The Sword Genius of the Magic Empire - Chapter 3



Only Krnovel

“What is going on!”

midnight.

The silence of the conference room was broken by the bewildered voice of a man who had opened the heavy door.

A 4th-grade wizard who is the object of great envy for most wizards in the Magic Empire.

Seeing him make a fuss in the middle of the night with a confused face was a rare sight even for the magicians belonging to the family.

But circumstances were circumstances.

He shouted with a pale face.

“The artifact I was researching was stolen!”

It was well past midnight, but there were already two wizards gathered in the conference room.

They all had familiar faces. However, they were also people who would normally not interact with each other in this vast fortress.

That meant that this incident was important enough to bring them together.

“What happened, Lord Grantal? Could it be that there were people trying to leak confidential information outside the family…!”

“Calm down, Toas Tabilail. The theft was attempted. The culprit has been caught.”

Grantal Skyl, the clerk and current representative of the absent lord.

He calmed Toas down with his usual calm demeanor.

“That, that’s fortunate. That’s really fortunate.”

But at his words, the sorceress standing right next to him sighed and opened her mouth.

“Yes. But the problem is, the culprit is….”

Under Elseid.

Nemesis Magic Knights.

The youngest vice-captain there, Theano.

She pointed to the photographs lined up on the conference room table with her white fingertips.

The photo taken by the surveillance artifact showed a boy with pitch-black hair.

Toas, who saw that, muttered with a dumbfounded expression.

“Vice-Captain Theano. Could it be that the culprit of the attempted theft is Young Master Enoch… …?”

“Please lower your voice. There may be ears listening.”

At the calm gaze of Grantal who had cut off his words, Toas took a deep breath and asked again.

“So… we’re the only ones who know about this theft?”

“That’s still the case.”

Granthal nodded.

“At the time of the incident, Sir Theano, who was on patrol, arrested the young master at the scene and reported to me. Therefore, there are only three of us involved in this matter.”

Toas sighed briefly at Grantal’s words.

“I see. Well, I understand why Your Majesty would suddenly do something like this, but….”

“What does that mean?”

“The artifact that your highness was trying to touch is an ancient relic excavated from a site believed to have the power to forcibly awaken magic.”

Toas added, shaking his head.

“Of course, it is still in the research stage, as it may have a dangerous curse and we do not know what side effects it may have on the user….”

Still, everyone here could easily guess what Enoch, who had not yet awakened his magic, was thinking when he stole it.

Theano muttered with a displeased expression.

“There is a proverb in the East that says that even a cat will bite a cornered mouse… … .”

Toas carefully raised his head.

“Anyway, where is your highness now?”

“You have been brought to the underground prison for investigation and detention.”

Toas looked embarrassed at Theano’s short answer.

“Wow, an underground prison. But it’s still your direct descendant. If there’s any trouble later on…”

But at that moment, Granthal cut him off firmly.

“It’s okay. It’s what I instructed you to do.”

“yes?”

“Since the lord is also absent, I had no choice but to temporarily keep him there in order to prevent rumors from spreading. It has been closed for a long time and no one has been coming and going. And…”

Granthal bowed his head with a serious expression.

“Won’t your name be erased from the Elseid family soon anyway?”

The two wizards also nodded quietly at his words.

Deputy Gaju, Grantal’s intentions were clear.

The attempted theft case in the family’s direct line will be buried as if it never happened. So as not to create unnecessary noise.

Granthal sighed heavily.

“The life of a stock is solely based on reputation. We must always keep that fact in mind.”

“… … .”

Of course, no one raised any objections.

Because we can’t afford to tarnish the prestige of the main family they belong to with groundless rumors.

In the Empire, ‘reputation’ is very important.

This is especially true for a place called Jugamun.

─The pillars that support the empire, the main family.

The twelve powerful Pillar Houses, each representing a different field of magic, are literally the pillars of all society in the Atlas Empire, supporting the empire.

And beneath them, there were countless famous magic families, each famous for their own fields of expertise.

In other words, what if it’s Elseid, the ‘Ju-ga-mun’, the ultimate center of gathering magicians from each field of the empire?

In particular, it was inevitable that they would be even more sensitive to reputation.

Therefore, even the possibility of having one’s status diminished by groundless rumors had to be thoroughly ruled out.

As it always has been.

“You may go now. I am sorry for the commotion so late at night.”

At Granthal’s words, the other two wizards looked at each other in silence and nodded.

Enoch Elseid will be quietly released just before dawn.

Because nothing happened tonight.

***

On the cold stone floor, Enoch rose from his seat.

The underground prison where Enoch was imprisoned in the original work.

