Getting into Megmura won't be easy, but I can exploit the nobles' greed against them. Using the tunnel that once facilitated the underground market for my crafts, I can sneak past the walls.
Every time I think of those walls…
Each time I lay eyes on them, questions fill my mind. Why? Why build such a structure?
Describing it alone baffles me. The walls are made of hardened concrete, towering like the World Tree—so immense, climbing them would take hours, not minutes. Why build something so enormous, just to keep people so small out?
Their disgust for us knows no bounds.
Checking my trusty pendulum, I monitored the revolution of the vertical sun, waiting for night to fall. I kept reaffirming to myself that this journey was necessary—to keep my promise to Martha.
The dark crept in. It was time to move.
I walked slowly, scanning my surroundings, ensuring I wasn't being watched.
DUN.
That was the sound of the rusty, metallic hatch as I opened it. The tunnel hadn't been used in over four years.
Crawling… crawling… I pushed through the narrow space, searching for another hatch that could lead me back to the surface. But instead of a hatch, I found something unexpected—a luxurious-looking door. It felt surreal. How careless could the nobles be to leave such an entrance unguarded?
I opened it, and my suspicion was confirmed—it led to a mansion, or rather, its basement.
I stepped onto solid ground once more.
The basement was dusty, as if no one had entered it in years.
I need to leave this place I whispered, eyes darting toward the staircase. There was a door upstairs, but I had to be cautious. Even at night, noble mansions were typically heavily guarded.
I ascended the stairs and opened the door. The mansion looked abandoned. Dust and insects were the only residents.
My face lit up with a rare smile—relief. It seemed the mansion had been left to rot, likely due to the collapse of the underground trade.
Zip.
I opened my bag and pulled out a brown cloth to disguise myself. Stepping out, the sight surprised me.
Inside the wall, I expected grand castles and noble estates—but this looked like the outskirts, just with better architecture.
I blended into the crowd, posing as a customer. It turned out to be a craft market. A national-level craft market, in fact.
My work—my designs—were there. Or perhaps copies of them. Manaments of all sorts were up for sale, even manament weapons. But one item intrigued me. It looked like a gauge—a tool for measurement. Shaped like a gun with a screen on top, it lacked a bullet chamber. Instead, it had a scanning lens.
Curious, I approached the store.
The owner seemed pleasant, but he was a godblood. I stayed guarded.
"Oh, that? It's a manament used to measure mana pools. By channeling mana into it, you can read an opponent's mana level—up to five million kunts. Not that I expect anyone to ever reach that level," he chuckled.
An ordinary non-godblood wouldn't be able to use this… we can't manipulate mana to charge it. But with my augmentors, I can redirect the stored mana within them.
The shopkeeper suddenly raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Your hands... what are those? That's some strange tech. Foreign?"
Panic gripped me. I quickly wrapped my hands in cloth. Damn. I let my guard down.
"I'd like a closer look," he said, still smiling. "Almost closing time. You could come to my home—we can talk. Or refuse… and glance to your left—a mage knight, fully armed. And to your right—another, both at grade 4 level. Don't look so surprised. You thought you could fool me? I can spot a non-godblood from a mile away."
Fear crawled in.
Who is this man? He knew all along and didn't report me. He's up to something. For now, I'll play along. It's too risky to run.
After closing hours, I followed him home.
"Have a seat," he said with a cold stare.
"No need for formalities," I replied, locking eyes with him. "Tell me—what do you want?"
"You seem relaxed. We're in your house. No guards. No mage knights. I could kill you right here."
"Go ahead," he said calmly.
I took the challenge. Boosting with my augmented leg, I surged toward him, aiming a clean strike at his neck.
But something happened.
He floated. No—flew.
His feet hovered off the ground, keeping distance in the spacious room. He defied gravity. Typically, the farther you are from the surface, the stronger the pull. Yet he rose like it meant nothing.
"What... what is this?!"
"This technique? Nothing special. I'm an Edge Walker."
Edge Walker... I whispered in disbelief.
"Yes," he continued. "An Edge Walker."
He began explaining the physics of our world.
"The world is cubic in nature, it has six sections, one continent at each face, the World Trees serve as the vertices of this world.
God used the World Trees as fixed points when shaping creation.
By joining those points together, a cube was formed.
Ostina lies close to one of the edges.
And at the edge of the world, gravity is at its weakest.
The force that pulls you toward the surface—the one that lets you walk—is weaker out there, causing many to fall off the edge.
But we Edge Walkers have mastered KI, the essence of the mind.
By harnessing Ki, we loosen the body, reduce its density—lighter than air. That lets us float, explore the edges. Many mysteries and legendary materials await out there."
He looked at my hands.
"Your augmentors... they're made from materials found at the edge. But I know that's not what you're looking for. You're after Virellium.
And luckily for you… you're already in Megmura."
I froze.
Is this fortune? That I'm already in Megmura… and someone this knowledgeable is offering to help? Or…
Is this not luck at all?
But rather… my end?