WeTried Translations

Translator: Joy

Editor: Joy

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Damned Transmigration

Chapter 64

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Dumb & dumber

Priests of the faith performed miracles.

They healed the sick, made the lame walk, and mended wounds that should have been fatal. But even they could not raise the dead. The dismembered remains floating in these jars, however pitiable their fate, were beyond saving.

‘The district’s missing,’ Yuri thought, his gaze sweeping across the grim collection without a flicker of emotion.

‘She wouldn’t have risked taking prominent citizens from outside her territory.’

The bodies were a resource, fuel for her magic.

“So many of them,” the Sword Dragon muttered, his disgust sharp.

“No wonder the old hag commanded so many spirits.”

He moved deeper into the lab, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he began to inspect the shelves.

“I’m going to look around,” Yuri announced.

“Let me know if you find anything on the heretics.”

“Anything else?”

The Sword Dragon turned, confusion in his eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Money? Jewels? A grimoire or two?”

“Ah.”

Understanding dawned.

He gave a slight nod.

“Are you learning magic as well, Thunder Cloud?”

“Not with the same dedication I give the martial arts, but it is useful.”

The man recalled the sight of Yuri arcing through the sky, a bolt of living lightning. He really couldn’t argue with that.

“Do you plan on learning Rudella’s magic?”

Yuri gestured towards the nearest row of suspended limbs.

“Even I have my limits. I’d rather not get into this particular brand of disgusting. But magic is just a tool. It all depends on the user.”

A grin touched the Sword Dragon’s lips.

“Do you need my permission? The Withered Crone… I didn’t kill her alone. You, me, the Young Leader, and Haryeong-nim all took her down.”

He stumbled over Haryeong’s name, glancing at her with a hint of awkwardness.

She simply held up two fingers in a V, her expression as placid as ever.

“I was of no help in that fight,” she stated.

“Is that a boast?” Yuri murmured, but they both ignored him.

“You have a right to the spoils,” the Sword Dragon continued, a man born to such wealth that the concept of greed was foreign to him.

“The only things I need from this wretched place are a list of the heretics in this district and any intelligence on the Sect. I’ll share it with you, of course.”

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t know your full story, but you’re as hostile towards them as I am, aren’t you?”

“There are few in this world who aren’t.”

“True. Every last one of them needs to be purged,” the Sword Dragon said, his smile twisting into something colder.

“So, yes, Thunder Cloud. I’ll share what I find. It would be a great service to the world if a warrior of your calibre dedicated himself to eradicating the Sect of Chaos. If the Young Leader were here, we’d have to split things with her, but she’s not. Take whatever you want.”

Yuri’s own lips curved into a grin.

“Thanks.”

He left the room, Haryeong falling into step beside him.

“He’s a good kid,” she commented.

“The real thing.”

“A bit naive for the young master of a great house,” Yuri agreed.

They began their search.

The other rooms on the ground floor were much the same: more jars, more bodies. One, however, was crammed with vials of unidentifiable chemical reagents.

Haryeong uncorked one, swirled the contents, and took a delicate sniff.

“Poison,” she declared.

“There are a few potions, though I wouldn’t recommend them. This isn’t proper alchemy.”

From that point onwards, she took the lead, fingers ghosting over walls, tapping, listening for the tell-tale hollow sound. As she checked behind furniture and under floorboards, Yuri moved between the floors, clearing the other rooms.

He found the library soon enough and sealed himself inside, pulling books from the shelves.

Most were records of magical research, obsessive studies on the immortality sought by the Rudella Mage Tower. Specifically, they detailed attempts to achieve a state of magical rejuvenation at the 6th Circle, a process that went far beyond merely slowing age.

‘Useless.’

It was a near-impossible goal, and the Withered Crone’s level was laughably low for such an ambition. The texts filling the library were nothing more than the delusional ramblings of a woman who couldn’t even translate her theories into functional spells.

It must have been why she turned to the Sect, hoping to supplement her flawed magic with their miracles. A decade of service had been enough to earn her the rank of Bishop.

‘Nothing on her connection to the Sect, though.’

He’d hoped for a grimoire from the Rudella Mage Tower, but found nothing.

‘She was already 6th Circle when she deserted. She wouldn’t have needed to carry basic texts with her.’

The spells would have been etched into her memory, making books redundant.

With a sigh of disappointment, Yuri scanned the shelves one last time. Nothing of value.

“Ahem.”

