How to survive as a beggar count

Chapter 3

Given that Aemon’s left hand is still intact, there is still hope for rehabilitation.

‘He just said he beat up a retainer from the Benner Count’s family, right?’

I rolled my eyes as I stared at the pale, grain porridge in front of me.

Considering the setting from the novel and the current time in this world, my guess was probably correct.

Aemon had a conflict with the Benner Count’s family.

The exact cause wasn’t mentioned, but the result was clear.

‘A trial by combat.’

That was the judgment passed between the two families.

Rather than settling things with the law, a trial was held through combat.

It was believed that the gods would judge who was right.

With the common sense of Lee Jin-Soo from South Korea, this kind of judgment made no sense, but in “World Conquest by Rank!” it was an everyday occurrence.

‘Power is law,’ and it was cleverly disguised as the will of the gods.

In principle, the leaders of both families were supposed to fight each other, but if they had the money, they could hire a champion to fight on their behalf.

‘That’s where Aemon lost.’

The outcome was obvious.

The Impera Count’s family was poor, while the Benner Count’s family was wealthy.

Aemon, with a magic rank of 4, was quite strong for a noble, but it was still only “strong for a noble.”

The Benner Count’s family brought in a monster with a swordsmanship rank of 5 as their champion.

Aemon tried his best to win, but the result didn’t change.

In the end, he lost the trial by combat, and the champion mercilessly severed Aemon’s left hand.

‘Only the left hand…’

The punishment could have been death, but it ended with just his left hand being severed.

While one could see this as a merciful act, in this world, where rank governs everything, it wasn’t so simple.

The rank is determined by the runes inscribed on the left hand.

If that left hand is lost? It meant they could no longer use their rank.

Armor development had reached a point where the left hand was constantly protected.

It wasn’t just about not being able to check the rank anymore.

Once the left hand is lost, it’s as if the body’s energy core is destroyed. The person loses all of their mana and becomes an invalid.

‘That’s called being Blank.’

Blank. The one forsaken by the gods.

In the world of “World Conquest by Rank!” rank was everything.

The rank inscribed on the left hand was the measure of a person’s strength and reputation.

So, if the left hand was lost? Immediately, they would be treated as nothing more than cattle, less than human. It wasn’t just about not being able to confirm the rank.

The moment the left hand is gone, all of their mana disappears like a mirage, leaving them powerless.

That’s what being Blank means. Literally treated like an invisible person, someone with no place in the world.

This is such a world.

Just as those who didn’t receive the Valhalla system’s blessing on Earth were treated like trash, Blank individuals were treated the same way.

Aemon Count, after losing his left hand, became Blank and lost everything, including his magic. He would eventually become a cripple and die, overcome by despair and illness.

Then, Ian would follow Aemon’s path and become the head of the family…

‘A confirmed path to ruin.’

Although I’ve entered Ian’s body, I had to prevent Aemon from becoming Blank.

The already struggling Impera family would inevitably collapse if that happened.

Although Ian beat up a retainer from the Benner Count’s family, this was most likely a trap set by the Benner Count.

The idea was to escalate things to provoke a trial by combat.

Since the formal challenge had not yet arrived, there was still time. I had to figure out something before that.

I could either raise my rank and fight in Aemon’s place, or find someone who could stand against a rank 5.

Slurp.

Aemon had left, and I was left alone to eat the porridge. As expected, it was terrible.

It was bitter and gritty, with the grains poking at my mouth.

An unknown, fishy smell stung my nose, and the seasoning was barely enough salt.

To have my first meal after nearly starving to death and have it be this… it was frustrating.

If I kept eating this grain porridge, the family would collapse. And when the time came, the protagonist would appear and kill me.

‘A noble desperate for food, what a joke.’

This was far from the noble life I had imagined.

The higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment. I had expected a feast, but now I was stuck eating this.

Clink.

“D-do you not want to eat anymore, Young Master?”

Irene seemed flustered, unsure of what to do.

She was probably worried that something was wrong with the porridge she had made. Her bright smile turned into a sad expression, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of sympathy for her.

