Chapter 142
I placed my hand on the whale's white heart.
Stone-hard and cold to the touch.
But a definite pulse could be felt in that cold heart.
Thump. Thump.
A steady sound, as if it were still alive.
It was strange. The body was already dead, reduced to bones and hide, yet the heart was still beating.
"Can I even eat this?"
It was far too fresh for something like this.
What if a whale suddenly came back to life in my stomach?
[It was a spirit beast just before becoming a divine beast, so that could really happen. Heh heh. If you're scared, don't eat it—give it to me.]
[The sandworm predicts that one made of sand should also work.]
The two advisors on either side of me answered at once.
But I still couldn't bring myself to put it in my mouth.
"If I eat this, it's definitely going to cause an uproar."
It had happened many times before.
Whenever my body underwent a major change, the surroundings would turn into a desert or an earthquake would strike.
Let alone this—this was the heart of a Floor 45 boss. The most valuable thing I'd ever eaten.
Digesting it was definitely not going to be smooth.
I looked around me.
Priceless materials I could never obtain again.
What if they got caught up in my power and turned into a handful of sand?
That could not be allowed.
"Let's check the rest first."
I moved to the side.
A still-unidentified black stone.
"So what the heck is this? Whale shit?"
[The sandworm sighs.]
[You ignorant fool. Have you never heard of ambergris?]
"...Hold on, I'll look it up."
I turned on my phone and searched for ambergris.
"Ambergris, a sperm whale bezoar. It's used as a raw material for expensive perfume.... Perfume? That's useless to me."
A super macho guy like me doesn't spray perfume.
Natural fabric softener and my own body scent are enough.
Of course, even if I didn't use it, it seemed to be quite expensive because of its rarity.
But just money, huh. I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.
I smacked my lips for no reason.
[It's similar in how it's formed, but its uses are completely different. Who'd be insane enough to use such a precious thing as perfume?]
[The sandworm says that stone is like the whale's very essence.]
[It's a calculus formed by clumping together inside the body over long years. It has power in itself.]
So it wasn't just shit—it was constipation.
I thought to myself.
[Honestly, the things you think.... What's the whale you met like?]
"Well...."
The first thing that came to mind was its size.
And the suction power with which it swallowed the ship in one bite.
A force that seemed like it could suck in the entire ocean.
"A pulling force?"
[To put it elegantly, gravitational force. This stone contains that property.]
[The sandworm advises that, under normal circumstances, it can absorb and store mana.]
[Of course, there are plenty of ways to use it in battle too. The possibilities are broad. Combined with incantations, you could even strengthen that property.]
My ears perked up.
It can store mana?
"So it's a battery."
While cutting through the sea to catch the whale, I had to burn through mana stones worth billions of won.
It was a one-time boost, and even then I fell into a horrible state of exhaustion as soon as the fight ended.
But if there were a battery that could hold mana?
"Do I have to put the mana in myself?"
[No, it would naturally absorb it from the atmosphere. The mana density around here will get a little lower, though.]
Besides, it wasn't storing my own mana.
In other words, it was a device that collected free mana.
"Good, let's process it right away. Do you know how to process it?"
[Scrape off the surface and leave only the core.]
"Easy."
I created a vibrating sand cutter at my fingertips and began carving away the stone.
It was pretty hard, but not so much that I couldn't cut it.
"Is this enough?"
[Carve off more.]
"Then how about this?"
[More.]
"There's nothing left..."
It was like peeling a melon. A cheap fruit that leaves almost nothing once you cut away all the white flesh stuck to the rind.
With tears in my eyes, I kept carving away at the stone.
After a while, a black jewel emerged from within.
"This is it?"
Surprisingly, as the jewel was revealed, the smell disappeared and a calming fragrance spread out.
"Oh...."
After a long session of work, the black jewel finally revealed itself completely.
It seemed to absorb the surrounding light and air.
[Top grade. You're lucky, too.]
The black mage marveled.
"I wonder if I can fit it into the staff..."
There was an empty space between the head of the staff and the twisted wooden roots.
I carefully pushed the black jewel I'd just carved into that space.
The jewel slid naturally into place.
Vwoom!
The jewel floating in the air began to hum at a low pitch.
The hum spread through the entire staff, then gradually died down.
At the same time, the surrounding mana swirled into the jewel and was sucked in.
"It works right away?"
A staff that automatically absorbs the mana around it without me even touching it.
"How much can it store?"
I tested it by channeling a little of my mana into it.
The staff sucked it up in an instant, like a sponge.
But there was no sign of it filling up even a little.
"How much capacity does it have?"
