WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Magic-Eating Wizard ◈
Chapter 8: Struggle on a Rainy Night
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Whenever a wizard devoured and digested the essence of a magical creature, their spiritual body gained vast resources and information, growing larger.
When it grew beyond the capacity of the inner world, immense pressure arose. Overcoming that pressure and expanding the inner world was called rank advancement.
In other words, it was a kind of level-up.
The moment a wizard rose in rank, their abilities became stronger on an entirely different level.
Their physical abilities, total mana, recovery rate, Mana Field density and strength, and control all surged. At higher ranks, they could even gain all sorts of strange and unique abilities.
Still, a difference of one rank was generally considered manageable.
Equipment, strategy, terrain, compatibility, even one’s condition that day, countless factors could affect combat strength.
But once there was a gap of two ranks or more, even every favorable condition combined left little chance of victory.
A human might, rarely, defeat a wolf or leopard barehanded. But against a bear or tiger, even that kind of luck was difficult to hope for.
Looking at Voras, who had broken his arm just moments ago, Haren felt that same despair.
‘Third rank...’
Back-alley wizards awakened through illegal elixirs were only first or second rank at best.
Against opponents like that, the four of them could have won without much trouble.
But whatever Cardin had done, it was serious enough that the gangsters’ backers had sent a third-rank powerhouse after them.
Considering how rare rogue wizards of fourth rank or higher were outside nations or major organizations, Voras was truly a terrifying enemy.
Of course, whether Haren knew how strong his opponent was did not matter much.
Even when he had thought Voras was second rank, he had been trying to avoid a fight.
He had finally attacked only because he had been faced with an utterly unacceptable demand: leave his life in the hands of an unknown villain.
In that sense, his mistake was not bad judgment. It was simply that he was too weak.
Should I surrender?
The thought came to him because Haren had already surrendered once before.
Had he not rolled over like a dog before the irresistible enemy called Cardin, showing his belly and acting cute?
At least it would be better than dying while resisting here.
Death was more terrifying than anything else, something that had to be avoided at all costs...
As if reflecting his inner despair, one or two raindrops began to fall from the sky.
“Aaaah!”
Then Nasrel’s furious roar pierced Haren’s ears and brought him back to his senses.
She was resisting Voras, slashing at him with ten nails transformed into those of a wild beast.
Her nose had been crushed and her teeth knocked out after being punched again and again. Yet there was not the slightest sign that she intended to surrender or give up.
‘Right.’
This fight was not about Haren’s life alone.
The moment they lost, Ruska, Rim, and Nasrel would also be dragged away by someone they did not know.
For the past month, Haren had tried to see them only as people he could work with to escape Cardin’s control.
But people’s hearts did not work that way.
Wanting to save his companions and friends, Haren gritted his teeth and searched for a way to defeat the enemy before him.
‘He’s not completely impossible to beat.’
The first thing he noticed was Voras’s flustered expression.
Unable to shake Nasrel off with clumsy punches and kicks, Voras tried to use magic.
But the stone spears, pillars rising from the ground, and showers of rock fragments all missed her.
Earth magic itself was rather slow to cast, but the larger problem was that Nasrel was clinging too close. Voras was afraid of hitting himself as well.
Seeing that, Haren suddenly remembered a conversation he had had with Cardin.
‘Master.’
‘What is it?’
‘This is just something I’m curious about, but is sparring necessary for wizards? Especially for Ruska. He’s a shooter, after all.’
After learning Serpent’s Baptism, Haren had sometimes sparred without magic, just as the other three had on their first day.
Rim was too timid to be a proper opponent, while Nasrel was too strong. That left Ruska as the only one who was somewhat evenly matched with Haren.
Still, Haren had doubted whether it would be useful in a real fight.
In battle, they could use guns. And once they reached a rank where guns might not work, they would have already learned several spells far more useful and powerful.
Even Cardin could fight while controlling a Mana Field freely without lifting a finger.
At the question from a disciple, Cardin grinned as though Cardin had heard it many times before.
