There were a few ten meters tall trees that were around five meters wide.
A cool breeze blew through the vegetation.
Wheeing-!
Riding with the wind, small spirits were playing around.
-Ah, bored. Is there anything interesting today?
-There is no such thing in this narrow sanctuary.
-Right. I want to get out of there quickly. There would be a lot of fun things outside.
-Nevertheless, Syarlon told me to not go outside. He said that going out of the sanctuary is dangerous.
-Hmph, isn't it okay to just play carefully?
-No. Syarlon will get angry at us!
The spirit dimension had been taken over and contaminated by the mechanical civilization.
However, there were areas that weren't contaminated yet.
There were four sanctuaries that were located in the east, west, north and south side of the spirit dimension, and there was a sanctuary located at the center of the mountain as well, the Mother Nature.
The mechanical civilization hadn't yet conquered five places in the spirit dimension, and those places were the strongest ones.
The spirit sanctuary that Ian cleansed from the Abyss Valley was on the Southern side.
Wheeing-!
With low resonance, blue light started to rise.
After a while, a blue gate started to form.
“Oh.”
The figure who appeared from the gate was Ian who had left to bring back Blackie.
After a moment, System messages appeared in front of Ian.
Tring-!
[You have entered the ‘Spirit Sanctuary'!]
[This area is restricted for combat.]
[The spirit power of the spirits will rise by a little.]
Ian checked the messages and mumbled to himself in a small voice.
“What did Prettybbook say… She told me to go and find the spirit guardian, Syarlon…”
Ian wandered and looked around.
Only gigantic trees were towering all around, and no artificial roads or paths could be seen.
“Phew, do I need to contact those twins and get some coordinates…?”
After winning the battle with the Guardian machine, Ian, the twins, and Muel broke up to look after their works and stuff.
It was safe to say that they came to that decision because Ian had something to do, so the other three went into the sanctuary.
Ian had to stop by the human dimension because of his settings.
And while Ian was in the human dimension, they decided to first search for the information about the sanctuary.
Ian, who registered with all three friends, opened the chat room immediately.
Ian: Sarah, Vanessa. Where are you?
In less than 10 seconds, they replied.
However, the answer was slightly different from that of what Ian had been expecting.
Sarah: We're back in the human dimension right now.
Vanessa: I'm hunting in the human dimension right now!
Muel: I'm in Dark Abyss. We're moving with the server guild party and are targeting the Underworld.
“…!”
Ian was a bit embarra.s.sed.
He was, of course, thinking that he would be entering the spirit sanctuary along with those people.
He thought that they would be waiting inside the sanctuary for Ian to proceed with the next quest.
‘Everyone has gone down to the human dimension, then there is no quest to proceed with…'
However, Ian's shock didn't last long.
The next moment, a thought came to his mind.
‘Just as I thought. Maybe the Spirit dimension has the same content restrictions as that of the Underworld? Though my expectations are a bit too early.'
The Underworld, the place in Middle-Earth where Ian entered.
Most of the content in the Underworld had been blocked if one didn't have the ‘Warrior's Qualification'.
Karon wasn't going to give him the boat unless he had that qualification.
If he didn't get on Karon's boat, there was no way to enter Erebus, and most of the content of the Underworld was inside Erebus.
In fact, the whole main content had been blocked.
Dark Abyss was the only place where a user could enter without the mark.
And since the Spirit dimension was in the Middle-Earth, that kind of situation could be expected.
‘Unless one had the ‘valor's qualification', they can't enter the Middle-Earth content.'
The Abyss Valley, the Windy Plains, the Reindeer Forest map which had the Frost Cave, were all similar to Dark Abyss.
Ian, who inferred those things in an instant, spoke again in the chat window.
Ian: Was there a need for the Valor's Qualification for proceeding with the quests?
Ian asked the twins and Muel who couldn't help but feel shocked.
For those people who had been to the Spirit dimension as their first Middle-Earth place, such an a.s.sumption couldn't be possible.
Sarah: OMG?
Vanessa: What? How do you know?
Muel: Ian, what was that? That is so scary.
After seeing their reactions, Ian was able to confirm that his prediction and a.s.sumptions were right.
‘Indeed…'
Ian just shook the thoughts from his head and texted again.
Even if the main content progress was going to be difficult, he had to meet the spirit sanctuary guardian Syarlon.
And in order to not get lost and confused, there was a need for information to be gathered.
Ian: There is a way to know everything.
Vanessa: The cheats! Be honest, you are a GM, right?
At the response from Vanessa, Ian shook his head while laughing.
Ian: Vanessa, don't say weird stuff. Just tell me the coordinates of the Spirit Guardian.
The map of spirit sanctuary was much wider than what Ian had expected.
As a sanctuary, he expected the size to be of a small square, it was because the so-called ‘spirit sanctuary' was in the middle of the mountain peaks.
‘I did well getting the coordinates from Vanessa.'
Ian shook his head and looked at the huge tree that stood in front of him.
According to the information he got from Vanessa, there was a spirit guardian named Syarlon living on top of that tree.
Receiving the coordinates, he thought that he would have to walk through the forest for over an hour before he could find it.
And because of the numerous number of trees in the forest, it wouldn't be easy to find the one where Syarlon was living.
