Chapter : 02
Tvalie felt his consciousness settle into a flesh-and-blood body and opened his eyes.
Unknowingly, he blinked.
‘Huh? I’m tied up?’ It was a dark, spacious room.
Judging by the slight echo of sound, the ceiling felt quite high.
At the same time, Tvalie realized his limbs were tightly bound with thick ropes. It was a binding so restrictive he couldn’t even budge.
With his eyes closed, Tvalie first opened his senses of hearing and smell wide, desperately trying to grasp the situation.
In that moment—
‘Ugh!’ A pain like his skull was splitting apart surged through him.
Fragmented memories began to seep into his mind.
Memories of begging on the streets in the dead of winter only to be dragged away and beaten. Memories of stealing a single dumpling and being struck until he was half-dead. Memories of being kicked by a gang of beggar boys in the shadows of an alleyway.
The scattered memories were all of being beaten or running away.
‘Phew, it seems I’ve possessed the body of someone from the lower class.’ The possessed body was roughly ten years old. He was an orphan whose last memory was begging on the streets. Fortunately, through the boy’s memories, he was able to acquire the basic language of this world.
When Tvalie crossed dimensions, the only thing he had truly wanted was a “young body.” Just that one thing. He hadn’t dared to input complex conditions like status or specific physical attributes.
‘The more conditions there are, the higher the chance of failure.’ An orphan from a beggar background? That was fine. The mere fact that the limbs were intact made it a successful transition.
‘Of course, that’s only for the moment.’ Looking at his current bound state, it seemed something unpleasant was about to happen soon, but even this was fine. As long as his mind was intact, he could overcome anything.
Tvalie began to wiggle his fingers—the only part of his body he could move—concentrating on expanding his senses to monitor the outside situation.
Faint voices drifted in from a distance.
“Well, what is the status of the sacrifices?”
“They’ve all had their pressure points sealed to keep them unconscious, Senior. There are no major health issues.”
“Good. The Great Ritual is nearing completion, so you must take extra care of the sacrifices.”
“Of course.”
Hearing the conversation between the two men through the door, Tvalie’s brows furrowed involuntarily.
‘Sacrifices? Great Ritual?’ Those words didn’t sound pleasant at all. This wasn’t just about losing an arm or a leg. Usually, a “sacrifice” meant offering up the entire body—and if one was unlucky, even the soul could be forfeit.
‘I need to get out of here right now.’ Indeed, in the room where Tvalie was confined, there were dozens of other children of a similar age. Everyone was breathing quietly with their eyes closed as if dead. If all of them were sacrifices, the scale was truly ominous.
‘Are they planning to make a contract with a Demon King or something?’ He listened again to gather more information, but the men seemed to have moved on; their voices became too quiet to discern further details. For now, he could only guess that the mysterious organization that kidnapped him was larger than expected.
Tvalie focused on what he could do immediately. He wiggled his fingers more fervently, trying to find a gap in the bindings.
And then—
Snap— Fortunately, because the possessed body was only that of a ten-year-old child, the bones and joints were very flexible. Even a tiny bit of space made it easy to unravel the bindings. It required a bit of technique, but Tvalie was highly experienced in such matters.
‘Phew, first I have to get out of here.’ Slide— As he unraveled the ropes and massaged his reddened wrists and ankles, Tvalie’s eyes darkened.
‘The problem is I don’t know the layout of this building.’ Before he possessed it, this body had been kidnapped while unconscious, so he had no idea about the structure of the place. Even if he managed to escape this room, he might end up wandering around and getting caught again in the worst-case scenario.
‘No. I can’t let that happen!’ He had to think of a way.
Tvalie briefly considered waking the sleeping children but shook his head.
‘If things get noisy, it could lead to an even worse situation.’ The children here might be sacrificed, but protecting his own life was the priority.
Tvalie stood up cautiously and, relying on the light leaking from the hallway, began to feel the walls to understand the structure of the dark room. From what he could see in the dim light, he made a final assessment.
‘It’s roughly twenty jang (60m) in length and width.’ The room was a cube of equal length and width. The walls and floor felt smooth, as if they had been polished with care, and the room was sealed without a single window.
‘In the end, the only way out is through the front door.’ The ceiling was too high for him to reach, so he couldn’t check its height. Regardless, the only exit was the door in front of him.
‘Should I hide behind the door for now?’ If he stayed in the blind spot where the door opened, would he be less noticeable? Tvalie racked his brain for a way to escape this situation, but no better, more innovative idea came to mind.
‘Not being able to use magic makes this so difficult.’ If he had his original power, he could have broken through a crisis of this level with a smile. But now, he was just a powerless kid. He couldn’t feel a single speck of refined mana in his body. Given more time, things might change, but for now, he had to use his wits.
As he was deep in thought, his circumstances changed.
‘Huh?’ The sound of many people running quickly down the hallway echoed from outside. Simultaneously, the ground vibrated, and screams reached his ears.
