CHAPTER 637: CHAPTER 428: THE END OF ANCIENT DRAGON PEAK (PART 2)

And Selene is considered an anomaly.

The adventurer’s goal will transform into a nightmare that attacks the adventurer’s heart. What is the princess’s goal? To ascend and meet Ornstein.

This resulted in her mental attacks taking the form of several Ornsteins surrounding her, looking at her with the same disdain one reserves for an ant!

The very thought of this scene excites her... no, it invigorates her, urging her to continue climbing!

The higher she climbs, the stronger the winds become.

"Oh oh, there it is again!"

Selene once again sees Ornstein’s figure, and this time she watches the scene of his battle with the Flying Dragon up close.

The last time she entered the Painting World, she got too close and was hit by debris shaken loose in the aftermath of the battle, causing her to fall off the mountain. So this time, despite her excitement, she dared not get too close.

Ornstein nailed the Flying Dragon to the mountain with a single spear thrust, sending stones flying, and Selene quickly ducked her head to avoid them.

Yet this time, the stones didn’t hit her. Puzzled, she looked up, only to see the Lion Knight’s figure receding into the distance.

"Strange..."

Muttering to herself, Selene continued climbing. The closer she got to the summit, the more unbearable the pressure from all sides became. She had now reached an unprecedented height, and the fierce winds threatened to blow her frail frame away.

But she was getting closer; the end of the journey was near.

Hope blossomed in her eyes, and just then, the bells tolled, clouds gathered endlessly at the mountain’s peak. Could it be that Ornstein was ringing the great bell?

With the bell’s toll came a bone-chilling gale, far more powerful than before!

"Ah!"

The sudden onslaught of the wind caught Selene off guard, causing the rock she was gripping to suddenly loosen, and her body to fall backward—

At the same time, the same place, different people.

Standing halfway up the Ancient Dragon Peak, Leon looked up at the imposing figure of Ornstein before him, a look of surprise and uncertainty on his face.

After Ornstein left, he relaxed his body, rested on a relatively flat spot, and recalled the scene moments ago.

He had witnessed Ornstein battling the Flying Dragon; after its death, the dragon rolled down the mountain, about to knock him off balance.

Then, Ornstein suddenly appeared and blocked the Flying Dragon’s body!?

It was tantamount to saving his life!

Gazing at the dragon corpse before him, Leon fell into deep thought.

Perhaps due to his professional training, he observed this Painting World with great attention to detail.

Each time the adventurer died, the Painting World would not reset. The adventurer had to start from zero, with everything resetting only upon reentry.

Besides enduring various suffering and pressures on the ascent, there were all sorts of unexpected events, such as falling rocks and shockwaves from expert battles. Each surprise was enough to be fatal upon first encounter.

Leon had climbed this path dozens of times, gradually discovering one thing:

These unexpected events occasionally repeated!

Just like the dragon corpse that rolled down earlier, he had encountered it for the third time!

That was easier to understand; after all, the Painting World merely recorded a story, bound to have repetitive elements.

But why did Ornstein help him this time?

The first two times, he was either struck down by the dragon’s corpse or narrowly avoided it, so why was he helped this time?

With this doubt, Leon continued his ascent and soon reached the stretch where he began to suffer mental attacks, his expression turning pained immediately.

It seemed that after beating his father and sister and letting go of burdens, he had no obsessions to be considered goals, making the mental attacks quite troubling.

But just then, he saw Ornstein steadily walking in the distance ahead, who suddenly turned to glance at him.

At the moment their eyes met, Leon shuddered as if realizing something.

"So that’s it... Is it similar to Solar’s situation?"

In the Painting World, Solar would display different attitudes based on the adventurer’s behavior, carrying over his stance from the previous Painting World towards the adventurer.

And this Ornstein seemed to remember the efforts of adventurers who had previously challenged this Painting World!

Leon recalled that the first time he was here, Ornstein did not even glance at him, as if he were just another stone on the roadside.

When he fell due to his undetermined will, Ornstein would look at him, but the gaze held pity and... disdain?

Naturally, a Four Knights Under King like Ornstein wouldn’t disdain the weak, but what about someone who wasn’t that weak yet failed due to a lack of will?

Back then, Leon was determined to challenge the Painting World again because he felt the gaze from Ornstein, entrusting the exploration of the Ancient Dragon Peak to Maru and the others.

He had been knocked off the cliff by stones sent flying during Ornstein’s battles, blasted away by the battle shockwaves, and crashed by the Flying Dragon’s corpse... and experienced the same setbacks as Selene.

Failure followed by challenges, again and again, until just now did he realize one thing.

Somehow, at some point, all the stones and shockwaves disappeared!

It was at the moment when Ornstein casually shielded him from the Flying Dragon’s corpse that he realized, as if Ornstein consciously protected him?

No, it’s not so much protection; a more accurate statement would be that he controlled the battle’s impact, preventing Leon from being affected!