Chapter 4

Surviving in the Murim as a Mage - Chapter 4

During their travels, Tvalier named the ghouls Number One through Number Ten in order of their size. It was a rather half-hearted naming process, but in terms of convenience, it was an overwhelming success.

WHOOSH—!

The incomplete high-rank ghouls moved at a truly incredible speed. While their durability was still an unknown factor, judging solely by their movement, they seemed to be on par with the knight commanders of most kingdoms.

‘What is this? Setting aside the size of their vessels, what kind of post-processing did they use to make them move this fast?’

Scientific curiosity surged within him, but Tvalier managed to suppress it. For now, escaping was the top priority.

‘Is that the place?’

At the end of the hallway, a fork in the road appeared, leading either left or right. Tvalier followed the scent of blood down the left path for a long time. Upon reaching a small stone gate visible in the distance, he gave a light jerk of his chin.

"Number Six. Break that."

As soon as the command was given, a slender ghoul following closely beside him stepped forward and kicked the stone gate blocking the entrance.

BOOM—!

The stone gate shattered effortlessly. Through the opening, the ten Blood Jiangshi leaped into the open air. Simultaneously, Tvalier looked up at the moon hanging in the night sky and muttered to himself.

"Ah, there is only one moon here."

In the lower dimension where he had come from, there were three moons. The Seven Continents and this place were clearly different worlds. Tvalier felt a surge of exhilaration at the realization that his gamble had been a complete success. He commanded the stationary ghouls.

"Move east."

Judging by the way the reeds were trampled, there were traces of people moving west. Without even looking, he was certain those were the Mansi Sect bastards fleeing from this place.

‘What if I run into those necromancers now?’

He could not be sure what would happen. For now, avoidance was the best policy. Thus, Tvalier ran toward the east for a long time, using the darkness of the night as his cover.

***

"What should we do, Captain Hong?"

"Hmm... What do you want to do, Captain Byeok? Do you want to continue the pursuit?"

"In my opinion, we should obviously pursue them. The losses we sustained are too great, and we have gained nothing."

In attacking the Mansi Sect's resource base, the Thousand Blood Sect had not been focused solely on reducing the enemy's strength. They had intended to steal the precious resources the Mansi Sect had hoarded like miserly rats.

"It makes no sense for them to have carried out all the resources in the middle of that chaos."

"Still, saving the children who have awakened their Spirit is a decent gain."

Children whose souls remained untainted by the secular world were excellent materials for making Spirit Pills. Furthermore, these were children who had been carefully raised on a diet of Spirit Pills for a long time. Their value was truly astronomical. However...

"Tsk. Two Captain-level personnel were deployed. That much is not enough. The higher-ups will have a fit."

"Then, as I thought, you intend to pursue them, Captain Hong."

The two Captains of the Thousand Blood Sect were both swordsmen evaluated at the 6th Rank. While they were somewhat weak in the occult arts, they possessed enough martial prowess to overwhelm the Mansi Sect. They could not afford to miss this golden opportunity. Moreover, there was at least one Captain-level necromancer among those who fled.

"Yes. Such opportunities are rare, so pursuit is a given. The problem is that the trail splits in two directions..."

Judging by the depth and nature of the footprints heading west, they belonged to the necromancers of the Mansi Sect. Since those bastards only learned occult arts, their movements and steps were crude. To the Thousand Blood Sect, such practitioners were the top priority to hunt down and kill. In particular, the necromancers of the Mansi Sect were practically defenseless without their Jiangshi. It was estimated that they were currently without their undead thralls.

"The problem is the east."

"Yes. These are undoubtedly the traces of high-rank Jiangshi created by the Mansi Sect."

The footprints of those heading east were extremely shallow. To any observer, these were traces of someone who had mastered martial arts or special Body Tempering Arts.

"If we are unlucky, we might encounter Blood Jiangshi."

"Surely not. There are only a few Jiangshi Masters in the Mansi Sect capable of properly controlling Blood Jiangshi, are there not?"

"Still, we must not let our guard down. If we encounter them unprepared, it will be difficult even to escape."

"Hmm... Then I will go east. You go west, Senior."

"No, I would prefer we go west together."

"Pardon? Then are we giving up on those to the east?"

Captain Byeok Dong-won of the Thousand Blood Sect. He was the leader of the Blood Soul Squad, one of the six martial groups within the sect. His eyebrows twitched as if he could not accept the decision. It was a reaction of utter refusal. However, he fell into thought when his senior, Hong Soon-won, the Captain of the Heavenly Wolf Squad, spoke with a cautious expression.

"If this is a trap, you will surely die. Not just you, but the entire vanguard of the Blood Soul Squad would not survive."

"Mmm..."

"Do not underestimate those Mansi Sect bastards. They are merely trash who handle corpses, but the fact that they have survived without being annihilated until now means they are incredibly cunning."

"...My greed got the better of me. I will take your advice to heart, Senior."

Ultimately, the two Captains agreed to follow the traces to the west. Thus, inadvertently, because of the two Thousand Blood Sect Captains who had safely escaped the Mansi Sect's trap, the Mansi Sect was forced to fall into a lethal crisis once again.

***

"Finally, a village."

He had arrived at a village after fleeing for half a day. He had searched through the possessed boy's memories as the morning sun rose, but the boy had far too little information about this world. He could not find any information regarding the name or location of the village.

"Let's go to that cave first."

The village was visible in the distance at the foot of the mountain. While it was a place Tvalier would eventually have to visit, there was something he needed to handle before entering.

"You all hunt around this area for the time being."

