Leveling with the Gods

C390

Clank... Clank...

The letters surrounding YuWon's body dispersed and were replaced again and again by new letters.

And as he watched the letters being written and disappearing repeatedly...

"It has begun."

The Goblin King murmured.

Around the Goblin King, who observed YuWon with interested eyes while crossing his arms, another twenty goblins were kneeling and sitting, soaked in sweat.

"What are you saying?"

The Goblin King turned to the question coming right next to him.

Among the twenty sweaty goblins, one goblin seemed to be the most relaxed.

He was the goblin guardian of the Goblin King.

"Can you see these letters?"

"Yes. Most of them are too fast to read, but yes."

"Then, how many of them do you think will remain?"

"How many...?"

The letters disappearing and reappearing.

The goblin guardian responded about the combination of those letters.

"Most of them are meaningless letters."

"To be precise, they cease to make sense. After all, they are things that will never happen."

"Then why make such a fuss about it?"

"Seeing a single prediction of a predetermined future is impossible. However, choosing one among tens, hundreds of thousands, even hundreds of millions of possibilities with the highest probability is entirely possible."

"That..."

The goblin guardian finally understood the true nature of the "Eyes of Foreknowledge" with the Goblin King's words.

"It's impossible."

"That's right, it's impossible. For anyone."

"The head will explode. Don't you know that from Mimir?"

Mimir.

The wisest in this Tower who drank from the Spring of Yggdrasil and was cursed with excess knowledge.

Eventually, he couldn't bear the knowledge overload and was ultimately trapped in the Curse of Knowledge.

"I know."

"Then why...?"

"So that's why we need the Golden Cinder Eyes."

Fwrr...

Among the countless letters inscribed on his body, red flames bloomed over the Golden Cinder Eyes, which lit up in YuWon's eyes.

"To control that curse."

Fwrr...

['Golden Cinder Eyes' responds to 'Goblin's Time']

[You grasp the essence of Sorcery] (Note: From now on, I will choose to call it Sorcery instead of Shamanism)

[You distinguish between falsehood and truth]

Among the countless scenes that unfolded before his eyes, most disappeared like burnt paper.

False times that would never happen and could never happen.

"It's not about seeing a real future."

The Goblin Sorcery was not omnipotent.

To see a future that had not yet happened, no matter how many points you paid, was impossible.

'Eyes of Foreknowledge' was not an existing ability but an ability in which you believed it would exist.

"To see the most probable future among the countless possibilities of what could happen."

Among the hundreds of millions of "futures that could happen."

YuWon had to find the future with the highest probability.

Therefore, from here on, it was YuWon's task. Through the 'Golden Cinder Eyes,' see countless futures, and choose some of them and erase the rest.

Fwrr...

[What will 'happen someday' has been deduced.]

[The power of foresight increases.]

Buzz~

When he finally managed to filter the scenes entering his eyes like a deluge, his head throbbed as if it was going to explode.

Countless scenes flooded his mind.

Predictions about countless possibilities he couldn't count. An understanding of the probabilities of events that exceeded hundreds of millions.

And this went beyond "prediction" to become the realm of "foresight," beyond any anticipation.

"So this is Foreknowledge..."

It didn't seem like acquiring the ability to see the future was something that could simply be obtained.

More than foresight, this was more like probable predictions.

Zzrr, zzrr...

He felt like his brain was vibrating. There was too much information entering his mind, and his brain couldn't handle it all.

"Did Mimir feel like this?"

He hadn't imagined that the day would come when he would understand Mimir in this way.

If he continued like this, there were two options.

He could give up or, like Mimir, face knowledge overload and fall into the Curse of Knowledge.

Under normal circumstances, he would have chosen surrender.

As tempting as the 'Eyes of Foreknowledge' were, he couldn't afford to fall into a curse that would keep him in a state of sleep for a hundred years or more.

But...

"I was too ambitious," Mimir said.

Fortunately, YuWon had Mimir by his side, who had made similar mistakes in similar situations.

"Humans are incapable of seeing a single step ahead. In fact, regardless of race, they are all the same in that regard."

In a distant future.

One of those images appeared in front of YuWon.

"I wanted to know too much. I wasn't satisfied with seeing and knowing things I couldn't see, so I wanted to know everything that would happen in a distant future."

Ambition for knowledge.

That was the main reason why Mimir ruined himself.

"In the end, I failed. But I also succeeded. It was a partial success."

"Are you talking about the Curse of Knowledge?"

"Not just that."

If all that affected him was the Curse of Knowledge, Mimir probably wouldn't have viewed his situation so pessimistically.

He didn't mind having only one day a year instead of a hundred years. He wanted to see the end of knowledge, and he believed that the end of knowledge was seeing the future fully.

But he couldn't see the future.

"The future I can see is fragmented. It has a high probability, but I can't say it's certain."

"You're talking about the 'Eyes of Foreknowledge.'"

"Yes, that's exactly what I wanted."

That was why Mimir called his knowledge a partial success and a failure.

