Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 204

Weapon-Devouring Bastard – 204

Valerie was startled and looked up at the sky.

She felt a massive presence approaching.

-Screeeeeech!

A long, drawn-out cry, typical of birds of prey, cut through the air.

A bird, flapping its wings, descended and gently landed on Lee Cheol’s forearm.

Valerie blinked at the bird.

“……A chick?”

She had been startled by the sudden sense of an enormous presence, but the bird sitting on Lee Cheol’s arm was only a little bigger than her palm.

Bigger than a chick, smaller than a chicken, somewhere in between.

-Peep! Pya-bya-bya-byak!

As if displeased with being called a chick, the Blackbird soared up at an incredible speed and began pecking Valerie on the crown of her head.

“Ouch! Ah! Ugh! Why, why are you doing this! Don’t put magic in your beak! It hurts! I’m sorry!”

Valerie screamed, waving her hands in the air.

-Peep!

After attacking Valerie for a while, the Blackbird proudly puffed out its chest, fluttered its wings, and landed on Auntie’s shoulder.

“Yes, yes. I know. Our Pyaek-Pyaek is no chick.”

-Pya-byak! Peep!

“Where have you been all this time?”

-Pya-byak!

“You’ve been training? Like master, like pet, you’re training too?”

-Pya-byak. Pya-bya-byak.

“Ah, we don’t have any meat today. What should we do?”

Auntie, already familiar with the Blackbird, conversed with it naturally.

Even I often couldn’t understand what the Blackbird was trying to say, but Auntie’s ability to converse with it so naturally was astonishing.

‘But Auntie, its name isn’t Pyaek-Pyaek, it’s Blackbird…….’

Just then, Valerie, who had been rubbing her sore crown, stood up abruptly and stared at the Blackbird.

“Ugh……! Wh, what is that thing? A spirit beast! No, but it seems a bit different…… What is it, really?”

A strange light flickered in Valerie’s eyes.

She had activated her Mystic Eyes.

“Looking closely, it’s… mixed, isn’t it?”

“It’s the former owner of Daemado [an island between Korea and Japan]. The reason it looks like it has monster traits is because of that.”

“A corrupted spirit beast, then?”

“More accurately, a spirit beast that ‘was’ corrupted.”

Since leaving Daemado, it had been consuming things with the power of purification.

Thanks to that, the corrupted flow of magic had been completely purified.

But the traces remained, so it was a spirit beast, but the power it wielded was closer to that of a monster… making it strange in many ways.

“This guy also has the power of a monster, so it won’t get lost in the Unexplored Zone like we would.”

So, we just need to follow the Blackbird’s magic flow.

“Such a small thing… What if something happens to it?”

“Valerie. It seems the performance of your Mystic Eyes has deteriorated a bit in the Unexplored Zone. Or maybe this guy has grown that much.”

“What else is there to it?”

Valerie stared intently at the Blackbird with her Mystic Eyes again.

Focusing a little more, Valerie was astonished.

“Huh? It, it wasn’t a spirit beast?”

It was no mere spirit beast.

The Blackbird was a being that seemed to come straight out of mythology.

“I only found out recently myself. Anyway, you’re not worried now, right?”

“Of course not!”

I glanced at the Blackbird.

“Then I’m counting on you. When this is over and I go back to the family, I’ll give you as much Dragonkin meat as you want, so please help us out.”

-Pya-bya-byak!

The Blackbird slowly spread its wings and took off from my body.

As the Blackbird flapped its wings towards the sky, its body grew larger and larger, and the size of the shadow cast over our heads also increased.

-Screeeeeech!

The Blackbird, soaring into the sky, was no longer the chick the size of a palm.

It had grown to be over 5 meters tall, and the feathers of its wings, which had appeared brown, glittered gold in the sunlight.

We began to follow the Blackbird as it flew towards the center.

* * *

-The Unexplored Zone is the hell of the human world.

That was a well-known saying.

Danger zones, dungeons, gates, and the like.

The story came about when people said those peculiarities were nothing more than child’s play.

