Fire Mage

Chapter 668: Causality Manipulation

As the Abyssal Hound's corpse fell, the strange madness aura around the surroundings started to dim and completely vanished in two seconds.

Only then did Charles notice a strange anger and coldness appeared within him. But thanks to the Mind Blank amulet, the effect seemed significantly less. He quickly snapped out of that peculiar feeling and looked at the sword.

'Hungry!' An eerie voice came from Grace.

A moment later, a large amount of suction force came from the hilt region and started sucking his life force madly. Before he could even blink, he lost 100 years of his lifespan!

Thankfully, Grace stopped sucking his life force after that and went into a deep slumber.

'I lost 100 years of lifespan for a single battle.' But the good thing was he managed to learn something from this.

'I can't use the sword carelessly. Not only it sucks my soul, it even influences my thoughts. I might have been in a difficult state if my soul hadn't mutated. But after the soul mutation and becoming a Rank-6 [Fire Mage], my life span has increased by around 90,000 to 100,000 years. And my resistance to the mind-related abilities also increased.' Charles only felt a change within his soul and soon shook his head.

After that, he dismissed the Rebirth Domain and turned his attention towards the center of the chamber where the strange circular pattern was drawn.

"Instead of letters, I only see strange patterns of creatures and birds within the circles." While muttering, he soon approached the teleportation circle and stepped into it. Then, he used the 'Mythos Decoding' skill and tried to decipher it.

But all of a sudden, the strange patterns started to glow in bluish light and started enveloping the whole circle.

At the same time, Charles felt a strange pulling force out of nowhere and transporting him somewhere.

No, he noticed it was a strange invisible hand that grabbed his body like a toy and transported him into deep space.

'I'm suffocating.' He held his breath and covered his body in a red tear.

'But where am I getting transported? Aren't dungeon layers arranged in a tower-like area?'

Before he could look deeply at the surroundings, the space before him suddenly cracked and became wide as a human could pass through.

Meanwhile, the invisible hand moved him closer to the spatial crack and dropped him into it.

A second layer, Charles felt the suffocating feeling start disappearing and found himself falling from the cloudy sky.

Without delay, he released his wisdom power and regained his momentum. Then, he slowly descended toward the ground and noticed it was a desert-like land all over the place. Whenever he looked, the only thing that appeared before his sight was sand and rocky mountains.
'I should find a safe place to rest for a while and then think of a way to go to the next layer. When the next disaster happens, I must arrive at the fourth layer and prepare. Moreover, I vaguely feel that my next wisdom skill can help me achieve my goal.' While thinking, he reached the sandy ground and started walking randomly.

At the same time, he thought of the information he got from Eddie Nightwind's book.

'Paalai land filled with Sand Monsters and blood-sucking creatures. Eddie also warned the explorers to be more careful of sudden sand storms that could even kill a Legendary Magical Beast in a span of seconds.' He suddenly paused as he observed the surrounding air and noticed dense wind elemental essence flowing everywhere.

'I should be careful and not provoke any magical beasts.' He muttered inwardly and continued to walk.

But after traveling only for thirty minutes, he was met with an obstacle.

Amidst the desert's vastness stood four imposing Magical Beasts near prickly pear-type mutated plants. At two meters tall, they were scorpion-like in appearance, their bodies adorned with a greenish hue that shimmered in the sunlight.

When these creatures were set in motion, a dangerous dance began. They released potent purple poisons into the air with every step, a silent warning to their enemy. This toxic aura surrounds them, a reminder of their deadly nature.

But their power didn't stop there. These beasts held the desert's elements in their grasp. With their bloodline spell, they summoned storms that shook the surrounding land. Winds howled, sands whirled, and the desert bowed to their command.

'Although I'm powerful enough even to kill a Peak Level Legendary Magical Beast, I'm still not strong enough to take four at once.' He knew his limit and decided to withdraw from there.

After that, he continued his journey but soon noticed that most of the monsters that appeared along the way were scorpion-type.

'Is there a nest nearby?' He dared not stay in that region and moved towards the faraway small hill.

He finally reached a new land after traveling for more than 10 hours in the desert.

After that, he explored many places and encountered many kinds of Magical Beasts like Mirage Shifters, Sandfire Serpents, Sand Golems, Desert Veilweavers, etc.

But what startled him deeply was that every being he encountered within this layer was Legend Rank Being!

'No wonder Eddie and his team members couldn't progress further. But I'm shocked how the Amber Church, Pentagon Family, and others reached the fifth layer.'

While traveling, he encountered many ruined places, like buried houses, temples, and even half-buried fortresses. He discovered many pebble-sized stone tablets with unique carvings of birds, animals, and marine creatures.

He also saw many strange patterns and symbols on every stone tablet and tried to decipher which civilization lived there using the [Mythos Decoding] skill.

After analyzing everything for over a day, he finally decoded the information hidden in every seal.

'This Paalai land is a domain of a fallen Goddess who rules over the domain of wind and storms. Strangely, there is no mention of her name.' But with the help of those seals, he managed to grasp a few important locations of this dimension.

'Those are the important locations of twelve subordinates of the fallen goddess. But those areas might be in ruins already.' After some thought, he decided to take things slowly.

'I already spent more than two days here but have yet to find a clue about the teleportation circle to the fourth layer. For now, I will find a safe location and focus on improving my strength.' He first found a ruined dome-shaped temple, entered while looking at the half-destroyed pillars, and soon entered the sanctum sanctorum. Thankfully, the temple wasn't damaged much as outside.

Inside the sanctum, he found no statues or religious altars but only a square black stone.

'Is this a symbol?' He quietly sat beside the black stone, took the crystal dimension stone from his space ring, and put it near the rock.

He also took out a pocket watch and put it beside the square stone.

After that, he turned into his elemental form, focused on the crystal-dimension stone, and soon disappeared.

A moment later, he reappeared before the gigantic Sun made of pure chaotic fire and then took out the Sage Gem from his space ring.

He then focused on the small bluish gem and tried to comprehend more wisdom essences to unlock the sixth skill.

But unlike before, his comprehension speed had increased even When comprehending Mythos Decoding skill, it took him over 2 hours to understand a single wisdom essence streak. But now, he higher.

When comprehending Mythos Decoding skill, it took him over 2 hours to understand a single wisdom essence streak. But now, he only took one hour and 45 minutes.

As he further tried to understand every wisdom rule, his comprehension of the wisdom power increased.

Time passed slowly.

Hours turned days, days turned weeks, and even months passed quickly.

On the other hand, Charles focused solely on his comprehension and comprehended 1150 wisdom essence streaks in a single month.

'I need almost one month to comprehend a Wisdom Essence, huh?' He nodded inwardly and continued to comprehend more wisdom Essences.

Once again, he went into deep seclusion within the Crystal dimension.

Time moved at an incredible pace within the Crystal Dimension as his comprehension progression increased daily.

At some time, he also entered a strange enlightened state and managed to grasp some of the secrets of the next skill.

"Causality Manipulation... It's an ability to manipulate causality, altering the sequence of events to create a desired outcome.' Even though the description was simple, Charles managed to understand the true potential of this skill and continued to understand it.

Twelve years passed within the Crystal Dimension.

But even after all this time, he only comprehended around 100 Wisdom Essences.

'If I want to receive the full effect of this skill, I need to understand more than 1,000 Wisdom Essences. Unfortunately, I lack time.' He shook his head and hurriedly left the Crystal Dimension.

A second later, he reappeared within the ruined temple and noticed nothing much changed in the surroundings.

Then, he took out the pocket watch and noticed more than 16 days had passed.

'It's time to leave this layer.'