The Wizard Who Endured the World of Murim - Chapter 2

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Surviving in the Martial Realm as a Mage: Episode 2
Trevallion felt consciousness settling into flesh and opened his eyes.
And without thinking, he blinked.
‘What? I’m bound?’
A Dark Wide Chamber.
The way sound echoed slightly suggested the ceiling was quite high.
At the same time, Trevallion realized his limbs were firmly bound with thick rope.
Bound so tightly he couldn’t move an inch.
Trevallion closed his eyes and opened his hearing and sense of smell wide.
He desperately tried to assess the situation.
In that moment.
‘Ugh!’
A pain as if his skull were splitting.
Simultaneously, fragmented memories seeped into his mind.
Being dragged away and beaten while begging on the street in the depths of winter.
The memory of being beaten to death for stealing a single dumpling.
In a secluded alley.
Memories of being kicked repeatedly by beggar boys wrapped in rags.
The sporadic memories that surfaced were all of being beaten or fleeing.
‘Hmm, it seems I’ve possessed a body from the lower strata.’
The possessed body was roughly ten years old.
An orphan.
The last memory was of begging on the street.
Fortunately, through the boy’s memories.
I was able to acquire the basic language of this world.
What Trevallion had wanted from the start when crossing dimensions was ‘a young body’.
That was the only thing.
As for other conditions like status or physical state.
I dared not input such complex variables.
‘The more conditions, the higher the failure rate.’
An orphan and vagrant by birth?
That’s fine.
Having all four limbs intact was already a success in itself.
‘Of course, that’s only for now.’
Looking at my current bound state, something unpleasant seemed imminent.
But that too was acceptable.
As long as my mind remained sound, I could overcome anything.
Trevallion began moving the only part he could.
His fingers, which he wiggled diligently.
He expanded his senses and began concentrating intently on observing the situation outside.
From a distance, I faintly heard voices conversing.
“So, what is the condition of the sacrifices?”
“We’ve all suppressed their blood vessels and put them to sleep, Senior. There are no major health concerns.”
“Good. The grand ritual is nearly complete, so we must pay special attention to the sacrifices.”
“Of course.”
Hearing the conversation of two men beyond the door, I found myself frowning without realizing it.
‘Sacrifices? A grand ritual?’
The very words sounded ominous.
This was far more than simply severing an arm or a leg.
Typically, “sacrifice” meant offering one’s entire body.
And if luck was poor, even one’s soul could be mortgaged away.
‘I need to escape immediately.’
Indeed, in the prison chamber where I was now confined,
there were dozens of children around my age besides myself.
They all lay with eyes closed as if dead, breathing faintly.
If all of them were truly sacrifices, the scale of this operation was far from ordinary.
‘Are they planning to make a contract with some demon lord?’
I strained to listen for more information,
but the men seemed to have moved away, and their voices became too faint to discern any further details.
For now, I could only speculate that the Unknown Organization that had kidnapped me was larger than I’d initially thought.
So I focused on what I could do immediately.
I worked my fingers more earnestly, struggling to create any gap in my bindings.
And then.
Click―
Fortunately, the body I inhabited was merely that of a child around ten years old,
so my bones and joints were remarkably flexible, making it easy to escape the restraints with even the smallest opening.
Of course, this required some technique,
but I had extensive experience in such matters.
‘Well, I need to get out of here first.’
Slip―
As I freed myself from the rope bindings,
my eyes darkened slightly as I worked the circulation back into my reddened wrists and ankles.
‘The problem is that I don’t know the structure of this building.’
Before I possessed this body,
it had been kidnapped while unconscious, so I had no knowledge of how this place was laid out.
Even if I managed to escape this chamber immediately,
in the worst case, I could wander around and be dragged back again.
‘No. That absolutely cannot happen!’
I needed to devise a plan.
I briefly considered waking the sleeping children, then shook my head.
‘If I cause unnecessary commotion, I might face an even worse situation.’
These children might be sacrificed.
But first, I need to preserve my own life.
Trevallion carefully rose from his position and relied on the light seeping through the Corridor to
cautiously feel along the walls to understand the structure of the Dark Wide Chamber.
The Prison Chamber, confirmed through his dimly visible field of vision, was
‘roughly twenty zhang on each side—about sixty meters.’
The Prison Chamber was a perfect cube with equal length and width.
The walls and floor were polished smooth, as if carefully finished, and it was sealed without a single window.
‘In the end, the only way out is to open the Door in front and leave.’
The ceiling was too high to reach, so I couldn’t confirm its height.
Regardless, the only exit visible was the Door at the front.
‘Should I hide behind the Door for now?’
If I’m in the blind spot where the Door opens, wouldn’t I be less noticeable?
I racked my brain trying to think of ways to escape this situation,
but nothing better,
nothing truly revolutionary came to mind.
‘Not being able to use magic makes this so difficult.’
If I still had my original power, I could breeze through a crisis like this.
But now I’m just a powerless child.
Not a trace of refined mana could be felt within my body.
If given more time, perhaps something might change,
but for now, I had to use my wits to overcome this situation.
While I was lost in thought,
the conditions changed.
‘Huh?’
I heard multiple people running rapidly through the Corridor outside.
Simultaneously, the ground trembled, and screams erupted.
“It’s an attack from the Heavenly Blood Sect! Brothers, flee quickly!”
“Juniors, this way!”
“Emergency situation—take only what resources you can carry!”
