WeTried Translations

Translator: Dawn

Editor: Dawn

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race

Chapter 27

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A Thousand Forms

After the hunt, Shan lay sprawled on the ground in complete exhaustion and saw two lights approaching from a distance. It was Roden and Vent, carrying torches and looking around nervously.

“Hey, Shan! Shan! Are you there? Answer me!”

“Over here…”

He barely had the strength to speak, and after whispering several times, the two finally found Shan and the cockatrice lying beside him. Seeing him covered in blood, Roden rushed over in shock.

“Damn! How badly are you hurt? Priest, heal him quickly!”

“I’m… not badly hurt…”

He had a few wounds, but they were only scratches and scrapes from rolling across the ground. The blood covering him all came from the cockatrice’s severed neck. Realizing this, Roden let out a sigh of relief.

“You scared me… But why do you look like death warmed over?”

“Spirit.”

“Ah.”

At that moment, Vent, who was examining the gigantic corpse by torchlight, let out a low exclamation in amazement.

“You really killed it! A cockatrice, and all by yourself.”

“Not by myself.”

Without Jerpo’s enchantment, he would never have completely severed the neck. Without Vent’s blessing, he would never have recovered enough stamina after landing those earlier attacks. Without Roden throwing him weapons, he would have had to carry a ridiculous number of them and likely would have been struck down.

He had fought alone, but he won because everyone was there with him. Shan genuinely believed that. After hearing him out, Roden laughed in disbelief and helped him up.

“Fine. We’ll say all of us did it together. For now, let’s go get some sleep, great hero.”

Everyone was too exhausted to worry about processing the cockatrice. Shan had done the fighting, but the other two had spent the entire battle listening in pitch darkness, unable to tell who would survive.

Staggering back to their temporary shelter, the three collapsed beside Jerpo, who had already fallen asleep. Fortunately, the cockatrice had apparently been a terrifying tyrant to the snake monsters inhabiting the city. All four survived the night without incident. Jerpo woke first the next morning and stared at them in disbelief.

“Don’t tell me all of you slept without posting a watch!?”

“It seems like... we did.”

“Good grief.”

If even a single snake from the outskirts had slithered in, they would all have died. After a brief self-reproaching discussion, they left their shelter. At last, it was time to harvest the rewards of their ordeal.

***

“Hah…”

After examining the cockatrice’s corpse, Jerpo ran his hands over the stone-like body in disbelief.

“To think I’d ever get to observe a cockatrice this closely.”

“Do you know what parts of it are worth taking?”

“For starters, the stone hide can be scraped off and used as an alchemical catalyst. But it’s too heavy, and despite being rare, its uses are limited, so it doesn’t sell for much. We’ll leave that. The membranes on its feet are highly elastic and useful for crafting. Its eyes don’t possess petrification abilities, but they share traits with a basilisk’s and can be used in magical tools…”

Following Jerpo’s instructions, Shan butchered the valuable parts. Roden, who couldn’t handle blades properly, organized the harvested materials and hung them up to dry. While trying to remove the heart, they noticed something strange beside it— semi-transparent red stone, slightly larger than a human torso.

“A magic stone!”

“Oh, a cockatrice magic stone? Well, a monster this powerful was bound to have one!”

Magic stones usually came from high-ranking monsters, and the stronger the monster, the higher the quality. In fact, the troll Shan killed before often dropped magic stones. He had simply been unlucky that time. After extracting it, Jerpo inspected the stone with various spells and nodded.

“There’s no need for further analysis. It’s top quality. If we sell it to the guild, it’ll fetch at least ten thousand gold coins.”

“Ten thousand…!”

The amount was beyond imagination. Even the several hundred coins he earned from the troll hunt had been cumbersome to carry around. With that much money, they would probably need a bank account. They smiled at the tremendous haul, but suddenly Roden shouted in alarm.

“Ah, don’t do anything to the head!”

“I already removed the eyes.”

