-The Inversion Device
‘Ah!’
In an instant, I fell into somewhere like a deep, pitch-black cave.
There had been some sort of device installed in the stone steps of the central plaza.
The moment I set foot on them, my foot sank through beneath the stairs, and the place that had looked like the plaza floor until just now clanked and shifted, becoming the ceiling as it covered the space above my head.
It was a device that seemed to flip the entire space over.
‘Damn it!’
I’d been distracted by the strange scenery and let my guard down for a moment.
I should have noticed when Yantu was going on about how the area around the central plaza was a magic-prohibited zone, a safe zone.
I had been on guard, but I hadn’t sufficiently taken into account the characteristics of the race known as dwarves.
Since I had two objectives—finding Ren and checking the backup information related to the black mage—I had no intention of avoiding this place even if there was danger, but I should have been more cautious.
Thud!
After hitting the floor, I slowly got up and looked around. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like anything was broken.
I looked around, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see a thing. The place that had been the plaza had now turned into an underground cell.
I looked up. It was perfectly seamless. Not a single crack was visible.
‘A device prepared for intruders from outside? Nice craftsmanship.’
Most likely, after swallowing me up, the plaza above had returned perfectly to its original appearance as if nothing had happened.
It didn’t seem like magic had been used in the device. It was an underground cell made solely with machinery instead of magic. Very dwarven.
I drew up my mana and tried extending detection magic. As expected, the magic did not activate. It seemed there was a magic-blocking device in place.
“Hey, Mr. Mage! What do you think of us dwarves’ craftsmanship? Pretty useful, isn’t it? Do you like the room? We put a lot of care into making it for special visitors, you see. Hahaha!”
No light leaked in at all, but I could hear his voice. And very clearly too, as if he were speaking right beside me.
Earlier, he’d complained that I was unlucky and asked if I was some human supremacist for speaking casually, but now that he was speaking casually and snickering, I dropped the formalities again too.
“Yantu, what kind of treatment is this after deliberately inviting someone over? Isn’t this too much?”
I answered him appropriately while continuing to explore my surroundings. I felt through the darkness and examined the space. It was exactly the size of a cell.
The floor and walls were finished with something like iron plates. Though rather than iron plates, it was probably some special metal.
I drew up my mana once more. I tried to create a simple flame spell at my fingertips, but as expected, it did not activate.
The mana waves were disrupted and blocked by something.
“You’re suspicious in more ways than one. Why on earth were you firing detection magic into our dwarf district? What were you trying to dig up here?”
Aha. It seemed there had been a misunderstanding. Of all things, the detection spell tracking Ren had been headed toward the dwarf district, so he must have thought I was spying on the dwarf district.
In other words, Yantu hadn’t believed me from the beginning and had deliberately lured me here.
“I told you. I was doing a commissioned job. I was only tracking a missing person. I didn’t even know there was a dwarf district here.”
“Of course you didn’t. A freelance mage, was it? Ha! Not even a dog would believe that. You’re an incredible mage, aren’t you? Am I wrong? I may not be a mage, but I can tell that much. Be honest. You’re a government mage, aren’t you?”
“I told you I’m not. I really am a freelance mage. I’m not affiliated with anyone.”
While talking with Yantu, I continued generating mana waves.
Just because there was a magic-blocking device didn’t mean I intended to give up on magic. Magic that surpassed such blocking methods also existed.
I concentrated, adjusting delicately as I searched for a gap.
Even though interference was occurring, the waves did not disappear completely. At least within this cell, the waves were circulating.
“Don’t make me laugh! You showed interest in the Incheon Port explosion too. Why was that? Why are you secretly poking around? I already told the police everything. It wasn’t us dwarves! We weren’t even at the scene that day!”
A sigh escaped me on its own. The misunderstandings were tangled together like arrowroot vines.
It seemed he had been interrogated by the police on whether the Incheon Port explosion had been the dwarves’ doing.
Well, since I’d desperately wanted that backup information, it was understandable that he’d be suspicious.
“Fine. I told you, I was there that day. I know better than anyone that you weren’t the ones who did it. So put aside the pointless misunderstanding. I’m not a government mage. Yantu, stop this and let me out of here first. Let’s talk face-to-face.”
“Not a chance. You think I’ll be fooled? A great mage like you going around doing mercenary work? Hmph!”
“I’m telling you, it’s true! I only want to find that black mage. If you share the backup information with me, I’ll pay you for it. Once I get the backup information, I’ll quietly leave this place……”
“No. Sorry, but I think you’ll have to spend tonight in there. Then we can talk. For now, rest comfortably until your mana drains right down to the roots. See you tomorrow morning.”
Then his voice suddenly cut off. A deep silence descended, as if every sound in the world had vanished.
“Yantu! Open the door! Open it right now!”
I shouted, but only an echo came back.
I shut my mouth.
The strength drained out of me. Now that I looked at it, it seemed Yantu’s words hadn’t been empty.
I hadn’t even properly activated any magic yet, but my mana was being consumed rapidly.
It seemed there wasn’t just a magic-blocking device here, but also a device that thoroughly stripped away the mana inside one’s body.