“It’s an attack by the Thousand Blood Sect! Brothers, escape quickly!”
“Juniors, this way!”
“It’s an emergency! Take as many resources as you can carry!”
“What are you doing? Dispose of everything that gets in the way of moving immediately!”
A clamor of voices and frantic activity continued outside the door. The intensity of the situation outside was conveyed through the sound and vibrations.
Tvalie instinctively clenched his fists.
‘This is an opportunity.’ He was certain. In this situation, such chaos was the final chance given to him.
He waited by the door, holding his breath, watching for an opening.
“W-what should we do with the sacrifices, Senior Jang? We went through so much trouble to prepare them!”
“You crazy bastard. Do you have time to worry about that right now? Throw those oil jars and set the place on fire! We can’t let the Thousand Blood Sect take the sacrifices!”
“U-understood.”
Among the men he had heard earlier, the voice of a somewhat clumsy-sounding man spoke. Tvalie instinctively swallowed hard and waited.
‘He’s coming.’ Along with the sound of someone struggling to carry something heavy, the thick wood of the sliding door shuddered and began to push aside.
Then, a middle-aged man wearing strange grey clothes entered.
“Phew, don’t resent me too much… I hope you all find peace in the next life.”
The middle-aged man, carrying a large oil jar, moved toward the center of the room to spread it.
In that moment—
A small boy who had been crouching silently in the shadows.
Tvalie.
He watched the man’s movements from beside the door and then moved like a ghost.
Dash— “Huh?”
The middle-aged man felt something climb onto his back. Something was clinging flat against him like a baby being carried. Just as he tried to turn around in panic, an indescribable pain surged through his eyes.
Squelch—! “Aaaagh!”
Tvalie had gouged out both his eyes using his hands.
As a scream erupted, Tvalie, still clinging to the man’s back, quickly grabbed the collar of the man’s fluttering robe from behind and applied full pressure to his throat.
“Gah! Hrk!”
The middle-aged man flailed his limbs desperately while weeping tears of blood. Tvalie leaned back to apply more pressure but grimaced midway.
‘Damn, I don’t have enough strength.’ Tvalie scanned his surroundings. When he spotted the scabbard at the man’s waist, he leaped down like a flying squirrel. As the opponent slumped to the floor, panting heavily, Tvalie drew the sword from the scabbard without hesitation and swung it.
Slash—! Gurgle— It took less than a minute for a person to die. Tvalie calmly dealt death to the middle-aged man and then quickly inspected the grey robe he was wearing. Except for the leather on the hood, the material seemed mostly wool.
‘It’s got some blood on it, but it can’t be helped.’ Thinking about what would happen after he escaped this place, he couldn’t expect to be treated well in his current rag-like clothes. So, despite the blood, he stripped the clothes off the man and began tearing them with a dagger.
Clothing was more important than one might think, regardless of the world or place. Knowing this instinctively, Tvalie used the sword to cut and tie the fabric, fitting it to his body. A small body was an advantage in this case.
During the process—
Thud— ‘Huh? What’s this?’ A mysterious, rectangular wooden block fell from the sleeve of the man’s clothes. Curiously, he felt a faint scent of mana from the wood, so he reached out to touch it.
In that instant, he felt a very tiny amount of mana leave his body.
Tvalie’s eyes widened.
“An artifact?”
Startled, he whispered the word and felt the wooden block. He realized that strange, mysterious patterns were drawn on its surface. Based on the shape and the power contained within, it seemed to be the runic language of this world.
‘Incredible!’ Tvalie’s face flushed slightly at this unexpected and immense harvest. Although he hadn’t yet identified what kind of artifact it was, he tucked the wooden block away and smiled for the first time since arriving here.
“A good start.”
Wiping the blood splatters off his face and tidying his clothes, he sharpened his senses to the situation outside the door.
Boom— Rumble—! The noise that had been heard from a distance had grown quite loud. Vivid vibrations could now be felt through the air and walls. Specifically, all sorts of noises were coming from the right hallway.
“Aaargh! Thousand Blood Sect! Do you think you’ll get away with this? The elders of our sect will avenge this!”
“Puhuhu, the trash of the Mansi Sect only has their mouths left. Die and become ingredients for spirit pills!”
“You think I’ll die easily!”
“Brothers, we must hold this alleyway at all costs!”
Fwoosh—! Crack-boom—! Everywhere, fireballs and bolts of lightning adorned the ceiling. Peeking his head out from the door to watch the scene, Tvalie’s eyes snapped wide.
‘Is that… magic?’ It was strange. Based on his observations from the lower dimension, he had expected there to be no magic in this world.
But wasn’t that clearly elemental magic?
At a glance, the mana arrangement seemed a bit disorganized, making the manifested magic appear crude, but regardless, magic was magic.
‘No. That’s not what’s important right now.’ While he had confirmed that a mystery similar to magic existed in this world, his top priority was getting out of here.
Tvalie’s eyes glinted again.
End Of Chapter : 02
