Ch 5
NEYMAR
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Chapter 05
In the quiet stillness.
The woman spoke, her voice filled with resolve.
“I’m getting out of here. And… I will have my revenge. I swear it.”
It was a complete turnaround from the sobbing girl of a moment ago.
Revenge, huh…
I can’t say it’s a good thing, but it’s not bad, either.
A clear goal can be a foothold to keep moving forward.
Even if that goal means harboring venom for your own parents.
“I’ll make them regret abandoning me.”
Fwoosh.
A deep violet glow ignited in her rage-filled eyes.
At the same time, the ambient mana began to swirl and converge upon her.
…Manipulation?
I couldn’t help but be surprised.
She may have awakened her mana, but her proficiency was far higher than I’d expected.
She must have quite the talent.
In [Devil Fantasy], one had to go through three stages to awaken their mana.
Awakening, Manipulation, and Manifestation.
The first stage, ‘Awakening,’ allows you to see mana. The second stage, ‘Manipulation,’ allows you to handle it.
The final stage, ‘Manifestation,’ is where you can implement that mana to create magic.
Only after reaching Manifestation does one earn the minimum qualification to become a wizard.
Of course, even if it was the ‘minimum,’ it was by no means an easy process.
Sure, I reached Manifestation in an instant thanks to my Mythic-grade Trait, but…
Normally, even with a decent magic-related Trait, it would take two months of constant practice just to achieve Mana Manipulation.
In that sense, this beggar girl, who had clearly never been taught, was remarkably talented.
It seemed she’d awakened a Heroic-grade Trait by chance… I was seriously considering it.
…Should I take her with me?
[Devil Fantasy] was not a world you could ever hope to conquer alone.
This cruel world was designed from the ground up to be a journey of making—and losing—countless allies.
For a wizard, especially in the early stages, having a companion wasn’t a choice, but a necessity.
The faster you found an ally, the better.
That alone would mitigate some of the extreme difficulty of the early game.
The only hang-up was… the issue of trust.
Can I trust her?
The shock of the old man’s betrayal hadn’t faded yet.
Because of that, I considered it carefully, then reconsidered it again.
Could I really trust this woman?
It didn’t matter what she had been through.
Just because someone has suffered doesn’t mean they’re incapable of betrayal.
It all came down to her character.
If she was a decent person, she would become a trustworthy ally. If not, she’d stab me in the back one day.
I couldn’t repeat the same mistake through a rash judgment.
For now, I’ll just watch her.
Besides, it wasn’t something I could get an answer to just by thinking about it.
People weren’t animals you could figure out with a single glance.
It would take time, conversation, and observation.
So, I put the decision on hold and remembered my original purpose for coming here.
I got to my feet and looked around.
“…What are you doing?”
“It’s not here.”
It was too dark to see clearly, but even at a glance, there was no safe or any place to hide money.
Well, I had expected as much.
There was no way they’d store something so precious in a prison-like place like this.
And they certainly wouldn’t have kept it next to the woman they’d locked up.
That means it’s somewhere else.
I glanced at the ring of keys.
Four keys remaining.
Where could they have hidden it?
“What are you looking for?”
“A safe.”
I told her my objective, thinking she might know something.
Fortunately, my guess was right.
“A safe, you say…”
The woman nodded as if she had a place in mind.
“I have an idea where it might be. I’ll show you, so follow me.”
She took the lead and started up the stairs.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”
“…I’m coming.”
She was giving me crucial information without asking for anything in return.
Was it thanks for unlocking the door? Or for listening to her story?
I wasn’t sure which it was, but…
Okay. She passes the conscience check, at least.
“Not there. It’s Keila.”
The woman, who had introduced herself as Keila, came to a dead stop in the second-floor hallway.
It was the very place where I had fought the thugs.
Keila stared at the bodies for a moment, her brow furrowing.
“…Sons of bitches. Bastards who deserved to be killed, scum not even worthy of being demon fodder!”
She spat out curses, as if their being dead wasn’t enough to quell her anger.
Well, she must have had a lot of pent-up feelings.
“What happened to them?”
Keila turned her head towards me and asked.
Right, I hadn’t told her.
“I killed them.”
“You…?”
Keila shot me a look of disbelief.
I wasn’t particularly offended.
If I were her, I wouldn’t believe that a scrawny beggar like me had killed three grown men, either.
“Why did you kill them?”
“They put poison in the food.”
“Poison? Why?”
“Who knows. I guess the dead guys would know the reason.”
Of course, I’d heard from the old man that they were after my heart, but there was no need to tell her that.
Saying so would be the same as revealing that I had awakened my mana.
As long as we didn’t trust each other, it was better to keep it hidden.
“The guy with the pompadour was pretty skilled, so he gave me some trouble…”
I stopped.
As I spoke, I felt a strange sense of disconnect.
I slowly looked around.
The vast space, the neat interior, the antique decorations.
…‘Pretty skilled’ a skilled fighter?
When I asked the giant how this place came to be, he had answered:
‘You could call it the power of magic. The space, the lighting, the supplies… there’s nothing magic hasn’t touched.’
And the giant had attributed that work to…
‘Yes, a rather high-level wizard lives here. He’s also our boss. Ah, there he comes now.’
He spoke as if their leader, the man with the pompadour, was the one who had done it all.
It was strange.