[It should be several times your total mana pool. If things go well, you might even be able to cast an unimaginably powerful spell.]
"A super spell..."
Then could it make the giant sand arm from last time, or something even bigger?
Of course, I'd need to store up enough mana first.
I smiled with satisfaction.
Then I looked at the other items left behind.
Massive bones and hides filling up the storage.
"Well, these should be usable as materials, right?"
I borrowed the power of the dwarf ring and checked the crafting information.
When I activated the ring, a thick book made of mana unfolded.
[What the hell is that?]
"First time seeing it? It's a treasure the dwarf gave me. I can craft items with it."
[A dwarf? Just like that elf last time, what in the world are you...]
The black mage was shocked only belatedly.
Only then did I realize this was the first time he'd seen my ring.
[The sandworm says that his shallow knowledge has finally been exposed.]
[...Annoying, but you're right this time.]
"Get along, okay?"
I roughly mediated between the two while looking for items related to whales.
But after searching for a long time, I couldn't find even the slightest trace of whale-related items.
"Why isn't there any?"
How could that be?
Wasn't it supposed to be possible to make anything?
[The sandworm says dwarves spend most of their lives in tunnels underground, so they probably have never seen the sea.]
"Damn..."
I clicked my tongue.
Lazy dwarven bastards. They should go out, meet people, feel the breeze, and see the sea.
How can they be so short on frontier spirit?
[The sandworm reports that it has found an annotation.]
"An annotation?"
At that, I turned the pages.
Sure enough, there were short memos scattered throughout.
Among them were some about whales and the sea.
[One day, a traveler told a story about the sea.]
[He said the sea was salt water covering 80% of the land. Humans really do exaggerate.]
[He said that there lived a monster called a whale that could swallow more than ten thousand dwarves.]
[Ha! Ridiculous.]
[If a dwarf were eaten, they'd riot from inside its belly and kill the monster. How could it possibly eat more than one?]
[Still, he brought back a few interesting materials, so I'll leave a record of my experiments.]
Beneath that were detailed notes and applications.
But there was one problem.
It wasn't an official crafting method, just research notes, so I couldn't replicate it.
Without the item's enhancements, I was a complete novice.
I couldn't understand this record.
"Still, according to the notes here, these materials seem to be worth more than enough."
[The sandworm recommends visiting the dwarf again.]
"Yeah, I was planning to do that anyway."
If I planted a flag there, it would be useful in many ways.
I'd be able to collect precious minerals from Earth on a regular basis.
"Then should I go deal with this now?"
I turned my gaze back to the white heart.
I needed a place to process it.
Somewhere it didn't matter if the surroundings got damaged.
Then a good idea came to me.
"For now, I'll grind this into powder..."
I ground the heart into powder, then transferred it into the bag I'd carefully brought along.
Since the heart was hollow inside, grinding it into powder reduced its volume severalfold.
After that, I teleported without hesitation.
Destination: Floor 20. The elves' forest.
There was something I needed there.
***
"You want dew or sap?"
"Yeah. I need to mix this powder with water and drink it. But I figured this would be better than drinking it with ordinary water, for some reason."
"For some reason, you say.... Very well. I'll prepare it right away."
As soon as I arrived in the World Tree forest, I went to the elder elf and got straight to the point.
Even with my sudden request, the elder didn't seem rattled.
[He really is an elf. Good grief.... What on earth is the flow of time here? Is it connected to the past?]
"Huh? The flow of time?"
It was a problem I'd never really thought about.
After all, to me, the tower was an artificial space divided into ten-floor segments.
I couldn't even tell whether this setting was a real world or something else.
"Isn't the tower just like that? Besides, you brought it out from inside the tower too."
[...Are you saying this body came out of the tower?]
"No, I mean, clearly the temple you were in and our house are completely different, right? What did you think it was?"
[Why, naturally, one of the worlds beyond the gate.... Strange.]
"?"
[My head's a mess. Let me think for a bit.]
The black mage said that and closed his eyes.
He was like a PET bottle that wouldn't even twitch when shaken.
I was also puzzled by his attitude, but decided to leave him alone for now.
Just then, the elder appeared carrying a bottle.
The elder looked around and said,
"Come to think of it, that spirit isn't here today?"
"Chohogi? Why do you ask? Are the kids looking for him again?"
"That too, but I was wondering how the phoenix fruit is growing."
"Ah."
Hearing that, I realized I should have brought Chohogi with me to show him how it was doing.
So I had no choice but to explain it verbally.
I told him about the verbal spell I'd recently discovered, and that as a result one more leaf had sprouted, bringing the total to three.
