The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor - Chapter 44

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: DereKimchi

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◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈

Chapter 44: 044

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The stone was hot.

It felt at least 50°C. Like he had picked up a stone thoroughly heated in a volcanic region.

He left it outside just in case, but it did not cool down. It continued giving off heat.

‘No wonder the rabbits seemed to tire so quickly.’

He moved Juggernaut near the burrow and felt the heat leaking from within. It scattered into the air as it rose above ground, but the inside of the hole was clearly warmer.

‘Maybe this is the cause.’

Stones that generated heat on their own.

If there were stones like that underground, could they have raised the temperature of this field?

‘That might explain why the grass doesn’t grow well, too.’

Thinking back, the ground near the boundary had been damp when he crossed into the field, and the air had been suffocating, like a bathhouse.

If the ground was hot while the air was cold, moisture gathering on the ground was only natural.

This place, meanwhile, had dry ground and air that was almost stuffy. Maybe it had not been winter here in the first place.

‘Either way... these stones will be useful.’

They were too hot to hold bare-handed, so he had put them in his Inventory long ago. He cleared out some of the rabbits’ Inventories and put one stone in each.

That meant they could not pick up anything else, so they could only keep collecting stones. That had been his intention from the start.

‘Keep picking them up.’

He moved some stones into the Subspace, then used the Avatar there to run a few tests.

“They break more easily than I thought.”

Stone was nearly as strong as Juggernaut, but he had not struck particularly hard. Still, the stone shattered into small fragments and was easy to grind into powder.

Even as powder, it gave off nearly as much heat as it had as a stone.

Powder that generated heat on its own.

For a moment, he wondered whether it might be radioactive. But touching it or standing nearby did not seem to reduce his health.

‘I only came to dig up those white pseudo-carrots, but this might make more money instead.’

Heat-generating stones.

Powder made by grinding them.

The powder could be added while processing other materials. In particular, it could be mixed into fibers while weaving them, or when making clothes, cloaks, blankets, and similar items.

Fibers processed with the powder added.

Clothes made from those fibers naturally retained a little warmth.

There was not enough powder in them to make them truly hot, but they would feel pleasantly warm under another layer.

‘It would be hard to mix it into a fur cloak, but I could add a lining.’

He made a sample of Insulating Cloth.

Stone, who was in the Subspace, wrapped it around himself, soaked it in water, pulled on it with a little force, and deliberately tried to damage it.

‘The powder doesn’t come loose.’

It seemed to have bonded properly with the fibers during processing. It did not dissolve easily in water either, so there would be almost no loss unless it was wrung out too hard during washing.

‘How does it generate heat?’

The system did not offer any explanation for the stone. But he had another way to find out.

[Arc-Recycler Unit 09]

It was the resource-disassembly and mana-extraction device that had been working nonstop in the Subspace since he acquired it.

“Even if the system doesn’t know, I can find out by analyzing it with this.”

It might not tell him the name, but it could give him a rough idea of what substances and components were present. That was why it could separate and extract materials by component.

“Let’s see.”

He put an appropriate amount of the heat-generating stone and powder into the input slot, then stood in front of the screen and watched.

A moment later, he nodded at the analysis result.

“It was mana.”

The stone absorbed ambient mana and converted it into heat. That property remained unchanged even in powder form.

“It’s fine for now when it’s bonded to fibers, but the fibers will probably be damaged little by little over time. That can happen if their mana gets absorbed.”

He already knew that all matter contained mana, so it was not strange.

Even if the mixed fibers were damaged, they could be repaired and restored with plant fibers. It was not a major problem.

“It’s easy to grind into powder, and it can be used in plenty of ways depending on what it’s mixed with.”

For example, it could be added when making bricks.

That would make bricks that generated heat.

“But bricks could be dangerous.”

They absorbed surrounding mana and turned it into heat. If he missed the proper time for repairs, the bricks could be damaged and cause a building or structure to collapse.

“For now... it’d be perfect for heating water.”

Mixing it into thread or fabric was good too, but this was more certain for the moment. It could not heat water enough to boil it, but it should be able to make it pleasantly hot.

“And since the stone itself generates heat, simply placing it in a well-insulated space should raise the indoor temperature quite a bit.”

It was an extremely useful item in winter.

Why had nobody put something like this on the marketplace?

‘Did nobody think to dig?’

There was no real reason to do so, but it still seemed like something someone would have tried.

As he considered it, Seo Hajin noticed some of the underground rabbits suddenly being killed and returning as Inventory items.

“Ah.”

They had not died from exhaustion.

Something lived underground as well.

“I need to recall them.”

But he had only released them. There was no way to call them back.

In the end, they died one by one and returned. The culprit disappeared deep underground again.

‘What was it?’

It was a monster capable of instantly killing not only ordinary Level 10 rabbits, but even Large Rabbits that had reached Level 20.

Still, even a Level 20 Large Rabbit was weaker than a Level 1 wolf pup. The difference did not mean much.

‘A snake-type monster, since it’s underground?’

He had not seen it himself, so he could only guess. It would have been nice if it came above ground, but it did not.

“Fine. I get it.”

He had no intention of staying there.

Seo Hajin moved the waiting Juggernaut again. His destination was the Flame-Tailed Boars still visible in the distance.

* * *

The hunt was anticlimactic.

He had gathered enough stones to use as weapons and swung clubs from a distance with Heavy Attack. One lucky hit blew apart one side of a large Flame-Tailed Boar’s head.

‘They said it was like a time bomb.’

Once it died, an obvious change occurred immediately.

Rather than simply vanishing like an ordinary mob, the fireball attached to the tip of its tail slowly spread toward its body, like a burning fuse.

When it finally reached the body, Boom! It exploded, scattering flames, flesh, and bone fragments across the surrounding area.

Naturally, the nearby boars were not left intact. The ones that had fled early survived, but every boar that had remained behind, struggling even after its leader died, was caught in the blast.

‘Nobody should approach them at all.’

Even if a Level 40 Juggernaut pulled back as far as possible, he could still be caught in the blast radius.

He could probably escape by riding Sangun, but it would not be easy to find the leeway to do that in the middle of a fight.

‘At least the items don’t burn up too.’

After the explosion, items dropped by the Flame-Tailed Boar and the surrounding boars remained intact across the site.

Some thorn bushes had also died after being caught in the blast, so a few of their drops were visible as well.

But other thorn bushes had survived and become even healthier. They had been far enough from the explosion to avoid fire damage, while still getting splattered with blood.

The bushes hit with the boars’ blood wriggled slightly as they absorbed it.

“So they don’t absorb it only through their thorns.”

It seemed their stems could absorb it too.

Were the thorns simply meant to draw blood?

‘Either way, I seem to have drawn some aggro.’

It had been extremely loud, so it naturally attracted attention.

Some animals fled in the opposite direction, while others ran toward him.

Conditional Aggressive Mobs.

The Hyenas were one such case.

‘With an explosion this big, you’d think they’d run away...’

Looking down from the sky, Seo Hajin found the sight of nearly a hundred Hyenas running in from all directions rather spectacular.

But then he saw herds of boars mixing in from farther away, along with large and small Flame-Tailed Boars scattered among them.

This could become serious.

“But I might not even need to run away.”

He had the Subspace.

Could he not simply retreat into it before a Flame-Tailed Boar exploded?

‘Let’s try it this time.’

If it really worked, he could use the Subspace as a shelter during similar emergencies in the future.

Grrr! Grrr!

Grrrrr!

The Hyena pack had gotten quite close.

Watching them through Juggernaut’s eyes, he readied Stone and Vulcan. The three Avatars fanned out in separate directions.

‘Three should be enough.’

They did not carry stones or clubs.

Each held their main weapon, a steel Glaive.

A Hyena lunged forward, drool dripping from its mouth. Its neck burst open with a hole punched through it.

The melee began in three directions.

Though massacre was a more fitting word.

Heavy Attack had lower stamina consumption, and its destructive power had been reduced accordingly. Even so, it still had more than enough power to tear through the Hyenas’ tough hides and burst flesh and bone apart.

‘It’s the same here. Once they get worked up, they don’t see anything else.’

A mob with proper aggro would not stop until it died.

A few smarter ones sometimes fled in the middle of a fight, but they only did so to gather more of their companions.

Corpses piled up and vanished almost as quickly. New mobs constantly poured in between them.

Naturally, the three Avatars were injured too.

They were scratched, bitten, and rammed.

But despite facing mobs against which he had no Nemesis effect, they did not take much damage.

‘The level difference is big.’

He had expected it.

He had seen something similar while facing Bears in the Northern Forest.

Still, that did not mean he could let his guard down. If he were properly bitten in a vulnerable area like the calf, it would hurt and restrict movement. He would inevitably start getting pushed back.

‘Switch.’

Brown appeared out of thin air.

Stone, whose calf had been injured, entered the Subspace to receive treatment and replenish his depleted stamina.

He had not brought out all five from the beginning because he had planned for switches like this.

‘It might end faster if I brought them all out, but there are always unexpected variables.’

Just then, Juggernaut severed the neck of a Flame-Tailed Boar.

It died, of course, and his aerial viewpoint focused on its tail.

‘It’s started.’

The fuse on its tail was burning down.

Seo Hajin put not only Juggernaut, but every Avatar currently fighting, into the Subspace.

With their targets gone, the mobs suddenly stopped and wandered around in confusion.