“Pin, let's go up there.”
Grrrk-!
Ian summoned Pin and quickly flew into the air.
After a while, they found a cabin that was built on top of the tree.
“Came.”
Ian stepped onto the wood with a light jump and approached the cabin very carefully.
But at that moment, the closed door of the cabin opened up.
“There are a lot of people coming these days. Is the Abyss Valley purified?”
An old man appeared in front of Ian as the door of the cabin opened. Ian who saw the old man was getting excited.
The old man that he saw was someone that he had never seen before.
The old man was slightly bent with a white long beard.
A large horn was protruding through his white hair on top of his head like a mountain goat.
‘This is really interesting.'
Ian concealed his thoughts to himself and greeted the man politely.
“Nice to meet you. Are you maybe the spirit guardian, Syarlon?”
At the question of Ian, the man nodded his head.
“Hmm, I don't know how you knew my name, but yes.”
And Ian naturally continued trying to have a conversation with him, “I met a girl called PrettyBbook in the Frost Cave. She was the one who let me know.”
Those words from Ian made Syarlon narrow his eyes.
“Oh ho, so you met the Abyss Guardian. Then, have you challenged the gates of Pan?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Then you must have pa.s.sed all the gates.”
“How did you know that?”
“If you didn't pa.s.s through the gates, the Abyss Guardian wouldn't have told you about me. Hehehe.”
Listening to the words of Syarlon, Ian could feel that he found an interesting person.
‘Syarlon is the spirit guardian, and Prettybbook is the Abyss guardian… so there seems to be an attribute called ‘Abyss' within the Spirit dimension, so then there would be other guardians in the Spirit dimension.'
While Ian was in his thoughts, Syarlon continued, “If you pa.s.sed through the gate, you would have gotten the legacy of Pan… The spirit spell, you must have mastered it?”
“Yes.”
“Nice. If you did get the Legacy of Pan that was left behind, then I guess I can expect a little from you.”
After speaking a few strange stuff, Syarlon decided to enter into the cabin.
Kiik-!
Subsequently, Syarlon, who reopened the old door of the cabin, stepped in.
“Come inside.”
Tring-!
[You have fulfilled the conditions necessary.]
[You have entered the ‘Cabin of Syarlon' for the first time.]
‘What was that?'
New system messages came into the sight of Ian as he entered the cabin of Syarlon.
It was an unexpected message.
‘First time. I was sure that the twins and Muel would have entered here?'
Ian couldn't have known about it, but the twins and Muel hadn't entered the cabin.
After meeting Syarlon outside the cabin, they distributed the rewards of the quest ‘Into the blast'.
Starting with the ‘Abyss Guardian' reward, they got quite generous rewards, and nor did Syarlon regret not asking them in.
Syarlon didn't give them any additional quest. It was natural from the way they responded.
Then why did Syarlon go out of his way and treat Ian in such a manner?
Before that question could be answered, a few more messages appeared in front of Ian.
Tring-!
[Guardian ‘Syarlon' is on his guard.]
[‘Guardian Enchantment' has been triggered.]
[Cabin of Syarlon has been sealed with a strong bondage.]
[You can't get out of the Cabin of Syarlon until it is unlocked.]
“…!”
Ian was starting to get confused as the situation was turning out of his expectations.
Unimaginable developments were starting to unfold.
‘I don't get it. I didn't do anything wrong so why?'
Ian decided to stay calm.
There was never an episode in Kailan without a reason.
Ian gulped and calmed himself before asking Syalron, “Why are you doing this?”
Syarlon responded, “What are you talking about?”
“Weren't you the one who trapped me in this cabin?”
Syarlon's eyes started to s.h.i.+ne.
“Oh ho. You are great. You are aware of the barrier.”
“…!”
“However, it is nothing to be concerned about.”
As the eyes of Ian met with that of Syarlon, he took out a unique colored marble from his hand that he had been hiding.
“If I get a proper answer from you about why I feel the energy of the machines from you, then everything's going to be fine.”
“Huh?”
Ian started to think back.
‘The energy of machines, huh?'
He was now aware of why Syarlon was mad at him.
He was the guardian of the Spirit sanctuary, and if he felt the energy of machines from Ian, it was natural for the guardian to turn hostile toward Ian.
Ian tried to figure it out.
‘Why would you feel the machines' energy from me?'
While Ian was still trying to find a reason, Syarlon opened his mouth.
“Do you see these greyish-white hues on the beads?”
“Yeah, I see it.”
“This is proof that there is some kind of energy of the machines in you. The beads of Mother Nature don't lie.”
Syarlon's explanation went on, and Ian still didn't know what to tell Syarlon.
But apart from that, Ian looked calm. There was something that he thought of.
Syarlon stood, and Ian pulled out something from his inventory.
He then carefully placed it on the table.
“If you are feeling the energy of the machines, then it is probably from this thing.”
Looking at Ian, Syarlon's eyes drifted to the thing he placed on the table.
The moment he saw the item next to Ian, his eyes went wide.
“This… this?”
Ian smiled and spoke.
“Go ahead and check it out.”
After a while, new system messages came up in front of Ian.
Tring-!
[Conditions have been met.]
[Hidden quest has been triggered.]
