Shinji Matou at Your Service

In the distant age of the gods, magus did not place much value on magic circuits. This was because the Greater Source was very active at that time, and magus could directly extract magical energy from the Greater Source without needing to use magic circuits.

According to the famous great witch Medea, "Magical energy is everywhere, it's just that ordinary people cannot see it." Similar words were also heard by Shinji from Scáthach, who provided a further explanation.

The Greater Source is like a massive reservoir, and magic circuits are like a pump. The lower the water level, the harder it is to pump water; the higher the water level, the easier it is to pump water. If the water level is too high, the pump becomes unusable because the entire machine is submerged.

Some might say, isn't it better this way? If you can't get water, you need a pump, but if the pump is submerged, you can get water directly, isn't that more convenient?

The problem lies precisely here. The foundation of modern magecraft is the magic circuit. After thousands of years of development, magus has long abandoned direct water extraction and focused all their attention on the "pump" system. Apart from some ancient books, only the old monsters who lived through that most prosperous mysterious era remember the method of direct water extraction.

Once the "pump" system fails, everything built upon it also fails. The more powerful the modern magus, the greater the impact they will face because connecting to the Greater Source through magic circuits has become their instinct. In contrast, apprentices who have not started will not be affected; they mainly rely on the natural magical energy generated by their bodies, unrelated to the Great Source.

Shinji is now considered a second-rate magus, so he is significantly affected. However, his situation is somewhat special. His enlightenment mentor, Scáthach, comes from the age of the gods and knows how to extract magical energy from the Greater Source, which she imprinted in the inheritance crystal given to her disciple.

"Ah, found it. I indeed saw it before, the meditation method from the age of the gods—could it be that Shishou foresaw that I would need this?"

The meditation chapter is a compulsory introductory course for magus from the age of the gods, so it's naturally not difficult. After studying it several times, Shinji quickly grasped the knack. Although there is still a long way to go to combine it with modern magecraft, it is already sufficient to drive magic.

Before long, Shinji completed the repair work of all the treasures.

Yes, all of them.

The greatest advantage of magus from the age of the gods is that magical energy does not need to be accumulated; it can be used as needed, as long as the spiritual power is sufficient, the magical energy is inexhaustible. Spiritual power happens to be Shinji's absolute forte, so he decided to get it all done at once, and he could also brush up on his meditation method's proficiency.

Half an hour had passed since he woke up, and Shinji was finally ready to take the first step in his exploration.

Contrary to his previous judgment, this place is indeed a castle. Although he didn't see the exterior, its internal structure has many similarities with the base camp of the Brigade.

The place where he woke up was the castle's hall, with corridors on the left and right, each connecting to rooms with different functions. The rooms were not locked and could be entered freely. Like the hall, the furnishings were in classic European style and were well-preserved, showing no signs of human habitation.

The left and right corridors converged at the stairs. Going down led to the dungeon and storage room while going up led to the living area—whether people were there was uncertain based on experience.

From a certain main corridor on the third floor, one could reach the viewing platform, which was one of Shinji's goals. There were no clues inside the castle to determine the location, so he could only hope for something outside.

It seemed to be midnight, with a full moon high overhead, casting a hazy silver light over the viewing platform, providing good conditions for determining the location.

Looking around, Shinji felt a chill in his heart. The castle was surrounded by an endless plain. Even with his vision enhanced to the limit, the clues were very limited, only allowing him to roughly determine that he was somewhere in the southern hemisphere.

The timelines of the two world lines were synchronized; it was late autumn when he left Romania, but the grass on the plain was green, and despite it being late at night, it didn't feel cold, which could only be explained by a seasonal reversal.

To verify his speculation, Shinji looked up to observe the stars—although his knowledge of astronomy was limited, he at least knew that the constellations in the northern and southern hemispheres differed. If he couldn't see the North Star, this hypothesis was likely correct.

However, the result of his observation shocked him.

There were no constellations!

Yes, none!

In the clear, cloudless night sky, there was only a bright moon and no stars, not a single one.

"What is going on? Am I seeing things?"

He rubbed his eyes hard and looked again, but still saw nothing.

This information was quite overwhelming.

In the present world, it would be impossible not to see any stars in such a good night sky. Combining this with the unusually active Greater Source around him, it was highly likely that he was not in the present world but had fallen into some kind of secret realm—here, anything that defied common sense could happen.

Upon confirming this, Shinji felt a mix of emotions.

On the plus side, identifying his location would be easier. The state of the secret realm and the environment during its creation are linked to the current world's conditions. An environment comparable to the age of the gods indicates that this secret realm is extremely ancient. The older the secret realm, the fewer there remain, making the search easier.

On the downside, an ancient secret realm often means it is inhabited by equally ancient beings.

Of course, whether feeling positive or negative, it wouldn't affect what Shinji needed to do next.

He had to get the message out and then find a way to protect himself while waiting for the Old Man of Jewels to arrive.

After cutting off the telepathic link with Justeaze, Shinji returned to the castle to continue his exploration.

He didn't know how long it would take for the Old Man of Jewels to arrive, so he needed to ensure a place to stay, and this castle, void of any signs of habitation, was an excellent choice.

Since he intended to stay here, familiarizing himself with the layout became a top priority to handle any unexpected situations.

Retracing his steps, he walked through the corridors and checked each room, finding nothing, which was also the best possible outcome.

After exploring the third floor, Shinji moved on to the fourth floor.

This was the highest level of the castle, typically used as the living quarters for the castle's lord, as this height maximized the isolation from noise and smells from the rest of the castle. If nothing was found here, the castle would be completely safe.

To be cautious, Shinji didn't explore in the natural order as before but deliberately checked from the periphery to the center. After confirming all the other rooms, he finally stood before the central and largest room.

Taking a deep breath, Shinji adjusted himself to his best state and knocked three times on the tightly closed door.

As usual, he waited, received no response, and pushed the door open.

The moment he opened the door, he was stunned.