‘Being good at fighting helps you handle any situation, but that is not the true purpose. It is to learn how to think calmly in extreme situations and develop insight and concentration. You would be surprised to know how many wizards lacked those qualities, failed to use even half their ability, and died pointless deaths.’
Looking at it now, both Voras and Haren himself a moment ago were perfect examples of that.
Why had he tried to start punching when he was an Adept, not a warrior like Nasrel?
Haren let his broken left arm hang limp and ran toward Voras.
Trying from farther away would have been safer, but rain had begun to fall, narrowing visibility.
Moria was infamous for not receiving much rain, but when it did begin, it poured mercilessly.
“Look over here!”
The instant Voras turned toward him, Haren thrust out his uninjured right arm, closed his eyes, and cast Illumination.
A bright flash lit up the dark outskirts.
“Ugh!”
Voras quickly covered his eyes in shock, but the intense light had already blinded him.
Even a third-rank wizard’s powerful Mana Field could not block bright light.
And because they were fighting in a forest at night, eyes accustomed to darkness were even more vulnerable to the sudden flash.
Nasrel, on the other hand, was facing Voras with her back to Haren, so she was not affected at all.
Taking advantage of that edge, she grabbed the arm Voras swung to stop her, pulled him close, and wrapped him in a tight embrace.
“Aaaaargh!”
Her teeth, sharpened by life magic, tore into his neck.
Voras screamed desperately and grabbed Nasrel’s hair with both hands, trying to rip her away. But even as her hair was torn out by the roots, she only widened her eyes and held on.
“Let... let go!”
For the first time, fear entered Voras’s voice.
Who could have imagined that a third-rank wizard, practically an absolute ruler among back-alley fixers, would suffer such humiliation?
He looked like a hardened veteran who had seen it all, but since fleeing his school and becoming a contractor, this was his first real fight.
Every gangster and low-ranking wizard he had faced before had collapsed after a few spells.
He could even endure several bullets with a Mana Field around his body. What danger had there ever been?
But now that he had been blinded and was having his neck torn apart, he could not remain calm.
Ironically, the confusion and terror saved him.
“Get off me!”
Having lost his reason, Voras cast a spell that unleashed a barrage of stone fragments directly at himself.
Normally, that was something one should never do.
Magic was naturally stronger than a Mana Field of the same rank, so it was difficult to come out unharmed after being hit by one’s own spell.
Sure enough, stone fragments instantly cut and scraped Voras’s body until he was covered in blood.
“Ah...”
But it was even more devastating for Nasrel, who had been pressed against him.
Her Mana Field, already weakened by repeated blows, was completely pierced. Stone fragments lodged throughout her body, and she could no longer endure it.
Voras did not even dare finish off the fallen Nasrel. Clutching his torn neck, he staggered back to put distance between them.
There was no longer any trace in his eyes of the ease or pity he had shown while facing children.
“You little brats! I went easy on you!”
As Voras pointed a finger at him, Haren quickly leaped to the side.
A sharp stone spike rose from the spot where he had been standing.
If he had not seen Ruska get struck by one earlier, he would have been helpless against it too.
“Where do you think you’re running to... Ghk!”
As Voras tried to cast another spell, a massive ball of water suddenly struck him and sent him flying backward.
“Die, bastard!”
Ruska’s vicious curse flew in from the distance.
* * *
As more balls of water came flying at him, Voras staggered and hurriedly raised a wall of earth to block them.
The impacts felt as though he had been struck with a mace, leaving his head spinning.
“How many kinds of magic does that bastard know!?”
Had he not used fire, wind, lightning, and light magic on the carriage earlier?
And now he could wield water magic to this degree?
It was possible to learn and use magic for which one had no natural elemental affinity, but this was far beyond that level.
Haren knew the reason.
Ruska’s inborn blessing was Omniaffinity.
This bloodline ability, which originated from the Sherden Empire’s imperial family, granted affinity for every attribute.
Of course, each affinity was slightly weaker than that of someone born with a normal aptitude for that attribute. But Ruska was the hardest worker among Cardin’s disciples.
