Chapter 429
Chapter 429
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 20
Chapter Title: Offroad (3)
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Hop, hop.
Gehhh, gehhookkk....
Geak? Umm....
“Strange structure.... Calculations without any reason.... Hoooh....”
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“How about it? Can you fix it?”
“Kkeak! Don’t talk to me, you barbarian!”
The goblin with a massive lump on his head shrieked at Hyde before peering at the relic in front of him through enormous glasses stacked with multiple thick lenses.
He had woken up shortly after being hastily moved to the workshop and had demanded his tools without a word.
“I can fix it!”
“Really? Even though it’s made with 130-year-old tech, and was known as a failed product back then due to durability issues?”
“That just means it’s 130 years out of date! With the magitech era’s tech gone, new advancements have come along! Kai Buen doesn’t lie! I can fix it! On my honor as a craftsman!”
Incredibly, the goblin magitech engineer Kai Buen was boldly claiming he could repair the half-destroyed Bankruptcy Sword from its last use.
“Kkiik! The damaged parts right now are the blade, the switchable mana trigger at the scabbard mouth, and three internal recoil devices.”
“Great, now even a total layman like me gets it perfectly, you little shit.”
“Just accept it! Anyway, the blade that looks like the biggest problem? Ignore it! Once the scabbard functions are restored, the engraved circuits will repair themselves! One week, tops!”
“Oh, that’s a relief.”
“The mana trigger at the mouth? I’ll fix that! The pressure from swinging the sword was too high, and the parts blew out! Sixty million! I’ll do it for sixty million!”
Kek.
“....Sixty million? For fixing two thumb-sized parts? Isn’t that a total rip-off?”
Sixty million sealings? What, is that the name of your neighbor’s dog?
Typically, colorless shards without soul infusions go for 50,000 sealings.
Among infused ones, the lowest grade—like farming, embroidery, or dance skills—run about 200,000. Ones with practical skills like casting, metallurgy, or computation fetch around 150,000. Combat-related colorless shards for strength, stamina, reflexes, or eyesight range from 500,000 to 5 million sealings.
Uninfused colored shards go for 12 million, infused ones at least 40 to 80 million sealings.
Sure, famous Shard Knights’ colored shards skyrocket in price, but even so, 80 million could whip up a rookie Shard Knight. And he wants sixty million for two tiny parts?
“Gek! This is ancient Magitech Empire tech! No goblin but me can fix it, and among goblins, no engineer but me! Only I can repair this! Very reasonable price!”
“No, even so, for fixing one relic....”
“Don’t like it? Don’t fix it! Sell it to me like this, and I’ll give you up to 200 million! Gek! Not bad to buy other magitech gear with that!”
“Urgh.”
Of course, purely in terms of efficiency, Kai Buen had a point. For 200 million, he could buy dozens of high-output arcane shooters studded with top-grade mana crystals, chuck as many fortress-cannon-grade mana explosives as he wanted, and stock up on all those drool-worthy items like ‘portable glider kits,’ ‘magitech terrain traversal gear,’ or ‘knight-hunting ultra-high-pressure traps.’ He could even fill his subspace cloak to bursting with bizarre goblin gadgets I’d never even heard of. He’d probably become an all-purpose human ready for any contingency.
“I’ll pay the sixty million.”
“Kkik. Knew you would.”
....But in life-or-death battles, was there anything dumber than obsessing over ‘efficiency’?
Magitech gear had killer firepower, sure—but only benchmarked against normal fights.
High mutts from a lord’s nest shrug off heavy mana cannons barehanded.
Aura Knights’ auras cut sharper than any mana projector.
And for wide-area barrages, nothing matched a master Shard Knight’s output.
To fight the absolute pinnacle, you needed freakish gear like this ‘Anti-Aura Sword.’
Best to avoid scraps with the ‘real’ elites altogether, but when you couldn’t? This ‘Bankruptcy Sword’ was my one shot at matching them despite my lacking firepower. Efficiency be damned—he had to repair it.
‘Sixty million.’
Crunch.
‘Including connections and magitrain labor experience, even porter gigs, a train pass costs three million. Enough to cross twenty cities.’
Crack crack!
‘Nobles lowball me for lacking aura, other knights mock me, but I grit it out for 400,000 per fight. Ruin delves? A million after slaving away. Get stiffed? Half, 500,000!’
“Gotta.... whoosh! Gotta forget it clean and keep moving....”
“....H-Human? You okay?”
