WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle

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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈

Chapter 30: Nanaruk, the Cat-Like Beauty Warrior

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-You're just putting on airs!

What was with this old man?

I had only accurately relayed what the goblin said, yet Pelerian was getting angry.

My relationship with Pelerian was strange.

He had stabbed me in the back once, and I had reestablished our relationship by making him swear another oath. He helped me as I learned magic, but we were not master and disciple.

I normally spoke casually, but I had been born and raised in a land where manners mattered. Whenever I learned magic from Pelerian, or whenever his wrinkles caught my eye, polite speech tended to slip out.

Of course, respect was something exchanged between two people.

When he acted this unpleasant, no nice words came out of my mouth either.

-You're pretending to understand Goblin, aren't you? It's obvious.

‘What kind of bullshit is that?’

The surprising part was that Pelerian did not care much whether I spoke politely or casually.

I had thought he was an old man obsessed with authority, so why was that?

Considering he had called me a lowly creature at first, it was not like he respected me.

After talking with him for several days, I discovered the reason.

The truth was truly astonishing.

Pelerian did not look down on monsters.

No, if anything, he seemed to like monsters more than humans and dwarves.

If I expressed the degree to which Pelerian respected each race with inequality signs, it looked like this.

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Elves > Monsters >>>>> Poop! Haha > Miscellaneous "people" races, including humans

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If I had been a person rather than a monster, Pelerian would have been far nastier.

The shock I felt upon learning that.

‘It isn't strange that I understand Elven, but it's strange that I understand Goblin?’

-Understanding Elven is possible. There are blessings that let you understand languages and such. But that does not work with Goblin.

I could clearly understand what the goblin was saying.

Pelerian had his own basis for speaking so confidently.

-Goblins have no unified nation and have never built a large civilization. They live scattered about, and each group has its own language. Like dialects.

‘I get what you mean. But you understood it roughly too, old man.’

-I learned the common roots through old research. If it were Goblin from somewhere other than the Great Forest, even I would not understand it at all.

Even then, the goblin flailing inside the pelican's beak kept screaming.

"Save me!"

Yes, no matter what Pelerian said, I could understand it perfectly.

-So it should be impossible to understand Goblin completely...

‘What do you want me to do? I understand it.’

-...

Pelerian fell silent.

Well, what could he do when I could hear it?

-But according to what you said, can we just leave that goblin to die?

‘Ah.’

The young goblin had shouted that he needed to return to the river.

That meant he knew where the river was.

The pelican had already swallowed the goblin whole.

‘Ack!’

Was he already dead?

I sprang out of the bushes.

Startled by my appearance, the pelican squawked. It flapped as if it meant to fly away, but perhaps its body had become too heavy. It fell flat on the ground with a splat.

Just as expected of birds.

Vicious and greedy.

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【Ill-Tempered Pelican Lv. 7】

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Considering he had been caught by such a weak monster, goblins did not seem like much either.

I bit the pelican's neck.

He had no notable Venom Resistance, so he could not last even a moment.

It gave one squawk and died, but I did not even gain experience.

Fortunately, the goblin was alive.

The pelican's beak opened, and a murky green hand shot out. Completely exhausted, the goblin crawled free.

"Gasp!"

Then he saw me and jumped in fright.

He was small.

Well, he was a goblin, so that was only natural, but he looked young.

Was he a goblin boy?

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【Young Goblin Lv. 11】

【Traits】

[Goblin], [Curiosity]

【Skills】

[Stealth Lv. 3], [Stone Throwing Lv. 4], [Running Lv. 6], [Pathfinding Lv. 2]

【Status】

[Exhausted], [Injury], [Fear]

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Weak!

Wow, it was seriously pathetic.

The only skill that looked useful in a fight was Stone Throwing.

Was Running a lower-tier skill of Acceleration? It looked similar to the Quick Crawling I had once possessed.

So someone could be Level 11 and still be this weak.

I was jealous of Pathfinding, at least.

