WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
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◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 24: Someone to Talk To
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The thirteen monarchs had provided various conveniences for hunters entering the Abyss. If Pandemonium, the first city they entered, had been the Abyss’s only residential area, the hunters’ survival rate would have been much lower. Pandemonium was the largest city, but residential areas where hunters could settle and live had been set up throughout the Abyss.
Powerful magic protected these areas, keeping even the Abyss’s monsters from entering. Outside, hunters had to stay alert because a monster could appear at any moment. Inside, they had no need to worry about that.
This was Baek Hyun’s first time entering a residential area other than Pandemonium. He whistled as he looked around.
‘Herad.’
That was this place’s name. It wasn’t as large as Pandemonium, but it was still quite big.
In particular, many hunters contracted with Pure Saint used it as their base.
They said to strike while the iron was hot, so Baek Hyun had come all this way to meet one of those oh-so-great thirteen monarchs. But there was a reason he had stopped at a residential area first.
Pure Saint’s territory was the Sanctuary, a sacred domain. Although they were called territories, the monarchs’ territories weren’t specific regions. They were places that existed within the Abyss, yet did not. To enter one, a person had to be qualified. That was why people who thought they were qualified, or desperately hoped to enter, stayed in residential areas near those territories.
The same went for Baek Hyun. Pure Saint had asked him to visit the Sanctuary, but he didn’t know exactly where it was. He also had some business of his own in the residential area.
Like the residential areas, the status window, which allowed hunters to check their condition, and levels, which provided a growth bonus, were conveniences for hunters.
The shop was another. Hunters could list and sell loot from monsters or items found while exploring the Abyss, but they could only use the shop in residential areas.
“I had no idea there were teleport scrolls.”
Baek Hyun let out a deep sigh.
The Abyss was enormous. Running nonstop from Pandemonium to this place had taken him nearly a week. Teleport scrolls were common consumable items in the Abyss, produced by hunters contracted with Witch End.
Of course, teleport scrolls couldn’t do everything. They could only be used in residential areas, and they could only take someone to a residential area they had visited before. Even with those limits, they were a tremendous help when traveling across the vast Abyss.
Baek Hyun hadn’t exchanged all the coins he had received as a subjugation reward, so he still had quite a lot left in his inventory. Taking the chance to clear out his inventory as well, he listed every item he owned in the shop window. The shop set the market prices for him, and he didn’t particularly care whether the items sold.
As consumables, teleport scrolls were available in large numbers. They weren’t exactly cheap, but Baek Hyun bought a few to keep in reserve. For now, he wanted to meet every Abyss monarch he could. Whether they would actually see him if he visited was another question, but he intended to give it a try.
‘The closest places from here are the Sanctuary... and Dragon Star Lord’s territory, I suppose.’
When the tutorial ended, Pure Saint and the Queen of Black Roses had invited him to visit. Yet the Queen of Black Roses hadn’t told him where Black Rose Castle was.
“Seriously. If you’re going to invite someone over, shouldn’t you tell them where you live?”
Grumbling, Baek Hyun browsed the shop window. When he first opened it, he hadn’t had any coins, so he hadn’t looked closely. Now that he did, quite a few items caught his eye.
The weapons and armor interested him in particular. The Abyss was like a game in many ways, but that didn’t mean a sword would drop when someone killed an earthworm. For weapons, hunters had to defeat armed monsters and take theirs, or explore the Abyss’s dungeons. The same went for armor.
Hunters could also make equipment themselves. Those contracted with Iron Maid specialized in that. But that didn’t mean they were merely craftspeople who hammered away all day. Their combat abilities were nothing to dismiss, either.
The thirteen monarchs had varied abilities, each with its own specialty. The monarch who interested Baek Hyun most was Martial Spirit, who used martial arts, but that didn’t mean Baek Hyun had no interest in magic. Pure Saint, whose territory was near this residential area, was also a monarch connected to magic in a sense.
Holy magic.
It performed all sorts of miracles, starting with healing injuries. Hunters who received powers from the monarchs didn’t use them only inside the Abyss. Pure Saint’s holy magic, in particular, had drawn great attention in the medical field. High-level hunters could use that power to heal people with physical disabilities and even cure incurable diseases. It truly deserved to be called a miracle.
Perhaps that was why Pure Saint was one of the monarchs with the most support in the real world. Perhaps that was also why this residential area, home to so many hunters contracted with her, had such a holy atmosphere.
