Re:Birth: A Slow Burn LitRPG Mage Regressor

Adom paced back and forth, muttering the riddle under his breath for what felt like the hundredth time. His footsteps had probably worn a path in the dirt by now.

"Dies each night... rises anew..." He pinched the bridge of his nose. Give him a complex spell formula, and he could break it down in minutes. Present him with an ancient magical theorem, and he'd find three different ways to prove it before breakfast. Back in his previous life, he'd written a twelve-volume treatise on theoretical applications of crystalline mana structures while bedridden with fever.

And yet here he was, stumped by four simple lines of poetry.

He let out a dry laugh. The irony wasn't lost on him - the man who had once been a hair's breadth from becoming Archmage, defeated by a riddle that a shepherd had apparently solved. Though to be fair, that part still didn't make sense.

"Focus," he told himself, returning to the glowing text. The words swam before his eyes, taunting him. In his old study, he'd had a wall covered in theoretical proofs that had made even senior mages' heads spin. But riddles? They required a different kind of thinking - lateral, intuitive. His mind preferred straight lines, clear paths from A to B.

"Something that dies... but comes back..." He started pacing again. "Something marked by the past... but clean..."

The moonlight was starting to fade. Soon he'd have to either solve this or come back another night. And wouldn't that be a blow to his pride - the former almost-Archmage, having to admit defeat to a leprechaun's door puzzle.

Adom sat down, crossing his legs. Fine. If his mind wanted logic, he'd give it logic. He pulled out his notebook from his inventory and began writing.

"Dies each night, rises anew... The sun?" He looked up expectantly. Nothing. "No, the sun doesn't really die..."

He scribbled more notes. "The moon? No, always the same... Stars? Same problem... Dreams?" He spoke each answer to the glowing text. Nothing.

"Something marked by the past but clean..." He tapped his quill against the paper. "Water? It carries sediment but looks clean... No, doesn't die each night. The tide? Close, but not quite..."

An hour passed. His notebook filled with crossed-out answers.

"Dawn? Day? Twilight? Night itself?" Each answer met with silence.

Finally, he threw his quill down. "Why?!" His voice echoed off the cliff face. "Why was I chosen to come back if I can't even solve a simple riddle?!"

He stood up, frustration boiling over. "How am I supposed to change anything? How can I possibly alter the future when I can't even..." His voice cracked. "How can I... how..."

Wait.

The future.

His breath caught in his throat. "Rises anew... never the same..." The words took on new meaning. "What's never the same but always happens?"

He glanced up at the moon, thinking about coming back the next day. Tomorrow...

His eyes widened.

"Tomorrow," he said slowly, testing the word. "Dies each night - because today becomes yesterday. Rises anew - each dawn brings a new tomorrow. Never the same but always true - because each tomorrow is different, but it always comes. Marked forever by what came before - because every tomorrow carries the weight of yesterday, but..." He smiled. "Yet clean as dawn upon the shore - because it's always a fresh start. A new beginning."

"Tomorrow," he said with certainty. "The answer is tomorrow."

The silvery text hung motionless in the air. One second passed. Two. Three.

Adom's smile began to fade. His certainty wavered. "Oh, come on," he whispered, that familiar frustration starting to bubble up again. "That has to be—"

The rune pulsed once, brilliant moonlight flooding its channels. A deep rumbling sound emanated from within the cliff face, like the mountain itself was waking up. Adom stumbled back as the rock wall began to shake.

Dust sprayed from hairline cracks appearing around the rune. The rumbling grew louder, accompanied by mechanical clicks and the hum of old magic awakening.

The wall split along those cracks with precise, geometric movements. Segments of rock shifted and retracted, layers sliding against each other like the workings of some ancient machine. Each piece moved with purpose, accompanied by that grinding sound and puffs of centuries-old dust.

When the movement stopped, a crescent-shaped entrance stood before him, edges too clean to be natural, too rough to be purely magical. Moonlight spilled through, catching the dancing dust motes.

Adom let out a laugh that was half relief, half disbelief. "I did it," he breathed. Then louder, "I actually did it!"

He stared at the crescent-shaped entrance, his heart still racing. What if he'd been wrong? What if the wrong answer had triggered some ancient defensive magic?

"Nope," he said firmly, shaking his head. "Not going down that road. Some questions are better left unanswered."

And for someone who'd spent two lifetimes pursuing knowledge, it was probably the first time he'd ever been happy not knowing something.

[New Location Discovered: Moonfall Cavern]

Adom waited for the worst of the dust to settle. Still, better safe than sorry - he pulled his shirt collar up over his nose and mouth. Years of working in ancient libraries had taught him that centuries-old dust was never pleasant to breathe.

He wove [Flame] with ease, a small but steady fire materializing above his upraised palm. The light illuminated the path ahead, and he could not see how deep the cavern was.

Taking one last deep breath through his makeshift filter, Adom stepped into the opening. The grinding sounds had stopped, but he could still hear the occasional settling of stone, like the mountain was slowly exhaling after holding its breath for too long.

