WETRIED TRANSLATIONS
Is It Bad That the Main Character’s a Roleplayer?
[Translator – Aren]
◈ Chapter 361 Even though The Right Eye Cannot See (2)
“Elaborate.”
All I could tell from what they had just said was that the Noble Dragon had been struggling quite a bit. I needed a more detailed explanation.
[Those things wander between dimensions, devouring fragments of worlds that have flickered out and feeding upon fragile worlds. Unfortunately, it seems this world has caught their eyes this time.]
Perhaps understanding the meaning behind my pressing, the Vermilion Bird hurriedly elaborated. It was certainly more detailed than before, but the information still wasn’t particularly useful.
My hand tightened around my longsword.
“I’m glad to hear a glimpse of the hidden side of things that only ancient beings such as yourself would know, but I think there’s something a bit more important I need to hear right now. So how do we fight that thing?”
[Hmm? Aah…I see. I made a mistake.]
Right. I didn’t know why they thought explaining what it was came first, but now that they understood, just tell me how to stop that thing already.
For that matter, are we even supposed to attack it right now? The Vermilion Bird was blasting it with flames, so attacking itself was probably fine, but this situation was way too big in scale for me to move around carelessly. I was also kind of afraid of getting team-killed by the Vermilion Bird’s flames.
[That thing isn’t immortal, but it’s truly close to immortality. Therefore, don’t waste your efforts trying to kill it. A far more effective way to remove it is to close the crack in the world before its true body can cross over.]
“How do we close the crack?”
[Either God’s representative must restore it with all her strength…or my friend, the Noble Dragon, must be awakened. Those are the only two ways.]
I frowned slightly at the Vermilion Bird’s explanation. Near-immortality and only a few ways to stop it. Perfect conditions that would drive anyone mad.
“For now…I think we need to bring the Inquisitor here.”
“Ah, then I can…….”
Deathbringer, the fastest one here, was just about to raise his hand when the Vermilion Bird suddenly cried out. Rumble. The ground began to shake. It was coming from the direction where the black river splitting the land came from.
[You, take the heart fragment and go there. Return to him what he was always meant to possess.]
I couldn’t be sure what the Vermilion Bird had done. But judging from the word “return,” maybe they had opened a path leading to the Noble Dragon.
Getting God’s Representative, Inquisitor, would only be a temporary measure anyway. In the end, it seemed we’d have to awaken the Noble Dragon if we wanted to stop this from happening again.
Ruuumble!
[How?!]
“A-Another crack……”
But even that decision had come too late this time. Another crack began opening beside the one the Vermilion was holding back. It was a crack just as large and massive as the one they were currently blocking.
“…Looks like I won’t be able to leave.”
I had no idea what might come out of that one. But with the Inquisitor absent, I was the only one here capable of launching a somewhat effective counterattack.
The moment I realized that, I dropped to one knee and reached for my ankle. Wherever my fingers touched the surface disappeared as though melting away. My boot, the fur lining inside it, and my sock all vanished the same way.
“Deathbringer.”
“Yes?”
The moment the biting wind brushed across my exposed skin, my fingers reached the chain around my ankle. Click. The hook clasp came undone easily.
“Take this.”
“Huh?”
“As long as it’s touching your skin, just think that you want to take out the item you need, and it’ll appear somewhere nearby. I don’t need to explain what you’re supposed to take out, right?”
“I-I know that much, but why are you giving it to me……?”
I swept my cloak back and stood up again. The part of my boot that had melted away had already restored itself without a trace. Not being real clothing was pretty convenient at times like this.
“Inquisitor Daniel. You’re in charge of finding the Inquisitor.”
“Understood.”
“And Wizard, you……”
“I’ll fight.”
“Do as you please.”
“No, wait, Mister?”
Good, that marked the end of our task assignment. Leaving Daniel and the wizard, who had understood my intentions, behind, I met the eyes of the one who was still standing there in a daze.
“You’re the only one here fast enough to reach the Dragon.”
“……!”
“I’m counting on you.”
