Ch 10 The FIve Guardians

Radiating from the walls was a familiar reverberation of mana—the most impenetrable magical wavelength in the world.

These… these twelve layers of defensive wards were entirely constructed using my own mana, thought Asterion.

Asterion thoroughly scanned the entire barrier matrix. A defensive spell that would normally consist of a few dozen interlocking magical cubes was instead woven together by tens of thousands of them.

To think they siphoned off mana that vast… all from my treasure trove…

A hollow laugh slipped out before he could even stop it.

“Right. So that’s how it is?”

Asterion ground his teeth, his fists clenching tightly. Not only had they squatted on someone else’s treasure, but they were also using it without permission.

But he needed to stay calm, especially at times like this. A mage who lost their reason was nothing more than a walking disaster.

He clenched and unclenched his fist as he thought it through.

Defensive magic grew exponentially stronger the more layers you wove together. Of course, even with that factored in, he was confident he could break through.

After all, he had grown stronger during his long sleep. With his current mana reserves—which had expanded to a point where he couldn’t even gauge his own limits—there wasn’t a ward in existence he couldn’t break.

However…

“How could I break… this?”

If he broke it, the entire building above him would vaporizing was a guarantee.

To eradicate a barrier this dense, the resulting shockwave would trigger an explosion of catastrophic proportions.

The entire first floor of the Abyss might be destroyed.

Even before calculating the sheer number of casualties, his primary goal would be soiled.

With a shock that big, could his treasures be intact?

The whole point is to get my loot back. What good does it do if I destroy it in the process?

In short, if he wanted to get his gear and go back to sleep, violently shattering the wards was off the table.

Asterion crouched down and buried his face in his hands.

“Ugh. I didn’t want to wake up either, you know.”

His voice was muffled because of his palms, but his words were clear.

He just wanted to sleep for a very, very long time. How could taking a little nap be this hard?

…So, I have to manually dismantle the barrier?

The defensive matrix wasn’t exactly invincible. If Asterion took the time to meticulously analyze its structure, he could probably unravel it.

The problem was the sheer amount of time it would take.

If he’s lucky, maybe three years. At worst… ten? He was supposed to work for that long? Were they out of their minds?

He raged at whoever “they” were.

And that was assuming he could even get away with sitting here analyzing a high-security vault in an area crawling with this many eyes.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“…If you keep acting like this, screw the mana-high, I’m just going to go back to sleep, you hear me?” whispered Asterion.

He let out a lamenting sigh. Barely been awake for a day, but he was already exhausted.

All the strength drained from his body, and he simply flopped onto his back, spread-eagle on the floor.

“Eh, whatever. I give up. Eat me, boil me alive, I don’t care.”

Though he said that, his brain was still rapidly turning over the problem.

No way that absolutely no one ever came down to this sub-basement. Wards of this scale must require routine maintenance and recalibration.

That meant there had to be a password, a key, or some established backdoor to bypass the barrier. He absolutely refused to let himself end up like one of those mana-drunk idiots who deluded themselves into becoming tyrannical megalomaniacs just because of a mana high.

…I need to figure out what the key is. That should be way faster than spending three years hacking.

For now, Asterion decided to head back above ground. It would be much easier to operate if he forged a proper fake identity within the academy.

But to get hired as a professor…. His method of casting magic was unique; there was very little he could actually explain the logistics behind it. Plus, babysitting kids? Heck, no.

After navigating his way back up the winding spiral staircases and maze-like corridors, he stepped outside to find that the sky had already grown quite dark.

Looking up at the indigo sky, Asterion made a decision.

Let’s return to the 11th floor.

Go back and… just rest.

It was strange to think of a pitch-black, subterranean labyrinth as “home,” but at least, no one would bother him down there.

He had intentionally exited through a set of doors on the opposite side of the building from where he’d entered. He’d figured a rear exit would have fewer students loitering around. On this part of the campus, there was an open plaza.