“That’s fine. But don’t damage the overall shape. First, cut it off at the neck…”

Even separated from the body, the cockatrice’s head was larger than a fully grown man and incredibly heavy because of its stone-like hide. One of their four horses would likely be devoted entirely to transporting it. But a monster’s severed head was the most definitive proof of a hunt. Regardless of actual value, they absolutely had to bring it back for symbolic reasons. As Roden carefully applied preservatives between the scales and around the cut surface, he grinned.

“I can’t wait to see the looks on people’s faces when we bring this back…”

A monster that normally required more than ten knights, half of whom might die in the attempt, had been killed by a boy barely in his teens. It was so absurd that not even the epic tales of Emperor Varen and the greatest knights of history contained anything comparable. Which was exactly why they needed undeniable proof.

While Roden worked to preserve the head, the others finally entered the mansion where the cockatrice had lived. The broad hallways were covered in scratches and gouges left by the giant lizard’s movements.

“I wonder who lived in a place like this.”

“Certainly not an ordinary person. I’ve never seen an Alto ruin this large before…” Vent muttered in response to Shan’s question.

The mansion was enormous, so the three split up to search more efficiently. Vent and Jerpo explored the first and second floors, while Shan went to the third floor so he could quickly descend if needed.

This place is huge.

The largest house Shan had ever seen was the Weavers' mansion in the capital. However, this mansion dwarfed it completely. The doors and hallways were so massive that giants could have lived here. The overall size felt more than ten times greater.

Is this what the royal palace of Pendia looks like?

Strangely enough, the furniture itself was sized for ordinary humans. The cockatrice’s weight had apparently prevented it from reaching the third floor, so there were no claw marks there. But the passage of time had left most items worn and decayed.

There’s less here than I expected.

He assumed the owner of such an incredible mansion must have been unimaginably wealthy. Yet compared to the other nearby mansions, this one contained fewer valuables. Perhaps the owner was unexpectedly frugal. Puzzled, Shan opened the final room at the end of the corridor, the largest room on the floor.

“Oh…!” He let out a low gasp.

Inside a tattered canopy that had nearly crumbled away, resting atop what must once have been a bed lay a single sword. Judging by the room’s size and grandeur, this had likely been the master bedroom. Walking over slowly, Shan drew the weapon from a wooden scabbard that looked moments away from falling apart.

Including the hilt, it measured roughly one meter long. The guard was relatively short, and the grip seemed suitable for either one-handed or two-handed use. The bluish-gray blade evoked the chill of winter, and faint magical patterns glowed softly across its surface.

“...A magic sword?” His voice trembled with disbelief.

Then he gave the sword a light swing through the air. Like Shan himself, the blade was slightly lighter than an ordinary steel sword of the same size.

“Roden! Vent! Jerpo!”

Shan immediately burst out of the room and shouted for his companions, then jumped directly from the third floor to the first. The others rushed over from their searches and preservation work.

“What happened?”

“I found one! A magic sword!”

“Seriously!?”

“I knew it!”

Magic swords were among the most valuable magical artifacts in existence. Everyone’s face brightened instantly. But for some reason, when Jerpo hurried down from the second floor and examined the weapon, his expression froze. He looked at Shan, Roden, and Vent in turn with eyes that seemed almost frightened.

“C-could this be…?”

“It’s a good thing, right?”

Since Jerpo’s reaction didn’t seem entirely positive, Shan found himself asking as if urging him on. Jerpo, even breaking into a cold sweat, swallowed a hard gulp and spoke quietly.

“Wait. Just in case, I need to examine it first.”

While he kept chanting spells at the sword, the other three sat nearby and chatted. They talked about what kind of power the item might have, and how incredible its value might be. It seemed to be the greatest harvest of this journey, along with the cockatrice’s magic stone.

“At least it doesn’t seem to be made of ordinary metal, right?”

“Of course not. Ordinary steel would never have that color. Maybe it’s an alloy mixed with some rare metal from the Ajun Kingdom.”

