WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
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◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 21
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“Come out, you punk. This is my home.”
Grrr-
“I said come out.”
Juggernaut’s low voice repeatedly reached into the pit, but despite clearly hearing it, the creature remained strangely calm.
Hajin already knew it was not completely an Aggressive Mob, but that did not mean it would be friendly to humans.
‘Its Health Gauge has two stacks.’
That caught his eye too.
More than a Wolf, less than a Tiger. Was its combat ability somewhere in between as well?
Probably not.
‘Wolves used to steal its food.’
The forest had an ecosystem of its own. It was not a place that had stood still until humans intervened.
Whenever he fought, he would sometimes spot Leopards moving nearby.
Occasionally, they stole dropped items scattered during battle, especially meat. While carrying the food away, they would sometimes be attacked by Wolves.
‘That was pretty funny.’
There was a reason they carried their food all the way up trees. They did not want it stolen.
Its two-stacked Health Gauge meant it had more endurance, but... there was no reason he could not kill it.
“...”
Then he noticed something new.
A faint bloodstain on the ground.
The fact that it had not vanished meant the one who had shed the blood was still around. In other words, the Leopard was injured.
‘It came here while injured?’
As his vision gradually adjusted, he could see the creature inside the pit.
It was not crouched down and growling. It lay on its side, panting.
‘What is this?’
The bloodstains led all the way to it.
And Hajin noticed its swollen belly.
‘Is it pregnant?’
He knew Mobs could become pregnant and give birth. Companion No. 1 had been a Wolf pup when he first tamed him.
But this was the first time he had seen one with a swollen belly. That only made him more cautious.
‘Pregnant females are more dangerous.’
Maternal instinct could translate into that much more attack power. A mother’s desperate struggle to protect her young.
Of course, he had no intention of letting it attack him without resistance or giving up his current shelter.
“I’ll give you a choice.”
Something had occurred to him.
He moved Juggernaut deeper into the pit. He was holding something other than a club, the [Crude Beast Collar].
‘It never said it was exclusive to Wolves.’
Items for specific targets had wording like that. The item for taming Rabbits was an example.
But this one did not, so he had been wondering whether it would work on other creatures. A test subject had walked right up to him.
‘If it doesn’t work, it’ll say the target is unsuitable.’
A Leopard.
More specifically, a Black Leopard.
Even as he approached, it did not growl or thrash. It only lay there, breathing softly, its round yellow eyes fixed on him.
And through Juggernaut’s eyes, Hajin thought the Black Leopard looked strangely familiar.
Of course, he had seen more than one Black Leopard in the forest, but something about its gaze felt familiar.
“You... You’re the one from back then.”
He remembered.
The villains who had run after the one who looked like an Elf. They had probably all died to the Tiger in the end.
He had followed them and recovered a piece of Personal Effects thanks to Companion No. 1. This was the creature he had seen in a tree back then.
It had been some distance away, carrying a corpse up a tree and tearing into it.
The way it had looked at him then overlapped with its current gaze. It was not merely similar. This was definitely the same Black Leopard.
“You knew and came here.”
It must have already known who he was, what he did in the forest, and that this was his residence.
What had it been thinking?
Did it even have the intelligence to think?
Maybe it had only been instinct.
But that did not matter right now.
“It’s simple. Come to me, and I’ll let you live.”
The condition for a taming item to succeed was for the target to submit willingly. Physical force, mental magic, or drugs might be necessary in the process.
But just as with the Wolf, none of that was particularly necessary now.
Its eyes moved between him and the item in his hand, then blinked slowly once or twice.
[Attempting to tame the target.]
[The target may resist. Strong resistance may cause taming to fail.]
[If taming fails, another attempt can be made after 1 minute.]
‘It works.’
It was not a message saying the target was unsuitable or that the action was impossible. It was no different from the Wolf.
‘Does it work on similar four-legged predators?’
Then could he tame a Tiger too?
Probably not.
Still, just in case, he decided he would save another collar if he found one later.
“Will this help you decide?”
He placed a wide wooden board in front of the Black Leopard.
Soon, neatly prepared Rabbit Meat was laid on it.
