WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Copy Skills with Affinity! ◈
Chapter 63: The Night of the Hunt
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“Going camping?”
Katia asked as she looked over the equipment strapped all around Aiden.
“I’m going hunting.”
More precisely, if the magical beasts attacked, he planned to head to the entrance of the Void Zone where they would first come pouring out and take up position there.
Katia tilted her head at that answer.
“Not camping?”
“...”
She had a point.
Rope, a tent, a hammer, and stakes to drive into the ground.
He had asked Grand Duke Aslan for all of it, but given that combination, it was not strange to get the wrong idea.
“This will be enough.”
It really would.
His goal was not to kill the thing in the first place.
“Really? If you say so...”
As Katia shrugged, Noel naturally walked over to Aiden and took some of the supplies he was carrying.
It was simply good manners. He was carrying something heavy, so she helped carry it. She clearly had no intention of making a show of it.
“...”
But Katia, who had been quietly watching, narrowed her eyes.
She looked like Noel had stolen something Katia had never even thought of doing...
“... Give me some too.”
“Pardon?”
“I said give me some. I’ll carry it too.”
“You don’t need to...”
Without even listening to him finish, Katia pouted and came over, practically snatching a few things from his hands.
Then her body tilted sharply to one side.
Unlike Noel, she had apparently never carried anything like this before and had no idea how heavy it was.
After staggering back a few steps, she stomped one foot down and barely caught her balance.
... Her face was bright red.
“That’s pretty heav...”
“Shut up.”
“Just give it back. I’ll carry it.”
“No.”
Noel, who had been watching, brushed at the corner of her mouth.
She seemed to be holding back a laugh.
“Why are you trying to do something you are not used to? Just hand it over to me. I’ll help Mr. Aiden.”
“I said I’m carrying it. If you take it from me, I’ll burn you.”
Katia glared, and Noel turned away with a quiet grin.
Then Noel spoke as if something had just occurred to her.
“By the way, Mr. Aiden. Would it not be better to have some support from the Aslan Ducal House?”
The Aslan Ducal House was the Empire’s greatest military house. Noel meant that surely they could provide people to help with whatever he was planning.
“No. The three of us will be enough.”
Aiden answered firmly, and Noel rubbed beneath her nose.
She seemed to have guessed he was planning something absurd again.
Still, Aiden had a clear reason he could not ask for support.
Mostly for the same reason Noel was thinking of.
‘How am I supposed to let them watch me earn Affinity from magical beasts?’
He meant it.
Aiden’s plan was to take skills from the magical beast somehow, and considering that, his actions would probably look extremely difficult for an ordinary person to understand.
Fortunately, he had everything he needed.
Namely, the two skill-copy tickets he had received from Grand Duke Aslan.
-System Message
▶ You copy “Skill: Tracking.”
▶ You copy “Skill: Iron Man’s Instinct.”
-Skill Info
◆ Tracking
By combining clues and environmental factors related to a target you wish to pursue, you can deduce information about that target. As long as there are traces, it can be used on any target regardless of type.
◆ Iron Man’s Instinct
A person who has survived on the battlefield for a long time possesses faster judgment than anyone else. The closer they are to a desperate situation, the faster their reflexes become.
Of course, one benefit of taking other people’s skills was that he could copy ability-related techniques that displayed explosive power in battle.
But he could also copy techniques that had been built up and ingrained through experience.
If Aiden had wanted to learn such techniques himself, he would have needed to risk his life against magical beasts for decades. But now that Grand Duke Aslan liked him very, very much, he could take these top-class techniques freely.
‘... In some ways, this might be more useful than an ability.’
Their effects were not particularly grand or flashy, but they were undeniably powerful in terms of strategy and survival.
And certainly...
“Lady Noel, could you come with me for a moment?”
“Yes?”
“There’s something I need to set up.”
In a situation like this, they might be more helpful than any ability.
▣
“... Lady Noel.”
“Yes.”
“Why have you been staring at me like that?”
“I was merely thinking that you always enjoy doing strange things.”
“...”
Aiden had only said something because she had been sighing with narrowed eyes, but honestly, he found it hard to argue with Noel.
After all, he had tied a rope to the edge of a cliff, climbed down beneath it, and was now driving stakes into gaps between the rocks. It was hard to explain the point of such mysterious behavior.
Noel had asked several times whether she could help, but every time, he had waved her off and insisted that he had to do it himself. That made it awkward for her to ask further questions.
“...”
“...”
Only the sound of Aiden’s hammering echoed through the silence.
But Noel was not entirely comfortable simply watching him.
‘... He always works so hard.’
Noel constantly suspected what this person’s “true identity” might be, but until recently, he had merely been living as a con artist.
Was he not someone whose life had completely changed course after she had forcibly brought him here?
... Not long ago, she had even visited the family who missed him so deeply, making her reflect once again on what she had done.
Yet she was still digging into his past. Even now.
Aiden did not show much reaction to it, but whenever Noel remembered it, she felt as if her insides were burning.
“Mr. Aiden.”
“Yes, Lady Noel.”
That was why she suddenly asked such a strange question.
It was half an impulse.
“Have you become unhappy because of me?”
Aiden stopped working for a moment at the serious question.
“... What?”
His bewildered reply brought Noel back to her senses, and she looked down at him.
“... Ah, no. Forget I said anything. I suddenly said something strange...”
“I’m not unhappy.”
Her body stiffened at his immediate answer.
“...”
“I’m not unhappy, Lady Noel. I think it was fortunate that I met you.”
