Breaking Down the Door

"So, what should we do?"

After deciding to rescue Eris, Rudeus once again fell into confusion.

Hilde at least had some understanding of the capital, but Rudeus was truly blind here. He could not even tell north from south.

Moreover, they had almost no information about Eris's movements.

And their opponent might be someone at the very highest level of power and status in this country. To put it bluntly, they were in completely different leagues.

It was practically like having to fight the boss the moment you left the beginner village.

"Right!"

Rudeus suddenly remembered something.

"The Boreas family are dukes. Even in the capital, they should have a dedicated base for contacting their territory and passing along information. As long as we ask them for help..."

"I'm afraid there won't be enough time. And... we can't get there."

Hilde looked toward the distant city.

At the very center of the city was the Silver Palace. Beyond that was the area where the royal family was active. Farther out was the activity range of dukes, marquises, and nobles of that level. Beyond that were mid-ranking nobles like counts and viscounts. Each layer symbolized a class that was nearly impossible to cross, and between each layer stood tall city walls as barriers.

Although Rudeus and she both bore the Greyrat surname, Paul was only a lower-ranking knight, the lowest kind of noble, without even a hereditary title.

There was essentially no difference between them and commoners.

And commoners could not pass through those walls and enter the area where dukes were active.

There were many other reasons besides that.

In short, Hilde did not recommend this option.

"Is there any other way?"

Rudeus was somewhat frantic. The longer they delayed, the lower the chances of rescuing Eris became.

Hilde thought for a moment. "In any case, let's return to the place where they made contact earlier. If we're lucky, maybe they haven't moved yet."

"That's all we can do."

Rudeus nodded.

He staggered to his feet. His body still felt a little unwell, but now was not the time to worry about that.

"Right, what about these bodies? Do we leave them here?"

"Throw them all into the river."

"I'll do it."

Rudeus raised his hand and unleashed an advanced wind spell. The powerful blast of air sent all the bodies on the ground flying straight into the nearby Altier River. Then he used earth magic to turn over the surrounding ground again, burying every trace of blood beneath the soil. After that, it was completely impossible to tell that a battle had just taken place here.

Hilde clicked her tongue in amazement at the sight.

Leaving aside direct combat power, magic really was remarkably versatile—especially for someone like Rudeus, whose mana was abnormally abundant. It was practically as if he could do anything.

Under the cover of night, the two of them followed the path Hilde had taken and returned to the hidden room by the side gate of the northern city wall.

Beneath the towering, imposing city wall, the entrance to the hidden room was concealed by shrubs.

The walls, built from bluish stone bricks, were covered in moss, and there were even things resembling spiderwebs on the doorframe. It looked as though the place had been abandoned for quite a few years.

Rudeus had not expected a hidden door to exist in a place like this.

Hilde had Rudeus cover her from behind while she gripped her sword and advanced step by step. When she reached the door, she suddenly lifted a foot and kicked it open. The crisp sound echoed through the hidden room, but there was no response at all. Inside, there were only a few unconscious children.

Rudeus hurried forward to check, only to find that Eris was not among them. They were all unfamiliar faces.

"Who are they? Why are they here?" Rudeus asked in confusion.

"Just brats from the dojo. Don't worry about them. This has nothing to do with them."

As Hilde spoke, she picked up a sword from beside their feet.

It was precisely the sword Paul had once given her.

She casually swung it twice and nodded in satisfaction.

Sure enough, her own sword still felt the best to use.

"Hilde, if you're not using that sword, let me use it for a bit," Rudeus said.

"Sure."

Hilde casually handed it to Rudeus.

After taking the sword, he began tapping the stone bricks on the wall one by one with the hilt.

From the look of him, it was as if he wanted to pry clean every gap between every brick and search the whole place thoroughly.

"You think there might be a hidden door here?" Hilde asked.

"There definitely is!"

Rudeus pointed at the ground. "Look carefully, Hilde. It's hard for footprints to be left on a stone-brick floor, but there are very faint wheel tracks. If I'm not wrong, those human traffickers must have used a cart to transport me and Eris."

"Exactly." Hilde nodded. She had indeed seen the handcart earlier.

"But look carefully. There are only two ruts at the entrance, which means after the cart came in, it never went out."

Following Rudeus's guidance, Hilde began observing carefully.

Though they were very faint, there were indeed some ruts on the ground formed by traces of dirt. A handcart carrying two people and a heavy box had traveled over the ground for a long time, so it was inevitable that bits of dirt would cling to its wheels. If they were not cleaned off, they would leave marks behind.

If one did not look closely, they would probably be very hard to notice.

"There are only traces of entry, but no traces of departure. If we rule out the possibility that the other side deliberately left these marks, then it can only mean there's a hidden door here."

"So what we need to do now is find that hidden door."

As Rudeus spoke, he did not stop moving his hands, checking every stone brick on the wall one by one.

Hilde helped him search as well.

The good news was that after checking roughly three-quarters of the wall, they did indeed find an area that sounded somewhat unusual when tapped.

The bad news was that no matter where they pressed, no hidden door appeared.

Although they had confirmed there was a hidden door, they did not know how to open it.

Perhaps this hidden door had been made with magic or some sort of mechanism. Thinking about it carefully, that made sense. After all, this was a hidden door almost exposed outside the city wall, and there were not even any proper guards. If it did not have a mechanism to stop enemies from entering, that would be far too careless.

Bang—

Hilde punched the wall.

The wall let out a dull sound, and tiny bits of dirt fell from above it.

But the wall itself was not damaged in the slightest.

"With this wall's thickness, a sword won't do the job," Hilde said with a frown.

"No choice, then. Move aside, Hilde."

Rudeus took a deep breath and raised a finger toward the wall.

"I'm going to use magic and blast the door open directly."

"You sure? If there's someone behind the hidden door, our operation will be exposed."

"There's no other way. At this point, we can't worry about that anymore."

"That's reckless as hell, but I've got no objection."

Hilde smiled and stepped back.

Rudeus closed his eyes.

It had to be precise, powerful enough, and preferably an attack spell with enough penetrating force and impact.

Advanced magic...

No.

All he had to do was pour an excessive amount of mana into the spell, while also adjusting its form. If he further strengthened every condition—its firing speed, rotation speed, density, and shape—he could achieve power surpassing advanced magic, while better controlling the strike area.

This was a technique that could only be used by someone with a massive amount of mana and chantless magic.

So the spell he needed to use was...

"Rock Shell"

A conical Rock Shell condensed at his fingertip, then immediately began spinning at an astonishing speed. As it spun, its density continued to increase, and at the same time, he poured in an excessive amount of mana as if trying to pierce the heavens, granting it unimaginable kinetic energy.

Whoosh—

There was no such thing as recoil in magic.

But the instant the Rock Shell fired from Rudeus's fingertip, Hilde still felt a gust of wind brush her face.

Boom—!

Dust and stone fragments flew up like a violent explosion.

The wall that had not budged even when Hilde struck it with all her strength shattered at once before Rudeus's magic.

Beneath the collapsed wall...

A lightless passage was revealed.

Hilde glanced at the passage behind the wall. It was narrow and long, and at the end of her line of sight, she could see only darkness.

The real battle starts now...