WeTried Translations

Translator: Joy

Editor: Joy

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◈ Damned Transmigration ◈

Chapter 40: Still in Logos

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The requests available in Logos ranged from second-grade to fourth-grade.

The higher the altitude, the closer one got to the Rift. And the closer the Rift, the more strongly the Evil God's divine power had accumulated. As a result, the deeper they went into the mountain, the fiercer and stronger the monsters became. Even the plants grew wildly, making it difficult to find their way.

Camping in a mountain like this was inconvenient, with countless things to remain wary of. But when carrying out several requests at once, returning to the village was troublesome and a waste of time.

So they had made thorough preparations before entering the mountain.

There were no major problems. With four people, taking turns on watch was not too demanding, and Elena's magic and the traps Haryeong had set made it easier to prepare for nighttime attacks.

If there was a problem, it was travelling. The mountain paths were difficult enough, and the terrain affected by the Rift was truly a mess. Even their sense of direction seemed to go strange.

Fortunately, Jake was a skilled guide. The map he had made himself kept them from getting lost in mountains where every direction looked alike, and it did not take them long to find the monsters they were after.

Elena was still the centre of their battles, but Yuri occasionally joined the fighting as well. Haryeong had pushed him into it. Rather than goblins like last time, he fought Lizardmen and Orcs, demi-human monsters.

They were far stronger than goblins.

Lizardmen were tall and slender, their bodies covered in scales. They moved sluggishly, but they were strong, and the scales covering their bodies were as hard as they looked.

Orcs, on the other hand, had thick builds. They were about as tall as humans and were not sluggish. Their raw strength was slightly greater than a Lizardman's, but they had no scales.

In other regions, Lizardmen and Orcs often formed groups with their own kind and established tribes, commonly equipping themselves with armour and weapons. But the two demi-human races born in Logos were different.

Still, a few carried swords or axes, perhaps taken from dead adventurers. Whenever that happened, Haryeong stepped in first and took their weapons away.

Yuri was secretly dissatisfied with that, since he wanted to try fighting a monster with a weapon. But he could not ask for it. A second-tier martial artist fighting a third-grade demi-human monster one-on-one was already a mismatch in rank. Letting it wield a weapon as well would risk injury.

‘I don't think I'd get hurt, though?’

He did not bother saying that aloud.

The battles were not difficult, but they helped considerably in terms of experience. Yuri's fists suffered neither scratches nor bone damage even when striking a Lizardman's scales. He could easily receive the wild punches of an Orc, and it was easy to redirect their attacks with the Fist of the Rending Cloud.

He was restricting his internal energy, so the power of his blows was reduced. That made killing them rather troublesome.

He broke the limbs he had seized, subdued them that way, then drew the dagger from his belt and stabbed them in the neck again and again.

“Of all the second-tier martial artists I've seen in my life, I think Yuri-nim fights the best.”

On the second night, after they had gone through several such battles, Jake gave a hollow laugh and said that. Yuri replied that Jake was flattering him, while Elena nodded with a proud expression as though it were her own accomplishment.

On the fourth night after entering Logos,

“Let's head down tomorrow.”

Elena spoke after returning from checking the magic set around their campsite.

She had washed herself by the water and changed robes several times, but after spending four days in the mountains, she still felt grimy. Sitting with a sleeping bag wrapped around herself, she combed her hair.

“I think four days is enough. We can head down, collect the reward, and come back up if we decide we can do more.”

“Alright.”

There seemed to be no need to do more. Yuri came to that conclusion inwardly. At his current level, he had gained all the experience Logos could offer him, and he had learned how adventurers lived.

“I'm going to sleep now, so if something happens... Hmm, you probably will not need to wake me. I'll wake up before you do.”

During the nights they had spent in Logos, Yuri had always taken the first watch. It was consideration for him being the lowest tier.

Mountain nights were not quiet. Logos's nights were especially noisy. Along with the calls of insects that naturally had to exist in a place like this, the sounds of monsters came from every direction.

It wasn’t just the noise, either. When he concentrated on what he could feel, he could sense things besides sound and smell.

The sixth sense awakened by a second-tier martial artist.

The sixth sense differed greatly from person to person, but Yuri, whose talent for martial arts was outstanding and who was close to the fourth tier, could feel gazes. And the more hostility or killing intent a gaze held, the stronger he could feel it.

Yuri sat cross-legged before the campfire. He could not close his eyes and circulate his energy while he needed to watch his surroundings. Instead, he stared at the campfire while consciously kneading the internal energy in his dantian and sharpening his senses.

If he listened, he could hear all sorts of sounds. Firewood being consumed by flames. Sparks that had leapt up going out. The breathing of Jake and Elena, lying around the campfire. If he listened more closely, he could hear Haryeong's breathing, so faint it was hard to tell whether she was sleeping or dead.

