WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 18: Galjeo (1)
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A smile stretched to his ears.
Someone’s smile could lower another person’s guard.
But the moment the boy saw that smile on someone he had asked for help, he sensed a powerful malice that went beyond mere unease.
He flinched.
His steps faltered.
The other two boys, however, did not.
“Pant! Pant! Hey! Help us! Some monster-like wolf is chasing us!”
They ran toward Mok GyeongUn as they called for help.
The boy shouted in alarm,
“W-wait...”
Before he could finish, the boy begging for help reached Mok GyeongUn. Mok GyeongUn naturally grabbed his neck and twisted it.
Crack!
“Urk!”
With a final cry, the boy’s neck snapped and he collapsed to the ground.
The other boy, startled by the sight, fell backward in terror.
“Eek!”
Thud!
As Mok GyeongUn approached the fallen boy,
“Y-you bastard, what are you doing?!”
the boy who had stopped because of his ominous feeling shouted.
Mok GyeongUn smiled unconcernedly, then lightly sprang forward and kicked the head of the fallen boy, who had been trying to scramble away.
Crack!
The kick was so powerful that the boy’s head bent backward.
The way his mouth remained open made it seem as though he had died instantly.
The remaining boy was left speechless.
‘W-what the hell is wrong with this lunatic...?’
Even if they were competitors, they were not fighting over a flag right now.
Yet he had killed someone who asked for help the moment they met.
What kind of lunatic was this?
Just then,
Squeal! Squeal!
A pig-like cry sounded behind him.
The bushes shook along with it.
“Damn it.”
A curse slipped from the boy’s mouth.
He truly faced a dilemma.
A ferocious beast was behind him, while an indiscriminate murderer stood before him.
No, perhaps tiger before and wolf behind described it better.
‘It is do or die.’
His face drenched in cold sweat, the boy chose neither front nor back, but the steep mountain cliff to his right.
“Aaaah!”
With a shout, he threw himself to the right.
Tap!
If death awaited him either way, he could only entrust himself to luck.
That was what he thought when he felt something strangely tug at the back of his head.
The boy, who was about to fall, was suddenly lifted backward with a whoosh and sent flying.
Then,
Smack!
Mok GyeongUn’s hand caught his head.
‘!?’
The boy’s eyes widened.
What was this?
Mok GyeongUn had not pulled him over with his hand.
Could he be using Ki telekinesis, an ability that allowed a master with profound life energy to draw objects toward them?
‘...Impossible.’
It was hard to believe.
How could someone his own age possess such profound life energy?
Moreover, all their ki gateways were sealed by the Golden Gate Locks.
Then how had he done it?
Just then,
Squeal! Squeal!
With a pig-like cry, a huge wolf with red fur on its head and rat-like eyes emerged from the bushes.
Blood filled the spaces between the sharp teeth it bared.
Mok GyeongUn raised one eyebrow and muttered,
“What is this now?”
The boy whose head was in Mok GyeongUn’s grip hurriedly said in a frightened voice,
“I told you, something monster-like was chasing us.”
“That was it?”
“This is not the time for that. We need to run!”
That was what he said, but it already seemed too late.
Only twenty to twenty-five steps separated them from the ferocious beast.
That was far too close to flee from a ferocious beast as fast as a horse.
Squeal! Squeal!
The ferocious beast approached, drool dripping from its jaws.
Perhaps it thought it could catch them whenever it wished, because it closed the distance one slow step at a time.
Overcome with terror, the boy muttered blankly,
“You damned bastard. This is all your own...”
Tap!
Before he could finish, Mok GyeongUn released his head and rapidly formed hand seals.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
“Soldier! Fight! Sever! Array!”
They were hand seals from the Nine Syllable Revival Method.
‘What is he doing?’
As the boy wondered, Mok GyeongUn made a square with the index and middle fingers of both hands, aiming it at the approaching ferocious beast.
Then,
Fwoooosh!
Four invisible pillars rose around the beast.
At that moment, Mok GyeongUn quietly said,
“Four Peaks Chain-Locking Technique.”
The four pillars suddenly thickened, forming four enclosing walls.
The boy could not see them, but the ferocious beast clearly could. It stopped and rolled its eyes.
Then, seemingly deciding to force its way through, it sprang forward.
Smack!
Squeeeal!
The leaping beast struck something and bounced backward.
“W-what?”
The boy could not understand what he was seeing.
There was nothing there, so why was that monstrous ferocious beast acting like this?
Had this bastard done something?
Then Mok GyeongUn opened his palm toward the trapped beast and curled his hand into a fist.
“Shrink.”
Fwoooosh!
At that moment, the four walls imprisoning the ferocious beast compressed inward at high speed.
As the space narrowed, perhaps alarmed, the beast began to thrash about.
Watching it, Mok GyeongUn clenched his hand tighter.
Squeal! Squeal!
Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
The space in which the beast could move grew smaller.
Just as it narrowed enough to make movement nearly impossible, the ferocious beast raised the red fur on its head and let out an immense roar.
Screeeech!
“Argh!”
The cry was so loud that the boy covered his ears.
