Ch.140140. Another World (1)

A short while after the shocking encounter.

“Here, drink this. It’s a tea that will calm your mind.”

“Thank you… Lady Hecate.”

“…Thank you, Prophetess.”

The demigoddess who introduced herself as Hecate, my mother’s mentor, invited both of us into her home…

Thanks to her, we entered the treehouse, drank tea, and managed to calm our minds somewhat. Only then could we finally ask Lady Hecate the questions that had been lingering in our minds.

“Lady Hecate. My mentor and mother… is her real name ‘Circe’?”

“That’s right. It seems she’s using a different name now.”

“Yes. She uses the name Dahlia Aleinos with me.”

“…Dahlia. Yes, I see.”

I wondered if there was some hidden meaning behind the name my mother was currently using.

While the demigoddess Hecate fell into thought with those meaningful words, I… recalled certain information in my mind based on my mother’s real name and the goddess’s name I had just heard.

Hecate. The goddess of the moon, night, and shadows as described in Greco-Roman mythology.

She was one of the rare Titans who sided with Zeus and survived, even though she existed before the Olympian gods as we know them. She is also regarded as the goddess of mystery, magic, sorcery, and “crossroads.”

Circe. A goddess from Greco-Roman mythology who appears in the “Odyssey,” and like Medea, she is also a priestess of the goddess Hecate.

Usually when she appears in myths, the focus tends to be more on her witch-like aspects rather than her status as a “goddess,” but strictly speaking, according to mythology, she is indeed a goddess.

Of course, I know all too well that these two goddesses from Earth are not the same individuals as my mother and her mentor.

From the beginning, this world often features beings strangely similar to those from Earth’s myths and legends, and furthermore, doesn’t the very form of this world somehow seem like a twisted and distorted version of Earth’s?

Therefore, while they may not be identical beings, there must be at least some connection in terms of their powers or motivations.

‘Thank you, Greek and Roman Mythology in Comic Form!’

And in that sense, while I expressed gratitude to the source that appeared during my childhood and enriched the mythological knowledge of Korean children, in my mind, I was quietly mulling over my mother’s name.

Circe, Circe. In my memory, she’s remembered as someone who had this and that with Odysseus but was ultimately rejected by that famously faithful man…

Originally, Circe was both a goddess and a witch. She was such a powerful witch that she could even subdue Odysseus, the hero of the Trojan War, with her magic.

Of course, since the mother I remembered was only human, I didn’t make the mistake of equating my mother with the witch from my past life.

“Um, Grand Master?”

“…Grand, Master?”

“Yes. Since you’re my master’s master… I’ll apologize immediately if I’ve been disrespectful.”

“No, there’s no need for that. You may call me that.”

So when I addressed her with the title I had been thinking of in my head to change the subject, Grand Master Hecate seemed pleased with the title and showed a faint smile at the corner of her lips.

“…Ah.”

And at that moment, I was finally able to pierce through the invisible veil covering the Grand Master and see her true appearance.

Grand Master Hecate had the form of a beautiful elf woman with striking purple long hair.

Her skin, while not completely bloodless, was so light it seemed rather pale, and her hair was such a deep purple that it was almost black.

Her two eyes sparkled with a mystical purple light, revealing her mysterious nature, and the magical power she unconsciously emitted was concentrated enough to make me flinch.

Additionally, the robe she wore somehow revealed her figure quite explicitly.

After observing the Grand Master with her somewhat difficult-to-describe appearance for a moment, I… soon noticed her awareness of my curiosity and spoke up directly.

“Grand Master Hecate. My mother said you called for me, might I ask why?”

“…The reason I called you was, first of all, to see your face at least once.”

“Is… that so?”

“Yes. Circe, my most cherished disciple, said she was raising a successor, so I wanted to meet you once to see what kind of person you were.”

Faced with such a human-like response from someone who effortlessly exuded a chilling presence, I forced a smile, and then a thought suddenly occurred to me.

The demigoddess before me is not only the mentor who raised my mother, a legendary druid, but also a survivor from the mythological era who still retains divine lineage—an extremely rare existence.

If that’s the case, then perhaps, just perhaps, could she offer some advice about the advanced level that I haven’t been able to grasp properly until now?

“…Grand Master. It might be presumptuous, but there’s something I’d like to ask.”

“Ask away. So, what is your question?”

“Well, actually…”

So, taking the opportunity, I began to carefully share my concerns, partly to inform her about my current state.

I explained how my growth had stagnated recently, and how no matter how much I trained, I couldn’t even get a sense of the advanced level, let alone break through its wall.

This might seem like too early a concern for someone who’s barely turning 17, but… since the opportunity had presented itself, shouldn’t I try to grasp something?

So after I shared my concerns, Grand Master Hecate looked at me for a moment with an indescribable, subtle gaze…

“I wondered what you were talking about, but you’re saying strange things. You are already at the advanced level.”

“…What?”

She completely shocked me by saying something I had never expected to hear in this place, something I couldn’t have predicted at all.

※ ※ ※

The moment I first heard this fact, my mind was filled with nothing but bewilderment.

‘I’m… advanced?’

I hadn’t felt any precursors or changes.

Even when I reached the intermediate level, I could at least feel that something had changed, but now, despite being called “advanced,” I couldn’t feel any difference compared to before.

Far from a sense of achievement, it was like going to sleep and waking up to find something had changed overnight—I was simply dumbfounded.

“You really didn’t know…”

And after seeing my reaction, Grand Master Hecate seemed to realize that I truly had no idea about this fact. She said those words and then looked directly at me before speaking.

“The advancement of one’s level doesn’t always happen in dramatic situations. Of course, in extreme situations, survival instincts are stimulated, making level advancement more likely.”

“Then, the reason I didn’t know about my level advancement…”

“Sometimes it happens dramatically with a ‘flash!’ but sometimes you grow gradually and advance without even realizing it. Even in your case, not all of your level advancements happened in an instant, right?”

“…Indeed, that’s true.”

It was. Thinking about it carefully, my growth so far had always been gradual, and I had never experienced a level advancement through some dramatic development like an awakening in a crisis situation.

So as I was trying to understand this sudden declaration, Grand Master Hecate, who seemed to be pondering something, asked me:

“Gregory, have you ever directly met another god?”

“Another god… Yes, I have. It was the spirit god of the new continent.”

“That was probably the catalyst for your level advancement.”

“…What? What do you mean?”

That encounter from at least several tens of days ago was the fundamental cause of my current growth?

I couldn’t understand this puzzling statement, and neither could Sophia, who was listening nearby… Addressing our confusion, Grand Master Hecate explained step by step.

“Contact with divine beings can be an enormous threat, but it can also be an opportunity to gain spiritual power.”

“…??”

“When you meet a high-dimensional being like a spirit god, comparable to a demigoddess, your horizon of perception extends far beyond. Usually, the brain can’t handle this at this point, but if you overcome it, you can expect an advancement in level. Of course, this was possible because you had already reached the edge of the intermediate level.”

And only after hearing this explanation and truly recognizing my change did I realize that I was somehow different from before.

Different. Something is different. I began to feel in my body that some aspect I couldn’t precisely express in words had changed from before.

So as I focused more on this subtle heat and change, and as silence was about to dominate this space…

“So, I have a proposal for you.”

“A proposal…?”

“Yes. Would you like to learn dimensional formation directly from me?”

Suddenly, Grand Master Hecate asked me if I would be interested in learning the technique of dimensional formation.