What kind of world is this?
The land stretches endlessly, lush greenery and a variety of natural wonders towering above it.
Arches formed by massive boulders.
Giant sculptures towering a thousand meters high.
Towering trees reaching the horizon, towering as far as the eye can see.
Giant islands floating in the air.
Wonderful wonders.
These are things Arka has never seen before.
The naturally beautiful sky, the sun constantly rotating.
These are scenes Arka hasn't seen in a long time.
Across this boundless land, civilizations flourish everywhere.
The land is so vast, it seems borderless. What is called an ocean is actually just an inland lake on a continent.
A true ocean is unimaginable.
The people who live here develop civilization, increase their strength, and forge tools, but they will never set foot beyond the boundaries of this world.
Here, gods walk the earth.
The kingdom of God is built in the sky, in the clouds, beneath the sea, and upon the earth itself.
These gods walk the earth, controlling their own power and changing the world.
Arka gazed upon this dreamlike, yet real, world.
He had a general idea: the scene before him must be the world of the past, the shattered Golden Age.
Through his eyes, which see through secrets, he gazed upon the treasure chest of the world he had held in his hand, the other side of the dream.
Through it, he saw the phantom of the past world.
Floating in the sky, watching the world unfold, Arka had no idea what era it was in.
For the so-called Golden Age spanned so long, so long that it was almost impossible to remember it with complete accuracy.
Then, he felt something he was looking at fall from the sky—in other words, the key to the world's treasure house.
Arka's gaze also descended to the earth.
It was no longer the vague scenery he had always seen from soaring high in the sky.
He surveyed his surroundings.
It was the edge of a forest.
Underfoot, a path, worn by people, lay a path.
At that moment,
A boy, wearing what looked like rattan or straw sandals, carrying a backpack, approached.
Judging from his appearance, he looked perhaps thirteen or fourteen, dressed in ordinary rags.
He seemed to be speaking something in a language he had never heard before, so naturally, he didn't understand.
He saw the key and took it in his hand.
In other words, the boy before him was the first person to receive the key.
Based on the legends surrounding the treasure vault, it can be inferred that it appeared long ago, even before the Festival of the Gods.
The vast span of time makes the numbers representing time difficult to comprehend.
The key unlocked the vault.
Time seemed to pass too slowly. Alka waved his hand, and time began to accelerate.
In a vision, Alka watched as the young man before him received the key, opened the vault, and from it, gained the divinity that suited him.
A gift from the world.
Is this the first divinity bestowed by the World Mother?
With divinity, the young man relied on his own abilities to eliminate the monsters surrounding his home. He brought his friends, family, and tribe members together to establish a better gathering place.
It was clear that this era was extremely ancient, seemingly still in the barbaric days of tribalism.
However, having only seen the entire scene from the sky, Alka was not so sure.
This is the only way to describe this region.
This world is vast.
Time accelerated once more.
Alka seemed to be skipping over useless fragments.
When the young man was in his twenties, he built a castle, and around it, a new gathering place.
The safe environment and powerful strength attracted more people to join the city-state.
The city-state grew larger and larger.
As time accelerated, Alka watched the city rise like a building block.
Even the young man who had attained divinity had already sired countless descendants and died long ago.
In a single moment, Alka might have traveled hundreds of years.
The key that carried his vision had already soared into the sky, but he deliberately kept his gaze there for a moment longer.
Alka leaped back again, then followed the advantage back into the sky. Where would he fall next? In this way, Alka watched the key fall many times, granting divinity to various beings.
Alka had a general understanding of the key's appearance in this era: it would randomly fall from the sky somewhere.
It wasn't a random drop, but rather landed near a crowded area.
This meant someone would always come here.
The longest time Alka had been here was about two years before someone found it.
And when someone arrived and took it, that lucky individual would gain the essence of divinity and become a divine being of this era.
This time, it was still a mortal.
After receiving the essence of divinity, he, as Alka had expected, repeated the actions of the previous lucky recipient of the divine gold.
Perhaps this era was too ancient, with too many wild monsters around.
Those who had attained divinity...
We all did the same thing.
He eliminated the surrounding monsters and established a gathering place, but his gathering place was ultimately destroyed by a monster whose power had reached the demigod stage.
Finally, he saw something different.
Alka fixed his vision and accelerated time, beginning to watch this man's life.
After his foundation was destroyed, he began to travel and slay monsters.
Then he died.
Forget it, I'll just look for something special.
After that.
It turned out to be a god.
Alka had never seen this god before, or rather, he had no idea what kind of existence this god was.
Although there were many records about gods in the books of the Great Library, they were not complete.
Let alone at this time.
The god before him had also gained a divine power, which had clearly increased his own strength. The divine power he had acquired simply enhanced his own strength.
He seemed to know it belonged to the world, even thanking the world.
Thus, the key began to be passed around.
Alka's gaze began to follow those who found the key, broadening his understanding of the world.
His understanding of that past era.
Although he was using time acceleration, viewing it in a very general way, Alka could even see through some lives in just a few minutes.
As expected, in this golden age, the strength of these ordinary mortals, nurtured by this magic, could only reach the second or third stage at most.
And because of the changes caused by the surrounding environment, even those who reached the second or third stage only had stronger physiques and longer lifespans, without any means to utilize these abilities.
He saw that most of them were shamans and those with similar faiths to gods, who could make very crude use of this magic.
Those who could break through this limit were naturally those mortals who found the key, opened the treasure house, and gained divinity.