As expected, the dark space was spread out before my eyes.

If you don’t know the exact location, you can just have them lock you up there.

‘Besides, if we do this, there’s no reason for anyone to suspect anything else.’

Given Enoch’s current situation, where he is about to be expelled, it would not be awkward for him to show violent struggles to ‘unleash his magic’.

Enoch chuckled to himself.

‘A direct descendant of the family was arrested after theft.’

But I still feel like the appearance is a bit too off… … .

There was no other way.

‘Anyway, up to here it’s all according to the calculation.’

If you had stolen a mediocre magic tool, you would have been sentenced to confinement in your room instead of going to prison.

But this time, the object he touched was an ancient relic that was being studied specifically within the family.

I thought that at that level, it wouldn’t stop at the level of general confinement.

‘But this will only last a moment. Other than freeing Enoch, they will have no other choice.’

Eventually, the family will detain Enoch for a while and then release him.

With the suggestion to act as if nothing happened.

‘Since they are a family that lives off of reputation, no one would want this to be known publicly.’

As evidence, Enoch’s body was not bound by any restraints.

The way the stock market handles business was so predictable that we saw it over and over again in the original.

‘So, before morning, we must find a clue as to what Enoch was doing here.’

Enoch turned his head and looked across the dungeon.

has been cleared several times. However, this place, the underground prison, was not a map that users could enter in the original.

therefore…….

Ultimately, if you want to know what’s here, you have to go there yourself.

‘There is no time to spare.’

Enoch took out a torch from the entrance to the prison and walked towards it without hesitation.

If all goes as planned, we should be back here by daybreak. We’ll have to finish everything before then.

Thud, thud.

Enoch slowly made his way through the dark dungeon, relying on the light of a torch.

With every step I took, white dust accumulated over time rose up and swirled around me.

Even though it was an underground prison, it seemed like a place that hadn’t been used in a while.

Well, I guess that’s true.

‘Because it was such a remote place that Enoch was confined there until he was 13 to avoid public attention.’

It was virtually a closed facility, so it was impossible for anyone else to have entered.

Looking around with eyes accustomed to the darkness, the empty landscape of a dark and cold dungeon came into view.

‘Enoch was imprisoned in a place like this until he was 13 years old.’

If this were modern times, it would be outrageous child abuse.

Enoch walked further inward.

But contrary to his expectations, there was nothing unusual even when he reached the dead end of the prison.

‘There’s no way there’s nothing?’

According to the setting, this is where the original Enoch awakened his power in the past. There must be something here.

…for a moment.

Suddenly he noticed something and stopped.

A vertical crack in one wall, hidden in the darkness of the room.

At first glance, it looked like an ordinary gap, but Enoch knew what it was because he had already seen similar structures several times in the game.

“Hidden Underground Secret Room”

It is one of the empire’s oldest architectural styles, and in the original game, it is a structure that often appears in ancient concept underground maps such as dungeons.

A place that exists as a sort of hidden stage where you can progress through rewards that are hard to obtain or sub-stories that are not even in the strategy guide.

Of course, as expected from a rotten person, he knew how to open this place.

Above the entrance to the secret room, a geometric pattern symbolizing flames was engraved in relief.

A sealed room with a magical security device of the flame series.

One of the locks that is fairly simple to open.

“This is a good thing.”

Enoch lifted the torch he was holding and held the flame against the pattern on the wall.

Then, in an instant, a red glowing mana appeared along the wall like a complex circuit and made a small noise.

Woof─

Originally, it was supposed to be opened with flame magic, but is a game with a lot of freedom.

Was this a consideration for players who, for some reason, were unable to acquire the magic? In the game, it was often possible to use this kind of trick through surrounding objects.

That’s right.

Soon, one wall of the prison slowly opened with a loud noise.

Wheeing─

In an instant, a gust of wind from inside the wall blew out the flame of the torch he was holding.

Enoch, who saw what was ahead, doubted his own eyes.

“This is… … .”

It felt like I had entered a completely different world from the prison I had just been in.

Beyond the wall was a vast empty space.

The high walls of the basement were cracked and tangled with the passage of time.

The moonlight streaming in quietly shattered, casting a white light throughout the room.

And with that pale color, the cold metallic light stretched out across the floor─

─A sword.

It was the only one standing quietly, stuck on the rock.

The moonlight reflected on the sharp blade of the sword, casting a pale path of light before him that led to him.

As if possessed, he walks straight along the path towards the sword.

In the silence of the night, in the underground, steps are taken on the moonlit surface towards the sword.

With every step I took, a white reverberation resembling waves echoed through the area.

