WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Protagonist Doesn't Want to Leave the First Floor ◈
Chapter 62
──────
The Rainy Season had ended completely, and as autumn weather set in, the D-Day Clan's base began to take shape.
The settlement process had not been entirely smooth.
People were injured while hunting, and Wolves swarmed in at night, collapsing parts of the structures they had been building more than once.
Still, they endured.
They had not tried to expand the base too quickly from the beginning. They built the necessary facilities first, within what their numbers could handle.
What stood out most was how they had used the natural terrain and structures to surround the base with a maze.
If it had been a completely sealed wall or fence, Mobs might have recognized the structure itself as an enemy and attacked it. But the maze clearly had paths through it.
Maybe that was why.
Wolves and other Mobs would spot users from afar and charge over, but instead of breaking the structure immediately blocking their way, they began wandering around in search of an open path.
Passages curved this way and that.
Traps placed throughout them activated, while users positioned above fired bows and guns.
Most sections had been made by digging up earth and piling it into walls, which meant they did not need many materials for repairs.
At first, everyone struggled, and it did not seem much different. But once it had more or less taken shape, the change was obvious.
The number of Wolves approaching the camp gradually increased, but the damage they caused steadily decreased instead.
Of course, there were downsides.
Since the camp was surrounded by a maze, it had become inconvenient for the people inside to leave as well.
But they had made up for that by creating paths along the tops of the maze walls.
They could move along the raised tops like the walkways of a fortress wall, then use ladders or ropes to climb down wherever needed.
And if something urgent happened, they could ride Eagles.
It was a little more troublesome, but apart from those assigned to guard duty, everyone seemed satisfied that they no longer had to struggle through constant fighting day and night.
A kind of peace had finally arrived.
Whenever Seo Hajin visited, he could see the camp improving bit by bit, along with the brighter expressions of the D-Day Clan members.
‘They’re decent people.’
After watching them from afar for some time, he had concluded that their disposition posed no particular threat to him.
That was why he had delivered a little lumber as a gift to celebrate their successful settlement.
They had focused on building the camp perimeter and maze structures, leaving them unable to properly construct lodging for everyone to live in.
When Juggernaut took the lumber out of Subspace, exclamations broke out around him. Some people clapped in delight.
“Thank you so much.”
3SecondsMissJi ran over as soon as she saw him and welcomed him enthusiastically.
“We do cut down trees ourselves, but after using them here and there, there’s never anything left. Logging itself isn’t easy either.”
“The trees around here are fairly tough.”
“Exactly.”
As she checked the amount of lumber Juggernaut had taken out, she seemed to be considering where they should use it first.
Then her gaze suddenly shifted to Sangun, who was waiting beside them. There was something unfamiliar behind the saddle.
“What’s that? It looks like a gun.”
“I made it based on the gift you gave me before.”
“Wow. Really?”
Her eyes were full of curiosity.
He had taken it out to show her in the first place, so there was no reason to hide it. He removed the object secured to the saddle.
“Uh...”
Her reaction changed from fascination to bewilderment.
“It’s huge.”
“Yes.”
“And it has three barrels.”
“Two.”
“There’s one underneath too.”
“That’s the ammunition ejection tube.”
“It ejects ammunition? Can’t you just fire it?”
“Not that ammunition. The extra round.”
“...?”
“Three rounds come up at once.”
She looked like she did not quite understand.
Then Juggernaut operated the drum magazine, and two iron shots entered the chambers.
By chance, the third round came up at the same time, took the bypass, and entered the ejection tube.
“Isn’t it broken?”
“It works. More or less.”
“I don’t think ‘more or less’ is acceptable...”
“It fires.”
At that moment, several clan members who had been listening from a distance cautiously approached.
Among them were people who currently made and repaired the D-Day Clan’s rifles.
One of those carefully examining Juggernaut’s creation asked cautiously.
“May I hold it?”
“Of course. But it’s rather heavy.”
“How heavy could it be?”
The man confidently grabbed the handle, then flinched in surprise and tensed his shoulders.
“Whoa. I almost dropped it.”
“Is it that heavy?”
When someone beside him asked, he nodded.
It seemed to weigh at least twenty kilograms.
“At that point, it’s practically a heavy weapon.”
“We can only lift it because our levels are decent. An ordinary person would have trouble using this regularly.”
Still, their assessment was that it would not be an issue if the performance was good enough. Users had Inventories, after all, so they did not need to carry it around all the time.
“But the balance needs some work too.”
“I’m improving that.”
“Wow.”
The man who had kept holding it handed it to someone beside him, and the other man reacted much the same way.
“This isn’t a gun. It’s more like a cannon.”
Yet when Juggernaut took it back, it suited him quite well, unlike when they held it.
