Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 192

Chapter 192: Gifted
“You dared… cut me off while I was talking and leave me here for so long?!”

Caelan’s furious gaze pierced Hans’s eyes, and the young man couldn’t help but think:

‘Shit…. I forgot about that…’

A few days earlier, Hans had entered the plain of darkness in order to ask Caelan some questions, but after discovering that the people in Caelan’s world had nothing like a system, and couldn’t level up just by hunting beasts, he left without even listening to Caelan’s questions.

“I-I didn’t do it intentionally okay? It was just a huge shock for me”

“Huh?! A huge shock?! I’d that your excuse for leaving me here pondering about what you said without any plausible answer?!”

“Well… I’m sorry but-

Hans thought about what Caelan had just said, and was surprised to hear something like that…

“Wait… did you just say… leave me here for so long?”

“Huh! Yeah of course! It’s been a heck of a long time since the last time I saw you”

“What do you see when I’m not here? how much time has passed for you?”

“So now you’re back to asking me things?! I won’t answer any of them until you clear all my doubts about-

The man’s mouth began speaking as If it was moving on its own, and Caelan replied to Hans’s questions.

“When you are not here, I just see a vast, limitless… nothing.

I don’t know how much time has passed, days, maybe months, or maybe even years, amongst this nothingness, time starts to lose its meaning”

After saying those words with a saddened face, Caelan returned to normal:

“Agghh! This dammed place! Do you have to force me to answer every damn time?!”

The man cursed the nothing above his head as Hans just stood in place watching him.

“It’s okay since you answered my question I’ll tell you what you wanted to know last time.”

Hearing this, Caelan turned around and watched Hans with doubtful eyes…

“Are you telling the truth?”

“Why would I lie to a dead man?”

“If you dare escape from this place once again without giving me a solid answer, I swear I’ll be reborn even if my soul turns into dust, and I will then find your world, find your empire, find your house, and bury you alive under the fresh snow unti-

“Alright alright I got it, there’s no need for that, I ain’t going nowhere, I also need answers, and by explaining things to you, I might be able to get them.”

“Mph…”

The man scoffed.

“… what are you waiting for then?

Start talking”

As requested, Hans began explaining to Caelan the meaning of the status window, and the ability of some Earthlings to level up while hunting beasts and monsters.

He also talked about the first catastrophe, and how those strange messages appeared in front of everyone.

“So?… do you have any idea what this thing might be?”

Hans asked, referring to the status window.

Caelan didn’t take long before answering truthfully:

“If someone told me this while I was still alive… I would’ve smashed their skull against a rock a few times to see if they had gone mad, but as you said, what good would there be in lying to a dead man…

Supposing that your story is true, then this is something that goes beyond the natural course of the world…

You see, whenever a being dies, it doesn’t matter if they’re mages or not, the mana composing their bodies slowly returns to nature, apart from some mythical beasts’ corpses but that’s another story, what is important is that this balances the energy of the world.

Think about it, if every time someone died their mana were to be destroyed, in thousands of years no mana would be left in the world for future generations.

What a mage does is borrow more mana compared to normal people, but when they die, all the borrowed energy returns to nature.

Now, what would happen if instead of returning to nature that energy would just transfer over to another being, even if only partially?”

“The balance would be broken”

“That’s right, and even if in the end, that mana will still return to where it belonged, the process of absorbing mana will be many times quicker than by simply meditating, as you said, many people in your world only rely on this mana gifted to them, which makes them weaker than normal mages at the same level, but in my world, thousands of years of legacy have been passed down, and yet only a selected few every generation can rise up to the eight and ninth tier.

Well, I was chosen by the goddess and had her blessing, so it wasn’t strange the fact that I reached the tenth tier, but what’s more surprising is that just nine years from their awakening, some people in your world have reached the eighth tier.

If it continues like that, in fifty years, or even less, wouldn’t your world become filled to the brim with high-ranking mages?”

“That’s… are you perhaps thinking that-”

“Mh”

Caelan nodded.

“It’s like someone… is forcefully growing high-ranking warriors, and that someone….

Is most likely a god”

“A… god?!

Weren’t they banned from interfering with the world of the mortals?”

“They are… but, who else could ever manipulate the laws of reality and the cycle of life?

Not even they can do it.

It has to be a god, and not any god, but a powerful one”

“Arent all gods powerful?”

“They are, but there are some who go beyond powerful.

You said in your world some people believe in all-knowing and almighty gods right?

Some gods come closer to those descriptions than others”

“But why would a god ever…”

“I don’t know, the goddess I used to serve is benevolent and caring, but some gods are not like that”

“Are there any evil gods?l

“Evil gods?… I wouldn’t refer to them as evil, but some gods are extremely cunning and unpredictable.

Some even go as far as sacrificing their apostles, but that’s also a choice made by the being since when you become a god’s apostle, you dedicate your very soul to them.”

“Then… do you at least have any idea why a god would want to do this?”

“Honestly, I am the last person you should ask, even if I had a connection with a goddess, and she spoke to me about various things, my only role was to fight for her, I wasn’t her advisor or her right-hand man, like some apostles are.”

“Sigh… who else should I ask then?”

“Does your world not have any apostles?”

“I don’t know, how should I recognize them?”

“Mh… well, if you see that their divine mana is not just inside their bodies, but making up their body, like fusing with them, that’s how you know they’re apostles.”

“Alright… I’ll see what I can find”

As their discussion ended, Caelan’s face seemed saddened.

‘Is it because of what he said earlier?… this space is literally nothing, being imprisoned here for eternity… for sure doesn’t sound that good.’

“Before I go, could I ask something else?”

“It’s not like I can say no”

“Oh, that’s right.

Well then, do you know about anything worth teaching?

Something like a method to teach students or a really strong spell that would give them an advantage over the others?”

“What now? Are you teaching others?

Your level’s too low to teach anything to anyone”

“Ah! Too low?! I’m about to create my eighth circle, so it’s not so strange that some people want to learn from me.”

“Yeah exactly, solidify your mana as a high-ranking mage before you-…

what did you just say?!”

“I’m about to create my eighth circle, it’s just about time for me to teach some students”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“It’s as I just said, I’m really close to the bottleneck, just a few weeks, or maybe even less, and I’ll reach the eight-circle”

“Bullshit!”

“What do you mean bullshit?! I worked my ass off and accumulated as much mana as possible and all you have to say is ‘bullshit’?!”

“I mean last time I saw you you had just barely stepped into the seventh tier”

“No, I was sixth tier when I met you”

“No, no, the last spell you used was clearly….

Wait… what the fuck!”

‘I clearly saw him use a seventh-tier spell, but now that I think about it, his mana wasn’t that of a seventh-tier mage’

“Kid, did you learn a seventh-tier spell while you were still a tier-6?!”

“Yeah, it’s an advantage of being a true mage, doesn’t that also apply to all the mages in your world?”

“This…”

“What?! The system told me that a true mage can cast spells one tier above theirs.

Did it lie?”

“N-no… it-it didn’t but…”

“But?”

‘It’s crazy difficult to do it, especially without someone teaching you’

Caelan thought

‘Only a few gifted ones can understand spells a tier above themselves and to do it, their affinity with that spell must be high, it once happened to me when I was still tier-4, but the higher ranked the spell, the more the difference between every tier….’

“Are you alright?”

Hans asked genuinely concerned for Caelan.

“Yeah… let’s-let’s just continue…”