Managing such a large mansion alone must be tough. She probably ate less than we did, if anything, not more.

Even though all the other servants had left, Irene stayed until the mansion was offered as a sacrifice to the black magic.

She had dedicated her life to the Impera family but had never received any reward for it.

If there were such a servant, I’d feel guilty enough to turn my life around. What a fool.

“…I don’t have much of an appetite.”

“Ah…”

“Clear it up. I’ll eat again later when I’m hungry.”

“Of course. If you’re hungry later, please let me know!”

At the mention of not having an appetite, Irene’s expression finally relaxed a bit.

***

Clink.

It wasn’t quite enough to call a meal, but I finished what little there was and locked myself in my room.

I had a general understanding of Ian’s situation.

His reputation was in the gutter, his noble title practically wasted due to overwhelming debt, and in a month, a trial by combat was supposed to take place.

Given that, there was only one way to get out of this situation.

“Rank.”

It was too late for a wild rebel like Ian to try pretending to be decent now—he’d only gain a reputation for having lost his mind.

But I only had one month left.

To make a significant change in that time, rank was my only option.

[Name: Ian Impera] Rank: 1 (Magic)

Sigh…

Looking at the rank, the reality hit me hard again.

Although my rank was 1 in magic, it was the kind of level any seven-year-old could attain.

In fact, Ian himself had gained this rank at seven when he briefly visited the Magic Tower. Since then, he hadn’t trained and was still stuck at this level.

To think that I, someone who had maxed out the Valhalla system, was now at rank 1!

Rank 1 was something you could achieve by swinging a sword a few times as a child.

I needed to level up fast. If I kept going like this, it would be certain doom.

The goal was simple—reach rank 3 as soon as possible.

In this world, rank 3 was the minimum to stand out somewhat.

With that level, you could make a living as a mercenary or something else.

Rank 1 was laughable, and rank 2 was barely above being a rookie mercenary.

Whether it was swordsmanship or magic, you had to be rank 3 to be considered someone capable of taking serious jobs.

Luckily, according to the novel’s setting, rank 3 was something most people could reach easily as long as they weren’t completely hopeless.

Even someone like Irene, who spent her life cleaning, could reach rank 3 in swordsmanship if she focused on it for 4-5 years.

For example, her rank in household-related work was around 3.

Though Ian was too much of a fool to even manage that.

The problem began now.

The so-called first wall.

The biggest obstacle you encounter when leveling up is the boundary between ranks 3 and 4.

This wall is often called the domain of raw talent.

If you don’t have talent, you might never get past rank 3, no matter how hard you try.

Once you surpass the first wall, your status changes drastically.

You stop being a simple mercenary and become what’s considered a knight.

This is why rank 4 gives you enough leverage to walk around with some pride.

It’s no wonder that people say if you reach rank 4, you’ve made it in life.

But does surpassing the first wall mean the journey is over?

No.

The gap only grows wider as you go further.

Only about 10% of those at rank 4 make it to rank 5, and only 10% of those rank 5 monsters make it to rank 6.

It’s from those monsters that rank 7 beings are born.

Rank 7 is equivalent to being the head of a magic tower or the captain of the royal knights.

The power difference is vast—on a level where humans can barely compare.

It’s not unusual for a single head of the Magic Tower to slaughter hundreds of war mages in a battle.

Rank 8 is where legends reside.

Most of the protagonists in stories are rank 8.

They are the ones who single-handedly defeat dragons, or slay demon lords—those types of heroes.

This is considered the peak of human strength.

There is a rank 9, but it only appears once in the entire novel, so let’s just leave it at that.

Thinking about all this just makes my situation feel even more pathetic.

Compared to those monsters, rank 1 is like the smallest speck of dust.

And that’s where I am now.

Sigh.

I double-checked if the door was locked, then sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed.

I began to recall the memories of Lee Jinsoo from Earth.

“Hmm…”

I could feel a cool yet warm energy around me.

If I were the old me before the Great Change, I might have found this strange, but now, after experiencing the Great Change, it was all too familiar.

Mana—the source of all the world’s material.

