The Evolution Of A Goblin To The Peak

Chapter 1210: Land of Fire Light

”I failed... The casualties of the war were too high,” Souta muttered. He then turned his gaze to the sword beside him. ”How long was I asleep?”

’About four and a half months,’ Saya replied.

Even as she answered, she hesitated. Could it truly be called sleep? For most of that time, Souta had been buried deep within his own consciousness, not in the dreamscape, but in a hollow void of awareness. He hadn’t perceived the passage of time at all.

Souta clenched his hand, testing his body. Only his physical strength responded. Everything else was in ruins.

Using Infinity had exacted a devastating price. Even the power of the Cosmic Sign alone had pushed his body to its absolute limit and yet he had gone further, forcing more power than he was ever meant to wield. It was reckless. Dangerous.

’I’ve reached level 80. I can evolve,’ Souta thought. ’But I’m completely unprepared.’

There was no energy left within him. Attempting evolution now would not only destabilize him, it would almost certainly fail, leaving consequences far worse than remaining stagnant.

Worse still, his parasites had entered a dormant state. His inner consciousness was riddled with fractures, as though it might shatter at any moment. The magic circle within him trembled on the brink of collapse. Even the fused elemental energy, the plant core that once sustained him, could no longer draw even a single strand of douion.

It was worse than he had imagined.

Souta exhaled slowly, shaking his head as he forced himself to stand and survey his surroundings.

It was a lifeless beach.

No footprints. No drifting aura. Not even the echo of residual energy. Only silence stretching to the horizon.

”Saya, do you recognize this place?” Souta asked.

’I don’t,’ Saya replied. After a brief pause, she added, ’However, there are living beings here. I sensed them earlier, but none approached the shore. They’re unaware of your existence.’

She then explained what had happened after the battle.

At the demon stronghold, when Souta unleashed Infinity, everything had been erased—space, matter, and lingering will alike. The collapse dragged them into the Dream Realm, only for them to tumble through several other realms in succession before finally crashing into this land.

When they arrived, Souta’s body had already begun to dissolve.

His parasites had worked relentlessly, repairing the damage piece by piece. After a week, his physical form stabilized and returned to normal. But his energy reserves and consciousness had suffered catastrophic damage.

It had taken nearly five months for Souta to regain awareness.

”In the end... I still survived,” Souta murmured.

Saya shifted the topic to the beings she had sensed earlier. They were weak, so weak that they hadn’t detected Souta at all. For now, there was no immediate danger.

The greater issue was uncertainty. They had no idea what kind of land this was.

”For now...” Souta said quietly, ”I need an energy source. A massive amount of resources to recover.”

He moved forward and what greeted him was a vast forest.

Towering trees rose fifteen to twenty meters into the air, some even reaching heights of thirty meters. Their dense canopies swallowed the sunlight, allowing only faint traces to seep through. The forest floor was damp and heavy with moisture, alive with the subtle movements of insects skittering through shadowed corners.

A silent, thriving ecosystem.

And somewhere within it, the resources Souta needed to survive.

Even without access to his full power, Souta’s physical strength remained formidable.

He pressed deeper into the forest, the vajra sword gripped firmly in his hand.

This land feels wrong.

An oppressive sensation tightened around his chest, as though something unseen were clutching his heart. He couldn’t tell whether the feeling came from the land itself or from his own weakened condition.

”I wanted to summon Yuko or Kessa...” Souta muttered. ”But I don’t have the energy.”

With either of them at his side, things would have been far easier. Still, four months had passed. If something had gone wrong, he would have known. The contract confirmed it that they both were alive.

Souta continued onward, carefully observing his surroundings.

Before long, a village came into view.

Roughly two thousand people lived there, yet the atmosphere was heavy and somber. Most wore tense expressions, as though a looming crisis pressed down on them all.

He walked through the settlement, drawing quiet stares but no interference. Among the villagers were elves, dwarves, and other demi-humans, their diversity suggesting a long-established community.

’I don’t sense any threat,’ Souta assessed. ’Their levels are low.’

He stopped before a dwarf and spoke calmly. ”Hello. I’ve just arrived in this land. Can you tell me which continent this place belongs to?”

