Ch 4
NEYMAR
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Episode 04
Thump.
Just as I was getting used to the thick scent of blood, my racing heartbeat returned to normal, and a wave of excruciating pain washed over my entire body.
The ‘Awakening’ granted by The Sword Saint's Former Master had ended.
…This damn body.
When the Awakening kicks in, a massive amount of adrenaline is secreted, allowing the character to move with far more fluidity. The description says it improves concentration and judgment. It also has the effect of dulling pain, which is how I was able to put up a decent fight even in this withered husk of a body.
The problem was the aftermath—the situation I was in right now.
Fighting beyond your physical stats grants you a whole slew of debuffs for thirty minutes. Pain Enhancement, Decreased Concentration, Anemia, Abdominal Pain, Muscle Aches, and more.
Because of that, an incredible agony was crashing over me like a tidal wave. My mind was so steeped in fatigue that I was on the verge of passing out.
…Let’s just get some sleep first.
Putting aside what needed to be done, I trudged into the adjacent room. The facilities seemed a little worse than the room I was originally assigned, but hey, it wasn’t like I could sleep next to a corpse. Besides, it was the place they’d tried to subdue me, so it might be booby-trapped.
In any case, I sprawled out on my back on the bed and let the tension drain from my body. I felt like I was glued to the mattress; even lifting a single finger was an ordeal.
I was confident I could fall asleep in one second, but I forced my heavy eyelids open. There was still something I had to do.
The magic that the slicked-back-haired man had been casting. I had to reconstruct it.
…I wonder what kind of magic it was.
I had deconstructed it before it could even activate, so I had no idea what it was meant to be. I could only guess it was some kind of attack magic. It didn’t seem to be a particularly high-level spell.
But regardless, it was the first ‘real magic’ I had seen since coming to this world.
Just in case, I had seared every minute detail of the process into my memory, turning it into a lesson.
Maybe I can make it my own.
To do that, it was best to act now, before I slept, while the memory was still fresh.
I slowly rewound the man’s casting process in my mind.
I think I’m getting the general feel of it.
The trickiest part was the introduction to the spell—the part I had missed while fighting the large man. By the time that fight was over, the spell was already halfway complete.
I had to figure it out for myself.
I slowly raised my concentration. A tingling sensation spread as the situation replayed in my head like a simulation: the total amount of mana, its direction of travel, its density, the overall flow.
I played it all in reverse, trying to picture the very beginning.
At first, I felt completely lost, but soon, I started to get a feel for it.
Like this?
I slowly opened my eyes and manipulated the mana that had gathered around me. Soon, a fistful of mana began to emit a blue light.
Was it thanks to [Magical Genius? I instinctively understood what this phenomenon was.
The origin of a spell.
The starting point of magic.
All magic begins from this single handful of mana.
…Now.
From here on, I just had to move exactly as he had.
Weaving letters from mana, forming shapes, drawing a circle.
A single spell formation was created.
I carefully observed the formation floating before my eyes. In an instant, I understood the properties contained within it. On the surface, it seemed calm, but it held a wild, aggressive nature, as if it would devour the caster at the slightest misstep.
There was only one type of magic with properties like this.
…So it was fire.
The slicked-back-haired man had been casting a fire spell.
The moment I realized this, a subtle sense of achievement filled me.
“…Ha, haha.”
It was the first time since coming to this world that I had managed to replicate more than half of a spell. And without a spellbook, no less.
Mastering magic on your own was a feat that even wizards with considerable talent wouldn’t dare attempt. It might have been thanks to my Trait, but for a moment, I felt like a true genius.
…I was thrown into a game against my will. I’m allowed to enjoy this much, right?
The very instant I thought that…
…
I let everything go and closed my eyes.
This was a level of fatigue no human could possibly endure.
When I woke up, the room was dark.
I instinctively checked the clock on the wall.
“I fell asleep around six…”
The current time was 9 PM.
I had slept for fifteen hours straight.
It seemed I really had been exhausted.
…Slept a long time. But hey, I feel completely refreshed.
Crack, pop.
I stretched my body out from corner to corner and headed straight for the shower. I washed off the sweat I’d been soaked in while sleeping.
Only after I’d showered and changed into fresh clothes did I begin to think about what to do next.
It wasn’t much of a dilemma, really.
First, I need to get out of the 7th District.
The 7th District, the den of beggars known as the garbage dump. There was nothing for me to do here. To seriously start using the build I’d planned, I needed to get to the 6th District at the very least.
And to do that…
…First, I need money. Second… I need money. And third, I need… money.
Damn it all.
“Why is life the same in every damn world?”
This was the plan:
Bribe a guard and enter the 6th District.
Launder my identity through a broker.
Acquire a spellbook, learn magic, and raise my market value.
The problem was that every single step of this process required money.
Where do I get money?
My original plan had been to quickly master some magic, use it to help the beggars, and then receive payment, but my thoughts had changed.
I can’t trust them. Not one bit.
I decided it was too risky to earn money from beggars who might stab me in the back at any moment. So I had to come up with another way.
