Bab 24: Obelisk
To my surprise, crossing into Alphonso's Plain was easy. The dry scrubland strewn with boulders turned into heathland after a day then a conifer covered mountain range after two. Not a single guard patrolled the border and none of the beasts could keep up with my movement speed. Continuing, we descended the mountain and skirted the grassland of the plain until we entered a patch of temperate, deciduous forest where we are currently traveling.
I approach the center of the forest where a slanted obelisk rises from the ground. It appears to be composed of black slate. This obelisk is the "freestanding stone writhing with worms" mentioned in my dreams. It's sobering to realize that it's now my earliest memory. The abomination had devoured my childhood to this point.
Who were the boys in my dream? Will I meet them searching for the treasure?
A semi-transparent girl covered with colorful feathers follows behind. Nia has already learned the names of several types of trees. Now, she points at an unfamiliar one.
"[What sort of tree is this?]"
I sigh in irritation. "This is an I-don't-know-everything tree."
"[What a fun name! Nice to meet you, I-don't-know-everything tree!]"
I roll my eyes, but don't bother to correct her. Why am I still tolerating this? Maybe I'm going senile.
As we pass the I-don't-know-everything tree, she looks up at the now visible obelisk and hops around while pointing. "[Ooo! What tree is that? Can we get closer?]"
"It's a magical stone obelisk, not a tree."
The obelisk is tapered with a pyramidal top the height of fifty men. As we approach the dark surface, green-glowing, worm-like markings brighten into sight. They writhe across its surface. It may seem mysterious, but my research in my last life suggests it's only a landmark left by the alchemist for those seeking the treasure... Or at least it's supposed to be only that...
"[Ohh! ...What are these squiggly things?]"
Instinctively my eyes turn to glance over the strange worm-like markings. "Nobody..."
"... knows" my voice weakens and falters as my eyes fixate on the runes of the obelisk and a shock runs through my body. I realize that try as I might, I can't turn away. The worms blur and suddenly they have meaning.
The phrases appear one after another:
[We arise from the world, ephemeral, surrounding us.
We strived to find the origin, the real, the splinters of the original.
Its existence is incorruptible.
If we incorporate the source, would we not be eternal?
Alas, our purity is insufficient.
How can the immaterial wound the material?
The crystal remains unscathed— marked, but not wrought.
You who understand us, are you able to walk our path?
Please, receive our blessing for we are gone.]
The writhing symbols squirm more violently. Their black forms turn white and begin to emit a soft light. The glow drifts into the air and surrounds me, and the ground rushes toward my face.
Thunk! Everything goes dark.
"[Brother don't leave me. Please, wake up!]"
"Uh?"
I find myself lying on the ground. Nia is doing her best to hug me with her incorporeal form.
"What happened?"
"[Brother, you stopped speaking mid-sentence and then fell over.]"
"Didn't the obelisk glow?"
"[Nia didn't see it glow. Only brother falling over. Are you okay now? Please don't scare me like that.]"
I rise and study the worm-like symbols again. Nothing unusual happens, and my ability can't read them. Am I going crazy?
"Let's leave this inauspicious thing." The second clue leads treasure seekers to walk 4400 paces toward The Arch, the guiding mountain with a slit in it. You normally need to scale or fly above the obelisk to see it through the forest, but I retraced these steps many times in my past life.
"This way." I point and begin walking.
Near the end of the 4400 paces, there's a young hooded figure standing in place reading a book.
Someone else is after the treasure!
"Nia, hide."
"[Aww…]" she returns to the Pheonix jade in my bag.
I stealthily circle the clearing. No one else is around and the figure stays focused on the book.
Should we wait for them to leave? But if they figure out the next steps they might reach the treasure first... No, I better knock them out. They look young. Their power shouldn't be greater than mine.
I leap forward. <Rising Flame Step> My body twists through the air. The figure lifts his head and begins to turn, but it's too late. <Falcon Punch> My fist wreathed in flame meets the figure's head.
Smack! Crash! The figure's body flies into a tree and I follow up with a <Yang Firework> to the boy's head. Boom! I grip the boy by the neck in caution.
Nia reappears behind me with a frown and her hands on her hip. "[Brother why are you being so mean?]"
Ignoring her, my attention turns to the figure's features. He's well-built for a child. "Now, who are you?" Could he be one of the boys in my dream? I remove the hood.
"Oh... well...that's awkward… I'm an idiot..."
"[Yes, brother is an idiot for beating an unknown boy in the forest. What did he ever do to you?]"
The boy's blond hair, Roman nose, and slim face are familiar.
"No, Nia… I used to know him the best. We are responsible for everything about me." This is clearly me from my past life.
Nia pats past me on the shoulder. "[Don't bully brother anymore! You'll only get hurt.]"
What should I do? Did events always happen this way? Was it always me punching myself out, or is the original culprit still out there? My eyes nervously survey my surroundings.
Encountering someone strong enough to stealth up and punch my past self out is a risk. Wouldn't their power be equal or greater to mine?
I apply a healing salve from the previous me's supplies and rush to the place he was standing to dig. Special keys in the form of stones lay beneath the ground here.