And now, Valerie, Auntie, and I were feeling the truth of those words to the bone.

“Haa, whew…….”

Valerie made a ghastly face and let her hand holding the canteen droop.

“This is really driving me crazy. There’s a limit to how much things can mutate.”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine! Who do you think I am! Take care of your aunt!”

I glanced at Auntie.

Auntie, exhausted from constantly using her Aura Skill, staggered and leaned against a tree.

“Ugh, my baby. I’m dying.”

“You’ve worked hard. Please wear this and recover your magic first, Auntie.”

I took off Eunhan [likely a magical artifact or garment] and draped it over Auntie’s shoulders, then turned around to survey the surroundings.

‘It’s really getting overwhelming as we head towards the ruins.’

Monsters, monsters, monsters.

Monsters filled every place the eye could see.

Not a single one of them wasn’t a mutation.

‘Elite Rank 5, or at least Quasi-Rank 4, all over the place. This is really hell. If only the monsters I’ve slain in the Unexplored Zone came out into the world, they could easily devastate a country.’

It wasn’t just the monsters.

Poisonous substances were constantly floating in the air, so we had to keep purifying it with magic, and hallucinations and auditory hallucinations were constantly ringing out, making it impossible to distinguish what was real and what was not.

Fortunately, Valerie and I had Mystic Eyes, so we could resist, but it was truly a terrible place.

“The East Asian Unexplored Zone is really something in many ways. It’s just like hell.”

Valerie gathered her magic and spoke with difficulty.

“Valerie, have you been to Unexplored Zones on other continents?”

“Not many. But to be honest, the Unexplored Zones in other regions aren’t this bad. Maybe just the B-1 area is a bit unique… Ah, I’m hearing auditory hallucinations again. Ugh.”

Valerie suddenly frowned and tapped her ears with her palms.

“But you seem pretty okay. Aren’t the hallucinations too severe?”

“Yes, there are some, but I can tell the difference. It’s not to the point of being confusing.”

“You’re such an oddball.”

I turned my gaze from Valerie and looked at my palm.

Most of the pain that other people complained about in the Unexplored Zone didn’t affect me much.

How should I put it? It was there, but it didn’t feel bothersome.

I could guess the reason.

It was because of Black ki [a type of energy or power].

‘Black ki has become a bit more active since entering this land.’

The air of the Unexplored Zone seemed to be helping Black ki.

It wasn’t getting stronger, but it felt like it was regaining its vitality, like a fish that had been on land returning to the water.

“Anyway, we’re almost there now. Let’s hang in there a little longer. Auntie, Valerie.”

“Ugh! I know!”

“Tsk! Whew…….”

Auntie staggered and stood up, and Valerie also took a deep drag from her cigarette and stood up.

I covered both Auntie and Valerie with Water Scales of Strong ki [a protective barrier or skill] and slowly started moving again.

We tried to avoid fighting monsters as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy.

More and more monsters poured out as we headed towards the central ruins.

Valerie and I carefully scanned the surroundings with our Mystic Eyes, taking each step cautiously.

‘There must be something in the ruins after all. There are too many mutated monsters.’

A monster that only lives in swamps suddenly appeared from a tree, and there was no way there could be human corpses nearby, but ghost-type monsters generated from human thoughts popped out.

General knowledge about monsters was completely meaningless.

And, if anything, those monsters were actually better.

“Lee Cheol. Look at that.”

Valerie whispered in my ear, pointing to the ground diagonally below.

-Kieek! Keek! Save…… me. Ugh, ah, ah…….

A lizardman-shaped monster was wriggling on the ground covered with moss and leaves.

“It’s speaking human words. And its upper body is a lizardman, but its lower body seems to be mixed with a centaur-like monster?”

“Is that possible?”

“It’s just blatantly ignoring the genetic sequence. It’s weird to even talk about genes to a monster… Let’s get closer for now. Let’s take a look.”

I nodded and slowly approached it.

-Kieek! Hung, ry. Hungry? Grr. Ugh, eck?