To create a space like this, you’d need to be a truly high-level wizard, capable of using spatial expansion magic, enchanting ordinary tools, and investing a great deal of resources.
And that was the pompadour guy?
Impossible.
That makes no sense.
From my fight with him, the pompadour-haired man was by no means a wizard worthy of the title ‘high-level.’
If he had been, even I, with my Mythic-grade Trait, wouldn’t have been able to dismantle his magic.
A mage who has reached a certain level of mastery builds a unique pattern into their mana.
Mana with such a pattern can never be controlled by another.
A wizard capable of using spatial expansion magic… would naturally be at that level.
In other words, this wasn’t the pompadour-haired man’s work.
There was definitely another wizard. A far more skilled one at that.
That guess turned into certainty with Keila’s next words.
“But where are the others?”
…So that’s why it was so spacious. It wasn’t just the two of them living here.
“…How many people were here?”
“Let’s see… when I was captured, there were at least 20, I think?”
“…Twenty.”
I assessed the situation calmly.
If the men who were away came back, could we survive?
And these weren’t just simple beggars.
…He said this place was founded by ex-mercenaries.
My judgment was instantaneous.
We die.
The difference in our combat strength was too great for Keila and me to handle.
It wasn’t just about the numbers, either.
As long as there was even a slight possibility of a powerful wizard on their side, I had to abandon any thought of winning.
So, there was only one thing to do.
“Lead me to the safe. Now!”
Snatch the valuables and get out of this place.
Time was running out.
“Pant… pant…!”
Keila gasped for breath when we reached our destination.
She hadn’t run far, but seeing her like this, it seemed her stamina was as bad as mine.
I was also out of breath, but this was no time to be catching it.
“This is the safe you were talking about, right?”
“…Y-Yeah.”
Click.
I hurriedly inserted a key.
Fortunately, the lock turned with the second key.
But, for some reason, it wouldn’t open.
“This is…”
It didn’t feel like it was physically blocked.
I soon found the reason why.
Zzzt!
“Ugh!”
“What, what’s wrong?!”
A stinging sensation shot up from my fingertips.
At the same time, a faint trace of mana flowed from the lock.
Electricity magic.
They had imbued the safe with it, creating a double lock.
“…They put some real work into this. It’s a double lock.”
“A double lock?”
“Yeah. It seems to be a system you unlock by pushing mana into it with the key…”
“Wait, let me try.”
Taking the key with a confident look, Keila stood before the safe.
But it wasn’t long before a yelp followed.
“Agh, it stings! Wh-what is this?!”
Dammit, so it was no good.
It was a moment that made me miss my old [Immortal Warrior] character.
Back then, I would have just smashed it open…
…I have no choice.
I wanted to hide the fact that I was a mana wielder for as long as possible, but there was no other way.
Nor did I have the luxury of time to find one.
Since it had come to this, I had to step up.
I took the key back from her and let out a short breath.
“…Hah.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to open it.”
The one saving grace was that, probably out of consideration for the pompadour-haired leader, the double lock wasn’t set with a unique pattern.
In other words, it could be opened with a certain degree of Mana Manipulation.
And that required level of Mana Manipulation would be calibrated to the pompadour guy’s level.
In that case…
This is more than possible.
Clink.
I inserted the key and turned it.
Simultaneously, I sent my mana flowing into the safe, using the key as a conduit.
I closed my eyes and focused on the mana.
“Y-You?”
Like fine antennae, my mana threads spread out, meticulously exploring the inside of the locking mechanism.
Soon, the structure of the device began to form in my mind, as if I were drawing a schematic.
Inside, there was a place that was obviously meant for mana to pass through.
I carefully channeled my mana into it.
I had never done anything like this before, but the mana didn’t deviate from my will in the slightest.
There, that’s it.
It was at that exact moment that the safe door opened.
Thunk!
“Wait… how? More importantly, you were an Awakened? A mana user?”
Is that really what’s important right now?
I ignored her and checked the contents of the safe first.
A golden light assaulted my eyes.
Gold coins!
A large quantity of gold coins, stacked neatly in vertical rows.
Even at a glance, it was more than enough to get out of Sector 7.
And next to them…
“A stone?”
Keila asked as she peeked into the safe.
I answered her firmly.
“This isn’t just any stone.”
Resting gently on a small box, it looked ordinary on the surface, but it was anything but.
“It’s an Artifact.”
And a high-grade one at that.
Its in-game name was [Blinkstone].
It was a single-use consumable that allowed the user to teleport to a desired location.
It had the restriction that the user must have been to the location before, but it was an incredibly useful item in an emergency.
“Why would something like this be here?”
“They probably kept it for an emergency escape. This isn’t exactly a nice place.”
“…That’s true.”
While Keila was nodding in agreement, I quickly pocketed the [Blinkstone].
It felt as reassuring as having an extra life.
Keila spoke, a reluctant look on her face.
“…With this, my debt is paid.”
“Yeah, sure.”
I’d be a thief to covet it anyway.
After sweeping the gold coins into a reasonably sized bag I found nearby, I immediately thought about what to do next.
…That takes care of the money problem.
Now we just have to get out of this building. That was my conclusion. And just as I had it…
Creeeak!
A faint sound carried from the distance. It was quiet, but it clearly pierced my ears.
I didn’t even need to think about what it was. The sound of a door opening.
The direction… was the main entrance. The entrance to the building I had first come through.
“…Already?”
They were back.
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