He stepped out into the hall to find Haryeong standing with her hands on her hips.

“What is it?” he asked, though he already knew.

her chin just so.

“Ahem,” she repeated.

Yuri stared for a moment, then clapped his hands together in mock reverence.

“As expected of Haryeong-nim. You’re incredible.”

“It’s not enough.”

“What isn’t?”

“Praise me more.”

“As expected of Haryeong-nim. A cruel, merciles and terrifying salsu, who on occasion possesses a warm heart.”

“More.”

“You are proficient with daggers and all manner of hidden weapons. Despite being a salsu, you are also skilled in open combat.”

“And?”

“You are also very beautiful.”

“Acceptable.”

Haryeong nodded, satisfied.

She turned and beckoned with a single finger.

“Follow me.”

She led him to the ground-floor staircase.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Her finger rapped against three specific steps in sequence. She then gripped the handrail and pulled.

A soft click echoed in the hall.

Creeak.

A section of the floor beneath the stairs swung open, revealing a dark passage leading down.

“How did you know?”

She puffed out her chest slightly.

“A great salsu must also know how to kill a foe hiding in a secret room.”

At the bottom of the stairs lay a small, cramped chamber. In the centre, on a simple wooden desk, sat a large crystal orb.

Yuri picked it up.

As he turned it in his hands, small red dots flickered to life within its depths.

“Hmm.”

After a moment’s thought, he turned with the orb, pointing it roughly towards the plaza where the heretics had met their end. A cluster of grey dots appeared.

‘A tracker for the heretics.’

Red for the living, grey for the dead.

This was exactly what the Sword Dragon was after.

‘Now, what else?’

He scanned the room for a means of contacting other Bishops or even the Sect’s headquarters.

He didn’t hold out much hope, for they operated in isolated cells for a reason. If capturing one Bishop could unravel the entire network, they’d have been wiped out long ago.

His eyes fell on a directive, it seemed, from headquarters, which detailed how to manage the parish, how many followers to recruit, and the ultimate objective.

‘A riot?’

It wasn't surprising.

The directive explicitly ordered the Bishop to incite a mass uprising. Once enough followers were gathered, they were to spill out into the neighbouring districts and eventually march on Panteleon itself.

A futile effort, of course. The moment the Orsia Knights or the Selvis Mage Tower mobilised, it would be a slaughter.

However, success was irrelevant. The instability it would sow across the continent was the true goal.

‘Completely insane.’

These were people who would strap explosives to their chests for their mad god.

Yuri gave a hollow laugh, turned the page, and froze.

There was a section on transmigrators.

Recruit them whenever possible. If they refused, induct them by force. If they still resisted, capture and torture them for information.

The final page contained a single, prioritised instruction: any and all information regarding the Sect’s Saint, UrMumSpammer, was to be reported immediately.

‘Seriously?’

He’d heard from the Pointing Flame that the Sect treated him like a saint, but he hadn’t imagined it was an official order.

‘Do these bastards really think I’m an apostle of their evil god?’

A question surfaced.

While the Goddess of Order was slumbering, unable to communicate with her followers, the God of Chaos was supposedly active: why wasn't he clearing up this ridiculous misunderstanding? Why let his followers worship an innocent, troll-named gamer?

‘…Because there’s no reason to.’

The god’s name was Chaos.

His followers sowing confusion, chasing a false prophet, dedicating resources to a misunderstanding… it was all, in itself, a perfect form of chaos.

Why would he correct it?

‘Maybe that bastard god is after me, too.’

It sounded arrogant, but he considered it seriously.

If talent was measured by the speed one cleared the Hall of Honour, then Lee Su-hyeok possessed more of it than any transmigrator to date. It was why Lorelia had taken him under her wing, teaching him her ultimate arts.

Since the God of Chaos was the one who brought transmigrators here in the first place, it was entirely plausible that he’d take a special interest in the most outstanding specimen.

“What does it say?” Haryeong asked.

“Nothing important.”

“Your expression says otherwise.”

“I’ll tell you later.”

He couldn't let the Sword Dragon see this. Not all of it.

Yuri summoned Ganggi to his fingertips, and a flicker of black flame turned the final page, the one bearing his name, to ash.

His search of the desk continued. Tucked away in a drawer, he found a book.

<Art of Corpse Dissolution>

He’d never heard of it. No such skill had existed in the game.

Intrigued, he flipped it open.

