Online Game: I Started with Max Charisma and Caught the Goddess's Eye

Within the corridor shimmering with seven-colored light, Luca now stood alone.

By this point, he had mostly adapted to the corridor’s spatial fluctuations. The mild headache that had plagued him earlier had faded away. Still, he decided to linger a bit longer—just in case there was something else to discover.

“What are you still doing here?”

Sophia’s voice suddenly echoed around him, carrying her usual note of amused sharpness.

“If you really enjoy this kind of passageway, I could always make one exclusively for you.”

A flicker of surprise crossed Luca’s face.

“When did you emerge from the deepest part of my dreams?” he asked.

“The moment you stepped into the Northern District of Dragon Bone City,” Sophia replied calmly. “There was no way I could ignore such an overwhelming surge of magical energy.”

Her answer didn’t surprise him. Luca nodded slightly, then stepped forward into the gate of light.

Now that Sophia had awakened, he could finally rely on her for more insight about the mages and their workings.

As he crossed through the radiance, the world around him shifted, and he found himself standing inside a vast library.

The library was immense—rows upon rows of towering bookshelves stretched into the distance—but most of it was inaccessible to him. A transparent magical barrier sealed off the majority of the space.

He could only move within a single aisle, one lined with books solely related to Dusk Wharf.

“What a petty little trick,” Sophia’s disdainful voice rang out.

“These arrogant mages think that by slicing the library apart with spatial magic, they can keep the rest of it secure. But that’s a naïve illusion.

If I were back to my full strength, I could tear through those boundaries with a single spell. Every book in this entire library would be open to us.”

“But you haven’t recovered your power yet,” Luca replied flatly as he pulled a book from the shelf.

“So for now, let’s focus on what’s here—anything related to Dusk Wharf.”

The book he had chosen was titled An Overview of the Dusk Wharf.

After reading it swiftly from cover to cover, Luca exhaled a quiet sigh.

“I can’t shake the feeling that everything that’s happened since we unexpectedly returned to the Eternal World… it all feels a little too coincidental.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Sophia’s voice held a trace of confusion.

Luca spread the book open before him.

“Look at what’s written on this page,” he said. “The Dusk Wharf got its name because the entire harbor is shrouded within a region of temporal and spatial distortion.

In that place, there is no night and no day—only an endless dusk. Under the eternal twilight, everything within the wharf has mutated, and from those mutations, countless monsters were born.”

He read the passage aloud word for word.

Sophia, however, didn’t find anything particularly strange about it.

“So what about it?” she replied. “It’s just one of the many abnormalities that appeared across the Eternal World after the Ancient Gods tried to descend again. In fact, some of those anomalies are far worse—more terrifying, more grotesque—than the one at Dusk Wharf.”

“But didn’t you notice,” Luca said quietly, his gaze sharpening, “that the Dusk Wharf is closely connected to the Goddess of the Night? According to this author, the spatial chaos surrounding the wharf was caused by her curse.

And that’s exactly why—even though the Dusk Wharf lies so close to Dragon Bone City—the Crimson King has never been able to completely purge the monsters there. He still fears the Goddess of the Night’s curse.”

At those words, Sophia finally understood what he was getting at.

She fell silent for a while, thinking deeply. The more she reflected on their journey since returning to the Eternal World, the more she had to admit—it all seemed too coincidental.

Their entire path—from the Explorers’ Guild, to the Black Forest Camp, and now to Dragon Bone City—had been inexplicably intertwined with the Goddess of the Night.

But as a deity who had vanished ages ago, how could the Goddess have possibly arranged all this so easily?

If she still possessed such power, she would have long since found a way to free herself from her confinement, rather than orchestrate a chain of trials for Luca to complete in her name.

“So what exactly are you suggesting?” Sophia asked, her tone turning grave.

Luca’s expression hardened. “I think everything we’ve experienced might be under the influence of some hidden force—something manipulating events from behind the scenes.”

Sophia’s voice tightened. “Then shouldn’t we leave this place immediately?”

“No,” Luca said firmly, shaking his head. “On the contrary, we can’t leave. We must follow this trail—follow the current of this unseen power—and see exactly what kind of force is pulling the strings.”

His tone was solemn, filled with resolve. “I want to find out who—or what—is truly behind all of this.”

Over the following half-day, Luca and Sophia quickly went through every book related to the Dusk Wharf.

By the time they finished, the two of them already had a clear idea of how to approach the task.

Since the anomaly at Dusk Wharf was tied to the curse of the Goddess of the Night, Luca could theoretically use the dark authority granted to him by the Goddess herself to dispel the curse—

as long as he could locate the core of the curse hidden somewhere within the wharf.

