Chapter 137
Chapter 137
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 137
Chapter Title: Chapter 3-1. Black Tree Tribe
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Judah, who had been sleeping soundly from exhaustion, suddenly opened his eyes. It felt like he hadn't slept much, and looking out the window confirmed that it was still dark. It hadn't been many hours since he fell asleep. He looked for Isabelle sleeping beside him, but she was gone, having gotten up in the meantime. In her place lay an ornate, elongated mask that seemed to have been left behind.
"A souvenir, huh."
Looking at it now, the ornate and elongated mask was uniquely stylish, cool enough that it didn't seem like something for women. He liked it. Curious about what special options it might have, he almost checked, but then put it away in the <Bag>. It was just a souvenir-like gift; was there really any need to examine its item options?
"Oh, right... Arhil and Jeanne."
─I think I left them behind.
Feeling a chill, Judah jumped up from his seat and hurried outside to find Arhil and Jeanne. It had been quite some time since they had passed out drunk. Isabelle had explained to the tribespeople that they were her women, so no one had bothered them up to now, but with them powerless from the alcohol, who knew if someone might take advantage.
He quickly slid open the closed door and stepped out of the room, only then hearing the sound of snoring behind him. For a brief moment, he had been so worried that his heart skipped a beat, making him feel like a fool now.
"Ha."
Letting out a hollow laugh, Judah looked down at them from where he stood.
Whether Isabelle had placed them there or not, they were lying in the living room, roughly covered with blankets, snoring away. They seemed to be sleeping deeply; even though Judah had roughly flung open the door, they showed no sign of waking. He carefully carried the pair sleeping in the living room back to the bedroom, washed his body clean since he hadn't done so last night, and returned.
It was still dark out, with a little time left until morning, but sleep wouldn't come, so he decided to prepare breakfast. Since they'd drunk so much last night, he thought a cool soup dish would be good and prepared a spicy stew.
The sub-space of the <Bag> was a kind of separate dimension for storage, with no concern for spoilage. Once something was put inside, it was preserved safely as if time had stopped. Thanks to that, the ingredients stayed fresh without any worry of rotting.
Using vegetables and meat bought in Serenia Castle, along with various ingredients acquired from the merchant caravan, he made the stew. With breakfast ready, he woke Arhil and Jeanne, who were still groggy from the hangover and couldn't properly get up, and forced them to sit at the living room table.
"...Ugh, is Judah perfectly fine?"
Jeanne asked, furrowing her brow. He was surprisingly unaffected. Part of it was the fragment speeding his recovery, but he hadn't gotten absolutely wasted either. He felt a bit tired, but that was all.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Arhil?"
"Huuuuh... My head hurts..."
Perhaps suffering a hangover worse than a bottle to the head, Arhil replied in a voice like she was about to cry and thunked her forehead on the table. Her disheveled hair spilled to the side. Smiling at the sight, Judah brought them the stew and rice he'd simmered since dawn, telling them to eat even if it was hard. Fortunately, the spicy beef stew suited her taste; despite complaining of her headache, Arhil doggedly shoveled it in.
'We can't leave today, it seems.'
He'd thought they hadn't drunk that much last night... but he belatedly realized that while he had survived the drinking games, they had chugged an enormous amount. With no other choice, he decided they'd rest fully today and leave Regen tomorrow for their sake.
They could stay here longer term without issue, but since he'd obtained the fragment, their business here was done. Though Regen had quite a few boss monsters like the <Requiem> in the southern forest of Serenia Castle that gave decent experience and useful items, catching them required no small hardship.
They only appeared in specific weather, and without a mage, it was a nightmare to hunt them. Even in the game, he had wondered why he'd designed such frustrating patterns; he could imagine how annoying they'd be in this world-turned-reality without even seeing it.
After telling the groaning, hungover pair to rest at home, Judah went out. He wandered the tribe, trying to acquire items unique to this place. They willingly offered what he wanted, but feeling bad about taking them for free, he traded Black Wolf hides and fangs unavailable here.
They weren't fond of metal currencies like gold, silver, or copper coins.
After filling his <Bag> with the traded goods, he went to find Isabelle.
"Hm? You're here?"
Isabelle greeted him quite nonchalantly, as if last night's events were nothing.
"Yeah, I think we'll leave tomorrow, so I came to say goodbye."
"Huh... You're going?"
Judah nodded.
"Don't you want to stay here? With me."