‘Damn it. A cell that drains mana? I can’t spend the night here.’
I focused even harder and analyzed the interference waves flowing through the cell.
To break through the layers of devices obstructing magic and activate a spell, I would need a different strategy.
‘What would be good? Where should I start creating a crack?’
Even while I’d been talking with Yantu, I hadn’t been angry, but once the sound cut off and I realized that I was alone in the pitch-black cell, anger began to rise.
I hate being confined. I hate it terribly. Just having lived imprisoned for seventeen years in my previous life was enough to make me shudder.
My trauma had been stimulated. The deep darkness within me began to blaze.
Suddenly, the mana energy waves inside my body grew violent. My forehead heated up, and my golden field of vision burned orange.
* * *
A great many dwarves had gathered in the central plaza, talking among themselves.
“What? You locked a human mage in the underground cell?”
“That’s Yantu for you. You’ve got skill.”
“It was simple. I treated him kindly, and he fell for it easily.”
When Yantu explained the situation so far, the other dwarves exclaimed in admiration.
“Amazing! Well done!”
“But are you really sure he’s a government stooge?”
“I don’t know. He seems like one, and yet he doesn’t…… I’m a little confused. To be honest, he didn’t feel like that bad a guy to me. But who knows?”
“You did well. If you’re suspicious, you beat them first and ask questions later.”
To the person trapped inside, the underground cell was a space of darkness where not a single ray of light entered, but from outside, one could see clearly into it.
There was a circular window in the middle of the plaza. Through that window, made of a special material, they could look down into the cell.
Right now, the dwarves were gathered around that circular window, watching the mage inside the cell.
Since dwarves were the sort to leap out of bed to watch anything interesting, quite a few had gathered.
Not only those who lived around the central plaza and shop owners, but also passersby and those who had come out deliberately after hearing the rumors crowded the area.
Among the onlookers was a dwarf woman with a shawl wrapped around her head.
She had been in a nearby shop and, when a commotion arose outside, had followed the others out. She happened to look down into the underground cell through the circular window and flinched in surprise.
‘No way. It’s that mage.’
The mage trapped in the cell was someone she knew.
He had certainly seemed like a remarkable mage, so seeing him trapped so helplessly down there was both surprising and bewildering.
‘Why did he come here? How did he end up trapped in there?’
The dwarves gathered around were chattering about all sorts of things. She listened silently.
“As expected, our central plaza inversion device is excellent. Who would ever imagine there was a cell down there?”
“Anyone who comes in here recklessly is finished the moment they step lightly on those stone stairs.”
She looked anew at the central plaza’s stone steps. The device that reversed inside and outside like flipping one’s palm when a certain stone step was pressed was truly astonishing.
No matter how outstanding a mage was, if caught suddenly, he would have no choice but to fall in and be trapped. On top of that, magic couldn’t be used in the central plaza.
“If you look down on dwarven devices, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
“Of course. No matter how much human mages act high and mighty, they’re no match for us dwarves. Do they know how carefully we choose materials and how much soul we put into making our equipment?”
The astonishing aspect of the underground cell beneath the central plaza was not limited to the mechanical structure of the inversion device.
What was truly remarkable was that, by maximizing the properties of the materials, the interior of the cell moved as if by magic.
The underground cell was made of obsidian, earth, and a metal called tetrium.
The mutual repulsive force of the inner properties of obsidian and earth made the space pitch-black, and the force field formed by the tetrium disrupted mana energy waves.
Moreover, it was no exaggeration to say that dwarves put their souls into making equipment.
“Even if humans had good materials, they wouldn’t know how to use them. What use are materials if you can’t design precise circuits like we can?”
“Exactly. Mages may somehow know how to make magic circuits, but they’re hopeless when it comes to mechanical circuits. And what good is having lots of mana? Once they’re caught by a magic-blocking device, they can’t move an inch.”
“Right. Look at that. The mage can’t use magic, so he’s just sitting there blankly dozing. Hahaha!”
“By tomorrow morning, even his remaining mana will be sucked completely dry.”
“A fitting end for a government stooge.”
The dwarves’ pride in their equipment continued without end.
The dwarf woman wrapped in the shawl was deep in thought, worrying her lower lip between her teeth.
‘That mage is a government stooge who came to spy on the dwarf district? That can’t be true…… Shouldn’t I save him? But how could I?’
It was an impossible situation. She had no strength, no magic, and was in no position to step forward before others.
But even so, she couldn’t just do nothing and stand by.
‘That mage saved me. I can’t just watch like this!’
At last, she decided to at least say something and was just approaching Yantu.
“Wait! What is that?”
“Is it fog? Is there fog in the underground cell?”
The dwarves were pressing their faces close to the circular window of the underground cell and murmuring.
The inside of the underground cell, which should have been pitch-black, had grown fairly bright. As if it were filled with fog, the interior was glowing with a dim white light.
“It looks like the mage is using magic.”
“How? There’s a magic-blocking device here. What on earth is he doing?”
“Aaagh! What is this…?”
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-boom!
A tremendous roar struck their ears.