One of the northern Ajun Kingdom’s specialties was various metals with unusual properties that were hard to find elsewhere. Among them were metals with durability similar to iron but only half as heavy, or metals that did not rust. But what Jerpo said after finishing his examination exceeded anything they had imagined.

“It’s a sword made of true silver. And almost pure true silver, with barely any impurities. The cockatrice must have stayed here to feed on the power flowing from it.”

“Ah…”

“That’s absurd. A sword that size, entirely made of it?” Vent stared at the sword and muttered in disbelief.

Shan had also learned about true silver during his education. True iron was the prince of metals and the hardest substance. True silver was the queen of metals, which accepted magic better than any other. True gold was the king of metals. It was called the almighty metal because it can be processed into anything.

Even a small amount of any of those three metals, just enough to mix into an alloy, was a treasure coveted by countless kings and lords. But this wasn’t just mixed with a little of it—it was a weapon made entirely from it.

“About two hundred years ago, Libert and Ajun waged war to seize a mine where three kilograms of true silver had been discovered. Tens of thousands of soldiers were mobilized, and the kings of both kingdoms were each assassinated once, if I recall…”

The winner of that war, later called the True Silver War, was the Ajun Kingdom. They divided the true silver they gained then into seven pieces and forged them into weapons, which they still boast about today. Judging by the sword’s size, it weighed at least over a kilogram, meaning it was about a third of what two nations had gone to war over. As everyone stood in shock, Jerpo let out a nervous laugh.

“If it were merely a sword made of true silver, that would be one thing, but the magic inside it is even more absurd.”

“What is it?”

“It manipulates physical properties. There are limits, but it can lengthen or shorten itself, and even change its shape and hardness. It’s a miracle beyond anything modern magic could ever reproduce. The magic itself may be worth more than the true silver.”

Just hearing it was enough to know the function was ridiculous. If that were truly possible, knights wouldn’t need to struggle to carry all kinds of different weapons.

“Hmm…”

Only then did Vent and Roden understand why Jerpo had looked the expression the moment he saw the weapon. Unable to understand everyone else’s reaction, Shan asked,

“If it’s a good item and expensive, isn’t that good?”

“It’s a problem because it’s too good. This isn’t just a magic sword. It’s the kind of thing that any of the five royal families of the Alliance would take as a royal heirloom and pass down for generations.”

“If we tried to sell it through the Explorer’s Guild, Count Sedil would immediately bring his knights, kill us all, and take it. There’s no way something this precious could be bought with money.”

A treasure needed liquidity to have practical value. But this was so precious that selling it somewhere and dividing the value was impossible. If the four of them belonged to some great faction, they might at least attempt a transaction. However, if the son of a jeweler, a priest, a mage, and an Alto boy tried to sell it, someone would simply steal it, kill them, and bury the bodies.

At the same time, the moment someone owned it, that person would effectively be taking 99% of the reward from this expedition. If one had to put a price on it, kings would likely pay hundreds of thousands of gold coins to obtain it. After a long silence had passed, Shan offered a clear solution.

“Then let’s split it.”

“Hm?”

“What?”

“True silver is hard, but I don’t think it’s impossible to break. I’ll focus as much Spirit as I can and cut it into four pieces. Then we each take one. Ah, now that I think about it, didn’t we say our shares weren’t exactly one-fourth each? Roden probably knows…”

Roden, Jerpo, and Vent stared at one another in stunned silence. Then, as if on cue, they burst into laughter.

“Pfft, ahahaha!”

“To think you’d divide it like that…”

Why are they laughing when it seemed like a good idea?

As Shan frowned, Jerpo wiped the corner of his eye with a finger and explained.

“If you did that, the magic inside the sword would probably break. Its value would instantly fall to less than half.”

“Oops.”

“And besides, Shan, you have a much simpler method, don’t you? You could simply stab Vent and me once each and take it.”

