Volume 5 Chapter 18: The Past and Present

“Apostle 70053, you have learned about the unfortunate incident involving the troll brothers Fink. The progress of the ‘Mystery of Crystal Lake’ mission has reached 70%. You may choose to complete the mission immediately. Further progress will not yield any additional rewards.”

After seeing the prompt message in the Death Notice, Qin Lun recalled the three missing children. However, someone else brought them up at that moment.

“Great Mage Hollke, before we arrived, did you happen to see three other human children who came through the Teleportation Array? They were two boys named Karl and Sam, and a girl named Lucy!” Michelle asked seriously.

“Three children? Hah, no. You are the only visitors from the Outer World who have been teleported here in recent years!” Old Hollke shook his head, his beard trembling. “They might have been teleported elsewhere!”

“Teleported elsewhere?” Everyone in the hall exchanged puzzled glances, not quite understanding the old mage’s words.

“Hah, did you think that Teleportation Array only connected to this place?” Hollke smacked his lips. “That Teleportation Array links all teleportation points between the Outer World and the Inner World. It’s like a maze with countless entrances and exits. Many places in the Outer World can lead to the same location in the Inner World, and the same location in the Outer World can lead to many different places in the Inner World.”

“Is the teleportation random?” Qin Lun raised an eyebrow. No wonder the Shattered Starry Sky allowed them to complete the Guidance Mission once the progress exceeded 50%. Finding those three children would be no small task.

“Hah, for you, the teleportation is indeed random!” Hollke’s gaze shifted somewhat evasively. “So, you can’t blame me for not noticing anything unusual about the Teleportation Array all these years, right?”

The old man was not a skilled liar. Judging by his words and expression, given his power, he could definitely pinpoint the teleportation. The fact that this matter dragged on for twenty years was largely due to the old man’s negligence and incompetence. The random teleportation was just a secondary factor.

Qin Lun and Hill exchanged a glance and frowned slightly. They didn’t care whether Hollke was negligent or not. Finding the three children was not a big deal either, since the mission was already completed. However, from the old mage’s words, they began to form another crucial speculation.

“Respected Great Mage, are there also many… disagreements among the mages in the Inner World?” Qin Lun chose his words carefully. These mages were incredibly powerful. If their ideologies aligned, they wouldn’t have made the Teleportation Array operate on the fairest principle of random teleportation.

“Hah, disagreements? Child, you are greatly underestimating this place!” Hollke leaped down from his spacious sofa and paced around the hall with his hands behind his back, his expression serious. However, the cotton puffball on his sleeping cap bobbed comically behind him.

“Hmm, since you won’t be able to return to the Outer World for a while, let me give you a brief lesson!” After a long pause, Hollke deliberately adopted a weathered tone and began recounting the history and current state of the Nars Inner World.

Nars World was quite similar to Earth. In its star system, it was a planet rich in energy, nurturing countless forms of life since ancient times. However, unlike Earth, it also hosted several smaller planes attached to it.

The world laws of these smaller planes were incomplete, riddled with various flaws, and could hardly be considered proper worlds. Yet, within them, unique lifeforms emerged. These lifeforms possessed immense power but were few in number. Perhaps due to the simplicity of the laws in these smaller planes, these lifeforms gradually absorbed and comprehended these fragmented world laws over the long ages.

As time passed, these lifeforms, due to the scarcity of their kind, grew weary of their own planes and began venturing into the main world of Nars. They became the earliest deities of the Nars World.

Unlike Earth, the main world of Nars was much vaster and gave rise to more than just one sapient race: humans. Initially, the deities freely aided these sapient races, teaching them the world laws they had mastered.

Out of gratitude, the races established religions for the deities who helped them and offered their most devout faith. This made the deities grow arrogant, leading them to believe they needed to guide and control the races—and even… own them! This era was known as the Age of Gospel in Nars mythology!

As time went on, the highly reproductive sapient races spread across the entire planet of Nars and began competing for living space. After millennia of boredom, the deities finally discovered that besides teaching the races, there was another entertaining pastime: war.

With great enthusiasm, the deities manipulated their followers into participating in the wars. Lives were slaughtered, forests burned, rivers polluted, and even the land was torn asunder by the power of the deities. This era in Nars mythology was known as the “War of the Gods.”

During the War of the Gods, the living conditions of the sapient races continuously deteriorated. Gradually, all the sapient races awakened to the reality and attempted to break free from the deities’ control.

The races’ resistance to war enraged the deities. Like children who had lost their favorite toys, they began to vent their fury upon the very races they had once aided. They completely forgot that they and these seemingly insignificant lives had originated from the same planet.

The deities’ despicable actions ultimately led to a schism. Vastly outnumbering the deities, the sapient races fought courageously, making the deities understand the fearlessness of seemingly insignificant lives for the first time. After some deities fell, they had no choice but to retreat to the small planes where they were born, licking their wounds.

