Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World - Chapter 60

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 60: Heart of the Ruins

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Thanks to the Psionic Awakener fully restoring his condition, Gerik's steps felt as light as feathers.

Thump!!

Whenever he came across a steep slope, he used Charge without hesitation, clearing the rough terrain in a single leap.

'Even a professional mountaineer from my past life wouldn't be able to keep up with me now, would they?'

Thanks to that, despite the hill being far from low, Gerik reached its summit in only three or four hours.

"Huff..."

As he took a drink and looked around, an endless forest spread out before him. This hill was much higher than the one he had first arrived on through the portal, so his view stretched much farther.

"..."

Gerik suddenly felt his breath catch.

It was not because of the forest's overwhelming size. He had seen sights like that countless times in the Demonwild Forest.

What unsettled him was that there was no sign of people anywhere nearby.

The ecosystem here was clearly similar to the outer forest. Based on his experiences so far, there should have been a frontier village nearby.

'This contradicts everything I know...'

Just then, a line he had glimpsed in his status window a few days ago suddenly came to mind.

Celebrity of a Destroyed World.

At the time, he had been busy tending to his dying body, so he had dismissed it as the nickname of some country or a trendy phrase.

'...No way.'

A chill ran down Gerik's spine as he scanned the empty forest again.

'Could this really not be the world I lived in?'

He had realized long ago that this was not the Demonwild Forest. But being in an entirely different world was another matter altogether.

Of course, all he had to go on was the note for a single fruit and a forest with no people. With no way to confirm it, speculation was only speculation.

As he turned and continued looking around in frustration, something enormous entered his sight behind him.

A massive mound, large enough to be called a low mountain range. It rose heavily above the forest ridge, strongly drawing the eye.

Having seen mountains all the time in Korea during his past life, Gerik initially did not think much of it.

But as he repeatedly surveyed the area, he happened to notice something strange and focused on the mound.

"Is that... a ruin?"

Most of it was buried beneath trees and vines, making it hard to tell.

Even so, when Gerik narrowed his eyes and looked closely, his enhanced perception and intelligence picked out stone pillars and neat stone floors that occasionally showed through the brush.

'Just as I thought...!'

The living ruins he had searched before were made of flesh and corneas. They were clearly not something from this land.

But that was different.

It was a structure built by carving and stacking stone. A trace left behind by those who had lived on this land.

'There has to be something there.'

Where was this place? Where had its inhabitants gone? If there were answers, they could be nowhere but those ruins.

'At the very least, it'd be best if there were people who came here to investigate.'

With no way to escape at the moment, simply meeting another person would be a great gain.

'Who knows? Maybe, like with those living ruins... I'll hit the jackpot again?'

Forcing himself to end that thought lightly, Gerik immediately headed toward the ruins.

The ruins were quite far away.

No matter how long he walked, the forest seemed endless. Fortunately, a river flowed toward the ruins, and clusters of fruit appeared here and there, so he did not lack water or food.

The weather was also mild enough that, as long as he lit a fire, he could use his Grizzly Owl hide armor as a blanket and get some sleep.

Of course, the journey was not entirely smooth.

The dense brush blocked his view, so Gerik had to climb tall trees from time to time to check the mound's location and avoid losing his way.

"Huff... Slow down... Just a little...!"

Whenever he clung to a high branch, memories of falling from the cliff returned, making his fingertips tremble.

Bzzzt...!!

But his newly acquired Telekinesis often gave him great psychological support. Whenever he reached out and grabbed a thick branch, an invisible force firmly pulled his body upward.

After scouting the area and climbing down, Gerik leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. The reason he rested despite not being tired was simple.

Over the past few days, he had learned that sleep restored this power the fastest.

'Based on what I've experienced over the last few days... is this how I should define Telekinesis...?'

As the heavy fatigue at the back of his head faded, Gerik began organizing what he had observed.

'Its range is about five meters. At full power, it lasts ten seconds at a time. After using it once, I need about ten seconds before I can use it again. If I use it continuously like that, ten times is roughly the limit...'

The problem was its power.

No matter how hard he pushed himself, it was only about as strong as an adult's forearm. When he tried to draw out more, the force scattered as if by magic, even though he still had energy left, and he could not maintain it.

'Is it because the level is low? Slash and Charge both became stronger as their levels increased.'

It had many restrictions, but Gerik did not dislike the power.

It felt like receiving an interesting gift from Santa on Christmas.

Thanks to practicing Telekinesis as he walked, like a child playing with a new toy, he reached his destination without growing bored.

"Finally...!!"

After walking for several days, he finally reached the ruins.

Large and small trees and bushes covered the broken stone floors and pillars, but even they could not completely hide the ruins' grandeur.

'All of this came from just one pillar?'