"Once it becomes five leaves, it will bear fruit. It's been quite a while since I last saw it myself, so I'm curious."
"I'll bring him next time."
Then I could hear more detailed instructions on how to use the fruit, too.
After saying goodbye to the elder, I moved to the area that had once been filled with the tower's wreckage and contamination.
It was still a wasteland where not even a blade of grass would grow, due to the aftereffects.
"This should be fine."
I took out the 12-liter purified-water bottle I'd brought and mixed the powder and liquid in the proper ratio.
The liquid turned thick, like a milkshake.
Without hesitation, I lifted the bottle to my mouth.
Gulp, gulp.
A shake that far exceeded what a human could drink in one go.
But since it was absorbed into my body as I drank it, there was no problem.
"I can feel it right away."
Familiar warmth spreading from deep in my stomach.
I already knew how to handle this warmth.
I sat down in lotus position and began to contemplate my inner self.
Soon, my field of vision inverted.
***
Now a familiar landscape greeted me.
An endless desert of golden sand.
And the sand giant, even larger than before.
"There you are again."
What exactly is the sand giant?
It's certainly closely related to me.
Maybe it's another version of me.
"Rain?"
Today was different from usual.
It was raining in the desert.
The rain gradually intensified and became a downpour.
Little by little, puddles began forming all over the desert.
I naturally lifted my head and looked at the sky.
"......"
I was left breathless.
There was no sky.
Instead, a gigantic ocean had been turned upside down and was pouring water down onto the ground.
A massive curtain of water defying gravity.
And at its center, where the sun and moon should have been.
Bwooo-!
I saw a white whale crying out in its familiar voice.
"A rematch?"
Was it because I ate the whale's heart?
Its remnants must have invaded my inner world.
Thud thud thud thud!
The sky began to convulse.
The water level slowly descended.
The pressure felt like the sky itself was collapsing onto me.
"If you were dead, you should just sit still and be a meal...!"
Unlike when I beat it before, I had no mana-stone doping, and no weapon either.
But I wasn't the least bit afraid.
This is my turf.
I reached out a hand toward the sky.
The sand giant moved in step with my motion.
At the same time, all the sand in the desert reversed course and surged upward into the sky.
A gigantic breakwater held up the heavens.
Sand and water.
The two opposing forces fought each other, each trying to devour the other.
"Ugh...!"
KWA-AAAANG!
The ocean's immense mass pressed down on the barrier.
I could feel the pressure of water many times heavier than when I had tried to split the sea.
I desperately pulled at the desert sand.
But.
Bwooo-!
With a single thrashing movement of the whale, a gigantic wave rose up, and the wall made by human strength collapsed helplessly.
I couldn't stop it.
The difference in sheer age and power.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
At this rate, my inner world would become an ocean.
I didn't know what impact that would have on my real body, but it certainly wouldn't be a good one.
"What should I do?"
Just as I was growing anxious,
the scene I'd seen in the East Sea last time suddenly flashed through my mind.
The beautiful sight of a sandy beach.
There was no artificial breakwater there.
When seawater rushed in, it got wet, and when the water receded, it dried.
...The sea has a bottom too."
The seabed. The bottom of the sea.
The ground that endures that tremendous pressure is also earth.
Earth doesn't fight water. Soil can hold water.
When it rains, it gets wet; when the sun comes out, it dries—that's nature's law.
An insight that flickered through my mind in an instant.
I grasped that realization.
"There's no need to block it."
I let go of my strength.
I dismantled the wall the giant had been holding up.
Instead, I spread both arms wide.
I swallowed the sea pouring down into my chest and mouth.
Bwooo-!
The white whale floating in the sky let out its final scream.
Along with the sea swirling and being sucked in, the whale also seeped into the giant's chest.
Plop!
The last drop of water fell onto the sand.
Silence fell.
When I lifted my head, I saw a clear, bright sky.
I looked around at the transformed desert.
"Ah...."
In the middle of the once-barren desert,
a clear blue pool of water had appeared.
It was an oasis.
I knelt before it and scooped up some water with my hand to drink.
"That's refreshing."
A coolness that seemed to clear my mind.
Clack!
At the same time, I felt one more layer of the shackles on my body come loose.
***
I slowly opened my eyes.
It seemed quite some time had passed, because the sun was setting.
"Did it work...?"
I raised my hand.
From my fingertips to my forearm, and up to my shoulder.
My body turned to sand and then back into flesh in an instant.
That much had already been possible before.
I carefully brought my hand up to my face.
Srrrkk.
Starting from where my fingertips touched, my skin began turning to sand and trickling down.
Now I can turn every part of my body except my heart into sand.