But the Black Leopard did not eat it. It only flared its nostrils a few times before looking back up at him.
“You don’t eat Rabbits?”
That could not be right.
Tilting his head, he replaced it with Wolf Meat, but nothing changed.
“I was saving this one.”
After removing the wooden board and replacing it with a shallow bowl, he filled it with Mountain Goat Milk.
“I don’t know if you drink this kind of thing.”
The Black Leopard brought its nose close to the bowl and sniffed, but did not lower its mouth or stick out its tongue.
“What is this?”
It did not seem to be resisting.
But it was not hostile either.
As he tensed, wondering if it might suddenly lunge for his throat...
[You have successfully tamed the target.]
“Huh?”
There had been no lengthy back-and-forth. The taming was simply complete.
The Black Leopard was still sprawled in the same position, rumbling softly.
“What is this, seriously?”
The collar changed once taming succeeded.
Even if he had another identical item, it would no longer stack in a single Inventory slot. It was now a used item.
And for the bound Black Leopard, even if it died, it would not enter eternal rest. Bound to him, it would repeatedly come back to life.
It could be said that there was not much difference since it would respawn after dying anyway. The only difference was which side it belonged to.
In any case, Hajin had somehow acquired a Black Leopard. When he checked its status through the system, he was taken aback.
“It wasn’t pregnant.”
It really was injured.
But it was not seriously injured.
The problem was what had caused its belly to swell so much.
He did not know what it had fought, but it had devoured it properly.
[Black Leopard]
[Please choose a name.]
[Level: 5]
[Health: 257 / 350]
[Hunger Status: Overeating, Indigestion]
[Inventory: 0/3]
It had been sprawled out and panting because it was too full.
Once he realized that, a wry laugh escaped him.
‘I was wondering whether the babies would be tamed too... If they weren’t, that could have been a problem, so this is better.’
Still, the Black Leopard was female. That much was true.
“Anyway, welcome.”
He had planned to add another Wolf and evolve it, but a Black Leopard was not bad either.
Still, he would not be able to reuse the Avatar settings he had saved when evolving Companion No. 1. He would need to rethink the whole thing.
‘Would Beastkin be better for this one too?’
If the Black Leopard could evolve into a humanoid type, that would look better. Personally, he was not a fan of the furry type.
“It starts at Level 5... That’s good, but its Inventory is small. It can carry less weight than a Wolf too.”
Then what was the Black Leopard’s advantage?
It was good at hiding, and agile enough to climb trees easily.
“It would be useful for scouting.”
But for now, it was just a creature with a full stomach.
Now that he thought about it, it was obvious why it had not eaten what he offered. There simply had not been room for more.
“Companion No. 1. You can handle it, right?”
Nod.
Companion No. 1 nodded without hesitation.
His Level was now lower at 3, but those were levels gained after evolving once.
‘Companion No. 1 has more Health right now too.’
Considering that Leopards normally got beaten up by Wolves, Companion No. 1 could handle it easily enough.
Besides, it belonged to him now. If he gave an order, it could not make a noisy fuss.
‘It’s true that its use is unclear for now.’
It seemed he would need to evolve it first before its role became clear.
He prepared a place for it to rest in one corner of the Subspace and put it inside.
Companion No. 1 entered the Subspace afterward. Looking in from outside, the two did not seem to be growling at each other.
They were simply indifferent toward each other.
The Black Leopard lay on the straw and wolf-fur hide mat, quietly watching the Wolf work hard before falling asleep with a soft purr, purr.
“You really have it easy.”
For a moment, he wondered if he had tamed it for nothing.
But he did not regret it. If he raised it well and it pulled its weight, it would help with the Boss hunts he would undertake in the future.
“Ugh, it’s cold.”
Since they would have disappeared if he had left them behind, he had dismantled the mat and Mini Stove and taken everything with him when he left.
After confirming that the Black Leopard’s bloodstains had vanished, he set those things up again.
“It would be nice if they did not disappear even without maintaining contact.”
There seemed to be a way.
Could he make something that prevented disappearance, like the Storage Crates made by woodworking artisans?
“Or if they make it possible to attach planks to those crates, maybe the effect could be shared.”
