Chapter 375: Mysterious Tablet
Translated by Zzonkedd
Edited by Gumihou
I’m sorry to say that this chapter is structurally dubious with Mukouda reverting to his spineless self of chapter 10. Dude, like, you’ve already experienced all these things.
Sigh.
Gumi will fix the dialogues to reflect a less OOC Mukouda, because a spineless Mukouda is seriously OOC at this point. Habitual caution is fine but not ‘Ugh! Gyahh! Oh no, my spine is made from string cheese, Fer!’
It was probably meant to be funny.
It was not.
It was really not.
I stared at the mysterious tablet. [5]
“Why is it in Japanese…”
On the stone tablet were the familiar hieroglyphs found on magic circles. This one looked particularly complicated to my layman’s eye, but the part that really caught my attention was the centre…
“A Teleportation Tool?”
I read the Japanese words out loud, suddenly, the side of the stone tablet popped open with a rattle.
“What the-”
[5] An old-fashioned book fell out. [1] I looked inside and found that it was all written in Japanese.<<
If you have this book in your hands, you are most likely Japanese.
This tablet is a Magical Transportation Tool [5].
By the way, this is a masterpiece I created through tremendous effort.
I do not wish for it to be abused, but as it is an item that contained a lot of memories, I could not bring myself to destroy it.
Therefore, I have decided to place it in the hands of my fellow world traveller.
You may have some doubts, however, never fear. I have included a guide on how to use this device.
I hope you make good use of it. >>
“…so, it was really created by a Japanese person. I wonder, was he summoned into this world through that Hero Summoning thing?”
That pig king from Reijseger did say that they performed ‘An ancient hero summoning ritual’, [5] so that pretty much meant this ritual has existed for a long time.
[5] Fascinated, I was about to turn the next page when Fer’s voice said, [3] “Oi, we’re done with this side. [5]”Shocked, I quickly dumped the book and tablet into my [Item Box].
I’m not sure why, but I have a feeling that I really should not let Fer know about this yet. [1] Let’s read it slowly later.
“A-ah, just about,” I said as I continued to stuff random things into my [Item Box].
Finally.
“Whew, we’ve collected everything,” [5] [6] That’s right, we’ve swept the place clean of every single bit of shiny and valuable looking things. I straightened up and saw Fer and the others looking intently at something. [5] [5]
“What are you guys looking at?” [5] [5]
“[5] It’s a magic circle, it’s rare to see something like this outside of dungeons.”
It was indeed a magic circle. It had been buried underneath all the treasure just now. It looked a bit faded, but the pattern was still visible.
“What sort of magic circle?” [7] I have suddenly developed an interest in magic circles.
“Most likely a teleportation circle,” [5] [5] [4] “[6] Like the ones in dungeons? I know that Adventurer’s Guild uses magic tools to send letters, so that’s a kind of teleportation or transportation circle too, right?”
[4] “Umu, the standard rule is, the bigger the object and the further the distance, the more complicated the magic circle is.”“Well, this one sure looks complicated.”
[4] “Still, it’s not enough to transport everything in here in one go, also, the distance travel isn’t too far,” [4] “I guess it made sense for the Bandit King to travel in and out of this place via a magic circle than to go through that.”That being the very long and trap-filled passage. [5] [5] [8]
“Right, it’s decided. Let’s use this,” said Fer as he stepped forward.
“Um, Fer, are you sure? Do you know where it leads to?”
“No, but it can’t be far. Well? Step on it.” [5]
“Can you at least make a guess?”
“Mm, probably the foot of this mountain,”
“Where the… Black Baboons are…?” [5] [6] ““Ugh! Black Babboons, we’re going to see those again?””
[8] ““Sui will pew pew them~!””…I guess there’s really nothing for me to worry about, but just in case…
“Ah, the barrier you put on me is…”
“It’s still there. Grr, why are you such a worrywart?”
“It’s called being cautious! Can you imagine what would happen if we teleported into the middle of a troop of Black Baboons and one of them throws a stone at my head and my brain exploded like a watermelon!!?”
[8]“Umu, there, I reinforced your barrier again. Just step into the magic circle. I’m going to activate it soon.”
Fer basically nudged me into the circle even as my other two familiars hopped in with me.
“Right, let’s go.”
The magic circle powered up.
A floaty feeling came over me and when the light subsided enough, I found that we had really teleported into the middle of a forest.
[6] Aaand, I should really watch my words.“Hey, um, this…” I automatically shrank back as yellow eyes stared at us from all around. Powerful muscular bodies under thick black fur flexed as their lips curled back to reveal their fangs.
“Umu, this must be the Black Baboon’s base.”
““Arrghhh!! There are more of them than before!!”” Dora-chan howled as ice spears suddenly formed around him.
““Yay~ fight! Fight!””
“Uwo, uwo, uwo!!”
“Geh, geh, geh!”
“Uwoh! Woh!”
[9]
Suddenly, as one, the black seething mass pounced at us, the invaders of their land.
“Uwaah!!” I threw myself onto Fer’s back even as Claw Slash formed at the end of his paw.
The Claw Slash cut a path through the seething bodies and we all dashed forward.
“Let’s go, everyone! Same tactic as before!”
““Yeahhh!! Come at me, you dummies!!””
““Sui will defeat them ~!”” [5] [6] And, here we go again.
[Gumihou: Deleted 450 words, making this chapter go from 1300 to 850… I rather let my readers have this as a bonus chapter than keep all that unnecessary stuff]
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs [2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs [3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue [4] Structural Change: Change passive sentence to dialogue [5] Delete Repetitive or Pointless Information.
I had not heard about it up until now but according to Fer, until a few hundred years ago, there was a person who understood the magic circle of teleportation to a certain extent. Of course, it seems that there were few people who could understand and draw the complicated magic circles related to teleportation.
Fer said that the bandit king might have kidnapped such a person and made him draw it for him. I remembered the story that even the Adventurers Guild uses teleportation magic tools, and when I asked if people and big things could be transported together, they asked me instead.
Gumi: …isn’t it OOC for Fer to know this?
Fer: Humph, as though I would ever take an interest in the puny lives of these miserable worms.
Gumi: Right? Where is the author going with this information anyway?
Fer: Like, whatever, don’t care.
Gumi: …Valley! Fer
Fer: Like, I’m more in character like this~
Gumi: That’s freaky, like, shut up.
Fer: Slay, bitch.
Gumi: =_=;;
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose [7] Add Dialogue Tag [8] Creative Licence Taken – Mukouda is portrayed as a spineless worm here. Adjusted his character back to ‘overly cautious’ rather than ‘spineless worm’ [9] Attack and run away
If you love my translations, do consider supporting me via Patreon or ko-fi ~
Or drop a comment at novelupdates!
Gumihou will love to hear from you ~
ლ(´ڡ`ლ)
Eh? For me the info you removed was neither repetitive nor pointless. It creates a doubt whether it was the Bandit King himself that was knowledgeable about magic circles or someone that worked for him, willingly or not. It also tells that it was UNTIL few hundreds years ago, so the knowledge was lost and we yet don’t know why. Maybe all this info is irrelevant, maybe it will be used by the author somewhere later, I don’t think it should be a translator’s decision to leave out the info.
The same with changing Mukouda’s personality. He’s a wuss and he will be a wuss, trying to make him more level-headed against the author and re-writing his character is a bit too much. Trust me, forcing someone with fear of heights or dislike for roller-coasters to experience it by force will NOT make them immune to it no matter how many time you force it. That’s why he’s still spineless in a lot of situations even if he’s experienced them before. You cannot control fear that easily.
Generally from what I see it’s not a translation anymore, but your own interpretation of the novel. I understand that a translator can modify things that are for example Japan-specific and make no sense in English, but removing whole parts of the story and changing personalities of the characters is in my opinion not a translation anymore and it should be clearly stated that this it your interpretation and may differ significantly from original novel.
Disclaimer: not trying to argue, just stating opinion, because maybe there are more people that think the same, but are too scared to say anything in fear of translator dropping the novel. I just have been noticing it for some time now and thought that the translator should be aware that not everybody likes taking that much of a creative license.
You’re right, it’s not just translation anymore.
What I am doing now is creative editing, which writers have to pay professionals to do. Consider this my pro bono contribution for my dear readers’ enjoyment. Please don’t imagine that I do it lightly or willy-nilly. I consider plot, continuity error, character profile, impactful dialogue, dramatic writing and etc before changing anything. Also, things are footnoted for a reason. What Eguchi Ren-san has written is essentially a draft, therefore cannot be considered a completed product by any means.
For example:
The information re the magic circle was called into question because it came from Fer. Like, would you care about the minutiae of ants’ social interaction?
Fer is made OOC. There are other ways to convey this information. In fact, I believe the author is trying to create ‘foreshadowing’. Except, instead of true foreshadowing it became information vomit from the wrong character…
Mukouda’s lack of spine.
Mukouda’s personality has steadied as of a dozen chapters ago, until he suddenly suffered a personality reset and displayed near hysterical sailormoon-ish kyaa all over the place.
I just move the incidents and characteristics closer to the mean instead of letting them deviate too far away.
There’s being a wuss, and there’s being a desensitised wuss (Mukouda as of Rosendal), the OOC attitude started when they went to the mountain.
If you are interested, I am happy to provide the actual, none edited version to compare. I haven’t done this aside from a few chapters because it’s kind of pointless? But I don’t mind doing it if more readers want it. The website is created for your enjoyment, the editing for your enjoyment and if Gumi can increase your enjoyment by giving you the unedited version to laugh/groan at, I’m happy to provide~
Thanks for the treat.
I guess huge baboons would be scary, even more so when all are black. Would have been a pretty good moment to add a little more backstory for Mukoda, maybe mentioning how he once went to the USA, and ended up in the wrong neighborhood, where he got this scaredy side firmly set in.
Thanks for the chapter! Awesome translation! May God bless you!
Yeah, like the one the author gave for the cockroach PTSD. That was a good back story.
I appreciate the fact that the translator erases all repetitive and pointless information. If only all the others translators could do the same.
It was paining my eyes too, lol. I can’t let my readers endure it.