Sovereign of the Ashes
Chapter 1164: Faceless Mask

Chapter 1164: Faceless Mask

If judged from a purely fair and objective perspective, Grimm—who came second to Sein—might have been even more qualified to inherit the ultimate reward of this legacy secret realm.

His achievements in alchemy and his mastery of elemental magic were enough to impress even Sein.

In truth, Sein suspected that without the advantage of so many high-grade materials, the Demon Eye Mask he crafted might not have been able to match Grimm’s Face of Truth.

Still, a win was a win, and a loss was a loss. The outcome stood, regardless of how it came about.

And if the real issue lay with the secret realm’s imperfect evaluation system, then perhaps neither he nor Grimm had been the most fitting candidate for the ultimate reward in the first place.

Judging by the figure of light before him, it was clear the creator of this secret realm had specialized in lumen, pyro, and sonido elemental laws—with lumen likely being their core focus.

In that case, their ideal successor should have been a mage whose primary cultivation path was also rooted in the lumen element.

Yet both Sein and Grimm leaned more toward the pyro element.

But, in this world, there was no such thing as a perfect successor.

Who could really say that Sein or Grimm were unworthy of inheriting the secret realm’s final reward?

Anyone bold enough to make that claim ought to try passing the final trial themselves first.

Even Berold, the peak demigod in gold robes, had never fully met the final trial’s criteria—the light band beneath his feet never once turned white while he was here.

***

The white figure of light in front of Sein gave a brief overview of the secret realm’s origins and revealed his own name.

He did not go on about how powerful or special he was. He simply introduced himself as Jorces, from the Western Archipelago.

He only wanted Sein to know whose legacy he was inheriting.

As expected, this creator of the secret realm was indeed specialized in lumen, pyro, and sonido elements, as well as alchemy. He had dabbled in other areas too, but none as deeply as these.

Naturally, the successor he chose to inherit his legacy would also be someone with exceptional accomplishments in these areas.

From the fact that Grimm had nearly inherited his legacy, it was obvious that this ancient figure did not care much for rigid hierarchies.

Grimm might not have been a demigod, but he had still been deemed worthy of the final reward.

It was just his misfortune that Sein had been here too.

The so-called final reward was not just some item or tool; it included a legacy of elemental truths and profound knowledge!

Sein had been stuck at certain bottlenecks in his research for quite some time.

Pursuing truth took more than just locking himself in a laboratory for centuries and hoping for a breakthrough.

He could easily spend hundreds of years and gain nothing—worse, he might veer completely off course.

Back in Faeloria, Sein had already hit such a wall.

If not for the divine relics and law-infused materials he had gathered—and his own conscious effort to broaden his thinking—he might have stayed stuck forever.

That was why having a qualified guide was so important.

Originally, Sein had planned to consult his mentor after returning to the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

He had hoped Lorianne, with her ten thousand years of accumulated wisdom, could point out a clear direction.

It would have been far more efficient than fumbling around on his own.

After all, standing on the shoulder of a giant made it easier to see a broader sky.

But now, Sein had found a new path forward.

The one who built this legacy secret realm had undoubtedly been a brilliant and deeply learned master!

Two beams of light shot out from the figure’s mask, striking Sein squarely in the chest.

Each carried a vast portion of the powerful mage’s lifetime of insight and elemental understanding.

The sheer weight and complexity of law powers were overwhelming—far too deep to absorb all at once.

Sein did not even attempt to process the knowledge related to Rank Four and beyond.

It was not that he did not want to. He simply lacked the capacity right now.

Trying to grasp those advanced truths too early would only drag him into a whirlpool he could not navigate.

Instead, Sein focused all his energy on the parts that covered everything up to pre-Rank Four, especially Rank Three and the demigod realm.

These profound insights and clear directions were like treasures to him!

Knowledge was priceless. To Sein, what he was gaining now was worth more than everything in his possession!

Within these radiant streams of knowledge, he found answers to dilemmas that had plagued his research and path of growth for years.

Even unfamiliar fields—ones he had never studied or considered—were laid out before him.

