After Shin Mujo acknowledged the self of Nerha Radeus, some time passed once again.
“Hmm, how do I get out of here?”
Deciding to live as Nerha was one thing. But if he didn’t want this once-in-a-lifetime resolution to end in vain, he had to open this damn iron door somehow and get outside.
Nerha examined the iron door engraved with magic inscriptions once more.
At least five inches thick (about 15 cm). No matter how he looked at it, there was no way to open it by ordinary means.
‘Unless I use internal force, it’s impossible.’
This body was in a state that could be described as having stepped one foot past the threshold of death and come back. Naturally, it was in no condition to properly use internal force, let alone even fist energy.
In the end, after going around in circles, only one method remained.
‘So in the end, I have to solve this mysterious thing?’
A magic circle made up of all kinds of geometric patterns and languages.
According to ‘Nerha’’s memories, magic as a discipline required at least a Level 3 understanding to be able to decipher it. Naturally, for Nerha, who wasn’t even Level 1, this was an impossible task. And yet...
“I might be able to do it.”
After observing the magic circle engraved on the door for a long time, Nerha reached this conclusion.
“It doesn’t require that much magical knowledge. This one relies more on sense and experience.”
Internal energy. That is, the method was to send mana flowing through, find the path, and finally touch something called the ‘trigger’ at the last part of the magic circle to open the door. But that was easier said than done. To pull this off, one needed judgment and concentration to find the correct path, and the absolute amount of mana to maintain the flow all the way to the end.
‘That guy before didn’t have any of those three.’
Still, even rotten fish is better than nothing, thanks to inheriting the bloodline of the Radeus family, the last condition, the sheer amount of mana itself, at least had some possibility.
Even that almost flew away due to reckless cultivation, nearly losing the one advantage he had left.
‘Even if there’s a possibility, I can’t open it in my current condition.’
Nerha reached a cold, realistic conclusion. Even if he forced himself, what couldn’t be done couldn’t be done.
‘Then the most important thing in the current situation is food.’
Although all sides were blocked, in the corner where supply crates were piled up, he could see something that looked like a ‘teleportation magic circle.’ It seemed that supplies were delivered through that place, but there was a problem.
‘If I remember right, it’s been more than ten days since the last food delivery.’
Normally, food should be supplied once every three days, but it hadn’t been happening for quite some time.
There was no way the great Radeus family would make such a basic mistake, so it was safe to assume that some ‘external factor’ had intervened.
When he gathered up the remaining preserved food and drinking water, the amount was not much.
“At best, two days’ worth.”
One of the reasons ‘Nerha’ had overexerted himself was probably closely related to this.
Nerha checked the current state of his body.
‘The injuries of this body aren’t something that will heal with a day or two of rest.’
Normally, it would take at least a full month of sufficient nutrition along with treatment to make a full recovery.
“Tch, no helping it.”
After finishing his calculations, Nerha muttered quietly and sat down in place.
Thud!
“I’ll have to take a bit of a gamble.”
There was no other way as things stood.
Sitting cross-legged, Nerha began stuffing all the remaining food in front of him into his mouth.
Munch, munch!
High-calorie solids and liquids began to slide down his esophagus into his stomach.
‘With all my concentration, I’ll restore the damaged qi and blood up to the maximum limit possible in a single attempt.’
Fortunately, activating the trigger of that barrier didn’t require much magical knowledge. What mattered most was keen senses and judgment to keep from losing the path to the correct answer.
Originally, the Invincible Fist God Shin Mujo was a master of internal energy cultivation who ranked within the top three in the Central Plains. Meeting the first two conditions that the original ‘Nerha’ lacked was nothing to him.
Gulp, gulp!
After devouring all the food and water, Nerha focused his mind and began circulating the sect’s Cultivation Method, the ‘Heavenly Origin Limitless Divine Art.’
‘It’s all or nothing anyway. If this fails, there’s no possibility left.’
Was he really going to let the second life he had finally obtained vanish so futilely?
Woooong!
With terrifying concentration, Nerha controlled his inner power, no, his ‘mana’, and began to artificially infuse vitality throughout his entire body.
The body of Nerha, originally trained in the mana cultivation methods of the Radeus family, began to undergo changes little by little as it accepted an entirely different system of inner cultivation.
* * *
“Ugh, will this be okay?”
Samir, an apprentice butler of the Radeus family, was a rookie of rookies who had just entered his second year.
Though he was from a fallen magic family in the past, thanks to a mage loyal to Radeus who had looked kindly upon him, he had been able to enter the Radeus household as a butler, if only in an apprentice capacity.
Normally, after just finishing the curriculum, Samir should have been assigned duties assisting the collateral branches together with the other apprentices.
For some reason, however, he had been given a direct attendant assignment to a member of the main bloodline, an assignment usually reserved only for full butlers with over four years of experience.
And that main bloodline member was none other than the notorious fifth young master of the family, Nerha Radeus. His task was to guard the entrance of the underground cave where Nerha was currently in closed-door training.
