WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Got a Gallery in the Wild ◈

Chapter 33: Inner Elixir (4)

──────

Heavenly Demon told me that Inner Cores were among the most precious treasures.

I heard that the whole world would be thrown into an uproar the moment even one hit the market.

Martial artists usually invested enormous amounts of time to reach the next realm.

Unless they had exceptional talent, it was difficult to acquire mana that transcended time.

That was why they coveted Inner Cores. With one, they could leap straight into the next realm.

[Post title] Another Inner Core Popped Out

[Author] Wild Grylls

[Post] (Photo of a red Inner Core)

[Post] I was sick yesterday, so I got plenty of rest. I woke up, washed up, and started cleaning fish because I was planning to polish some off today too. Then what do you think I found?

[Post] Another Inner Core popped out. Should I just list it on the Auction House?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: You’re awake. I was worried because you didn’t post anything for a while yesterday.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I practically passed out as soon as I recited the mnemonic verses. Is that normal?

└ [Heavenly Demon]: This is the first I’ve heard of such a thing. My guess is that your body couldn’t withstand the Internal Energy and protected itself.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Well, my body got better, so I guess it’s fine.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: If you’re fine, then it must be fine. What do you intend to do with that Inner Core?

└ How much do you want for it?

└ Gimmegimmegimmegimmegimmegimme

└ How do we know that’s real lol I’ll eat it and check

That was the question. Who should I give this Inner Core to?

I wanted to give it to the registered users, but even that wasn’t easy.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I should prioritize the people who helped me.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: I’m fine.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Except SwordTasteMaster.

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: ?

└ [Wild Grylls]: Just kidding lol. So, should I give it to you?

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: I don’t want to get healthier. I can give a Mandrake to someone else, but I can’t pass that along, so don’t give it to me.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: You treat an Inner Core like it’s nothing. Have you truly reached such a realm?

└ [SwordTasteMaster]: Yes.

└ [Heavenly Demon]: You’re so confident that I have nothing more to say.

SwordTasteMaster refused because they didn’t want to get healthier.

What about the others? I waited for them to comment.

└ [Wild Grylls]: The registered users I can think of are Passing Dwarf, Starlight Princess, PrincessChaenggu, AllHailTheSun, and Allfather. That’s about it?

└ [Starlight Princess]: I’ve already received too much... I think you should give it to someone else.

Starlight Princess was the first to comment.

She was one of the registered users who commented regularly, even if not as often as Heavenly Demon.

Seeing that she didn’t need an Inner Core, I replied.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Are you sure you don’t need it? Don’t you want to take better care of your health?

└ [Starlight Princess]: I’m already satisfied as I am. Taking care of my body is more important than mana.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Taking care of your body?

└ [Starlight Princess]: Yes. I started exercising yesterday. It’s something I could never do before, so I think I’m going to get really into it.

She’d wanted to name Wonmo Gym Newbie. Was she planning to become a gym rat herself?

She said she’d spent most of her life in bed, so she must have had a strong desire to exercise.

Anyway, Starlight Princess had refused too, so I waited to hear from the other registered users.

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: I’m not really drawn to it either, you know~ It’s awkward to sell, and awkward to give to someone too~

└ [Wild Grylls]: You don’t want to eat it yourself?

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: I don’t really need to eat it, you know~ If I had my way, I’d give it to the Chaeyu players~

└ You might actually get arrested doing that

└ Are Inner Cores considered doping too?

└ Not drugs, but they tend to test people if there are sudden changes in mana.

└ But Inner Cores aren’t illegal, right? They’re Inner Cores.

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: They’re legal, but it still wouldn’t be morally right, you know~ And what would more mana do? Using mana is banned in sports~

└ Yeah, PrincessChaenggu is right. More mana isn’t always a good thing.

└ Didn’t some players gain enlightenment and go through a horrible slump?

└ Why would they slump after gaining enlightenment?

└ Because it messes up their physical balance. There were even cases where they unknowingly used mana and got sent off.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Then could you at least give me some clothes?

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: I don’t really have a use for it, so I’m sorry~ I’ll just give you clothes~

└ [Wild Grylls]: Do you happen to have long pants...?

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Not right now, but I can get some if you want~ Do you want something made from uniform-like material?

└ [Wild Grylls]: Yes. Then let’s trade it for that.

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: A single “Go Chaeyu!” will be enough~

└ [Wild Grylls]: Go Chaeyu! I hope you win it all!

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Very nice hehe~

└ LOL

└ Chaeyu winning lol

└ [KingLeor]: This is fucking hilarious lol

└ [KingLeor]: Excuse me, Grylls. Do you know what place Chaeyu is in right now?

└ [Wild Grylls]: What place are they in?

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Shut up before we throw down in person.

└ [KingLeor]: Oh no, I’m so scared lol. So what place is Chaeyu in? Eighth place!

└ [Wild Grylls]: That is a little low. How many matches are left?

