WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ SSS-Class Revival Hunter ◈
Chapter 260: Sealing the Dragon (3)
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Let's discuss the last [enemy] humanity fought in the tower for a moment.
This happened before my regression.
Flame Emperor - Yoo Soo-Ha, true to the alias he received, was good at burning everything.
-Hahaha! Haha!
His ability was to burn objects well, his sin was to burn people equally well, and lastly, his cruelty was to burn the world itself.
And that was the misfortune of everyone else.
-Being a god feels pretty good!
Yoo Soo-Ha possessed a member of the Fairy Tribe and led the rest of that tribe. They burned whatever lay at their feet. They burned anyone they met on the road. They even tried to burn the world around them.
The Karma Flame Army.
That's what Yoo Soo-Ha called the fairies following him. Indeed, they were the incarnate of karma flames that descended upon the continent, burning everything that came into their sight.
-Burn it!
When Yoo Soo-Ha commanded,
-For his highness! For his highness! For his highness!
The elves chanted in response.
Their voices were fierce, sharp, and venomous.
-For the sublime being!!
Primitive worship.
-O god of fire, we offer these sacrifices! Please accept them!
Human sacrifice.
-Burn!
-Purify the world!
-We are the only ones chosen by the god of fire! The only ones with worth!
A chosen-people mentality.
-Your weakness, your hunger, it's all because you were born lowly!
-How dare you, the lowly trash, step on the sacred flames!
Contempt and discrimination.
-They are strong, their rank is high, all because they took it from us!
-Priest, no, the former priest! Look! This is proof you're no longer favored by the god of fire!
Hatred and lust for power.
-Yes, that's right. This is how people live.
-Love? Friendship? Dedication? Bullshit. Don't rely on such fantasies! How can people love each other!
-Come on, kids! You are the true humanity! Now, unify this continent! Understand!
The elves saluted.
-For his highness! For his highness! For his highness!
Yoo Soo-Ha set the world ablaze.
And to lead that fire, he kept purchasing the [Character Possession] and [Divine Descent] items whenever the timing was right.
-Why bother with farming? Are you a fool?
-Farming isn't easy, you know. You need farming tools. To make farming tools, you need the technology for them. To develop that technology, you need researchers. To support researchers, you need money. To gather money, you need a market. To have a market, you need a village. To have a village, you need a ruler. Then that ruler works the village, the market, the money, the researchers, the technicians, and the farmers, and only after another six months or a year do a few millet-sized grains finally pop out. Yeah.
Yoo Soo-Ha scoffed.
-Are you all fools?
The elves growled.
-We are not fools!
-We are not fools! We, [Flame Cross Order] who are not fools, strongly support the oracle of the god of fire!
It seemed like lava, not blood, coursed through their veins.
The elves, naturally born with physical and intellectual prowess, channeled all of it into killing. Born with the innate ability to sense Aura, the elves were formidable killing machines. These killing machines, with their superior brains, pondered how to efficiently sever limbs of their enemies, how to climb to higher positions.
Zealous followers of the god they called the Flame Emperor.
In that era, that’s what the Fairy Tribe was.
-Little rascals. Carrying heads in their hands, they're not fools, I see.
Yoo Soo-Ha stood on the altar, igniting Aura in his right hand.
Whoosh!
The head of a Mountain Snail Tribe member he was holding burned instantly, turning to ash.
-You don't need to farm! If you're hungry, eat the grain other people harvested. Kill the centipede-chickens they carefully kept for breeding and hold a feast!
-You don’t need villages either. If you kill everyone in the village, isn't that a luxury hotel just for you? Leave a few villagers to serve you, and relax in that hotel for a couple of weeks. Eat the food and meat they bring regularly. Isn’t that paradise? Huh?
-After two weeks, kill the food-bearing villagers too. Kill them all. How does that feel? Light, right? After resting for a fortnight, you feel unstressed and energized again, right? That's it. Guys, that’s it.
-Time to find the next hotel!
The Fairy Tribe shouted.
-For his highness! For his highness! For his highness!
-For the god of fire!
-For his highness!
Wherever the Karma Flame Army went, nothing was left. Yearlong crops were burned, prized cows in barns were scorched and roasted. Everything the people had painstakingly built for tomorrow, next year, for the future, crumbled to ashes overnight.
All that remained was an unbearable reality. Whenever the Karma Flame Army plundered a village, they deliberately left five or six people alive, but only after breaking their legs, arms, or backs. The surviving villagers blankly saw their vanished past and severed future, the corpses overflowing at the village edges. And then,
After the Karma Flame Army left, ropes quietly hung on the streets. The surviving villagers hung themselves there.
Yoo Soo-Ha, the tyrant who set the world on fire.
However, he encountered a crisis on the 39th floor, and upon reaching the 40th floor, he fell into unprecedented danger.
It was a mystery that he even faced a crisis.
The Karma Flame Army had already exterminated countless races. They tore the Mountain Snail Tribe apart, nailed the Ghost Tribe to death, beheaded the Pure Humans, burned the Gill-Fin Tribe alive, and imprisoned the Vampiric Tribe until they died.
Who, from where, would dare to bring crisis to the god of fire?
-Ugor.
Only one race.
For thousands of years, as the continent groaned in the fiery hell, the only children who escaped [extinction].
-Well, look who it is. The boss of those crazy elf bastards.
Earth Spirit Tribe.
Their world was harsh. Only the strong survived in the ever-burning inferno. Luckily, they were tenacious. They survived doggedly, planted seeds, and a few of those seeds grew into warriors.
Yoo Soo-Ha's opponent on the 40th floor was them, the Earth Spirit Tribe.
-What are you lot? The 38th floor... No, NPC monsters wouldn't understand me if I put it that way. Uh. Right. How did you survive the Ki Dragon Dwelling in the Deep Sea or whatever it was?
-We survived.
-Interesting. How?
-Dozens among us can use Aura. Those dozens clung to the Ki Dragon and absorbed as much Aura as possible for as long as time allowed.
-Hmm. So...
-That's right.
Kwoong.
Fourteen members of the Earth Spirit Tribe stepped forward.
-We are the last of the Earth Spirit Tribe in this world.
-......
-Despite all our kin being dead, we survived and became incomparably stronger than before.
Yoo Soo-Ha let out a short sneer.
-Just fourteen of you left and you dare call yourselves a race? Ridiculous. Fine, dirt-poor brats. I'll send you comfortably to join your million kin today!
But.
That day, Yoo Soo-Ha did not accomplish the quest.
Instead, he had to admit he was woefully unprepared to face [these enemies] and had no choice but to retreat.
Usually, he could've easily won by charging with his Karma Flame Army.
But for some reason... Yoo Soo-Ha lost the trust of the elves on the 39th floor.
Not just lost, but became the enemy of all elves.
-Damn it.
Yoo Soo-Ha had no allies. There were rumors of a romance with the Saintess, but in hindsight, it was probably just gossip spread by irresponsible media.
Even the fairies who could've been his subordinates had turned their backs on him.
The term 'all alone' was made for Yoo Soo-Ha.
-Fighting unfairly with numbers, huh? Fine! Fuckers. I'll prepare thoroughly and come back! Understand!
[Retreating from the 40th floor.]
[You have failed to achieve the quest!]
[Please try again next time.]
Thus, the Flame Emperor Yoo Soo-Ha's string of swift, decisive stage clears came to a temporary halt.
He wasn’t exactly defeated by the 40th floor boss. He just retreated. There weren't many who mocked this as Yoo Soo-Ha's [failure].
After all, he was the legend, Flame Emperor - Yoo Soo-Ha, who had conquered every stage from the 11th to the 39th floor.
-Breaking news.
Yoo Soo-Ha wasn't the only one frustrated on the 40th floor.
-The Black Dragon Guild's assault on the 40th floor of the tower.
-They were confident this time they'd show the true strength of a top-tier guild, right?
-Unfortunately, they returned empty-handed again.
The Black Dragon Master. Though her fame was overshadowed by Yoo Soo-Ha's, she effectively wielded the greatest power in the Tower. Determined to restore her guild's honor this time, she attacked with every Black Dragon elite.
[Retreating from the 40th floor.]
[You have failed to achieve the quest!]
[Please try again next time.]
She too failed.
Unable to defeat "the mere fourteen remaining Earth Spirit Tribe members," the Black Dragon Master retreated. She had killed six of them and injured four. That was the limit of the Black Dragon Master's power.
Eventually,
-Number one in the Hunter rankings!
-Flame Emperor has once again soloed the boss!
The one who landed the final blow on the prey wounded by the Black Dragon Master was Yoo Soo-Ha, who had been waiting for the right moment for revenge.
Despite having retreated once, the Flame Emperor was still the hunter who held an immovable first place. Six corpses, four wounded fighters, and four uninjured warriors could not possibly withstand Yoo Soo-Ha.
-Damn it!
-Cursed brats, they've been a real pain!
Yoo Soo-Ha cursed as he set the Earth Spirit Tribe's heads ablaze.