“...”
“Otherwise, things could have gone really badly.”
Well.
Unhappy?
‘There was a time when I thought so.’
He did feel a little uneasy about being unable to see his family.
But he was the only one in this world who knew its future, a world without its protagonist.
If Noel had not forced him into the main scenario, no one would have been able to stop the world-ending scenario from progressing smoothly.
In that respect, his feeling that it was fortunate was entirely sincere.
“Fortunate...”
“Yes. I think it was fortunate.”
“Fortunate...”
“... Yes. That is what I said.”
“That is, yes, fortunate... Yes...”
“...”
“Heh... Hehehe...”
Watching Noel repeat herself like she had malfunctioned and giggle to herself made Aiden feel slightly dizzy.
Then, just as he sighed and was about to resume working, he suddenly froze.
Noel tilted her head at the sight and called down the cliff.
“Mr. Aiden? Is something wrong?”
Aiden tilted his own head as he answered.
“No. I suddenly felt something like a vibration.”
It was strange. He had thoroughly checked the equipment before coming out.
“Vibration? I did not feel anything.”
“It was probably my imagination. More importantly, Lady Noel, I’d like you to keep watch.”
That was the main reason he had brought her here.
“Keeping watch... Well, I don’t think it would be difficult to notice a magical beast approaching.”
“That one can probably use something like optical camouflage.”
“...”
“If it gets close using something like that and strikes a vital point, anyone could be in danger.”
“...”
Noel fell silent at Aiden’s firm tone.
Well.
She had certainly never fought magical beasts before.
Still...
“... Optical camouflage?”
“Yes.”
“... You mean it can become invisible?”
“Yes.”
“How could a magical beast possibly do such a thing? It cannot use an ability...”
“They are creatures created through the influence of demonic energy, not natural evolution. Since they have not been scientifically explained, it is unreasonable to judge them by the standards of evolutionary theory.”
If the magical beast was an intelligent creature, as Grand Duke Aslan suspected, then it was a given that it possessed several unimaginable traits.
And based on the creature’s ecology, which he had analyzed while walking here with the Tracking skill...
After analyzing several magical beast corpses that had been hunted without even realizing the creature had approached them, he had concluded that there was a high probability it possessed such an ability.
Aiden slightly turned his head and looked at the small Tracking window attached to the side of the system window like an appendix.
‘... This skill.’
It seemed far more useful than he had expected.
It analyzed the surrounding situation in real time, gathering and combining information so quickly that it felt like having an incredibly clever private detective at his side.
As he thought that, Aiden frowned when he saw the rope tremble again.
What was it? Had he really checked the equipment improperly?
The quality did not seem to be a problem...
“By my estimate, it is quite large, but it gives off several signals. If we use those traits, finding it is not entirely impossible.”
“Signals?”
“The most representative would be echolocation. Some creatures determine a target’s location not through sight, but by characteristics in the air. It will be easy to understand if you think of bats.”
“Mr. Aiden.”
Noel spoke in a disbelieving voice.
“How do you know all that?”
“...”
“... I studied hard.”
That was what he said, but it was all thanks to the skill.
Even while he stood still, information about the magical beast likely wandering around nearby was pouring in through the Tracking skill in real time.
In truth, he did not even know what echolocation was. He had only mechanically repeated the sentences appearing in the system window to Noel.
‘There are creatures in the world that detect objects through vibrations.’
Rather, his common knowledge had increased. His knowledge had grown thanks to the system window...
And as he reflected on that fact.
His hand suddenly stopped.
The rope securing him was shaking violently, and his expression hardened.
This time, even without the system window telling him, a scientific fact he already knew crossed his mind.
When cold air and warm air meet, sound refracts toward the cold air. That was why, during the day when the sun was up, sound generally spread upward. At night, in contrast, sound settled downward.
Which meant that it was night now.
If there were vibrations, he would be more sensitive to them than Noel on top of the cliff.
Then he glanced at the system window.
... The rate at which the Tracking skill was updating its information about the target was terrifying.
It was clearly much faster than before.
“...”
A hypothesis suddenly rose in his mind.
To confirm it, he asked in a trembling voice.
One sentence displayed in the system window.
“... Lady Noel.”
“Yes?”
“Can you see something like white powder right now?”
“How did you know? It keeps falling around me.”
An icy chill, as though all the blood in his body had frozen, raced through Aiden’s veins.
He quickly looked around. The vibration running through the rope was growing stronger. If so...
“Lady Noel. There is something I need to tell you.”
His sudden shift in manner made Noel tilt her head as she looked down at him.
“... Mr. Aiden? What is happening all of a sudden...?”
“There are other traits, actually.”
He drew a knife from his waist and carefully examined the rope’s structure.
That was to say.
To find a way for both himself and Noel to survive.
“There are things like attack signals. Especially for a creature like the one I just mentioned.”
“Attack signals?”
Aiden took a deep breath and raised the knife.
‘... Ah.’
The sigh escaped him naturally.
Because he was about to do something he had never imagined he would need to do in his life.
“For a creature like the one I have been describing, white dust comes from its body whenever it is about to hunt someone.”
“... What?”
“So.”
One second. Noel’s mind processed the meaning of the sentence.
Two seconds. She tilted her head with an expression that looked as if three question marks had been stamped between her brows.
Three seconds. Her face turned pale.
Four seconds.
“Jump. Right now.”
With those words.
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----------------------------------------------------------!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A monstrous roar that seemed to tear apart the entire forest erupted from above the cliff.
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