His knowledge provided countless possibilities, but in the end, he couldn't narrow it down to one.

Mimir remembered when he was drinking from the Spring of Yggdrasil.

"Don't look too far ahead. Both you and I have problems because we look too far ahead and don't see what's right in front of us."

"What's right in front of us..."

YuWon's eyes moved.

He saw an image right in front of him. It wasn't the battle with the Outers he had been watching but a scene that had happened closer.

YuWon was surrounded by goblins.

And he could also see the surprise of the Goblin King and the other goblins.

"Don't look so far, that's all."

YuWon took a small bottle from his inventory.

[Ambrosia]

#Believed to be the sap of the golden apple tree. The true identity is unclear.#Randomly boosts statistics when consumed.#Strengthens mental resistance when consumed.#Increases recovery ability when consumed.#Greatly increases resistance to all attributes when applied to the body.#Increases physical defense when applied to the body.#Increases magic resistance when applied to the body.

Ambrosia.

Plucked from a golden apple tree, this item made Achilles semi-immortal.

It was a kind of "potion," harder to find than a star in the sky.

And because of that...

"I'll follow your advice."

Although it was an item he had been saving because he had no immediate need to use it, YuWon decided that now was the right time to use it and opened the bottle cap containing Ambrosia.

Kak~

"Anyway, I've always been a bit ambitious."

After opening the bottle, he brought it to his mouth and drank it all in one gulp.

Gulp.

[You have consumed 'Ambrosia']

[Your mental resistance has temporarily strengthened significantly]

['Ambrosia' resists 'Goblin's Time']

['Golden Cinder Eyes' controls 'Goblin's Time']

['The Curse of Knowledge' weakens].

['The Curse of Knowledge'...].

To the last drop remaining.

YuWon threw the empty bottle to the ground.

Thud.

"I won't give up."

Definitely.

Thud-.

YuWon dropped the flask he had in his hand. His body, after drinking the crystalline potion, was already densely covered in black letters.

"He's in a completely different world."

"I think he could collapse into madness at any moment."

"We should at least acknowledge his mental resilience."

The goblins who were using Sorcery grimaced and nodded.

The effect of the Sorcery inscribed on YuWon's body was the injection of countless data and information, as well as possibilities. The power of Sorcery would constantly present future events to YuWon, regardless of his will, and continue to do so.

The problem was that control over it rested with YuWon.

For an ordinary person, the constant and visualized future unfolding in front of them would cause their minds to collapse or go insane.

But YuWon had a means to control it.

"I thought I only had the 'Golden Cinder Eyes'..."

No.

That's what he thought.

"Was he hiding Ambrosia?"

The Goblin King looked at the shattered fragments of the flask on the ground.

The flask contained Ambrosia. Thanks to that, YuWon was able to gain a bit more control over the Sorcery inscribed on his body.

Ambrosia was an elixir and, at the same time, a kind of narcotic. Its effect instantly increased the consumer's mental resistance several times over.

Perhaps the most necessary item in this situation.

The Goblin King muttered as if he were enjoying the situation.

"He's certainly not an ordinary individual."

"In this situation, we might actually obtain the 'Eyes of Foreknowledge.'"

"Who knows."

The guardian goblin chuckled at the Goblin King's words.

"It would be fortunate if he doesn't go mad."

"Really?"

"Or live sleeping for about ninety out of every hundred years. It's basically like Mimir, but with a slightly better situation."

Mimir couldn't obtain the 'Eyes of Foreknowledge' because he couldn't handle all that knowledge and fell into the Curse of Knowledge.

Of course, the two were different in certain aspects. While Mimir had gained wisdom through the Spring of Yggdrasil, YuWon had received information through Sorcery.

But even though the methods were different, the results were the same.

Brain overload.

Resulting mental collapse. Or a long slumber.

Thanks to Ambrosia, YuWon had found some stability, but that wouldn't change the outcome.

"Of course, maybe if we had a great Sorcerer here to assist us, things would be different."

"From our perspective, this is the best we can do."

Twenty elite goblins, including the Goblin King, who was the center of the Sorcery.

Even with their Sorcery, what they couldn't create were the 'Eyes of Foreknowledge.'

"Yes, we are at our limit."

Then, a sound resonated.

A single step at the entrance of the Goblin King's castle.

"But there's one."

The Goblin King turned to look at the man who had been eyeing him with hostility for quite some time.

"Someone who truly knows the subject."

A resounding sound.

As his overwhelming presence weighed upon the massive castle, the other goblins knelt one by one and bowed. The Goblin King, meanwhile, smiled with satisfaction.

The tall man, surrounded by the goblins and their Sorcery, alternated his gaze between the Goblin King and YuWon.

The Goblin King greeted the man.

"Step forward, Bull Demon King."

A Yokai (妖怪) who declared himself to have no rival under the heavens, claiming to have conquered the sky.

The Great Sage, Who Pacifies Heaven, the Bull Demon King, looked at the Goblin King with hostility.