WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 50: Saint

──────

The Cult branch had been taken over in an instant.

There were no longer any signs of cult members in the pitch-black underground.

I had cleaned out not only the research director, but every member under their command.

They had gotten plenty of blood on their hands, so I felt no sympathy for them.

‘There weren't many who even looked human...’

Perhaps because they had been exposed to demonic energy for so long, every one of them looked grotesque.

Some had body parts that were abnormally large or small, while others had tentacles writhing all over their bodies.

A few had even fused together and crawled around like beasts.

Honestly, they were just as disgusting as most mutants.

‘Did they really want to worship the Demon God badly enough to become like that?’

The thought crossed my mind, but I soon shook my head.

Devotion to the cult was much like mental contamination.

Once you stepped into it, you could never escape.

‘In the end, it was their choice.’

Pushing aside those stray thoughts, I resumed my search.

The director's office was splattered with blood and chunks of flesh.

I searched the spacious room as thoroughly as if I were combing it with a fine-toothed comb.

‘The End.’

A special item that could only be obtained here.

It was one of the reasons I had attacked this place in the first place.

‘The White Knight.’

It was responsible for pestilence among the Four Knights of the Apocalypse.

The quintessential Apostle of the Evil God, and a boss monster from the Evil God's faction.

The End was the medium used to manifest it.

If I didn't retrieve it here, the Cult would use it however they pleased.

‘More precisely, right after the first-semester finals of sophomore year.’

The White Knight descended upon the academy.

Then countless people died.

‘The second calamity, White Night.’

It was an event that could easily lead to a bad ending.

Still, if I collected the End here, I could change many futures.

‘Apostles of the Evil God... Sacrifices are one thing, but they can't manifest without their respective Ends.’

That meant I might be able to skip the second calamity entirely.

Better yet, there was a way for me to make use of an Apostle myself.

Normally, Ends were classified as unusable items for anyone outside the Evil God's faction.

‘But.’

I had a shortcut.

A bug.

In the system's language, it was called a Misunderstanding.

I could bypass a mere unusable-item restriction whenever I wanted.

‘So just show yourself already.’

I had even made plans for how to use it.

Wiping away the sweat trickling down my face, I searched through the tightly packed rows of desks.

“Pant... pant...”

Why was I already out of breath after moving around so little?

Times like this made this body inconvenient.

A trash body with overall E-rank stats.

‘A body that can't even beat a goblin without bugs...’

I couldn't blame anyone.

After all, I was the one who had set the difficulty this absurdly high in my previous life.

Ding!

[Difficulty: Impossible]

-You are challenging the highest difficulty.

[Additional Option: Hell Path]

-All spawned monsters remain in a berserk state.

-The difficulty of all hostile factions that appear increases by 300%.

-All of the player's basic stats are fixed at E rank.

All stats fixed at E rank.

It meant I shouldn't even dream of raising them.

‘It's a shame.’

Until now, I had scraped through countless hardships by making use of bugs.

But because I relied on bugs alone, I often ran into walls as well.

Whenever my lack of Vitality held me back like this, or my low Agility delayed my reactions, I was painfully reminded of how lacking my basic stats were.

‘The Red Knight, Professor Glinbert... Neither of them was an opponent I could suppress with bugs.’

They weren't the only ones.

I could encounter any number of enemies that bugs wouldn't work on in the future.

That didn't mean I could set a trap or bring in another bug every time.

“Phew...”

Bugs were powerful enough on their own.

If I could raise my stats even a little, the synergy would be far better...

There was a whole truckload of bugs I couldn't use because my body couldn't keep up with them.

“Ugh... What's the point of whining about something I can't change?”

I spat out a sigh like phlegm.

As I searched the laboratory, I found a safe hidden in a corner.

It stood alone in an isolated spot.

“Is this it?”

Without hesitation, I swung my sickle.

Clang!

“Activate. Awl.”

Thunk!

The sickle began to rebound, but stopped as it sharpened into an awl and pierced the safe.

I twisted it inside and tore off the lid.

“Hup...!”

Crunch, crack!

The inside of the safe was laid bare.

For something so large, there wasn't much inside.

There was only a single dust-covered ancient tome.

“Bingo.”

I picked up the book sitting there by itself.

Ding!

[You have acquired the unusable item, ‘White Knight’s End.’]

Furube yurayura secured.

When I opened the book just in case, it was filled with lines of bizarre writing.

It wasn't written in a form ordinary people could read.

‘I should examine it properly later.’

I slipped the ancient tome into my robe.

That settled everything I needed to do in the laboratory.

Massaging my stiff shoulders, I left the director's office.

Ding!

Then, a system sound rang out unexpectedly.

When I opened the screen, I saw a notification saying that I had completed a quest.

[You have cleared a side quest!]

-Title: Make Sure You Finish the Job!

-Details: Apprehend the hidden mole within Grandia Academy.

[You apprehended the mole through remarkable ingenuity!]

-A reward will be provided. Click to check it.

“Oh.”

The pending quest was now marked as complete.

It looked like the faculty had finished the detention process.

Grateful for their swift work, I clicked the screen as the status window instructed.

‘The reward this time had definitely been listed as a clue about ■■■.’

I tilted my head.

The censored letters.

They had appeared in my own status window as well.

――――

[Status Window]

Name: Viktor

Title: The One Who Collects Misunderstandings

Equipped Items: Mask of the Evil God, Robe of the Evil God, Very Stealthy Necktie

Active Set Effect: The World Seen by ■■■.

.

.

Possessed Titles: The One Who Collects Misunderstandings, Saint, Executioner

――――

It was the first time I had seen letters censored like that.

Something I had never encountered even while playing the original.

Did it mean I still didn't know everything about this world?

Ding!

My outstretched finger pressed firmly against the screen.

The message immediately twisted in a grotesque fashion.

[ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR] [E̴R̵R̷O̶R̸] [E̴̵R̶̷R̷̸O̴̶R̸̵] [E̴̷̵R̸̶̴R̷̵̸O̶̴̷R̸̶̵] [E̴̵̷R̶̸̴R̷̴̵O̸̶̷R̵̸̴] [E̷̴̵R̸̶̷R̴̸̵O̷̴̶R̸̵̷] [E̸̴̷R̵̸̶R̷̴̸O̶̵̷R̴̸̶] [E̴̸̵R̷̶̴R̸̵̷O̴̷̶R̸̴̵] [E̷̸̴R̵̴̶R̸̷̵O̶̸̴R̷̵̸] [E̵̷R̸̴R̶̵O̷̸R̴̶]

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“...?!”

The screen went completely black.

I flinched at the unexpected fit.

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“...”

After flickering for a long while, the screen shut off.

When I reopened the status window, it had returned to normal.

As if that flickering madness had been a momentary hallucination.

‘...What was that?’

As for the clue about ■■■, the system had only given me a few questions that made no sense.

I stood blankly in the hallway, staring at the status window.

‘What was it trying to say?’

It told me to remember.

Remember what?

Those nonsensical questions?

Or something I had forgotten?

No answer came, no matter how deeply I thought about it.

‘This is strange.’

A low groan slipped through my lips.

An unpleasant feeling lingered.

Still, I couldn't stand here worrying about it forever.

Carmilla, who had gone ahead to check on the survivors, would be waiting for me.

‘Let's think about this later.’

Calming myself, I started walking again.

Then the status window chimed once more.

Ding!

[Tip. Activate the title ‘Saint.’]

It told me to activate the title, [Saint].

I had received it after destroying the Human Ranch built by the vampires of the New Kingdom.

Unlike my other titles, though, it didn't list any benefit for activating it.

I had actually spent a few days with it activated, but I hadn't noticed any difference.

So I figured it was just a title for show and normally kept only [The One Who Collects Misunderstandings] active.

I could only equip one title at a time.

‘Saint...?’

Though puzzled, I followed the system's advice for now.

I assumed it wouldn't tell me something meaningless.

“Hmm...”

Still, nothing changed this time either.

The only difference was that [Title: Saint] had been added to my status window.

I even closed and reopened it just in case, but it remained the same.

‘It doesn't seem completely meaningless.’

