WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B.

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 86: 086

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Morning.

I opened my eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling.

Then I muttered quietly.

“An unfamiliar ceiling.”

Of course it was unfamiliar.

This wasn't my usual room in the semi-basement. It was the Extreme Lunatic Hell Premium Luxury... Suite Home I had moved into just yesterday!

‘Hmm. My back feels a little sore. I need to buy a bed soon.’

Since I didn't have any bedding yet, I'd just laid a simple topper and blanket on the floor.

As a result, my whole body felt stiff.

It seemed a bed really was necessary for a good night's sleep.

I needed to buy the rest of my furniture, including a bed, before the day was over.

Hmm... Should I have delayed moving until I finished arranging the furniture?

Still, I was so proud of finally owning my own home that I wanted to move in even a day sooner.

Anyway, I got up and headed into the living room.

“Sis! Food!”

My voice rang through the huge mansion. With no furniture inside, it echoed loudly.

It felt like I was in a cave.

My sister came downstairs from the upper floor.

“Oh, Jiho. You're up?”

“Sis, soybean paste soup.”

“We don't even have a refrigerator or ingredients. What soybean paste soup are you talking about? Let's just order delivery. We had Chinese food yesterday, so... do you want Japanese food today?”

“Soybean paste soup.”

“Enough with the soybean paste soup already...”

My sister frowned at my declaration.

She seemed dissatisfied with this body's firm tastes.

But soybean paste soup in the morning was a serious matter.

I could never give it up.

“Is there even somewhere nearby that delivers soybean paste soup...?”

As my sister looked through delivery apps on her phone, I lay down and took out mine.

Then I logged onto Hunter Gallery as usual.

There were all kinds of posts there.

[The official contract is tomorrow, right? Then we'll finally see Blue Dot's face.]

[Practicing tomorrow's post) Wow, Blue Dot was a beautiful high school girl. This is insane. An S-rank beauty from our province, holy shit.]

[I'm telling you, he's definitely some creepy internet shut-in.]

[Breaking) President Trump says he'll attend the official contract ceremony.]

[Why is Torumph coming?]

[Why else? He's trying to pull some stunt to steal our country's Hard-rank Hunter.]

...

The Hunter Gallery users were eagerly anticipating tomorrow's official contract ceremony.

That's right.

My official contract was tomorrow!

Which meant this body's handsome face would soon be revealed to the entire nation.

I smirked.

“Hehe. Tomorrow, girls all over the world will see my face, fall in love, and lose sleep at night.”

“Hmm... I can't find any decent Korean restaurants that deliver. Their ratings are all low too. It'd be better to go out and eat. Jiho, do you want to eat outside? There's a restaurant nearby with good reviews.”

“Sis. What if an army of bikini-clad beauties rushes at me? I'm a Confucian boy, so I can only choose one.”

“Jiho, you're not that handsome. Please stop acting ridiculous.”

My sister said something absurd...

But I didn't believe her.

After all, Iing Iing had told me I was handsome.

The judgment of Extreme Lunatic Hell Fairy Iing Iing had to be more accurate than the aesthetic sense of ordinary humans.

So I really was handsome!

No objections accepted.

Anyway.

“Sis! Let's go eat!”

“Okay. Let's go.”

We headed to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.

We needed to buy furniture and appliances quickly before we could live normally.

* * *

After a simple meal, a little after noon, Hyeji came to our house.

“Jiho, I'm here.”

“Welcome, Hyeji. What's that?”

“What do you think? It's a housewarming gift. I should've given it to you yesterday, but I forgot.”

-Iing Iing!

“Welcome, Iing Iing.”

Hyeji had brought a ramen box.

When I peeked inside, it was packed with all kinds of miscellaneous items.

There were boxes of tissues and diffusers, along with a wall clock, mood lights, picture frames, towels, detergent, soap, dishes, and more.

Hyeji had brought all these things as housewarming gifts for us!

I'd wondered why she had come carrying such a large ramen box. It looked like she'd bought everything in bulk at a nearby supermarket.

“Why did you buy so much?”

“It was obvious you were missing things. Here, take it.”

I accepted the box Hyeji held out with a slightly dazed expression.

Hmm. How commendable.

I'd expected her to bring something like tissues at most.

To think she had packed up so many daily necessities.

She had put some real thought into it.

‘With this level of sincerity, I can raise her porter rank.’

To offer this many tributes.

For an ordinary person, it was an acceptable level of devotion.

From today onward, Hyeji would be promoted from an SSS-rank porter to an EX-rank porter.

“Thanks for the housewarming gifts. I'll use them well.”

-Iing Iing!!!

