WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a B-Rank Hunter ◈
Chapter 25
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Valkyrja: O-din has decreed that only glorious warriors shall ascend to Val-holl.
Evil, foolish politicians. Businessmen bloated with greed. Trash that hides in little rooms and clings to life like bugs. You cowards. You will never ascend to Val-holl.
If you desire glory, step forward. Invade the dungeons with courage. Defeat worthy enemies and prove yourselves.
Fight battles that please O-din.
Become Ein-herjar and join the great battle of Rag-na-rok.
Welcome the end of this rotten world and the golden age that follows.
Become true warriors.
Anonymous 1: The crazy religious nut showed up right when we mentioned them lmao
Anonymous 2: Believe in Odin and go to heaven
Ppakdori: That half-assed attempt to copy the original pronunciation is fucking annoying lol. Do you even know Yggdrasil sends messages according to each language's grammar rules? Even that alien tree calls him Odin, not O-din, you idiot.
⤷ Anonymous 2: Believe in O-din and go to heaven
JudgeKimGwanyong: You fucking lunatics. There's been a rumor about you lately, right? That you strip easy hunters you run into in dungeons, cut open their backs, spread their ribs, and hang them out? Some execution method called a blood eagle or whatever.
But isn't that supposed to be a disputed custom that might not have even existed? Does your alien god tell you to prove your faith by performing fake rituals like that?
⤷ EyeOfHorus: Apparently some Asatru followers who are a little crazy do that. I think they believe Yggdrasil will deliver Odin's message if they hang people or make blood eagles out of them.
⤷ ⤷ JudgeKimGwanyong: Just let those morons cross my path. I'll hang every last one of them by the neck so they can meet their precious Odin.
EyeOfHorus: There's also a rumor these people can really use magic. Not artifacts, actual magic. Like Anomalies inside dungeons. So everyone reading this, be careful.
⤷ ReasonAndScienceWin: Do not feed the fucking boomer conspiracy theorist.
* * *
Jo Gyeongtaek found the corpse and frowned deeply. He looked sick to his stomach.
“What... is this? Did a monster do this?”
“If you call that a monster, then maybe.”
Though he muttered that, Dohyeon took his eyes off the corpse and looked around. Other than the body with its back and ribs spread open, there were not many traces left behind. The only unusual thing was a bundle of rags, presumably the corpse's clothes, lying in a corner.
In the middle of a narrow, dark corridor in Kowloon Walled City, the corpse lay curled face-down like a criminal, its back split open. Faint lingering light from the sliver of sky above shone white upon its ribs.
“We need to examine the body.”
Jo Gyeongtaek came to his senses at Dohyeon's words. With a frown on his face, he raised his crossbow and watched his surroundings. Dohyeon had already suspected it, but that posture made one thing certain. Whether Jo Gyeongtaek was a hunter or not, he had once been a soldier.
Leaving Jo Gyeongtaek to cover him, Dohyeon approached the corpse and knelt beside it.
“...”
It was a young man. When Dohyeon lifted his head slightly to check, he saw a face twisted with fear and pain.
Looking closer, the victim had clenched his jaw so tightly that his teeth had broken. Had they opened his back while he was still alive?
[There is only base sadism here, and the pleasure that follows it. There is no holiness anywhere, nor even nobility or dignity. Where is there a god in this place?]
It was awkward hearing those words from a ghost with wings, dressed as a Valkyrie. Dohyeon twisted his mouth into a displeased expression and examined the corpse more closely.
He could see the broken, spread ribs, and the flesh, muscles, and organs within. It was not clean work. The wounds were messy, and numerous bone fragments remained.
“Not very skilled for someone so cruel...”
“Is it an Anomaly?”
Jo Gyeongtaek asked at Dohyeon's murmur, his crossbow still trained on his surroundings. Dohyeon shook his head.
“It isn't an Anomaly. A person did this by hand.”
“A person? A hunter did this to another hunter?”
“A hunter... These days, anyone can get a hunter's license, so they probably are hunters. More precisely, they're probably Asatru.”
“Asatru? That new religion that believes Odin and Thor are gods. I've heard they often hold violent events, but... Killing other hunters this brutally inside a dungeon is another matter, isn't it?”
“Another matter?”
Jo Gyeongtaek glanced at Dohyeon.
“Lawlessness in dungeons is famous, but... if they act this brutally, it can't be easy for them to operate. Do other hunters just stand by and watch?”
“It seems they have stopped caring about what others think lately.”