“Now that we’ve figured out how to handle this mission,” Luca muttered to himself, “it’s time to move.”

He stepped straight through the gate of light and found himself back inside the seven-colored corridor.

The moment he returned, he was struck by a violent spatial tremor.

A sudden flash of white light swept across his vision—

—and when it faded, Luca realized with surprise that he had been teleported directly to the entrance of the Northern District.

“Well,” Sophia said reluctantly, “that’s quite a cleverly designed magic array.”

“They’ve connected the seven-colored corridor directly to the district’s gate.

So next time you want to access the archives, you’ll have to go through the entire complicated process all over again.

In a way, it’s a smart move—it keeps the Grand Library secure and prevents spies from easily infiltrating the Magic Academy of Dragon Bone City.”

Sophia rarely praised other mages; she was far too confident in her own mastery of magic.

So for her to give even a grudging compliment meant these mages had truly demonstrated exceptional skill.

“We won’t begin the mission until tomorrow,” Luca said. “That means we still have one night to rest.”

He didn’t pursue the topic of magical design further. He wasn’t a mage, and the difficulties he faced right now had nothing to do with magecraft. When the time came for such matters, he could always consult Sophia again.

With that thought, Luca made his way back toward the Eastern District as quickly as possible.

Navigating the maze-like streets proved harder than expected—he nearly got lost several times, and only after asking directions from several locals did he finally find the lodgings Andrea had arranged for him.

The moment he reached the door, he heard the unmistakable sound of snoring from inside.

“So he really is sleeping like a log,” Luca said helplessly.

He had once joked to Andrea that Lucas was a man so carefree he could fall asleep anywhere at any time.

But he hadn’t meant it literally—

until now.

He truly hadn’t expected Lucas to be this carefree—so utterly indifferent to everything around him.

After Luca knocked several times in quick succession, the door finally creaked open. Lucas stood there, half-asleep, his hair a mess and his eyes barely open.

“So,” Lucas mumbled through a yawn, “how’d it go? Mission accomplished?”

Luca stared at him, speechless.

“Are you half-asleep or just completely out of it? I can’t possibly complete the mission until tomorrow.”

It took a few seconds for Lucas to process that. Then, realization dawned on his face.

“Ah, right… yeah, that makes sense.” He quickly tried to change the subject. “Come in, come in. Andrea really did a good job—these rooms are incredibly comfortable. You’d never find accommodations like this back in the Black Forest Camp.”

Luca sighed inwardly but didn’t bother arguing. He wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

Without another word, he went straight to his own room.

“There’s been far too much happening today,” he muttered to himself. “I’ve already burned through most of my strength. If I want tomorrow’s mission to go smoothly, I need to rest now.”

With that as an excuse, he easily brushed off Lucas’s half-hearted suggestion that they go to a tavern together.

Once Luca was alone in his room, Sophia’s voice echoed softly in his mind, tinged with mild irritation.

“I don’t remember Lucas being this unreliable before. What happened to him? Why has he become so lazy since we arrived in Dragon Bone City?”

“How should I know?” Luca replied, weary. “It’s not like anything happened along the way. Maybe it’s because he can’t take on any real missions here. When a man suddenly has nothing to do, it’s easy for him to sink into apathy.”

It was the best answer he could come up with—but even he wasn’t sure if it was true.

Still, whether that explanation was right or not didn’t really matter. It wouldn’t change his course of action.

Lucas was, after all, a member of the Crimson King’s forces. He might be lazy, but betrayal was out of the question.

And as far as Luca was concerned, that was enough.

He didn’t need Lucas to contribute much—he just needed him not to get in the way.

When it came to dealing with useless allies, Luca had plenty of experience.

After all, even in the real world, he’d had more than his fair share of companions who were nothing but dead weight.

Back when Luca was still with Morning Star, aside from a handful of elite members, most of them were useless during operations—offering no real assistance and, in some cases, even holding him back.

And yet, despite all that, Luca had still managed to resolve one difficult crisis after another entirely on his own.

Given his current situation, having even a somewhat reliable ally by his side made things far easier than before.

“Forget it, I don’t want to overthink this,” Luca murmured. “I need to get some rest—and you should, too. I’ll still need your help tomorrow during the mission. At certain moments, I’ll be counting on your ice spells to control the field.”

He closed his eyes as he spoke, his voice gradually softening.

Sophia didn’t respond. She simply followed his advice, allowing her presence to fade into quiet slumber—just as Luca drifted into his own restless sleep.