Wizard of the Abyss - Chapter 101

WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

Wizard of the Abyss

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 101 - Three Calamities (8)

Within the vast organization known as Scarlet Abyss, the role Sunken Mire was assigned was—

Warehouse.

Something used to store and hide things. A word meant for places rather than people became the core of her identity.

Sunken Mire accepted it. No, she was even proud of it.

She wasn’t the only one entrusted with the role of warehouse, but no one else possessed as much as she did.

Each time Scarlet Abyss’ wealth piled up within her swamp, she felt a sense of belonging and accomplishment.

And among those items, the rarest and most expensive was the World-Sealing Elixir.

This elixir, shaped like white pearls, possessed such powerful efficacy that it could halt the burdens of an Abyss Realm itself. Most members followed Scarlet Abyss for the sole purpose of obtaining these pills.

She stored hundreds of them. The fact that so many of these pills slept within her swamp led Sunken Mire to fall under the illusion that she wasn’t just a cog in the machine, but something important.

Yes, an illusion.

"Take out all of the World-Sealing Elixirs.”

"...What?"

The back mountain of a small town. Sunken Mire’s hometown.

Summoned without much warning, Sunken Mire knelt down, her mind filled with confusion, before she hurriedly lowered her head.

Though they were members of the same organization, the gap between those who gave orders and those beneath them was as vast as heaven and earth.

There were those whose only goal was survival and those who taught these members how to survive.

Some of the members feared them, others despised them, not even knowing their real purpose.

However, most respected them as they showed a way to live through hell. Sunken Mire was among the latter.

So instead of questioning the order, she reached into the swamp and retrieved the box, handing it over.

As Decay lifted the box and turned to leave, Sunken Mire hesitated, then called out to him.

"L-Lord Decay.”

"..."

Decay did not respond. He merely glanced down at Sunken Mire, who was still kneeling.

It wasn’t so much a reaction to her voice as it was a cold question directed at her. Something like ‘Why are you still here?’ Even as a freezing chill gripped her lungs, she forced herself to speak.

Some of the World-Sealing Elixir contained in that box was meant for her own use.

"The next batch of World-Sealing Elixir will arrive in a month. If you take all of them, the amount left to distribute to the general members…”

"Don’t use them.”

"...?"

Leaving the bewildered Sunken Mire behind, Decay replied curtly and turned away.

"Fight the world. If they can’t last even a month without the drug—then they were never capable of fighting it in the first place.”

"B-but…"

She couldn't finish her sentence. There was no one left to speak to anymore.

Decay had not been having a conversation with her. He merely issued an order. All that remained where he once stood were frozen footprints.

For the next month, Sunken Mire was thrown back into hell.

The ground was no longer something she could step on.

No matter where she climbed, no matter what she grabbed onto, everything liquefied. Even people.

She walked without rest, collapsed, only to wake up choking for breath, her shoulders submerged. Once again, she was forced to relive the shock and terror of the first time she had sunk into her world.

When she barely survived the month, Sunken Mire overheard rumors making their rounds among the other members.

"Did you hear? Decay, that bastard, took all the World-Sealing Elixirs to give to some newbie.”

"A newbie? Who?”

"No idea. Probably some heaven-blessed monster or something.”

At the time, Sunken Mire was in too much pain and distress to give it much thought. Or more like she couldn’t.

She only recalled that fact an hour ago because of a direct order that had come from Decay.

"...So it was him."

- Crunch…

Sunken Mire crushed the letter describing Jern in detail.

Decay wasn’t the sort of person who would bother sending a letter for the sake of a single member.

So this piece of paper carried an unspoken pressure, saying that this person is important.

Sunken Mire didn’t like that.

At the very least, she wanted to rough him up a little. If Decay himself had vouched for that brat, it was easy enough to get an idea of his level of strength, but…

'He’s only 11, right?'

Which meant it hadn’t even been a year since he had awoken to his world.

Rather than having found a way to overcome his burdens, he should still be running around in terror.

No matter how vicious his world was, that age made him perfect for some tormenting.

If she actually ended up killing him, Decay would come down on her hard, but this little lecture should teach this brat who was superior to whom.

With that in mind, Sunken Mire waited atop a tree, her eyes fierce.

She had no idea what kind of person she was about to meet.

* * *

"Tha-that’s impossible…"

When I effortlessly waded out of the swamp, Sunken Mire stared at me in shock.

