WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Damned Transmigration ◈

Chapter 127: Green Forest 1

──────

Mountain bandits could be found on any mountain across the Eastern and Western Continents, but those who established proper mountain strongholds and operated more professionally were called the Green Forest.

The Green Forest did not belong to the Black Dragon Society. They were difficult to track down because they rarely listened to anyone or submitted to control, often being suppressed or disbanding before gathering again under another name.

Since their roots lay in banditry, the Green Forest did not follow even the rules of their own strongholds. They showed no mercy even to civilians who had never learned martial arts, and they routinely raped and murdered women.

Because of such atrocities, both the Righteous Sect and Unorthodox Sect regarded the Green Forest as enemies. Sect disciples and guild-affiliated adventurers regularly inspected the nearby mountains and carried out extermination campaigns.

Still, even when people set out with the intent to wipe them out, uprooting the Green Forest was impossible.

This was partly because they were clever enough to hide or disband before gathering again, but also because anyone could become a bandit once they cast aside their principles.

If that year's harvest was poor, even a farmer who had never practiced martial arts could become a bandit.

Once such livelihood-driven bandits gathered into a group, built a mountain stronghold, and began calling themselves the Green Forest, they became the Green Forest.

There were simply too many mountains in the world. If an extermination order came down on one mountain, they only had to move to the next.

Among the countless Green Forest Strongholds, swarming like cockroaches and impossible to count precisely, the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds were a gathering of eighteen especially powerful and troublesome strongholds.

They were eighteen strongholds famous for their combat skill, talent, and brutality. An ordinary livelihood-driven bandit who joined them would only be used for menial work or as a meat shield.

Possessing strength equal to at least a respectable small or mid-sized sect, the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds were spread across both continents. Filled with all sorts who could not live openly, including mages and adventurers, they were a persistent nuisance and difficult to eradicate.

The Red Wolf Stronghold that had settled on this mountain was one of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds.

"They're coming."

"How many?"

"Three."

"Three? Just three? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. They're walking, too. They aren't even on horseback."

"These bastards must be insane."

Yang Il-gwi, one of the action commanders of the great Red Wolf Stronghold, had been lying flat on his back. He let out a hollow laugh and rose.

Sure enough, three people were walking along the mountain path.

Two wore bamboo hats, while one had their robe hood pulled low.

"One's a woman? Are the other two her guards?"

"They're walking together without horses, so I don't think they're guards."

"Then they're just some crazy bastards with more guts than sense."

Yang Il-gwi snorted and lifted his axe. The other bandits prepared for the attack without needing an order.

"What do we do?"

"What else? We do what we always do."

First, they would strip them of everything they had. Then came the questioning. They would learn their names, and if their families had money, they would kidnap them alive and hold them hostage for more.

If their families had nothing to extort? Then they would make them pay with their bodies. They would play with them to their hearts' content, then kill or sell them once they could no longer be used.

Yang Il-gwi narrowed his eyes and studied the group again.

Their faces were hidden beneath their low-pulled bamboo hats, but the woman walking in the middle had an excellent figure. One of the privileges of the action squad was getting to enjoy her first before everyone else had their turn.

"There are only three of them. Doesn't that seem suspicious? Maybe they're acting like that because they're confident in their skills?"

"Have we only done this once or twice?"

Yang Il-gwi smacked the back of his subordinate's head for spouting nonsense with such a serious face.

Even to Yang Il-gwi, those three did seem unusual.

Everyone, even snot-nosed children, knew that these mountains belonged to the Red Wolf Stronghold and that its raids took place day and night.

Anyone wishing to avoid being robbed had to make a wide detour around the mountains.

But that would make the journey far too long, so escort agencies and merchant groups that valued time prepared tribute in advance and crossed the mountains. Those in desperate circumstances joined such groups to cross with them.

Yet there were only three of them.

They were likely confident in their own abilities, but the Red Wolf Stronghold was not one of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds for nothing.

Yang Il-gwi had seen it many times. Most who trusted in their meager abilities and tried to cross the mountain in a small group received a harsh lesson before begging for their lives.

"Let's go."

Yang Il-gwi climbed onto a two-headed wolf monster.

Ten red wolves raced down the slope and surrounded the three in an instant.

"Hey, you dog-fucking bastards!"

Yang Il-gwi's shout was the signal. The subordinates remaining above aimed arrows from within the brush.

"Drop your weap..."

Yang Il-gwi froze as he was about to give his usual command to drop their weapons. Looking again, only one of the three had a weapon.

"Y-you bastard. Drop your sword."

Yang Il-gwi raised his axe and pointed it at the young man in the bamboo hat. The young man had not even placed a hand on the sword at his waist, much less drawn it, but he looked at Yang Il-gwi with wide eyes.

"What, are you from the West?"

Yang Il-gwi frowned at the blue eyes looking his way. Not only were the eyes blue, but the hair falling from beneath the bamboo hat was golden as well.

After glaring at the young man for a moment, Yang Il-gwi looked beside him.

