WeTried Translations

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◈ Ophidian of the Immortal World ◈

Chapter 4: Partnership

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Jegyeong did not rush to judge Cheongo.

Could he trust this little bird?

He did not know.

This bird could talk despite being a bird. And being able to talk meant being able to lie, so he could not judge anything after only a brief conversation.

How could he know whether Cheongo was trustworthy?

Still, trust was not a prerequisite for cooperation.

What mattered was whether they could help each other. If both stood to gain, that alone was reason enough to work together.

"Like you said, I'm big. And strong. I can hunt beasts smaller and weaker than me. The ones you can't hunt."

Jegyeong did not think Cheongo hid some miraculous power in that tiny body.

The mysterious blue glow running through Cheongo's body was certainly unusual. Yet judging by how the bird kept a safe distance from him even while chattering away, Cheongo was probably not very strong in actual strength.

"Hunting?"

That was Cheongo's reaction now as well. The bird neither interrupted nor denied his words, only showed interest.

"Yeah, hunting. I'm pretty good at it, but finding prey isn't easy. I can't fly around like you or look down from high places."

Cheongo was not stupid. The bird's eyes immediately lit up.

For a moment, Jegyeong even wondered whether Cheongo's naive way of speaking had been an act.

"If you help me hunt, I'll share the prey with you. I think it's good for both of us. What do you say?"

"Okay!"

Cheongo seemed to understand the idea of cooperation right away and nodded eagerly, like a woodpecker searching for food.

A faint smile spread around Jegyeong's mouth as well.

It might have looked grotesque or threatening to someone else, but it was a pleasant smile to him.

That was how a snake and a bird became partners.

They did not dawdle. After they had been awake for some time and hunger began to set in, they started discussing that day's hunt.

"Find prey around here. But it has to be something I can hunt without much trouble."

"Hm? What does that mean?"

Cheongo tilted their head, and Jegyeong realized his explanation had been vague. He chose his words again.

"I mean the prey has to be an ordinary beast."

Jegyeong recalled the two birds he had seen the day before.

They had not looked especially remarkable, but the strange power within them had been strong enough to overcome the difference in their size. He was half convinced that the few drops of blood that had enthralled him were connected to that power.

"Ordinary? You mean it can't be a Demon Beast?"

"Demon Beast? Were those birds yesterday Demon Beasts?"

"Yeah."

Demon Beasts. As expected, they had not been ordinary birds.

"What's the difference between an ordinary beast and a Demon Beast? Am I not a Demon Beast?"

"You?"

Cheongo stared at Jegyeong for a while before speaking hesitantly.

The bird did not sound certain.

"You're not. Yeah. You probably aren't. You're smart, but you don't have Spiritual Essence. So you're probably not a Demon Beast."

Cheongo quickly added one more thing.

"I don't know what Spiritual Essence is. I don't know, but I can feel it. I could feel it from those birds yesterday, but I can't feel it from you."

Jegyeong had been about to speak, but stopped.

Was this little bird tired of his endless curiosity, or did Cheongo truly not know?

Swallowing his disappointment, Jegyeong asked again about the few drops of blood that had bewitched him the day before.

Fortunately, Cheongo did not avoid answering this time.

"That's natural. They're Demon Beasts. Beasts without awakened Spiritual Intelligence are drawn to the blood of Demon Beasts."

"Instinct?"

"Instinct? Yeah. Instinct. It's instinct."

That was another very useful piece of information.

Jegyeong no longer tried to understand this world's knowledge and information right away. For now, he had to memorize it. Understanding could come after he had learned enough about this world.

'If I'm still alive by then.'

Superhumans. Immortals. Demon Beasts.

There were far too many dangerous things in this world, no, even in the immediate area. Jegyeong had no idea how long he could survive among them.

'Was my parent a Demon Beast too?'

His thoughts suddenly turned to the parent from this life, whom he had not seen for several days.

That enormous body would have looked right at home in a monster movie, but that was all. It had not carried the same oppressive presence as the two Demon Birds he had seen yesterday.

Was it because that parent was his blood relative?

Maybe. Still, Jegyeong did not think his parent had been a Demon Beast.

