Shepherd Wizard-Chapter 218

Translator: Pai_

As Turan walked through the underground of the Family Head residence of the House Nagin, the first thing that came to his mind was the secret space that had once existed beneath the House Zahar.

He hadn't recalled it at first, but upon seeing the spiral staircase, he felt the structure was quite similar.

Just like he had done in the past, Turan jumped through the hole at the center of the spiral staircase and instantly arrived at the lowest floor, then began walking along the open corridor.

Before long, he came upon the broken door, apparently destroyed by the snow leopard undead he had encountered a short while ago and, beyond it, found the cage.

'Is it an artifact made using a magic artifact?'

A cage of chains, five meters wide and slightly over three meters tall, was grotesquely twisted on one side.

It must have originally had enough durability to contain the snow leopard magical beast that had been trapped inside.

However, since undead spirits generally grow stronger than they were in life, and since they feel neither fatigue nor pain, it had likely rammed into the cage relentlessly until it broke free.

Gazing at the cage, Turan spotted a small notebook beside it. Using telekinesis magic, he brought it over and opened it.

As expected, the contents were written in Monarch’s handwriting, which he had seen before. The notes were about various experiments conducted on the snow leopard.

There were so many technical terms and seemingly self-coined words that it was impossible to understand precisely, but it could be inferred that most of the experiments bordered more on sadistic torture.

Of course, that didn't mean Turan had enough compassion to sympathize with even a magical beast used as a test subject; he simply tossed the notebook aside after briefly glancing through it.

‘Judging by the fact that he left something like this behind, there must be more useful materials somewhere.’

Unlike the usual dwellings of scholars, Monarch’s lair didn’t have many items that could be called books.

Rather, most of what he had were simple memo pads consisting of a few sheets of parchment, like what he had made before.

As a result, all the research conducted here was fragmented, making it difficult to pinpoint and extract needed information.

Perhaps it was because he had been the sole researcher for so many years that he hadn’t felt the need to organize his work, but ironically, that also meant everything was effectively encrypted and difficult for Turan to decipher.

‘Looks like some of it was also destroyed by that snow leopard.’

Seemingly resentful of having starved to death while being trapped here, the creature had wrecked various parts of what seemed to be the laboratory using the same claw shockwave attacks Turan had seen earlier.

Clicking his tongue, Turan tried to read through whatever seemed salvageable.

Fortunately, the scattered parchments were all protected by low-grade preservation magic, and had not been damaged despite the desolate environment.

[On the Invariance of Language.

The language of this world does not change.

Even in regions farther apart than America and Europe on Earth, the same language is used. There are not even dialects.

Even we had our original languages forcibly distorted to use the language of this world.

This is clearly an abnormal phenomenon.

What’s the reason? Is it simply because this world is a game world? Or is it something else?

I have a hunch that uncovering the reason for this will be a major clue to discovering the truth of this world.]

Judging by the statement about not yet knowing whether this world was a game world or not, it seemed to be a relatively early memo.

As Turan quietly read through it, his eyes widened at a note written in red ink at the bottom.

[Found the answer. It was information!]

‘Information?’

It would have been better if Monarch had included exactly what that meant.

But since the memo was likely intended for Monarch's eyes only, unfortunately, it went no further than that.

Nevertheless, Turan committed the contents of this memo deeply to memory.

Monarch wouldn’t have left this in his already chaotic laboratory unless it posed an important question and answer.

Even after that, Turan spent hours at that spot, going through the memos one by one, analyzing and analyzing again.

The dates of each note varied from decades to even thousands of years apart, and sometimes previous conclusions were even contradicted, so organizing the information wasn’t easy.

In the process, he amusingly realized he was gradually coming to understand Monarch.

As if exchanging letters with someone whose face one has never even seen, gradually groping at their personality through words.

Considering that a significant number of the memos written here were essentially no different from Monarch’s diary, it was only natural.

‘He really is a bundle of distrust. He complains a lot about his own companions too... No, he probably didn't even consider them comrades but subordinates.’

Among them, there were especially many notes about Ymir.

Calling him a dim-witted and lazy guy, someone he'd want to kick out immediately if he weren’t already short on manpower.

Considering that one of the triggers that completely derailed Turan’s original plans upon acquiring the Soul Prison was Ymir’s blunder, he could somewhat relate.

Besides that, there were comments like how "Rom", the god who had taken over Cadrum’s body, was loyal and somewhat clever but slightly unhinged, or that someone else had made an egregious mistake.

What was rather unexpected was that there was absolutely nothing written about Badal, Monarch’s right-hand man and field commander, who the others nicknamed "Haps".

It was probably because Badal was the only one, aside from Monarch himself, who was allowed to enter this space.

Given Monarch’s personality, it was likely difficult for him to openly criticize someone he could see face-to-face.

‘At some point, I started acting like I know someone I’ve barely even spoken to.’

At the sudden thought, Turan gave a self-mocking chuckle.

To know someone is to begin to understand them.

Regardless of his hostility toward Monarch, the more he got to know the man, the more he naturally began to understand him.

