WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the EX-Rank Pet Maker Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 95: Sichuan Magical Beast Subjugation Operation
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“Eeeek-!!!”
“Hmm... I see. Does one’s mental image change when what one sees changes?”
A man rolling across the ground, and another nodding to himself in satisfaction.
“Huff, huff....”
[ Huff, huff.... ]
And two Jellykkos watching from a short distance away, panting.
Valentina had no idea how to react to this chaotic situation.
She spoke in a trembling voice.
“...No, um... May I ask what exactly is happening right now...?”
Yoo Hyun, rolling a bizarre eyeball that had somehow sprouted legs around in his hand, replied.
“It’s an experiment to craft a new magical beast.”
“An experiment...?”
Valentina looked at the man still rolling on the ground.
“Ugh... Uuurgh....”
That just now...?
Was an experiment?
It had looked like Yoo Hyun had plucked out an eyeball while the man was in the middle of gaining some tremendous enlightenment.
...The sight made her head spin, but...
Ever since arriving in this developing city, she had suffered one shock after another. Having grown used to strange sights, she recovered quickly.
Valentina took a deep breath.
“Phew... More importantly, what did you mean when you said you expected me to come?”
Yoo Hyun answered as though she had asked an obvious question.
“You left without hearing the explanation about the magical beast last time.”
“Ah....”
Come to think of it, she had been disappointed that he had only made her one Jellykko and gone home without looking back.
Yoo Hyun spoke as he entered the laboratory.
“I figured something would happen to the Jellykko and you’d come looking for me around now. Follow me.”
Valentina followed Yoo Hyun into the laboratory.
Holding Rose, the sleeping Blood Jelly Dog, in her arms, she asked,
“May I ask what happened to our Rose? Rose suddenly grew weak one day.”
“The Jellykko Tomato Juice Edition produces blood by consuming its mana core’s lifespan, so it uses more energy than an ordinary Jellykko. Its lifespan has been depleted.”
“But I made sure to keep buying and feeding it something called Jellykko Nutritional Treats, which are supposed to extend its lifespan.”
Yoo Hyun took something out of a storage room filled with stacked boxes.
“That Jellykko is far higher-ranked than an ordinary Jellykko, so the Jellykko Nutritional Treats currently on the market can’t replenish enough energy. The model itself also consumes mana at an intense rate.”
“They aren’t useless, but...” Yoo Hyun muttered.
Surprisingly, as soon as Rose ate the special treat, about the size of a ping-pong ball, Rose quickly regained its energy.
“Huff, huff... Huff...!”
“Rose!”
The awakened Blood Jelly Dog eagerly licked Valentina’s cheek.
Lick. Lick.
Yoo Hyun handed Valentina a box of packaged treats.
“It would be best to feed one of these at least once every three days. You can give one immediately after a day of combat, too. No, just give one whenever you think of it. Come find me again when you run out.”
Valentina bowed her head.
“...Thank you.”
“Huff... Huff....”
“Then I’ll get back to my experiment.”
Yoo Hyun left Valentina behind and exited the laboratory.
Soon, the sound of a man crying could be heard outside.
“I-I don’t want to...!! I don’t want my eyeballs pulled out again!!!”
“Mr. Hassan, we need to find the optimal combination!! This isn’t an opportunity you can get whenever you want!!! Stand up straight, Hassan!!!”
He must be continuing that experiment from earlier.
An experiment using unusual-looking eyeballs....
“...Could it be an Evil Eye...?”
“Huff... Huff....”
Evil Eyes were an extremely rare type of ability. Could they really be created using magical beasts like that?
If this fact became known outside, there might be Transcendents or Apostles interested in it.
“I’ll have to keep an eye on this for now....”
Valentina felt there was a high chance that something would happen in this Sichuan subjugation operation as well.
* * *
After experimenting with Evil Eyes for a while, Hassan lay spread-eagled on the ground, wearing prototype eyes as he stared at the sky.
As though completely burned out, his eyes were unfocused, and drool leaked from his mouth.
He looked as though he had become an idiot.
The sight left me feeling troubled.
‘...Did he finally break?’
I approached him and spoke.