Of course, Asatru did not actually receive Odin's blessing. At least, not as far as Dohyeon knew.
Since the Odin Shock, there had always been lunatics who interpreted mythology however they pleased and acted violently, just like the Nazis in World War II. They had been especially common overseas rather than in Korea. In some countries, they had merged with white supremacy and spread through the entire nation like mold.
But none of those people had used real magic. No matter how diligently they hanged Black people, immigrants, or followers of other religions, or made blood eagles out of them, not one of them could use a single line of rune magic.
They were all arrested as psychopathic murderers, or more often shot dead on the scene. Things had supposedly calmed down somewhat in the West, yet now they were flourishing on Korean soil.
Those bastards had driven the public image of hunters into the ground. Dohyeon could not like them.
“So there are fanatics wandering this dungeon, cutting open people's backs and hanging them out. What terrible luck.”
Jo Gyeongtaek muttered as he casually placed a finger on his crossbow trigger.
Jo Gyeongtaek's frown clearly showed the feeling of having stepped in shit. Dohyeon did not know what Jo Gyeongtaek's original purpose was, but he clearly had not expected to encounter Asatru.
Dohyeon lightly pulled the front of the curled, face-down corpse to check it. Blackened burn marks covered its chest.
Runes. Their meaning was difficult to make out because the characters did not connect into any coherent meaning. But after giving them a quick look, Dohyeon thought he understood why.
Whoever had carved these bootleg runes into the corpse's chest probably knew nothing about real runes.
They had drawn proper runes asking for Odin's blessing, but here they had only scribbled imitations.
Could they be idiots who barely knew how to use blessings but did not understand actual rune characters?
Then Jo Gyeongtaek suddenly turned his head and stared down the dark corridor.
“...A sound. Can you hear that sound coming from over there too, Mr. Dohyeon?”
Dohyeon looked where Jo Gyeongtaek was looking. As he instinctively focused his hearing, the sounds of snuffling, footsteps, hacking coughs, and quiet murmuring all grew louder.
It sounded like English, perhaps Russian.
After listening, Dohyeon frowned.
“Stop. Don't focus too much on the sounds.”
“No, not the sounds of Kowloon Walled City. Another, real sound...”
Jo Gyeongtaek muttered as he slowly raised his crossbow. Watching him, Dohyeon gave a small sigh and reached over to push the crossbow down.
“Get a hold of yourself.”
“Huh? Yes? Ah, no...”
Startled back to his senses by Dohyeon, Jo Gyeongtaek lowered the crossbow in surprise.
Absurdly, instead of aiming it ahead, he had been bringing the arrowhead beneath his own chin. Like a suicidal person placing a gun barrel under his jaw.
“Damn...”
“Things have turned out this way, so let's get out of the dungeon.”
“...Yes. Let's do that.”
The two turned away, leaving the corpse with its ribs spread open behind them.
They had not found any particularly valuable materials, but earning a little less was better than fighting lunatics who cut open people's backs while they were alive.
Just as they began moving while watching their surroundings...
“...”
Dohyeon suddenly stopped and stared into the dark corridor far away, where Jo Gyeongtaek had looked earlier. Jo Gyeongtaek flinched and said,
“Mr. Dohyeon, if you focus on the sounds like I just did...”
“Quiet.”
Dohyeon raised a hand to stop him. Before Jo Gyeongtaek could question the gesture, a message from Yggdrasil appeared.
[Hungry children in the darkness clutch their empty stomachs and desperately seek their mother. Who will soothe these crying children?]
After the message, a sound began to echo from far away. The meaty sound of bare skin kicking against concrete, too distinct to be hidden even by Kowloon Walled City's bizarre noises. Jo Gyeongtaek's face went pale as though he recognized it.
Dohyeon, on the other hand, could not hide his irritation.
“Again? My luck really is shit.”
The Orphan Horde. The goddamn dungeon pattern he had encountered the last time he entered Kowloon Walled City. They were also the monsters he had met when Vargband had bound itself around his finger.
The moment he realized the Orphan Horde had appeared, Dohyeon pulled open his upper-body sling bag and took out a small glass bottle inside. It contained human scent, something he always prepared when he knew he would enter Kowloon Walled City.
He tossed it into the darkness, then immediately turned and began walking away.
Jo Gyeongtaek followed after him.
“Shouldn't we, um, move quickly?”
“The Orphan Horde follows human scent. I threw out a decoy, so what's important is that we don't sweat. Let's move calmly.”
“Ah...”
Rather than voicing doubt or panic at Dohyeon's words, Jo Gyeongtaek immediately began controlling his breathing to keep himself from heating up. Then he followed behind Dohyeon, who took the lead without dropping his guard.
Jo Gyeongtaek seemed like a beginner who followed an expert's guidance well, or a soldier who carried out orders exactly as given.
Dohyeon's eyes lit with interest as he checked on Jo Gyeongtaek from the corner of his eye.
So he doesn't doubt me.
Keeping Jo Gyeongtaek's attitude in mind, Dohyeon continued forward. From far away, a Kheeeeee! howl echoed. The Orphan Horde seemed to be following the decoy Dohyeon had thrown.
They moved at neither a fast nor slow pace for a while.
The moment they passed a corner formed by concrete walls, Dohyeon stopped.
“...!”
“...!”
The people who appeared from the opposite side also stopped, apparently startled.
They wore thick padded clothing beneath chainmail, with sturdy iron helmets on their heads.
There were three of them, each armed differently with weapons such as long poleaxes, shields and longswords, and compound bows with mechanical components. Their waists and backs were burdened with even more weapons that appeared to be secondary arms. Two men and one woman.
After examining their gear, Dohyeon's eyes turned to the accessories they wore.
Thor's hammer necklaces. Bronze-wrapped horns. Silver belts engraved with runes.
Blue eyes shining beneath their helmets and blond hair sticking out from underneath. Typical Nordic white people.
Asatru. Fanatics who believed Odin and Yggdrasil were gods.
Just as Dohyeon had taken in their appearance, they took in his and Jo Gyeongtaek's.
The one holding a poleaxe pointed at Dohyeon and shouted.
“You! Stay there!”
“Fuck off.”
He had no intention of negotiating with people who caught others and cut open their backs.
Dohyeon immediately pulled the trigger. The bolt flew straight with a Twng! and struck the poleaxe wielder between the eyes. His head snapped backward.
“Ugh!”
But with a clear Ting!, the bolt bounced away. It had failed to pierce the helmet.
Damn. It was a recurve, so it did not have enough draw weight.
Muttering internally, Dohyeon did not hesitate a second time. He turned around. Jo Gyeongtaek's face came into view.
“Let's run.”
“Huh?”
As Dohyeon immediately ran, Jo Gyeongtaek instantly turned and followed. Though he looked bewildered, he was once again moving without a word at Dohyeon's instruction.
“@#@$...!”
The poleaxe wielder, whose helmet had deflected the bolt, muttered something and shook his head once before yelling again.
“Stop! Or you'll be sorry!”
That long-nosed bastard spoke Korean quite well. The poleaxe wielder's pronunciation was not bad.
Of course, Dohyeon had no intention of listening. Why the hell would he stop?
The chainmail and helmets they wore were not cheap. Armor with actual protective power, rather than something merely made from dungeon materials, cost at least as much as a decent midsize car.
What if it was armor that possessed some special ability, even if only within dungeons?
Like the White Knight, the A-rank hunter he had met last time, it alone could become a powerful weapon for a hunter.
“@#$%#$-!”
It was a curse, even from the little he could make out. Shouting it, the three Asatru followers began chasing Dohyeon and Jo Gyeongtaek. Thankfully, they did not seem to be firing arrows due to the many concrete obstacles, such as walls and pillars.
Dohyeon, running in front, entered an open door to the side. It led to a stairwell that could go both up and down.
Dohyeon leaped up five or six steps at a time, while Jo Gyeongtaek followed behind, breathing huff, huff.
“@#$$@! Stop right there!”
The three Asatru followers entered the stairwell as well. Dohyeon tried to exit onto another floor before they could catch up.
Then the Asatru follower holding a sword and shield slammed their weapons together with a Bang!
A wave that began from the sword and shield swept past the stairs Dohyeon and Jo Gyeongtaek were running up with a Whoosh!
What was that?
Dohyeon hesitated at the strange sensation he had never felt before. The Asatru woman with the sword and shield looked at him through the gap in the stairs and shouted in slightly awkward Korean.
“Run all you want. You won't get far!”
Where had she learned that?
Strange sensation or not, he needed to run first. He turned his eyes back toward the exit he had intended to take, but Dohyeon had to stop again.
The exit that had been there moments ago was gone.
“What?”
Dohyeon froze before a cold, stained concrete wall. But below, the three Asatru fanatics were running up the stairs, and Jo Gyeongtaek, who had fallen behind by a beat, looked at Dohyeon as if asking why he had stopped.
Dohyeon began running up the stairs again.
