Chapter 203. Garmeia (1)

Kel-Durin touched his belly as he spoke.

“Actually, our race don’t need to receive the Mana Pool surgery. We were born with such an organ. The Mana Pool in our bodies was something we created after researching the organ inside our bodies we were born with.”

The humans were similar but there was an important difference.

The humans, who had been living on Earth, had no organ to produce mana.

But the Sages were different.

From the moment they were born, there existed a marvelous body that converts food into liquid mana located between the intestines and their stomach.

The Mana Pool grew as the Sage grew and the Sages gained the rights to use a tremendous amount of mana throughout their life.

The mana that was created from the Mana Pool traveled to the very depths of the body as it stimulated and supplemented all the cells within their body.

Though this was the start of their tragedy.

“Vigorous body. It’s a good thing. You see, we become adults in just 3 years. And because the mana stimulates our brain cells, our intelligence is much higher as well. 3 years is more than enough to control our race’s technology.”

They grew at an extreme rate.

They learned very quickly with tremendously high intelligence, invented marvelous technology and improved them.

And they could control mana like a part of their body, such as their arms or legs.

The Satellite Fortress wasn’t created for no reason.

Their race, the Sages, had used this extreme intelligence and mana as a basis to increase their strength.

But there existed a fatal disadvantage.

A reason why there were only a few hundred thousand sages despite having only 3 years to adulthood with nonexistent natural predators.

Kel-Durin made a bitter smile.

“Do you know what our average life expectancy is?”

“…”

“It’s under 12 years. 12 fucking years. Hahahaha. Funny, right?”

The mana stimulated all the cells in their body and increased the speed of their metabolism.

Thankfully they grew fast and their injuries healed quickly as well, there was a limit to how many times a cell could divide.

Though their had a tremendously quick rate of growth, intelligence and mana, their cells weren’t strong enough to handle the mana.

But ironically, the cells that had been burnt up by the usage of mana continued to get regenerated by the mana.

And the cells that had gone through mitosis many more times than the cells of the humans could not continue as they reach their limit.

And that was the end of the Sages.

The end.

And due to some unknown issues, their fertility rates weren’t that good as well.

Short life and low fertility rates.

This was an extremely fatal problem to a race.

They had always been wary of their low population and tried to increase their lifespan and their fertility issue with their vast knowledge and technology for a very long time.

But it was all futile.

As if god was balancing them for their vast power, their numbers had always stayed around a few hundred thousands.

So the ranking system came to be.

The ones with longer lifespans from birth had become rank 1 and the ones who had shorter lifespans from genetic flaws became rank 4.

For their race, where members get stronger from mana the longer they stay alive, a longer lifespan was almost equal to stronger power.

Kel-Durin spoke upto this point, chuckled and then spoke.

“So our king is the one with the longest lifespan. Funny right? Though we have the technology to split apart mountains and cause seas to flip, the one who becomes the king is the one who lives the longest. Heheh…”

Someone who lived 20 years was astronomically wiser than someone who has lived 15 years and ones who had lived for 15 years understood more than those who lived 10 years.

They were different from humans who had a limit and got older as time went on.

Their cells would get reinforced by the mana as time went on which in turn enhanced their body.

Their control of mana increased and their wisdom rose as well.

Their nickname in the past had been the Race of the Dragons.

Because they were like Dragons who got stronger as they got older.

Of course their lifespans and bodies were tremendously lesser but nobody questioned this.

But then.

A monster had been born.

Karmen.

Their king.

He had been born to royalty and showcased a tremendous amount of charisma and intellect as a child.

“Surprisingly, our king Karmen had lived for 60 years. Can you believe that?”

Kel-Durin mumbled.

Hansoo was shocked.

Though 60 years didn’t seem like a lot, the average lifespan of these guys was merely 12 years.

In human terms it meant that Karmen had lived for almost 500 years.

‘What a mutation.’

And Karmen had accomplished a large amount of things with his vastly superior abilities compared to other rank 1 royalties.

And the great achievement he had thought up and had started.

— If we fail at creating a whole new body for ourselves then let’s just reconstruct the beasts that live in this world. Those who live in the same environment as us but have a more powerful body and longer lifespans. We will then move our souls to their bodies.

At first they were hesitant.

Because they had tried it before.

And they had failed.

But Karmen was different.

Kel-Durin made an expression full of respect.

“Though it seems like there had been some unexpected events… It’s a great success. For this body to still be here after 800 years.”

Kel-Durin looked at his body with a gleeful expression.

He had been fearful and had been worried about his body that had only 1 year left and was breaking down.

So he had rushed into cryo-sleep as soon as the soul migration technology had been created.

For his new body.

Though they wanted to split it up into numerous times but creating the Bluestone took over 10 years.

It might be different for the other races but for them 10 years was more than enough time for 80% of them to die off.

So except for the few remaining Sages, they all went into cryo-sleep.

And the result was glorious.

‘Now… The preparations are complete.’