However, the deities’ retreat did not end the war. The sapient races suddenly realized that the deities were merely lifeforms slightly more powerful than themselves—not invincible. During the war, powerful warriors and mages who acquired the legacies of the fallen deities, driven by greed for power, began searching for the origins of the deities.

Pandora’s box was opened, and the gods faced their twilight! The once-supreme deities from over ten thousand years ago were hunted down like livestock by the various sapient races. Divine blood stained the small planes. With no retreat left, the deities finally tasted the other side of war. Some deities chose to perish together with their enemies, detonating the small planes they inhabited.

The disappearance of these small planes, in turn, impacted the main world of Nars. Volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis… At the same time, even the sapient races who had acquired the deities’ legacies began to realize they had become targets themselves—viewed as new deities, new prey.

Deities and mortals were suffering the same hardships! This war between humans and gods lasted a very long time. By the time it finally ended, very few of the original deities and small planes remained. The main world of Nars was left in ruins, having lost over 90% of its population.

Finally awakened, the sapient races and the last remaining deities signed a peace treaty. Together, they merged the remaining small planes to form the Inner World of Nars. They agreed that no individual with immense power would interfere in the affairs of the main world ever again.

Additionally, they would periodically absorb some lives from the main world into the Inner World. This served both to maintain the Inner World’s vitality and to forever remember the lessons of the past, preserving their respective legacies.

To this day, the main world of Nars has regained its former vitality and prosperity, while the Inner World has established a relatively balanced order among its factions.

Of course, this balance is very fragile. Learning from past mistakes, the factions in the Inner World no longer focus solely on the pursuit of pure power. However, due to the diversity of lifeforms here, differing worldviews and beliefs still lead to occasional “minor games” among them.

Currently, the Inner World is roughly divided into four continents: the Cursed Land, the Northern Plains, Greenland, and Norton Garth, separated by the Abyssal Chasm and the Sea of Stars. These areas are inhabited by powerful lifeforms, though their numbers are far fewer compared to those in the main world, making it a sparsely populated region.

“Hah, we are located in the southern hills of the Greenland continent. There are three major powers here: the Victor Royal Knights, the Sanctuary Camp, and The Spire!” Hollke stroked his white beard as he concluded. “The choice you must make is which faction to join!”

“Are you saying we can also learn powerful magic like yours, or even divine legacies?” Cora held her breath in excitement.

“Hahaha, the chances of that are less than one in hundreds of millions!” Hollke, without any dignity of a great mage, rolled on the sofa laughing. “Of course, it’s not entirely impossible. Most of the old-timers here have long lifespans. As long as you complete thousands of trials and tests before your life ends, you might have a chance to touch true power!”

Qin Lun and the others exchanged glances. Hill smiled and continued asking, “Respected Great Mage Hollke, if that’s the case, why would the knight orders and magic associations accept us?”

“Hah, it’s good for young people to have ambition, but everything must start from the basics. Are you saying you look down upon other forms of magic and martial skills just because you can’t access the highest-level power laws?” Hollke grumbled discontentedly. “Back in my day…”

“Are you saying we have the opportunity to slowly learn and train in lower-level magic and martial skills?” Qin Lun keenly grasped the underlying meaning in the old mage’s words.

“The Inner World is different from the Outer World. The population here is sparse. Besides recruiting apprentices, those factions also need laborers and servants!” Hollke sneakily glanced at the centaur maiden’s ample chest and fiddled with the large puffball on his sleeping cap. “As long as you help with some odd jobs, they are quite willing to offer rewards—such as some minor tricks and simple performances!”

As the conversation deepened, Qin Lun and the others gradually gained more understanding of the Nars Inner World. They realized that the principle of equivalent exchange was followed here as well. It was very difficult for visitors from the Outer World to directly become apprentices of a powerful lifeform, but becoming an apprentice’s apprentice was relatively easier.

For instance, the necromancer named Jerry from the former Crystal Lake Campground was an apprentice of another powerful necromancer. As for the troll brothers Fink, they weren’t even considered apprentices yet—they only had the potential for the future. Even so, they paid with their lives for this opportunity.

Besides apprenticeships, there were also jobs as laborers and servants, which were quite similar to the mercenary system at Devil’s Horn. The difference was that the rewards offered by these factions were in the form of magical knowledge and martial guidance.

Realizing that the entire team might have entered a treasure trove of Apostle Skills, everyone felt a surge of uncontrollable excitement.

At the same time, Qin Lun and the others also understood the hint from the Shattered Starry Sky about competing teams when they first entered the Nars World. Clearly, even for jobs as laborers and servants, they would likely face intense competition.