I Start with 13 Hidden Traits Chapter-7

Ch-7. **The Old King’s Domain**

—

Talent, acquired skills, stats, equipment, talismans that can inscribe special options onto gear—
There are countless abilities in Pangaenia that allow one to uncover its “hidden things.”

Literally: finding hidden paths, uncovering hidden item options, discovering the concealed secrets of seals…

But among all such abilities, I daresay none can compare to this one Hidden Trait.

Mutant.

One of the thirteen Hidden Traits I possess—
a power akin to an authority that rips apart every “secret” concealed from sight.

*I see it.*

A hidden path.
A forced route designed so humans would be unable to perceive it.

Fwooooooooosh!

A long bridge stretched across the air toward the sanctuary atop the cliff.

A powerful updraft surged upward from the depths of the canyon below.

One had to concentrate and keep to the narrow bridge; otherwise, a single misstep meant plunging into the abyss.

“W–what are you doing…?!”

The moment I jumped high from a certain point beside the bridge, Isabella let out a shrill gasp.
To her eyes, I must have looked like someone attempting suicide.

But her outcry faded instantly.

“Follow closely.”

“…Did the star tell you about such a path as well?”

“You ask the obvious.”

Isabella stared at me with a strange expression.

Scattered throughout the sanctuary were floating blocks of ground, invisible to the naked eye.

Each block was barely wide enough for one adult to stand on.
A single misstep meant instant death, but to my eyes they were vividly clear.

*This is incomparable to detection skills.*

When I entered this place with my previous character, I had been equipped with every tool and skill available.

Even the transcendent Detection skill “Insight,” which reached level 10, could not reveal the hidden path with the clarity I now saw before me.

At best, it gave an approximate explanation—“there seems to be land there”—but the gulf between reading something in text and seeing it with your own eyes needs no elaboration.

The downdraft was too strong for wings to be of any use.

And at the bottom lurked “Deepsea Fissure.”
Once drawn in, you died regardless of your level.

Only land.
You had to step on land to survive.

*Can I achieve 100% exploration?*

Even as a sub-quest, this was a sanctuary exploration.

Previously, I had reached the end, but my exploration rate capped at 97%.

Since I received the special item “Horn’s Glory” at 97%… a full 100% might yield an epic treasure.

I leapt onto the next block, then looked back.

“…? What are you doing?”

Isabella was hesitating instead of jumping.

She stared at me with an odd look.

“My leg… cramped.”

…For a moment, I was speechless.

When she was fighting soldiers earlier, she flew about like a fish in water.

Now she sounded utterly ridiculous.

“When you jump, you must control your strength. One mistake and the downdraft will sweep you away.”

The gaps were not wide; the real danger was the downdraft.

The wind was so strong that a slight mistake could blow someone away instantly.

No matter how high Isabella’s level or agility, death here was guaranteed.

“A hidden path in the sanctuary…”

“Hurry. We don’t have time.”

“Are you certain that going this way will lead to the Star’s Blessing?”

Look at this one.

“Are you scared?”

“Hah, as if.”

She forced out a scoff, but I could see it—
In the pitch-black darkness, Isabella’s moist eyes trembled violently.

Was this really her?

To rise to the second-highest rank in Faisalmer required severing all ties with fear.
One had to win the queen’s favor and the elders’ recognition to even be called a princess.

A woman of iron and blood.
The Snake Princess Isabella—that was her image.

I laughed softly and teased her.

“You’re more timid than I expected.”

“…I do not know the meaning of the word fear. My leg truly cramped, that is all.”

Pretending to loosen her leg, Isabella jumped.

She landed on the first block and shot me a triumphant look.

As if saying, “See? Who’s scared?”

But she absolutely refused to look downward.

Could she actually have a fear of heights?

“Well done.”

“How many more?”

“Hmm.”

After roughly counting the visible blocks, I answered:

“About seventy more.”

“Sev…enty…”

“No, maybe eighty?”