“Iing Iing is bragging that she picked them out. Actually, Iing Iing chose all of these. I was just going to buy some tissues...”

I knew it.

There was no way ordinary Na Hyeji would have such commendable thoughts.

Our lovely, adorable, precious Iing Iing had picked out all these gifts with me in mind!

What a good girl!

I vigorously petted Iing Iing.

“Thanks, Iing Iing! You're the best, as expected!”

-Iing Iing!!!

“Iing Iing is the best! You're on a completely different level from an SSS-rank porter who'd try to get away with bringing some shitty toilet paper!”

“...What's an SSS-rank porter?”

EX-rank was clearly too much for Hyeji.

Let's cancel Na Hyeji's rank promotion.

SSS was perfect for Hyeji.

Hyeji, SSS suits you perfectly.

Anyway.

“Hyeji. We're going to Floor 35 today. You know that, right?”

After carefully setting Iing Iing down, I changed the subject to climbing.

The floor we were going to today.

Tower of Trials Floor 35.

The floor I'd been waiting for all this time.

Hyeji nodded.

“I know. Floor 35... It's the Great City floor.”

High Floors, Floor 35.

A floor made up of a burning great city.

“And it's also the first floor where Black Mages appear.”

The first floor where Black Mages appeared!

At last, today I would encounter evil Black Mages!

I couldn't help looking forward to it.

After all...

“Hyeji. I'm thinking of fighting a Black Mage and learning new magic.”

This was my chance to learn a Black Mage's magic.

For reference, Black Mages wielded two kinds of magic.

“Black Mage magic! Magic Bullet and Curse!”

The first spell was Magic Bullet.

As the name suggested, it was magic that fired bullets of mana to snipe enemies.

Its power wasn't particularly strong, though.

Its range was considerable, and the projectile was extremely fast, but it could only pierce through iron armor in a single shot.

It wasn't especially powerful magic.

Of course, it would probably feel fairly threatening to Normal-rank or Hard-rank ordinary people...

But it was nothing much to this body, who wielded Protective Aura.

No.

My Protective Aura could deflect even special anti-Hunter rounds without much difficulty.

Something like Magic Bullet wasn't much of a threat to this body.

And since I could use Railgun, I didn't particularly need some long-range sniping spell.

That was why I wasn't looking forward to Magic Bullet much.

The spell I was looking forward to wasn't Magic Bullet.

It was the other spell they could use.

“Curse magic...!”

The symbol of a Black Mage in fantasy!

Curse magic!

Just thinking about learning it made me excited.

Curse magic caused its target to gradually waste away before eventually killing them.

In game terms, it was a damage-over-time debuff.

A Black Mage's basic combat method was cursing and running away.

They would cast Curse from afar to weaken Hunters. Then they would use Ghouls as shields, harass them with Magic Bullets to keep their distance, and run until the Hunters collapsed dead.

That was why Black Mages were notorious monsters among High Floor Hunters.

Once you were cursed, it continued until you killed the Black Mage who cast it.

But whenever you tried to kill them, they would run while using Ghouls as shields. Once they opened the distance, they would keep sniping you with Magic Bullets.

Black Mages were extremely dangerous and infuriating enemies like that.

To me, though, they were nothing more than magic vending machines that would teach me new spells.

“Hehe. With Iing Iing's mobility and my overwhelming abilities, we'll be able to corner a Black Mage and extort a new spell in no time.”

“Jiho. Aren't you scared to learn something like Curse? What if you get corrupted or something? You know how in novels, people learn black magic and become corrupted.”

“Well, it's not like I haven't considered that possibility. But... It's unlikely.”

“...Why?”

“My intuition says so. Don't worry about it.”

“?”

Hyeji looked confused.

She seemed unable to understand how I could be so certain based on nothing but intuition.

But...

‘My intuition about magic is fairly accurate.’

It had been that way for some time.

When it came to magic, I had developed quite good instincts.

I naturally knew how magic would change if I altered the arrangement of its components.

I could see what effects would result from using magic in different ways.

The more my magical ability increased, the more accurate the intuition my ‘soul’ gave me became.

And this time was the same.

The Black Mage magic I was about to learn.

Curse magic.

A powerful intuition flowed through my soul, telling me that even if I learned it, my essence wouldn't change.

Black magic was only one of many ways to use Blue Motes.

Beyond my spiritual senses, I could feel that it had nothing to do with a wizard's essence or disposition.

Well then.

It should be fine to learn black magic!

Anyway... Shall we get going?

“Enter the Tower.”

[Baek Jiho (Republic of Korea: Floor 35)]

[Na Hyeji (Republic of Korea: Floor 35)]

[Please select the floor you wish to enter.]