The purity of the knowledge completely captivated him.

He never once doubted its authenticity, and he could not help but marvel at the brilliance of the secret realm’s creator.

To Sein, absorbing this kind of raw, unfiltered knowledge was like a traveler stumbling upon an endless supply of fresh water after wandering through a desert.

It was so exhilarating that he lost all sense of restraint.

Gradually, time faded. So did the world around him.

He sank into that vast ocean of knowledge, unaware of anything beyond it.

Fifty years passed...

Then a hundred...

And three hundred...

***

When Sein finally came back to his senses, he realized he had been inside the white secret realm for a full five hundred years.

Even if time flowed differently inside and outside the realm, there was no doubt that a significant amount of time had passed in the outside world.

A flicker of concern crossed his mind—Leena was probably worried sick about him by now.

Filled with both satisfaction and a hint of reluctance, Sein slowly emerged from his trance-like state of absorbing knowledge.

Glancing around, he noticed that the elemental concentration in the white space had thinned noticeably.

He himself had also undergone major changes.

In Magus World, a mage’s strength was directly tied to knowledge.

Before entering the secret realm, Sein was already capable of going toe-to-toe with late-stage or even peak demigods when wielding the Radiant Heart Rod.

After completing the Demon Eye Mask and absorbing the insights gained inside the realm, he had reached the point where he could face a Rank Four creature head-on.

And now... he had grown even stronger. He could feel it... He was on the brink of something major.

Out of curiosity, he checked his own focus and mana levels. Both had passed 90,000 points.

The theoretical benchmark for a Rank Four mage in the Magus World was a focus level above 100,000 points.

Of course, that was never an exact measurement. A mage’s strength and life level were not something that could be boiled down to numbers.

Every mage was different. The truths they pursued, the mysteries they explored, and their individual insights were never the same.

Ultimately, the only thing that truly defined a mage’s level was knowledge.

But knowledge was much harder to measure.

Who could really say their knowledge was more “advanced” than someone else’s?

This was why, for mages at the demigod level and beyond, stats like focus or mana no longer served as reliable indicators of rank.

The same logic applied to certain advanced civilizations that had developed tools like “combat power detectors.”

For Rank Three and below, combat power could still be measured with some degree of accuracy.

But once someone stepped into the demigod realm or higher, those numbers stopped reflecting reality.

Power had become so abstract that mental focus and mana no longer mattered to demigod-level mages and above.

Even so, the data that had spiked before Sein’s eyes still served as strong evidence that his strength and overall realm had clearly made another leap forward.

In fact, within the first 150 years of entering that trance-like state, Sein had already absorbed nearly all the demigod-level knowledge and below from the light of knowledge.

The remaining 350 years were spent indulging a curiosity he could not hold back—his desire to explore knowledge related to Rank Four and beyond.

Of course, this was all theoretical knowledge. Just understanding something in concept did not mean he could fully grasp it.

It was never that easy!

Even the Rank Three and demigod-level knowledge—especially the theories he had once questioned—still needed to be tested through real experiments and research before they could truly become his own.

Still, the rewards from this secret realm trial were beyond anything he could have imagined!

Not only had he inherited priceless knowledge, but he had also received another invaluable treasure—a mask.

The Faceless Mask, glowing faintly with elemental light, floated into Sein’s hand.

He had learned its name through the legacy knowledge itself. “Faceless” had also been the title of the secret realm’s creator in Magus World.

Aside from the mask’s overwhelming power that was still too much for Sein to fully unleash at his current level, it also stored all of the unabsorbed knowledge he had not yet processed.

In other words, no matter what questions or obstacles he faced going forward, he could always turn to the mask for answers.

According to what Master Jorces had left behind, Sein would not need to worry about seeking out more advanced knowledge until after he reached Rank Five.

Only upon advancing to Rank Six would it become necessary to look elsewhere for higher-level insights.

This kind of inheritance left Sein with no doubt—aside from his first mentor, Morsidor, and his second mentor, Lorianne, the founder of this secret realm, Master Jorces the Faceless, had without question become his third mentor!