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: There are five matches left, but it’s fine hehe~ The Champions League might be hard, but we’ll make the Master Cup~

└ [KingLeor]: Qualify for the Champions League before you talk lol

They were at it again. Those two seemed to fight pretty often.

KingLeor, especially, picked fights whenever PrincessChaenggu appeared.

I didn’t like the look of it. PrincessChaenggu had helped me too.

└ [Wild Grylls]: That’s enough. Anyway, you don’t need it, PrincessChaenggu?

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Nope~ I can’t give it to the players either~

└ [Wild Grylls]: Got it. Go, Chaenggu!

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: Thank you hehe~

└ [KingLeor]: Cheer for Leor too.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I’m not the kind of person who plays both sides hehe

└ [PrincessChaenggu]: I like you even more now~ I’ll get you those pants soon~

PrincessChaenggu didn’t need an Inner Core either, so I looked for the others.

└ [Allfather]: I told you before, but my body is not one that can do anything with an Inner Core. Give it to someone else.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Understood.

└ [Allfather]: I would rather receive a creature rarer than that.

└ [AllHailTheSun]: Just list it on the Auction House. Don’t go thinking about squeezing money out of me.

└ [Wild Grylls]: I wasn’t trying to squeeze you for money...

└ [AllHailTheSun]: I’m joking. I’m not particularly interested. The Adult Mandrake you gave me before is enough.

Allfather and AllHailTheSun refused too. They were the type to ask only for what they needed.

In the end, Passing Dwarf was the only one left...

└ [Passing Dwarf]: Gimme more Mandrakes. I’ll brew more booze with them.

└ [Wild Grylls]: Right. Asking you was my mistake. Are you almost done making the wall?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: We’ll trade at lunch. Tell me if it’s not enough.

└ [Wild Grylls]: You don’t want an Inner Core as payment?

└ [Passing Dwarf]: I said give me booze.

└ [Wild Grylls]: ;;;

The dwarf was just a drunk. Maybe because they were a dwarf, they loved alcohol far too much.

In the end, every registered user I knew made their refusal clear.

Heavenly Demon said she didn’t need one either, perhaps because I’d already given her one. She said she’d received too much already.

‘Ah, whatever.’

I didn’t think about it for long. I listed the Inner Core on the Auction House.

The Inner Core was one thing, but cleaning the fish was more important.

I gave the heads and guts to Wonmo, then cleaned out the insides like I had yesterday.

The water came rushing out today. The hose must not have been clogged.

‘It was tasty.’

I’d eat a hearty breakfast, then use that energy to repair the hideout.

At lunch, I could put up the wall I got from the dwarf.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle-

The fish on the cast-iron pan I bought from the Auction House turned golden brown.

I’d removed every scale and seasoned it with salt.

I’d also cut the flesh into small pieces. Eating it whole yesterday had been too inconvenient.

“Here, Wonmo. Eat this.”

I wasn’t going to eat alone either.

I gave Wonmo a few pieces of the cooked fish.

Instead of giving him the whole pan, I passed them to him with chopsticks.

As a Korean, chopsticks felt more natural to me than forks.

“Kyuu!”

Wonmo’s eyes sparkled as he devoured the fish with great relish.

Considering his size, this much wouldn’t be nearly enough.

For a person, it was closer to an appetizer. I’d give him meat later.

“Want some too?”

I held out a piece of cooked fish to the Fast Sloth.

I knew it was a herbivore, but it might still be interested.

Nod-

The Fast Sloth slowly nodded in acceptance.

I’d thought it only ate grass.

Then again, it had originally tried to steal fish, so it wasn’t completely unbelievable.

I picked up a piece of fish with my chopsticks and held it near its mouth.

Slowly. Slowly.

“...Eat a little faster.”

How could even opening its mouth be that slow?

This was the thing that had threatened me at the fastest speed in the world.

I couldn’t understand it no matter how hard I tried.

Now that I’d fed both of them fish, all that remained was filling my own stomach.

Since I’d shared it evenly, there was far less than yesterday.

Still, it was fine. Both of them had stared at me while I devoured everything alone yesterday.

Their eyes practically said, “Are you hogging all that delicious food by yourself?”

I couldn’t help feeling guilty.

‘There’s plenty anyway.’

The fish was so large that I had to wrap both arms around it.

Giving them a few pieces wouldn’t leave me hungry.

Maybe the fever I got yesterday had been from indigestion.

Of course, it was probably because too much energy had gathered in me, just as Heavenly Demon said.

“This is good.”

After polishing off the fish, I felt full.

Using fish bones instead of a toothpick, I removed the bits stuck between my teeth.

Nothing went to waste. Cleaning up was a little troublesome, but I only had to bury everything in the ground.

‘Time to get moving.’

I couldn’t afford to be too relaxed.

I wasn’t planning to settle down here, and becoming lazy this early would be a disaster.

‘Before that, I should practice my cultivation method.’

After a hearty breakfast, I gathered my mana with the Inner Energy Cultivation Method.

I didn’t forget to recite the mnemonic verses Heavenly Demon had taught me yesterday.

The wording was somewhat poetic and difficult to understand, but imagining the scenes made it a little easier.

