WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Gate Summoner Hunters Obsess Over ◈
Chapter 39: Goes Through Hardship. Has a Strange Dream.
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His small, precious studio apartment, where he returned after the Management Bureau's grand sendoff.
Normally, Kang Yul would have stripped off his sweat-soaked clothes and showered first.
But today, the moment he felt that all signs of people nearby had vanished, he immediately opened his Gate and stepped inside.
"Worm... I saw something really scary today... (omitted)... So just for tonight, sleep with me...."
Wriggle...?
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It feels deep affection for you...?
: Though it is not quite sure why, it decides to comfort you...?
"Thanks, Worm."
After complaining to the Worm like a child saying, "I'm sleeping with Mom tonight!" after watching a horror movie.
Feeling much calmer, Kang Yul took out the blue nautilus from his pocket, ready to get to the point.
'This should be enough, right?'
The pool's red water, something that seemed to imitate a human, a giant as large as a house, and even the Woman in the Blood, frightening enough to haunt his dreams.
He had collected plenty of things that looked more nourishing than the bloodwater from before, so there should be no problem waking the tree.
No, there had to be no problem.
If this was not enough, he would have to enter a Gate like that again...
'...Absolutely not.'
So please, be satisfied with this and wake up, Kang Yul thought as he walked to the center of the cavern where the roots had settled.
He placed the nautilus over the spot that had only regained a little color after absorbing his blood last time. Then he poured mana into it and wished with all his might.
Spit out everything it had absorbed.
Soak the roots with it and wake this sleepy root from its slumber.
Then, right afterward.
Drip... Drip...!
The faint sound of droplets falling from inside the nautilus reached him.
Trickle...!
Before long, he heard a shallow stream flowing out.
'Why is it coming out so weakly? Is something stuck?' Kang Yul wondered, giving the nautilus a few tap tap taps.
A moment later.
Gush... Gurgle...
More water poured out than before, easing some of his frustration, but it was still pitiful compared to what it had absorbed.
As he peered into the nautilus's opening and gave it a few more tap tap taps, wondering what was wrong with it.
Crack! ... Creak! Crk...!!!
"?"
At the sound of something coming loose... no, something closer to snapping or breaking.
Sensing something wrong, Kang Yul turned the nautilus's opening toward the roots again.
Glug...
Grrk...
Splat!
Something shaped like a person fell from the nautilus's opening onto the roots with a wet splat!
The instant Kang Yul recognized it as the Woman in the Blood, he was about to scream like a little girl and run to the Worm.
Then.
Kwoooosh-!!!!
The nautilus exploded.
"Whoaahhh-!"
No, Kang Yul had only mistaken it for an explosion.
More precisely, it was blasting out red water with the force of a fire truck's water cannon.
Kang Yul immediately tried to put the nautilus down.
If he kept holding on like this, his body was bound to be torn apart. He decided to set it down, lie flat on the ground, and wait for things to settle.
But to give the conclusion first... that was impossible.
"Why won't this thing come off?!"
Was it because he had commanded it with mana to spit out everything it had absorbed?
The nautilus stuck fast to Kang Yul's hand and showed no intention of coming off.
Unable to withstand the overwhelming water pressure, so powerful that he had mistaken it for an explosion, Kang Yul...
"Gah/ah/ah/ah/ah/ah/ah/ah-!"
...was pushed all the way to the far wall of the cavern, letting out a strange scream.
With the nautilus pressed against his chest, it was difficult to breathe, so he could not speak properly.
At that moment.
Wriggle-!!!
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It thinks you are in danger-!!!
: It thinks it must devour the dangerous dirt-!!!
"No/Worm/!!!"
Seeing Kang Yul like that, the Worm was about to swallow the nautilus at once, just as it had swallowed the cavern ceiling.
But Kang Yul desperately stopped it.
The reason was simple.
If something broke and left him at death's door, he could always fix it with a costly potion.
But if the Worm ate the nautilus to save him, it would be nearly impossible to undo.
'Do you know how hard it was to collect this?!'
That, he could not allow.
He did not want to enter a Gate like that twice, of course.
But he had no idea when another such Gate would appear, so Kang Yul decided to willingly endure the pain.
Therefore.
"I'm/fine/Worm!"
Kang Yul calmed the Worm again as it squirmed anxiously.
He was fine. He would overcome a trial like this.
He would show what a Hunter who practiced high-risk, high-return was truly like.
"I/can/do/this!/I/can!"
W-Wriggle....
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It thinks you are in danger....
: It thinks it must devour the dangerous dirt....
"Worm!/Trust/in/the/me/you/believe/in!"
Wriggle!
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It feels deep affection for you!
: Though it pains it, it resolves to watch over your growth!
Right after completely preventing the Worm from intervening.
"Gah/ah/ah/ah/ah-!"
Kwoooosh-!!!!