It would be nice to learn it through Billy's Horn, but I was already borrowing a skill called Heavenly Thunder Decree.

Until I acquired that skill, I would have to keep Billy's Horn sealed.

"Please spare me! Please!"

What a cowardly goblin.

The young goblin knelt before me and begged.

Well, the pelican looked far tastier than the goblin, so I had no intention of eating him.

He probably would not give me experience either.

Enough of that, show me where the river is!

But I had no way to convey that.

I gave Pelerian a meaningful look.

‘Old man, you tell him.’

-...I can't do it.

‘What? You said you could speak Goblin.’

-This is not a language issue. That one cannot see me or hear my voice.

‘But I can see you.’

-If I had mana, I could transmit my voice. As I am now, only you can see me.

That was shocking.

He really was more useless than I had thought.

Perhaps Pelerian noticed my thoughts. A faint air of defeat settled over his face.

I lightly patted the goblin's shoulder with my tail, trying to reassure him.

The young goblin convulsed and trembled violently.

"Eek!"

I would not eat him, so he should go.

I waved my tail back and forth. It meant he should leave.

"Can I, can I really go?"

We could finally understand each other.

The boy slowly backed away.

I did not approach, only kept waving my tail.

Then an old memory came to mind, and I lowered my head slightly.

Just like the centipede couple had done.

The goblin looked confused, then copied my posture.

That was right. Exchange began with sharing greetings.

The goblin boy smiled faintly.

He carefully started toward the other side of the bushes, then suddenly turned back to me.

"...Ululullulu?"

Then he vanished in a flash.

What was that?

What was Ululullulu?

Even I, who had mastered languages, could not understand that word.

‘Did he curse at me?’

-He surely did.

Hmm, Pelerian seemed sulky.

I had not spared the goblin only out of kindness.

-Your head works. Now we can follow that goblin.

He had said he needed to return to the river. If we tracked him, we should reach the river.

‘I'd better have one bite before we go.’

What did pelican meat taste like?

I hurried through my meal.

The young goblin was small, but quick on his feet.

Following him in secret was quite a task.

* * *

Goblins were monsters.

Monsters evolved.

When juvenile goblins grew to a certain degree and met the level requirement, they matured into adult goblins.

Then, after growing further and finding their own aptitudes, they became warriors, shamans, hunters, or gatherers.

A small number of goblins evolved once again.

They became Hobgoblins.

They could be called the superior species of goblins.

They grew taller, their skin turned red, and their muscles became stronger.

Possessing exceptional combat power, they led goblin groups.

There was a Hobgoblin named Nanaruk.

She was the greatest warrior of the Runga Tribe, which had settled near the old river basin.

Whenever she tied her hair tightly and ran through the forest, she was as agile as any elf.

Nanaruk's cat-like golden eyes were fixed on a large rubber tree.

More precisely, they were fixed on the lizard skin attached to its trunk.

It had been pinned there with a sharp arrowhead.

A smile spread over her lips, revealing her pretty pointed canine.

Properly stretched and dried lizard skin served as paper.

Sure enough, it was covered in writing.

The skin was a letter.

A letter left behind by Nanaruk's lover.

"Chandal..."

Nanaruk carefully murmured her lover's name and read the letter.

Despite reading a love letter, her expression darkened by the moment.

‘...Nana, I'm sorry. But I couldn't stop my father. I cautiously said one thing and got beaten senseless! War between our tribes cannot be avoided.

If I'm honest, I want you to run away. I'll try to talk to Father. At least I can save you and your younger siblings. But your father is the chief, so I know I cannot save him.

I love you, Nana.

Write your reply below. If you tell me the place and date, I'll bring warriors to meet you and your siblings.

Your Chandal, who loves you more than anyone in the world.’

The letter was short because it needed to leave space for a reply.

That empty space felt hollow.

Instead of writing a reply, Nanaruk...

Riiip.

Tore the lizard skin apart.

She shredded it into pieces and scattered them.

