WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 48: 048
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‘It feels like I’m commanding waves.’
It had not been like this at first.
At first, he had only brought out and controlled Shovels No. 1 through 5.
But he had learned a great deal in the process.
Real-time control was possible, but in certain situations, it was unnecessary.
‘If it’s urgent, detailed work, I’ll need to do it. But for something like digging through dirt, there’s no need to control everything in real time.’
He could issue orders from above and check on the situation from time to time.
Of course, that seemed connected to the target’s intelligence level. Still, it felt like it required less mental effort than directing them in real time.
That was around when he brought out all the ordinary rabbits.
There had been some bumps and trial and error at first, but after about an hour, he had gotten the hang of how to command them.
And now.
He truly felt as if he were commanding waves.
Dozens of rabbits dug in one direction. Not a narrow burrow only they could pass through, but a tunnel wide enough for Juggernaut to walk through without bending over.
It was possible because the positions above and below, left and right, as well as the digging speed, were being adjusted appropriately.
They excavated the upper layer first, then the layer below it, then the one below that. Their digging speeds varied accordingly.
The surprising part was that this was possible without him assigning a position and digging speed to every individual rabbit.
All he did was periodically control the rabbits’ flow, as if handling a current.
‘There’s no need to pick out one of them and give it orders. It’s just... like they’re all connected.’
He could properly understand why the skill’s name had changed to [Hive Command]. It truly felt like belonging to a single hive and commanding all of it.
Of course, there were limits.
He wanted to buy up more Tamed Rabbits from the marketplace, but he did not. What he had now was close to the limit of his capacity.
‘There’s no need to overdo it.’
They were already fast enough.
On top of that, he could now manage the Inventories of dozens of rabbits as one without handling each separately.
‘It’s a really strange feeling.’
Multiple Viewpoints.
No, if he had not possessed that strange ability from the beginning, something nobody else had, his mind might have fractured.
Scritch! Scritch! Scritch!
Small sounds came from ahead.
Not long after, the sounds and their progress began to change.
The ground that had been easy to dig through gradually became firmer, eventually hard enough to deserve the word.
“The air’s gotten colder too.”
It was underground, so it was not as cold as the surface. Still, it was clearly different from the places they had passed through before.
Then, before long, snakes began to appear.
‘What’s with all these snakes...?’
They had burrowed underground, coiled up, and slept as if dead.
The rabbits exposed them while digging. He dealt with them himself at first, but after that, he simply left them alone.
‘They’re stronger than I expected.’
The rabbits could handle them.
They were snakes that even ordinary Level 10 rabbits could hunt, not just Level 20 Large Rabbits.
Most were venomous, so the rabbits sometimes took damage in battle. But since the snakes had not fully woken from hibernation, the rabbits rushed in and bit them to death before they could react properly.
Piles of dirt poured into the Subspace.
Along with the growing pile of snake byproducts, Companion No. 1 and Companion No. 2 became busy again.
“The protein content is pretty good.”
Seo Hajin moved Vulcan within the Subspace and examined the snake meat. He separated meat that was poisonous from meat that was not.
Meat without venom could simply be eaten. But if it contained venom, it was easier to put it into the Arc-Recycler, separate the venom and nutrients, and store the venom separately.
‘It’s faster to raise Toxic Adaptation that way too.’
Before he had the Recycler, he had simply eaten poisonous things to improve the ability. Now, he could concentrate only the venom, which made it easier and faster.
Of course, he could die if he consumed too much, so he had to keep it within a manageable amount.
“Wow...”
Their progress had slowed, but not enough to feel frustrating.
Besides, they were now finding a pile of snakes nearly every meter.
“They’re everywhere.”
Sometimes, several snakes were tangled together as they slept. Some appeared to be families of the same species, but different species were mixed together as well.
“Looks like nobody will starve to death around here either.”
He had heard that poisonous gas drifted through the air, but at least underground, it was not too serious yet.
“There is poison... It’s just faint.”
Would it become worse farther in?
He did not know yet.
Seo Hajin repeatedly opened the Subspace to circulate air and keep the oxygen concentration underground from dropping.
“Hmm... Should I mix it?”
Vulcan, standing beside the Arc-Recycler in the Subspace, considered the question for a while.
A large container holding extracted protein powder was already half full. He was deciding whether to add the protein extracted from snakes and mix it in.