The cries of insects, birds, and monsters. Even late at night, intermittent sounds of fighting continued.

A little more.

He sharpened his senses further. His sixth sense moved to the next level, catching the gazes. Clear hostility and killing intent pricked Yuri like needles. They belonged to monsters. They were watching this place, but Elena's magical barrier kept them from approaching.

A little more.

If he sharpened his senses any further at this level, his sixth sense no longer expanded outward. Instead, it concentrated inward.

And Yuri looked within himself. His pounding heart. Blood flowing through his veins. Internal energy beginning in his dantian and flowing through his meridians.

His senses seemed to burn. Though he was not circulating his energy, Yuri focused on the flow of internal energy rooted in his dantian. The campfire before him continued burning. In the pitch-black mountain night, where the sky was difficult to see, that campfire was the only light here.

The crackling sounds. The campfire consuming firewood. For a flame to keep burning and grow, it needed something to burn.

‘What do I need to fuel my fire?’

More internal energy? No, that was not it. Internal energy and mana might help raise one's tier, but Yuri could sense it.

What he needed to reach the next stage of the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil was not internal energy.

‘What could it be...’

He had spent half a year learning martial arts without experiencing real combat, so he had thought that perhaps real combat would give him some vague idea. Though their levels were vastly different, the Moonlit Reveller and the Fist Wolf had also spoken of enlightenment gained through real battles.

But the real combat in Logos had not given Yuri what he needed most. Was it because it was not truly real combat?

‘Well, it was overprotected combat.’

Yuri gave a bitter smile and turned his head. Elena was sleeping soundly.

At most, they had a little over a month left. They would return from Logos to Rutlan, spend a few days at the mansion talking about what came next, eating meals, and packing their belongings...

‘I'll send you a letter.’

‘See you next time.’

They would probably part after exchanging words like that. It was a strange feeling. When Yuri had first met Elena and come to Rutlan, he had wanted to leave as quickly as possible. But now that the time to leave was approaching, he hesitated.

He knew he should not be swayed by these emotions, but the feelings built up over six months ran too deep.

Lee Su-hyeok had lost his parents at fourteen. It had been an accident. Fortunately, he had not become completely orphaned and been sent to an institution. He had lived with distant relatives, but his sense of family had been faint.

He left their home after becoming an adult. The household had not been well-off to begin with, so his parents had not left much property behind, but there had been an insurance payout. Fortunately, the relatives who had taken him in and acted as his guardians for six years were not clever enough scum to steal the insurance money.

From then on, he had lived alone. Looking back, he felt as though he had been alone even before that. During his sensitive childhood years, when adolescence and everything else had made him especially volatile, he had closed his heart entirely. After becoming independent, he had tried opening it a little, but there had been no one around him.

Perhaps that was why the six months he had spent in Rutlan had left such a deep impression.

* * *

They found a body while packing up camp and heading down the mountain.

It was a body with its arms and legs torn off.

This was not the first body they had seen in Logos. Just yesterday, they had seen two bodies left after monsters had eaten them. Adventurers dying was common in Logos, where monsters swarmed.

No matter how thoroughly they prepared and found their way, chaos always accompanied land where a Rift existed.

“Ugh.”

Elena frowned at the body they had spotted from afar. Having lived in a city for so long, she was not very used to human corpses. She stepped back without intending to approach, while Haryeong stood beside her and inspected the surroundings.

“There are no monsters nearby, but let us change our route.”

Even if a fourth-grade monster appeared, Elena and Haryeong could handle it well enough. But Haryeong had no intention of choosing a path that might hold danger.

“I'll go check the body for a moment.”

Jake, who had been watching their reactions, spoke up. He had done the same yesterday. The moment he found a body, he had rushed over to inspect it, recovering the adventurer registration tag and the body's belongings.

He said it was for mourning a fellow worker and for the family, but judging by the expression he made whenever he found money, that was surely not the only reason.

“Let's go together.”

Haryeong said that because, although they would change their route, she wanted to determine what had made the body. Jake disliked the idea, but he had no right to refuse. In the end, Jake and Haryeong approached the body.

“It was probably a Wolf Bear. They're fourth-grade monsters that are rarely born around here. They do not form packs and move alone. To third-grade adventurers, they are monsters like grim reapers.”

Displaying his knowledge, Jake examined the body.

“Look. The ends of the limbs are rough, right? The Wolf Bear tore them off with brute force. It does not particularly like human organs, so it eats the arms and legs.”

While chattering about things no one had asked, Jake searched through the body's clothes. He checked the registration tag around its neck first.

“A fourth-grade adventurer.”

Jake's eyes gleamed.

“If they were fourth-grade, they would not have lacked experience... They must have let their guard down. It happens sometimes, but...”

Jake had not even finished speaking when Haryeong suddenly leapt backwards. She spun in midair, kicked through empty air with no foothold, and flew back towards them.