What surprised Gerik most were the collapsed pillars scattered across the ground. Though shattered into unrecognizable pieces, every fragment was comparable in size to a small building.

'What kind of civilization left these remains behind...?'

Broken statues, fallen walls, collapsed corridors.

Even to Gerik, who possessed the knowledge of a modern person, its scale was tremendous.

Ironically, the architecture was clearly at the level of an ancient civilization. That contradiction confused him.

'Putting that aside, if this place is this large and advanced...'

Despite his confusion, a small hope rose in Gerik's heart.

A place of this scale likely had someone investigating or maintaining it. At the very least, there should have been signs that someone had visited.

'...There's nothing.'

No matter how deeply he searched or how carefully he looked, Gerik could not find any trace of people. There were not even signs of grave robbers, let alone the usual ritual vessels or daily necessities.

"Ha... Nobody has touched a place like this?"

He muttered in disappointment, but the sun was still high in the sky. Since he still had time to explore, he continued searching through the temple ruins just in case.

As he entered the rear of the temple, Gerik found a massive stone statue of a giant, half destroyed.

'An altar...?'

Perhaps it had been used to offer tributes to the giant. Beneath the shattered statue were a stone brazier, an altar, and other such objects.

As Gerik approached out of curiosity, he noticed a cave opening behind the altar.

'It's hidden by the brush, but that's definitely a cave.'

Rustling bushes and the faint sound of wind.

Based on that, Gerik was certain there was a path leading somewhere behind the altar.

'Could it be...?'

Having gained an enormous reward from the collapsed living ruins a few days ago, Gerik felt a strong curiosity toward the cave.

Whoosh.

He gathered dry branches and coated them with Oilwood sap, quickly making a reliable torch.

Holding it out before him, Gerik pushed through the brush and carefully stepped into the dark cave.

"...A temple?"

Interestingly, the inside of the cave looked highly artificial. It seemed someone had carved and shaped the walls of a natural cave to make it resemble a temple.

It was also quite large. However, it was a single path with no forks, so Gerik could steadily make his way deeper without worrying about getting lost.

After walking for some time, Gerik came upon a huge circular chamber.

"...!"

A massive altar stood at the center of the chamber.

And atop it rested an enormous boulder with a bizarre shape that was difficult to describe.

"...A sword?"

A sword was embedded deep in the boulder.

Only its handle was exposed, but a faintly glowing sky-blue gem embedded in its pommel caught the eye.

'Was there some kind of war here...?'

The surroundings perfectly matched Gerik's assessment.

Perhaps because of the traces of a fierce battle, the entire area was damaged, and massive rocks that had fallen from the ceiling lay scattered across the floor.

'What's that...?'

As Gerik walked around the chamber with his torch, he soon found an unknown set of remains lying collapsed on the ground.

It was the first thing he had seen since arriving here that resembled a human.

More precisely, it was a corpse with nothing but bones left.

"A grave robber...? No, this isn't human...?"

When he approached and examined it carefully, Gerik confirmed that its skeleton was clearly different from a human's.

Its abnormally long skull was strange enough, but the greatest difference was that, while it had hands and feet, three long, thin bones extended grotesquely from each elbow and knee.

'This... Could it be...?'

Gerik instinctively recalled the form of the tentacled human he had seen through a panel in the living ruins a few days ago. His enhanced memory vividly brought the image back to him.

'I'm sure of it...!! It's a tentacled human...!!'

After carefully observing the area and confirming there was nothing else of note, Gerik's eyes naturally shifted to the boulder with the sword embedded in it.

'A fragment... maybe?'

As if matching his doubts, the boulder was covered in strange patterns and had a rough, uneven surface.

The thick lines that looked like veins especially made it impossible to see the boulder as a natural object.

After examining it for a long time, Gerik considered touching it and bringing up its status window.

However, remembering the harsh experience he had after carelessly touching an object from the living ruins, he carefully used Telekinesis to feel along its surface instead.

'...Nothing seems wrong for now.'

After feeling it out for a while with no response, Gerik gathered his courage and placed his hand directly against the boulder.

As expected, all he felt against his palm was cold, hard stone. There was no ominous curse or trap.

Relieved, he let out a breath and brought up its status window.

『Sealed Br??'s ??』

『Type: ??』

『Grade: ??』

『Effect: ??』

『Note: ??』

"...Sealed?"

Broken letters obscured the information. The only thing he could properly read was the word "sealed."

But that alone was enough to convince him that the strange boulder before him was no ordinary object.

Gerik brought up the status window over and over again. Yet the hidden information never appeared, as if it would never reveal anything unless the seal was broken.

'No choice, then.'

Gerik eventually turned his attention to the handle of the sword embedded in it.

'The sword too... Just in case...'

