without speaking anything...
[ "Wait a little more." ]
El wasn't speaking because I was telling her not to say anything from the start. And she did not like this.
She wanted to speak, to start a damn conversation so that at least the awkward silence present between us would subside a little.
[ "I am gonna kill ya bastard." ]
[ "Yes, please. But not now. For now, just stay as you are. You look cute this way." ]
[ "…ok." ]
She just wanted to keep her good mood so even that little compliment that would have otherwise made her angry, calmed her down for the moment.
"So… you two."
And the moment I had been waiting for finally arrived.
"Yes, lord Grandalff."
"You damn boy… you are good, I see."
The one who speaks first in a conversation like this loses a great advantage on the overall flow of the conversation, he knew that as well so it didn't take him long to realize why we kept silent despite that painfully awakened silence.
"So you were the one that cleared that Devilant dungeon?"
"That is correct, lord Grandalff. However, before you start talking about the Worldline balance, the world relationship, the Astral connection, the ▼▼▼ or ▼▼▼, or ▼▼▼▼, we just want to make it clear that we understand the consequences of creating a connection point with that world and saving the family that would undoubtedly disturb the flow of that world's consistency."
He had a stunned expression for a moment, however, it was replaced by a smile the next second.
"Looks like you do understand the situation as sir Headmaster had said. You sure are a unique pair."
Without the others noticing, with only a movement of his finger, he separated the space around the three of us.
"This will be easy then."
Then he looked towards us with a serious expression, an expression that he wouldn't ever make before young children of a small academy like this one.
"Relinquish the rights of that dungeon to association. We can give you anything you want within our capacity.
I believe a special duo like you do understand what it means, right?"
He was putting pressure on us with the atmosphere around us. Not using his own Aura but only using the Mana in the atmosphere. And still, it felt like I was getting crushed under the feet of some true Great Land tortoise.
"Well, lord Grandalff. We do not think that would be possible."
Perhaps it was our crown skills or our improved bodies, I don't know what exactly it was, but our physical bodies were able to stand strong against this kind of pressure on their own.
It was unexpected, but it was better than being on our knees.
"Oho? You are stronger than you look, you two."
"Lord Grandalff. Please hear us out at least."
"I am hearing."
He increased the pressure he was putting on us, and it made our legs almost give up.
"Lord Grandalff."
Our body wanted to submit to this great pressure, however, our minds would never allow that.
"How about association and we manage that dungeon together?"
I was barely able to pull those words out of my mouth the way I wanted them, and after this, I did not know if I would be able to keep up the consistency with my words anymore.
And the pressure had become great enough for us to almost be on the verge of collapse.
"Hmmmm… and why would the association want to manage a dungeon together with a duo that isn't even strong enough to endure this much?"
He was testing us, we knew. But this was getting out of hand.
He was pushing us too far with this show of power. We were only 'knight' ranks while he was far higher than us in authority as well as power.
We were saplings before a grand ancient tree like him!
We were of course no match for him when it came to most things!
"Ahem!"
I looked at him, grabbed El's hand to support ourselves, coughed up a mouthful of blood caused by an internal injury, and answered his question with the only thing we had the upper hand in.
"Time difference!"
Information.
We had more information about that place than even this near-omnipotent omniscient being standing before us.
The piece of information that we both shared was how the dungeon's time flowed way more ambiguously than their most precise calculations.
It was so uncertain that if one of their executives entered that place to check something up, there was a chance that they would come out after hundreds or perhaps thousands of years might have passed in their own world.
'So, having someone indifferent to the flow of time was the only choice they would have left.'
And there aren't many people like that even in IAA.
Thus, time was a problem in this dungeon.
"Hmmm? Can you deal with the time shift problem? Really?"
"We are certain-, ahem!"
"Fine then."
I coughed up blood the second time, but I was able to convince this bastard at the end.
"Let's talk about what you have to say."
He released the pressure with a grin on his old face.
"You are a fucking bastard, you damn fantasy wizard!"
And now that she had the chance for the first time after this conversation started, Rein cursed at the bastard old man before us and made the grin on his face even deeper.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l