Read Novel Full Chapter 1324: Map
Chapter 1324: Map
Unlike merely extracting attributes, integrating a Trait involved a more fundamental change. Something within him began shifting.
It wasn’t painful. At least, not initially.
Timi could feel a faint warmth spreading from his chest toward his head. His nose tingled. For several seconds, the sensation continued growing stronger.
A moment later, another panel appeared.
[Trait synchronization successful.]
[The two Traits have merged.]
[You have obtained a new Trait.]
[Scent Dominion]
[Description: Your perception of scent has evolved beyond ordinary biological limitations. You can distinguish subtle odors, recognize lingering scent signatures, and perceive certain traces that ordinary senses cannot detect.]
[Effect: Greatly enhances olfactory perception and allows you to recognize the distinctive scent signatures of living beings, territories, and certain forms of energy.]
[Special Effect: Your heightened perception may occasionally detect unusual changes in surrounding scent signatures associated with hostility, danger, or other disturbances.]
[Note: The relationship between scent signatures and perceived danger is not absolute. The Trait does not guarantee accurate identification of threats.]
Timi read the description. His smile widened.
"This..."
It was considerably better than he’d expected. While having a dog’s sense of smell wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned for himself, it was the functionality that mattered.
Timi nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad. Not bad at all."
He was about to examine the Trait more carefully when something suddenly changed. An overwhelming flood of sensations struck him.
"...!"
Timi’s expression froze. Then his face twisted.
"FUCK!"
He hurriedly pinched his nose shut. It was useless.
Countless scents had already flooded his perception.
The smell of damp soil. Rotting leaves. Fresh grass. Tree bark. Wildflowers. The metallic scent of blood from the monsters he’d killed. The musky scent of animal fur. Even the faint smell of insects hidden beneath the surrounding vegetation.
Everything arrived at once.
And that wasn’t all. There were scents he couldn’t immediately identify. Some were sweet, others bitter. A few possessed strange qualities that reminded him of mana, although he couldn’t explain exactly why.
Timi staggered backward.
"What the hell?!"
His eyes watered. He instinctively tried holding his breath. That helped slightly, but the scents he’d already perceived remained disturbingly vivid in his mind.
Too much!
Timi squeezed his nose harder. His expression was miserable.
He had expected his sense of smell to improve. He hadn’t expected it to become this ridiculous.
For several moments, he stood motionless, trying to regain control of his senses. Gradually, the overwhelming intensity began to subside.
Not because the scents had disappeared. Rather, Timi was beginning to adapt.
He discovered that by concentrating on a particular scent, he could push the others into the background. It wasn’t perfect. The moment his concentration wavered, several unrelated scents would immediately become noticeable again.
But at least he could breathe without feeling as though the entire forest had been stuffed into his nostrils.
Timi slowly released his nose and inhaled cautiously. A fresh wave of scents entered his perception, and his face twitched.
"...This is going to take some getting used to."
He couldn’t help wondering whether he’d made a mistake. Then he recalled the Trait description.
If the Trait truly possessed all those capabilities, enduring a little discomfort was worthwhile. At least, that was what he told himself.
Timi took another cautious breath. This time, he deliberately focused on the scent of the enormous boar. Almost immediately, the other smells became less prominent.
Timi spent another few moments familiarizing himself with his new Trait before finally relaxing. Although the improvement was considerable, he could already tell that mastering it wouldn’t happen overnight.
Fortunately, he wasn’t dying any time soon.
"Anyway, I should get going now."
"Lily must be cursing me by now."
Timi glanced toward his newly established subsidiary station and chuckled. Considering how long he’d been gone, he wouldn’t be surprised if the girl had already grown impatient.
He looked around the clearing one last time. Then he disappeared.
The familiar sensation of spatial displacement enveloped him. However, when his vision changed, the green forest he had expected to see was nowhere in sight.
Instead, Timi found himself standing inside a strange white room.
"Huh?"
The room was completely white. Its walls, ceiling, and floor seemed to be made from the same smooth material, without any visible seams or decorations.
There were no doors. No windows. Even the lighting was strange. There wasn’t any obvious source of illumination, yet everything was perfectly visible.
Timi glanced around.
Where the hell am I?