Strictly speaking, Daniel could probably do it too, but he was too slow. Considering how urgent this was and how far he had to go, wouldn’t it make more sense to send the fastest person toward the Dragon?
Having come to that conclusion, I continued. Deathbringer’s eyes grew moist for a moment before quickly turning resolute.
“Yes……!”
“Good. But don’t force yourself through danger just because of that.”
It was good that he was fired up, but I really hoped he wouldn’t push himself past his limits.
With those words, I moved forward one step at a time. My body picked up speed with every movement of my feet, and before I knew it, I was racing toward the new rift.
“Vermilion Bird, I’ll assist you.”
[...It shames me to ask, but I entrust the remaining one to you.]
Crrrrack!
Right then, something began poking its head out of the new crack as well. It looked incredibly similar to the head whose snout the Vermilion Bird was currently forcing back with flames and claws.
What? Were they twins or something?
I stared at the long snout and kicked off the ground. White snow sprayed behind me, and my thick cloak flapped heavily as my foot landed on the bridge of the nose that had just emerged.
Beyond the rift there was nothing to see but vast space and the glowing eyes beneath it.
“I beg you……”
Three eyes arranged vertically on either side, all shining fiercely. Their color was gold as though the sun itself had been melted down, and each eye contained three irises, making them downright bizarre.
“Please let this one end easily.”
Well, it still wasn’t exactly disgusting to look at . I’d dealt with way too many things far more revolting than this thing. Six eyes and eighteen pupils it had was practically cute by comparison.
Slash!
Fort that matter, isn’t it about time we ditched the stupid rule where entering a new region automatically unlocks a new raid? This isn’t even a game to begin with. Can’t reality go back to the whole “Unlike in a game, nothing happened” approach?
With those complaints circling in my head, I swung my longsword. The blade swept diagonally through its upper-left eye and lower-right eye, cutting apart the monster’s head.
[My dear Gretchen, I told you, didn’t I?]
At least, that was what it felt like to me.
[Physical force doesn’t work on these things.]
I'd figured it had to have some kind of physical form if I could stand on its snout. That was why I’d swung my sword.
Apparently, I was wrong. The beast’s body splashed up like water struck by a fist, then rewound itself back into its original shape. That only thing that changed was the color of the gaze fixed on me.
Gold turned to red, and all eighteen pupils focused on me alone.
Ah, shit.
The instant every pupil was on me, I quickly kicked off its snout. I half did it out of instinct, and apparently that had been the right call. The surface I’d been standing on split apart as a new mouth emerged.
Chomp!
The little mouth bulging outward bit down on the spot where I’d just been standing. Its teeth jutted out like a predator's, except unlike a normal beast’s, there wasn’t a single gap between them. If that had caught me, I think my leg would’ve been bitten clean off.
Scrrrch!
While I was really glad that I hadn’t been bitten, what was I supposed to do now? I landed on the ground and frantically moved my thoughts. My momentum sent me skidding backward, piling up a neat mound of snow behind me, but that was the least of my concerns.
I stared at the head forcing its way through the crack. It was almost completely through now, enough that I couldn’t only see its eyes but also its ears. The finer details were different, but overall it looked a lot like a wolf.
"...What a pain."
But at least wolves were handsome and cool. That thing was just creepy and came with every annoying trait one could think of……!
"Wizard, do you have any ideas?”
"Not really.”
I pressed Aerotelk, who had somehow made their way over to my side. But they didn’t seem to have any solution for this situation either. This was so damn inconvenient.
"Tsk."
Ah, seriously. I’d never realized just how unbelievably annoying it was when physical attacks didn’t work. I’d of course fought amorphous monsters before, but those could still be cut if I put Arcane Power into my blade, so I’d never experienced this particular kind of bullshit until now.
Tap, tap.
But I couldn’t let that bullshit beat me.
I broke into a sprint across the snowfield again. The goal wasn’t to damage it. It was to knock it back. The whole point of my current plan was to keep that thing from squeezing through the rift until the Inquisitor arrived.
Tap!