“Haryeong?”

Elena looked startled. Haryeong did not answer. Her arms spread wide and caught Elena and Yuri, tucking them firmly against her sides.

THWACK!

Her descending foot struck the ground again.

“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

“The body has not been dead long, and that body was not killed by a monster.”

Haryeong answered quickly. With Elena and Yuri held tightly against her sides, she continued running.

“What...?”

“There were no monster tracks. And I felt a gaze.”

There was no trace of laughter in her voice. Elena's face stiffened as well. She hurriedly looked back.

Jake, startled by Haryeong's sudden actions, stood there in an awkward posture.

“W-what is going on?!”

Jake cried out in alarm.

At that moment,

THUD!

Two feet dropped from the sky and crushed Jake flat from the head down. Blood sprayed from Jake's body, flattened like a stepped-on aluminium can.

“It is true that I do not care much for organs.”

An old man with dishevelled white hair lifted his head. Ghostly light flickered in his blood-red eyes.

“Organs do not taste good. They are troublesome to eat, too. This old man prefers chewing raw flesh.”

Blood from the body he had crushed stretched into sticky threads from his lifted foot. The old man walked forward in large strides, chuckling.

“Do you think yourselves unlucky? No, that is wrong. Do not think that. This old man has been watching you since yesterday.”

Though they had put considerable distance between them, the old man's voice sounded as close as if he stood beside them.

“The unlucky one was this fellow who died with his arms and legs torn off. This old man worked through the night to clear the surroundings, but the unfortunate fool came in from elsewhere. So there was not enough time to clean up. Heh heh. If only they had not come here, they would not have suffered such misfortune.”

Yuri looked at Haryeong's face.

Cold sweat beaded on her forehead. Her brows were furrowed, and her lips were pressed tightly together. Her expression was not blank.

“Do you think you can escape? I told you, this old man has been watching you since yesterday. There is no one around here to help you. Blond girl, your magic was very noisy, flashing with light and making a spectacle. But it was excellent. That is why this is inevitable. It is your fault. Your noisy magic caught this old man's interest.”

When Yuri looked back, the old man was lowering his stance.

“I wanted to wait until you came a little deeper, but since you are trying to head down, there is no helping it. This old man is not hungry yet, but I should catch you in advance.”

THWACK!

The old man's body shot forward like an arrow. He was far faster than Haryeong was while carrying Yuri and Elena.

Haryeong bit her lip and threw Elena and Yuri ahead.

“My lady, run!”

“H-Haryeong, what about you?”

“Do not worry about me.”

It was a mistake. He had been watching them since yesterday? Yet Haryeong had not felt his gaze. It could not be helped. She had never let down her guard. It was simply that the old man's gaze had been too subtle for her to notice.

‘Who is he?’

Monsters were not the only things to be wary of in Logos. As Haryeong herself had warned, there were plenty of evildoers who used the Rift, a place where bodies were not unusual, to their advantage. There were bandits who preyed on adventurers, and vicious people who hid behind monsters to enjoy their atrocities.

She had known that before coming to Logos. There was no end to danger if one worried about it, and Logos was a Rift with relatively low risk and strict management.

‘To think I would truly have to risk my life on this escort mission.’

Haryeong suppressed a sigh and swung both arms.

FWIP-FWIP-FWIP!

The daggers already in her hands rushed towards the old man. In response, he twisted his hideous face into a smile.

The old man kicked off the ground and spun in a low leap.

BANG-BANG-BANG!

Blood-coloured condensed force burst forth and knocked the daggers aside. Beyond that blood-coloured light, the old man spread his hand wide.

CRASH!

A scarlet blast of force descended upon Haryeong.

‘Condensed force...!’

That meant the old man was at least fifth-tier. Haryeong did not meet the attack head-on and instead threw herself to the side.

BOOM!

The ground struck by the force overturned, and a cloud of dust rose.

Within the hazy dust, Haryeong pulled up her mask. She gripped new daggers in both hands.

CRACKLE!

A bolt of lightning pierced the dust cloud.

“I told you to run!”

Haryeong cried out as if screaming.

“He's not an opponent you can kill alone!”

Elena, who had her wand aimed, screamed as well.

“He'll kill you and come after me! I can't run as fast as you! It is better for us to fight here together!”

“I can stall for time! If things go well, I might even injure him...”

She could not finish her sentence.

He said he had been watching them since yesterday. Haryeong had never properly displayed her martial arts, but Elena had continued using magic. If he had experience befitting his age, he would have determined Elena's tier and roughly guessed Haryeong's as well.

And yet, he had stepped forward saying he would eat them. That meant the old man was certain of himself.

“Truly, what noisy magic.”

WHOOSH!

A powerful gust of wind swept away all the dust.

The old man stood there without a single scratch on him, grinning and showing his yellow teeth.

Footnotes:

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