Chapter 1
Ernolf (1)
“The wedding is tomorrow—what brings the groom-to-be to the research institute?”
“I received an urgent request to appraise a find from the excavation site. I came right over. I should finish up quickly and head back.”
The title ‘groom-to-be’ felt embarrassingly unfamiliar, making Ernolf offer a bashful smile.
“Has the item arrived?”
“I received a telegram saying it would arrive around 1:00 PM. Ah, there it comes now.”
At the captain of the guard’s words, Ernolf turned his head toward the main gate. A single carriage slowly pulled up and came to a stop in front of the entrance.
“Welcome.”
A researcher stepped down from the carriage, tipping his hat in greeting as he saw Ernolf. Returning the gesture with a brief nod, Ernolf held the door open for him.
Men dressed in black uniforms carefully hauled a thick wooden crate out of the carriage. Ernolf guided them straight toward the laboratory.
“I heard this is a statue excavated from Sector 82. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The researcher who brought the item handed over a receipt.
Ernolf was the heir to the House of Torrie, a prestigious family renowned for relic excavations. As he signed the receipt with practiced ease, the researchers carefully moved the crate inside the laboratory.
Once everyone had withdrawn, Ernolf stood before the crate holding the statue. Looking inside, he saw that it was packed tightly with cushioning material to protect the relic. He took off his jacket, hung it on a rack, found a pair of gloves, pulled them on, and stepped closer to the crate.
“It’s small, but surprisingly heavy…”
He slid his hands into the padding and carefully lifted the object out.
“Hm? I heard this was a divine statue of a Transcendent?”
The receipt stated that this artifact was a divine statue of a Transcendent unearthed from the Assua civilization. However, what Ernolf held in his hands was an unidentified, cube-shaped artifact.
“Was there some kind of mistake?”
Puzzled, he placed the artifact back into the box and turned toward the desk where the telephone sat.
At that exact moment, a blinding light erupted explosively from inside the crate. Simultaneously, the space within the laboratory began to twist and spin like a violent whirlpool.
“W-What?”
Flustered, Ernolf instinctively tried to cast a Mana Shield. In that split second, mana became entangled alongside the explosive burst of brilliant light.
Ernolf screamed and lost consciousness.
The dazzling flash vanished, and his vision instantly plummeted into pitch blackness. Fortunately, he hadn’t fallen over, but Ernolf simply stood there like a stone statue, his mind thoroughly dazed. Suddenly, a fit of coughing burst from his throat.
“Cough, cough!”
Ernolf covered his nose and mouth with one hand and looked around. Dust and stone powder were cascading like waterfalls from all directions. Breathing was difficult, and his limbs felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton.
“Kugh!”
Could an earthquake have struck, causing the entire research institute to collapse? Trying to pull his stinging senses together, Ernolf looked ahead for an escape route. The thick dust made it impossible to see clearly.
“It’s caving in! Get out of the way!”
“Argh!”
“Tiri! Tiri! Where are you?!”
Screams and roaring shouts echoed sharply from a short distance away. This wasn’t the research institute. For reasons he couldn’t comprehend, it looked like an old mine shaft.
“What are you dawdling for?! Move it!”
With the sharp whistle of wind, a whip struck his shoulder.
“Argh!”
Ernolf cried out in pain, clutching his throbbing shoulder as he spun around. A unfamiliar man with a prominent, bulging forehead stood there holding a whip.
“Look at this bastard. Where do you think you’re glaring?”
“What do you think you’re doing, attacking me out of nowhere?!”
As Ernolf glared back in rage, the man’s temper flared even higher.
“Do you have a death wish? Staring right at me like that…”
“Which unit do you belong to? Bring me your superior immediately!”
Ernolf raged, gathering mana into his hands. Yet, he felt no sensation of mana condensing at all.
‘…What?’
His Mana Heart was frozen solid like a lump of stone, completely unresponsive.
‘I can’t use magic?’
This had never happened since his Awakening. Cold sweat drenched Ernolf’s body.
“Hey, you piece of trash. What did you just spout?”
Furious, the man swung the whip straight at Ernolf’s face. The only thing Ernolf could do was hunch over to dodge the strike.
It was right then.
“Tiri!”
Someone burst through the cloud of dust and slammed directly into the man. It was a scrawny, tall boy.
As the man holding the whip stumbled, the boy did not hesitate—he brought a large rock smashing down onto the man’s head.
With a dull crunch of shattering bone, the man stopped breathing.
Leaning against the wall, Ernolf observed the boy. Skinny and filthy as he was, he radiated a threatening aura.
Setting down the bloodied rock, the boy rummaged through the dead man’s clothes with practiced movements. After pocketing a dagger and a few coins, he pulled the boots off the corpse and shoved them onto his own feet. Finding the ankles far too loose, he wrapped them tightly with string. His demeanor was eerily calm.