Since he could not simply discard the precious ghouls he had acquired, Tvalier entered a cave and spent a long time taking various measures with them. First, he adjusted the magic formulas in their heads. He created a bond firmly linked to his soul so that he would not have to bother giving verbal commands. Now, he could issue simple orders with just his will, even from a significant distance. By linking the ten ghouls to himself, he had built a fairly sturdy mana network.

"Next is..."

The rest was easy. After designating a certain range for the ghouls, he simply gave them an 'Auto Hunt' command to catch animals in the vicinity. These creatures had higher intelligence than he had initially expected and understood his orders well. With their excellent performance and smooth movements, they were truly efficient.

"Honestly, at this level, they are almost comparable to Death Knights."

Tvalier shared a portion of his senses with the ghouls. As he felt them hunting wild boars and deer nearby, he was honestly impressed by their efficient movements. He decided to acknowledge the necromancy of this world. In terms of their vessel size, the ghouls were only about the level of high-rank Dullanhans, but their smooth movements and the intelligence they possessed were overwhelmingly superior. In short, the cost-effectiveness was incredible.

"How is this possible?"

Tvalier marveled as he touched various parts of the ghouls' bodies after they returned from hunting. This was not merely a difference in magical elements. It was not just the magic circles engraved in the vessels within the ghouls' brains. The secret seemed to be a very special chemical treatment applied to the ghouls' physical bodies. Unfortunately, this was something that would require considerable time to investigate, so he could not do much about it for now.

"Whew. Still, I have tweaked the crude magic formulas a bit."

From Number One to Number Ten, he had significantly upgraded the magic formulas engraved in the ghouls' brains. Tvalier remained in the cave for ten days to carry out the stabilization work. As he ate a roasted deer thigh caught by a ghoul, he let out a small sigh.

"Everything is good, but why is there no response from the Spirit Realm?"

Tvalier frowned, muttering to himself. Over the past ten days, he had worked hard to refine mana and gather it in his heart to create a Circle. Ten days was too short a time to complete a Circle, but if he were to receive stable 'assistance' right now, he was at a level where he could create one immediately. Generally, such assistance was provided by other mages, but the best option was to be assisted by spirits. Spirits were pure masses of mana themselves.

So, Tvalier had set aside a certain amount of mana for several days and knocked on the gates of the Spirit Realm for a long time, but there was no response from within.

"Strange. I am certain the Spirit Realm exists. Why is Vargas not responding?"

Vargas, the Earth Spirit King. He had sent constant messages to the being with whom he shared a blood covenant, but there had been no reply. It was a frustrating situation, but he could not force open the closed gates of the Spirit Realm. He did not yet have the power, nor the confidence to handle the immense backlash.

"The message must have been delivered. Ah! Come to think of it, do the spirits use different names here?"

High-rank spirits who possessed 'Names' might be using completely different names than they did in the lower dimension.

"Ah... I see. Is that why there is no answer?"

Still, since it was a message sent to the [Earth Spirit King], there should have been some sort of response even if the names were different.

"I do not know."

Tvalier smacked his lips in disappointment and fiddled with the shoulder of the ghoul in front of him, Number Seven.

"Everything is ready now. If nothing goes wrong, it will take some time, but you will be able to fill your insufficient vessels. I have modified the magic formulas that way."

The ghouls, which had been incomplete when discovered, would recharge with the blood of animals through hunting. By automatically replenishing nearby mana through the breathing technique he had programmed, they would be able to completely fill their vessels over time. If this system worked correctly, there was a high possibility that their vessels would become even larger than what the Mansi Sect had originally set.

"You ghouls are great, but thanks to the artifact I happened to find, I will be spared from suffering for the time being."

Tvalier watched Number Seven vanish with a submissive expression after rotating its shoulders a few times, then instructed Number Eight to go chop some firewood. Tvalier had not spent the last ten days only modifying ghouls. He had been incredibly busy figuring out how to use the artifact he had taken from the Mansi Sect practitioner.

As it turned out, this object, which looked like a small wooden block, was surprisingly a spatial expansion bag. In the lower dimension he came from, spatial expansion bags—inventories—were extremely rare. He had obtained an inventory by pure chance. Not only was the creation process difficult, but obtaining the base materials was nearly impossible. Yet, he had found one so easily upon arriving in this world.

‘Could it be that the materials are common here?’

If that were the case, it would make sense. This artifact even had a fairly large internal space.

‘It is roughly five jang (15 meters) in length, width, and height. But why was it made into this cubic shape? Is the material here unique?’

Inside the inventory, there were lower-rank mana stones, a wooden Identification Tag (hopae), and currency of this world. There were also round pills he presumed to be low-rank elixirs and a few lowest-rank magic scrolls, which people in this world called talismans.

"For now, I have burned the identification tag."

Since the final treatment of the ghouls was mostly finished, Tvalier organized the resources in the inventory before entering the village.

"141 copper coins, 12 silver coins, and 1 gold coin..."

According to the boy's memories, two copper coins were enough for a decent meal. A silver coin was worth a hundred copper coins, and a gold coin was worth twenty silver coins.

"I will not have to worry about food and lodging for the time being."

The Mansi Sect bastards. He had guessed as much from the size of their underground building, but they seemed to have been quite wealthy. As he continuously chewed on the tough deer meat roasted over the campfire, Tvalier suddenly felt a warmth in his chest. He felt grateful for the Mansi Sect's generous contribution. After all, they had given him money and ghouls.

‘They even gave me an inventory.’

He could not help but feel a special affection for the Mansi Sect.

"Then, shall I head to the village?"

Tvalier smirked and lightly stood up.