They had only known each other for a few months, and Shan had fought the cockatrice practically alone. Jerpo said calmly that there wouldn’t be much to weigh on his conscience. Shan shrugged as if asking why he would say such a thing.

“You’re saying that because you know I won’t.”

“That’s true. To be honest, until a moment ago, I was afraid you might. But after hearing you suggest dividing it into four pieces, I feel stupid for even thinking that. That doesn’t happen often.”

Now that he knew the sword’s exact function, Shan wanted it even more. But the thought of killing Jerpo and Vent for it never crossed his mind. He simply couldn’t bring himself to kill friends who had fought beside him for his own benefit, when they had not betrayed him first.

“But then, couldn’t you have just not told us what it was?”

“How would I deal with the aftermath if I deceived a warrior who killed a cockatrice alone?”

“That’s true!” Vent chuckled, then tossed his words lightly toward Shan. “Just keep that sword, Shan.”

“Huh? Is that really okay?”

“By our existing distribution terms, your share was already eighty percent. And when it comes to the main achievement, the cockatrice hunt, you practically have a hundred percent contribution. If a dozen or more knights had come in your place and killed the cockatrice with our help, do you think they would have acknowledged even a single coin’s worth of our contribution?”

Hearing that, Shan thought they probably wouldn’t have. Vent and Jerpo were skilled as a priest and a mage, but they were ultimately replaceable resources.

“Hmm. Still, just accepting it feels a bit…”

“If it bothers you that much, then treat the magic stone and the other byproducts generously as hush money. And keep that thing’s existence secret.”

“Right. It must absolutely not become known,” Roden nodded fiercely in agreement.

If the world learned that the owner of such a treasure was a mere Alto boy, he would become a public enemy of the entire world. If he wished to reveal it openly, he would first need the strength to protect it.

***

Even after dividing up prey far too large, there was still plenty left to do. There were still many places in the huge mansion that they had not searched. Even before the battle with the cockatrice, they had not searched every building nearby. After spending nearly two days exploring the city center, the Green Eyes decided it was time to organize what they had found and return.

They had acquired so many relics that even if they discarded more, carrying them would be difficult. They had only four horses available, and one of them needed to carry the cockatrice’s head, while another had to carry food and drinking water. Because of that, they had less room for luggage than expected.

“Should we leave this shelf out? It’s just one item, but it weighs almost eighty kilograms…”

“Absolutely not. If this finds its proper owner, it might be worth more than ten mediocre items!”

“Don’t leave out that jewel box! The magic cast on it is incredibly rare!”

“That kind of thing doesn’t make money!”

While the three argued fiercely over the matter, Shan was completely absorbed in his newly acquired sword. The first function he tested was length adjustment. The moment he wished for it, the blade suddenly extended.

“Whoa.”

Seeing a perfectly solid metal object change shape felt almost disturbing. The extended sword shortened back to its original length with just a thought, then shrank even further until it became the size of a one-handed sword. Shan grinned as he imagined how terrifyingly effective this sword would be in a fight against people.

Even adjusting the blade length by ten centimeters would let him reach an opponent who let their guard down. Naturally, most sword fights would already be decided at that point. As he experimented with it more, the sword’s functions turned out to have even more creative uses than he expected.

First, he could shorten the handle and remove the guard to use it like a dagger, and he could make the stiff blade as flexible as cloth. By applying that further and rolling the blade into a rounded shape as it extends, it would effectively become a rope. And though it was a bit difficult, perhaps because it strayed so far from the original form, he could even change it into the shape of a spear or axe.

At this point, he wondered if calling it a sword was even correct. Of course, it was most stable and powerful when shaped like a sword, perhaps because it had an original form. Next, Shan transformed it into a long, thick greatsword and swung it, then tilted his head.

This one’s not great. Is it because it’s too light…?

Even if he greatly increased the blade’s length and width, the weight didn’t increase. It only became harder to swing because of air resistance, and the force behind it didn’t increase much. On the other hand, throwing it in a dagger form gave much more destructive force than a normal dagger since its weight was compressed.

Whoosh.

When he swung it after turning it into a soft, flexible sword, the butchered remains of the cockatrice sliced apart cleanly. The stone-like hide that had required all his strength to pierce with an ordinary steel sword was cut open with only a light amount of force.

It’s incomparably sharper than a steel sword, and it’s tough too…

Since it could spread thin like cloth, he could even extend it to nearly five meters in length. The only terribly sad thing was that he could not use such an excellent item in front of others. If that felt unfair, then he had no choice but to quickly become a knight and rise in status.

As Count Sedil had said before, if he became something like the king’s knight, perhaps no one would say anything. Though he didn’t really know what kind of person the king of Pendia was.

The highly entertaining play finally came to an end when the luggage packing was complete. Thanks to all their heated discussion, the four horses carried exactly enough weight to barely endure the long march. Everything else was buried in pits nearby.

“I wonder if the day will come when we retrieve those, too.”

“It has to. Though it’ll probably take quite a while just to deal with what we already have.”

If they released too many relics at once, prices would crash, so they would need to sell them slowly over time. Of course, even selling them all at once would bring in immense profit, but if possible, it was better to gain more with less effort. As they talked, Vent looked at the luggage piled high on the saddles and let out a small sigh.

“Hm? Why?”

“Because I’ll retire! With this much, our monastery can run for the next hundred years without support and still have plenty left over.”

“I think I’ll be able to research until I die of old age with my share from this trip as well. Though if I waste it recklessly, I may have to work again.”

“Ah…”

Only then did Shan remember again that the two of them had been working as explorers on the side to support their actual professions. Receiving even a portion of the profit from this excavation would provide them with funds equivalent to dozens of ordinary expeditions, so there was no reason to keep risking their lives. Seeing Shan’s disappointed face, Jerpo gave his usual smug smile and said,

“It seems you’re sad we won’t be working together anymore, but it can’t be helped. My brilliant intellect belongs in a workshop.”

“I’ll miss that irritating way of talking, too. I’ll spend my days at the monastery watching over children to my heart’s content,” Vent laughed heartily as he stroked his horse’s mane.

Then Roden looked at Shan and suddenly shouted as if only now realizing something.

“Wait, where’s that sword? You didn’t leave it behind, did you?”

Now that he looked, the true silver sword was nowhere on Shan’s body. The sword at his waist was clearly the steel longsword he had bought before, and nothing among the luggage on the horses looked like a sword. At that reaction, Shan grinned and slightly pulled aside the collar of his clothing. Something bluish-gray could be seen wrapped around his chest.

“Oh, could it be that you...?”

“Yeah. I made the handle and everything thin and soft, then wrapped it around my body.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

If he kept it that way, it would almost certainly go unnoticed. It was probably the most expensive underwear in the world. As Roden laughed in disbelief, Shan spoke proudly.

“I named it this time, too. Unlike my previous weapons, this one won’t break easily.”

“What is it?”

“Thousand Forms!”

The name certainly fit its function perfectly. The downside was that it was so intuitive that anyone who heard it would immediately understand what kind of ability it had, but most magic tools were like that anyway.

After laughing and talking cheerfully for a while, they left the city’s central district. Everyone returned to their usual alertness, preparing for combat. They had already dealt with the snakes in this area as they passed through, but others from nearby districts might have moved in. As they advanced while watching for ambushes, Shan suddenly closed his eyes and sniffed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I smell something burning. It’s pretty strong…”

“A burning smell?”

“Hmm, I think I smell it too,” Jerpo answered, also focusing on his sense of smell.

It was rare to smell something burning in the Demon Realm. Unless a fire spirit appeared, monsters generally had no reason to use fire. As they continued forward in puzzlement, they soon realized where the smell came from. Pure white flames covered the outskirts of the city and slowly advanced toward them.