When he lifted it with one hand, laughter broke out around them.
“So we were just weak.”
“That’s right.”
3SecondsMissJi examined the iron shot it used. The heavy steel ball, two and a half centimeters in diameter, really did call a cannon to mind more than a gun.
“Two of these fire at once, right?”
“Yes.”
“How powerful is it?”
“It shattered a rock.”
“What kind of rock?”
“About the size of a person’s torso.”
The people who had been laughing fell silent.
3SecondsMissJi carefully handed the iron shot back.
“That’s scary.”
But perhaps something came to mind. She turned to look over the defensive structures along the camp perimeter.
“It would be nice if we could mount it somewhere...”
Monsters entering along the maze would naturally be forced to crowd into narrow paths.
It did not need a long range.
It was bound to hit something.
‘Hmm.’
Juggernaut looked in the same direction.
As she said, if they built a somewhat tall Watchtower inside the fence and fired from there, it seemed like it would make hunting rather efficient.
“Um, could you sell us a few later?”
“No.”
“Ah...”
“Sometimes the magazine jams.”
“...Then it is broken.”
She burst out laughing.
Seo Hajin smiled slightly too.
Strictly speaking, it was a failed creation.
Still, if he kept improving it bit by bit, one day it would become something reliable that worked properly without defects.
“More importantly, do you have enough lumber?”
“Yes. I think this will be enough.”
She looked at the clan members processing and carrying lumber behind her.
“So it wasn’t all for nothing.”
“What wasn’t?”
“Coming here.”
It seemed she had heard news about the clan they had belonged to before. It had nearly fallen apart after getting caught up in the struggle over the Giant Lake Field.
When they declared their independence and said they would come here, people had called them cowards and traitors to the clan.
But now, the people who had remained behind were belatedly begging to be taken in.
“Will you accept them?”
“I’ll have to see. It’s pathetic and funny, but it would be nice if our numbers increased too... Still, we need to make sure they aren’t the kind of people who would come here and cause trouble.”
She would make that judgment herself.
Still, judging by her expression and tone, she seemed a little proud that the tables had turned and she was now in the stronger position, so he nodded appropriately.
“Then I’ll see you next time.”
“Ah, wait a moment.”
He stopped as he was about to leave.
It turned out she wanted to talk about Wolf pelts.
“Do you happen to have some in stock? I’d like to buy some if you do.”
“How many?”
“They seem like they’d be good to lay over beds, as long as the fur is left on.”
“Yes, they’re good as rugs. They only need a little processing. I already have some prepared. I removed the smell too.”
“Considering our numbers... Could you spare around two hundred?”
“I can do that right now.”
“Wow.”
He did not add that he could sell two thousand, not just two hundred.
‘If they’re that common, they might ask for a discount.’
In truth, they might not need to buy them immediately.
They were beginning to hunt Wolves themselves, so they would probably be able to obtain a certain number of pelts on their own.
But the problem was that the night air was already becoming quite chilly.
And it was getting worse by the day.
‘It gets cold quickly here.’
The transaction ended pleasantly.
3SecondsMissJi watched Juggernaut put the large gun into Subspace and smiled.
“That was fun, wasn’t it?”
“What was?”
“Making guns.”
“Hmm.”
“Men like that kind of thing. Guns, robots, computers. Taking them apart and putting them back together.”
“I suppose I do.”
“There was something else... Ah, right. Dinosaurs.”
Dinosaurs were good.
Robot dinosaurs were even better.
Seo Hajin suddenly recalled a toy he had wanted as a child but had never owned.
Later, even when he could afford it, he had not bought it.
‘Everything has a time when it suits you.’
That was the reason he gave himself, but perhaps the truth was that he had always had other things to spend money on.
If he had been much richer, would he not have bought one and displayed it somewhere, no matter his age?
‘Though do they still make those?’
Talking with 3SecondsMissJi was always pleasant.
She had a talent for brightening the mood, and the fact that everyone could laugh despite their hardships was largely because of her.
‘There are good people in the world too.’
There had been more individuals and groups who entered Northern Forest and tried to settle there. Some had even come directly to Juggernaut.
But they did not give him the same sense of kindness or harmlessness that she and the D-Day Clan did, so he mostly ignored them.
‘It’s been quiet lately.’
Had the grass looked greener on the other side?
Some people had secretly made camp in the areas where his pets hunted.
They seemed to think there must be exceptional prey or resources there because the pets kept moving through them.
But in reality, those areas were worse than elsewhere.
The pets simply swept through designated sections by team, continuing their hunts.
Those people endured nothing but miserable hardship before eventually withdrawing.
They looked dissatisfied, but they did not touch the pets. That had at least been a sensible decision.
But sometimes, people made less sensible decisions.
* * *
“...”