The lizardman, muttering strange words, flicked its tongue and crawled on the tree.

Whoong!

Valerie’s eyes flashed.

Valerie, who had been analyzing the monster, licked her lips.

“It’s a complete patchwork. Souls are mixed in it. It was definitely made forcibly.”

“A chimera, you mean?”

“Chimeras only weave together the body. That’s… even the souls are woven together. It’s literally a patchwork.”

It seemed that Valerie, who had also learned sorcery, could see something.

-Kieek! Ugh! Ah, pain…….

The lizardman muttered again and crawled around.

“Ugh, it’s unpleasant because it’s making human noises. It feels like a human turned into a monster.”

Auntie shuddered and glared at the lizardman.

We focused on chasing the Blackbird’s magic and approached the ruins.

In the meantime, the surrounding scenery became increasingly bizarre.

And soon, places that were in my memory began to appear.

“……Blackbird. Come back.”

At my words imbued with magic, the Blackbird flying in the sky slowly descended and landed on my shoulder.

“Isn’t it still a bit far? Why did you tell it to come down?”

“I know how to get there from here.”

“Huh? Did you sense something?”

It’s not that I sensed something.

I just know.

Because it was a path I had walked in my past life, no, been dragged along.

Soon, artificial traces began to appear before us.

There were traces of collapse or weathering here and there, but it was clearly the appearance of East Asian architecture.

“Wh, what is this? Wasn’t this a recently discovered Unexplored Zone? And in the middle of the Unexplored Zone, what is this?”

Valerie’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I knew my prediction was right! Our people advanced this far! The Unexplored Zone was narrower back then, I told you! Wow! Look at this. The way the stones are piled up is from an ancient kingdom in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula…….”

Auntie’s eyes sparkled with joy as her research was proven.

I calmly said to the two of them, who were sparkling their eyes at just a wall and an entrance.

“Let’s go further in for now. Investigate later.”

I silently moved my steps.

With each step, a familiar sight was captured in my eyes.

It was the path I had walked, no, been dragged along in my past life.

‘But it’s a bit different.’

I frowned and looked at the wall that came into view.

The traces of the ruins were a bit more intact than in my past life.

No, to be exact…….

‘Traces of human hands remain.’

It wasn’t a trace from a very long time ago.

It was a recent trace.

Although the outside was overgrown with bushes, the bushes here didn’t even come up to my knees, as if someone had trimmed them once.

If it was a ruin that had been abandoned from ancient times until now, it shouldn’t be much different from the outside of the ruins.

“Lee Cheol. Something’s wrong.”

“Yes, I felt it too.”

The flow of magic is also strange.

As soon as we entered this ruin, the distorted flow of magic unique to the Unexplored Zone was even more twisted.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but this is a place where human hands have touched. The flow of magic is intentionally connected. This is…….”

“It feels like a wizard’s workshop.”

“To be exact, it feels like a seal. How can a seal of this scale… even exist?”

Thump, thump, thump!

As we moved our steps inward, Black ki began to react more and more strongly.

It was reacting so fiercely that it seemed like it would break out as soon as I opened the floodgates.

“Ah, my baby. Be careful.”

Auntie trembled, clutching the collar of Eunhan’s clothes hanging over her shoulders.

Although it wasn’t moving, the presence of monsters was thickly imprinted in all directions.

I nodded and headed a little further inside.

There were many paths in the ruins, and there were many buildings in various places.

I saw buildings where strange presences were felt and paths where magic was twisted.

But I turned my eyes away from all those seemingly ominous places and went further inside.

‘It was this way.’

I moved my steps, retracing the last memory of my unforgettable past life.

Soon, an empty space appeared before us.

And the scene from my past life unfolded as it was.

The fossil of a giant monster with only its skeleton remaining.

And stuck in the middle of its forehead, a single ancient sword that was too small compared to the size of the monster.

“Wh, what is that…….”

“What is that?”

Valerie and Auntie opened their mouths at the same time.

‘Finally.’

Thump!

Black ki reacted again.

The place where everything ended and everything began.

We have finally arrived here.