Of course, understanding someone doesn’t necessarily mean growing fond of them.

Monarch’s true face, as written in these notes, was too despicable to inspire anything but deeper disgust.

As Turan continued reading through the memos, his gaze stopped at a particular piece of parchment.

‘Found it.’

What was written there was, surprisingly, about the magic used to draw those strange characters Monarch often employed.

Judging by the unfriendly explanations, Turan deduced that its origin was a magic from a world other than this one.

“So that’s what it was...”

The source of the knowledge was the Boundary of the World.

Just as Turan had once gained knowledge of guns and cannons from there, Monarch had acquired knowledge of magic that existed in another world.

It was an occult technique in which, by offering a massive number of lives in a ritual, one could extract the embedded power within an object and reshape it as desired.

It instantly became clear why there had been no existing records of this technique, and why even the gods could not perceive its existence.

How could one possibly guess that this was a technique that didn’t exist either in this world or on Earth?

Though Turan had been consistently entering the Boundary of the World whenever he had time since gaining knowledge of firearms, this confirmed for him that he needed to dedicate even more time to it going forward.

If luck was on his side, he too might one day obtain some valuable knowledge of another world like Monarch had.

As Turan continued obsessively indulging in the newly acquired knowledge, he sensed a presence behind him and turned his head.

Meisa, who had been left on the first floor, was looking around with a surprised expression.

“What is all this?”

“Records that bastard left behind. If you dig through them properly, there's actually quite a bit of useful stuff. Did you check out everything on the first floor?”

“Yeah. But there wasn’t much of significance. It’s big, but it’s practically just a living space. If I had to point something out, I did find one thing...”

Meisa spoke with a somewhat darkened expression. She said that there was a prison in the corner where several bizarre-looking skeletal creatures were confined.

They weren’t human, but it was also difficult to consider them animals. It was impossible to guess what species they might be.

From some of the experimental records he had seen earlier, Turan realized what they were.

“They were probably people who were experimented on.”

“What kind of experiment?”

“Fusion between humans and magical beasts.”

Among the various ways Monarch had explored to extend physical lifespan, he had taken a particular interest in the existence of magical beasts.

It was likely that one of the bloodlines Monarch possessed being the Tamer bloodline also made it relatively easier for him to bring in magical beasts, which had influenced this research.

While even powerful human wizards typically lived only around three to four hundred years, powerful magical beasts could live over a thousand. Monarch tried to analyze why, and eventually, he even attempted to create a new race of long-lived beings by fusing humans and magical beasts.

Of course, just by looking at the fact that he stopped after trying to fuse a human without even magic power with a magical beast, it was clear the results had been a complete failure.

“What a disgusting bastard...”

“Yeah. Truly.”

Of course, Turan had never conducted magical experiments using humans, but even if he had, at the very least, he only used truly heinous criminals who had committed crimes deserving of execution.

In contrast, according to the research logs, Monarch captured and used all sorts of people in experiments just to obtain varied test groups.

From the elderly to middle-aged men and women, young men and women, to even immature children, newborn infants, and fetuses.

Their faces briefly twisted in disgust as they discussed such horrors, then Meisa looked around and asked,

“So, did you find any clues about where he might be?”

“Unfortunately, not yet. But I did find something that gives me a pretty solid guess.”

With that, Turan led Meisa to a room on one side of the lab.

Unlike the other rooms, this one was sealed with powerful enchantment magic.

“Can you check it?”

“Just a moment. Let’s see... Hmm, it uses a bloodline-based authentication system. Only a wizard of the House Nagin with family-head level magic power can pass through. Ah, and it's linked with the enchantment on the wall, if someone tries to break in by force, it will explode.”

Using her Enchanter ability to analyze the magic placed on magical artifacts, Meisa quickly analyzed the magic on the door.

“Whatever it is, looks like they really didn’t want anyone to see it.”

“Guess so. Let’s test it out. Let’s see if this works.”

Turan set the Mimic Sacred Relic to the Nagin bloodline, then used Bije’s claw to make a small cut on his finger.

When the blood dropped onto the orb in front of the door, a rumbling sound echoed, and the door opened.

“...It worked?”

“While I’m using this, even my physical traits become similar to someone with that bloodline. It doesn’t change my spiritual symbol, but that part probably isn’t being detected anyway.” 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Since this lab was created after the founding of the House Nagin, this level of security must have been deemed sufficient.

If they had known about Turan’s ability, they would have had to change the security method too, but that likely took time, so they must have postponed it.

To apply such a strong enchantment, a considerable number of enchanters would have had to spend a long time working together.

When Turan entered through the now-opened door, he saw a room densely covered with symbols similar to ones he had seen before.

He immediately summoned the Librarian, who looked around with a mix of displeasure and curiosity.

“I’ve memorized it.”

“Thank you, elder.”

At Turan’s words, the Librarian nodded and returned. Meisa, who had been standing back to avoid interfering, looked around the room and asked while tilting her head.

“This is like what we saw before, right?”

“Similar, but a bit different. The guy called this room a ‘passage.’”