<Eternal Thirst>

The name of the first spell leapt out at him.

Yuri couldn’t stop the word that escaped his lips.

“Insane.”

He didn't know the Art of Corpse Dissolution, but he knew Eternal Thirst.

[The Corpse Immortal, Herein Rudella, uses the curse of Eternal Thirst.]

It was the debuff the Corpse Immortal slammed you with the moment the fight began, long before you even reached the Heavenly Demon.

It reversed all health and mana regeneration, turning them into a constant, draining bleed. If you failed the check, your bars would plummet even while standing still.

The book was thick, yet it contained only this single spell. The complexity of the formula was staggering. Even when he focused, he didn't get that familiar flash of insight that came with learning new magic.

The magic of a true archmage was not something you learned to become an archmage, but something an archmage created at the zenith of their power.

‘The Withered Crone couldn’t use this.’

Of course not.

A 6th-Circle mage like her could try for a thousand years and never cast it. The pathetic spells she’d used in their fight were just cheap imitations, pathetic derivations of Rudella’s true art.

Even a genius like him couldn’t hope to use the Art of Corpse Dissolution at his current level. If he reached a high enough circle… one day, he could.

‘To think I’d find one of the Corpse Immortal’s spells.’

Her corpse-manipulation arts were too gruesome for his taste, but he’d always been tempted by her necromancy, specifically her ability to consume souls to recover health.

As a bare-handed fighter, he needed every durability boost he could get. It also fit the UrMumSpammer character build that sacrificed armour for stacking stats and blessings, relying on an absurd evasion rate and high-risk, health-consuming skills.

Eternal Thirst was simply a massive upgrade.

It harvested the life force from a designated area, ripping vitality from every living thing.

Trees, grass, anything without the power to resist would wither and die instantly. All that harvested life force would become the caster’s own.

“Yuri-nim, your expression is creeping me out.”

Haryeong’s voice sliced through his reverie.

He’d been standing there, grinning like an idiot at the book. He quickly schooled his features and began to memorise the contents.

It was a thick tome, but he had to do it now. The Sword Dragon might have given him free rein, but he might change his tune if he saw that particular grimoire.

Fortunately, his transmigrator’s talent made memorisation easy, even if understanding was impossible.

As the complex formulae seemed to melt directly into his brain, he closed the book, a grin once again spreading across his face.

“You’re that pleased?”

Seeing his unabashed joy, Haryeong placed her hands on her hips again.

“And who do you have to thank for that?”

“I love you.”

The words just fell out, and Haryeong’s eyes widened.

She stared at him, her lips slightly parted, before giving a short cough and taking a half-step back.

“This is problematic.”

“Pardon?”

“I have a duty to the young miss. A forbidden love, a treacherous passion… is an illicit fruit that would prevent me from ever calling her young miss again. If you and I were to become entangled, she would go from being the Mad Thunder to simply a madwoman. Hmm. Although, that does sound rather intriguing.”

“That’s not the kind of love I meant.”

“Love is love. Is there another kind? Are you the sort of man who throws that word around so lightly, Yuri-nim?”

“No…”

“Rest assured, I am not some foolish woman who is swept off her feet, gives away everything, and is then left to suffer heartbreak alone, neglecting her hair and skipping meals. I must therefore reject your insincere confession.”

“I’m sorry,” Yuri apologised again.

“I understand you were pleased enough to blurt it out. So, who is to thank?”

“You are, Haryeong-nim.”

“You’re welcome.”

She nodded, finally lowering her hands.

They searched the room once more. Having found a legendary skill that wasn't even in the game, Yuri felt a surge of hope.

‘Maybe an elixir?’

He’d never bought into the whole 3.5 Billion Man luck rumour, but after this, he was starting to wonder.

No elixir appeared. They did, however, find the Withered Crone’s stash of jewels and gold.

“It seems this is everything.”

Swallowing his disappointment, Yuri stuffed the valuables into a sack, keeping the crystal orb and the sanitised directives in his hand. These two items alone would make the Sword Dragon ecstatic.

‘Now, where is he?’

Had he been sifting through those display cases all this time? They left the basement and returned to the ground floor.

“Sword Dragon?”

No answer. Yuri tilted his head and began checking the rooms.

In the laboratory filled with potions and poisons, they found him on the floor.

“What an idiot,” Haryeong muttered, the words escaping her before she could stop them.

A few empty vials lay rolling on the flagstones near his unconscious form.

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried