Chapter 139
Chapter 139
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 139
Chapter Title: Utilize Me, Friend
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Friend…… Isn’t this enough?”
“Weird. It feels like I’ve heard something like that before. And what did I say in response……”
“Devil spawn…… no, devil bastard.”
Passing the stone wall where the alchemical feast had taken place, there was another small space tucked away inside.
It wasn’t much of a secret spot—just an empty room with nothing in it—so Woojin figured it was a good place for a chat.
“Devil? Hmm. Looking at your state, I couldn’t exactly call you that.”
Woojin said to Juter.
“Ah…… Yeah, you wouldn’t be able to see anyway.”
Juter’s head had been split clean in two.
The upper half still had eyes, while the lower one was just a mouth.
“Alive even with your head cleaved in half…… Brain smashed to bits and you still don’t die. No clue what kind of freak you are.”
Woojin stared at himself talking to Juter’s bisected head and couldn’t help but recall that movie where a guy chats with a volleyball that has a face drawn on it.
Am I getting desensitized?
He’d gone from the gruesome act of slicing a man’s head open to casually conversing with the severed piece.
“……Anyway, I don’t have any special answers for you. Antarian Federation? Ancient history…… It’s not my fault they collapsed. They fried and boiled themselves into ruin.”
“About eighty years ago, your followers were running experiments there.”
“My followers? No idea. Don’t care if they existed. They must’ve scavenged some half-finished grimoires I tossed and put on a little show.”
Juter snorted.
“Hallucinogens? You think I’d waste my precious time on something that lame?”
“Then? What were you doing back then?”
“Well…… Around that time, I was probably in the Kingdom of Brian.”
“……Kingdom of Brian?”
It was such an unexpected place that Woojin found himself asking back in confusion.
This world had turned into the devils’ playground, but back in the game, it was the holiest of the five great kingdoms.
“The king of Brian summoned a greater devil and all hell broke loose. Tons of people flocked there to seal the hellgate that ripped open.”
“You too? To close the hellgate?”
“You nuts? I went for materials. Those dead humans made for some real fun research.”
“…….”
Woojin shot Juter a troubled look at that response.
Hellgate…… and a greater devil……
Things he knew all too well.
It was the exact quest Genesis Unit had been tackling.
“That summoned devil nearly wiped Brian off the map.”
“……What?”
The Hellgate quest was solidly B-rank.
Even when the linked quest for the greater devil triggered, the rank hadn’t budged.
A whole kingdom on the brink…… from a mere B-rank quest?
The community forums had buzzed that B-rank quests and up could reshape the continent depending on how they played out.
But for Woojin, grinding an A-rank—or hell, even the SSS-rank [Dragon Lord] quest—it didn’t really hit home.
Maybe the linked quests jack up the rank as they go……
Either way, he couldn’t afford to sleep on B-ranks anymore.
“Brian’s fall shattered the balance of the five kingdoms. Guess what happened next? The age of war kicked off!!”
If he’d had arms and legs, he probably would’ve flung them wide and bounced around like a kid.
“Kingdoms dumped every scrap from Vandarius Tower straight into the war effort. Corpses everywhere. Ah…… Good times. A real party.”
“And?”
“What ‘and’? What do you think happened to the Antarian Federation, scrapping among themselves? The five kingdoms weren’t any better.”
A tangled mess of kingdoms clashing in chaotic melee.
“Idiots. Too busy raiding the tower to fight each other……”
“Not quite.”
“Huh?”
“Brush up on your history. That’s the problem with blade-jocks……”
Stab—
“Hey! You psycho!! I’m talking here!!”
Jamming his sword into the top of Juter’s head made the jaw next to it gripe.
“Point. Now.”
“……War actually sped up a ton of progress.”
Juter started spilling endless tales from the past.
Red Tower swimming in unprecedented funding.
Magitech churning out history’s most inventions, thanks to magic gun upgrades.
Trade, medicine, mercenaries, alchemy…… you name it.
All the lazy innovations of peacetime ironically exploded during war.
“Even mid-war, it was the fastest era for conquering Vandarius Tower.”
War-driven tech booms.
Perfectly plausible.
Prosperity and progress aren’t the same thing.
Still, the realization tangled Woojin’s thoughts into knots.
What now……?
Juter’s words meant he couldn’t just slam the brakes on the five kingdoms’ war outright.
Might miss out on that golden development window.
Kingdom peace versus tech leaps.
If he could snag both…… perfect.
“You’re a weird one. Hid me away just to ask this? Continent history’s common knowledge—ask anybody.”
Juter piped up as Woojin sank into thought.
“Y’know, you said something like that earlier. Couldn’t ask your buddies or whatever.”
“…….”
“Meaning?”
Woojin eyed Juter for a beat.
“You’re disposable.”
And that was the answer.
“……What?”
“Alchemist like you gets it. Equivalent exchange, causality. Absolute rule: gain something, lose something.”
“Bull. Past events are done—why dress it up so fancy……”
Then.
Juter’s mouth froze.
“You……”
A tremor in his voice.
For all his flaws, Juter—who’d invented countless alchemies—was genius incarnate.
“Not from this world, are you?”
And yep, he nailed the real meaning in Woojin’s words instantly.
“Right. From a world like this…… but not.”
“Spill.”
“……Huh?”
“Your world!! Too awkward just to tell me? Fine! I’ll talk—you answer. Yeah, perfect!”
Researcher’s itch?
The guy lit up, chattering more than ever.
“…….”
Woojin blinked in genuine bafflement.
Weird as hell.
This nut who’d tried killing him minutes ago was now the one guy he could shoot the breeze with easiest here……
“Right, your world’s a dead ringer for this one? Asking ’bout eighty years back…… So yours is roughly that era? Five kingdoms intact! Then……”
He pieced Woojin’s world together from their earlier chat.
Finally, Woojin got a read on Juter Boas.
“You’re just human. What good’s that info?”
Woojin remembered Juter’s own words.
Worst villain alive, countless kills—but no malice.
Purely for science.
Alchemy über alles, good and evil be damned.
Still batshit crazy……
But that same crazy let them swap stories across worlds, no sweat.
He’d held back with Luen or Irurin, scared of screwing worldlines and hurting them.
“Puhahaha——!! No way? Esten’s king doped up? Damn, my ‘followers’ delivered. Never slipped an alchemical drug to royalty myself.”
Truth out, Juter didn’t bat an eye.
Nah—he grinned.
“……Not funny. That’s the war spark. You know what’s coming.”
Monster wars.
Decades of brutal grind ahead.
“Don’t sweat it. What’s gonna happen, happens. Causality, baby. World’s bedrock law.”
Juter shrugged it off, surprisingly chill.
“One guy flailing won’t budge the world much. Me? Yeah, I experimented on humans. World end? Nah.”
“…….”
“Nope. Humans punch below weight. Bigger forces always lurk.”
“Don’t rationalize your murders. Who says those lives wouldn’t have changed everything?”
Woojin snapped, baring teeth.
He was clawing for survival.
Felt like Juter called it pointless.
“Yeah?”
Juter looked like he’d banked on that fire.
“Then I’ll help.”
Loaded tone, ice-cold reply.
“No schemes. Desperate to live, huh?”
“Obviously.”
“Expect zilch. Chat doesn’t soften my hate.”
Shing—
Sword planted before Juter’s head.
“Not this me.”
“What?”
“Your world’s me.”
Juter’s eyes locked on Woojin.
“I’m a lab rat through and through…… But eighty-years-ago me? Hadn’t gone human-testing yet.”
“BS. Saw alchemists cooking human golems in Daesulim Forest myself.”
Woojin smirked.
“Dumping flops in Krimhild Lake polluted guardian Kelduan too.”
“Not me.”
“……What?”
“Human golems kicked off post-Brian fall. Corpse haul from there.”
“Then……”
“Your followers snagged my tossed theories, ran with ’em.”
Made sense—hallucinogen recipes lay around casual as could be.
“……Why chuck theory books?”
“Wanted someone to see, build it. Alchemists everywhere.”
Juter blew it off.
“Curious for flawless outcomes. Not hoarding.”
That instant,
Woojin’s gaze flickered.
“So you change me.”
Out-of-left-field pitch.
“Me…… change you?”
Continent’s top—and worst—alchemist.
Juter Boas.
Never crossed his mind as ally material.
“Use me.”
“Why? Gone saintly?”
“Nah. Told ya—curious.”
Juter leaned in.
“My other future’s results.”
Woojin cracked a wry grin despite himself at the dead-serious reply.
“Use me. Friend.”
Then it hit him—Nisen relaying the Fairy Queen’s dying words.
Use this world.
Not just intel or gear…… maybe more.