It seemed she was shocked by the fact that I had escaped that place, rather than by the insult I had just thrown at her.

Was that really so surprising? I tilted my head as her gaze dropped down towards it.

"Y-you’ve only lived for a year in that world.”

"So what?”

"How are you able to use your world however you please?!”

"...Using my world?”

"Yes, you’re controlling it at will…! Since when was that even possible?”

I tilted my head in the other direction. What was she talking about?

If using the world meant using the power of one’s world, then my first time would go all the way back to when I first made those books float in the orphanage library.

"Since the time I had my Soul Fever. Isn’t that normal?”

"No! A newly Fallen who’s been swallowed by their first world either dies or suffers until they’re on the brink of death! They can't control their world at all! At least three years of desperate survival are needed before someone can barely create something akin to magic through sheer will…”

...Was that how it worked?

The only freshly Fallen I’d ever seen was Ren.

And Ren, well. Considering she tried to spew fire at civilians, she seemed pretty much able to use her world.

"Maybe you’re just incompetent.”

"No, a Fallen who’s only lived a year in their world will die if they try to move their world. How…are you still alive?”

Watching the genuine confusion on Sunken Mire’s face, I recalled Ren again.

She’d been practically dying. Was that a backlash from forcing her world to move?

As I felt the pieces click together in my mind, I nodded.

"So most people my age die from their burdens if they try something like this.”

"Y-yeah.”

A world inverted to endure pain.

And the only thing not inverted within it was the world’s owner.

Naturally, every movement would be agony, a constant brush with death.

My Water Partition, my struggle to survive, Derica’s help—I’d managed to endure through all those factors, but not everyone could.

Ordinary Fallen who drew on their world’s power met the same fate as Ren.

I’d vaguely known this already, but now it solidified into certainty.

Not every Fallen was a monster like the Lump or Decay.

Most were just prisoners, barely managing to survive.

"Thanks for the advice.”

I tightened the water pressure around the still flustered Sunken Mire’s neck.

"Kgh—!”

And then, I lifted her straight up.

She struggled, showing clear pain, staring at me with a mix of confusion and fear, so I explained.

"You told me to survive for a month. But surviving in a world like this doesn’t even qualify as a test for me, you know? I think we need to raise the difficulty.”

"C-cough… A-a Great Realm…?”

"Fight me.”

I muttered with cold anger.

Guilt? No way. These guys were all human trash who purposely kidnapped and tortured children.

"If you’re a member of Scarlet Abyss, you should have at least that much strength. So, let’s see what you've got.”

-Thud

I hurled her, who continued to squirm, into a nearby tree.

But something about her impact sounded off. It wasn’t the kind of sound a human body hitting wood would make, but something lighter.

I frowned as I saw the tree Sunken Mire hit melt, turning into viscous liquid.

I could tell at a single glance. That texture and density was that of the swamp I had just stepped into.

"Kgh, cough…”

Instead of answering, Sunken Mire only coughed violently.

I stared in disbelief, seeing wherever her arms and legs touched slowly sinking.

She acted all high and mighty, but the truth was that she would sink and drown the moment she lost focus.

So that was what all the bravado was hiding. As I looked down at her contemptuously, she began to tremble, pulling something from her robes.

It was a pearl-shaped pill. The same I had once received from Decay.

Sunken Abyss desperately tried to raise it to her mouth as if it were her lifeline—

-Tak, tak rollrollroll….

"Ah."

Unable to control her trembling hands, she dropped it.

The pill rolled over the floor until it came to a stop at my feet. Sunken Mire’s eyes quivered as she stared at it in despair.

I said nothing and just waited. Waiting for her to pull out another pill, swallow it, and stand back up to challenge me.

To properly establish the hierarchy, I had to break her at her best. So I could afford to wait that much.

"..."

But all that Sunken Mire did was stare at the pearl pill that had rolled to my feet, her face as if the world had collapsed.

...Don’t tell me she has no spares?

She was carrying just one? Wait, why?

Was she just unprepared? Even as that thought crossed my mind, Sunken Mire continued to sink.

Her lips trembled like she wanted to say something, but her pride wouldn’t let her.

"Hmm."

What should I do? I completely had the upper hand here.

If I did nothing, she would probably die, but then I couldn’t really predict what would happen after.

From my perspective, she was just an idiot who mouthed off and then just self-destructed. From Decay’s perspective, though, it might look like I was just some bastard who came here to ambush Scarlet Abyss.

"...ve—."