The dwarf froze, clearly startled. Confusion flickered across his face as he stared at Souta. After a few seconds, he replied in a language Souta couldn’t understand.

It was incomprehensible.

”A different language? You can’t understand Norman, the Imperium’s common tongue...” Souta said, genuinely stunned.

That alone was enough to surprise him. It was exceedingly rare to encounter someone who didn’t understand the Imperium’s common language. Even countless sub-worlds beyond the central realms had adopted it long ago.

Saya’s reaction, however, was far more severe.

”T–This...” she stammered, disbelief creeping into her voice. ”It’s the Ancient Language of Highnun?!”

Souta gave the dwarf a brief shake of his head, signaling his inability to understand, before turning away.

The dwarf remained rooted in place, confusion etched across his face as he watched Souta disappear around a corner.

Once they reached a secluded spot, Souta spoke in a low voice. ”What do you mean by the Ancient Language of Highnun?”

”This...” Saya hesitated, as though weighing the implications. ”Highnun was a powerful civilization in the distant past. During my era, most beings had already adopted its language.”

”Your era?” Souta echoed.

”Yes.”

Silence followed.

If that was true, then there was a strong possibility that this land had remained untouched by the current age. A land isolated from the continents ever since the Great War thousands of years ago.

A place that got left behind by the rest of the world.

But how?

Souta leapt onto the roof of a nearby house and settled into a seated position atop the tiles. From there, he surveyed the village once more. This time with intent. If anything was out of place, his eyes would catch it.

”Can you understand everything they’re saying?” he asked calmly.

”Yes. My grasp of the Highnun language isn’t half-baked,” Saya replied. ”I can understand them clearly.”

”Good.” Souta nodded. ”That makes gathering information much easier.”

”Still... be careful,” Saya warned. ”I have a bad feeling about this.”

”I know.”

Souta lifted his gaze to the sky.

He could sense it. This land was still within the Imperium. The natural energy in the air carried the same fundamental laws he was familiar with. Yet the exact location remained uncertain.

He didn’t know whether he was still on God’s Continent or had ended up on the Giza Continent.

Those were the only two possibilities.

They were the only continents left open, ever since their Great Barriers had fallen.

The rest remained sealed for now. However, the Mars Archipelago and the Demon’s Land would soon open completely. When that happened, two more continents would enter the flow of the Imperium, joining God’s Continent and the Giza Continent.

Souta dropped down from the rooftop and began interacting with the locals.

...

Midnight.

Souta stood deep within the forest, slowly roasting the meat he had hunted over a small fire.

’So, what are your plans?’ Saya asked.

”My plan,” Souta replied calmly, ”is to reclaim my current strength and reach the fifth evolution stage.”

He had gathered a considerable amount of information over the course of the day.

This place was known as the Land of Fire Light. Strangely, even the locals didn’t know which continent it belonged to. Their knowledge extended no further than this land itself. They knew nothing of the wider Imperium.

The strongest expert in the village was only A-rank, referred to here as Knight level.

Saya explained that this was how ancient civilizations categorized strength. A Knight-level expert roughly corresponded to a high B-rank or low A-rank by modern standards. Above that was the Battle Knight, equivalent to S-rank and SS-rank.

And beyond even that...

The Ascension Knight.

A realm comparable to SSS-rank and Hero-rank in the current era.

Souta stared into the fire, its flickering light reflecting in his eyes.

An ancient land.

Ancient power systems.

The Land of Fire Light was relatively small, home to only a single ruling power, the Everlasting Kingdom.

The kingdom consisted of five cities and countless villages scattered across the land. Its history stretched back thousands of years, making it far older than most civilizations in the current era.

For most of that time, resources had been scarce. Mana was thin, growth was slow, and the number of true experts remained limited.

But that balance had recently been shattered.

Mana density had risen sharply, causing resources to bloom unnaturally fast. Rare materials surfaced, energy-rich zones formed, and opportunities for advancement appeared almost overnight.

The sudden change threw the entire kingdom into turmoil.

Competition turned into conflict.

Conflict escalated into open fighting.

That was why the villages felt so tense.

Why the people looked grim and wary.

The land was on the brink of chaos.