“I was looking for you forever. Didn’t you hear me calling?”
The boy said, raising his head indifferently. Blood splatters marred his dust-covered face, giving him a gruesome look.
“These are way too big for you to wear. I’ll get you a fitting pair later.”
Ernolf unconsciously looked down at his own feet. The small, scrawny feet—reduced to mere skin and bone—clearly belonged to a child, no matter how one looked at it.
‘What on earth…’
Panicking, Ernolf fumbled over his body and touched his face. Not only had he lost the ability to use magic, but his body was completely different from before.
Only then did Ernolf realize he had inhabited an unfamiliar body and was standing in a place he had never seen before.
‘Could that artifact have…?’
Ernolf recalled the artifact that had triggered the explosion moments ago. Could a powerful curse have been embedded within it?
‘This isn’t simple magic.’
An ominous thought flashed through his mind. Removing a soul from its original host and embedding it elsewhere went against the laws of the Absolute Creator who formed this world.
This was the magic of a Transcendent—a direct challenge to the gods. An ill omen slowly spread through his consciousness. Even if he managed to reclaim his magical power, there was no telling if he could break this curse.
“What’s wrong with you?”
The boy waved a hand in front of his eyes, then abruptly slapped Ernolf across the cheek.
Slap.
A sharp noise echoed inside the dark mine shaft.
Ernolf cupped his stinging cheek and stared at the boy.
He was stunned by the actions of this boy, who had slapped him—the heir to a prestigious family and a high-ranking mage—without a moment’s hesitation.
“Get a grip. We have to run while we can.”
The boy said. His accent and choice of words were slightly strange, but not to the point of being incomprehensible.
“What do you mean, run?”
Holding his smarting cheek, Ernolf asked in a clumsy, slurred tone. Everything he was experiencing right now was so shocking that holding onto his sanity was a monumental struggle.
“What, you want to live here?”
The boy sneered at Ernolf.
“Here? Where on earth is ‘here’?”
Instead of answering, the boy grabbed Ernolf’s wrist and dragged him into a secluded corner.
The moment the two hid in the shadows, another man appeared from around the corner.
Holding his breath, the boy quietly drew the stolen dagger.
The man who emerged glanced in their direction, then turned and walked the other way.
It seemed the dust and dirt cascading from above obscured his vision, preventing him from seeing the corpse sprawled on the ground.
‘He went away.’
Just as Ernolf was about to sigh in relief, the boy lowered his body and silently crawled out.
After he tailed the man, a short, sharp scream burst out from somewhere beyond the dust.
A moment later, the boy tossed a pair of worn-out boots down right in front of Ernolf.
“Put them on.”
He had gone out of his way to chase down the man who had just passed, kill him, and strip off his shoes. Though he looked young, he seemed to be no ordinary lunatic.
‘He’s accustomed to murder and robbery.’
Regardless, Ernolf didn’t reject the boy’s gesture of goodwill. He had experienced firsthand just a moment ago how agonizing it was to walk barefoot through a mine shaft.
As he silently put on the boots, the boy crouched down and tied the laces tightly.
Only then did Ernolf realize that this nameless boy was exceptionally kind—and only to him. Even if he had just been slapped in the face a moment ago, the fact remained.
“Why are you just standing there? Are you scared?”
“Uh, n-no… It’s just that my current situation is a bit complicated. Don’t mind me.”
“What are you even saying? What’s with the way you talk, anyway? You sound like an old geezer…”
Ernolf was speechless. Being thirty-four wasn’t particularly young, but it certainly wasn’t an age to be called an “old geezer.”
“There’s nothing to be scared of. Monsters showed up in the newly excavated shaft, so everyone’s panicked. We’ll be able to escape without getting caught this time.”
“Monsters? What kind of monsters? And what do you mean, ‘this time’? Was there a previous attempt?”
Ernolf wanted to hear more about his current situation. However, events moved too frantically to afford him that luxury.
“Tch, they’ve already made it this far?”
The boy glared down the shaft, adjusting his grip on the dagger.
Ernolf focused all his senses in the direction the boy was looking. Small, chaotic noises mixed with rustling were drawing closer and closer.
“There’s a whole swarm of them.”
The boy muttered softly, seemingly having gauged the number of monsters roughly.
The boy’s senses were sharper than an ordinary person’s.
‘He’s unrefined, but he’s someone who can manipulate Aura.’
Otherwise, there was no way a child could murder an adult man so effortlessly.
“Wouldn’t it be better to run?”
“You idiot. The path behind us is blocked.”
Where the two stood was the absolute end of the shaft—a dead end.
“If we want to get out alive, we have to cut through those things. That’s the only way out.”
The “things” the boy referred to emerged from beneath the dust. The moment Ernolf saw them, he identified their true nature.