“It already has Wolf, Wild Boar, and all sorts of things mixed into it.”
It did not matter while he was the only one eating it. But if he ever planned to sell it, wouldn’t it be better to separate it by type?
“Come on. Like I’m going to sell it.”
He shook his head, poured the snake meat powder into the container, and mixed it in. If he ever sold it, it would probably be better to sell meat than powder like this.
“There seem to be quite a few root vegetables too.”
Snakes were not the only things they found while tunneling.
He had seen various things underground in the Wasteland as well, but there were clearly more edible root plants here.
Still, many of them were bitter or astringent. He did not yet know whether that was because they were unripe or simply tasted that way.
Anything that seemed inedible went straight into the Arc-Recycler to be separated by nutrient.
“It extracts a good amount of mana too.”
Mana was useful for many things.
The energy source that powered the Arc-Recycler was mana. Most of the devices he had gotten from boxes also used Mana Batteries.
Injecting mana into exhausted pets or Avatars also made them recover faster.
“It’s good for growing crops too.”
Among the things from the boxes was something similar to a device for growing plants at home.
It was two meters wide and one meter long, a rectangular planter just under a meter tall. It could be used like a small vegetable garden.
What made it different from an ordinary planter was that mana could be injected into the soil inside.
It was originally meant for growing magical herbs or plants used as potion ingredients. But even ordinary crops grew much better there than they would in normal soil.
Several crops were growing in it even now.
He had planted seeds obtained from the Northern Forest and the eastern forest. Some had already begun to bear small fruit.
‘The more mana I put in, the faster they grow. But it feels wasteful to keep pouring mana into them.’
Unless they were valuable crops, spending mana to grow ordinary ones was not cost-effective.
Still, if the Arc-Recycler’s mana storage was nearing capacity like it was now, he could take some out and use it.
‘Good thing I have Mana Batteries.’
Those had come from boxes too.
He had gotten more than he realized from boxes.
Then again, he had gotten a lot of boxes.
‘Other people can’t get them like this, can they?’
In the Northern Forest, monsters came rushing at him on their own. He had hunted them all day and collected the drops.
He had defeated quite a few bosses and raised the Field Level, so the box drop rate had increased at least a little.
And though he was not sure, perhaps the item drop rate increase from the Nemesis effect had also applied.
‘Taking that into account, the normal drop rate must be truly awful.’
There had to be a reason people talked about controlling Boss Mobs. Users in other Areas probably had a much harder time even seeing boxes from ordinary monsters.
‘That’s why so many people try to get a share of boss hunts... and why certain people get upset about it.’
After finishing his sorting, he sent Vulcan to the Rest Area. Then he instructed Companion No. 1 and Companion No. 2 to sort the items according to the same standards he had used.
‘It’s convenient that I can order them around with a thought.’
The intelligent ones were especially nice because he did not have to repeat instructions.
“Let’s see. Are we headed in the right direction?”
Even underground, it felt as though the poison in the air had grown slightly thicker.
The rabbits shared his Toxic Adaptation, so they were not immediately dropping like flies. Still, he could see their health gradually decreasing.
‘Let’s rotate them out.’
He recalled two Large Rabbits, then sent about half the ordinary rabbits into the Subspace for a mana shower.
Afterward, he purchased additional Tamed Rabbits from the marketplace, the ones he had not bought before because he lacked the capacity.
“This way, our numbers won’t decrease even if I rotate them out.”
The command continued.
The rabbits dug through the frozen earth at a pace that was neither slow nor fast.
Snakes, plants, and a few poisonous insects that appeared along the way were eliminated. Their byproducts passed through the rabbits’ Inventories and into the Subspace.
Some of the excavated soil went into the Arc-Recycler or was processed into bricks. The rest was brought back out behind the tunnel to prevent a possible collapse.
“It’s nice not having to make air holes.”
Originally, he had planned to leave an Avatar or pet on the surface to supply air, or drill air holes upward at intervals.
But dirt, ice, plants, and other things underground contained oxygen and various gases. When they were put into the Recycler, those gases naturally entered the Subspace’s air.
In other words, as long as he could keep the Recycler running, there was no problem with air circulation even without air holes.
“We need to turn a little farther left.”
He made a slight adjustment to the rabbits’ digging direction and checked each rabbit’s condition. If their claws were damaged or they were exhausted, he had to rotate them out and let them recover.