Other people seemed to have similar thoughts, judging by the related questions on the message board.
According to the woodworking artisans’ replies, it did not seem completely impossible. As expected, the problem was the materials required.
“Right. If it were easy, they would already be listed on the marketplace.”
Maybe he should seriously start increasing the time he could stay in the Subspace.
“It’s only 30 minutes now... If I keep increasing it and get it to around five hours, it would be good enough to use as a home.”
If he could extend it further and stay for eight or ten hours straight, then he could truly use it as a home.
‘As long as I don’t stop going outside and stay there all the time, I can recover while I’m active outside again, even if I spend a few hours inside.’
But extending the stay time also cost Points. At the moment, it was around 100 Points per minute, which meant 6,000 Points per hour.
“With that, I could expand the space...”
That was why enhancing the stay time had been a lower priority.
Still, he had found a route for lure hunting today, so things would become easier from now on.
“Experience aside, I definitely earned plenty of Points.”
The fact that he received Points without personally killing the Mobs was a new discovery.
Maybe when a Mob died within a certain distance, nearby users received Points and experience.
If that was true, he needed to reconsider his impression that he received very little experience. There was a chance he had been receiving the full amount.
“But then the balance is broken.”
Wouldn’t it be cheating to gain experience and Points without killing anything himself?
Of course, since he was the one taking advantage of it, he hoped he could keep enjoying this without a balance patch.
“I don’t know. I couldn’t do this without my Subspace anyway.”
Maybe it counted as hunting through skill use in its own way.
For now, he was simply curious.
“It’s warm.”
He assembled the Mini Stove and ran the flue outside the pit.
The flint he had bought from the marketplace was nearly identical to a fire stick in both form and function, so starting a fire was not difficult.
Warmth quickly filled the pit, and the trapped moisture gradually faded.
Vulcan took a chisel and hammer inside, followed by the sound of clang, clang, clang.
Meanwhile, Juggernaut sat near the Mini Stove, maintaining it whenever necessary while sorting through the things piled up in the Subspace and Inventory.
“I really raked it in.”
It was only natural that Wolf hide and meat were the most plentiful, but now that he looked, the amount was excessive.
“Huh?”
There was a good reason.
-Current Record-
Wolf: Stage 17 Nemesis effect active
1. Impact force increased by 85%
2. Damage taken reduced by 85%
3. Critical-Hit Chance granted at a set probability
4. Loot drop-rate increase can be assigned
Current: Total
-Current Distribution-
Wolf Hide: 35%
Wolf Tendons: 15%
Unassigned: 120%
The last time he had checked, it had been Stage 11. Now it was Stage 17.
He must have killed at least 500 today alone.
“Not killed. They died.”
If he had known this would happen, he would have checked regularly and assigned some of the increased drop rate to meat too.
It stung anew.
Even now, he adjusted the distribution.
Hide at 50%, tendons at 30%, meat at 90%.
Of course, going over 100% did not mean an item was guaranteed to drop, or that a creature which would have dropped one item would give two.
He did not know the original drop rate, but the additional increase was based on that.
‘If I keep raising it, there might come a point where it always drops.’
Still, it would not give two at once.
Nodding, he noticed that [Slaughter Record] had a new record besides Wolves.
Crocodile: Stage 1 Nemesis effect active
1. Impact force increased by 5%
2. Damage taken reduced by 5%
“More than a hundred Crocodiles died too.”
He had only lured them in and watched the chaos unfold. He had not realized that so many Crocodiles had died as well.
He had vaguely assumed fewer died than Wolves, but now it seemed far more had died than he thought.
“As expected, lure hunting is the answer for manual hunting.”
Even after the rainy season ended, he planned to continue hunting like this.
Aside from selling the loot in the marketplace, the Points earned from hunting itself were beyond his expectations.
“The rule is to milk an exploit dry before someone takes it away.”
They would not seize his account or anything, right?
He listed a large quantity of Wolf hide on the marketplace as he thought that. Naturally, he did not forget to lower the price considerably.
“Everyone must be cold. Fur hides will help.”
Just as he expected, the Wolf hides he listed on the marketplace sold like wildfire.
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