"It's a very tempting offer, but as I said before, I have things to do. Thank you, but I'll politely decline."
"Then no helping it. Go on. I won't forget our meeting. If you have nowhere left in the outside world, come back here. Even if the Empire chases you, I'll protect you."
She bid farewell quite toughly.
"You wouldn't want to come with me?"
"Haha, of course not. Just as you have your tasks, I have mine. I'll make the Black Tree Tribe the best in Regen. Like your dream of world travel, my dream is to unite Regen under one tribe. To build a kingdom."
That figures. Judah nodded as if he'd expected as much upon hearing her words.
With the twenty-fourth fragment, Carpediem's <Subordination>, he could summon her via the <Doppelganger> skill whenever needed.
Though sharing mana would prevent using her full power as a spirit sword owner, she would still be a significant asset.
But Isabelle didn't seem the type to accept <Subordination>. It literally meant going under someone.
Wondering if there was a gift for this woman he likely wouldn't see again, Judah mentally scanned his <Bag> but found nothing suitable. He could give her the bastard sword granted by Serenia Castle's lord since she handled greatswords decently, but it was useless for her bow and dagger style. After a moment's thought, Judah pulled out the unique-grade from Quake and placed it before her.
"This is?"
"The code I got from defeating Quake back then."
"I know that. The orb that grants special powers, right? What I mean is, why give it to me?"
"A gift."
"A gift?"
She asked again, as if unable to comprehend.
"I'm saying goodbye, but I don't have anything proper to give. Thanks to you, I got something invaluable, had precious experiences, and made good memories with you, Isabelle. It felt too shameless to just receive help and leave, so here. I checked it; it has the power to enhance a weapon's performance further, so apply it to your bow."
She fell silent for a moment, then shook her head.
"...No, forget it. Take it back."
"Yes? Why? Do you already have a code on your bow?"
"No, our tribe has no shaman to apply purple orbs. Other tribes might, but I don't trust asking them."
"Hm. Then could you give me your bow?"
"What for?"
"Well, showing you is faster than explaining."
After a brief hesitation at Judah's words, Isabelle stood, fetched the bow hanging on the wall, and handed it over. The moment he brought the code to the bow, a message appeared before his eyes.
[Would you like to bestow the effect of 「Code Prefix: Possessing the Power of Destruction」 onto the [Heart's Eye possessed by "Black Tree's Treasure _ Adukena's Bow"]?]
Fortunately, the bow only had a suffix code. He pressed yes without hesitation, and the character strings trapped in the code unraveled like thread, seeping into the bow.
[Code successfully applied. The [Heart's Eye possessed by "Black Tree's Treasure _ Adukena's Bow"] is renamed to [Possessing the Power of Destruction "Black Tree's Treasure _ Adukena's Bow" Heart's Eye].]
Items with both prefix and suffix codes usually ended up with bizarre names, excluding rarities. He handed the successfully encoded bow back to her, and her eyes widened. Testing it by plucking the string, Isabelle couldn't hide her amazement at the powerful bang that ripped through the air.
"Wow! The more I see, the more I think you're a spirit. I tried not to get too attached since you're an outsider leaving Regen anyway, but... it's too regrettable to let you go like this."
Isabelle set the bow aside and leaned forward, then pounced on Judah. He startled and tried to dodge, but he couldn't evade a spirit sword owner's deliberate move.
"You said you're leaving tomorrow? Before you go, give me one more gift..."
With a chuckle, she kissed him. Already having done it once, the second time was no big deal; she pinned him down and soon let out hot breaths, moaning passionately. As the intense lovemaking ended, Isabelle panted, her face satisfied, and spoke.
"I'll raise the spirit's child well. Our tribe doesn't have separate surnames, but you, Judah Arshel—I'll add Arshel to the end of the name."
She chatted a bit more with Judah, shared dinner, and parted. Just like that, the day flew by, and the next day, Judah's group bid farewell to the Black Tree Tribe.
========== Author's Note ==========
1) Back to consecutive updates tomorrow... How many in a row? I'm doing 2.
2) My phone is a Galaxy Note 4! Got the screen fixed ㅠ
The moment the screen died, what I worried about was the Isabelle scene I'd written in the phone's "Memo" app. Haha. Luckily, the S Pen still worked, so I sent it via KakaoTalk, uploaded it, and deleted it. Whew, if a service center guy had seen it, I'd have almost died of embarrassment lol