‘It’s really fortunate that physical damage recovers along with health.’
Otherwise, no matter how many rabbits he had, it would be difficult to keep digging tunnels like this. Their claws would wear out too quickly.
“Let’s keep going.”
At this speed, it would take roughly two days to reach the planned destination.
“Hm? Boxes are dropping too. Well, a boss was defeated here.”
He did not know which snakes dropped them, but boxes appeared very occasionally. It was a modest gain.
“I’ll switch to Stone... Juggernaut should sleep for a while.”
* * *
“What the hell is going on?!”
At the eastern outskirts of the Swamp field, those who had set up a defensive line and eagerly awaited Juggernaut were thrown into confusion by the sudden situation.
Ssshhk, ssshhk.
Tss, tss, tss.
“Argh! I got bitten!”
“Don’t send them this way!”
“Does anyone have an antidote? Someone, give me an antidote!”
Juggernaut was nowhere in sight.
Some had relaxed, while others had grown even more tense. Then, snakes suddenly appeared.
Nobody knew where they had come from, but there were a great many of them.
They also seemed to be respawning in real time.
“Aren’t snakes supposed to be sleeping underground?”
“Did someone hunt them?”
“Even if someone hunted them, it should only affect the nearby snakes.”
“The boss being defeated did increase their population, but...”
Snakes should not have been appearing.
In this cold, snakes that roamed aboveground would normally freeze to death even if nobody hunted them.
But though death awaited them in the subzero cold, they fiercely charged at the users in front of them, trying to sink their fangs in.
“Juggernaut...!”
One of the group leaders slashed down a venomous snake with a sword and said the culprit’s name as though grinding it between their teeth.
It had to be Juggernaut.
The leader had no idea how, but Juggernaut must have killed a huge number of snakes.
“Did he already break through?”
“I think so. He must have hunted the snakes around here.”
“Scouts! Anything?”
“They say there’s nothing.”
“Fuck! Where did he go?”
Juggernaut was still nowhere to be seen.
Someone looked down at the ground suspiciously, but nobody imagined he could be tunneling through the solidly frozen earth.
A few hours passed.
Most of the snakes that had poured in with enough numbers to scatter the remaining Expedition Force members, who numbered nearly a hundred, had been killed. Silence returned to the area.
Everyone had levels, so they did not die from venomous snake bites. Still, recovering took a considerable amount of time.
“Where’s Juggernaut?”
“Can’t see him.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
The leaders of each group all wore similar expressions.
Frustration.
They had taken a beating without even seeing their opponent.
“Send out scouting parties. Even if he broke through, he can’t have gone far.”
But they could not find Juggernaut, whom they had not seen at the scene.
What they encountered was another system notification a day later.
A Field Boss had been defeated.
And it was not in some other place. It was in their field.
“What?”
“Didn’t you control the area?”
The other users were hardly a concern, so they had not stationed many people near the boss habitat.
Even if someone broke through, a raid would take time. If they received a report and moved out, they could arrive before it was too late.
But the boss had been defeated before they even received a report.
All they heard was that the boss had been defeated after going underground.
“The boss goes underground all the time.”
“Exactly. We thought it was the same this time.”
The defensive line and the control meant nothing.
Juggernaut had tunneled through without a care, as if mocking them, and defeated the boss.
Could it have been someone other than Juggernaut?
Someone raised the possibility, but even they did not sound convinced.
“Huh?”
“Fuck.”
Then they saw Juggernaut’s new marketplace listing.
There were considerable amounts of Firewood bundled in reasonable quantities, and it looked as though he was including something extra again.
The problem was that this time, the extra item was snake skin.
It felt like he was teabagging them.
-You fucking bastard
Someone left an insult under the listing.
Similar insults followed, but even more mockery came after them.
-You controlled it and still got looted?
ㄴLMAOOOOOO
-It’s cold, so why are you standing outside? Buy some Firewood and go somewhere warm to start a fire.
-Why is he including snake skin with it?
ㄴNo idea
ㄴWhen has he ever needed a reason to include something?
ㄴThose fucking rocks
Other users did not insult Juggernaut.
To them, he was simply a supplier of cheap Firewood. It did not matter who was getting looted.
-He didn’t even loot them in the first place.
ㄴFor real, he just passed through.
ㄴMove aside.