And for that, a strike would probably work better than a sword. With that thought, I sheathed my blade and sprung my body upward.
Apparently it had no intention of even letting me climb onto it this time, because its head started stretching out first. The wolf-like snout stayed as it was, while part of its skin bulged outward into tentacle-like appendages with mouths on the ends.
"Hmph."
But the thing is, I’ve already learned how to fight in midair using vines as footholds.
Replaying my fight with the Skyflow Tiger in my head, I stepped on the tentacles and sprang upward. New branches split off from wherever I stepped, but that wasn’t much of a problem. I shot forward and climbed faster than the tentacles could divide.
At last, my leg lined up directly with its snout. Booom! At the same time, my leg whipped around and struck the spot where its nose would have been. It didn’t actually have a nose, but if you compared it to a wolf, that was where the nose should be.
A shockwave rippled from my foot in concentric circles, and the monster and I were sent backward in opposite directions. Or, more accurately, only I was. The monster didn’t budge even a little, like a fixed wall.
Swoosh!
Instead, the mouths came flying at me while I was floating in midair. I could probably dodge a few, but it looked like I’d have to give up some flesh to the rest. That was the conclusion I came to after losing my foothold.
“What a foolish act.”
Then a presence rapidly approached me.
“That thing has the mass of an entire planet. A tentacle is one thing, but pushing back its true body is impossible.”
“…I didn’t know that.”
Slash!
A somewhat slender sword cut through the tentacles and made them stiffen, while one hand grabbed the edge of my cloak. It was an awkward place to apply force, whether they meant to throw me or do anything else.
“Bend your legs.”
“……?”
“We’ll use each other as footholds.”
But for that purpose, the grip was actually perfect. The moment I understood what they meant, I bent my knees and straightened my feet. Aerotelk’s soles met mine exactly.
The two of us shot away, narrowly avoiding the tentacles, then landed back on the snowfield.
Thud!
But in the end, all we’d done was escape one trivial crisis. With no way out of the situation in sight, my brow furrowed on its own.
Ah, when the hell was the Inquisitor getting here?
I found myself missing that round red head even though we hadn’t been apart for that long.
* * *
“Huuff, huff.”
Meanwhile, Deathbringer headed farther onward through the bitterly cold wind. Clutched tightly in his hand was the subspace bracelet the Adventurer had given him.
“Shit, it’s far……!”
The snow rising a little above his nakles was bad enough, and the black rivers cutting across his path every so often were even worse. At least falling into the black water didn’t curse him or anything, but with his clothes getting soaked and his body temperature dropping by the second, it honestly wasn’t all too different from a curse.
“Ugh......!”
Should he be grateful that every river only came up to his shins, or miserable that they’d made all sensation vanish from his legs already? Deathbringer barely caught himself before he fell and let out a breath. His body was burning hot on the inside, but whenever that heat escaped, the cold felt twice as harsh. He needed a blessing, or at least some kind of item.
“Damn it!”
But he didn’t have that kind of ability.
Deathbringer kept running, his face flushed red and his lips stained purple. The black river gradually converging ahead of him told him he was going the right way.
Though they did nothing to tell him how much farther he had to go, or how much distance still remained.
“Haah.”
Still, no matter how hopeless it felt, he had to keep going. This was the only thing he could do.
Thinking of the people he’d left behind to fight desperately, Deathbringer forced his slowing body onward. The black water soaking into his clothes froze solid before occasionally breaking off, leaving tracks across the white snow. Heavy, freezing traces.
“Shit…….”
It felt like his toes already fell off.
The young man forced an awkward laugh, wondering if this was the harbinger of frostbite. Behind that laugh was the shallow belief that the Inquisitor would be able to heal it.
“Ironwall…You can heal frostbite too, right…right……?”
She could restore severed body parts. No way a bit of frostbite was beyond her. Deathbringer comforted himself with that thought and stubbornly kept moving. Crack. That was when he heard something breaking.
“Ah…Fuck. I’m so damn screwed.”
A crack tactlessly opened up right in front of him of all places.
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