Chapter 477
The Magician quietly observed Taesan.
He was far too unusual.
By all rights, he should have already reached transcendence in his past life. In fact, he ‘had’ to have reached it.
Yet he had remained at the level of a mere mortal.
And in this life, whenever he reached for a higher realm, he had never been stopped. The moment he gained the strength to match it, he instantly attained it—
As if he had been qualified from the very beginning.
‘Honestly, I don’t understand him.’
Taesan was twisted.
But what exactly was twisted? Where had it begun? And where was the destination he was meant to reach?
Even the Magician couldn’t answer that.
No one could—except Taesan himself.
To become a Transcendent, the most important thing was what one built on their own.
But that wasn’t everything. That was only one of the requirements. There were countless other conditions and qualifications to meet.
Among them—was understanding oneself.
Knowing who you are, grasping what you’ve achieved, and perceiving your own existence.
One had to understand their true self.
The Magician intended to give him that opportunity.
‘Good thing he caught on quickly.’
Self-reflection wasn’t something that could be achieved through external help or by being given hints. Even forcing someone to the brink wouldn’t work.
One had to collide with their own wall and search for the answer themselves.
“Find the answer within you,” the Magician murmured softly.
—
The old methods won’t work. Then, he needed to think of a new path.
But of course, no easy answer came.
So, he began to think carefully, step by step.
‘Transcendent.’
Not the state reached through divinity like his own, but a supreme realm where one possessed a domain and ruled over laws themselves.
That level was monstrous—beings whose power surpassed comprehension, capable of influencing the entire universe itself.
Then how could one reach such a realm?
Taesan recalled what he had once heard about the requirements for transcendence.
‘From mortalhood, build everything yourself.’
That was the most important thing. Words he had heard countless times before.
But that alone wasn’t enough. Even those who reached the realm of the Immortal based their power on what they had built as mortals.
‘Is it the difference in what they built?’
What had they built?
What had they dedicated their life and self to?
That subtle difference could separate one realm from another—but Taesan felt that wasn’t all.
There was something more—something between immortality and transcendence.
But what it was, he didn’t know.
After a long moment of thought, Taesan shook his head. If it could be solved through simple reflection, the Green Witch wouldn’t have needed to make a contract with him in the first place.
He shifted his thoughts. Instead of grand ideas, he focused inward.
‘They said I should’ve reached transcendence in my previous life.’
Whether immortality or transcendence, he was supposed to have reached it. Many Transcendents had told him that.
But in his past life, Taesan had remained a mere mortal.
He was indeed strange—distorted.
Then where did that distortion come from?
It was strange, really.
Why could he wield the color black—something forbidden to the beings of this world?
Why could he combine divinity and black energy to create the power known as the boundary line?
Why could he steal the powers of the Old Gods and Transcendents and make them his own?
All of it was strange—utterly incomprehensible.
The Great Demon had once said: he was a “being of mixture.”
When Taesan didn’t understand, the demon had told him to recall his journey.
‘…My journey.’
Where did it begin, what did he accomplish, and how had he arrived here?
Taesan recalled his memories.
It couldn’t have been on Earth—there he had been nothing more than an ordinary human. The journey Baal spoke of must have begun the moment he entered the labyrinth in his past life.
He still remembered it clearly. A collapsing world. Monsters tearing through the sky. And the appearance of the selection window before them.
He had reflexively chosen Easy Mode.
When everyone first entered the labyrinth, they were confused and terrified. But soon, they understood what they had to do and began descending the labyrinth.
Those who chose Easy Mode soon sighed in relief.
From Normal, Hard, and Solo Mode, only hellish rumors were heard through the community.
Everyone believed they had made the right choice—that they would survive.
‘That was a mistake.’
Everyone realized it during the first return to Earth.
They had made the worst choice possible. At the very least, they should have chosen Normal Mode.
Taesan had realized it too.
At this rate, he wouldn’t survive.
Death was the only future waiting for him.
That was when he changed.
To survive, he sought power. But no matter how strong he became, his limits were bound by Easy Mode.
Others despaired and gave up when they understood that truth—but not Taesan.
He refused to give up.
He searched for ‘any’ way to grow stronger.
And that was through skills.
‘That was rough.’
It truly had been. Back then, no one even knew the conditions to obtain skills. Taesan had challenged endlessly just to uncover them, earning countless worthless skills before finally obtaining his first main skill.
He had spent immeasurable time and effort, only to sometimes discover that the condition he fulfilled was meaningless, or that the skill gained was useless.
Many times, he had almost broken. People around him told him to rest, to slow down.
But Taesan never stopped.
He kept striving, kept moving. He analyzed every possibility and sought every chance.