“Please, please, please, please! Let nothing happen!”
Samir offered prayers in front of the cave like a devout believer.
For a fledgling who had barely completed one year, this was an excessively heavy responsibility, and the burden Samir felt was beyond imagination.
‘Th, this is something the combat mage unit should be in charge of, right?’
No, before that, there were plenty of senior apprentices and full butlers, so why skip over all of them and assign such a task to a mere trainee?!
It had already been two months since he was given this assignment, and judging by how things had gone so far, it had been a sweet, easy time where he didn’t have to do anything.
But Samir still wasn’t used to this environment.
‘Did I draw the short straw? Seriously?’
The day before yesterday, yesterday, and today as well, Samir vented his despair in front of the tightly shut iron door. Even as an apprentice, he belonged to Radeus, so he was well aware of the evaluations and rumors surrounding Nerha Radeus, the fifth son.
‘The family’s failure,’ ‘the lowest talent in history,’ or simply, ‘a cripple,’ and so on...
They were scathing reviews that were hard to believe were attached to a direct bloodline member, but recalling the one time he had seen Nerha in the past, Samir couldn’t help but think they were somewhat justified.
The problem was that he had been assigned to guard the training site of such a Nerha.
‘No way I’m a disposable pawn, right? Please, please!’
Anyone who dreams of becoming a full butler of a great family must be keenly aware and sensitive to the internal power structure and movements within the household.
While it wouldn’t be strange for Nerha to be expelled from the family at any time, there were also clearly forces that supported him. Naturally, if shrimps get crushed in the fights of whales, that wouldn’t be strange either, and during the year Samir had been in the Radeus family, he had witnessed three incidents related to Nerha.
‘Ah, what should I do? Should I run away right now?’
No matter how much he thought of himself as plankton, even plankton could disappear quietly at any time, anywhere.
In the first place, Samir knew why Nerha had entered this place. No, in this massive family, there was probably no one who didn’t know.
As such, it was widely acknowledged that the possibility of Nerha achieving his ‘goal’ was extremely low, and failing to achieve it meant that Nerha would die inside this place.
Samir grabbed his hair and screamed in silent despair.
‘Aaaah! Then my head will roll with his!’
Even without any other fault, merely having guarded the door of the cave where Nerha died would be more than enough justification for his head to roll.
‘Should I run? No, even if I run, can I survive? Aaaagh! I never should have accepted a mission like this in the first place! No, I can’t die, right?’
As Samir was caught in indecision, unable to do this or that…
Drraaaak!
A sound of iron scraping against the ground began to flow into Samir’s wandering ears.
“...Huh?”
The door he thought would never open was slowly moving, opening up the space.
There was only one thing that could mean.
“Is this for real?”
The situation Samir was facing was so unreal that he blurted out words forgetting the dignity of a butler. From beyond the cave, now fully revealed within, a massive presence was emerging.
‘H-huh!’
Shiver!
In an instant, Samir felt a chill run up his spine.
The illusion of making eye contact with a ferocious beast. But an illusion was still an illusion, and the owner of those eyes, whom he had mistaken for a beast, slowly came into view as the light fell upon him.
“What are you?”
At the sight of the beast... no, Nerha, Samir’s mouth began to tremble.
“Y-y-y-y-young master Nerha?!”
“My name is Shin—no, it’s nothing.”
Nerha, who seemed to show a brief moment of confusion, let out a sigh and stepped fully out of the cave.
‘H-he really opened the door?’
Even Samir, who had been assigned to guard him, knew well what kind of closed-door training Nerha had undertaken. And also that, not long after Nerha entered, several mages from the family had come and done something suspicious to the iron door.
Nerha cast a cold glare at the dazed Samir.
“So, what exactly are you?”
What did he mean by identity? Was he testing him? Samir wondered, but since he and Nerha had only met briefly once before, he thought that might be the case.
Samir did his best to speak according to what he had been thoroughly trained.
“I-I am Samir Edel, an apprentice butler serving the Radeus family! I was recently assigned as your direct attendant, young master Nerha!”
“A butler? A butler, huh. Ah, right, there was something like that.”
An arrogant attitude, as if he had no need to remember such a thing.
At this alien demeanor that he had never felt from the previous Nerha Radeus, Samir blankly blinked his eyes.
“I want to rest for now. Would you guide me to my quarters?”
“Ah! O-of course! We are employed to serve the blood of Radeus, after all!”
Samir hurriedly shook his head and began to lead Nerha. Even so, as he retraced the strange fear he had felt just moments ago, he tilted his head in confusion.
‘It must’ve been my imagination, right?’
Samir scratched his cheek and called for a carriage to guide Nerha back to the estate. But Samir’s senses were absolutely not mistaken.
‘It doesn’t seem like he’s an assassin or an infiltrator, at least.’
From the moment he noticed Samir’s presence until now, Nerha had been carefully observing whether that fellow was someone sent by his other siblings.
Thus, the notorious failure of the Radeus family, Nerha, returned.