[I knew brother was actually kind. Now that you've realized your mistake, you've dressed his wounds! Get better soon little boy.]" She gives past me a hug and pats him on the head as I dig.
A minute later, grasping the unearthed perfectly-smooth stone the size and color of a chicken egg, I rush off into the forest.
The third clue has a verse stating, "city of the stars circling twice." I climb a hill where there are some piles of stone overgrown with trees.
"[What are these?]" She points at the mounds.
"They are ruins. Long ago, a clan of astrologists lived here."
"[Oh! Brother is so smart!]"
"Yes, yes. Can you keep a lookout for anyone following us? Thank you!"
[Yes, I'll do it!] She skips around without making a sound. She keeps one hand up to shade her eyes despite the lack of overhead sunlight. The moment of silence is possibly more valuable than her surveillance.
Walking around the ruins on the hill twice causes the stone in my hand to emit heat.
We walk into the forest again to a boulder the size of a modest mansion. I insert it into a round hole on the east side of the boulder.
Crack! Grind! The surface of the boulder splits into the shape of a door. Then, it drops down with the sound of heavy stones grating together.
I enter followed by Nia, and the door grinds closed.
Using the light of a small flame on my finger we traverse down a winding passage.
Five minutes in, I mutter to myself, "It should be around here..."
Clunk! Splash! As expected, a trapdoor opens under my feet and I fall into a pool of water. The chamber here is composed of a circular pond with an island at the center. In my past life it was empty of treasure, but in this life... it is... empty?
"Huh? No. no. no." It can't be! Did someone arrive even earlier?
I rush to the center of the island. My hands stroke the ground where square outlines show where the chests of treasure used to sit.
A wizened, deep voice echoes in the cavern, "Young one! Congratulations on being the first to arrive after my death!" Complex, interconnected lines light up on the floor revealing a formation pattern.
[Brother, what is this? Will you be safe?]
[I'll be fine. Nia you'd better return to the jade for now.] If some mechanism in the test separates me from her, it could cause a disaster. Her little girl form shouldn't separate from the jade phoenix.
Due to my serious tone, she nods and complies.
"You've shown your reasoning skill and persistence by arriving here, but you'll need more than that to inherit my legacy. Step forward! I will test the most important knowledge in alchemy."
The most important knowledge in alchemy? The alchemist behind this treasure is unknown. What would he consider important? If he is like most alchemists, the test should be naming spirit herbs and their uses. This should be easy.
I step forward and a moment later my body falls through the floor.
After a blink, the world around me changes to a square, barren field with rock walls on two opposite sides. There is no distant landscape visible on the open sides, only a blue-purple sky with a sun in it. The ground is divided into a multitude of distinct soil types. In one corner is soil with a bluish tint with a pond in the center. A waterfall flows off the nearest rock wall into it. A stream flows out of the pond diagonally across the field before turning off to end at the void. In an adjacent corner, the soil is frosted over. In the center of the blackish and red soil bubbles a pool of lava. There's even a swampy-looking pond of black water.
"How did I get here and where is here?" My body didn't even feel the impact of landing.
"You were teleported here. This is the field for the first test."
My eyes widen. "Teleported?" This is an auspicious sign. Either the alchemist was extraordinarily wealthy, or he owned celestial level tools from the ancient era.
Teleportation was something beyond my power at my peak last life. That's saying a lot because few in the continent had power beyond mine. Formations make it easier for people of lower power to teleport, but a teleportation formation is absurdly expensive, and few formation masters have the ability necessary to create one.
Modern tests draw the consciousness or soul into a virtual space. Only in the ancient eras was teleportation commonplace. Still, the possibility was within my expectations. After all, Nia entered the jade phoenix for this very possibility.
"Yes, you were teleported here."
This doesn't look like a place on the continent of Auster. If the voice is not lying, is this place inside an illusion formation? A more ridiculous idea pops into my head. Could this be an outer plain? (1)
"What does the first test entail?"
"In the first test, you must produce an alchemical pill."
My attention turns to the barren land again. Yep, no spirit herbs or equipment. "Uh… Do I refine the pill from spirit herbs?"
"Yes, that is one way to produce an alchemical pill."
"Where is the pill cauldron?"
"If you require a pill cauldron, you can make one from the land."
Hmm, I've never tried forging a cauldron from the earth. Is it possible for me? Well, some pills don't require a cauldron. Yet, I really can't do it without the herbs.
My attention returns to the fields of soil in the test location. "From the looks of the soil here… Will I be growing the spirit herbs?
"Yes, that is one way to produce spirit herbs."
"Grow them from what? I have no materials related to spirit-herbs on my person."
"The allotted seven questions have been answered you are now on your own. To leave you must produce an alchemical pill."
"Really?"
"…" The voice stays silent.
A single eyebrow rises on my face and my fist clenches… "Slag of the Firmament!" I stomp and slam down my fist.
(1) Outer plains are places outside the world. They exist between the folds of space.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
NitrogenousBeing
NitrogenousBeing Released a day later than planned because of computer issues. The programs saved over my progress forcing me to rewrite half of it. Then, when I stuck to a single program to edit, it crashed. So I had to edit it twice. Can't wait for real life to give me more writing time.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone