My dearly missed master once said this.
Whenever you end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, before making any careless moves, you must first check the conditions for your survival.
A place to rest.
Food and drinking water.
And lastly, information.
My master always emphasized that order.
No matter how strong a Magician might be, lack of sleep clouds judgment, and no one can withstand hunger and dehydration.
And finally, without information...
You die.
There are deaths that even magic cannot prevent.
A year had passed since Kael began collaborating with Harun. Simply working here eliminated any worries about shelter and food. On top of that, he had some leftover money, effectively securing an emergency fund.
Even so, once work ended, he steadily gathered information about this place called 'Magiterra' while keeping his true identity hidden.
Magiterra.
There was no king, nor was it ruled by nobles.
On the surface, there were the City Council and the Public Security Bureau, but the ones truly running the city were the massive corporations known as Megacorps.
It was astonishing. It was safe to say that nearly everything existing here was the handiwork of those corporations. Magiterra was their playground.
And the 'citizens' here were akin to their registered assets. The sheer power of the colossal Megacorps was far more overwhelming than that of any emperor or king Kael had ever seen.
The city was divided into several levels, and descending from the Surface Level to the Underground Level was not difficult at all.
Falling into debt, committing a crime, losing one's status, or falling out of favor with a corporation—there were plenty of ways.
Conversely, there were almost no ways to climb back up.
The Underground Level was an absolute lawless zone.
That description fit best.
However, the biggest problem Kael faced lay elsewhere.
Even after a full year, Kael's Magic Circuit showed no signs of recovery.
At first, he thought time would heal it.
Yet that belief was easily betrayed.
A Magician who couldn't use magic... there was no contradiction more laughable than that phrase.
The moment a Magician loses magic, he becomes an ordinary person.
An ordinary person who merely knows a little more about magic.
That was who Kael was right now.
His combat prowess was downright pathetic.
It wasn't as if he hadn't trained with a sword, but Kael was neither a warrior nor a Hero.
Without mana, if he were to clash head-on with a demonic beast, he would struggle against even one the size of a stray dog.
"...."
Just as Kael fell deep in thought, Harun's voice rang out from up front.
"Hey, Kael! An order came in!"
The moment he raised his head, something flew toward him.
Kael reached out almost reflexively and caught it.
It was a palm-sized magitech device.
Inside the black metal casing was an embedded crystal plate, with three mana input ports running along the side. It was likely a stabilization module meant for a compact Magic Lamp or a low-grade security device.
Kael turned the device over.
Metal chips clinked atop the worn iron plate Harun used instead of a counter.
"There are three more. You can finish them today, right?"
"Yeah."
"As expected of our circuit tinker."
"Don't call me that."
"Nope."
Harun smirked.
Kael didn't bother responding to that and opened the side of the device.
As expected, the internal circuits were a mess.
Two conversion circuits were scorched from overheating. The stabilization crystal was intact, but the flow was reversed.
It wasn't something that would take long to fix. Kael picked up a slender metal needle and scratched across the circuit board.
It wasn't much different from a magic formula.
It was just that here, they called it magitech.
Bzzzt.
A light flickered on in the first device.
Kael immediately picked up the second device.
Then the third.
And the fourth.
His hands moved faster than expected.
Lately, Harun had been bringing in orders like this quite often.
At first, it was just fixing a few devices that were practically scrap metal. But at some point, rumors began to spread.
That there was a stall in the Underground Level 19 scrap market that could fix anything.
Thanks to that, the days Harun spent grinning from ear to ear had noticeably increased lately.
"I'm telling you, our regulars are piling up. Regulars!"
He said that whenever he got the chance.
"Everyone's finally recognizing the true worth of the great Harun."
"I'm the one fixing them, aren't I?"
"You're fixing them at my stall, aren't you?"
"Things you can't fix yourself, that is."
"Let's just call it a joint operation."
"Exploitation, more like."
"Don't make it sound so unpleasant. In the Underground Level, we call that business."
Since he wasn't entirely wrong, Kael didn't pay it much mind.
The workload was still manageable for him.
Above all, this work was necessary for Kael as well.
The more discarded magitech devices he handled, the more he felt he could see the structure of the circuits applied in Magiterra.
"Phew...."
"All done? It's time to close up shop."
Even in the sunless Underground Level, there was a closing time.
Harun was pulling down the iron shutter in front of the stall.
Screeech.
The rusty shutter came down with an unpleasant grating sound.
Kael placed the last device onto the cloth.
"Done."
"You've gotten faster."
"Because you keep throwing them at me."
"There's no master like real experience."
"My master used to say things like that often, too."
"Is he dead?"
Kael fell silent for a moment.
Harun shrugged after seeing his expression.
"I won't say I'm sorry. People ask that sort of thing all the time around here."
"It's certainly that kind of place."
Kael gave a curt reply.
Harun looked at him for a moment and pressed no further.
He liked that about him.
Harun was a talkative, greedy old man whose eyes lit up whenever he caught the scent of money, but at the very least, he knew which lines not to cross.
That alone made him a pretty decent person in the Underground Level.
Of course, whether that held true by the standards of the upper levels was another story.
Since he hadn't properly seen many people from the upper levels.
Wrapping the last repaired device in cloth, Kael pushed it toward Harun.
"This one just needs its output restabilized. You won't have any trouble selling it."
"There'd better not be. The bastard coming to pick it up tomorrow has a nasty temper."
"Do you have any customers who don't have a nasty temper?"
"I do."
Harun said as he pulled the iron shutter all the way down.
"A rich customer."
"Yeah, right."
Harun fastened the padlock and straightened his back.
Creeeak.
Grimacing, he pulled a slender metal cigarette from his pocket. He tapped the tip a couple of times, and a blue spark ignited at the end.
"So."
Harun exhaled a puff of smoke.
"Why were you spacing out like that today?"
"I just had a few things on my mind."
"You always have something to think about. If I could turn even half of those thoughts into money, I would've moved to Underground Level 18 by now."
"I was thinking about how to get up to the Surface Level."
Harun's hand froze. The blue ember at the tip of his cigarette dropped.
After a brief silence.
"Did you eat something bad?"
Harun asked in all seriousness.
Kael looked at him.
"No."
"Then did you touch the wrong chemical container? There was some stuff in yesterday's scrap that gently melts your brain."
"I'm perfectly fine."
"A sane guy wouldn't be talking about the Surface Level."
Harun laughed in disbelief.
However, when Kael's expression didn't change, the amusement slowly faded from his face.
"Are you serious?"
Kael nodded.
Harun pulled the cigarette from his lips.
"Dream on."
Harun perched on an empty box next to the waste-heat pipe. The playfulness had vanished from his face.
"There is no way to go from the Underground Level up to the Surface Level."
"There can't be absolutely no way."
"Every bastard who says that starts out the same way."
Harun flicked the tip of his cigarette with a finger. Blue ash dropped to the floor and quickly cooled.
"'There can't be absolutely no way. There must be a loophole somewhere. Someone has to have made it up there. I'll be different.'"
He looked at Kael and said.
"And then most of them drop dead."
"If it's most of them, then it's not all."
"Don't nitpick my words if you want to live a long life."
"I need to know the exact details."
"Then I'll tell you straight."
Harun leaned forward.
"To go from the Underground Level to the Surface Level, you have to pass an inspection checkpoint. To pass an inspection, you need identification; to get identification, you need residency rights; to get residency rights, you need employment registration and tax records. But to get any of that in the first place, you have to be registered with a Surface Level institution."
"Hmm."
"Yeah. The bastards up top built the door for themselves and shared the key only among themselves. Anyone down here gets kicked out before they can even get near the door."
Harun let out a short laugh.
"What about illegal passages?"
Kael asked.
Harun chuckled again.
This time, it was a laugh of utter absurdity.
"They exist."
"Where?"
"In the grave."
There was still not a trace of a smile on Kael's lips.
Reading his expression, Harun put the cigarette back between his lips.
"Smuggler transport pipes, sealed elevator shafts, old maintenance tunnels. It's not like those things don't exist at all. But naturally, paths like that belong to someone, don't they?"
"Gangs?"
"Gangs, corporate Security Forces, Public Security Bureau lackeys, organ harvesters... Well, quite the colorful bunch, wouldn't you say?"
Kael studied Harun's face.
"Have you ever tried it?"
Instead of answering, Harun merely exhaled a long trail of cigarette smoke.
That silence alone was enough to understand the truth.
"You failed."
"Aren't you a sweet talker."
"You're alive, so it wasn't a total failure."
"Should I say thank you for that?"
"If you want."
"Piss off."
Harun spat out.
Only after a long while did he open his mouth again.
"It was a long time ago. I was young, and both my eyes were intact. Back then, there were guys I worked with."
"Did you try to go up together?"
"Rather than trying to go up, we simply believed we could."
Harun lightly tapped his lens with a finger.
"This is the result."
Kael asked no further.
Harun's missing eye and a run-down stall... twelve years on Underground Level 19.
That was answer enough.
"Have you ever seen anyone make it up there?"
"Through legitimate means?"
"Through any means."
Harun shook his head. Then he held up three fingers.
"I've never seen it with my own eyes. But I've heard plenty."
"For instance?"
"There was a guy who saved up money and bought fake residency rights. He was dragged away on the spot at the checkpoint, and nobody ever saw him again."
Harun folded one finger down.
"A guy who hid inside a smuggling pipeline. Rumor has it he got crushed in a waste compactor midway."
A second finger.
"A guy registered as a subcontracted worker for an upper-level corporation. He did make it up, but three months later, he came back down as a corpse. Word is a few of his organs were missing."
A third finger.
"A guy who sold information to the Public Security Bureau and got a temporary transit pass. He was strung up right here in the Underground Level. Snitches don't live long."
Harun lowered his hand.
"Is that enough for you?"
"Not enough."
"Of course it isn't. You already have the answer you want to hear in mind."
Harun quietly continued.
"But there is no such answer. Anyone born in the Underground Level or thrown down here usually ends their life here. If you're a little lucky, you die old; if you're unlucky, you die young. And if you're really unlucky, you get sold alive."
"I have no intention of ending things here."
Harun stared at Kael quietly.
"I've seen plenty of bastards say that."
"Those guys and I are different."
"I've heard that plenty, too."
"And?"
"And I told you most of them ended up dead."
Kael hadn't survived just to be buried in a place like this; he had to return.
Leon, Aileen, Miria.
He didn't even know if they were still alive.
He didn't know what had become of the original world after he vanished.
Or perhaps he alone was cast out, and that hell had not yet ended.
He didn't know.
That was why he had to go up.
"There can't be absolutely no way."
Kael said.
Harun furrowed his brows at his words.
"What did I just say?"
"You said there was no legitimate way."
"I also said illegal ways will get you killed."
"The fact that there's a way to die means there is a passage."
Harun opened his mouth, then closed it.
After staring at Kael for a long time, he finally let out a sigh.
"Guys like you are the most exhausting."
"I hear that quite often, actually."
"You hear it and still don't change your ways, huh?"
"Because I don't see the need to."
Harun stubbed out his cigarette on the ground.
He glanced around for a moment.
The edge of the market. Most stalls had already closed down.
A few drunken laborers stumbled in the distance, and a small drone drifted slowly beneath the worn-out lighting.
Harun waited until the drone disappeared... then spoke in a very low voice.
"It's not like there isn't a way at all."