‘If the first mnemonic verse is already like this, how hard will the second one be?’

Surely they wouldn’t combine into some epic-length poem.

If that was the case, even memorizing it would be difficult.

‘Still, I have to memorize it.’

I focused, controlling the mana within my body through the cultivation method.

Maybe it was my imagination, but I felt a stronger, more tyrannical energy than yesterday.

It didn’t feel like a calm river. It felt like crashing waves.

That wasn’t a bad thing. Thanks to that powerful energy, its circulation speed was far faster.

“...”

I finished cultivating and slowly opened my eyes.

The first thing I saw was the Fast Sloth’s sleepy face.

“Ugh! You scared me!”

“...”

“Ha... Don’t scare people like that.”

My heart nearly stopped. I let out a sigh.

It was good that it hadn’t interrupted me, but it was impossible not to be startled when it was right in front of me.

‘Wonmo is... already asleep.’

Our cute little furball was taking a long nap.

He really was a baby, only knowing how to eat, sleep, and poop.

Thankfully, he handled the last part outside the cave, so it wasn’t a problem.

Crawl. Crawl.

When I got ready to move, the Fast Sloth climbed onto my back.

I was getting used to it, but then I suddenly thought about its hygiene.

‘This thing hasn’t washed, has it?’

I should heat up some bathwater first. Otherwise, it might get sick.

Allfather had said that while it didn’t have ticks, various bugs lived on it.

Allfather had even said there was a good chance mold had grown on it, so it needed to be scrubbed clean just as thoroughly as Wonmo.

‘We’ve finished the fish, and the timing is good.’

I immediately cleaned the iron tub and filled it with water.

Now I only had to wait for it to heat up. I’d worry about adjusting the temperature later.

Until then, I dug holes with a shovel where I planned to install the wall.

I was planning to set up a square wall around the cave entrance.

Thud! Thud!

‘This digs insanely easily?’

I’d felt it while logging, but shoveling wasn’t tiring at all.

Normally, even the shovel should have felt a little heavy, but I didn’t feel that either.

It was probably all thanks to the Inner Energy Cultivation Method. Physical labor would be easy now.

“...I’m already done?”

The problem was that it had become too easy. Less than thirty minutes had passed, yet the groundwork was finished.

All I had to do was put the wall into the neatly dug trench and fill it in with dirt again.

The trees in between were a little bothersome, but I could cut them down gradually.

Crash! Bang! Crack!

Even cutting down the trees only took thirty minutes. It had been incredibly fast.

Before, it had felt like chopping trees. Now, it was closer to smashing them apart.

That made it easy for the trees to lose their balance and fall over.

All I had to do was smash through the trunks and push them over with my foot.

I’d gotten so much stronger so quickly that it was almost unsettling.

‘No point complaining about a good thing, I guess.’

I scratched my head as I looked at the miserably fallen trees, then shrugged.

I listed all but one of the trees I’d cut on the Auction House.

I’d use the remaining one as firewood.

Thinking about firewood reminded me of the bathwater I’d heated earlier.

I worried that it might be boiling, but fortunately, only steam was rising from it.

“Now it’s your turn to wash.”

“...”

Crawl. Crawl.

The Fast Sloth seemed to understand what I said and climbed down from my back.

At first, I thought it was going to enter the bathwater on its own.

But it wasn’t. It went into the cave instead.

It seemed to be running away because it didn’t want a bath. Even though it was slow as hell.

“Hey. Not there. Come here.”

“...”

In the end, I picked it up and put it in the iron tub myself.

No. More accurately, I tried to.

Grip!

It clung to my arm as if it didn’t want to be dropped.

It was even trembling. It seemed afraid.

That only made it stranger. This was the thing that could watch arrows and snatch them out of the air.

“...Hey.”

“...”

“You hate baths?”

There was no answer. It couldn’t speak in the first place.

Still, seeing how it refused to budge, I could tell it hated baths.

That didn’t mean I could give up on hygiene. I tried to put the Fast Sloth into the tub.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Every time, it quickly moved to another part of my body.

It slipped around me as though my body were a tree.

And at a tremendous speed too. Like getting in the tub would kill it.

“Ah, seriously! Do whatever you want! I’ll take the bath instead!”

“...”

I finally gave up.

Only then did the Fast Sloth slowly start moving after hearing my declaration of surrender.

“...You think I’d say that?!”

“?!”

Psych, you little punk!

I caught the Fast Sloth’s arm while it was off guard.

With one arm caught and restrained, it would have no choice but to get in peacefully.

Even if it had one arm left, what could it do with that?

Slash!

I’d been completely wrong.

The Fast Sloth swung its remaining arm toward the iron tub.

The tub was cleanly split into several pieces, scattering the warm water everywhere.

It wasn’t that it couldn’t do anything.

It could.

“...”

“...”

In the sudden silence, I looked at the Fast Sloth. It looked back at me.

Its expression seemed to say this.

-What can you do?

Today, I racked up another loss.

Footnotes:

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