Mok GyeongUn endured it and tried to crush the ferocious beast to death by tightening his grip, but then,
Crack!
Cracks spread across the compressing walls.
Then,
Crash!
The Four Peaks Chain-Locking Technique shattered in an instant, and the ferocious beast burst free.
‘Damn.’
When a spell imbued with spell power was broken, its caster suffered the backlash.
Mok GyeongUn was pushed back roughly two steps.
Scrape! Scrape!
Squeal! Squeal!
The escaped beast excitedly pawed at the ground and roared.
“Eek.”
The boy, still covering his ears, hurriedly braced himself and tried to move back.
However, despite its roar, the ferocious beast merely stared at Mok GyeongUn. Then it turned and fled into the bushes.
“Pant... Pant... Haa...”
The terrified boy let out a breath of relief as he watched it leave.
Even after seeing it himself, he could hardly believe it.
That monster had been driven away by such a strange method.
Then a voice sounded beside his ear.
“What are you relieved about?”
‘!?’
The boy’s eyes widened as he hurriedly tried to rise.
But it was already too late.
Mok GyeongUn twisted the neck of the boy who was trying to stand.
Crack!
Once the boy died, Mok GyeongUn began with the first boy he had killed and used the movement of Adhesion to absorb their deathly aura.
The longer he waited, the more deathly aura would dissipate.
Only after he had finished absorbing it did he speak.
“What was that wolf with red fur on its head from earlier?”
-I am not sure. This is my first time seeing one myself, but judging by its appearance and pig-like cry, it seemed to be a Galjeo.
“Galjeo?”
-It is one of the spirits and goblins that inhabit the Northern Sea near Bukho Mountain.
“I know it was one of the spirits and goblins.”
Its appearance alone was completely different from an ordinary beast.
Since it was one of the spirits and goblins, it should have fallen prey to occult arts.
He had asked because, given that it broke the Four Peaks Chain-Locking Technique, it did not seem to be a low-ranking spirit or goblin.
“Judging by how it broke the spell, it did not seem low-ranking.”
According to the Taoist occultist Jo Ui-gong, the Four Peaks Chain-Locking Technique was created to eliminate vengeful spirits. It could only handle ferocious beasts of the lowest rank.
The ranks of spirits and goblins were ferocious beast, monstrous beast, demon beast, demonic beast, Spirit Beast, and Divine Beast.
Blue Spirit answered Mok GyeongUn’s words.
-I believe Galjeo are called monstrous beasts once they reach adulthood. But judging by its size earlier, that one has not reached adulthood yet.
“It has not?”
-Yes. Even so, it will be far stronger than ordinary ferocious beasts. You should consider it to possess strength somewhere between a ferocious beast and a monstrous beast.
“As I thought.”
That seemed to be why the Four Peaks Chain-Locking Technique had broken.
It had exceeded the spell’s limits.
Against a spirit or goblin like Galjeo, the spell could only delay it for a while. There seemed to be no reason to use it again.
Mok GyeongUn got to his feet and said,
“This is troublesome.”
-Why? You cannot use internal energy, and even the spellcraft you only just learned does not work well. Are you frightened now? If that is the case, I...
“No. I think I need to hurry.”
-Hurry?
“I need to move more diligently before that spirit or goblin interferes with my meal. No, perhaps it would be better to deal with it first.”
-..........
Ah.
That was how he saw it.
The reason he was worried was that the spirit or goblin might kill more boys than he did.
Blue Spirit clicked their tongue inwardly.
* * *
Meanwhile, the group led by Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley moved cautiously.
Three of them strained as they carried the iron base beneath the flag together, while the rest clustered tightly around them.
One of the boys carrying the flag complained,
“We are looking for a different kind of flag anyway. Why do we have to carry this around? We can just break off the top.”
Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley pressed him.
“Stop whining and do as I say. If my guess is right, you bastards should be grateful to me.”
The boys shook their heads at that.
Did it make sense that the monstrous ferocious beast had fled merely because it was afraid of a flag?
No matter how much they thought about it, they could not understand.
Rather than carrying a flag around so inefficiently, they thought it would be better to break off the pole and move quickly to capture or find another flag.
Then they heard a sound from somewhere.
Squeal! Squeal!
Startled by the sound, they stopped in their tracks.
It was definitely that creature.
Rustle.
The bushes to the northwest shook, and the ferocious beast emerged.
The boys set down the flag they had been carrying and prepared to run.
“Stay still.”
Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley stopped them.
What did Yeom Ga mean, stay still? They needed to run or work together to fight it.
That was what they thought when the ferocious beast looked at the flag they carried, shuddered, and turned back into the bushes.
“Huh?”
The ferocious beast had truly avoided them after seeing the flag.
Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley said triumphantly,
“See?”
Yeom Ga’s judgment had been correct.
But after confirming it, another thought came to Yeom Ga.
‘If I use this well, it could be useful.’
Hardly anyone would know yet that flags could serve as protection.
The corners of Yeom Ga of Scarlet Slaughter Valley’s mouth rose in a sinister smile.
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