Chapter 224
The Tribe of Sloth gathered.
They stopped everything they were doing and focused on the phenomenon unfolding before their eyes.
“……”
Even their breathing seemed to stop.
All they could do was watch in astonishment and awe.
Because the human had refined the Heart of Despair into a Mana Core.
‘In such a short time?’
‘He turned an Ancient Dragon’s heart into a core!’
‘All by himself?’
‘Impossible.’
He had done alone what would take even a group of dragons a long time.
And a dragon’s heart was on a completely different level from a Mana Stone.
The total Mana it handled, and the density of that concentration, were incomparable.
If a Mana Stone was a handful of water, a dragon’s heart was an endless ocean.
Even countless Golem Crafters couldn’t easily handle a dragon’s heart.
One mistake, and you would be swallowed by the sea.
Instant death would be the best-case outcome of a runaway incident.
If the heart’s Mana exploded, it would erase dozens of kilometers in every direction with ease.
That was why they had scoffed at the idea of him doing it alone.
‘…Drakan-nim was right to wake us.’
‘I have to admit, his skill in handling Magic Circuits is exceptional.’
‘Does he have an Authority related to creating cores?’
‘Even if he does, fission is a completely different matter.’
‘He won’t produce results that surpass our theories.’
Half doubt, half belief.
They acknowledged the human before them as a ‘singularity.’
His finesse with Mana and circuits surpassed most dragons.
After all, he was a human violating the rules of the Abyss.
But that was all.
Creating a core and splitting it were entirely different fields.
Turning a heart into a Mana Core?
Some dragons of the Tribe of Sloth could do it.
It would take longer, but it wasn’t impossible.
However, core fission was impossible.
Their theory had been proven wrong only hours ago.
With no answer in sight, could he really find one?
“……!”
The dragons’ eyes widened.
The Mana Core began to split.
One core divided into two.
Two cores became four.
……An unbelievable sight.
A core should be destroyed the instant it was forcibly split.
Whether you physically divided it in half or delicately severed it with Mana, the result was the same.
But…
‘It’s splitting on its own.’
‘The core itself is dividing.’
‘How?’
There was no physical force, no intervention of Mana.
The Mana Core was writhing and shifting on its own.
The mass that separated regenerated, restoring itself into complete cores.
Even splitting into four was shocking enough.
‘How far will it multiply?’
‘Insane. It’s still splitting?’
Four became six.
Six became eight.
“Wait……”
One dragon blurted out without thinking, then froze.
All the dragons glared sharply at the one who spoke.
Even so, they understood why he had.
Because as the Mana Core split—
‘It’s evolving.’
‘He’s assimilating with the Mana Core at an extreme rate.’
‘Does that mean the human is becoming a dragon?’
The human was changing too.
Not just his appearance.
Something fundamental was shifting inside him as well.
And at the center of that change was the Mana Core.
The Heart of Despair.
The fact that he was synchronizing with Arcana’s heart—the leader of the Tribe of Despair from long ago—meant that the human, too, was tied to ‘dragons.’
Drakan’s eyes trembled violently.
‘The one who splits a dragon’s heart.’
And it wasn’t over.
From eight, it divided again.
……Nine.
The fact that he could raise it meant he had done it before.
He must already have possessed nine hearts, allowing him to split a dragon’s heart into nine.
And there were few dragons who possessed more than nine hearts.
If there were any, they would be—
‘…The Ancient Dragons!’
Only dragons said to have existed since the ‘beginning.’
A dragon’s hierarchy was largely divided by age.
Young dragons and fully grown adult dragons.
Ancient Dragons who had lived over a thousand years, and those who had lived over ten thousand.
Above them were the ‘Primordial Dragons,’ said to have existed since the beginning of dragons, and Dragon God Sephiro.
But the Primordial Dragons communicated only with Sephiro.
Ordinary dragons could not even see them.
Still, it was known they possessed at least nine hearts, had awakened to the truth of the universe, and could wield ‘Absolute Magic’ after reaching the ultimate state.
‘Ten.’
Ah.
Drakan finally understood.
Why Ataraxia had praised the human as the ‘Great One.’
Why he had made such a fuss and hurried to awaken him.
This wasn’t a human.
It was a Dragon of Beginning hiding itself with Absolute Magic.
However…
Drakan quickly realized even that wasn’t right.
‘Twelve?’
Because there was only one dragon who possessed more than twelve hearts.
That ‘being’ who resided in the Dragon God Palace.
And the splitting didn’t stop there.
‘……Thirteen.’
It reached thirteen.
Now it was certain.
The human before him—
The identity of this being was—
‘…………Dragon God Sephiro.’
—
Dragon God Palace.
Sephiro slowly opened his eyes.
He had been scanning the Abyss to find the one who stole his heart and created an ‘error.’
In that moment—
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Sephiro’s hearts began to pound wildly.