“...Hoo.”
They had watched the hunting for several days.
One Wolf Rider and twenty Wolves.
The same number always formed one team, hunting through assigned areas.
Whenever they found Mobs, the Wolves spread out in every direction to block escape routes, while the Wolf Rider controlled the overall direction from behind.
They did not collect loot immediately during the hunt. After clearing out all monsters nearby, they retraced the path they had come through and gathered everything at once.
In other words, the loot remained untouched on the ground for a certain amount of time.
There was quite a lot of it.
“Same as always today.”
The people were up in the trees.
When one man spoke, the others nodded.
They had discovered the pattern by chance.
Afterward, they had continued hiding nearby and watching.
Once they were sure, they called their companions and roughly mapped out the pets’ routes and timing.
“It takes them a little over an hour to go ahead and come back.”
“What are the chances another team comes near us?”
“Almost none. It looks like they divided the territory up.”
There were quite a few hunting teams made up of pets like that, but they were not gathered in the same place.
Even where their areas overlapped, it was only near the borders of their respective territories. And even then, they rarely encountered each other in the same place at the same time.
“Hmm.”
A spot one hunting team had already swept through.
A considerable amount of loot lay scattered on the ground.
They were only Wolves and minor Mobs, but there were so many of them that the drops added up.
The boxes standing out among them were especially tempting.
“...”
At first, they had only planned to sneak in and take a few while the pets gathered on one side.
They had done exactly that, and no one caught them.
They did not know whether the pets failed to notice because they took so little, or whether they simply did not know because of their limited intelligence.
But now, it did not matter either way.
What if they took everything at once?
That thought had brought them together.
“We just need to take out the Rider first.”
The Wolf Rider handled command.
That was the conclusion they reached after several days of observation.
When the Rider reached out or made a sound, the Wolves moved. Wolves that had scattered gathered in one direction, while any stragglers followed the formation.
In other words, there was only one commander.
If they removed that bastard, the remaining Wolves would lose their center and stumble around in confusion.
Of course, twenty was not a small number, but they were no longer low-level Awakeners either.
Picking off scattered Wolves one by one without anyone commanding them would be easy.
“They’re coming. Get ready.”
“Okay.”
Branches swayed in the distance.
Then a large Wolf appeared through the brush.
The Wolf Rider on its back was surveying the path ahead, while twenty Wolves were spread out in a long line around it.
They were returning after hunting.
It was also the moment the people had been waiting for.
Rustle.
A thick, tightly drawn rope was hidden beneath fallen leaves and branches.
A quick hand signal followed.
The man hiding in front lowered his hand.
Then the people holding the rope behind trees on both sides rose at the same time.
Twang!
The tough rope sprang up into the air.
The running Wolf passed beneath it, but the Wolf Rider’s chest and arms caught on it.
“Urk!”
Its body bent backward.
The Wolf shot forward alone while the Wolf Rider spun once through the air and crashed to the ground.
Crunch!
Its back and head struck the ground almost at the same time.
That alone would not kill it, of course, but before it could even rise, arrows and thrown spears flew in.
Thud! Thud!
Arrows lodged in its shoulder and thigh.
One thick spear pierced its chest.
No one knew which attack had been fatal, but when the Wolf Rider disappeared in a burst of light, it was clear it had died and been desummoned.
“Got it!”
“Take out the Wolves first!”
The hidden people rushed out at once.
There were fourteen of them in total.
Those with shields took the front, followed by those carrying spears and bows.
Once they wiped out the Wolves that had lost their Rider, they would scoop up all the loot scattered over the ground.
Then they would hurry to another area and repeat the operation. Speed was everything. They had to take as much as possible before Juggernaut noticed.
“They stopped!”
Someone shouted.
The Wolves that had lost their commander moved exactly as expected. They stopped here and there, pricking up their ears and looking around.
“Now!”
This was their chance while the Wolves stood there blankly.
The shield bearers charged.
At that moment, the Wolves moved.
Something was strange.
They did not scatter in every direction.
Nor did they gather in the same direction.
Their behavior differed from Mob Wolves.
They seemed like creatures capable of thinking for themselves, with intelligence beyond that of ordinary Wolves.
Two Wolves lunged at the shield bearer at once. The others split to the left and right, disappearing through the brush.
“Dodge!”
A Wolf slammed into the shield.
Thud!
The man was pushed backward.
Then Wolves that had seemed to disappear to either side sprang out from behind and bit the legs of a man who had not been able to defend himself.
“Aagh!”
More Wolves lunged at him in succession.
A woman holding a bow hurriedly drew the string.
The arrow struck a Wolf in the torso.
It staggered briefly, but did not stop. It leaped at her, bit her arm, and dragged her to the ground.