My fingers tapped uselessly against my mask.

There had been far too many messages today that I couldn't make sense of.

It didn't seem like a mystery I could solve right away.

Leaving the title active, I crossed the long hallway.

‘First, I need to finish this quest...’

It took only thirty minutes for me to learn what the status window's advice had meant.

* * *

While I searched the director's office, I had asked Carmilla to handle the containment rooms.

They were where the test subjects were imprisoned one by one.

People who had been kidnapped by the Cult and subjected to terrible things.

There was nothing I could do for those who had already died, but I wanted to take care of the survivors at least.

“Viktor. These are all the remaining survivors. Fortunately, they have either not been experimented on yet or only suffered basic torture. There are exactly twenty.”

“There aren't any others?”

“There are around ten more, but... they're not in a normal state. Mutations have begun in some of their bodies, and others seem to have lost their minds and can't regain consciousness.”

“I'll check on them too. I might be able to do something, like last time.”

“That's true... You reversed ghoulification, so perhaps demonic energy will be no different. I've left every survivor in the containment rooms for now. As you requested, I told them that the Slayers had come to rescue them.”

Twenty survivors.

And another ten test subjects contaminated by demonic energy.

I had already passed word to the survivors through Carmilla.

Just like at the Human Ranch last time, we had reassured them.

That brought the Slayers, Garulik and Manre, back into the picture.

Carmilla stood there wearing her red mask.

“Good work.”

“It was nothing.”

I lightly stroked the girl's head.

Maybe she had gotten used to this kind of contact by now.

Carmilla didn't push me away and quietly accepted my touch.

Her silver hair scattered beneath my fingertips, and her head tipped along with my hand.

“I'll take it from here.”

Passing Carmilla, I walked up to the containment room.

It was called a containment room, but it was little more than a slightly spacious iron cage.

Inside stood a haggard-looking woman.

Her eyes were red and swollen from all the crying she had done.

“I'll get you out right away.”

I spread my palm wide.

“Activate. Saw.”

Squirm.

My pitch-black glove shifted into the shape of a saw.

After sawing through them a few times, I tore out the thick iron bars.

“Come out. Garulik, deputy commander of the Slayers, has come to save you.”

“Sob... sob... Th-thank you. Thank you...”

The woman finally burst into tears as she came closer.

She took the hand I offered and carefully stepped out of the cage.

I was about to leave the rescued woman with Carmilla when...

Ding!

The status window was particularly busy today.

But this notification was truly shocking.

[You have saved another person's life!]

[Your altruism and devotion shine brightly.]

[The special ability of the active title ‘Saint’ activates.]

Radiance coiled around me at the same time.

Even through the blinding light, the status window's messages continued to update.

A stream of sentences appeared in the section that listed my title.

――――

[Status Window]

Name: Viktor

Title: Saint

Equipped Items: Mask of the Evil God, Robe of the Evil God

Active Set Effect: The World Seen by ■■■.

.

.

[Saint]

-> Merit Points accumulate according to the number of lives you save.

-> Merit Points can improve the user's basic stats.

(The special ability of this title takes precedence over other restrictions in the system.)

――――

‘What...?’

The screen flashed past in a blur.

Then this message appeared before my eyes.

[Merit Points will be used automatically.]

-The rank of the basic stat ‘Vitality’ will improve.

-50 of the 50 Merit Points you gained are consumed.

Ding!

[Basic Stats]

Vitality: E -> E+

Strength: E

Agility: E

Mana Sensitivity: E

Ding!

[The basic stat ‘Vitality’ has improved from E rank to E+ rank.]

[Remaining Merit Points: 0p]

“...What is this?”

I could only stare blankly at the screen.

My rank had improved on its own in an instant.

‘My basic stats...’

A body with overall E-rank stats.

A setting that fixed my basic stats at their lowest possible level.

Ranks that would never rise no matter how much I trained.

‘That restriction... had been bypassed?’

I stood there in a daze, staring at the title stamped beneath my profile.

Saint.

Footnotes:

“Furube yurayura secured” references a Jujutsu Kaisen summoning chant.

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