They had finally broken through the limitations that had blocked the advancement of their race.

Hansoo spoke towards Kel-Durin who had been smiling in pride.

“Did you say all this just to tell me about the side effects?”

Kel-Durin shook his head at those words.

“No, while your bodies aren’t as good as the ones we have currently, it is still much superior to our original bodies. The important part about my story is about our king Karmen.”

The mana pool was actually something created for the Higher Races.

In order to perform this surgery on the humans, they had to alter the surgery to some degree.

“We also don’t know a lot about the actual Surgery. Since Karmen administrated all of this by himself.”

A stupid person could not understand the thoughts of a genius.

And the difference of intellect between Karmen, who had lived for 60 years, and Kel-Durin, who had lived for 20 years, was beyond imagination.

To the point of the entire Sage race having a hard time understanding one man’s thoughts.

Kel-Durin then spoke to Hansoo.

“Thankfully there are notes left behind by him. The research notes Karmen has compiled for us is extremely precious to us. Those are things we will need to research and improve from now on. So what we want is not really different from what you guys want. Inside the Satellite Fortress of Karmen, there is a research lab. Please go there and bring us the research notes. Then we will use those research notes as the basis to alter the surgery to your bodies.”

Hansoo made a confused expression.

“Why didn’t you guys bring it?”

It was just bringing some notes.

Kel-Durin made a slightly bitter expression.

“Wel… Karmen was a bit of a oddity and had set it up so nobody else could enter his lab.”

Kel-Durin smacked his lips while he spoke as if he could taste the bitterness.

Heavenly Siege Fortress, Garmeia.

A Satellite Fortress created for the imperishable king, Karmen, with the most powerful mana engine they had ever created and had a size that was a few times larger than a normal Satellite Fortress.

Karmen’s research lab existed within the Garmeia which should’ve crashed somewhere as of now.

This place was only allowed for Karmen.

They were all curious about the insides of this place but nobody had gone in here as of yet.

The Sages could not enter.

Even after they moved bodies.

Kel-Durin thought of that treasure vault as he spoke.

“If an existence with a mana pool goes in then it detects it and does not allow entry. So it’s impossible for us. The data might even get destroyed if we get close. So please bring this to us.”

The defense mechanism had two methods.

Detection of the sages who tried to enter and the destruction of the data inside.

Karmen allowed the distribution and sharing of information but did not allow the stealing of it.

Before he was a king, he was a researcher who had a huge amount of greed for knowledge.

And nobody had any complaints.

Since this allowed their technology to advance a step further and they all believed that Karmen would eventually release the data to the public one day.

But in this current situation, where Karmen’s location was a mystery, it may take at least a few centuries if they get near that location and the data got destroyed.

So somebody without the mana pool was the answer.

‘So you need to help us.’

Kel-Durin looked at the human in front of his eyes.

Though a new variable of an unknown race had come up, a 3 day group talk came with this conclusion.

Since it has come down to this, let’s use this new race to obtain the data.

Hansoo asked Kel-Durin after hearing all this.

“It still works even when the mana is frozen?”

The Sage’s technology worked on mana.

He didn’t know what that defense mechanism was but it shouldn’t be working right now since the mana had been frozen in the entire zone.

Kel-Durin chuckled at those words.

“I never said the thing protecting the data is a machine. Karmen has created a lot of strange things you see. Oh, you should go too by the well. Unless you want to see your underlings die for no reason.”

If a Sage, who had the possibility to aim for the data, approached then the data would get destroyed.

But if they, who don’t have the mana pool, go in then getting rid of these people would be the higher priority.

None of the Sages had gone inside before.

Except Karmen.

‘It’s… Probably alive. Probably.’

Kel-Durin’s body trembled as he thought of the monstrosity, <El-Tara>.

***

“Damn.”

Kulkin, who had been staring at the Higher Race in the distance for quite a while now, spat on the ground as he sat.

Countless thoughts flashed past his head.

Should I gather the others or not.

Should I try to do something or not.

Should he just watch like this.

But the conclusion was always the same.

As long as there were people who surrounded them and prevented the collision of both sides, he won’t be able to do anything.

Neither the avenging of his comrade nor getting his revenge.

Though he had become free, nothing had changed.

If one didn’t have power then they didn’t even have the rights to voice their opinions and feelings.

At that moment.

Somebody came next to him and sat down.

Kulkin looked at this person.

‘Who is this?’

A stranger.

It’s not strange to see somebody new since there were so many people here but there wasn’t any reason this person should come to him.

The person who sat next to Kulkin smiled as he saw the confused expression.

“It feels shitty right? That somebody above us is stopping us from doing what we want right?”

Kulkin stopped and then looked at the man.

“Who are you?”

The man smiled.

“Let’s introduce ourselves later. Let’s just talk a bit more for now. It’s too much right? It’s not like we want to anything bad, we just want some revenge.”

The man, Metiron, put his hand on Kulkin’s shoulder as he spoke.