“The rear! Defend the rear first!”
The instant they changed direction, another Wolf lunged from the side. This was clearly not the movement of something being commanded by someone else.
Each Wolf targeted the nearest enemy. If it met an opponent it was difficult to attack, it immediately turned elsewhere.
When shields gathered, they went after the bow users.
When spears pointed toward them, they hid between the trees.
Whenever someone tried to flee, three or four Wolves chased after them at once.
“What the hell...”
They were not moving as systematically as when the Wolf Rider commanded them.
But they were clearly more intelligent than Mob Wolves.
“What is wrong with these things?”
“The commander is dead!”
They had been mistaken.
The Wolves did not merely follow the orders of one commander. They did move according to commands, but that was because those commands came from a higher authority.
Now that they could not carry out those commands, the Wolves actively used their intelligence, greater than that of ordinary Wolves, alongside the hunting instincts they normally kept suppressed.
One person after another fell.
Screams and curses filled the forest.
“Call for backup!”
“Fuck! I already did!”
Similar operations must have been underway elsewhere.
They had planned to sweep multiple areas at once.
It had been a competition to see who could snatch the most loot first. If they asked for help now, would the others even respond?
They were in the same Clan, so they would come, but the others were probably busy too.
Still, perhaps they were lucky. Reinforcements arrived before too long.
From what they heard, the others had not begun their own hunt yet.
Eleven people arrived in the first group of reinforcements.
By then, only six people were still alive.
About half the Wolves had been taken down.
Some still moved with arrows lodged in their bodies, while others limped and bled from injured legs.
“We can do this!”
“There aren’t many left!”
The reinforcements immediately joined the fight.
As they slowly pushed forward with shields at the front, the outnumbered Wolves fell one after another.
The Wolves vanished in bursts of light.
Only then did it seem like there was some hope.
Awooo!
Then.
Howls rang out from nearby.
Wolf howls.
It wasn’t just one or two.
“What?”
“No way.”
More Wolves appeared between the trees.
Starting with another Wolf Rider that looked exactly like the one they had killed, twenty Wolves followed without exception.
“Damn it, retreat!”
“Retreat? Don’t we have a chance?”
“Those bastards aren’t like Mobs!”
It was already too late.
The newly arrived Wolves circled widely around the battlefield and blocked the escape route first.
Then another hunting team appeared from the opposite side.
They were being surrounded from both sides.
“Fuck!”
“Hold them back!”
“Can’t you see I’m trying?”
Everyone had crowded together, leaving them unable to swing their weapons properly.
They could still fire bows, but soon there was not even enough room to draw the strings.
“Damn it!”
Someone’s shield broke.
Then a person was bitten on the foot by a Wolf and dragged out of formation.
By the time the second group of reinforcements arrived, the situation had already turned against them.
Still, they somehow held out, and even amid the fighting, they did not forget to gather the Personal Effects of the dead.
The battle continued.
Both sides kept sending in reserves.
The strange thing was that Wolves kept arriving, but their owner was nowhere to be seen.
Had Juggernaut left the area?
Maybe that was fortunate.
“Pant, pant!”
A few people managed to escape.
But more failed to do so.
The battlefield eventually fell quiet.
One Wolf Rider who remained at the scene slowly circled the area.
Five Wolf Riders had been deployed.
Three had died, while one had retreated with injuries severe enough to leave it unable to fight.
Only six Wolves remained.
They would recover and return with time, but until then, it would be difficult to continue hunting properly.
While they had suffered those losses, the attackers were not intact either.
Dozens of corpses lay scattered across the ground.
Among them were Personal Effects Bags the attackers had failed to collect.
The Wolf Rider resumed commanding the Wolves, gathered the corpses and Personal Effects Bags left there, and placed them into Subspace.
‘Hmm.’
Seo Hajin, who had watched the whole process from the sky, compared the loot that had entered Subspace with the Wolves now in recovery.
‘Should I have intervened midway?’
At first, he had assumed they could handle it themselves, but the other side had sent in additional reinforcements, increasing the losses.
Of course, if the pets had only one life, he would have intervened much earlier.
But because he could restore and summon them again, perhaps he had taken the situation too lightly.
‘But more of them died than I expected.’
Even if he deployed the reserves and reorganized the teams, they would not achieve even half of their previous hunting efficiency.
The pets’ recovery time was not especially long, but a day that should have passed uneventfully had undeniably been disrupted.
“Hoo...”
Honestly, it was his mistake.
After meeting good people like 3SecondsMissJi, the D-Day Clan, Hogu, and TrueFinal for so long, perhaps he had grown soft.
“I was going to use this chance to manage my image too, but this isn’t helping.”
Sighing inwardly, he woke Juggernaut, who had been enjoying a deep sleep for once.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