A black-haired, black-eyed woman looked back with an indifferent expression. As expected, she had a beautiful face, just as he had marked her out before. A lecherous smile formed on Yang Il-gwi's lips as he looked over her face and figure.

'...Why is that bastard making that expression?'

Beside the woman stood another Westerner with black hair and reddish eyes, wearing a strange expression. The corners of his mouth were twitching upward in this situation. He did not seem sane.

"I told you."

The woman raised her bamboo hat with one finger and lifted her head. Her narrowed eyes turned toward the slope above, where Green Forest bandits hid among the brush and trees with arrows aimed at them.

"I told you there were disturbing rumors about the bandits on this mountain."

"You didn't say we should go around it instead of climbing it."

"Because it would've been too long a detour. Did you want to go around?"

The unarmed man and woman spoke without any concern for their surroundings.

"Drop my sword?"

The blue-eyed man blinked, then frowned. He placed a hand on the sword at his waist.

"Do people usually drop their swords whenever you order them to?"

Their attitude toward being robbed was already uncooperative. Yang Il-gwi did not bother saying more.

"Get them!"

Yet none of Yang Il-gwi's subordinates rushed in. The growling wolves, drool dripping from their jaws, suddenly lost strength in their legs and collapsed.

"W-what?"

Yang Il-gwi looked around in alarm. Every wolf except his two-headed mount began breathing more slowly, then stuck out their tongues and died.

'Poison?'

None of the three had made any noticeable move. Yet all the wolves were dead. Poison was the only explanation he could think of.

'I didn't see any sign of poison being spread.'

Yang Il-gwi was at the early fifth tier. Yet even he had failed to notice the poison.

'No, is it really poison?'

A poison that acted this quickly should have some distinctive trait, but Yang Il-gwi's senses could detect neither taste nor scent.

At that moment, Yang Il-gwi's view suddenly dropped.

In the end, it was only a matter of time. The wolf he rode had also been poisoned. Yang Il-gwi did not hesitate and leaped from its back.

The woman who had raised her bamboo hat looked up at him. Green light flickered at the center of her black eyes.

At that instant, something invisible caught Yang Il-gwi.

"Ghk...!"

Yang Il-gwi immediately twisted his body in midair. The invisible something tried to burrow into him, then scattered.

"As expected, it doesn't work well on people."

Haryeong grumbled.

Monsters at that level had weak resistance to Intent. It was easy to poison them by infusing Intent into Taiji, the source of life.

People were not as easy as monsters. Even those who had not entered the path of Intent could not be immediately poisoned to death like monsters.

"Shouldn't you make a separate Poison Core after all?"

Yuri clicked his tongue as he asked. Haryeong clicked her tongue as well and answered as if scolding him.

"You think a Poison Core is something you can make just because you want to?"

Yang Il-gwi could not understand what they were saying.

As he fell through the air, the subordinates who had panicked atop the dead wolves regained their senses. Ten bandits screamed and charged at the three.

─Fwoosh! The first four who rushed in were sliced open.

They had clearly been cut, yet no sword had been drawn. Estor frowned as the bandits with their bellies split open screamed and tried to gather their intestines.

"Ugh."

"Idiot. If it doesn't work, just cut them directly."

"I deliberately didn't split them in two. Those evil bandits who torment common people should die in as much pain as possible."

"It doesn't look deliberate. Weren't you trying to split them in two, but your cut was too shallow?"

Estor's shoulders trembled at the taunting words delivered with a snicker. Estor was also unable to perfectly control the Formless Sword, created by infusing force aura with Intent.

Unlike Haryeong's poison, the Formless Sword had manifested in the world, though only faintly.

Estor glared at the Formless Sword wavering before him with displeasure, then waved it away and drew the sword at his waist.

"That's strange. It worked fine during practice..."

"Do you think practice and a real fight are the same?"

"I've practiced as if it were a real fight."

"That's true."

Yuri was quick to acknowledge what deserved acknowledgment. As Estor said, their training until now had been as grueling as actual combat.

"Don't try it too impatiently."

"It feels like I can do it if I just get it right..."

"That's how you get Qi Deviation, obsessing over something like that. If you lose your mind and start pissing and shitting yourself, how am I supposed to face the Sword Emperor?"

Even as Yuri spoke, Estor's sword did not stay still. The Light Sword ignited in an instant and drew a single line.

Light overflowed from the line, writhing as if it were alive. It severed the heads of every surviving Green Forest bandit and every bandit frozen in place, too afraid to approach.

"Gasp..."

All his subordinates were dead, leaving Yang Il-gwi alone. He could not even raise the axe in his hand as he staggered backward.

"The Sword Emperor... You said the Sword Emperor?"

The casual conversation made Yang Il-gwi dizzy. There was only one person in the world called the Sword Emperor.

"The Three Heroes?"

Yang Il-gwi looked over the three and muttered in a trembling voice.

Their rumors had quieted after they joined the Uicheon Sword Gate, but they were the three young rising stars from the West who had built such fame since last year.

"That bastard told us to 'get them' earlier, right?"

"Yes."

"Do Green Forest bandits normally take hostages too?"

