It was already lunchtime when I returned to the Mansion. It's crazy that I slept for around 4 hours after almost losing all of my memories but it seems the effect that Nobuhiko intended to happen was nullified and I was spared from the mind wipe. It is something that I didn't expect to know but now that I do, it seems he had some ulterior motive on why he is looking for the Tree of Life. If there's nothing wrong, he wouldn't bother erasing my memories of our conversation.
Knowing what he is planning, I needed a counterplan as well. And that is where the elves will come in.
Everyone is still playing the game while the elves and Pixie are eating food.
"Welcome back, Master Manato. It seems like you have a rough time. What happened?" Pixie asked as she hovers around my neck.
"Pixie, tell the elves to meet me later in my room. Don't tell anyone about it okay aside from them, and you too Pixie, you need to come with them as well. I needed your translation skills as well."
"Huh? Is something wrong?"
"We will talk later, just finish eating and we will discuss it in my room. I needed to tell you all something."
After saying that, I went to my room and started to check the internet about the Tree of Life in the game. In the past timeline, I heard there was a quest where someone is given a task to find the Tree of Life. Also, based on the description of what the Tree of Life is, it seems the "World Tree, Yggdrasil" and the Tree of Life are both the same thing. But since Alternate World seems to follow a different thing, there might be a case where the two are separate things but if possible, I need to find leads on both in case they are two separate trees.
With that research done, I pulled out a pen and paper and started writing all of what I remembered from the conversation I had with Nobuhiko. It's best to have them written instead of relying on my brain as it turns out, Nobuhiko has something in the Nexus Tattoo that allows him to manipulate the minds of the people. No wonder I think I am missing out on something and why I am not really bothered by how I managed to learn magic and easily pull out items from the game into the real world.
First, Alternate World is a true alternative world from Earth and everyone living there is alive and similar to all of us. This means Atlas, Tina, Lina, and everyone else including my pets and companions are all living beings in that dimension are all real living beings. No wonder I can hold conversations with them like real people, form friendships and enemies as well as a significant other if you are too deep on that.
Second, our real bodies are transported from this world to that world by some sort of magic that allowed players to modify their bodies to their liking in that world. No wonder even if you sleep there, eating and drinking in the game seems to be fine even if you don't eat in the real world. It wasn't some bullcrap science stuff that the tattoo had some sort of mechanism that support players to some kind of food while they are inside and gaming for a long. All of the food we eat in the game are real food which would satiate both the real-world hunger and the game-world hunger my body needs.
Third, death in the game means we really did die for real. However, due to some hocus pocus stuff that Nobuhiko used, it seems they reusing our bodies and transferring them to a new one, reviving us in the process. For some reason, I have a theory that this thing seems to be connected to whatever the Goddess of Life's power had which Nobuhiko decided to exploit to make the game. This means, all of those deaths I got in the very beginning, I died from that for real. But since Alternate World is not really a game but just another world that disguises it as one, that only means that spot, where I exploited the death mechanic, is not even a bug but a feature in this world. I don't know but perhaps that was the main case.
Fourth, it seems Nobuhiko is a believer in the Goddess of Life. His goal of trying to focus on letting her recover is an indication that Nobuhiko had some kind of connection to the goddess herself. And perhaps, she might be one of the contributors to why the game was made. Of course, all of that was just speculation but perhaps the revival stuff in the Alternate World is something related to her.
The last tidbit is Nobuhiko's quest of finding the tree of life and the elixir it produces. I still don't know what his goal is in using this but it seems to be also connected to the goddess of life once more. Of course, it's just a little speculation.
If you think about it, Nobuhiko's goal seems to be harmless. In fact, it seems to be a goal that someone like me will also do if given a chance. But there is one thing that I am not in agreement with. His fixation with the Goddess of Life.
As mentioned by many and most of the people, the goddess of life is the good goddess but based on the quests and some lore as well as talking to those people who are from the timeline of Primordial years like Lucia, she is not the real good guy here but the one who lost and had very small follower count, the Goddess of Death. For some reason, I find it hard to side against her and I am in a kind of dilemma about what should I do.
This is some kind of a losing battle for me as Nobuhiko literally has all of the edges against me, he has turned back time multiple times as well which means I am up against a time traveler and regressor as well, plus, he can easily stop my attempts to stop him which is why I am going to ask the elves for some help. If they are indeed from Alternate World if my assumption is correct, then perhaps they are familiar with the structure of the Tattoo that is the key and gateway for me to access Alternate World.
While finishing what I still remembered, I heard a knock on the door. I opened it and the elves with Pixie comes in. I immediately locked the door in my room as soon as they are in.
"What is this secret meeting you are trying to do?" Pixie is curious.
"Wait..." I then cast the sound barrier spell to contain all the sounds in this room only inside the barrier.
"I needed some help. Elves are pretty much an expert regarding runes and magic circles, correct?"
Pixie translated my words and the three nodded.
"Then, perhaps you can decipher this?" then I revealed my neck tattoo.
"What's that?" Renatta asked.
"I am not sure, but this might be some kind of key for you all to return to your world."
Pixie was surprised by my revelation but even with her surprise, she translated it once more to them and this time, they also got shocked as well. So they decided to check what it was. Renatta is the one who examined the tattoo and I just observed what is happening when the moment she recites a spell in elven language or whatever language was she speaking made me a bit surprised.
The tattoo suddenly got divided into multiple parts and floated into the air, revealing that it was a magic circle under a magic circle which is under a magic circle, and so on and so forth.
"Wait, wait, wait, what is this?! That's a lot of runes and magic circles in one pile! What the heck is going on?!" Pixie couldn't believe her eyes. Even I can't believe it. This is something unprecedented for me.
"Renatta said this is pretty ancient to the point this is garnering attention means there is something in there. And just like what you said, this seems to be the key to their way back home. They wanted to study the tattoo and find a way to return as well so I think this is going to be something you will be needing a lot of points for."
"If that is the case, can you guys order to find a tracker magic circle? I needed to be removed from that as well as some kind of stuff. Like a tracking magic circle?"
"Indeed it has plenty of stuff, but now, I found a tracking circle that you seemed to be looking for."
When I heard of it, my desire grew stronger and now, we have begun our little experiment."
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