As I approached the sword, the shadowy back part of the room that the moonlight had not yet illuminated came into view.

Enoch’s black eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at it.

‘A stone statue?’

Beyond the sword stood a stone statue in the shape of a human being.

The figure was carved in a flowing robe, so his face was not visible. However, his gaze was clearly watching Enoch as he entered.

chin.

Enoch, who reached in front of the sword, reached out and grabbed the hilt as if possessed by something.

As I pulled with strength in my arm, the sword came out of the rock with surprising smoothness.

Woof-

A faint tremor of the metal that had emerged from the rock ran through my fingertips.

This is definitely a sword I’ve never heard of before.

But the feel and weight of it in my hand felt somehow familiar.

So much so that it felt as if he had been holding a sword for a long time.

And at that moment.

A pale sentence silently appeared before my eyes.

? ‘Enoch Elseid’ Unique Trait Activation:

Such a sudden sentence.

He took a half step back in confusion for a moment, and before his eyes, translucent letters were arranged in the air again.

?characteristic

Successor of the Sword

?rating

Unique

?effect

Using the sword as a medium, you can absorb the experiences of the users who used the sword.

Enoch’s eyes widened for a moment.

System messages written in a familiar font.

That’s right. The interface used to display the characteristics of characters in the game. It was exactly the same.

“……characteristic?”

And at the same time, Enoch frowned as if he had discovered something unexpected.

[Trait] is an important factor that serves as an indicator of the character’s talents, special skills, and overall performance in the game.

Enoch was nothing more than a consumable supporting actor.

It was completely unexpected that he, like other characters, had ‘traits’.

‘It’s natural that you don’t know since he wasn’t originally a playable character… .’

That’s a ‘unique’ rank that only exists in a few characters, even in the original work.

‘Perhaps all the other characters in the original had their own unique traits and skills, but the player just wasn’t aware of them?’

A new feeling of surprise ran down my spine.

The only information we had about Enoch was the brief history in the settings book. But there was actually something like this.

“But in , there’s a successor to the sword. Isn’t this a collapse of the setting…?”

No. Even leaving that aside, what on earth does the word written in the effect section mean?

Enoch looked at the sword he had drawn.

“… … .”

On the cold sword, deep-set black eyes reflected the moonlight.

‘With the sword as a medium, you can absorb the experiences of the users who used that sword, ra… .’

Hwaaaaah!

And at that moment.

Suddenly, the moonlight shining around Enoch disappeared as if it was being consumed by something. The entire basement was covered in pitch-black darkness.

Soon, all directions were plunged into complete darkness.

‘What is this?’

Enoch looked down hastily.

You are standing on the floor, but you are standing on something transparent that cannot be called the floor.

My sense of direction had suddenly disappeared.

A world made entirely of flickering shadows.

The only thing that existed there was Enoch himself, standing there with his sword in hand.

Swish.

And then suddenly, something rippling appeared before my eyes about ten steps away.

Just now. A man dressed exactly like the carved stone statue.

With the hood of his robe pulled down low, he looked this way quietly.

Above the head of the unidentified figure, letters in a familiar font appeared like a ghost.

? “The Last Sword Saint of the Empire”

In that moment, Enoch’s eyes opened wide.

An interface that appears above the characters’ heads in the game .

‘It’s exactly the same way the characters’ names were written in the original game.’

But I had no idea who it was.

‘There was no such character in the original work?’

And on top of that, it’s ‘Black Star’.

No character in had such a strange title.

It’s not even a proper human figure.

It’s just a rippling shape of crimson shadows blending into someone’s silhouette.

It was closer to a three-dimensional shadow figure than a living, moving person.

But there is only one, even though the shape is unclear.

There was something I could see for sure.

In his hand was a sword identical to the one Enoch had just drawn.

And then, the next moment, the shadow slowly extended its arm, the tip of its sword aimed at Enoch.

Ugh─

The sharp sword light shone fiercely for a moment.

‘… … !’

In an instant, a creepy sense of crisis came over my whole body. My instincts warned me to avoid it.

But almost simultaneously.

The shadow swung its sword like a ray of light.

Crunch!

For a moment, Enoch’s vision shook violently.

For a moment, it seemed as if time had stopped and everything seemed slow.

‘What happened?’

The world was spinning around.

No, it’s not.

What was spinning was his head, severed from his body.

Suddenly, a belated realization came to me.

Oh, your throat has been cut.

‘no….’

Dying like this?

Bam.

A view that is stuck to the floor.

A chill spreads across my cheeks.

Within a moment, all senses subside.

The surrounding vision slowly darkened.

This was Enoch’s, my first death.