He had tirelessly trained and developed every spell he could use.
Water magic was also greatly affected by the environment. The pouring rain was helping immensely, allowing Ruska to break through even Voras’s Mana Field and injure him...
‘No, even accounting for that, this is strangely powerful.’
His other magic had not been able to pierce Voras’s Mana Field at all. It made no sense for his power to suddenly be this great.
As that thought occurred to Haren, he turned to look at Ruska.
The boy, bleeding from both legs as he fired spell after spell, was now covered in a Mana Field far denser than before.
‘Could it be rank advancement!?’
Ruska had been Cardin’s disciple for over a year and had already digested more than ten essences.
His spiritual body had expanded until his inner world could barely contain it. The tension of battle, pain, and rage had pushed him through the threshold.
There was still a gap between him and Voras, a third-rank wizard. But with Voras already weakened, Ruska could deal enough damage.
“You little bastards!”
This kind of ranged battle, exchanging spells from a distance, was familiar territory for Voras.
Unlike before, when he had panicked helplessly, he calmly received the incoming magic and formed stone bullets to fire back.
“Argh!”
Reaching second rank did not heal Ruska’s legs, which had been mangled by the stone spikes.
He barely rolled away from the first attack, but he could not avoid a second while lying on the ground.
As Voras prepared to cast another spell and finish off his helpless opponent, a sharp gunshot rang out.
“Aaaah!”
Rim screamed desperately, aiming a smoking pistol at Voras.
His face was covered in bruises, as though he had been beaten badly somewhere. But instead of his usual timid look, his eyes were filled with anger.
However, the revolver he held was single-action. After firing once, the trigger would not move again until the hammer was cocked.
Trying desperately to pull the trigger again, Rim shouted.
“This gun won’t fire!”
“Cock the hammer, idiot!”
Ruska shouted from the ground in frustration, but Rim did not know what a hammer was or how to cock it.
“Ugh...!”
Fortunately, the shock of being shot kept Voras from immediately punishing them.
Normally, he could have endured a single pistol bullet without trouble. But a Mana Field’s defensive ability was not limitless.
Every impact damaged it, and restoring it with mana took time.
The impact from the bullet, which had slipped through the weakened Mana Field, brought a heavy pain like being shot while wearing body armor.
‘Was this how it worked...?’
While everyone else fought desperately, Haren was approaching Voras from behind with the stealthy steps of a crawling snake.
Parts of his Mana Field moved like artificial muscles, assisting his movements and concealing his presence.
It was a footwork technique from Serpent’s Baptism.
In truth, Haren had not yet mastered the martial art well enough to use it in real combat.
The movements had begun to settle into his body, but he lacked the precise control needed to support them with his Mana Field.
But at this moment, Haren’s concentration and mana control had reached their peak.
The heightened state brought on by real battle narrowed the gap between spirit and mind, locking them together as tightly as gears.
That was also why he had been able to use Illumination as a flash earlier.
Normally, there was no way he could have applied a spell he had only recently learned in that manner.
After silently approaching within arm’s reach of Voras, Haren concentrated most of his Mana Field in his right hand.
The dense haze around it sharpened into a point like an awl.
This kind of Mana Field concentration and shape-shifting was the true specialty of an Adept.
Of course, the price was that the rest of his body was left entirely unprotected.
If Voras hit him with a punch like before in this state, Haren would certainly die.
So he decided to settle the fight before Voras could counterattack.
“Ghk!?”
The moment Voras cast a spell to attack Rim, Haren’s right hand exploded forward with the support of his Mana Field.
It pierced through Voras’s back and burst from his chest.
The hand wrapped in Haren’s Mana Field had taken the form of a Spear Hand.
“Ugh...”
Pulling his hand from Voras’s chest, Haren realized that three of his fingers had broken while piercing the enemy’s Mana Field and body.
Even putting almost all his strength into it, attacking a weakened and defenseless shooter who had just fought a fierce battle had been this difficult.
For a moment, he was shocked anew by the gap between them. Then Haren looked down at the enemy sprawled on the rain-soaked ground.