The stairs wound upward in circles. Even Dohyeon was gradually running out of breath as he sprinted up dozens, then hundreds of steps at once.
“Huff, huff!”
Jo Gyeongtaek, following behind, was in worse condition than Dohyeon. His legs were still keeping up, but his face had turned so red it looked ready to burst.
For his apparent age, even having the stamina to follow this far was remarkable.
More serious than Jo Gyeongtaek's condition, however, was the fact that no exit appeared no matter how endlessly they climbed. There were not even any windows.
An endless staircase stretched up into the blackness.
By then, even the dullest person would have sensed something was wrong. Dohyeon went one step further and realized the situation was an Anomaly.
The Infinite Staircase. A rare Anomaly that could occur in dungeons with stairs, a pattern that trapped people on an endless stairway just as its name implied.
Naturally, Dohyeon had experienced it and escaped it before. It was an Anomaly where one could easily starve to death if they did not know the answer, but an escape method had been found back in the early days of the Odin Shock, when he was a state hunter.
The problem was the three Asatru followers chasing them from below.
He could not carry out the escape method while they pursued him. It was not particularly complicated, but he definitely needed both time and space.
Should I fight them?
Not good. It was hard to believe, but this Infinite Staircase seemed to be an Anomaly created by that Asatru warrior woman earlier.
The control of dungeons that no one had yet achieved, not corporations and not even nations, had just occurred at the sound of metal she had made.
It was not good to fight an opponent he did not properly understand. It was too dangerous. What if she could create other Anomalies as well?
[You need a new door, warrior.]
The Valkyrie's voice reached Dohyeon's ears as he ran up the stairs, his mind full of complicated thoughts. Even while short of breath, he answered.
“Yes!”
[Shall I open one?]
How? He was about to ask when Jo Gyeongtaek, running behind him, caught his toe on the end of a stair and stumbled. It was only a brief delay, but the distance between them and the three Asatru followers suddenly narrowed.
Dohyeon turned around.
They had met only a few hours ago, and he still did not understand Jo Gyeongtaek's hidden intentions. In truth, the cold calculation would have been to abandon him and use him as a shield to delay the Asatru followers.
Dohyeon did not know why he had latched onto him, but if he died, there would be no reason to keep worrying about him.
“...!”
Jo Gyeongtaek, panting as he braced himself against the stairs, raised his head and met Dohyeon's eyes.
Even in that desperate moment, determination could be seen in his eyes. They were the eyes of someone who would never easily give up on life.
Dohyeon saw his own reflection in those eyes, like a mirror.
“...”
The reflected Dohyeon stretched out his hand.
Dohyeon grabbed the stumbling Jo Gyeongtaek and pulled him upright as he shouted.
“Open the door, Valkyrie!”
[Helisbyorn, my warrior. As you wish.]
A faint shadow entered Dohyeon's vision, swinging a long pole, something like a spear. The shadow's spearpoint aimed at the sealed concrete wall.
The next moment, a Crash! rang out, like dozens of sheets of glass shattering at once.
And with that sound, the concrete wall, or rather a section of space itself, shattered like glass.
A passage lay beyond it. The cluttered space of Kowloon Walled City.
Dohyeon threw Jo Gyeongtaek through first, then hurled himself after him.
“Huff!”
Jo Gyeongtaek rolled, and so did Dohyeon. After rolling once, Dohyeon quickly raised his head and looked back at the passage they had escaped through. The space they had broken out of was closing.
Beyond it, he saw the three Asatru followers gritting their teeth as they ran. But they failed to cross the shattered space by the narrowest margin.
“They made it themselves, and now they're trapped in it...”
So they could not completely control Anomalies after all.
Dohyeon gave a small laugh at that thought.
“Huff, Mr. Doh, Mr. Dohyeon...!”
Jo Gyeongtaek called out through ragged breaths. Dohyeon turned his head.
“...Damn.”
“Kieek?”
Pale skin. Skinny limbs. Bodies nearly the size of children. Yet they had neither eyes nor noses, only viciously opened mouths full of fangs.
The Orphan Horde. The horrifying monsters that traveled in groups of dozens or hundreds, a Kowloon Walled City pattern.
“Kiheeeeeeek!”
The creatures caught the scent of Dohyeon and Jo Gyeongtaek, who had appeared before them on their own, and went wild.
[Oopsie-daisy. Should I have opened the door somewhere else? Ha ha.]
“Oopsie-daisy,” my ass. Dohyeon felt his hair standing on end at the Valkyrie's joking tone.
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