Chapter 3

Surviving in the Murim as a Mage - Chapter 3

Tvalier cautiously stepped into the hallway while the two groups—the Mansi Sect in their grey robes and the Thousand Blood Sect in red—were preoccupied with their fierce struggle.

‘First, I will head in the opposite direction.’

The battle was raging in the right hallway, so Tvalier moved quickly along the dim path to the left. At the same time, he focused on gathering information.

The stone floor beneath his feet was polished smooth without any irregularities. On both sides of the long, wide corridor, rooms identical in shape to the one he had just escaped were built at regular intervals.

‘The scale is quite impressive.’

Only after stepping into the hallway could Tvalier estimate the size of this structure. It appeared large enough to easily accommodate several thousand people. The number of doors he had passed already exceeded twenty.

‘Was all of this really carved out of rock by human hands?’

Probably not. They likely used magic. There was no way a building of this magnitude could have been constructed using only manual labor.

As the end of the hallway approached, Tvalier began to grow tense. Strangely, there had been no obstacles so far. That meant there was a high probability that something was waiting at the corner.

‘There is no way they did not set up some kind of defense.’

Summarizing the situation so far, the group called the Mansi Sect had been ambushed by the Thousand Blood Sect. Being in an unfavorable position, the Mansi Sect needed to quickly clear out their base. They had taken what they could and burned or destroyed what they could not carry.

Most of the rooms he passed likely contained destroyed remains. Indeed, several doors were open, revealing traces of broken objects and charred remains scattered everywhere.

‘Still, there must be things they could not take. It would be a waste to leave them as they are.’

It was only natural. They would not leave resources behind for their enemies to take. They would have certainly prepared some kind of trick.

‘I would have done the same.’

Tvalier smiled faintly, reminiscing about the old days. During the era of extreme chaos on the Seven Continents, before the mage factions were clearly organized, mages went to great lengths to prevent their magical resources and knowledge from falling into the hands of others. It was during that time that countless mage dungeons were created.

‘This place feels similar to those times.’

While there was a massive difference in scale between a mage's dungeon and this place, the concept was quite similar. It was basic common sense to set traps when one was forced to leave resources behind.

Step—

As he reached the end of the hallway, Tvalier heightened his alertness. He might encounter disciples of the Mansi Sect at any moment. However, unexpectedly, he felt no presence of anyone even as he reached the very end.

‘What is this?’

An inexplicable sense of unease caused Tvalier to stop in his tracks. Then, he saw it.

"This is..."

He stood before a room with a door that had been completely shattered. It was the last room at the end of the corridor, and it was different from the rooms he had passed so far. There was something inside that had not been destroyed.

Thump—!

A mysterious scent, a mixture of chemicals and blood, drifted from the room. Inside was a trap Tvalier had never anticipated. Or, more accurately, there were corpses laid out. Seeing them, a realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

"Aha... the Mansi Sect was a group of necromancers?"

Finally, Tvalier understood why he had not felt the presence of any living person. They did not need to set any new traps. They had left behind a single, lethal one.

Creak! Crackle!

The corpses made eye contact with Tvalier, their eyes erupting with streaks of red light. They rose from their leaning coffins and lunged fiercely toward Tvalier in the hallway.

***

"Is it not a waste to lose Blood Jiangshi, Senior Jang? We had ten of them on the verge of completing the Great Ritual... would it not have been better to take at least a few?"

"It is a waste, but there was no choice. We did not have the luxury to take them. Letting them run wild and then retreating was the best way to ensure they did not fall into those bastards' hands."

"Sigh, the more I think about it, the more I regret it. We spent nearly thirty years of the sect's time and resources to create them... My teeth chatter just thinking about losing all that. To think we have to discard them just to kill some Thousand Blood Sect trash."

"It is fine. Look on the bright side. It appeared that at least two Captain-level fighters arrived. If we can take them down with the Jiangshi, it is a fair trade."

Senior Jang. Jang Won-ik, a Disciple of the Mansi Sect, replied as he climbed over a rock on a small hill. The junior disciples following him asked in surprise.

"A Captain-level swordsman came in person? That would mean they are at least sixth-rank experts. It certainly would not be a waste if we could take them with us."

As the rapidly fleeing disciples of the Mansi Sect nodded in agreement, Jang Won-ik looked back toward the now invisible secret base and chuckled.

"Hehe, those fools from the Thousand Blood Sect must have come thinking this was just our resource warehouse. That is why they attacked with so few numbers. They never could have predicted that place would become their grave."

"Still, the sacrifice of our brothers from the White Bone Squad is regrettable."

The disciples of the Mansi Sect wore solemn expressions as they thought of their brothers who had stayed behind to hold off the enemy. Jang Won-ik, who was leading the group, spoke up.