“Hassan, how are you feeling? Are you okay?”
When I spoke to him, he seemed to come back to his senses.
“Ah... Yes....”
“Should we stop if it’s too hard? I think we can just pick a decent combination and put it in.”
“No, I’m Hassan. This is nothing!”
Was that so? He had seemed half out of his mind just now....
Honestly, we had already gathered enough experimental data.
Thanks to Hassan’s cooperation, crafting eyeball-type magical beasts was no longer particularly difficult.
However, I had realized during the experiment that there was synergy between Evil Eyes. To obtain that information, we had repeatedly swapped out his eyes....
And that was quite troublesome.
‘There are too many possible combinations.’
Normally, only one Evil Eye lineage could be opened, but by using eyeball-type magical beasts, it was possible to awaken two lineages at the same time.
Since this gave him two types of Evil Eyes that could not normally be obtained, synergies emerged that could not be found in other beings with Evil Eyes.
The problem was that the synergies that arose were absurdly powerful.
For example, combining Mana Sight, a common type of Evil Eye that could see the flow of mana, with the Reverse Side Eye, which could see the world behind reality, created an eye capable of the indirect Observation of the mana of that hidden world.
And once you could see it, you could interfere with it.
The moment Observation became possible, it entered the domain of perception.
Simply being able to see and interfere with a world that could not normally be seen elevated one’s very rank of existence.
‘To an Evil Eye user, everyone else might as well be blind.’
If he could manipulate the mana of the world behind reality... he could create phenomena that beings unable to see it could never understand.
From the victim’s perspective, they could be struck by an invisible attack. They might not even sense it, making defense impossible.
Not only that, having exclusive access to resources that others did not know existed was practically a cheat ability in any field.
And Hassan knew that, which was why he was willing to keep trying different eyeballs.
That was right.
In fact, Hassan had been the one pushing hardest for this experiment.
Hassan, still lying spread-eagled on the ground, spoke.
“Ugh... Mr. Yoo Hyun has probably had enough by now, but I feel like I’m inconveniencing you for my sake.”
He spoke while cautiously watching my reaction, but I understood his position too.
“Once a mental image becomes fixed, it usually can’t be changed. It can’t be helped.”
Pulling out his eyeballs whenever he was about to gain enlightenment was meant to prevent his mental image from becoming completely fixed.
‘Once Tier 2 is fixed, he won’t be able to use other Evil Eyes.’
That was why he needed to find the lineage that suited him best.
[ Name 》 Hassan Al Faruq ]
[ Race 》 Human ]
[ Awakened Rank 》 S-Rank ]
[ Position 》 Combat Planning Assassin ]
[ Combat Tendencies 》 Prefers to show a flamboyant fighting style to induce the opponent into lowering their guard. Prefers to prepare multiple contingencies in advance before acting. ]
[ Areas for Improvement 》 Needs a weapon capable of creating variables in unexpected situations that deviate from the plan. Having lost his sight, he has no choice but to rely on his abilities. Recommend continuing the current direction of improvement. ]
[ Talent 》 Exceptional Predictive Ability, Exceptional Mana Affinity, Exceptional Dynamic Visual Acuity, Excellent Mental Strength ]
Normally, an Apostle would be influenced by their Transcendent and advance into a Tier 2 of the same lineage, but Hassan was somehow still at Tier 1.
Well, that made it possible to set the direction of his Tier 2.
By now, most people knew of the existence of Transcendents and Apostles.
I carefully asked him about it.
Hassan casually revealed important information.
“Well... the higher-up on our side isn’t interested in acts of invasion at all. So they don’t invest more than necessary in their Apostles. Ah, though they do unexpectedly support everything we need.”
“...They aren’t interested in invasion?”
What was this...? Just as I was crazy about essence, weren’t those bastards supposed to be crazy about causality...?
“Not every Transcendent is an invader.”
“Even so, they must have had some purpose in making Apostles, right?”
Hassan seemed to consider how to explain it for a moment before speaking.
“The being who bestowed power upon me likes to stay holed up in their own world and peep at other worlds. They’re a pervert who increases their Apostles like they’re adding TV channels, then peers into other worlds through their Apostles’ vision.”