“…”

“Possibly ninety.”

Isabella’s eyebrows began trembling uncontrollably.

—

—

 

*How can he be so unfazed?*

The Star-bearer, Randolph—
He was a strange, inexplicable man.

The sanctuary’s poison and dark miasma consumed life.
Only those chosen and blessed—or those physically superior enough to endure it—could even enter.

Yet Randolph walked freely through it without special gear or blessings.
Even Isabella struggled to breathe here, but he moved effortlessly.

He saw paths that had remained undiscovered for thousands of years.
He avoided every trap flying in from all directions with unnatural ease.

*How does he know paths even I never knew…?*

She, the second-in-command of Faisalmer, did not know these routes.
Even the sanctuary priest might not know them.

Most were invisible.
Each was a one-way path where one misstep meant certain death.

She had to rely solely on memory and instinct to follow in Randolph’s steps.
It required intense focus.

And yet—she felt something strange.

This position, following behind someone else so desperately—

*Had such a thing ever happened before?*

*Never.*

She had always been the one leading.
She ran forward without looking back, occupying a place where no one could be ahead of her.

All for the sake of breaking the curse.

She ran madly, believing the queen’s words—that ascending to the rank of princess would lift her curse.

But the queen did not keep her promise.

“Relax. When I count to three, jump. I’ll catch you.”

Having descended below the cliff through the invisible path, now the route required climbing upward.

A transparent staircase reaching the ceiling.

Their pace slowed, and Randolph spoke.

Isabella shook her head.

“You go ahead. I will follow slowly.”

“That won’t do.”

“…”

She pressed her lips together.

That attitude… that gaze…

It felt unfamiliar.

A gesture filled with a warmth…
as if he had known her long before.

“Why…”

She almost asked why he was looking at her that way, but shut her mouth again.

Instead, she asked:

“Have we met before?”

“We haven’t met in the same space.”

“…What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that I have seen you, but you have never seen me.”

Had anyone else said it, she would have cracked open their skull to see what nonsense they were thinking.
But he was a Star-bearer.

“Then the star showed me to you or something?”

“Something like that. Come. We must arrive before dawn.”

When dawn came, the deaths of the warriors would be discovered.
Isabella, being absent, would be suspected, and soon a royal pursuit squad would be dispatched.

If the sanctuary were sealed, escape would become impossible.

“One, two…”

The moment Randolph said “three,” Isabella instinctively leapt into his arms.

Landing on the narrow tile, she felt his breath inches away.

“Just get on my back. It’ll be faster.”

He wasn’t wrong.
Had she done that earlier, they would already be at the ceiling.
She could no longer afford stubbornness.

The problem was that in her entire life, Isabella had never climbed onto a man’s back.

In the desert, for a woman to ride on a man’s back implied a special relationship.

She would rather die than be carried by a strange man.

“…”

Biting her lip, Isabella climbed onto Randolph’s back.

And lowered her head.

Once they reached the ceiling, the world flipped.

*A domain barrier!*

A barrier covering the entire area, revealing a new region only to those who followed the designated path.

A meadow of flowers.
And hills.

Rumble… rrrrRRUMBLE!

Suddenly, what she thought were hills rose up.

*Golems.*

Three golems. Judging by the size of the runes engraved on their chests, they were at least high-grade.

Now it was her turn.

Shk.

After climbing off his back, Isabella drew her twin daggers.

—

—

 

Observing Isabella dispose of the golems, I nodded.

*So this is what auto-hunting feels like.*

Whenever an enemy appeared, she slew it without needing instructions.
Even golems too strong for my current level crumbled like tofu before her.

She destroyed their cores in an instant and sheathed her daggers.

At that moment—

**《You can acquire the class ‘Golem Maker.’》**
**《Acquire?》**

As expected.

This was the sanctuary’s hidden dungeon.
Originally a place to obtain skills.

Had I possessed a class already, I likely would have obtained something like “Golem Destruction Arts.”
But since I had no class, it offered me the class “Golem Maker.”