“Yeah, peachy. Sure, I’ve finally got a lead and ‘searching’ is picking up steam, but sixty million’s enough to roam cities for a year worry-free—no grunt work, no time wasted chasing pay. Enough for decent food with actual pork fat instead of that damn dried mushroom slop! Peachy! I need that fucking Bankruptcy Sword!”
The old acquaintance’s words about the [Inevitably Overspending Human] stabbed right to the heart.
Ahh, my cursed life. Aura-less half-assed Aura Knight.
Numbing his hollow chest to match his emptied pockets, he noticed the goblin who’d just fleeced him for sixty million shuffling awkwardly, like he had something to say.
“Gek, ge.... uh....”
“What? More to say? What, extra repair fees or some shit?”
Crack!
“Kkeak! N-No! No more repair fees! Kai Buen, honest engineer! Takes only what his skill’s worth! Sixty million, final! But....”
As Hyde’s glare grew murderous, Kai Buen backpedaled and continued.
“K-Kai Buen warned you! Fixing this takes 100 million!”
“You said repairs end at sixty million!”
“[Repairs] do! Blade auto-repairs, scabbard mouth by me! Three broken spots, explained upfront! Kai Buen notified customer fully! The rest of the cost.... that!”
The goblin defensively clutched a nearby tool and jabbed a bony finger toward the opposite side of the workshop.
A transparent display case full of outlandish items with price tags, as befitting a magitech shop.
And what his finger pointed to....
“That’s a ticket, right?”
“C-Continental liner ticket! Smugglers bring stolen goods like you! Stolen ticket! But anonymous, anyone can use—genuine!”
“....?”
“You gotta take a ship! To fix this!”
The goblin’s choppy, context-skipping speech left him utterly baffled.
“The Bankruptcy Sword’s core is the scabbard’s magitech, not the blade! Core mana crystal powering it shattered from misuse! Nothing to replace it with! Needs an exact match! No one in my workshop has it!”
“So.”
“Small, high-output mana crystals fit for that? Come from the ‘Big Blue Line’ deep sea! I’ll finish the other repairs, you fetch the crystal and socket it! Bankruptcy Sword revived!”
“I take a ship out, head to the world’s roughest sea, the ‘Big Blue Line,’ dive in myself, and snag a fitting mana crystal? For our Bankruptcy Sword’s revival?”
“Human smart! Remaining forty million covers continental liner fare! Dive gear! Referral fees to contacts there! Total exactly 100 million! Plenty!”
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“No thanks.”
“Geeeak?!”
Anti-Aura Sword. Aka the ‘Rending Bankruptcy Sword.’
True to its Bankruptcy name, a full 100 million sealing repair bill blasted straight past the limits of reason.
Fine, money aside. 100 million? Fuck it, pretend it never existed! He’d scored key intel on the Warlord in Wigen anyway. Just keep grinding the dirty, shitty, grueling, starving, despised journeys of the last fifteen years! Yay! Oh fucking yay!!!
But the Big Blue Line? That wasn’t just any sea—it was a whole other beast.
‘Back when it rose with the ley lines, that’s where the Blue Line range was.’
Before the continent got shredded, the mysterious Blue Line mountains supposedly marked the border between eastern and western empires.
The current ‘Big Blue Line’ was the polar opposite of that ancient range.
The continent-splitting mega-blast, the ‘Ley Line Twist,’ had epicentered right on those Blue Line peaks. The devastation was indescribable.
Lands near Blue Line literally ‘vaporized’ in the explosion, and the leyline-fueled mountains blew with force matching their scale.
Result? The old range became a vast ocean.
And the deepest explosions carved a sheer ocean trench straight down—a sea gutter.
It looked like the lofty old Blue Line flipped upside-down into the depths, hence Big Blue Line: bottomless abyss.
Famous across the continent for its savage waves and chaotic mana flows, all over the old Blue Line site.
Diving there for mana crystals? Might as well say, ‘Pardon me, mind dying for me?’
“Fixing the Anti-Aura Sword is for saving my skin in emergencies, but sending me to die for it? Nothing more absurd. Deal’s off. I’d stomach 100 million sealings, but not a 99.9% death-trap sea. Better sell the train loot plus the sword for 300 million and buy a walking magitech fortress. Way smarter, right?”
“Gek, hmm.... Human, there’s one more thing you should consider.”
“More than diving a deep sea lashed by archmage-grade natural mana every thirty seconds?”
“W-Well, depending on your situation?”
“Situation?”
“Yeah, situation. You said you’re heading to old Lordric territory!”
He’d been all set to hand off the Bankruptcy Sword with bittersweet relief and go shopping lighthearted.
Rustle rustle—
Click!
Kai Buen stood, approached the display, and pulled out a neatly packaged ticket.
“Do I have to go?”
“Yep.”
“Even if it risks your life?”
“....Risky enough to chance it?”
“Then you sail.”
Kai Buen slapped the ticket onto Hyde’s thigh with confident finality.
“Lordric side, tracks severed. Only way: ship to port. That’s it!”
“....What?”
What did I just hear? Tracks cut? To Lordric?
“Certain! Tel Drat nobles panicked! Want to block everything from there, so they ripped up tracks and flipped the earth themselves! Solid blockade! Northern chaos won’t cross!”
“Hah....”
“Reconnecting? Construction alone takes a year minimum! Smugglers who crossed it passed the word! Multiple sources! Obvious! You can’t go!”
“Gotta sail anyway! Might as well mine mana crystals en route! I’m no scammer! Just offering the customer the best option!”
“Haaa....”
Tracks severed. Not by Warlord or mutt raids, but nobles uprooting them themselves!
As someone who knew nobles’ obsession with rail links and trains, this was unimaginable.
‘Nobles, what the hell do they know to fear it that much?’
He’d heard the Warlord razed old Lordric.
Soul mages from great nobles defecting en masse made sense, given the Warlord commanded an ‘army’—a collective, not solo.
‘The train I stole carried war supplies. Figured it was for other houses holding out in Lordric.... but no path?’
‘Then it was for the fortress-cities branching from Wigen. Nobles abandoning all of old Lordric? Pulled the front line inward, treating it as enemy turf?’
Since when? How fast? A whole region?
What the hell was the Warlord—
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Screeeech—!
“Grrraaah!”
Pain. Like red-hot tongs yanking his brain!
‘This.... that time....’
No time to recognize the familiar agony before thick visions flashed through his mind.
Vivid senses, like he was really there.
Nose-stinging blood and mana steam reek.
And the carnage.
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“....”
“Yes, a sight I wrought with my own hands.”
Crunch!
“....I won’t hear your words.”
“....”
“Remember this. I am under control. You know it, so you cooperate like this.”
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“Grrraaah!”
“H-Human? Too much shock? Human!”
He heard Kai Buen shouting beside him, but denser sensations roiled his head.
Agony at its limit.
Like self-devouring flesh, a vision so intense, amid it a cold, sunken voice.
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“Remember. You still remember.”
“If even a fragment remains, we can end it.”
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“Certainly.”
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Sensation like sinking into a frigid swamp.
Splash!
“Pwah! Heok!”
“Human! Snap out of it!”
“Heok! Heok! W-What.... the hell....”
“Your eyes rolled back! Limbs shaking! Screaming! Scared me!”
The memory so thick he lost body sense faded slowly with the filthy water Kai Buen splashed on him.
‘That’s it. Same as then.’
Same type as the vision in Wigen’s refugee camp.
But this time.... like his soul got ripped out whole.
Dried blood on the bastard’s fingertips, shredding flesh shards, scorching winds—all crystal clear, as if he’d lived it.
Above all, the emotion.
‘What the.... fuck is that guy....’
Lifetime people-watcher, never seen anything like it from anyone.
Evil? Resolve? Duty? Escape? Indistinguishable. But one thing certain.
“Kai Buen. Could I.... have some water?”
“Kkiik! W-Water? Service! Right away!”
Heart pounding to burst, brain pickled in memory.
Overwhelmed by him.
Warlord. Never met, yet this killer linked to him how?
Why did he share its emotions, memories?
And why.
Had he been searching for it since birth.
“H-Here! Here!”
Water sloshed in the cup Kai Buen hastily fetched.
Warlord. Lordric battlefield where it was.
Severed tracks. Not just one—probably all linking Tel Drat and Lordric.
Only one path left.
Only one path for him.
“Don’t really buy into fate, but....”
Hyde swallowed vomit rising with the water, then stood.
“Kai Buen.”
“Gek?!”
“....Knock a hundred off. No, fifty million.”
“....Deal?”
Hyde nodded at the goblin eyeing the sword and ticket.
“Like you said. I’m going. By sea.”
Anti-Aura Sword had to be fixed, no matter what.
The gear prepped in his cloak was no slouch, but it wouldn’t cut it. Absolutely not.
Not against that power he’d briefly sensed in the vision-memory-thing.
Heart about to burst, head throbbing.
Guts churning, 100 million gone.
“Cool, my life.”
Hyde slumped with a sigh, forced to admit.
No choice but to go.
Having seen it.
Having felt it.
Just sitting made his mind fray with impatience and dread.
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