ㄴIf you don’t, he’ll just go through you.
ㄴLOL
The remaining Expedition Force members began to suffer internal conflict.
Some questioned whether the control they had enforced had been pointless from the start. Others responded to the mockery on the board with insults, got into lengthy flame wars, then declared they would take revenge.
Distrust of the existing leaders also grew.
Like those who had left before them, more and more people left the group to go their own way.
“Just wait until winter is over. I’ll kill them all.”
Naturally, some were still seething.
Before long, they heard news of Juggernaut.
He had defeated the Feral Dog boss in Rabbit Field by himself.
“Can we... get revenge?”
“...”
* * *
“This works.”
Wolves:
1. Impact force increased by 5,000%
2. Damage taken reduced by 5,000%
3. Grants a Critical-Hit Chance
4. Experience increase: 500%
5. Shares effects with Similar Species
Nemesis effect.
He had wondered, and the fifth effect had properly applied.
Feral Dogs counted as Similar Species to Wolves.
He had confirmed it on ordinary Feral Dogs, so he assumed the boss would be the same. Without wasting any more time, he immediately went to hunt it.
Rabbit Field had no Villain Clan, nor was there a group occupying and controlling the area around the Boss Mob.
In fact, perhaps some rumor had spread. Some people waved at him from afar, greeted him, or cheered him on when they saw him.
“Juggernaut! Can’t you sell more Firewood?”
“I’m out.”
“Ah.”
“I’ll cut more when I return north.”
“Good luck!”
Of course, not every user was friendly.
Some quietly approached and picked fights with him. Usually, they came in groups of three or more.
Interestingly, even when they came as a group to pick a fight, not everyone in that group was necessarily part of the gang.
Some clearly looked as if they had been threatened into provoking him. In those cases, he left only that person alone and cracked the skulls of the rest.
“...Thank you!”
“Let’s keep it up.”
“Yes! Good luck!”
There were more troublesome opponents too.
An assassin-type user with a Subspace was one of them.
‘Subspace is supposed to be so rare it almost never drops, but it can still drop.’
The combination of a Subspace and a bow was quite troublesome.
By the time someone dodged or blocked an arrow from somewhere unseen and tried to respond, the culprit would have already vanished from sight.
An ordinary user would probably panic at that point.
But for him, it was merely troublesome, not a serious threat.
He had been watching from the sky long before a user approached. If they hid in a Subspace, he knew their exact location and could wait nearby.
He could even identify the location of someone who entered a Subspace, then enter his own Subspace right in front of them.
‘Can you stay longer than I can?’
There was also the Rest Area.
Its stay time did not decrease.
In the end, the person whose stay time ran out first could no longer flee. They belatedly talked about surrender, then got their skull cracked open.
‘It’s a matter of fairness.’
They might not have been much of a threat to him, but if he started letting them go, more pests would keep gathering.
After crossing Rabbit Field over several days, he finally reached the frozen Giant Lake.
It was peaceful there.
The users were relaxed, and since the lake was so large, there was no fighting over spots.
There was nothing that could be called a jackpot in the first place, so there was no reason for anyone to become jealous or greedy.
Seo Hajin tried fishing there for three days, then shook his head and recalled his Avatars.
‘Let’s give up on this place.’
He heard many people say that since winter came, they had not even caught sight of the Boss Mob, much less managed a raid. It probably was not coming up from the deep water.
He had no intention of ice fishing until spring came, so he packed up and left.
‘Then there’s only one place left.’
The center of the Area.
The Rocky Mountain Cliffs.
He had heard that a giant Eagle-type Boss Mob was at the very peak.
He already wanted to tame an Eagle, so he planned to go there anyway.
‘Just one left.’
That was the only place across all the Areas where a boss had not been defeated. If he succeeded there, he could verify the users’ hypothesis that something might happen if the bosses in every field were defeated.
But on the second day after setting out in that direction, he tilted his head at a system notification.
[The Giant Golden Eagle, master of the Rocky Mountain Cliffs’ peak in Area 4, has been defeated.]
[The region's level increases by 1.]
“It was defeated?”
It was not strange.
There were users there too, so they could have attempted a raid. He was not obsessed with something like a first-hunt achievement, so he was not particularly disappointed.
But another notification that followed caught his attention.
“It really was true.”
Once the bosses in every Area had been defeated, a new notification he had never seen before appeared.
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