“A passage? You don’t mean...”

“It wasn’t written in detail, but I think this room might assist in traveling to the Boundary of the World. Like the one in the library.”

While Turan could freely use the key thanks to the Librarian’s help, Monarch had failed to create such a spirit and had thus needed a room like this.

It was only recently that the usefulness of spirits in accessing the Boundary was discovered, and Monarch had tried to bring one, only for it to be taken by Turan.

As she listened to the explanation, Meisa looked down at the symbols engraved in the room with a face half filled with awe and half with fear.

Like other rituals, these symbols were drawn using human blood and flesh, but perhaps because of how old they were, or due to some special treatment, there wasn’t even a trace of a smell.

As he lightly brushed over one of the symbols, Turan casually said,

“Shall we try using it?”

“What if we cross over and can’t come back?”

“That probably won’t happen. Actually, one of the things he was researching was how to stay there longer, or how to cross over completely.”

In other words, unless something was done to stop it, one would naturally return here in time.

It seemed there was some kind of restriction on beings from this world staying within another world.

At Turan’s words, Meisa hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“I want to try using it too.”

“Together?”

“Yeah. If something goes wrong after crossing over alone, it might be better if there are two of us.”

Turan gave a wry smile at her concerned words and nodded.

He didn’t particularly think anything would go wrong, but unlike him, Meisa had never entered the Boundary of the World before. She might gain some meaningful information from the experience.

“Stand here in the center.”

“Here?”

“That’s right.”

After positioning Meisa within the circular symbol at the center of the room, Turan stood directly opposite her and pulled out the “key”.

The same object Monarch had once used during the process of triggering divine regression in Axum.

The one created in the library was optimized only for opening the gate where the Lame Goddess slept, so there had to be a separate key matched to this space.

Rotating through three or four different keys and rubbing them across the floor, one of the orbs suddenly emitted a bright light.

“Ah!”

With Meisa’s exclamation, the surrounding scenery distorted.

***

‘It worked.’

Just like when he had entered via the key from the library before, entering the Boundary of the World happened in an instant.

In a space filled with pure white substance that conveyed all the senses of the world, Turan looked over at Meisa standing beside him.

As he had once been on his first entry, she was overwhelmed by the sensation that seemed to scramble her mind and couldn't regain her composure.

He quickly wiped the drool flowing from her half-open mouth, then soon realized that the scenery around them was somewhat different than before.

‘Something’s... skewed?’

Unlike before, when there had been only endless whiteness in all directions, up, down, left, right, this time, one side appeared to be faintly tinted.

The moment he sensed this, Turan realized that he and Meisa were slowly being drawn in that direction.

Just like an object floating in the air being naturally pulled down by gravity, something was dragging them to one side.

Turan instinctively tried to resist but quickly realized that resistance was impossible.

In a world where even normal gravity didn’t exist, their bodies couldn’t move through magnetism, wind power, or any other physical method.

They could only move through the power of thought.

And the force pulling them was far too strong to be resisted by thought alone.

At that moment, Meisa seemed to regain her senses a little and blinked.

“Ah, uh. Turan? Is this the place?”

“Yeah. But it's a bit different. Probably because of something that’s been set up here...”

Even as he said that, Turan wasn’t particularly worried.

According to the records, not only Monarch but likely even Badal had used this space quite often, so there shouldn’t be anything harmful here.

As they quietly waited, Turan suddenly realized that the white space surrounding them had vanished with a whoosh.

Now, instead of white, they were surrounded by a pitch-black space.

A space of overwhelming emptiness, where no sensations existed at all.

Turning his gaze to where they had just come from, Turan saw a white, disk-like object.

He assumed that it must be the world they had lived in.

Just like soaring high into the sky reveals an entire mountain range at a glance, now that they had stepped outside the world, they could see it all in a single view.

‘Approaching the physical boundary doesn’t usually bring you to the edge of the spiritual boundary too... Is it because of that symbol?’

Through the Librarian, Turan had used the key to enter the Boundary of the World dozens of times.

But he had never experienced anything like this before.

While he was deep in thought, Meisa, after listening to his explanation, spoke in a tone filled with helpless disbelief.

“This is...”

That something so small and insignificant could be the world they had lived in.

Turan, too, shared her sentiment.

The void they now stood in was so overwhelmingly vast that the world they had just come from seemed like nothing more than a tiny island in the middle of the South Sea.

Could this be the “universe” that the gods spoke of?

That thought lingered only briefly before Turan noticed that, off to one side of the expansive void, there were multiple other worlds lined up besides their own.

And between them, things that looked like ashen tree branches stretched and connected the spaces.

Coincidentally, Turan and Meisa were also riding atop one of those branches, moving forward.

“So, where exactly are we going right now?”

“Not sure... I can't say for certain, but judging by the circumstances, there's probably only one place.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a world hanging from the end of the tree branch began to come into view.

A cluster made up of countless tiny dots packed closely together.

One of those components was a small spiral, and within that small spiral, an even smaller spiral rested.

A pale blue dot seated at the end of the branch.

*****

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