Some Hyenas began attacking nearby boars, and even other Hyenas.

The confusion did not last long.

Boom!

Kaboom!

‘Wow.’

Spectacular explosions followed.

First, the one Juggernaut killed exploded. Then other Flame-Tailed Boars caught in the blast set off a chain reaction.

‘The chain explosions have no countdown.’

Like a bomb going off in an ammunition depot, other Flame-Tailed Boars within the blast radius exploded one after another, creating a much larger explosion.

‘The Subspace is fine.’

Was it because he had closed the entrance before they exploded?

He wanted to check that too, but he had no desire to endure an explosion with the entrance left open.

After watching from the sky for a while, he took Juggernaut back out once every explosion ended and the site fell silent.

This time, he was not alone.

He brought out Companion No. 1, Companion No. 2, Black, and Sangun because there were simply too many items scattered around.

“Pick them up quickly.”

Items dropped by mobs disappeared over time. Some types lasted longer, but even those remained for ten minutes at most.

That was why he had to collect items constantly during battle. His pets raced in every direction, gathering the drops.

‘That explosion was pretty big, but I don’t see anything else coming.’

It made sense.

Every Conditional Aggressive Mob within a certain distance had already gathered around him, only to vanish in an instant.

From the air, it looked as though one area had become a clean zone with no mobs. Of course, after some time, mobs began respawning one by one.

‘They’re not coming.’

The issue was that newly spawned mobs no longer had aggro on him.

The battle ended like that.

‘If you blow up a fire boar, every nearby mob gathers around... I don’t think I saw this on the forum either. They really don’t share useful information here.’

Maybe it was intentional.

If someone touched one without knowing and got mobbed to death, others could watch from afar and collect only their Personal Effects.

‘Everyone becomes selfish.’

He did not resent that.

Everything was connected to survival in the end.

Still, he felt he could potentially gain more experience here than in the Northern Forest.

‘Pulling mobs is easy. I can just keep blowing them up.’

As long as there were enough fire boars, gathering mobs and blowing them up all at once would be simple.

But after cleaning up and moving again, he learned that there were fewer of those mobs than he expected.

After wandering for several more hours, he saw for himself how the Flame-Tailed Boars came into being.

‘They eat that.’

The Heat-Generating Minerals underground.

Boars that ate them either burned to death on the spot or evolved. The evolved ones were Flame-Tailed Boars.

‘No wonder there are so few of them.’

Bomb-based mob herding seemed possible only in theory.

There seemed to be some potential if he sent his pets farther out to gather mobs, but once he considered the time required for the pull and the time needed to find more fire boars afterward, it was still questionable.

‘Infinite hunting in the Northern Forest would be better.’

He also decided to postpone commercializing the Heat-Generating Minerals and their powder. There was too little to sell, and it would not be easy to secure a steady supply.

‘For now, I’ll stockpile them.’

He considered making bricks mixed with the powder and lining the now fairly spacious Subspace Rest Area with them. But they were useful in winter, and summer would probably make the place unbearably hot, so he gave up on the idea.

‘Cloaks or blankets are better, like I tried before. Or thermal underwear?’

Thinking about it, thermal underwear might be better than outerwear.

He had already obtained a recipe for processing cotton-like fibers. If he mixed in an appropriate amount, he could make heat-generating underwear.

‘I’ll try it when I have time.’

He continued moving.

He encountered users here and there and exchanged names with them, but he did not join them.

He was only passing through.

The users seemed to want more from him. If he stayed for no reason, both sides would only become uncomfortable.

‘It isn’t appearing?’

He also confirmed that one piece of information was a false rumor.

The claim that a Boss Mob would appear after killing enough Flame-Tailed Boars.

He killed them whenever he saw them for several days, but never once caught sight of a Boss Mob. The person who first spread the information must have been mistaken.

‘Whoever spread it, that’s pretty malicious.’

Anyone who came here intending to raid would have trusted the rumor and hunted those mobs. They would draw huge amounts of aggro every time, making it that much more dangerous.

‘Wouldn’t they get wiped out before they ever saw the Boss Mob?’

Thinking about it, a Boss Mob appearing that way did not make sense in the first place. If there was already a boss in the field, there could end up being two bosses.

‘It would also be strange to think the system summons a boss that was perfectly fine somewhere else.’

[Passive: Slaughter Record]

[For every 100 hunts of the same species, the Nemesis stage against that species increases.]

...

Flame Boar: Stage 1 Nemesis effect applied.

1. Impact force increased by 5%.

2. Damage taken reduced by 5%.

‘I really did get to one hundred.’

A system message appeared suddenly.

After checking it, he became certain the rumor was false.

‘So their name is Flame Boar.’

He was happy to gain a Nemesis effect, but with so few of them, raising it to the next stage did not look easy.