With that, the last of the Earth Spirit Tribe on the continent perished, marking the extinction of a race.
-You...
The Earth Spirit Tribe member opened their mouth. They were the last remaining one. Held by the head in Yoo Soo-Ha's grasp, their entire body burning, they recited emotionlessly.
-You will be cursed.
-Huh?
-You're not a god, but a devil. You masqueraded as a god and led the fairies down a devil's path. You set the world on fire and destroyed it. Everything is your karma. If there is truly a god in this world, not a devil like you...
-What the hell are you talking about, monster?
-You will surely face revenge.
Woosh.
The Earth Spirit warrior's head burned all the way through the brain. Only then did their voice cease. Even after their throat had burned, their tongue had turned to ash, and their bones had melted, the last Earth Spirit had continued delivering their final words through Aura alone.
-Bastard.
Yoo Soo-Ha brushed the ash from his hands with a flick.
-Talking about revenge, such insignificant beings.
Thus, Yoo Soo-Ha conquered the 40th floor of the tower.
Media outlets waged wars to get an interview with Yoo Soo-Ha. On the internet, people were divided between praising and mocking him, proving how significant the name Yoo Soo-Ha was in their lives. Hunters ridiculed the incompetent Black Dragon Master, and someone like me admired Yoo Soo-Ha.
That was the era.
That was the day.
-Talk? Ah, talking. Good. Very civilized.
-But I set the rules for the conversation.
That very night, the Saintess died.
-But you know I'm the Flame Emperor. You saw that the Saintess died by my hand.
-Then you should die too.
An F-rank hunter also died.
Thus.
The 40th floor was the highest stage humanity had ever conquered in a standard manner.
Although I briefly visited the 50th floor to meet Constellation Killer, it was a trick using a bug. It was not officially recognized. Before and after my return, the last realm humanity had ever reached was up to the 40th floor.
The being who once defeated the Flame Emperor and made the Black Dragon Master retreat on the 40th floor.
The very beings who made me choose “Goblin” as my race despite my companions' ridicule. The beings who, with only fourteen survivors, carved themselves deeply into my memory.
[The Earth Spirit Tribe is undergoing evolution!]
That very being was now entering my timeline.
The change began with a small Hopgoblin child.
-Ugor?
The little Earth Spirit sat cross-legged with their mother on the left and their father on the right. Their tiny toes wriggled. The parents wanted to channel their Aura into their young child rather than accumulate it themselves. They were low-ranking warriors in the Fire River Council, and the Aura cultivation method they performed together was quite accomplished.
That's why the child was the first to experience the glory of evolution.
-My child?
-This is...
The child began to glow.
The child's parents were startled, but soon realized that the change was not happening only to their child.
-Hmm?
-Ugor?
Whoosh!
The Earth Spirit Tribe members, whether perched on the Dragon's back, sitting atop its knee, or just on a claw, began to glow one after another.
-What, why is my body...
-This is ominous! Something terrible is happening, Ugor!
As the Earth Spirit Tribe members were about to unravel their cross-legged posture,
"Don't be so hasty!"
A roar came from atop the Dragon's head.
[The Constellation 'The Muscle Pig Dreaming of Parricide' admonishes his kin.]
It was my magnificent unfilial son. Uburka sat between the giant creature's left and right nostrils, directly above its philtrum. Whenever the [Ki Dragon Dwelling in the Deep Sea] exhaled, Uburka's body rose and fell as if he were riding a swinging pirate-ship attraction. It was the roughest possible course, yet he looked as comfortable as if he were reclining in an armchair.
"Never unfold your legs! Keep channeling your Aura!"
-But...
"This is not an ominous sign. It's similar to what you call metamorphosis!"
The Earth Spirit Tribe members widened their eyes.
-Metamorphosis?
-Isn't that the realm only Uburka, our ancestor, barely reached?
Uburka grinned, showing his fangs.
"Ugor. It's just similar. I know because I've experienced it. While similar to metamorphosis, it's different. Besides, aren't all our kin glowing at once?"
-Then what's happening, ancestor?
"I don't know. But exploring unknown caverns is always exciting!"
Whoosh!
Uburka too began to glow. His flame was wilder than any Earth Spirit Tribe member's.
"Fellow tribe members! Do not fear. Fire has always been our ally. Even when our ancestors moaned buried in smoky caves, fire burned for us. How can the monster that created this continent extinguish our fire?"
Red flames fiercely enveloped Uburka, but they didn't burn his body or the world, merely entwining quietly around the Dragon's head. Many Earth Spirit Tribe members admired their ancestor's realm and looked up to Uburka.