Preparing for possible danger, he used Telekinesis again to project force onto the handle.

Bzzzt...!!

The instant his Telekinesis touched the handle, a faint vibration suddenly rose from the gem embedded in the sword.

'Wh... What is this...?'

Tremble...!!

It was not his imagination.

As it met his Telekinesis, the gem began greedily devouring it like a starving beast that had found food after a long time.

'What the...!!'

He felt power rapidly draining from the back of his head.

Startled, he tried to stop casting it, but the sword seemed unwilling to allow that. It forcibly maintained his Telekinesis and continued consuming his power.

"This is insane...!!"

The method he had chosen for safety had instead become poison.

Terrified, Gerik instinctively put strength into his right hand and pulled hard on his Telekinesis as if trying to tear it away.

Whoosh!!

Something unexpected happened.

As if dragged by his Telekinesis, the sword embedded in the boulder slid free.

Clack!!

At the same time, the sword flew through the air and landed precisely in Gerik's grip.

"...Huh?"

Gerik blankly looked down at the sword in his hand.

The blade was translucent, shining with a bluish-green light, and an unknown crystal floated at its end as though it formed the sword's tip.

'...A lightsaber?'

Except that its blade was more transparent and thinner, it looked rather similar to the beam swords he had seen in science fiction from his past life.

'It must be an artifact... right?'

Gerik was excited by the unexpected find and was about to bring up its status window again to identify it.

Crack...!! Crack!! Craaack...!!!

A heavy vibration began rumbling before him.

"...?!"

Gerik hurriedly raised his head and saw that the boulder the sword had been pulled from was slowly turning red.

Thump...!! Thump...!!

The boulder, red like lava, began pulsing like a living heart.

Seeing that, Gerik realized that what he had first described as "looking like veins" were real veins.

But the violent pulsing lasted only briefly.

From the spot where the sword had been embedded moments ago, an unknown red substance began pouring out.

Crack!! Craaack!!

As it burst forth, the pulsing boulder seemed unable to endure any longer. It split apart before quickly crumbling into powder.

Leaving the debris behind, the red force floated through the air and began drifting around the chamber.

"..."

Gerik watched without even breathing, then noticed a strange change.

Whenever the force touched the blocked walls, green sprouts emerged from the dry floor and walls.

'Life force...?'

As Gerik watched in a daze, the force began wandering aimlessly around the shattered boulder as if looking for something.

Like a blind person feeling along walls in search of an exit.

'Uh... Don't tell me...?!'

A terrible feeling crossed Gerik's mind.

'The only way out of here right now is...'

Just as that chilling thought passed through his mind, wind blowing from behind Gerik reached the force wandering through the chamber.

The force stopped feeling around the walls as though it had found what it wanted, then shot toward the passage where Gerik stood at incredible speed.

'No... This is insane...!!'

Whoosh!!

Gerik used Charge, trying to dodge it.

But the force was far too fast for him to escape with something like Charge.

It covered Gerik in an instant. As the escaping force sensed him in passing, it all stopped at once and surrounded him.

"Wh... What is this...?!"

As he panicked and tried to find a way out, the force surrounding Gerik began plunging into the center of his heart all at once.

"!?"

An indescribable vitality filled his entire body.

It felt as if every cell in his body was waking up.

His blood, cooled by exhaustion, began boiling, and strength filled his tired muscles. It was an overwhelmingly blissful sensation of fullness.

But it only lasted a moment.

Though it fully restored his body, the vitality continued pouring into his heart without end.

"Ghk...!!"

As life force beyond what he could endure poured into him, Gerik writhed in agony as though his heart was being crushed.

And it truly was.

The unbearable power instantly crushed his fragile heart.

But the force embedded in his heart seemed unwilling to allow him to die. The instant it broke, the force restored his ruined heart with vitality.

"Ghk... Ghk...!!"

And that drove Gerik mad.

It meant endlessly repeating pain so terrible that he wanted to die.

The sword fell from his hand and rolled across the floor.

Unable even to scream, Gerik clutched his chest and writhed as dark red blood began flowing from every opening in his body, including his eyes and nose.

Thump...!! Thump...!!

Yet the force lodged in his heart continued pulsing strongly, violently circulating vitality through every corner of his body through his blood vessels.

To his fingertips, his toes, and the top of his head.

The moment that burning force finally surged into his mind.

"Arrgh...!!"

Gerik's vision turned completely white.

Then he lost consciousness.

* * *

The light slowly faded.

As Gerik regained consciousness, he realized that, for some reason, he could not move his body as he wished.

'What is this...?'

It was a strange sensation he had never felt before.

Gerik's mind was clearly awake, but his body was not his own.

It felt as though someone had possessed him and he could only observe the world.