"Tsk. Their role was to lure the enemy into the traps, so it could not be helped. However, as promised, the families of the White Bone Squad will receive special care within our sect's inner court."

"That is a relief."

The necromancers of the Mansi Sect who were here had left all their current Iron Jiangshi at the main sect in order to form new master-servant relationships with the Blood Jiangshi. As Jiangshi's rank increased, its ego became stronger, so returning the existing Iron Jiangshi to the sect was an unavoidable choice.

"Haaa. Regardless, I thought we would finally obtain Blood Jiangshi this time. It truly is a shame."

"And they said these new models would have an incredible performance boost."

"Ugh, that is true."

Excluding the Living Jiangshi, which existed only in legends, the Blood Jiangshi were effectively the highest rank. A single Blood Jiangshi could face three peak-level experts of the Murim. They were an immense force.

"If I had obtained even one completed Blood Jiangshi, my rank in the sect would have skyrocketed..."

"Sigh, it is too late for regrets now."

"True. Complaining like this in front of Senior Jang is meaningless. After all, he surrendered twenty Iron Jiangshi to come here..."

The necromancers of the Mansi Sect continued their conversation as they moved busily. They believed that all the incidents of today would end there. Although they were incomplete, they had left ten Blood Jiangshi as a trap.

They never dreamed that an entirely unexpected variable—one who would steal the Blood Jiangshi—had begun to move.

***

Tvalier sensed that a stroke of luck had fallen from the sky.

He instinctively knew that the ten corpses rushing toward him with saliva dripping from their mouths were top-tier ghouls, created by a high-level lich or necromancer through an immense expenditure of time and energy.

"My goodness. They say even if you fall into hell, you can survive if you keep your wits about you."

To think such great fortune would find him. Indeed, the old sayings were never wrong. Tvalier lightly formed a hand seal toward the "fortune" that was lunging at him violently. Since he had no mana, he had to take this tedious step.

By forming hand seals, he had to somehow resonate with and draw upon the mana between heaven and earth.

‘On top of that, they did not even establish a master-servant relationship so the ghouls would run wild!’

It was a double blessing. The final trap laid by the Mansi Sect would have been a lethal blow to anyone without knowledge of necromancy. The problem was that this was a trap that could be easily bypassed with specific knowledge of the craft.

Growl—

Tvalier grinned as he looked at the ten ghouls that had frozen like stone statues right in front of him. This was an even greater gift than the artifact he had picked up earlier. Even the characteristic sour stench of the ghouls smelled sweet to him. He naturally began to hum.

"First, what should I do~?"

Tvalier bit the tip of his finger to draw blood and lightly flicked a droplet onto the forehead of a motionless ghoul. The ghouls shuddered slightly, lowered their glowing red eyes, and bowed their heads quietly.

After quickly establishing a temporary master-servant relationship with them, Tvalier approached the ghouls and guided the dark mana boiling like lava inside them to stabilize. He perfectly calmed the power that had been forcibly triggered from the outside.

"Whew. They used a very unusual method to induce the frenzy. There is something to be learned here."

Tvalier was once called the God of Magic in the lower dimension. He was a monster who had mastered all types of magic in that world—not only orthodox elemental magic but also necromancy, spirit magic, and even Dragon Speech and Holy Magic. To him, the necromancy of this world had a unique flavor. It felt rough and somewhat primitive. While it lacked refinement, it had a raw, wild beauty.

"For now, it is dangerous here, so let's get out and think."

One thing he regretted while controlling the ghouls was that they were incomplete. Their energy was somewhat lacking compared to the size of their vessels.

"Could it be that the 'sacrifices' they mentioned were prepared to complete these ghouls?"

The efficiency would have been overwhelmingly poor, but what if they consumed all the children in the room to create energy? Tvalier did a quick calculation in his head and then nodded.

"Then it makes sense, though it is incredibly inefficient."

It was horrific, but if they sacrificed all the children in that room—accepting a loss of roughly a hundred times the energy—they could have filled the vessels of these ghouls.

‘This truly is a barbaric style of magic.’

It was quite interesting. He wondered if only ancient shamans would perform such ignorant acts. While he had experimented with the dark arts in his pursuit of magic, he was not particularly drawn to this style. It lacked elegance.

"Anyway, I must leave this place first. You, come here."

Tvalier called the most robust-looking ghoul forward, climbed onto its back, and spoke.

"Your name from now on is Number One. Let us head outside."

"..."

The ghoul did not respond, perhaps because its vocal cords had been damaged during the chemical process of becoming a high-rank ghoul. 

However, it nodded as if it understood the command and began to move.