The hunters passing by all wore gentle smiles, without a care in sight. Monsters swarmed outside the residential area, yet this place seemed so peaceful. Baek Hyun remembered the argument at the subway entrance yesterday.
Put your faith in Pure Saint.
“Oh, you’re...”
As he walked down the street, someone recognized him.
He turned and found a familiar face looking at him with wide eyes.
“Su-a?”
“You don’t have to be so formal with me.”
It was Jeong Su-a. She was wearing something like a full-body suit made of pitch-black leather. When Baek Hyun stared at her, she drew her shoulders in slightly, looking embarrassed.
“Um... it’s not that I’m into this sort of thing.”
“Doesn’t it feel stuffy?”
“I’m used to it...”
“It looks hot.”
“It’s not. It’s actually really cool.”
“It doesn’t look like it breathes.”
“No, it does. It’s made from monster hide. It might not look like it, but it’s very breathable.”
Jeong Su-a cleared her throat quietly after answering.
“You weren’t wearing that in Hwacheon.”
“...How could I wear this with a TV crew filming? Besides, I wouldn’t need it for a subjugation like that.”
Then she gave a bitter smile.
“And you killed everything before I even had a chance to do anything, oppa.”
“...Oppa?”
“You said you were twenty-six. I’m twenty-five, so... would you rather I didn’t call you that?”
“Oh, no, that’s fine.”
“And I told you, you don’t have to be so formal with me.”
Jeong Su-a answered in a friendly manner. Baek Hyun blinked at her. Strictly speaking, he wasn’t twenty-six. He had lived in the Peach Blossom Realm for twenty years, so if he counted those, he was over forty. But Baek Hyun absolutely refused to think of himself as being over forty.
‘All I thought about there was martial arts.’
Whatever the case, even when it came to his own age, younger was better.
“What are you doing here?”
“I have some business at a Demon-Faced Spider’s nest.”
“A Demon-Faced Spider?”
“...Um... how should I put it? Apparently, it’s a huge, strange-looking spider... I need something from it. There weren’t any listings in the shop, so I came to get it myself.”
“What do you need?”
“Venom.”
Baek Hyun tilted his head at the unexpected answer. Venom? Watching his reaction, Jeong Su-a smiled bitterly, as though she had expected it.
“My powers are related to poison.”
“Are you sure you can just tell me that?”
“My abilities are pretty obvious. Just about everyone knows.”
Baek Hyun hadn’t known. He had looked up the names of famous hunters, but his interest had been in Park Jun-hwan, who used martial arts, not Jeong Su-a.
Poison, huh...
Baek Hyun’s eyes lit up.
“Want me to help?”
“Sorry?”
“It might be dangerous on your own... No, with your abilities, I guess it wouldn’t be. Right?”
“Well...”
Jeong Su-a trailed off. Dangerous? That hurt her pride a little. With her level and fame, she certainly wasn’t someone who needed to worry about danger around here. But she couldn’t show how she felt. The might Baek Hyun had displayed at the Abyss Entry Station had been far too shocking.
“Still, you’ll get bored going alone. Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to talk to?”
“...But... didn’t you come all this way because you had something to do, too?”
“It’s nothing urgent. To be honest, I made it all the way here, but I don’t even know where to go next.”
“What do you mean?”
“I came to visit the Sanctuary, but I don’t know where to go.”
Baek Hyun gave a hearty laugh. Jeong Su-a’s eyes opened wide.
“The... Sanctuary? You mean Pure Saint’s Sanctuary?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you talking about? Oppa, did you make a contract with Pure Saint... No, that can’t be. You definitely didn’t make a contract with any monarch...?”
“When the tutorial ended, Pure Saint sent me a message asking me to visit the Sanctuary.”
Jeong Su-a looked as though someone had hit her with a hammer.
“But I can’t go if I don’t know where it is. Besides, I’m curious about this myself. The Demon-Faced Spider, its venom... it interests me.”
“I... I don’t really understand.”
“I’m saying I’m not in any hurry.”
Jeong Su-a hesitated, unsure how to answer. It wasn’t an information guild that had told her about the Demon-Faced Spider’s venom, nor had she discovered it herself.
It had been a revelation.
The monarch she had contracted with, the Serpent of Regeneration, had personally given her a revelation about the Demon-Faced Spider’s venom. Receiving a revelation from a monarch was incredibly rare, so Jeong Su-a had put aside everything else and come here.
‘The Serpent of Regeneration might be testing me with this... Is it really okay to accept his help?’