It was instinct.
And it was a signal of change.
All of it originated from the missing heart.
In other words—
“Splitting it? Daring to split my heart?”
Someone was splitting his stolen heart.
The heart of the Dragon God.
They had taken the main body’s heart—perhaps greed had followed.
However—
“Haha! Let’s see you handle it!”
Sephiro laughed, genuinely amused.
Desire beyond one’s capacity was closer to destruction.
Even if they succeeded in splitting it, they would lose their ego and their soul would collapse.
No matter the outcome, they would never claim his heart.
Still, it was interesting.
A rare stimulation in his monotonous existence.
He had never experienced such a ‘major error’ across all his time.
He slowly looked down at his chest.
One empty space where a heart should have been.
That missing heart was reacting from somewhere far away.
What did this phenomenon mean?
Sephiro smiled.
“Found you.”
—
Park Chan-woo was within an endless realm of enlightenment.
The understanding of magic and Mana, the meaning of splitting and evolution.
At the center of that enlightenment was a single truth.
Level.
Humanity had received the ‘blessing’ to split the level that began at 1, all the way up to 99.
But his starting level was -99.
Below the realm of zero.
A world beneath the minimum correction value—something that could not, and should not, exist.
Then where should he split from?
‘My beginning.’
He had to find the first point.
The starting point that would become the essence.
‘The fundamental cause of becoming Level -99.’
Was it because he had offered everything to the God of Offerings and regressed to the past?
No.
It wasn’t that simple.
He slowly recalled.
Just before the regression—
He had clearly trapped Sephiro’s Avatar inside the Sealed Demon God’s Grail.
Dragon God Sephiro had rushed in with his main body, that colossal Transcendent Dragon, and erased him along with humanity.
But what if he hadn’t been erased?
‘I became a sacrifice.’
If he died and vanished completely, he couldn’t become a sacrifice.
But the God of Offerings had said it.
The transaction was complete. The contract was fulfilled.
All of Sephiro’s Avatars, and all of Park Chan-woo’s possibilities—including his body—had been consumed as ‘offerings.’
In other words—
His beginning, his origin, his essence was…
‘……Inside the Sealed Demon God’s Grail.’
Ah.
After circling around and around, the answer was inside the Sealed Demon God’s Grail.
Not lost.
Not gone.
It was definitely inside the Grail.
With enlightenment, he descended into the realm of negative numbers.
He saw nothing else.
But far away, at the very end of those negatives—
‘I see it……!’
He saw it.
His body.
The essence that was splitting and evolving.
……It existed in the realm of Level -99.
Sleeping as if dead, but unmistakably his ‘origin.’
‘Leveling up was slow. The required experience was absurdly high. The reason was…’
At first, he didn’t understand.
Why was the required experience so high, even at Level -99?
It couldn’t be without reason.
Every result had a cause.
He simply hadn’t been able to find it until now.
‘Because my essence inside the Grail was sharing the experience.’
It wasn’t for one person.
He was growing together with his essence.
The moment he reached Level 1—
He would naturally reach Level 99.
Or maybe…
Even beyond that.
He might be reborn as a fully evolved, complete being—having finished all splitting.
He couldn’t split and evolve with his current negative level, but his essence had been moving forward the entire time.
In a word—
‘It will be completed.’
It could be completed.
If he overcame the time limit and reached Level 1, he could break free from the constraints of the past and truly transcend.
—
Park Chan-woo’s body was transforming.
It twisted and turned, wavering at the midpoint between ‘dragon and human,’ then stopped the instant the core reached thirteen.
And—
‘It’s back?’
‘The core became one again……?’
‘What in the world?’
‘…What’s going on?’
The dragons could only stare, as if they had witnessed an illusion.
It had clearly increased to thirteen.
Yet it merged back into one.
Soon, Park Chan-woo opened his eyes.
His body had already returned to its prior state.
Human.
Park Chan-woo as he was.
That didn’t mean nothing had changed.
“The splitting is over.”
“……Didn’t it merge back into one?”
Drakan’s tone had changed.
He asked more politely now.
Park Chan-woo answered with a faint smile.
“A body is needed. The moment it settles into a suitable body, it will split, evolve, and complete on its own.”
“…You’re saying the core will split by itself?”
“That’s right. Arcana will rise on his own.”
“……!”
Drakan flinched.
But that was enough.
He understood immediately.
Because their theories and methods had been proven wrong.
“Everyone, move quickly. We must complete the ‘main body.’”
“Understood!”
The Tribe of Sloth dragons moved at once.
They formed the exterior with dragon bones and scales and linked the joints with Spirit Stones.
They crafted an ‘artificial heart’ to house the Mana Core, using superior Spirit Stones and special-grade Spirit Stones.
After about seven more days—
“……It’s complete.”
Colossus.
No—the Original God was complete.