For a moment, he wondered whether something had gone wrong with his return. However, before he could become concerned, his attention was drawn toward two enormous screens floating in front of him.
They weren’t ordinary screens. Although their surfaces were rectangular, the images displayed within them possessed a remarkable sense of depth.
Timi approached the screens, his curiosity growing.
"These are..."
He quickly realized what he was looking at.
Maps.
More precisely, they resembled three-dimensional maps. Unlike ordinary maps that displayed terrain from above, these contained miniature representations of actual locations.
Timi’s attention settled on the first screen. It displayed a vast expanse of greenery, with several ponds filled with transparent emerald-green water scattered throughout the region.
The ponds were particularly noticeable. Their surfaces resembled pieces of green glass embedded in the earth, reflecting the surrounding vegetation with remarkable clarity.
Even from the perspective of the three-dimensional map, Timi could recognize the unusual appearance of the region.
It was Verdant Abode. His territory.
Timi smiled faintly.
So this is what my territory looks like from above.
His eyes moved toward the second screen. This one displayed a completely different environment.
A broad stretch of silver-green grassland occupied much of the visible terrain. Low mountains rose in the distance, while several streams wound between patches of woodland. A larger river crossed one section of the map.
Near its center stood another Universal Cornerstone, with numerous buildings around it. Timi immediately recognized the place.
"Evergreen Haven?"
It was Lily’s territory. He’d visited the settlement before, so recognizing it wasn’t particularly difficult.
However, the map didn’t display everything. In fact, only a relatively small portion of Evergreen Haven was visible in detail.
Timi stared at the two maps for several moments before gradually coming to a realization. Although he hadn’t received any explanation, he could more or less understand what was happening.
The white room was probably some kind of transfer space, and the two maps represented the destinations currently available to him.
Thinking about it this way, the entire arrangement was surprisingly familiar.
Isn’t this basically the checkpoint system in games?
Timi couldn’t help complaining inwardly. He had played enough games before the apocalypse to recognize the similarities. The only thing missing was a convenient button labeled Fast Travel.
Seriously, whoever designed this thing must have played a lot of games.
Of course, he wasn’t actually complaining about the convenience. If anything, he was delighted.
Traveling through the Origin Battlefield could be extremely troublesome. If this system allowed him to bypass those distances, it would save him a great deal of trouble.
Hmm, why does Lily’s territory look like a starting village, though?
As for why there were only two available maps despite his vast exploration in the Zeroth Layer, it was most likely linked to the fact that he was currently connected to only two Cornerstones.
Cornerstones are truly valuable.
The convenience of transportation alone was invaluable.
Of course, Timi wasn’t foolish enough to assume there were no restrictions. He would have to ask Lily about those things later. For now, he was satisfied with what he’d discovered.
Timi looked around the white room once more.
Well, I suppose there’s no point standing around.
He took a deep breath and turned toward the first screen.
As he approached the map, the miniature landscape became clearer. The emerald ponds reflected the surrounding greenery, while the Universal Cornerstone stood prominently near the center of the territory.
For a moment, he found himself admiring the view. He hadn’t realized just how beautiful the region looked from above.
His finger touched the floating screen. Immediately, the map brightened.
The familiar sensation of spatial displacement enveloped Timi once more. He didn’t resist.
A moment later, his vision changed.
He looked around and smiled.
"Finally."
However, his smile stiffened slightly when an unusually familiar voice suddenly sounded from nearby.
"Timi!"
Not far away, a young girl with black hair and green eyes was staring at him. It was Lily. And judging by her expression, she had quite a few things she wanted to say.
Timi scratched the back of his head.
"Uh... I’m back?"
Lily spoke, her eyes fixed on him.
"Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting?"
Timi sighed inwardly.
Women. Such beautiful creatures with their own troubles.
Meanwhile, as the two young Awakeners reunited, Michael watched from within the Mausoleum of Endless Dominion as the final bolt of lightning disappeared into the undead Lily’s stomach and an enormous burst of light erupted from her body.
*
Thank you for reading today’s Chapter! Please vote to support novel! And no, there’s no dragging content with lily advancement. If I time skipped everything then part of the novel would become summary like.
Author is doing his best to listen to corrections!