It was only a vague feeling he could not explain.

A little later, Cheongo flew high into the sky.

Before long, the bird returned with information about suitable prey.

"A fat mole. It's so fat that it's slow."

It was perfect for the conditions he had asked for.

Following Cheongo's guidance, Jegyeong moved without a sound.

Before long, he caught sight of the fat mole.

The creature was busily digging into the ground. From a distance, aside from the two forepaws digging away, it seemed to have four other legs. It was also far larger than the moles from his previous life.

Just as Cheongo had said, it was plump with fat. If he had seen it without being told it was a mole, he would have doubted that it was one.

"Draw its attention."

"Attention? How?"

"Just fly around in front of it so it can't look my way."

The mole seemed focused on digging, but it could not be completely defenseless. It had to remain wary of enemies that might appear from anywhere.

Jegyeong considered himself an experienced hunter and was confident he could approach it silently, but the more certain a hunt was, the better.

"Okay."

Without another word, Cheongo flew toward the mole.

Keeping some distance, the bird began chirping loudly. After a few seconds, the mole reacted. When it raised its head and looked toward Cheongo, Jegyeong glided silently behind it.

Snap!

When only about a meter remained between them, Jegyeong launched himself forward and bit the back of the mole's neck.

The mole tried to thrash, but Jegyeong immediately coiled around its entire body. With one squeeze, its bones shattered with a loud crack.

That was the end.

The first hunt the snake and bird completed together was not only successful, but almost too easy.

Jegyeong squeezed once more. The mole, which had been twitching while half-dead, went completely limp.

At that point, it was not only its bones that had broken. Its internal organs had likely burst as well.

Holding the limp mole in his jaws, Jegyeong climbed a tree.

Then he put his saw-like teeth to work, tearing off chunks of meat and tossing them some distance away.

It was a considerate gesture toward his small partner.

Cheongo snatched up the meat, flew to a branch high above, and began to fill their stomach. Seeing that, Jegyeong began eating in earnest as well.

* * *

Partnering with Cheongo was one of the three wisest decisions Jegyeong had ever made, not only since beginning his second life, but even in his first.

Previously, finding suitable prey alone took ages. Even after he found something, he had to hunt with extreme caution, which exhausted him.

Now, Cheongo found the prey and even drew its attention. Hunting had become much easier than before.

If he wanted to, he felt he could hunt five or six times a day.

Of course, feeling like he could do it did not mean he actually did.

What would be the point of hunting so much when he could not even eat it all? Without hands, he could not preserve the prey he caught for long. He had to finish it that day or by the next.

One or two hunts a day were enough.

If he caught something large, one hunt was sufficient. If it was smaller or an awkward size, he needed another to feel full.

With the time spent hunting greatly reduced, he naturally gained plenty of free time.

Jegyeong considered how to use it.

Another beast might have simply dozed off or lazed around without purpose, but Jegyeong was different. When he was hungry, he was no different from a beast, but after filling his stomach, he could use reason unlike an ordinary animal.

He was lacking compared to his days as a human in his previous life, but he was clearly different from a normal beast.

He thought he should do something productive with his extra time.

Now that he was living a second life as a snake, Jegyeong had only one goal.

To survive.

The desire to preserve one's life was a natural instinct for any living thing, but Jegyeong's will to live far surpassed that instinct. Having experienced death once already, he knew how terrible it was.

Would there be a third life after this second one?

He did not know.

Even if there was, he did not want to die.

It had become nothing more than a distant, vague memory, but that terror remained in his soul like a huge scar. Every time he remembered it, extreme fear seized him.

He did not want to die. So he had to improve.

He had to increase his chances of continuing to live. In other words, he had to become stronger.

How could he grow stronger?

For now, only one method came to mind.

He had to become a Demon Beast.

According to Cheongo, Demon Beasts were what ordinary beasts became.

Based on Cheongo's inadequate explanation and the two Demon Birds he had seen the day before, evolution seemed like a more fitting word than simple transformation.

It was not just a matter of gaining Spiritual Intelligence and becoming smarter. It felt as though the species itself changed.