It felt as though her heart had been torn apart as well.

Chandal's father, Krok, was the chief of a neighboring tribe.

Their tribes had once been on good terms. Talks of Nanaruk and Chandal's marriage had begun long ago.

But everything had changed after Krok, already a Hobgoblin, succeeded in evolving once more.

Krok's tribe began invading and absorbing other goblin tribes nearby.

Now that they had grown stronger than the Runga Tribe, the oldest and largest tribe, they were baring their fangs at the Runga Tribe as well.

Nanaruk had hoped Chandal would persuade his father...

But run away?

She could never do that. Not for her younger siblings, and not for her father.

Nanaruk was a warrior of the Runga Tribe.

Her face had darkened with grief when...

"Sis, sis!"

Her younger sibling appeared.

Color returned to Nanaruk's face.

"Why are you so late? I was worried!"

"Ululullulu saved me!"

Children tended to skip over important details when explaining things.

"Ululullulu?"

"Yeah, I was about to get eaten by a pelican, but Ululullulu saved me!"

Ululullulu was a legendary serpent.

After roughly hearing what had happened, Nanaruk smacked her sibling on the back.

"Ow!"

"What Ululullulu? You almost died!"

"No... It really happened."

"To begin with, a white snake and Ululullulu are not even the same color."

"That's true, but the snake definitely saved me... The snake even understood me."

"The pelican was nearby, so the snake probably let you go."

The goblin boy tried to protest, but Nanaruk no longer listened.

"We're late. At this rate, the boat will leave."

"Oh, right."

"Hop on!"

Nanaruk swiftly scooped up her younger sibling.

Then she began running like the wind.

* * *

The breeze was cool.

It was unbearably embarrassing that I had lost the young goblin while following him, but neither Pelerian nor I blamed the other.

Fortunately, from the moment I lost the goblin's trail, I had caught a scent.

It was the smell of water.

I followed that scent.

At last, I found the Medeira River Pelerian had emphasized so many times.

"Shaaa!"

That meant, ahh.

The smell of water was unpleasant, but the river itself was truly spectacular.

Honestly, it was not large enough to compare to the Han River. It was about the size of the lower Cheonggyecheon Stream.

The water was somewhere between black and brown.

It did not seem dirty so much as muddy.

‘Where do we go now? Are we almost there?’

-Hm.

Pelerian had said that once we found the Medeira River, we would be nearly at his Dungeon.

That was why we had desperately searched for the river all this time.

So where was the Dungeon?

-Hm.

Pelerian was only staring at the distant mountains.

Beyond the river stood a noticeable rocky mountain, glinting orange beneath the sun like a burning sweet potato.

-I think it was behind that.

‘Really?’

-We only need to cross the river.

‘Then that's easy.’

Right, we should cross the river.

We could not take a boat or fly over, so if we followed the river, surely we would eventually find a bridge.

...For a moment, I had been thinking with the common sense of a South Korean citizen.

There was no way a bridge had been built over a river in the depths of this vast rainforest.

‘How do we cross?’

-...

‘You said we'd find it as soon as we reached the river.’

-I thought it was either on this side or that side...

Pelerian cleared his throat.

-Could you not swim across?

‘I can't...’

I hated swimming even more than Flight.

Even in a rainforest, river water was cold. Was that not dangerous?

-How can you not swim when you are a snake!

That could happen.

And it was not just because I disliked swimming that I hesitated.

Look, there were crocodiles floating over there.

I was not confident in underwater combat yet.

-Then... hm.

Pelerian pressed his lips together.

We were doomed.

That was the only expression that came to mind.

If I headed upstream, would the river eventually narrow enough for me to jump across?

How long would I have to follow the river upstream, clinging to such uncertain hope?

-Look there, look there!

At Pelerian's fussing voice, I turned my head listlessly.

The riverside was relatively open, giving us a clear view.

That was why I could see them.

The goblins preparing to launch a boat onto the river.

Footnotes:

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