Kang Yul gradually adapted to the nautilus's water pressure and began angling it to the side. Before long, he succeeded in aiming it at the roots.
Until now, the roots had merely regained some vitality by slowly absorbing the red water scattered around the cavern.
But now that Kang Yul was supplying the red water directly, with pinpoint accuracy, they began to...
Throb throb throb...!!!
...pulse like the tentacles of a living creature.
After that, the roots began moving as though determined not to miss even a single drop of red water. Kang Yul helped by moving the nautilus around, as though luring them.
A moment later.
Throb...!!!
When the roots reached right in front of Kang Yul, like salmon swimming upstream.
"Gah/ah/ah/ah/ah-!!!"
Kang Yul used every last ounce of his strength to press the nautilus's opening against the roots.
Then, at that moment.
Throb throb throb throb...!!!
Crack... Crack... Crack...
"...Hup!"
The water pressure lessened as the roots burrowed into the nautilus.
Kang Yul instinctively took a deep breath of the air he had been lacking. Then he squeezed out the rest of his strength, moved sideways, and collapsed onto the ground.
"I... lived...."
As Kang Yul stared up into the air, dazed from being unable to breathe properly.
He watched the roots burrow in as if they would break the nautilus, thinking, 'That... is going to break....' At the same time, he thought, 'I've only used it once, too. What a waste....'
Wriggle wriggle wriggle-!!!
Feeling a gaze on him, Kang Yul slightly turned his head. Far away, the Worm was industriously wriggling toward him, making it painfully obvious that it was angry.
'Ah, Worm's going to scold me for this....'
Kang Yul deeply considered what excuse to make and how to soothe it.
Then.
Ding!
['Tree with a Thousand Roots - Baniar' feels affection for you.]
['Tree with a Thousand Roots - Baniar' follows you.]
"Did... it...!"
Perhaps it was because he saw the notification he had so desperately wanted.
Or perhaps oxygen deprivation had stopped his brain cells from functioning.
Wriggle-!!!
The instant the small, cute, precious little wriggler reached him.
Kang Yul slowly closed his eyes and lost consciousness.
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Wriggle...!
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It thinks your actions this time were far too reckless...!
Wriggle-!
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: It thinks it will thoroughly scold you once you wake up-!
...Wriggle!
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: But at the same time, it thinks your growth is admirable....
...Wriggle.
﹝Special Characteristics﹞
: Therefore, it decides to comfort you, who worked so hard and did so well.
#####
Right after losing consciousness.
Kang Yul came to his senses somewhere strange.
Where am I?
No matter where he looked, he could see nothing.
This was a pitch-black world filled entirely with darkness, without a single ray of light.
Normally, it would not have been strange for Kang Yul to panic.
Being deprived even of his sight in a place he did not know was fear of the unknown itself.
But.
I'm... sleepy....
For some reason, Kang Yul found this space endlessly comfortable.
Though he knew it was an unknown place.
It felt warm, soft, and cozy, as if he were in his mother's arms.
He had never even had a mother, so he did not know why he felt this way. He simply did.
Because of that.
What would my mother have looked like, if I'd had one...?
All the curiosity about his mother that Kang Yul had carefully built up in one corner of his heart throughout his life began to surge forth.
At the same time, a change began to occur in the pitch-black space that had contained nothing.
For example... the enormous silhouette of something that appeared before Kang Yul the instant he thought of his mother.
....
Kang Yul stared blankly and silently at the being before him.
It was a being with a size and presence infinitely greater than his own.
Like the difference between an ant and a human, it exuded an overwhelming aura, a gap that could never be bridged.
And that difference became even clearer when the being opened its eyes.
....
If the difference in presence before had been like that between an ant and a human.
Now that it had opened its eyes and was looking down at Kang Yul, it was like the difference between a speck of dust and a human.
To that being, Kang Yul was that small. Even a soft exhale from it could be fatal to him.
But if someone asked Kang Yul whether he was afraid...
...I'm not scared.
Kang Yul was not afraid of that being's gaze.
He felt infinite affection in its eyes, and every action made him feel as though it was being considerate of him.
It treated him like something precious it had to protect.
Like the love of a mother he had never experienced, he felt the boundless affection a parent gives a child for no reason at all.
Because of that.
I'm... so sleepy....
Even with such an overwhelming being before him, Kang Yul did not feel tense at all.
Instead, as time passed, he felt his tension melt away and his body grow languid.
As if this were a safe place, as if he could rest here without worry.
As if it were telling him that he had worked very hard today and should get plenty of rest.
And so, in the end.
.........
Kang Yul fell asleep defenselessly in an unknown place, before a being he did not know.
And he had to pay the price.
Sleep■■, m■b■
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Ding!
['Mountain-Eating Worm - Bakkai' has given you its devoted care.]
[You can now eat dirt better.]
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