And eventually, he obtained skills like Partial Time Stop and Addition.
‘But there was still a wall.’
He was an Easy Mode player. No matter how strong he became, his base stats were fixed. That’s why he couldn’t defeat the Apostle.
Then, using the Stone of Return that Lee Taeyeon had left behind, he came back again.
And now, he stood here—having overcome countless trials and reached even the realm of transcendence.
This was what he had built.
Taesan frowned.
‘But that’s not it.’
It was indeed a great achievement—worthy of being called extraordinary. By the standards of the Transcendents, he had surpassed mortality.
But it still didn’t explain his abnormal traits—like Soul Rank Ascension or the boundary line. At least, Taesan didn’t think so.
It likely had nothing to do with his time in Easy Mode.
Then what was the real cause?
What had twisted him?
He kept thinking.
‘…I have a feeling.’
But it wasn’t clear yet. It felt like something just beyond reach—like being one step away from grasping it.
‘Come to think of it…’
Haphran crossed his mind.
Taesan stood up.
“I need to step out for a bit.”
“Go ahead. There’s plenty of time.”
The Magician waved him off casually.
* * *
Taesan ascended through the labyrinth to find Haphran.
“You again. Need something?”
“I do, but before that, I have something to ask.”
Taesan opened his mouth.
“You’ve seen my mental image before, haven’t you?”
They had once connected their minds. Taesan had seen Haphran’s image—himself hammering alone in a world of fire.
Then Haphran must have also seen something within Taesan.
Haphran nodded uncertainly.
“I did. Why do you ask?”
“Can you tell me what you saw?”
“I can, but it won’t help much. Mental images don’t hold meaning until the person realizes it themselves. Words from others are just that—words.”
Haphran looked uneasy.
“Besides, having someone describe your own mental image can cause problems. It can fix your perception in place.”
“Problems?”
“That’s how it is,” Haphran explained.
“The moment you hear something about your own image, it imprints itself in your mind—whether you like it or not. It can shake the foundation of what you’ve built.”
“That won’t be an issue.”
Taesan replied firmly. He wasn’t weak enough to be shaken by someone else’s words.
“I just can’t see it clearly myself. I’d like to hear another perspective.”
“Well, if you insist.”
Haphran stroked his chin, recalling.
“I didn’t grasp everything about you. Even though our minds were connected, you were on a far higher level than me. All I saw was a rough outline.”
“I understand.”
Back then, Taesan had been an Immortal. Even if connected, a being of lower standing couldn’t truly comprehend a higher one.
“To put it simply… it was strange.”
“Strange?”
“A mental image reflects the core of one’s being—it’s often straightforward. But yours… was different. It was all mixed together.”
“You mean [Black]?”
That part didn’t surprise him.
He had obtained [Black], and it had become a vital part of him.
And Soul Rank Ascension was a power that devoured others’ strength—distortion was to be expected. But Haphran was talking about something beyond that.
“I don’t know what it was exactly. But something about it was wrong,” Haphran said hesitantly.
“It wasn’t just that the power you’d gained had become part of your image. Everything was jumbled together so chaotically that I couldn’t discern its nature.”
Taesan froze.
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
Haphran nodded.
“As if it had always been that way—as if it had been mixed from the very beginning.”
“…I see.”
[Black] was something he gained later, so only a part of him should’ve been altered.
But if everything had been twisted from the start—
‘Then it means I’ve been connected to them from the beginning.’
His distortion hadn’t begun later.
It started at the very beginning.
That was his essence—his origin.
The moment he realized that, something inside him changed. It was as though a wall within him had shattered, allowing him to sense something new.
“This…”
Things he couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, couldn’t comprehend—were now becoming engraved within him.
“…Something’s changed,” Haphran said, stepping back in surprise.
“So it helped, then?”
“More than enough.”
Taesan suppressed the quietly surging power within. It wasn’t perfect—there was still much he didn’t understand.
But even this much was a significant breakthrough.
“That’s good to hear. Oh, right.”
Haphran gave him a puzzled look.
“When I saw your image, I also saw something deep inside you.”
“Something?”
“I don’t know what it was. But there was… something inside you. It didn’t feel like it belonged solely to your mental image.”
Haphran shook his head.
“Maybe I imagined it. It was only for a moment, gone in an instant. But it felt… unsettling.”
“I see.”
Something residing within him.
After a brief moment of thought, Taesan nodded.
“Alright. Thanks.”
“So, are we done here?”
Taesan shook his head. He had changed—and now, he could do something that was impossible before.
He opened his inventory.
Haphran’s expression twisted as he saw the materials Taesan pulled out.
“…That’s—”
“I want to make something with this. I could use your help.”