“Floor 35.”

[Entering Tower Floor 35.]

A bright glow wrapped around us.

This floor's objective was to learn Curse magic.

* * *

Fwoosh!

The bright glow faded.

I slowly looked around.

What I saw was...

A dark night.

A vast city blazing as it burned.

A medieval fantasy-style great city was on fire.

Buildings large and small had become seas of flame, driving back the darkness of the late night.

Smoke and fire filled the entire area.

When I raised my head and looked at the sky, the night sky that should have been dark was dyed completely red.

It looked as though a hell of fire had descended upon this world.

I muttered quietly.

“Air Manipulation.”

-Fwoooooosh!

I quickly put out the fire.

Using air manipulation magic, I moved a large mass of air and immediately extinguished the flames around us.

Fssssss...

The flames vanished in an instant.

The roaring fire disappeared, leaving only acrid smoke to drift weakly upward and block my view.

Still, I couldn't put out every fire in the great city.

“Tsk. My mana control isn't enough to extinguish fires too far away... Is my fire suppression range only a few hundred meters at most?”

“Um... Jiho? I think instantly extinguishing fires within a radius of a few hundred meters is already amazing.”

“It's me.”

My mana sensitivity.

In other words, the range of my spiritual senses was only a few hundred meters.

That was why I could extinguish only the fires within a few hundred meters of myself.

Which meant...

-Whoosh!

I couldn't suppress the fires in the countless buildings far away.

Only the fires near me in this huge city had gone out.

The distant areas were still engulfed in flames.

If I had put out every fire in the great city, I could have farmed that much more loot...

What a shame.

As I looked around, familiar groans rang out, followed by the sound of countless footsteps from every direction.

-Krrk. Keruk. Krrrk...!

-Kraaaaaah!

-Keheeeek!

Then several grotesque figures emerged from between the half-burned buildings.

Walking corpses.

-Keheeeek!!!

“Those Ghoul bastards look disgusting every time I see them.”

They were Ghouls.

They had noticed our presence and were beginning to reveal themselves one by one.

Of course, dealing with them was easy.

All I had to do was point my staff and fire off magic.

“Air Bullet.”

-Bababababang!

Thud! Crunch! Crack! Boom!

Air Bullets pierced their foreheads and blasted holes through their chests, causing the Ghouls to collapse in heaps.

Dozens, then hundreds of Ghouls rushed in from all directions.

As many as came charging toward us, that many died.

Their corpses piled up all over the alleyways.

As that continued, I kept killing Ghouls while scanning the area.

“Those Black Mage bastards should be appearing soon...”

According to the Floor 35 strategy guide, once Hunters entered the Tower and fought fiercely against Ghouls...

Black Mages would appear midway through.

Just as the Hunters were steadily losing stamina and strength while dealing with Ghouls, the Black Mages would suddenly show up and cast Curse magic.

That was why I was waiting for the Black Mages to appear.

The moment they showed themselves, I needed to fly over and subdue one.

How many Ghouls had I killed like that?

At some point...

-Iing!!!

Iing Iing beside me suddenly cried out.

I immediately understood.

“Jiho! Iing Iing says she found a Black Mage!”

Our Extreme Lunatic Hell reconnaissance drone, Iing Iing, had detected a Black Mage!

“Iing Iing! Deploy!”

-Iing Iing!

Whoosh.

Using Iing Iing's telekinetic flight, we flew toward where the Black Mage was.

The place where Iing Iing had spotted them was one corner of the ruins.

A secluded alley beside a blazing building.

There, I saw them.

“So those are the Black Mages!!!”

Five old men wearing black robes with their hoods pulled up.

Every one of them had skin pale enough to be unpleasant.

Their bodies were covered in red tattoos.

And Black Mages were people who controlled Ghouls, or jiangshi.

In other words, they were Blood Cult bastards!

To preserve the order of the Central Plains martial world, this orthodox faction hero would pass judgment on them!

“Kill all of them except one who'll teach me magic!”

I had just drawn Blue Motes out from within my body and begun preparing magic.

Then the Black Mages who spotted me opened their eyes wide and shouted.

“A wizard! Is there still an Imperial Mage left?!”

“Remnants of the Empire! Kill him at once!”

“Be careful! The flow of that bastard's mana is no joke!”

“No, that speed is impossible...! Even our Sect Leader's mana doesn't flow that fast...!”

The Black Mages shouted all sorts of things at me, filled with hostility, wariness, and confusion.

But I was the one who had no choice but to be confused.

‘What? Why can I understand what they're saying?’

Footnotes:

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