Just as Jeong Su-a was about to refuse, she heard a voice in her head.
[The Serpent of Regeneration laughs at your excessive worry.]
[The Serpent of Regeneration shows quiet anticipation at the prospect of you going with that man.]
Jeong Su-a gasped before she could stop herself.
“L-let’s go together.”
“Hm?”
“You’re right, oppa. Someone to talk to... Yes, it would be nice to have someone to talk to.”
Her voice trembled. It was also extremely rare for a monarch to reveal their feelings so directly. Jeong Su-a looked at Baek Hyun in confusion. To show such open interest in a human who wasn’t even contracted with her...
And this was the Serpent of Regeneration, who rarely even offered contracts and had yet to appoint an apostle candidate.
“Then shall we head out right now?”
“Yes... What? Right now?”
“Why? Do you need to get something ready?”
“Well... I’m all ready, of course. But you haven’t prepared anything, oppa. You don’t even know what kind of monster a Demon-Faced Spider is...”
“I don’t think I need much preparation. You can tell me what kind of monster it is on the way. Oh, wait...”
A thought struck Baek Hyun, and he looked at Jeong Su-a a little more seriously.
“That Demon-Faced Spider. Is it really gross-looking?”
“...Um... I haven’t seen one myself, but... I’ve heard it’s pretty disgusting.”
“Figures. It’s a spider, after all.”
Baek Hyun grumbled and let out a deep sigh. Jeong Su-a looked at him in surprise.
“Oppa. Are you scared of bugs?”
“I’m not scared of them. I hate them.”
Come to think of it, the monsters that appeared at the Hwacheon Abyss Entry Station had been bugs, too.
“What I mean is... if I find a cockroach in the corner of my room, I don’t run away screaming... I kill it, cringing the whole time.”
“So you do kill them.”
He had such ridiculous strength, yet he hated bugs. Finding this unexpected side of Baek Hyun rather curious, Jeong Su-a raised her hand and pointed toward the residential area’s entrance.
“We have to travel a little way outside the entrance to reach the Demon-Faced Spider’s nest.”
“Are you fast?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you run fast?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m slow.”
“Then you run ahead.”
Baek Hyun waved a hand. Not understanding what he meant, Jeong Su-a tilted her head.
“...Sorry?”
“I’ll be much faster than you, so run a good distance ahead of me first.”
“Oh... uh... um... okay.”
Jeong Su-a started to say something, then gave up and nodded. She hesitated a little, but ran ahead as Baek Hyun had told her to. Though she hadn’t sounded very confident, she ran incredibly fast. Baek Hyun watched her back as she quickly pulled far ahead, then nodded.
“At least she’s honest. Like she said, she’s not slow.”
Of course, that was all her speed amounted to in Baek Hyun’s eyes. After getting a rough idea of how fast she was, he kicked off the ground and shot forward. It didn’t take him long to catch up.
“Ah!”
Jeong Su-a cried out in surprise when Baek Hyun appeared beside her. Matching her pace, he asked,
“How much farther?”
“Um... about another thirty minutes?”
“Really? That’s not bad.”
If they had to run for more than an hour, he had been planning to pick her up and carry her. It seemed he wouldn’t need to go that far.
Jeong Su-a glanced at Baek Hyun, who was running easily beside her, as though she were looking at a monster. A stubborn urge to compete rose within her. She picked up speed, but even when she ran faster, Baek Hyun easily matched her pace. At this rate, she would throw off her own rhythm. In the end, she gave up and settled into a pace she could maintain without pushing herself.
‘Poison, huh.’
Jeong Su-a’s competitive spirit had flared up and died down, but Baek Hyun paid it no mind. What interested him now was the poison she had mentioned earlier.
‘Would a monster’s venom work on me?’
That was why Baek Hyun had gone out of his way to accompany her. He had been able to withstand the poisons of the Tang Clan and the Southern Wilds, summoned from Ju Han-o’s memories. But he had never managed to withstand the poison of the Poison King, one of the world’s twenty greatest martial masters. At the time, his Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art had been at the fourth stage.
‘I’ve gone through bodily rebirth, too.’
Though really, before any of that, he would have to find out whether this Demon-Faced Spider’s venom was more potent than the Poison King’s Utterly Lethal Poison.
Footnotes:
“Oppa” is a familiar term a woman uses for an older brother or an older male she feels close to. Su-a uses it after confirming that Baek Hyun is one year older than her.
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