Chapter 129 - Memory Garden 6 (1/2)

Frantic breathing echoed throughout the closed stone chamber.

Woohyuk leaned against Verserios and stared at the newly revealed space.

The purple magic circle in front of him was gradually losing its color and fading away.

'I finally escaped.'

It was the worst imaginary world he had ever experienced.

He hadn’t expected it to reach and read his subconscious.

Thanks to this, he even fought fierce battles against unknown beings.

It felt like he had been in the Abyss world.

That's why he learned for sure what was wrong about himself.

'I am afraid of the Demon God’s power.'

The fear that he might get swallowed up and consumed by the abyss while overusing Verserios. This fear had rooted itself deeply in his heart.

'Well, I somehow managed to overcome it this time around, but…’

It was a fear-based on his subconscious, so it was difficult to say that he had completely gotten over it.

In other words, it was easy to get over it temporarily, but getting rid of it forever was a lot more difficult to do.

However, he didn't think he was weak enough to be torn apart by his inner fears.

Putting his fear aside, Woohyuk walked towards the treasure chest.

'It's sealed with a lock.'

In general, the key was held by a monster who guarded the secret room.

But in this situation, there was a magic circle that was replacing the guardian monster’s role, so he couldn't find the key.

Although it could be hidden somewhere else in this ruin, he didn’t have enough leeway to search for it right now.

His mind and body had already reached their limits while struggling in the imaginary world, and fighting additional battles was unreasonable.

'I have to pick the lock.'

Having conquered numerous historical ruins in the past 40 years, this was not a difficult task for him to achieve.

Woohyuk pulled out a long lockpick from his pocket and inserted it in the lock.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

Click.

It didn’t take long for him to succeed. Woohyuk’s proficiency was too high compared to other ordinary people.

Before long, the treasure chest opened, and a golden gauntlet appeared.

[Hand of Midas]

Type: Equipment

Grade: A

Durability: 26,000

Effect: Converts all entities that you touch with the hand to gold after equipping it (Only equipable by those with Phrygia royal blood. Does not work on targets with higher magic resistance than the user).

'The same effect as the myths.'

He used the archaeologist's golden magnifying glass just in case, but there were no hidden effects or options.

Woohyuk picked up the Hand of Midas and immediately went back to where he had left the Phrygian King.

“Turn that statue into gold.”

Midas walked toward the statue of a monster without resistance.

As he touched the statue with the golden gauntlet on his hand, the statue glowed brilliantly and turned to gold.

'Amazing.'

It wouldn’t be of any help in battle, but with this ability, he could generate money anytime, anywhere.

However, the problem was that there were no more descendants of the Phrygian royal family.

The Midas in front of him could not be taken out of this world created through imagination.

'But we can’t be too certain.'

Just as Joanna was the descendant of Queen Iona, the descendants of the Phrygian royal family could have survived somewhere, although it was extremely unlikely.

After retrieving the Hand of Midas from the man himself, Woohyuk headed for his starting point, the Memory Garden.

“When will these flowers be harvested?”

”Their… growth... is… almost… over...”

The flowers of the secret garden were implanted with the memories of those who had been offered as sacrifices.

The memories were managed by the garden's mechanics. When they reached a happy ending, the memories produced an unknown substance in the pistil of the flower they had used as the host.

The usual required time was one month.

If left unattended for a long time, the flowers withered, so the harvest cycle was kept accurately.

At Midas' explanation, Woohyuk looked at him with a puzzled expression.

“But how do you know that? Are you also a member of the Witch Cult?”

“That… is… the case...”

Midas rolled his sleeve.

A witch stigma.

Amongst the seven deadly sins, a pattern representing Greed was clearly engraved on his arm.

“They must have wanted to make the entire Phrygian kingdom their own.”

This place was Angrboda’s imaginary world, so there was no reason for her to control Midas by forcibly imprinting a witch stigma on him.

In other words, the witch stigma in this imaginary world reflected the real world. He had truly been a member of the witch cult in his lifetime.

Since the king was a witch at the time, Phrygia would have been no different than the Dane Kingdom.

As Woohyuk observed the flowers in the garden, a familiar laughter resounded in the distance.

”Hahaha! I see that an uninvited guest has arrived, even though this place is Lady Lilith's sanctuary.”

Aleister Crowley.

He had reappeared.

Woohyuk straightened himself as a deep frown appeared on his face.

'He really appears anywhere and everywhere he wants.'

Woohyuk could not afford to fight him in his current state.

However, the information on the Clipport Fruit was too precious to try to escape without confronting him.

He also had some questions regarding this place.

Woohyuk decided to start a conversation to buy time.

“What kind of experiments are you doing with these flowers?”

“Hmm, should I call it an experiment that goes beyond the limits? Well, it’s still in the clinical trial stages though.”

Aleister took out a clear flask.

A solution with a purple hue.

It was probably an alchemical solution made from extracts of the flowers here.

'Has he failed to successfully produce Clipport’s fruit as of yet?'

However, considering the appearances of Awakeners in the ancient records and documents, the prototype had already been completed around the War of Gods and Demons.

Having found out about these flowers were more than enough of an achievement.

In particular, the solution Aleister was currently holding was required for the complete product.

“I want to offer you a deal.”

“Oho, you don’t seem to have a sense of crisis. Is it because of the demonic energy that is contained within you?”