Chapter 248: Chapter 58: The Treasury_3

Perhaps humans don’t need to have it too good; just living like this current state is pretty decent.

The gifts the gods bestow upon mortals should be random rather than fixed. It is for humans to hope and pray for their favor, not to exchange it for a clearly marked price.

However, the gods only sporadically regard humans, for they had long understood the Divine King’s thoughts. From Pandora, whom they had created together, they saw Zeus’s will.

Nevertheless, even for the dignity of the gods, the Divine King would not allow the Bronze Humanity, who blasphemed against the deities, to proliferate and become masters of the earth.

Therefore, they failed to notice that at the edge of Aurora, a ‘demigod’ as they understood him, began to teach the primitive skills of physical training to the surrounding people, using that place as the center.

Or rather, they were learning together. Some of these people were themselves only half-understanding about attaining this power, and he was also troubled about how to let others learn this ability.

After all, he was born at the pinnacle of the Mortal World, his physique a mere step away from transcendence, to the point that when he first harnessed this power, he didn’t even find it useful.

So everything was tentative, and in a short while, apart from him, no second human who could birth power within their body appeared, though their physiques had significantly improved.

In the meantime, apart from researching this power, he also sought to understand the history of the past few centuries and the deeds of the gods through various channels. In his home, he carved a stone slab and often pondered in silence before it, never having gone to worship in any deity’s temple.

This caught the attention of a few, but at times of change, many people, bereft of divine gifts, were already complaining and even hating the gods, just not daring to voice it, so in the end, no one paid it more attention.

In such circumstances, Laine, who had finally returned to Mount Sinai, stood at the core of the seven-tiered Spirit Realm, taking out Odin’s treasury that he had put away.

“It doesn’t have the function to self-destruct, but only to shake space-time and let the items within fall out, is that right?”

Although he had said this once before, and the observations he personally made confirmed it, Laine still wanted to confirm it again.

He had reaped much from this journey and needed to arrange each item, but first, he had to take stock of them all, and Odin’s treasury was one of the ‘blind boxes’ about which he still knew nothing.

Thus, he set aside the dragon egg and first took out the wooden sphere engraved with runes. It wasn’t large, but for a creation of a Divine King, the apparent size evidently had no reference value.

“Yes, in fact, I also participated in the crafting of this treasury.”

Following Laine into the Spirit Realm, Mimir grew increasingly cautious.

He was grateful he hadn’t come to a place akin to the Land of the Dead, but the Spirit Realm seemed not much better.

“For some truly precious items, the self-destruction runes aren’t actually capable of destroying them. It’s better to use the force of space-time, sending them to predetermined locations before the treasury is opened.”

“Of course, now that the Nine Realms have collapsed, those predetermined coordinates are invalid. If we destroy it now, the items inside will just drift randomly in the void.”

The true void refers to the nothingness beyond worlds, but Laine knew that Mimir wasn’t talking about this; the void he referred to was just a concept on the spatial plane.

“So, are you going to open it now? Just give me a moment to study, and I can find…”

“No need to make it that complicated.”

He shook his head slightly. Regardless of whether Mimir truly didn’t know how to open the treasury or just wanted to showcase his value, Laine wasn’t planning to spend that time.

This was the Spirit Realm, and even if Odin himself were here, he wouldn’t be able to puncture the space-time barrier of the Spirit Realm. His treasury, even if its power increased by a hundredfold, wouldn’t yield a second outcome.

“`

Laine reached out his hand and gently grasped the wooden sphere. In the next moment, the space-time around the sphere started to bend, and an invisible force acted upon it.

The grain of the wood lit up with symbols, one after another, which then extinguished just as quickly. Rune Symbols are the runes that explain the rules of the Nine Realms, not the rules of Chaos.

Although there are some similarities between the rules of the two worlds, there are more differences. Therefore, what could have been called one of Asgard’s top alchemy creations, the Divine King’s treasury, almost instantly had its defenses broken, and the inscriptions of warning within were triggered.

Hum—

A humming sound, visible to the naked eye, signaled the instant disintegration of the sphere’s wooden structure, and a familiar aura spread forth, that of the World Tree’s power.

This divine tree, in its living days, not only possessed an extremely potent Life force but also supported the space-time of the Nine Realms, hence it had a very high space-time affinity. This force was now being drawn out, booming outwards.

Then nothing happened, even as the entire wooden structure of the treasury crumbled away, not inflicting any damage to the surrounding space.

“This…”

Somewhat speechless, Mimir was shocked. In Norse mythology, unlike in Chaos, there was no deity truly in charge of space-time, only some entities that were more or less related to it. For instance, Odin was considered a guardian of space-time, and The Three Fates were sometimes thought to possess the power of time.

Therefore, seeing Laine manipulate space so effortlessly still greatly shook him.

In his brief encounter with the Flesh-Mother Tree, Mimir thought he had understood the formidable power of this foreign deity. However, now he saw that his power was not limited to Life and Death.

“Alright, tell me about these things. Having been Odin’s ‘chief of staff’ for so many years, you must have some understanding, right?”

As the treasury shattered, the space inside also expanded, returning to its normal size. Facing the items laid out before him, Laine did not reach out immediately but first turned to inquire of Mimir beside him.

After all, it was better to let the ‘local’ explain things from another world.

“Of course.”

The giant head pushed down its shock and turned to look at several items floating in the void. Soon, he seemed to discover something.

“Lord Laine, do you see that book?”

Following the sound, Laine noticed the seemingly ordinary book.

“Of course, what does it contain?”

He already had a guess, after all, the value of a book is to carry knowledge. And what kind of knowledge would Odin cherish, if not Wisdom? Laine still waited for Mimir to confirm his thoughts.

“That is The Origin Text, the very first book made from the leaves and sap of the World Tree Yggdrasil. In our world, there are many legends about it, but in truth, only I truly know what it is.”

Reflecting upon the past, as the guardian of the Spring of Wisdom, Mimir sometimes wondered what exactly he had received from the Fountain. It did not clear the fog to glimpse true ‘Wisdom,’ or perhaps it revealed nothing at all.

“Lord Laine, it is the greatest achievement of Odin’s sacrifice at the Spring of Wisdom, also the source of over seventy percent of all Magic and Alchemy in the Nine Realms, the original Rune Scriptures.”

“Odin extracted it from his own memories, using the unique and eternal leaves of the World Tree as its vessel. The final creation that emerged is The Origin Text before you.”

“`