“What are you doing! Remove anything that’s in the way of our movement!”
Multiple people outside the Door shouted in chaos and commotion.
The intensity of the situation outside was conveyed through sound and vibration alone.
Trevallion instinctively clenched his fists.
‘This is an opportunity.’
I was certain of it.
In this situation, such chaos was the last chance given to me.
So I held my breath near the Door and waited,
watching for my chance.
“S-sir Senior Chang! What should we do with the sacrifices? We went through so much trouble preparing them!”
“You insane bastard. Do you have time to worry about that right now? Grab that oil jar over there and set it on fire! We can’t let those Heavenly Blood Sect dogs get their hands on the sacrifices!”
“Y-yes, understood.”
From among the men whose voices I’d heard passing by moments earlier, came the clumsy-sounding voice of one of them.
Trevallion instinctively swallowed quietly and waited.
‘It’s coming.’
With the sound of someone grunting under the weight of something heavy.
The thick wooden sliding door, pushed open sideways, trembled and gradually shifted to the side.
And then.
A middle-aged man in strange gray robes entered the chamber.
“Phew… don’t resent me too much… may you all find peace in the afterlife.”
The middle-aged man carrying the large oil jar brought it to the center of the chamber and began pouring it about.
In that moment.
A small boy crouched in the darkness, holding his breath.
Trevallion.
He watched the man’s movements from beside the door, then moved like a specter.
Tap―
“Huh?”
The middle-aged man felt something climb onto his back.
Something pressed flat against him, like an infant clinging in a piggyback ride.
He turned around in panic, but.
Suddenly, indescribable agony flooded through both his eyes.
Squelch―!
“Ack, ahhhhh!”
Trevallion had gouged out both eyes with his bare hands.
Screams tore from his throat.
Still clinging to the man’s back.
Trevallion quickly grabbed the fluttering collar of the middle-aged man’s robe from behind.
And squeezed the man’s neck with all his strength.
“Ugh! Gahhhhh!”
The middle-aged man thrashed desperately, tears of blood streaming down his face.
Trevallion leaned back to apply more pressure, but grimaced mid-motion.
‘Damn it, I don’t have enough strength.’
Trevallion quickly scanned his surroundings.
Then his eyes caught the sword sheath at the man’s waist.
He nimbly dropped from the middle-aged man’s body like a flying squirrel.
Then, facing the opponent gasping heavily on the ground.
Without hesitation, he drew the blade from its sheath and swung it.
Splash―!
Gurgle― gurgle―
It takes mere seconds for a person to die.
After I dealt death to the Middle-aged Man with such casual indifference,
I quickly examined the gray long robe he had been wearing.
Apart from the leather in the hood section, the fabric appeared to be mostly wool.
‘Some blood has stained it, but there’s no helping that.’
Considering what would come after I escaped this place,
I couldn’t expect any favorable treatment in the tattered rags I currently wore.
So despite the blood spatters,
I roughly stripped the Middle-aged Man’s garments and began tearing them with my dagger.
Clothing was more important than one might think, regardless of where you went or what world you inhabited.
Because I instinctively understood this, I swiftly cut the fabric in various places with my blade and wrapped it around myself with cord to fit my frame.
My small frame proved advantageous in such circumstances.
It was during this process.
Thud—
‘Hmm? What’s this?’
A mysterious rectangular wooden piece fell from the sleeve of the Middle-aged Man’s robe.
Strangely, a faint aroma of mana emanated from the wooden object, so I curiously reached out to touch it.
In that moment.
I felt an extremely subtle flow of mana draining from my body.
My eyes widened.
“Could this be an artifact?”
I spoke in startled surprise and touched the wooden piece.
Then I discovered that the surface of the wood was inscribed with mysterious, unidentifiable patterns.
Based on its form and the power it contained, this appeared to be the runic language of this world.
‘Incredible!’
My face flushed slightly at this unexpected windfall.
Though I hadn’t yet confirmed what kind of artifact it was,
I quickly secured the wooden piece and smiled for the first time since arriving in this place.
“An excellent beginning, wouldn’t you say?”
I wiped the blood spatter from my face.
After tidying my appearance, I sharpened my senses to the situation beyond the door.
Crash— Boom-boom-crash—!
The noise that had been distant was now considerably louder.
Now I could feel distinct vibrations traveling through the air and walls.
To be precise, all manner of sounds were emanating from the Right Corridor.
“Argh! Heavenly Blood Sect! Do you truly believe you’ll escape unscathed for this? My elders will exact vengeance for what you’ve done!”
“Fufufu, mere rabble with only their mouths intact. Go ahead and become material for spirit tablets.”
“Did you think you’d die peacefully?”
“Brothers, we must hold this Alley at all costs!”
Screech—!
Boom―!
Here and there.
Fireballs and lightning bolts embroidered across the ceiling.
Trevallion, who had been peeking his head just past the door to observe the spectacle, widened his eyes.
‘Is that magic?’
It was strange.
When I observed from the Lower Dimension.
I had anticipated this world would have no magic.
But that was clearly elemental magic, wasn’t it?
At first glance, the mana arrangement seemed somewhat convoluted, and so the cross-section of the materialized magic appeared rough.
But regardless, magic was magic.
‘No. This isn’t what matters right now.’
For now, I’ve confirmed that this world does possess mysteries similar to magic.
But my immediate priority is escaping this place.
Trevallion’s eyes gleamed once more.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————