What possible means were there to make money here?
As I was pondering this, my stomach lurched.
Grrrrowl!
…Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten anything.
I went straight to the common kitchen to fill my stomach. The menu was a round slice of bread toasted and slathered with fruit jam.
…It’s different, but it’s delicious.
The sweetness that filled my mouth ignited my appetite. It was in that moment, as the stimulating flavor seemed to awaken my brain, that a thought flashed through my mind.
Wait, money?
I looked around and took in the well-organized kitchen. From the piles of high-quality ingredients to the kitchen utensils that lacked nothing. The table, the tablecloth, the sink—everything was high-class.
I felt a jolt.
How could I not have thought of this?
Right, in a place like this…
There was no need to look for money elsewhere.
Thump-thump-thump!
I raced through the building, searching every corner. Then, I stopped before a large iron door.
The firmly locked door looked suspicious to anyone.
If my hunch was right…
The money is in here.
For them to afford a building like this, they must have stashed their wealth somewhere. My heart pounded at the thought that this could solve all my problems at once.
The only issue was getting it open…
Inspecting the iron door, I saw a small hole.
A keyhole.
Where would he have kept the key?
Two places came to mind. One was the room of the slicked-back-haired man they called their leader, and the other was his body. Of the two, the latter seemed more likely.
He didn’t exactly seem like a cautious person.
Which meant the odds were high that he carried it on him.
I went straight back to where the body was and searched the corpse. Sleeves, pants pockets, inner pockets. Then, I felt something jingling near his waist.
Found it.
It was a key ring with several keys of different shapes. One of these had to be the key to that suspicious door.
There was no need to guess which one it was.
I’ll just try them all.
I went back to the iron door and inserted the keys one by one. Soon, I heard the click of the lock disengaging.
Nice.
Creeeak—
The thick iron door opened with a metallic groan.
Instead of the room I expected, it revealed a dark space and a set of stairs leading down.
Was there a basement below?
Clank.
I grabbed a lantern mounted on the wall and cautiously moved forward.
One step, two steps.
After descending the seemingly endless stairs, I rounded a corner and found a new door. With a small barred window and a latch that locked from the outside, it looked exactly like a prison cell.
What was in here?
Screeeech—
With my guard raised, I unlatched the door and stepped inside. It was pitch-black, without a single speck of light.
As I swung the lantern from side to side, scanning the area, a black shape in the corner caught my eye. Long, tangled hair, tattered clothes, a body curled up tightly.
…A woman?
She looked so wretched it wouldn’t have been strange if she were already dead, but I pushed past the unsettling feeling and nudged her cautiously with my foot.
The woman flinched and looked up at me with hollow eyes.
So she’s alive.
“…Were you thrown in here too?”
“No.”
“…Then how did you get here?”
“Just passing by.”
“…”
The woman sealed her lips and said nothing more, but her gaze darted to one side. Her eyes began to tremble violently. Her face was pale with fear, as if terrified of something.
Her gaze was fixed on the stairs.
“The men… the men outside…?”
I was starting to get the picture. They must have kidnapped this woman and locked her in here.
I spoke in a reassuring tone.
“They’re all dead.”
“…Dead?”
Tears welled up. The woman’s eyes grew moist, and finally, she burst into sobs.
“Hic, sob…!”
Her cries grew louder and clearer. The sorrow and rage contained within them were more than I could possibly fathom.
Just what had happened to her?
Thud.
I sat down against the opposite wall and waited for her to calm down. Her weeping only subsided after a long while, and I asked gently.
“…What happened to you?”
“…”
Her eyes fixed on the floor, the woman hesitated before forcing the words out.
“…I was born a beggar. A beggar of the 7th District.”
Love can bloom even in a garbage dump. The woman said she was one such new life.
“I was always starving, but it was okay. My parents cherished me…”
Though her circumstances were poor, she had a family, and that alone was enough for her to endure each day.
“Then one day, I awakened my mana.”
The woman said she thought it was a blessing. A sign from the gods telling her to escape this tragic life.
“I told them right away. That I’d awakened my mana. That we didn’t have to live like this anymore.”
In this world, awakening mana was certainly something to be hopeful about. It was enough to change one’s entire life.
But.
“…The moment they heard that, the look in my parents’ eyes changed. They weren’t the people I knew.”
“…”
“Just like that, I was sold off to this place.”
The end was a tragedy. What she had thought was hope had only served to plunge her life into a deeper abyss.
“It’s funny, isn’t it? The people I trusted, my own parents…”
What was I supposed to say?
“…How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. Maybe, a week…?”
“I see…”
I glanced around the room. A pitch-black cellar with no light, disgustingly humid air, and small insects crawling on the floor.
The woman had spent a whole week in this place. Abandoned, and on top of that, locked in here for a week. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how she must have felt.
And more importantly.
—I saw you… I saw you handling mana…
If I hadn’t killed them, I would have been the one locked up in here.
Those damn bastards.
In that moment, any lingering guilt I had tried so hard to ignore completely vanished.
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