"Breathe! Take the world's body heat into your bodies! Focus! Remember our great ancestors swinging their pickaxes to mine salt!"
The commotion subsided.
The Earth Spirit Tribe members immersed themselves in Aura cultivation again.
"Everyone, unify your mind images!"
My family's Chief Warrior, like an orchestra conductor, led the flames emitted by the tribe members.
"Whether this is metamorphosis or whatever, when we open our eyes next, we will be different beings! But what's the use of tomorrow and the day after for those who forget yesterday? They just pass time, not live it. So remember. Never forget the screams of our long-dead ancestors! We burn eternally just to [not forget]!"
The flames grew fiercer.
From the Dragon's shell, knees, toes, bridge of the nose, and philtrum, flames of every color soared. Hundreds of thousands of flames wavered in dozens of hues, but before long the most intense color, the single clearest color, swallowed all the rest.
Red.
The red flames devoured the blue, jade, yellow, black, and white. The [Ki Dragon Dwelling in the Deep Sea] was completely engulfed in blazing fire. The monster's body burned like the wick of a colossal candle.
[The Constellation 'The Muscle Pig Dreaming of Parricide' is using Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.]
And then,
[The Earth Spirit Tribe is using Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.]
Crack.
The children's green skin, their outer covering, peeled away.
Like burnt charred shells, their green skin dropped away in red flakes.
[The Earth Spirit Tribe is experiencing evolution!]
No.
It wasn't just the skin that turned red due to the burning Aura.
[The Earth Spirit Tribe's status is changing!]
The children's skin truly turned red.
It wasn't the green of spring's goblins or the summer scent of Hopgoblins.
[The Earth Spirit Tribe has evolved into its final form, Asura!]
For millennia,
The seasons the Earth Spirit Tribe had passed through over thousands of years ripened red and became the children's blood and flesh.
"......."
In the dropout waiting room,
We blankly watched the Earth Spirit Tribe harvest red autumn.
The Earth Spirit Tribe grew a little larger. Their fangs grew sharper. Their eyes gleamed red. The Aura blazing in their mindscapes became one with their bodies and burned fiercely. Red muscles that looked ready to burst breathed across their forearms, backs, abdomens, and thighs.
“Ogre…?”
The Black Dragon Master murmured unconsciously.
“…No. I've never seen Ogres with reddish skin. They're not just big like Ogres, their Aura purity is unbelievably high. That's…”
“Yes, it's not.”
We kept our eyes on the hologram.
“This is a place only they can reach.”
I whispered to myself.
Watching the majestic Blood Flame raised by the children,
‘Open race status.’
Sssk.
Text appeared before me.
+
[Asura]
Extinction Grade: F (No Danger)
Maxim: 'We are fire.'
Political System: Fire River Council
Description: Earth Spirit Tribe.
Born from the earth, digging burrows, loving the swamp to smear their bodies with mud, knowing the scent of rain from the sky as happiness, a race that loved all shadows and moisture has, after enduring a long time, finally embraced the world's flames in their hearts.
Ignition.
They symbolize an unquenchable fire. When they kindle their aura, the flames split into six directions, and when they step onto the battlefield, their arms strike as fiercely as if wielding six swords.
They grieve for the lives fading from this world. By performing the faces and gestures of the dead, they bring lives that have already vanished onto dark and shadowed stages. They can always become another person, become themselves, and become us. Thus, they are likened to beings with three faces.
Asura.
Loving the streams shed by human beings and taking pride in the flames they kindle, the Asuras will forever race through a world turned into hell.
If someone calls the Earth Spirit Tribe demons, it is perhaps because they have willingly chosen to dwell in hell.
Their beloved father still laughs in hell. Where else could be their home?
May fortune be with you.
Traits: [Fire River Council], [Bloodfire Drama], [Demonic Cult], [Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven], [Demonic Heaven Formation Art], [Doctrine of Bad Friends], [Legacy of Records], [Competitive Spirit], [Multiracial Culture], [Hegemon of the Continent]
Evolution: Complete.
Alias: Asura is a name unique to them.
+
I nodded.
"......Yes."
In the silence of the dropout’s waiting room, where all my colleagues were silent, only my voice flowed softly.
Perhaps because people naturally don't hear their own voice well, I felt as if I was both expressing joy and suppressing emotions that couldn't quite be expressed.
"They are my children."
Still.
I spoke the words I wanted to, could, and needed to say.
"All of them... every one of them, are my proud children."
[Stage Clear.]
[The 38th floor has been cleared.]
[You did not participate in the stage.]
[No rewards are given to you.]
That was.
Words of immense happiness.
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