Chapter 208 - 208 The Sands Of Time Flow Like A Stream

Words : 1143 Updated : Oct 1st, 2025

208: The Sands Of Time Flow Like A Stream 208: The Sands Of Time Flow Like A Stream The moment my gaze fell upon the display, I froze. ‘...What...?’ “Enki! What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Hearing the Librarian’s concerned call just before me, it still took a second to realise she was addressing me, and when I did, I could only cover my face with a palm. “Enki...?” Slowly composing myself, I raised my head to look at her, calmly asking. “...Librarian. Check the time... Is that right?” “Certainly! Ermmm... Oh! Goodness... How– Ah! I forgot to check the time distortion ratio again! I-I still have the coordinates for the last Illusory World, let me calculate it quickly!” Watching her cute panicked face gradually turn paler and paler, I felt a surge of something undesirable rise up from within. ‘Don’t tell me... It’s real...?’ Eventually, before the wait made it any worse, she called me. “E-Enki... I found it... The ratio... Erm...” “...What did you say?” Seeing her mumble something into the sleeve of her oversized robe, I asked her to repeat herself. “I-I said it’s -26.773...” “...” It had been a long time since she told me the ratio directly, but I still remembered what it meant. To put it simply, for every one second that passed in that Illusory World, 26.773 seconds would pass on Earth. Meaning... [17:36 | 16/01/2X] ‘...It’s really been seven-and-a-half months...’ Honestly, I didn’t even want to check all the notifications I would have missed. It was a good thing I already moved home beforehand, otherwise all of my stuff would be in jeopardy too. I was sure everyone would have been worried to death about where I’d gone... But then again, maybe they just assumed I was in the Tower. “Still, almost eight months is just... God...” Gritting my teeth, I opened the internet browser and searched for news regarding John Pierce’s latest clear. It didn’t appear to be the case that anyone else had stolen his spotlight, but that much was to be expected. “...Floor 26. Alright...” It was a lot higher than before, but it also... somehow wasn’t as much as I had feared. Taking a deep breath as I put the phone away for now, I took some time to sort out my thoughts. Now that I had finally obtained Mana Corruption, I shouldn’t have much of an issue clearing the Tower, if at all. On the other hand, I could take on one more Contract to try and find some sort of mage who could teach me how to control it... Because it was a Skill, I could also upgrade it with the reward. ‘There are also some other skills worth putting more consideration into now that I can use mana.’ It really did open a ton of pathways for me. Now I just had to choose which to go down. ‘I think I’ve already gone against the path I previously chose of being an assassin-type... Anyway, since I have mana, maybe I don’t need to focus so hard on that anymore.’ Opening the Shop, I briefly scrolled through each section to refresh my memory of what was available. I still had 820 World Stability, so although there wasn’t much I could purchase right now, I could still make a list of what I need. ‘Oh, Gifted Trainee! I forgot about that one. Weapon Master too... I would also like to get more Antagonist abilities, but the descriptions are so vague and the cost is so high that I don’t know if it’s worth taking the risk... There’s also this other Skill, Illusory Aegis... That one’s pretty cheap, so I might as well pick it up when I can.’ Passively thinking back to those Traits and Skills I used to have my eye on, I was relieved to not have purchased any of those Trap-related Skills in hindsight. Since they would take such a large investment of World Stability to be worth it, they were already iffy, and now that I was able to put more consideration into pivoting towards a more frontline-focused build that utilised the Holy Sword and Villainous Blade, they would have inevitably become pretty useless, at least in most cases. “Hm... Now that I look at it again, some of the earlier Service Charge abilities aren’t bad either. Tyranny of the Demon Lord and Mastery of the Duel could be useful...” In any case, resummoning my smartphone and making a quick list in the notes app about some of the choices I was most heavily considering, I was about to simply close it and put the phone back in Storage when a ‘breaking news’ notification appeared. “...Huhhh?” Instinctively frowning just at the name of the article that appeared in a bubble at the top of the screen, I subconsciously tilted my head. “That’s not real, right?? It can’t be...” Opening it up after just a moment’s hesitation, my eyes widened like nothing else. “What the hell...” [Dragon Appears In New York] Below the simple, yet incredibly eye-catching title, a picture was pinned. The being contained within was, as the title stated, a giant dragon, its scales a deep purple with jagged slits of gold that pierced the onlooking public with their countless cameras pointing out towards it in the city square. Captioning it was a sentence briefly describing how it was like something out of a movie, but as my eyes dismissively glided over that, I just barely noticed something in the corner of the picture behind the text. “...Wait. Is that...?” Opening the image in a new tab where the caption was no longer in the way, I zoomed in. “...” ‘No fucking way.’ Immediately doubting myself for making the connection, I backed out of the article to search regarding the incident, and as expected, a whole bunch of brand new articles were just posted alongside the first. Opening whichever one popped up as the first result, as I thought, something in the image was very familiar to me. [Dragon & Dog Duo Appears in the Capital of the World!] The second article was definitely more exaggerated in the title, but the contents remained just as accurate. Near the top of the page, I zoomed in on another picture, this one clearer than the first. Standing just beside the big, intimidating dragon, a girl with canine features and long, vibrant gold hair was present. ‘Cassie.’ There was no doubt about it. “...It’s definitely her. And that means this is...” Flicking my gaze back to the dragon beside the girl, a deep, horrifying chill ran down my spine. “Tch...!”

Chapter 208 - 208 The Sands Of Time Flow Like A Stream

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