Or perhaps they worked together, using various means to slay a powerful monster and obtain its divine essence.
They pushed their limits, becoming the guardians of a particular gathering place.
For while mortals were weak, the surrounding monsters, even the divine beasts, were immensely powerful.
In other words, the dangers facing humanity at this time came from all sides.
However, the overall environment could be considered quite favorable.
Because of the treasure vault, the news seemed to have spread. Of course, Alka suspected it had spread only within the so-called divine circle.
Alka saw many lives within the illusion and roughly understood the current time period, which must have been much earlier than the Tribulation of the Gods, even longer than he had previously imagined.
Only in very few places did the gods maintain their faith.
Because, in the eyes of these gods, humans were no different from wild beasts or ants.
Perhaps it was the gods' playfulness, or perhaps just passing through, that caused these mortals to witness certain visions. Stunned by their beauty, and given that their appearance remained largely unchanged, a primordial devotion to the gods formed in various settlements, even in some primitive tribes.
As these beliefs spread, the gods began to act recklessly.
At least that's how Arka saw it.
For example, the scene he was witnessing now.
"Fearless God of the Forest, we offer our finest offspring. We pray that you grant us fertile land, abundant food, and protect our tribe and your followers."
Speaking, the figure, dressed in clothing made of various natural elements, such as a dress and culottes made of grass, vines, and leaves, then held up the heads of two children. These children were clearly unaware of what they were about to face.
Behind the priest, a man and a woman lowered their heads in silence; the woman's tears could even be seen.
It was obvious this was a human sacrifice.
The giant tree before them stretched out vines, binding the two children.
"What is this?" One of the children knocked on the vines that bound them.
"Mommy, mommy, hug me." The other child couldn't even speak clearly. Seeing the vines binding her, she could only cry out, opening her arms and begging for a hug.
This cry received a response from her mother, who stood up and tried to go over.
But then, they were restrained by the people around them.
The two children gradually began to cry and were dragged into the woods.
Looking at the phantom, Alka followed.
Watching the two children being dragged by the vines into the woods, they saw the so-called god.
A deity, perhaps a tree, or something similar to a nature deity.
Alka looked at it and saw that it was weak.
Neither could be called a god.
At most, a demigod.
Because in the illusion, Alka saw only two orange and one golden discs within his body.
In this world, there was no way to attain divinity, so the demigod before him must have been a natural-born god, or perhaps a descendant of a god.
Then, watching this god's actions, Alka frowned and immediately sped up time.
Because he clearly didn't see the two children as intelligent humans, but rather as ants.
This was just a reflection of history, and Alka, powerless to avoid disturbing his own mind, could only quickly jump forward.
As time passed,
Such scenes became more and more frequent.
A warrior who had attained divinity slew a divine beast that was wreaking havoc nearby. This so-called beast was actually the son of a god.
Because his child was murdered, a god descended and destroyed this gathering place, transforming the formidable warrior into a stone statue, which he placed atop the ruins as punishment.
With the development of intelligent life, civilization began to emerge on Earth.
Some gods discovered this civilization.
They observed it as if it were an ant empire, occasionally intervening.
They tinkered with it like a game.
Clearly, with these gods' involvement, the country hadn't improved.
Alka couldn't help but frown at the various scenes that unfolded at the hands of these gods, leaving him feeling sick.
Just watching them brought a nameless rage to his heart.
Of course, some tried to resist.
But it was pointless.
This world lacked meditation techniques, lacked treasures, and offered virtually no resistance against the gods.
Fortunately, this world is vast enough that even if all the gods were to mess around, it wouldn't cause any major problems.
Not to mention that many gods actually ignored these ants.
The development of civilization is inevitably accompanied by war.
Originally, it was just a conflict between two small city-states, but unfortunately, the God of War was nearby.
In reality, during that clash of gods in outer space, Alka had seen a similar aura on the opposing side.
The God of War now resembled a young man, clad in resplendent golden armor, wielding a beautiful one-handed sword and holding a military flag in the other.
Near the conflict, he seemed to sense something.
Then, inexplicably, the flames of war began to spread across all civilizations, and numerous conflicts began to emerge.
As time passed, Alka could see that these exaggerated wars were all caused by this god and some of his friends. However, all control stemmed from the God of War before them.
He seemed to have discovered that these wars strengthened his power.
The citizens also delighted in this amusing game.
With the outbreak of war, large numbers of intelligent lifeforms vanished. Countless wars would soon cease, only to erupt again due to certain issues, or even intensify.
The reason for all this was self-evident.
At some point, these gods even appeared in every war, watching and drinking, treating every battle as a spectacle.
"Haha, what would they think if they knew I was the one who influenced his so-called son and the princess to commit adultery?" A seductive woman laughed, covering her mouth.
Looking at this woman,
Alka had a vague idea of who she was.
As expected, it must be the treacherous Moon Goddess.
"I secretly gave his newborn child to the general and manipulated him into killing him," another male god said with a smile.
These gods were discussing how they had sparked this war.
And so many gods had gathered nearby to watch and observe this battle.
This was because these two civilizations were among the largest on earth, with armies numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Even under the influence of the gods, the soldiers on both sides were fearless and exceptionally brave, their morale seemingly locked as they fought each other.
Even the officers rushed into the battlefield like mad.
There was no such thing as prisoners or defeat.
These people even believed it was a gift from the gods.
Little did they know that it was simply the gods' will.