Whether that was the creator’s intention, I honestly didn’t know.

To resist the sanctuary’s toxicity, one needed to be at least level 7.
No level-7 character lacked a class.

Even if someone like me bypassed it via Hidden Traits, they would still have to find the hidden path and hunt golems.
Easier said than done.

*I refuse.*

**《You have refused the class ‘Golem Maker.’》**

Golem Maker—
A high-tier class.
Summoning-type or companion-type classes were rare in Pangaenia.

But it was not the class I sought.

Nothing of this tier could earn a first-rank position in the Hall.

*It counts Isabella’s kills as mine.*

But something puzzled me.

Pangaenia’s party system existed, but rewards were distributed strictly by contribution.

To obtain a skill or class, one had to achieve high contribution—often by landing the finishing blow.

I had planned to deal the final strike from time to time.
If I repeated it a hundred times, surely I would gain a class at least once.

But I succeeded immediately—
Without contributing at all.

*Did we suddenly enter a Party state?*

Outside, when killing warriors or minor monsters, there had been no such change.

But suddenly, here, something shifted.

I didn’t know why, but no need to question good fortune.

—

**《You can acquire the class ‘Demon Hunter.’》**
**《You can acquire the class ‘Rune Warrior.’》**
**《You can acquire the class ‘Spear Master of Hunger.’》**

…

As the hunt continued, system voices echoed one after another.

*I refuse them all.*

Outstanding classes, but still not what I sought.

After a long walk, we finally arrived at a massive mountain.

**《You have arrived at the “Mountain Where the Nameless Star Is Buried.”》**
**《Warning: Your level is far below the recommended level (10).》**
**《The owner of the mountain, the ‘Old King,’ is enraged at the intruders.》**

—

—

 

The ruler of this massive mountain.
To defeat that colossus, one needed to be at least level 10.

But in my past life, I had not killed the Old King.

There had been no need.

Upon recognizing the gap in our rank, the Old King did not attack.
At that time, I had consumed three stars, transcended, and reached a realm far beyond him.

*Now that I’m weak, he thinks I’m an easy target.*

…So he wasn’t an NPC helper after all.

Back then, I thought he was a friendly guide NPC leading the way to the star.

He was simply weak before the strong and strong before the weak.

「You dare enter the Old King’s domain and expect to walk out alive?」

A voice boomed across the entire mountain.

A body glittering like gemstone—
A massive obsidian serpent!

“A-ah.”

Isabella froze before the giant.

Level 10 was the step just before transcendence.
Even if she was level 8, the number 10 represented an insurmountable wall.

The serpent’s aura made it seem more like a dragon.

Shiver—!

Isabella trembled.
She knew she would die if she stayed still, and yet she could not move.
Like prey before the apex predator atop the pyramid.

Tsk.

I clicked my tongue and stepped forward.
Isabella’s eyes flew wide.
No human should be able to move normally inside the Old King’s absolute domain.

Yet he was moving.

“Move aside. You have no right to guard this place.”

「Human, you speak nonsense. If not I, then who has the right to guard it?」

The Old King flicked his tongue.

He approached as if to swallow me whole.

“Wilhelm.”

But before I could even fully approach, the Old King stiffened.

「…How do you know that name?」

How I know that name?

“The true master of the mountain isn’t you, but Wilhelm, is it not?”

Well, that’s because *I* am Wilhelm.

I may have died and been erased, but the master of this mountain was not the Old King—*it was me.*

The Old King had ceded it to me, and thus I became the owner of the Star.

Therefore, the trespasser was not me, but *that thing.*

「I don’t know how you came to know that name, but the man is dead and the Star has fallen. This mountain is no different!」

The Old King, now freed, opened his jaws wide.

And just as he was about to lunge at me—

“Your master has returned, Old King—Dramut.”

KWA-RRRRNG!

In that instant, the creature violently veered off course, its head dragging across the ground.

 

 

 

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