The air inside was stale, carrying that distinctive smell of long-sealed spaces - a mix of old stone, mineral deposits, and time itself.

As his flame cast moving shadows on the rough walls, tiny creatures scuttled away into cracks - mostly beetles and cave crickets that had somehow made their way in over the centuries. Spider webs, ancient and dusty, stretched between jutting rocks.

The passage wasn't natural - while not perfectly smooth, the walls showed signs of deliberate shaping, with geometric patterns occasionally visible beneath years of mineral buildup. Water had dripped down some walls, leaving behind crystalline streams of calcium deposits.

Adom paused, frowning. Something wasn't adding up. None of this - the rune, the mechanical entrance - had been mentioned in the news when this place would be discovered. In his past life, he'd read about a shepherd simply finding a cave with treasure. He'd always wondered about that...

"The rune must have expired," he muttered, his voice echoing slightly. "That's why the shepherd just walked in. All this..." he gestured at the walls with his flame-bearing hand, "would have been sealed away until the magic finally failed. Dude probably just had the dumb luck to be here when it happened."

He snorted. "Five hundred thousand gold pieces. Just like that." The sum still boggled his mind.

Something caught his eye - a faint glint in the darkness ahead, different from the usual mineral sparkle. The way it reflected his flame's light was distinctive, almost like it was responding to the magical energy itself...

"Is that a mana crystal?"

As Adom approached the glinting object, he used [Identify]. The response was immediate:

[Object: Waypoint Crystal

Type: Transportation Focus

Status: Active (Auto-triggering)]

"Wait, what do you mean auto-triggering—"

The crystal pulsed with azure light. Adom tried to step back, but it was too late. The light enveloped him, and the sensation that followed was like being pulled through honey - slow, disorienting, and slightly uncomfortable. The world stretched, twisted, and then...

He hit something with a metallic clinking sound. Multiple metallic clinking sounds, actually.

Something was digging into his back, hard and irregular. Groaning, he pushed himself up to sitting position, fighting back a wave of nausea as his head spun. His stomach lurched, and he had to take several deep breaths to keep from emptying its contents right there. He froze as he finally got his bearings.

"Tsk. Transportation crystals," he muttered, waiting for the world to stop swimming. "Would it kill their makers to add some stabilization magic? Even a basic momentum dampener would..." He swallowed hard. "...would be nice." Groaning, he pushed himself up to sitting position, and froze.

Gold.

Not just a few coins. Not even a chest's worth. Gold coins spread out beneath him like a metallic beach, flowing down in gentle slopes. Gems caught the light of... wherever it was coming from, throwing rainbow sparkles across the chamber. Ornate cups and plates peaked out between coins, their precious metals tarnished but unmistakably valuable. A sword hilt studded with rubies protruded nearby, its blade still miraculously gleaming after all these years.

His mouth went dry. He'd seen the imperial treasury once, during a special ceremony. This... this was more.

[Location Discovered: The Serpent's Labyrinth - Treasury Chamber]

He stood carefully, coins sliding and tinkling around his feet. The chamber was vast, its ceiling lost in shadows above. The treasure spread out before him wasn't a mountain - you couldn't swim in it like those ridiculous children's stories - but it was more wealth than he'd ever seen in either lifetime. Enough to buy a small kingdom. Enough to...

Something moved in the shadows at the far end of the chamber.

Adom's heart stopped.

This, he realized with growing dread, was definitely not in the shepherd's story.

Adom's mind kicked into survival mode. First rule of unknown magical environments: gather information, don't panic. Stay alive long enough to think.

He maintained [Identify] as a constant thread of magic while his eyes scanned the chamber methodically. The skill's feedback was concerning - multiple magical signatures, some he'd never encountered before. Ancient protections, probably. No one left this much wealth unguarded.

His hand found the ruby-studded sword, lifting it carefully. The balance was surprisingly good.

[Item: Flamebrand Sword (Class S)

Type: Enchanted Weapon

Status: Active

Properties: Unknown]

Better than nothing.

He kept his casting hand free - in his experience, magic was always more reliable than steel. The [Flame] spell still hovered above him, casting moving shadows that made everything more uncertain.

Another movement in the darkness. Then another, from a different direction. The coins shifted somewhere to his left with a gentle tinkling sound.

He was in the open. Exposed. Amateur mistake.

Slowly, deliberately, Adom began moving backward toward the nearest wall. Keep your back covered. Control what can approach you. Basic combat principles he'd read lifetime ago.

The magical signatures were getting stronger. Or closer.

Something slithered in the darkness.

The chamber suddenly felt a lot smaller, and the shadows a lot deeper.

Adom canceled [Flame]. Relative darkness swallowed him for a heartbeat. In that same instant, he wove [Fireball], launching it high into the air above.

The chamber exploded with light, and time stopped.

There was no time to see all the details, but one thing Adom was sure of.

Snake. Massive snake. Jaws open. Coming straight for him—