If a beast that gained Spiritual Intelligence became a Demon Beast, was Cheongo one too?

No.

Cheongo clearly had something special about them, but the bird felt distinctly different from the Demon Birds he had seen the day before.

More than anything, Cheongo denied it.

"I'm not a Demon Beast."

A strong longing lingered in those words.

On the off chance, Jegyeong asked how one could become a Demon Beast. As expected, Cheongo answered that they did not know.

With his sharp senses and keen perception, Jegyeong noticed the hesitation in that answer, but did not show it.

Everyone had secrets.

They had not yet built enough trust to bare everything to each other. Jegyeong did not want to press Cheongo and lose the excellent partner he had found by chance.

After eating until he was fairly full, Jegyeong found the smallest tree nearby.

Even that smallest tree was so large that his body, which was over three meters long, could only wrap around a little more than half of it.

'Ghh.'

Wrapping his entire body around the tree, Jegyeong began to squeeze with all his strength.

He tightened around the trunk until he could no longer maintain the pressure, then relaxed. Once some strength returned, he did it again.

After repeating this several times, his body felt stiff, and his stomach seemed a little emptier.

"What are you doing?"

Cheongo flew over and asked curiously.

This alone showed that the bird had good sense. Cheongo had not interrupted him while he was concentrating, only coming over to ask after it seemed he was finished. That was definitely different from ordinary birdbrains.

"I'm training."

"Training?"

"Yeah."

Cheongo understood what training was, but not why it was necessary.

Jegyeong grew tired of Cheongo's chattering questions and simply answered that he did it to become stronger.

"Stronger? Training makes you stronger?"

"Of course it does."

The truth was, he did not know.

The idea that training built muscle, improved physical ability, and made one stronger was a hypothesis based on knowledge and experience from his previous life.

Yes, a hypothesis.

The physical laws of this world seemed the same as, or similar to, those of his previous life. Yet Jegyeong had already seen a monster fit for a monster movie poster and two superhumans capable of defeating it.

He could not be sure of anything.

Still, he could not simply do nothing. He was trying this while clinging to even the faintest hope.

"Then I want to do it too! How do I train?"

How?

Jegyeong loosened his stiff body and looked Cheongo over.

What kind of training could such a tiny bird do?

"Just... fly around. Until you're tired."

It was a careless answer, but nothing else came to mind.

Even so, Cheongo looked delighted, as if they had received some great teaching, and immediately flew high into the sky.

With a faint sense of discomfort and guilt, Jegyeong watched the bird for a moment before resuming his training.

He knew almost nothing about his own species.

Aside from his size, he looked like a snake from his previous world, but his detailed body structure, habits, and other traits were not the same.

He had no idea how effective this training would be.

Maybe it would have no effect at all, but even that did not matter. Jegyeong knew what he needed now was peace of mind.

Even uncertain hope was enough.

As long as it could settle this uneasy feeling.

He had started training for that reason, but to his delight and surprise, it began to show results after only a few days.

The tree he used for practice began to wobble after just two days. Startled, Jegyeong moved to another tree some distance away.

A day later, the first tree, which had occasionally shaken, finally crashed down with a loud noise.

Two days after that, the second tree he had used fell in much the same way.

The second tree had clearly been thicker and sturdier than the first.

At that point, Jegyeong was certain his strength had increased.

If he only had a feeling without proof, he might have dismissed it as wishful thinking. But now he had two massive pieces of evidence.

It was certain. This was not pointless work.

Jegyeong was greatly excited.

The training he had continued through willpower alone now filled him with even greater motivation.

The clear results and strengthened resolve were good things, but nothing in the world was only good.

Training made him stronger, but it also made him hungry more easily.

Before, he would not have been able to handle that. He would have spent most of each day hunting, then reduced his activity as much as possible during the time left over.

Things were different now.

His dependable partner had raised his hunting efficiency to an absurd degree.

Previously, in the time it took him to barely complete one hunt, he could now hunt at least five or six times. Even if he trained and worked up an appetite, he had more time and comfort than before.

And so, one day passed, then another. Time flowed on.

Footnotes:

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