Embracing Magic - E.M Chapter 97 (Part 2)

With a ball of light, I illuminated the way downward. A spiral staircase stretched down below.

“Let’s go.”

I briefly considered using magic to leap down the stairs, but quickly dismissed the thought.

Since this was my first visit, I decided it would be more respectful to walk down the path laid out by whoever created it.

Step! Step!

About ten steps down, in the midst of the quiet, the sound of my footsteps echoed.

Rumble!

The door that had opened began to close on its own.

It wasn’t clear whether it closed after a set time or if it closed after descending a certain distance.

For now, I was cut off from the outside. To get out, I would have to go through the same complex process as before.

“There shouldn’t be any problems, right?”

My whispered words echoed. The sound bouncing off the walls felt eerily unsettling.

“Phew. Let’s go.”

I relied on the light from my spell as I carefully descended the stairs. Even after descending for a long time, the end was still nowhere in sight.

“Could this be an illusion spell?”

It was a baseless doubt. If I had fallen under a spell, someone with my heightened senses would have noticed.

It turned out that this place was simply incredibly deep.

From the tunnel entrance to the door, it was already over 100 meters deep. And from the door, the depth of the staircase was ten times that.

“A depth of over several hundred meters… Why dig so deep?”

I spoke aloud deliberately. Being alone in the darkness made me uneasy, and speaking somehow eased my nerves.

I continued descending. After covering a distance that matched what I had already descended, the staircase finally ended.

“The floor… hmm.”

It wasn’t dirt. It didn’t feel like ordinary stone, either. The surface was smooth but curiously not slippery.

“The texture is odd.”

I touched the floor with my hand. Although it looked completely smooth, it felt slightly rough to the touch.

“Not that it matters. Light. Light.”

I created eight spheres of light and spread them around. The overall layout came into view.

“It looks like a storage space.”

The structure was very simple. After descending the stairs, a long corridor stretched out, leading to an enormous open chamber at the end.

In the center of the chamber, something was piled up high.

“Could it be books?”

Rodin quickly ran out of the corridor. Upon reaching the spacious chamber, he confirmed the identity of the pile.

“They’re books! Real books… Huh!”

The excitement of seeing so many books was short-lived as a chill ran down my spine. Such feelings should never be ignored.

I instinctively threw myself to the side and rolled.

Whoosh!

Something swished through the spot where I had just been standing. It was a spear. The wielder appeared to be a man in his early 30s.

‘Is he a living person?’

The man, who had swung the spear, aimed it at me once more. Naturally, his target was Rodin.

Beside him, another figure appeared—a woman who looked to be in her early 20s. She was exceptionally beautiful, but there was no time to admire her.

“Damn.”

The woman held a sword in her right hand and a shield in her left. Both were of average size.

“As expected.”

Rodin quickly scanned for an escape route. No matter how he looked, there was no other path aside from the one he had entered through.

‘I don’t think I can win this.’

Both of them were at a master level. Even though I wasn’t particularly sensitive to aura, I wasn’t so dull as to fail to recognize an aura blade.

‘I have to escape at all costs.’

The standoff didn’t last long. While I wanted more time to think, the enemies didn’t grant me that luxury.

Swoosh!

The man with the spear lunged first. Almost simultaneously, the woman with the sword charged forward, shield leading the way as she practically flew at me.

“Blink!”

As if I had been waiting for this, I teleported through space. I reappeared in the corridor connected to the chamber.

“Ahhh!”

No sooner had I arrived than I let out a loud yell and ran.

The scream seemed to help release the tension that had locked up my body.

I dashed through the corridor and set foot on the spiral staircase. Without a moment’s hesitation, I began to sprint up the steps.

“Fly!”

Since I was ascending the stairs, flying up with magic was faster than running.

My body floated up and quickly shot upwards. Within moments, I had soared dozens of meters before pausing briefly.

“Hmm?”

As I continued to race upward, it became eerily quiet behind me.

Glancing back, I saw that neither the man with the spear nor the woman with the sword had followed me. It seemed they hadn’t even entered the corridor.

‘They’re not entering the passage?’

Feeling safer, I gained a moment of calm. Unlike the frantic moments earlier, my mind started working again.

I cautiously descended the stairs once more. I walked slowly through the long corridor, stopping just before the open chamber.

The man with the spear and the woman with the sword showed no interest in the corridor. They simply returned to their original positions as if following a set routine.

“They were stationed at the corners of the passage, right.”

Fortunately, they seemed to be the only adversaries. The opposite corner appeared empty.

“Let’s think this through. They aren’t human. That much is certain.”

Externally, they looked no different from humans.

I couldn’t be sure if they were truly breathing, but their chests definitely moved up and down, mimicking the act of breathing.

Their eyes also blinked. The rhythm was neither too rushed nor too slow, just like a calm, normal person.

“Combat puppets powered by mana.”

I couldn’t tell how much aura filled their bodies. Since I wasn’t particularly sensitive to aura, I couldn’t gauge it accurately.

But one thing was certain: there was no magic power in them. Instead, their bodies were brimming with mana, which they used to move.

“If mana is their power source, they probably won’t tire easily.”

Fighting them would be a guaranteed loss. It wasn’t a matter of possibilities; the outcome was already decided.

“But why do they attack? Hmm, it might have to do with the magical pattern… It was for an Archmage.”

The entrance condition inscribed in the door’s magic circle had two requirements.

One was being a 7-circle Archmage with a specific magical pattern.

Yet even an Archmage meeting the requirements wouldn’t be able to defeat those two. Archmages and master-level warriors were considered equals.

To stand a chance against them, you would need two Archmages, and to secure a victory, you would need a comparable strength beyond that.

“An Archmage who meets the criteria enters, yet the combat puppets guarding the door attack? That’s strange. The answer must lie in the magical pattern.”

While descending the stairs, I had reverted the magical pattern I had created to open the door. There was no need to maintain the unfamiliar pattern for long.

“Let’s try this. Magic Shield, Impact Barrier.”

I cast two defensive spells on myself in advance.

These defensive spells wouldn’t be enough to withstand a full force strike from a master-level opponent. But at least they could prevent me from dying instantly if I took a hit.

I swiftly checked my internal state and adjusted the magical pattern. It was something I had done many times, so it only took a few minutes.

“Let’s go.”