The 31st Piece Turns the Tables
chapter-31

The dice rolled for quite a while.

The image of dice rolling was inside of Seol’s interface.

- So this is the dice that you roll when you change your location, right?

- Yeah, just think of it like a weather report for your vacation lol. Like sunny, cloudy, etc.

- You could reset it by changing to another key location afterward but there’s no decent one around Nobira…

- So basically if he rolls super low, he just has to deal with it for 1 Adventure cycle, right?

- Yeah but it’s a super low chance to roll low anyway. It’s fine if it’s average, he just can’t roll a 1 or 2.

- Then that’s a relief.

Rattle Rattle Rattle…

And finally, the dice stopped rolling.

[Travel Luck Dice has rolled a 2.]

[You are quite unlucky.]

[The Adventure you undertake near Nobira now has several variables added to it.]

[The Adventure you undertake near Nobira now is a little more dangerous.]

[The Adventure you select near Nobira now has a certain chance of forcibly changing to a Sudden Adventure.]

[Your Adventure is now considerably dangerous.]

[However, if you are able to clear the Adventure despite your awful luck, you will gain a big opportunity.]

[‘Come out’ has donated 300 Madness!]

[Who the fuck jinxed it, huh? A 2 came out because of you.]

- He just can’t roll a 2 or lower (A 2 came out).

- Bwahahaha ꉂ(◠ᗜ◠*) LMFAOOOOO HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

- I can’t believe it actually ended up happening!

- Our world is very meticulously crafted… cliches call for jinxes!

Seol scowled.

Even though he tried to start off his 2nd Key Location with a new mind, it started off with multiple ominous sentences.

‘This is exactly why players prepared for everything before changing their location.’

Supplies, potential growth, Adventures, etc.

There were many points of concern whenever you were faced with a trial like that.

That was why most players prepared themselves by being at least 1 level above the minimum. It was exactly for these kinds of unfortunate circumstances.

‘Regardless, there probably won’t be any big problems. And even if there was a problem, I should easily be able to take care of it with my current strength.’

As long as Seol had Jamad and Karuna, there were low odds of anything actually being a problem for him.

There were no cities around Nobira that could be considered a Key Location.

If you excluded Nobira, the only things around the Great Forest were small towns.

Going to a town, which had bad infrastructure, to avoid your luck was a stupid choice as well. Not to mention the fact that you could still get unlucky in that town too.

‘I should just think of it as an opportunity to get more rewards.’

- Why do I think he’s glad he rolled low since he can get more rewards?

- Because it’s written on his face!

- No way! I hope he slips on a banana on the street!

- I hope he has hair in his food!

- I hope he accidentally shits himself when he tries to fart!

- That’s difficult even if you roll a 1…

- Sorry, I was just projecting… I have a bad stomach…

Still, there were reasons why most people didn’t consider rolling low a bonus.

Even though the other parts were manageable, having the Adventure that you chose change to a Sudden Adventure was extremely dangerous.

‘I just have to avoid getting the Sudden Adventure.’

As Seol was praying to not be faced with a Sudden Adventure this time, he slowly walked to the center of the city

“Hahahaha! I didn’t think you’d come back alive.”

“It wasn’t a joke, old man. If I really fell off then my corpse would be spread through the Great Forest in chunks. Being a ruins hunter is awful.”

“That’s the charm of ruins. You enter ruins because people weaker than you are able to go and leave but it’s also a place where people stronger than you can die if they make a mistake.”

Nobira, the city of ruins hunters.

Nobira was the only city near the Great Forest which was filled with ruins.

‘It looks like the transferees and the residents are getting along well here.’

Seol didn’t have the worst first impression of Nobira.

The people who seemed to be transferees melded fluidly into the city. It had a completely different atmosphere from Kongory which had the transferees and citizens on edge against each other.

‘This might be due to Nobira’s unique disposition?’

The residents of a town who did hard labor work often had rough personalities but they were just as easy to open to those who worked with them. They were treated as friends just by working together.

The majority of the residents of Nobira earn their living through hunting ruins. And as such, hunting ruins was treated as an important job.

And the most important thing for hunting ruins was simply having people who were willing to hunt ruins.

‘Nobira became active with the huge influx of transferees.’

Famous ruins hunters, like Borgo, who Seol previously met, often led groups of people.

All of these combat-oriented transferees were a blessing to the residents of Nobira who had all sorts of different jobs instead.

And to check Nobira’s mood, Seol first headed to the Adventurer Association. He checked the posts which had been left on Nobira’s community.

[ (NEW) [<WaitSeriouslyPlease>’s Post]

[Post Date: A week ago]

[Title: This ruins hunter boomer is acting way too close to me.]

He’s taking care of me a lot because apparently, I resemble his dead son 😒. It’s so annoying and ridiculous and now I have to take care of him too.

- You two should get married!

- Nobira, the manly man city.

- They talk exactly like the old men who worked at the factory I used to work at lol

- Yeah, I also went to a ruin and my ruins hunter leader barely saved me. I’m going to follow him for the rest of my life 🫡

[ (NEW) [<Nobira’sHegemony>’s Post]

[Post Date: A week ago]

[Title: I didn’t think one of the 5 strongest ruins hunter would die]

It’s confirmed that Borgo is dead. Amazing! To be honest I used to piss myself a little whenever I saw him in the city so this is great. Does anyone know who killed him?

- Do you think Borgo and his 30+ party would die to a transferee? LOL

- Ah! Then who could’ve killed him? Nobody else had their group lose numbers, so…

- Borgo might’ve not been as famous as the others but his cruelty was definitely tier 1… anyway, regardless of if the person who killed him was a transferee or a ruins hunter… GOOD JOB!

- I’ll leave a cake for you 🎂! I hope you’ll be blessed!

‘It looks like something happened after Borgo disappeared.’

Because Seol wasn’t particularly interested in the ruins hunters, he looked for other topics.

[ (NEW) [<I’mGoodAtGettingCarried>’s Post]

[Post Date: Just now]

[Title: If anyone has an open slot… please take me with you… guys…]

I still haven’t chosen the Adventure for this time.

The ruins hunter that I went on the last Adventure with said that he doesn’t want to go with me… I’m so sad 😭

- How awful are you for them to reject you? They take just about anybody.

- I don’t know, I think he caught me complaining about the bedding.

- Oh, so you were a whiner. Cya.

- This is Nobira, the manliness city! Half-minded people won’t be able to survive here! Go to Kongory if you’re that weak!

- I heard something happened in Kongory recently though? That place is also rough.

- From what I heard two established guilds got destroyed.

- Did they fight between themselves?

- Nah, but I don’t know the specifics either.

Seol could tell that most of the transferees in Nobira were concentrated on hunting ruins.

And as he believed as such, Seol spotted an interesting post.

[ (NEW) [<CrazyPsychos>’s Post]

[Post Date: Just now]

[Title: Are you guys sure you’re not crazy psychos?]

How are you guys able to smile and laugh when people are dying? I just can’t understand it…

- We’re only acting like this because it’s anonymous. I’ve seen a lot of people cry in actual Adventures…

- Still, should we really be crying all the time? I feel like I’ll get a disease if I have to see that all the time.

- Then are dispatched troops not allowed to laugh?

- The best way to overcome fear is laughing.

- And honestly speaking, shouldn’t you have adjusted by now? We’re the ones who can’t understand you 🙂

Seol also considered the cheeriness of the community boards strange.

But because people all have different ways of adjusting to new scenarios, he didn’t think it was weird.

‘Well, I’m sure they realized it by now.’

That they can’t return to their original world.

Seol skimmed through some more interesting posts, took a note of the dangerous areas right now, and left the Association.

Because he arrived at Nobira early in the morning, it was still bright out.

And because the biggest reason Seol came to this city was to find the missing Chao, he searched the city.

The description of Chao that Seol received was this: She has big eyes and a pretty face, has hair black like charcoal, and enjoys wearing black robes. With that description, he searched throughout Nobira.

“Chao? That’s a weird name. I haven’t seen anyone like that.”

“Chao? Is she from some other country? A girl? What kind of name is Chao…”

“Uhh… I don’t know. I don’t think I’ve seen a girl like that.”

Just running around looking for clues didn’t go as smoothly as Seol thought. However, Seol didn’t give up. He kept going from one area to another to scrape whatever rumors he could find about her.

And as he was, he finally heard some hopeful news.

“Ah! Maybe… you’re talking about her…?”

Seol’s face got brighter after he finally found a clue after all that labor.

“Do you know her?”’

“Yes. I… I think she came here around a month ago? I remember teaching her some things because she acted like it was her first time here.”

“If it isn’t too much trouble, could you tell me in more detail?”

“I don’t know… I feel like I can and can’t remember it…”

A few options came up.

[[You seem to have found Chao’s traces through this stranger. However, she doesn’t look like she’ll talk easily. What do you say?]

1. Could you try thinking a little bit more?

2. Are you messing with me?

3. Do you know anyone who might know about her?

4. [Required: Intimidation 1] If you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to bury your head in the fucking ruins.

5. [Required: Negotiation 1] Alright, let’s exchange information.

6. [Required: 1 gold coin] I’m sure you can remember.]

Cling!

Seol flipped a coin that landed in the woman’s hand.

The woman received the coin and started talking quickly as if she was waiting for that reaction from him.

“So, the first thing she asked about was about the lease for research rooms…”

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

Seol, with the information that he found through sheer luck, went to a mansion on the outskirts of Nobira.

- It’s a mansion that no one bought because an entire family died in it. Still, it’s often rented out to outsiders. I introduced her to it but I don’t know if she signed an agreement with them.

Was she telling the truth?

Though Seol wasn’t sure, he circled around the mansion at dark.

‘It doesn’t look like it’s been maintained…’

Not only were there plenty of cobwebs, there were also broken windows. It almost felt like you wouldn’t be able to see light tomorrow if you got locked behind the wrong, stiff door.

[‘I’m not scared’ has donated 100 Madness!]

[I’m not scared of things like this haha I should sleep with mommy tonight.]

- She’s probably missed you anyway!

- I’m bad with scary things… Does anything scary come out here?

- Well, based on the appearance… Wait, is he planning to illegally trespass onto the property?

- Fact) He’s not planning to do it, he’s doing it right now.

Since Seol had nothing to lose, he tried trespassing into the mansion after confirming there was no one around it.

Click.

Click… Click…

The door was locked.

Once again, he saw options.

[[There are probably many different ways to enter the mansion. What do you do?]

1. Break the door.

2. Check the storage room in the basement.

3. Break the glass.

4. Use the broken windows to enter the mansion.

5. [Required: Medium] Ask the ghosts in the mansion for a way inside.]

There was an ominous option but in the end, Seol chose option 4 as that was the least likely option for him to get caught.

Swirl!

Seol’s Shadow Hand lifted the windowsill instead of his delicate fingers. Seol, through Karuna’s help, was able to enter the mansion through the window.

It was completely dark in the mansion.

‘There are traces of someone living here, but…’

It wasn’t that recent. It was still about a few weeks old.

At least that’s what Seol noticed from the footprints on the carpet and the status of the lights.

Seol, after judging that no one was in here, took out a lamp.

Light…

He was finally able to see the interior but the mansion was still way too big for someone to search alone.

‘I have a solution for that.’

Fwirl!

Seol waved his hand to summon both Jamad and Karuna.

“What?”

“This place could have the research room of someone named Chao. Help me find it.”

“Hmph. I thought it was something important.”

Stomp… Stomp…

Jamad grumbled and left to go search alone with footsteps that were a bit loud for thieves.

- I-I’m not searching this place for y-you, baka!

- Jamad is a tsundere no matter how you look at it…

- He’s way too buff to be a tsundere though…

- Have you never heard of ‘gap moe’?

- Excuse me, sir, what do you have against society?

Karuna, unlike Jamad, gave a nod and helped Seol explore the mansion.

As the two were walking together, Seol became curious if Karuna always had a quiet personality.

“Karuna.”

“Yes.”

“Were you always that quiet?”

“What do you mean by ‘always’?”

“Before you became my shadow.”

“I had no one left to talk to when I was left as a disciple in the ruins so I didn’t talk.”

So he didn’t talk because he had no one to talk to…

Seol remembered that Karuna was an elf and shifted the topic.

“Then what about when you were an elf?”

“...I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember? Why not? Is it because you became a shadow?”

“It’s not because of that. It’s just… All of my memories before I became a disciple feel hazy like a fog.”

“So you don’t remember, huh…”

There were a lot of things unknown about Karuna.

Seol was also the first person who made him into a summon.

‘I just have to find out about him from now on then.”

Detailed information about the summon was important to the summoner as well.

Seol planned on slowly learning everything about Karuna and Jamad.

Click!

“Master,” said Karuna.

“Hm?”

“It looks like we found it.”

Seol entered the room that Karuna opened the door for.

And inside was a sight so shocking that Seol couldn’t hold back his surprise.