I had worried that mana in this world might be slightly different from what I knew from Rank-based World Conquest, but it was just my anxiety.

The surroundings, after the Great Change, were eerily similar to Earth’s atmosphere.

‘What is this? How is mana here so much like Earth’s?’

As I was about to fall into my thoughts, I shook my head.

Honestly, there were plenty of odd things in this situation. Just the fact that I had ended up in the body of this reckless fool was strange enough.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. I needed to focus on surviving first.

I cleared my mind and concentrated on sensing the mana around me.

The mana density in the ground was similar to Earth’s during the Fourth Great Change.

It shouldn’t be a problem absorbing mana from here.

“Hmm. Anyway…”

I had expected this, having read about it in the novel. The problem was the different physical structure compared to Earthlings.

On Earth, mana manipulation begins at the danjeon (the area below the belly button).

Mana is cultivated and gradually built up from the danjeon, which is the basic method of all mana training.

However, I couldn’t feel any trace of a danjeon in the lower abdomen.

It wasn’t just that the danjeon was small.

The blood vessels through which mana should flow were completely blocked, like a rock that couldn’t be penetrated.

This was the fundamental difference between the people of this world and those of the fallen world.

Instead of using the rank system, they had no danjeon.

‘Well, I can’t just flip my stomach open and see what’s inside.’

Instead, the energy that should flow through the danjeon was leaking out through the left hand.

‘How strange.’

The only difference was that the energy of the danjeon was flowing out through the left hand. Everything else seemed the same.

How was such a physical structure even possible?

…Then again, from the perspective of the people here, they might think Earthlings had strange body structures too.

“How on earth does mana spring from the stomach?” they might say.

There were many oddities, but I didn’t want to think too deeply about it.

I quietly focused on feeling the mana and sensed it flowing into my left hand instead of the danjeon.

“Ugh.”

I opened my left hand and gathered the mana flowing into it.

Boom.

A tiny speck of light gathered and shone faintly.

The light quickly faded, as if a lightbulb had been switched off.

“…Cough!”

At the same time, a pain like my lungs were being crushed hit me. It was the kind of sensation that occurred when I forcibly squeezed mana out.

It wasn’t anything impressive. I had simply gathered the mana and focused it in one place.

But even that was enough to overload Ian’s body.

“Dammit… What kind of body is this?”

Cold sweat poured down my face.

After struggling to calm my breath, I focused again on my breathing.

I repeated the process of gathering mana, regaining my stamina, and gathering mana again several times.

Soon, my clothes, which had been dry, became soaked with sweat.

“Ugh!”

By this point, I had become somewhat accustomed to operating mana with Ian’s body.

But it was only to the extent that I had become “familiar” with it.

[Name: Ian Impera]
Rank: 1 (Magic)

“Ugh…”

I opened my left hand, drenched in sweat, and checked again, but nothing had changed. It was still the same weak body with a rank 1 in magic.

Grrr!

“Ugh.”

Maybe because of all the effort, my stomach began to rumble.

“Is there anything to eat?”

The grain porridge I had for lunch came to mind. No matter how hungry I was, I didn’t want to eat that again.

“Haa…”

I couldn’t believe that a count was unable to train because he was hungry. It was absurd.

“Sigh.”

I had assumed that, as a noble, he would be eating fine delicacies every day, with the table breaking under the weight of the food.

“But this is going to be a problem if I’m to level up.”

The rank I had in mind was swordsmanship. Swordsmanship was the most basic yet widely accepted rank.

But it was already a problem.

If it were a higher rank, that would be one thing, but for a lower rank, I had to build up my physical strength first.

I needed to build muscle to even wield a sword.

Ian’s body, which had been soaked in alcohol and had neglected exercise, made starting from scratch difficult.

“Swordsmanship, huh.”

His fingers were nothing but bones, barely able to touch without breaking.

That meant I had to build up strength, but with only grain porridge to eat, there was no way I could build muscle.

Meat. Even fish would be enough to help build muscle.

“Just more obstacles…”

The problems just kept stacking up as I tried to figure out what to do with this damn body.