“Tick, tock… tick, tock…”
In the distance, the rock head, large as a villa, emitted a slow, deep sound.
When Weilin blinked next, it had, without any warning, abruptly appeared right before her eyes, greeting her with the same drawn-out tone.
“Supreme master of the Eternal Mineshaft, welcome back…”
It wasn’t a deliberate pause. Big Head took a full second to utter each word, making this single sentence last a full seventeen seconds.
Weilin listened very patiently. Then, she nodded at Big Head and gently asked, “Is Little Shi around?”
“The Time Devourer has been waiting for the master all along.”
“Mm, I understand. You can go about your business now.”
The master of the world’s largest mine, the supreme being of the Magic Arts, didn’t hesitate to show her subordinates a warm and kind smile.
Though Weilin’s neck did get a bit stiff from looking up, because Big Head was simply far too enormous.
Truly, even if Weilin had behaved with arrogance and coldness, Big Head, as a “resident,” wouldn’t have had any complaints. In the Eternal Mineshaft, Weilin was the supreme ruler.
After the other guild members had all gone cold, she had even been promoted to “the absolute, sole, supreme ruler.”
“Tick, tock… tick, tock…”
In the blink of an eye, Big Head had teleported several hundred meters away.
If SCP-173 twists people’s necks, then Big Head’s attack was probably just crushing them outright by pressing down? The thought suddenly struck her. She truly wondered how Big Head (SCP-173) managed to move when it had hundreds of eyes staring at it simultaneously…?
As for the other strange, dark-themed core beasts, ordinary people might have been scared out of their wits, but Weilin, having spent ten years in the mineshaft, had long since become unfazed… She even felt a sense of fondness for them.
The first layer of the Eternal Mineshaft…
Aside from the vast, desolate (desolate meaning: littered with gemstones) dark zone, there were three named areas.
The ‘Guild House’ that Weilin had just left, the ‘Time Temple’, and the ‘Dreaming Wetland’.
Not wanting to dawdle, Weilin directly used the Eternal Divine Crystal to speed up her travel.
Within the Eternal Mineshaft, Weilin, possessing the Eternal Divine Crystal, could instantly teleport to any location she desired with a single thought.
And the Eternal Divine Crystal was embedded within her own body.
“Teleport to — Time Temple.”
Weilin raised her hand, pressing it against her shimmering chest, and issued the command.
Swish—
Her form vanished.
When she reappeared, Weilin stood before the Time Temple.
It was a flat-roofed structure resembling a Sun Temple, yet several times larger than an ordinary temple, standing a full… sixty meters high!
Its exterior was supported by eighty-one pillars lining the edge of the temple grounds. Each pillar was nearly sixty meters tall, inlaid with or colorful, or perfectly transparent, Time Jewels… thousands upon thousands of them on each pillar.
The colossal Time Temple was enveloped in a vast, imposing majesty swirling with divine radiance, enough to make one instinctively want to prostrate in worship.
As for Weilin, she wasn’t affected by this.
Although the Time Temple was the Time Devourer’s private property, now that even the Devourer belonged to Weilin, the Time Temple had indirectly become Weilin’s possession as well.
In fact, this place had always served as the guild’s meeting and gathering spot in the past…
Splat… splat…
In front of the Time Temple, a massive fissure split open the ground, followed by the sound of something viscous dragging across the floor.
From the fissure crawled a creature over ten meters tall, its body covered in a dark-violet shell. It was a soft-bodied organism.
It was unmistakably a snail of exaggerated proportions. One of its tentacles was even lifting a clock larger than Weilin’s entire body.
【Time Devourer, Lv.100】
“Supreme master of the Eternal Mineshaft, welcome… back…”
The voice was ancient and vast, as if coming from a rift in time and space.
The Time Devourer was an Ancient Demonic Creature that had lived from the very dawn of the continent, millions of years ago, until the present day.
Its previous name was actually 【Master of Time】. It was the world-class Demonic Beast that the Eternal Mine Guild had defeated, earning Weilin the “Chaos” mana attribute as a reward.
If Weilin were to strip away its ‘Time Wheel Divine Crystal,’ it would instantly be annihilated from the world forever.
…But neither Weilin nor the guild members had done that. Naturally, the Time Devourer had willingly become the Eternal Mineshaft’s Guardian… and Grand Steward.
This decision wasn’t without careful consideration. The biggest factor was that if Weilin took the Time Wheel Divine Crystal, she’d at most be able to wield less than half of its power. In the Time Devourer’s hands, however, its effects could be brought out to well over 100%.
Moreover…
Having lived for a million years, coexisting with the continent itself, Doma Chitose had witnessed merely a thousand years of the Snow Kingdom’s history. But this snail… had witnessed a full million years of the continent’s history! No history book was more reliable than it. This wisdom and knowledge was the most precious treasure that Weilin valued.
“Little Shi, long time no see.”
And yet, this creature with such a terrifying origin had a harmless, refreshingly adorable name, “Little Shi,” from Weilin’s lips.
Standing on the ground, Weilin gently lifted her hand.
The Time Devourer, displaying utmost loyalty, extended its tentacle, over ten meters long, nearly all the way to the floor, and reverently — touched the hand the young girl offered toward it.
The moment they touched…
A layer of strange, magical light enveloped the Time Devourer’s soft body and shell. Then, its terrifyingly massive form began to shrink at a speed visible to the naked eye…
It shrank until it was even smaller and more delicate than Weilin.
And its appearance… transformed into that of a little girl under ten years old, a Loli?
She had skin as smooth as milk, but her young, childish face was completely expressionless, like stone. Four spiral drill pigtails hung down. She looked like a gloomy, withdrawn little Loli… a Loli who had lived for a million years?
Even her dark-violet snail shell transformed into a rather eye-catching, beautiful indigo princess dress. A delicate pocket watch hung at her slender waist, adorned with lace. Combined with the fact that the Loli herself was extremely cute, the overall effect was surprisingly charming…
Of course, this was only true for anyone who didn’t know her true form and her past.
As for why she was a Loli…
Well, it was because most of the guild members were rough, burly guys. Though times had changed now, Weilin didn’t have the right to change the Grand Steward’s human form, which had been decided by a democratic vote based on everyone’s will.
Weilin withdrew her hand.
The “Little Shi” Loli also quietly retracted her hand, her face blank.
Weilin gathered her thoughts for a moment before softly asking, “The other 29 little masters… I’m afraid they’ll never return. Does Little Shi know this?”
“Mm. This I calculated to have come to pass this day.” The million-year-old Snail Loli replied calmly.
“Uh… when did you calculate this?”
“Five hundred years ago, when this one was still the ‘Master of Time’. I foresaw the future… saw that this one’s future Master, along with Master’s companions, would face an abrupt, eternal parting. The cause… was an unwillingness to crossdr—…”
“???”
