Chương 222

The boat cut smoothly through the dark water. Rudra leaned against the wooden side, watching a flock of glowing, translucent seagulls circle above them. The birds were practically see-through. Every time one of them dove into the water to catch a fish, it just phased right through the regular waves without making a single splash. High Priestess Neria sat peacefully near the back of the boat. She held a small, curved bone needle in her hands.

She was carefully threading a thin, tough piece of dried kelp through a tear in the hem of her white robes, humming a quiet tune to herself.

"Chief," Rudra called out.

"How is the twelfth island looking?" Chief Thalassa pulled the oars with a steady rhythm.

"We are close. But there is no beast on this island. It is a temple of knowledge. The guardian is a puzzle. A massive door locked by a hundred sliding stone blocks covered in an ancient language." Rudra raised an eyebrow.

"A sliding puzzle?"

"It is torturous," Thalassa sighed heavily.

"You have to move the heavy stones in the exact right order. But the language is unreadable. You just have to guess. I spent seven full days in that dusty room during my trial. I moved stones until my hands bled and I only solved it by pure, blind luck." The boat scraped against a rocky shore of the barren twelfth island.

"I will wait here," Thalassa said, resting his oars.

"I refuse to look at that puzzle a second time. It gives me a headache."

"Fair enough," Rudra said. He jumped off the boat and walked up the rocky path. Kratos followed lazily behind him. They walked into the dark cavern. [You have entered the Twelfth Trial of the Orca Archipelago!] The room was totally silent. The air was incredibly dry and smelled like old dust. Right in the center of the room sat a massive stone wall blocking the path forward. Built into the wall was a giant grid of heavy stone blocks. Every single block was carved with jagged, glowing runes.

"Start pushing blocks," Kratos yawned, sitting down on the dirt.

"Tell me when you figure it out." Rudra didn't step forward to push anything. He just stood a few feet away and stared at the glowing symbols. This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. A quiet hum filled his ears. The class trait of the [Deep Sage] which allowed him to understand all languages was finally used. The jagged runes didn't look like random scratches anymore. The grey light flared brightly.

The ancient language started to automatically translate itself directly into Rudra's brain. He wasn't just looking at a door puzzle. He was looking at a massive, hidden history. Rudra slowly read the translated words aloud. The cavern echoed with the forgotten history.

"This is about the Titans," Rudra said slowly.

"The race that was completely erased from human history. It is being said that Rebecca and Yatan destroy the world in cycles. But the Titans... they existed far before the current reset, they existed during the second cycle." He took a step closer to the dusty wall, his eyes tracking the glowing text.

"Asterion wrote this," Rudra realized.

"The Ocean God." The translation flooded into his mind. It told a tragic story. At the beginning, Asterion didn't care about the world. He was a powerful god on the verge of becoming a Chief God of Asgard and was indifferent to anything else. But then he met Lyra, the Titan Princess.

"She changed him," Rudra muttered, reading the next block.

"She showed him the depths of the seas he governed. She taught him how to actually love the world they lived in." But the gods of Asgard found out about them. Spending time with a Titan was forbidden, especially since the Titan that was being contacted with Princess of the Titans.

"They took her," Rudra read, his voice dropping slightly as he remembered the scene in the 6th Trial.

"Asgard imprisoned Lyra. And Asterion lost his mind." The final few blocks of the puzzle detailed the fallout. In an absolute outrage, Asterion attacked Asgard. He nearly killed the fifteen gods in charge of the sealing of Lyra. He would have torn the gods apart if he hadn't been stopped by Judar, the Chief God of Wisdom and Health. Judar subdued him. And as a punishment for his rebellion, Asterion's chance to ever become a Chief God was forever removed and he exiled from Asgard.

The moment Rudra finished reading the final line, the glowing grey runes flashed bright gold. A massive wave of system notifications exploded in front of his face. [You have completely learnt about Asterion's Greatest Regret!] [You have absorbed a Mythical truth about the forgotten history of the gods!] [As a reward for learning Mythic-tier knowledge, All Stats +30 and Wisdom +20!] A warm rush of energy washed through Rudra's body.. [You have proven your potential as a Sage.] [Your understanding of the world has deepened.] [Your potential is blooming.] [The speed of understanding skills and blueprints will become twice as fast.] [The skill Endless Learning (Lv. 3) has leveled up!] But then, the golden text turned red. [Your growth has deteriorated due to the blossoming of your potential.] [As a high-tier existence, mundane knowledge can no longer stimulate your growth.] [The amount of stats acquired when learning basic knowledge will drop.] [You will no longer acquire any additional stats when learning Rare-rated knowledge.] [The rewards for learning Epic and Unique knowledge have been significantly reduced.] Rudra read the red text and sighed. It was a nerf. To be honest, Rudra expected this nerf to occur far before, but Rudra already got 100s of stat points in all his stats through this skill, but he wasn't too upset about this since his stats were already broken for level with his core stats already nearing 3500.