...That was certainly unusual.
Hassan continued.
“It wasn’t a mere coincidence that I, someone who awakened a Trait that shares vision with animals, became their Apostle. Since I can share vision, I can see more than most people. In short, from their perspective, I’m a fairly high-performance camera.”
“Then... haven’t you effectively been abandoned as an Apostle?”
A weirdo who increased Apostles like broadcast channels, then barely invested in them? This was a new approach.
Hassan took out a bundle from his clothes and showed it to me.
“But sometimes they send something like donations through this pouch. Whenever something interesting happens, the pouch occasionally gets fuller. Well, when I was captured by the Merfolk, they may have turned off the channel, because there was no response at all....”
I accepted the pouch he handed me and examined it.
‘...It seems to be some kind of artifact, but what does it mean that donations are sent through this?’
As I tilted my head, the bundle suddenly became heavy.
“Oh, it seems they’re watching us right now. I think they sent this donation to you, Mr. Yoo Hyun, not me. Try taking it out.”
Half uneasy and half expectant, I put my hand into the bundle.
Something hard touched my hand. When I took it out...
“Hmm...? A marble...? Wait....”
Something wriggled inside the marble.
“...Could it be an egg?”
* * *
As time passed, countless Hunters began gathering in Sichuan.
The Hunters who had entered early had succeeded in obtaining fruit, and once it became publicly known that the rumors were true, various people began taking interest. This included powerful figures who wanted Sichuan’s elixirs and Hunters who wished to regain their youth.
Anyway, as the Round Table meeting had planned, many people gathered here.
Of course, unlike with the Merfolk, there was no central leader, so they all acted separately. Still, they succeeded in driving back the relatively weak magical beasts on Sichuan’s outskirts and halting the expansion of the forest.
And among them was the western faction.
The Gate Church’s base camp.
There, a woman in white light armor twisted her face and screamed.
“Ah, aaah... N-no!!! Saintess...!!! You c-can’t, c-come here!!!! Th-that... eyeball!!! The eyeball is coming!!!!!!”
“...Luciella, it’s okay. This is only the outskirts. I’m telling you, it’s safe.”
Luciella, the commander of the Gate Church’s Holy Knights.
Ever since she had been found in her room looking vacant and drooling, she had remained like this.
There had been a censer in the room, so she must have gone to Masquerade.
‘Just where did she go in there, and what happened to leave her so broken...?’
She had always been difficult to deal with because of her nasty personality and the trouble she caused within the church... but now she could barely function as a person. That was a problem in its own way.
Luciella, her long blue hair hanging loose, anxiously looked around again and again.
“Ugh... Uugh... The eye... the eye is watching... I’m telling you, the eye is watching!!! We have to worship, they’re watching, we have to worship, they want something from me, we have to worship, worship, worship the gaze, worship the gaze, worship the gaze─”
Having endured it for long enough, Celestia, the Gate Church’s Saintess, struck Luciella on the head with a scripture.
Thwack!
“Please stop acting like a fucking lunatic!! We should worship our god, what is this disgraceful behavior? You’re not even a heretic, you’re driving me insane. Please remember that you’re the commander of the Holy Knights!!”
Stressed out, Celestia roughly kneaded a Jellykko.
Squish. Squish.
“Huff... Huff, huff....”
Jiggle, jiggle.
Then Luciella suddenly began convulsing.
“Ugh... Uuaaaah!! J-Jelly, nooooo─”
Thud.
Seeing the jiggling jelly of the Jellykko Little Devil Edition seemed to remind Luciella of something. She foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
“Uh...? Luciella? Luciella!!! Wake up!!!!”
Yoo Hyun, who had been approaching while watching that scene from afar, stopped when the base camp became noisy.
“...What’s this? I came to say hello to Ceres, but I guess now isn’t the time. Looks like someone’s having a fit.”
“Huff, huff....”
[ Tsk, tsk... I told you not to associate with such inferior fools. ]
The Korean base camp and the Gate Church camp were close, so there would be another opportunity.
Anyway, I joined the Sichuan magical beast subjugation operation as well.
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