“Is there anywhere we can get water?”
Red-Spotted Spider Monsters.
Though smaller in build compared to other spider monsters, they possessed razor-sharp fangs and a potent venom capable of melting flesh.
They were dangerous because they moved in packs, but by taking advantage of their hatred for water, one could easily avoid them.
“What?”
“Water. I need water.”
Since he couldn’t use magic, Ernolf had to ask the boy to procure water for him.
“There’s a puddle at the end of the shaft, but…”
“Let’s go.”
Ernolf grabbed the boy and ran toward the end of the shaft. His head was a chaotic mess because he couldn’t grasp what on earth had happened, but for now, he had to survive.
“I told you it’s blocked over there!”
The boy shouted. From behind them, the sound of the spider swarm pursuing them while spitting webs echoed loudly.
“Those things are terrified of water. If we spray them with it to drive them off, we can secure a path forward.”
“How do you even…”
Trailing off, the boy shook off Ernolf’s arm and dashed ahead like the wind. When it came to survival, he was nimbler than anyone else.
‘This kid!’
Following the boy’s back as it was swallowed by the darkness, Ernolf gritted his teeth and ran.
However, the body he had possessed was far too miserable; his legs refused to move the way he wanted them to.
“Ugh!”
A spiderweb wrapped around his ankle, causing Ernolf to tumble heavily to the ground.
More cobwebs shot toward him as he lay fallen. The more he struggled, the tighter the webs bound his body.
“Damn it…”
Ernolf focused his mind to awaken his Mana Heart. There was no other way.
‘Please, move!’
A mage is not a being created through mere effort. One must possess a Mana Heart—the center that senses and operates mana.
Though his body had changed, fortunately, a Mana Heart existed within this body as well. Moreover, Ernolf was a high-ranking mage counted among the elite within the Empire.
One who has already Awakened can awaken again. Given enough time, he would be able to revive this Mana Heart.
The problem, however, was that time didn’t seem to be on his side.
‘Wake up already, you damned heart!’
Ernolf cursed at the motionless Mana Heart.
In his past life, it had Awakened earlier than others, stripping away his entire normal childhood—and now, when his life hung in the balance, it remained utterly unmoving.
“Hup!”
Right then, a energetic shout echoed from deep inside the shaft. Immediately after, cold water doused Ernolf’s body.
“Kieeeek!”
As the cold water splashed over them, the monsters leapt back frantically and scurried away. The boy who had run ahead had scooped up water and thrown it over.
“Phew…”
Ernolf let out a sigh of relief. The water thoroughly soaking his body felt almost like holy water.
‘He’s surprisingly loyal.’
He had thought the boy had run off to save his own skin, but that wasn’t the case. Because he was faster and stronger, he had gone ahead to fetch the water first.
After scooping and splashing water everywhere for a good while, the boy returned to Ernolf’s side. He then nudged the collapsed Ernolf in the ribs with the tip of his foot, mocking him.
“You look pretty comfortable. You’re not dead, are you?”
“Stop kicking me. I’m not dead.”
“Then get up already.”
When Ernolf remained lying flat, the boy slid his toes under Ernolf’s stomach, seemingly intending to kick him back up onto his feet.
“Do you know how Red-Spotted Spiders hunt their prey?”
Lying there in the awkward posture of someone who had fallen mid-run, Ernolf spoke up.
“Once they capture their prey, they paralyze its limbs, then slowly dissolve and suck it dry.”
“How do you know something like that?”
It was a difficult question to answer.
‘Ah, I acted like I knew too much.’
Pathetic as his current state was, the situation wasn’t right to reveal that he was a mage possessing a stranger’s body. So, Ernolf decided to just bluff his way through.
“I just know. Since they look like spiders, they probably act like them too.”
The boy merely looked down at him with narrowed eyes, asking nothing further. Fortunately.
“So what? Are you saying you’re paralyzed too?”
“Yes.”
“Why right now?!”
The boy flared up in exasperation.
‘Seriously. Why did it have to be right now…’
Ernolf was just as flabbergasted. Who in their right mind would want to become monster food in a state like this?
“Your mouth is working just fine, though!”
“I can move from the chest up. That’s why I can breathe and speak.”
“Then how long are you going to be like that?”
“…Who knows?”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I wish this were a joke, too.”
That was the absolute truth, without a single grain of lie added.
‘If my chest becomes paralyzed, breathing will become difficult. I have to break the paralysis before I lose consciousness from lack of oxygen.’
From a distance, the sound of snapping wood and cascading stones resonated. Judging by how the screams echoing through the shaft were gradually diminishing, it seemed quite a few people had fallen victim to the spider monsters.
“Once they finish hunting, they’ll come back to retrieve their prey.”
“You know you’ve been weird since a while ago, right?”
The boy said, looking at Ernolf as if he had become a completely different person.