Just as half her body sank into the swamp, she finally opened her mouth, shaking.

"Sa-save me…”

...No helping it.

I picked up the pill and tossed it in her mouth.

"Kgh—"

I practically shoved it straight down her throat. Sunken Mire swallowed it reflexively and instantly stopped sinking.

I used water pressure to grab her limbs and hauled her up from the ground, then asked,

"You only have one of those pills?

"...W-World-Sealing Elixirs are precious. We only receive one per day. If we carry more, we’ll become targets.”

Her voice was much lower than before.

She was even speaking formally now. A clear sign of submission. Hearing her words, I frowned and asked,

"Targets?”

"Y-yes…”

"By whom?”

"Other members…”

"What are you talking about?”

"World-Sealing Elixirs are always in short supply, so members kill each other for them.”

"What?"

I was genuinely taken aback for a moment.

Why would they do that? Sensing my confusion, Sunken Mire hurriedly explained.

"Low-ranking members like us can’t survive without the World-Sealing Elixir. Everyone joined Scarlet Abyss to get them…me included.”

"Fine, I get that you can’t live without them. But Scarlet Abyss only gives you a small amount of them?”

Why? If people died like Sunken Mire almost just did, that would cut into their own strength.

And they were killing each other to get these pills? Was this an organization or a pit of starving beasts?

Sunken Mire continued carefully, watching my expression.

"A-at first, erm, before joining Scarlet Abyss, we're given a fixed amount. When you take them, you feel normal again. Your world becomes calm…so people scrape together all their money to buy them.”

"They were selling them?”

"They’re incredibly expensive. But they gradually raised the price, and once you’ve spent all your savings, it’s already too late—you can’t live without the pills anymore. A world without them is just too cruel…”

"Then that’s when they dangle membership as bait.”

"Y-yes."

The picture came together.

To the Fallen living in the hell that was their own world, they showed a path to live like normal people.

They would drain every last coin the Fallen possessed, reducing them to beggars, and then at that point, offer them membership, coaxing them with World-Sealing Elixirs whenever they obeyed orders.

"...I see."

I could guess why Scarlet Abyss adopted this method.

Fallen lived miserable lives after all. Many thought death would be better, and many actually chose that path.

With their humanity scraped down to nothing, most feared nothing at all. What could possibly frighten someone already living in hell?

So they created the World-Sealing Elixir.

They made it look like there was a way out of hell—and used that illusion to put a leash on them.

To turn people who didn’t even fear death into obedient sheep. In fact, the more the members fought each other, the more valuable the pills became, making it even easier to control the remaining members.

It was a system that showed signs of careful planning. Just how many thousands of years had this been refined?

"The people who came up with this must be the executives.”

"Yes. We call them Upper Tiers. If we carry out the missions they assign us, we receive a few World-Sealing Elixirs. If we fail…we die.”

"Upper Tiers? Then what are you? Lower Tier?"

"Yes..."

"R-Right.”

I more or less understood how Scarlet Abyss functioned now.

A massive trap designed to control the Fallen. A multi-level organization consisting of exploiters and exploited.

That was Scarlet Abyss. But if this was true, achieving my goal just became a lot harder.

"Do you know what the Three Calamities are?”

"Ah, yes, I’ve heard of them…”

"What are they?”

"Terrifiyng Great Realms…?”

As I thought.

In organizations like this, all critical information and capital were held exclusively by the top, refusing to release anything.

Upper Tier and Lower Tier. There was no Middle Tier. If I wanted to get my hands on the information I needed, I had to stand at the very top.

Which meant things were going to be far more troublesome than I had hoped.

"Hm, is there a way for a Lower Tier to become an Upper Tier?”

"Y-yes. That’s what I’m working toward. If you become an Upper Tier, you can get unlimited World-Sealing Elixirs… I heard that if you complete missions, you’ll be summoned and tested. Recently, a member called the Lump became an Upper Tier that way.”

"Good. That’s enough.”

I nodded and decided on my course of action.

First I had to become an Upper Tier.

"Did Decay leave any other instructions?”

"Ah, yes…”

Sunken Mire spoke with an anxious expression on her face.

"H-he said that you should prove that his eyes weren’t wrong…”

In other words, this was as far as my parachute would carry me.

"What missions are there?”

"Here’s the compiled list.”

As I examined the collection of missions Sunken Mire politely handed over with both hands, she spoke up hesitantly.

"Um, but…”