The man bleeding from his chest had already stopped breathing.
That incredibly powerful wizard had fallen to Haren’s attack.
“Ha ha ha...”
He felt no guilt or mental shock from his first killing.
His mind was filled only with the achievement of having done it, and the relief of surviving.
Until Ruska arrived on Rim’s back, Haren kept laughing as he looked down at his broken fingers and Voras’s corpse.
* * *
“Are you insane? What are you laughing like that for?”
Ruska’s blunt rebuke finally brought Haren to his senses, and he checked on his companions.
Ruska was bleeding from both legs and could not walk properly, but he seemed mentally sound.
Rim looked a mess, as though he had taken quite a beating, but that was all.
And...
“Where’s Nasrel?”
“Ah.”
“She’s over there!”
Only then did the three boys remember their last companion and hurry over to Nasrel.
Her condition was the worst of the four.
Her beautiful face had been beaten into a bloody mess, and stone fragments were embedded all over her body.
She was as pale as marble, without a trace of color. Haren worried that she might soon die from blood loss, but she was always this pale, so it was hard to tell.
“W-Will she be okay? We should pull these out...”
“No. If we handle them wrong, it could be even more dangerous.”
It was common knowledge that pulling out something that had pierced the body could cause fatal blood loss.
Ruska, who had pulled out the stone spikes, seemed to have been lucky enough not to damage an artery. But there was no guarantee Nasrel had been as fortunate.
“Let’s move for now. We need shelter from the rain and someone who can treat her. If we stay here, more pursuers might come.”
Haren’s eyes went to the carriage Voras had arrived in.
“Can any of you drive a carriage?”
“No way.”
“Can’t.”
After hearing their answers, Haren clicked his tongue softly and turned to look for the two drivers who should have been there.
The driver of their own carriage seemed to have regained consciousness and fled during the fierce fight.
They could not blame someone who had no connection to them in the first place.
Haren could only hope the ruined carriage would not deal too severe a blow to the driver’s livelihood.
Voras’s driver lay some distance from the carriage.
Blood flowed from one side of the driver’s neck, as if it had been cut by something sharp. Haren looked at Rim.
“Did you take that gun from him?”
“Yeah.”
“And that’s where you got beaten up?”
“Yeah...”
Feeling Haren and Ruska looking at him, Rim added defensively.
“The driver was a wizard too. He pointed a gun at you, so I fought him to take it away. I almost died.”
Only after hearing Rim’s explanation did Haren understand why it had taken him so long to subdue the driver.
Of course. There was no way it should have taken that long to take a gun from an ordinary driver.
Instead, Haren was deeply impressed that this timid boy had fought and won against a wizard of the same rank who was armed with a gun.
If Rim had not stopped him, and the driver had shot Haren or Ruska, the outcome of the battle could have been reversed.
“Fine. Let’s get moving. We need somewhere to avoid the rain and lose the pursuers. Rim, tie Nasrel to my back.”
“Okay.”
Since he could not use his arms properly, Haren had Rim help tie Nasrel to his back.
They used the shirts of the dead Voras and the driver as rope.
After confirming that Rim was carrying Ruska, the four left the battlefield.
They might be caught by pursuers if they kept following the main road, so they entered the forest instead.
In the dark woods, only Haren’s Illumination lit the path ahead.
“Come to think of it, Ruska, you reached second rank, right?”
“Right.”
“How does it feel?”
“Like I’ve taken one more step toward killing that bastard?”
Haren gave a bitter smile at Ruska’s unwavering hostility toward Cardin.
But when he thought about what they should do next, his heart soon grew heavy.
They did not even have a clear way to find a safe place or get treatment.
After walking in thought for a long time, Haren felt Nasrel’s body twitch faintly on his back.
“Nasrel?”
But instead of answering, she trembled and made a strange, growling sound.
Ruska and Rim, facing Haren and Nasrel, widened their eyes.
“H-Haren!”
“What?”
The instant he asked, Haren understood why Rim had called him so urgently.
Nasrel’s teeth sank into his neck, and a sharp pain shot through him.
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