"If they think they can gain more by capturing someone and extorting them than by robbing and killing them, they probably do."

"No one would pay my ransom if I were captured."

"Really?"

Haryeong's lips curved crookedly.

"If Yuri were taken hostage, the young lady in that distant estate across the sea would sell everything she owned to prepare the ransom."

Yuri had said something unnecessary. He stared at Haryeong with a sour expression, then replied.

"If Haryeong were kidnapped, the Dang Family, wherever they are, would prepare a ransom too."

This time, Haryeong's expression turned sour. After glaring at each other for a moment, their gazes naturally shifted to Estor.

"Isn't this because of you?"

"Why are you suddenly targeting me?"

"Your family is rich."

"Don't be stupid. That bastard only recognized us now. He probably attacked travelers without knowing who we were, then got unlucky."

"We don't know that. Perhaps they attacked because they were targeting us."

As Haryeong said that, Yuri and Estor turned toward Yang Il-gwi. Yang Il-gwi, who had been backing away, went rigid.

When the rumors first spread a year ago, all three members of the Three Heroes had been at the fifth tier.

Yang Il-gwi might have lived twenty years longer than them, but this world was not fair enough for age to be an absolute measure of strength.

No matter what Yang Il-gwi did, as someone at the early fifth tier, he would struggle to handle even one of the Three Heroes.

'Fifth tier?'

That was a year ago. Were the Three Heroes before him truly still at the fifth tier?

Everyone who mattered already knew that Dark Blossom was the Dark King's much younger sister, so he could somewhat understand her using some unknown poison.

But what in the world had Sword Dragon done? What was that faint sword?

Yang Il-gwi was at the early fifth tier. He could tell that Sword Dragon's first strike had not been an ordinary blade of force aura.

'What the hell are those bastards doing?'

What drove Yang Il-gwi even more insane were the subordinates above. What were those bastards doing without firing the arrows they had already nocked?

They were probably shocked by the unexpected situation, but Yang Il-gwi wanted help, any help at all.

"It's hot enough already. Don't make me exert myself for nothing. You come here."

Yuri spoke and crooked a finger at Yang Il-gwi, who was backing away.

Yang Il-gwi immediately hurled the axe in his hand. Fwoosh! The axe, packed with force aura, flew toward Yuri's face.

Crackle! Before it could even come close, purple electricity slammed the axe into the ground. Yuri clicked his tongue and extended his right hand toward Yang Il-gwi.

Force aura like scarlet flames wrapped around Yuri's hand, while purple currents swirled over its surface.

─Rumble...

The mixed powers produced a sound like boiling lightning.

At that moment, every attack aimed from above was launched at once.

It was not only arrows. Since they were part of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds, they apparently even had mages among them. Magic of every kind poured down on Yuri alongside the arrows.

None of the three panicked, but Yuri moved first. The already-expanded Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death had read every attack falling toward them.

He clenched his outstretched hand. The boiling lightning gathered at one point and formed an orb.

Crackle! The orb left his hand and soared into the sky in an instant, sweeping away and erasing every attack falling from above.

Its speed was truly like lightning. After one flash of purple lightning, only burned ash remained, carried away by the wind.

"Annoying bastard."

Estor grumbled as he looked at the Thunder Orb floating in the air.

Yuri had completed it by adding Intent to a sphere of force aura, something he had been attempting since his days at the Orsia estate. It was a technique based on the same principle as the Formless Sword Estor had repeatedly attempted.

"Do you really have to use that in front of me right now?"

No matter how Estor looked at it, Yuri seemed to be mocking the Formless Sword he had just failed to use. Estor asked with a sour expression, but Yuri only tilted his head as if he had no idea what Estor meant.

"What did I do?"

"Ugh."

"Since I've already used this, I'll show you something more fun."

Yuri snorted and moved his finger toward the Thunder Orb. A few spells Yuri had in mind were added to the Thunder Orb.

Then, as he imbued his Intent with a command, the Thunder Orb shot high into the air and rushed toward the Green Forest bandits hidden in the brush.

Chain Lightning.

Kwarrrr! Lightning energy erupted from the Thunder Orb and electrocuted every Green Forest bandit in the area.

Leaving the thunderclap that drowned out even their screams behind him, Yuri stepped toward Yang Il-gwi. The man was fleeing as hard as he could without looking back.

There was no need to chase after him. At that distance, Yuri could hit him with magic. Yuri pointed a finger at Yang Il-gwi.

Piercing Flash of Lightning. Lightning shot from his fingertip and struck Yang Il-gwi in an instant.

"Aaargh!"

Perhaps because he had used protective force aura, Yang Il-gwi rolled across the ground screaming. Yuri used the scattering energy to seize Yang Il-gwi's leg.

"A-ahhh!"

His mind kept going blank from being struck by lightning, while something gripped his leg and dragged him along.

Yang Il-gwi clawed at the dirt with his fingers and resisted, but it was useless. He was eventually dragged across the ground to Yuri's feet.

"Who sent you?"

Yuri pushed back the hood over his head and asked.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried