The 31st Piece Turns the Tables
chapter-75

SPLAAAAAASH!

Atarak’s body falling into the lake of sulfur caused a wave.

Since Atarak was massive, even the lake couldn’t completely contain her body.

Land.

Karen landed safely on Atarak’s corpse.

Luckily, since Seol and Jamad were able to reach Atarak’s corpse, they moved to meet her there.

“Fuuu… How was it? Did I look cool?”

“You only did the obvious, stop enjoying it so much, elf.”

“Says the jealous troll who couldn’t do anything but stare.”

“...It was just a bad matchup. If it was on the ground, I would’ve beaten it myself.”

“Do I look like I have wings to you? Regardless, jealous people are only going to tire me.”

[‘Karen-chan’ has donated 500 Madness!]

[I believed in you 😭 You can’t fool blood!]

- Breaking News) Karen stans have bloody noses from going too crazy… They’re all being transported to the hospital.

- Hyah! Hyah! This is how we burn shit back in my hometown! How does it taste?!

- Atarak: 😢 Do these guys from Montra know what mercy is…?

- (30 Years Later) Snowman still isn’t able to choose which reward to take.

[‘Hey, Einstein’ has donated 300 Madness!]

[Why aren’t you starting the academic society meeting? Ah, it’s because Professor Karen, the greatest mind of our generation, isn’t here yet.]

- We can’t keep up with Professor Karen’s lessons at all!

- I almost shit myself with how fun today was.

- Snowman Crew is crazy!

- Fact) Jamad and Snowman were just busy running away.

- You’re supposed to make the rookie do that LOL The people at the top only take responsibility for it~

- News) Snowman Crew, “We successfully recruited Karen”

The viewers were all cheering for Karen’s performance.

Karen had been making the viewers anxious as she was a knight who couldn’t unsheathe her sword. So when they saw her practically beat Atarak on her own, they took it as the timing to donate a lot of Madness.

[‘The biggest question that I have right now’ has donated 400 Madness!]

[How the hell did Montra fall?]

- Seriously LMFAOOO How does an Empire with Karen fall?

- It’s such a hard question… I give up on answering it.

- I know how it fell.

- OMG? What is it?

- It’s that, you idiots. That… Sigh! Anyway, it’s that!

- Is this guy dumb?

- He just wanted to call us dumb LMFAO

- We are dumb though frfr

[‘I love you Karen’ has donated 300 Madness!]

[Would you… Ma–]

- SLAP!

- I can see what happened with just the sound LOL

- Yeah, same.

- Karen! We’re just living in her world.

- Her talk show with Jamad is amazing and she’s so skilled too!

- Honestly, I only care about the former.

- same LOL

However, Seol’s party did not have such a touching reunion.

Seol quickly checked if Karen was hurt anywhere.

“I’m sorry the sword melted.”

“It’s fine, nothing I can do about it.”

The only thing left of the sword after Karen used the Red Lotus Blade was the hilt. The blade had completely vanished.

‘It was incredibly powerful after all.’

Atarak might have been able to endure that attack if she hadn’t been injured, but with the injuries she received while fighting Karen and Koopa’s help, there was no way Atarak would have been able to survive.

“More importantly, are you not going to collect it?”

“Of course, I’m going to collect it.”

Seol brought out a bottle from his inventory and started to collect Atarak’s blood. Unlike the blood of the Sulfur Spiders, Atarak’s blood wasn’t hot to the touch.

Pour…

Seol collected Atarak’s blood into multiple vials.

Since Atarak was quite massive, she also had a lot of blood.

[You have acquired the blood of Anachindria’s last descendant.]

[If the Remaining Time runs out or if you choose to take your reward, you may choose to finish your Adventure here.]

Blip.

A treasure chest appeared from thin air.

Defeating Atarak and collecting her blood satisfied the objective of the Adventure.

Jamad then lifted the treasure.

“I’ll carry that.”

“Yeah, you should do at least that much.”

“Hmph! I won’t even give you the chance to help out next time, elf. Let’s see then.”

- Snowman must be so happy right now.

- They’re competing on their own. All Snowman has to do is just go ‘ahem’ here and there from the back.

- Summoner is a broken class LMFAO All of the other classes are falling apart.

- The difficulty here’s the hardest too haha. Just look at Atarak. I bet even a truck full of humans wouldn’t do anything against her.

Bubble… Bubble…

Fsssss…

* * *

Translator - goguma

Proofreader - Karane

* * *

Atarak’s corpse started to slowly sink into the lake of sulfur. Jamad, sensing that, quickly butted in.

“It’s sinking. We should move quickly if we don’t want to turn into skeletons.”

“Yeah, let’s go, Master.”

Since they achieved their objective, going back was the correct call.

And even though Koopa ignored Seol’s party for now, it was hard to tell when the wild bird would change his mind.

Even so, Seol couldn’t move. He simply watched Koopa.

“What’s wrong?”

“It looks like… he’s in trouble.”

“Who? The bird?”

“Yeah.”

Chiiirp!

Chiiiiirp!

Koopa flapped his wings wildly but was unable to leave Atarak’s nest.

Seol calmly observed Koopa.

Flap… Flap…

Koopa turned his head a while ago and has only stared at the ceiling since then. It was like he was at a loss for what to do after discovering something.

Cooo!

Chiiirp!

‘Perhaps…?’

Seol realized what Koopa was trying to do.

“Koopa!”

Chirp?

Koopa, who had been unresponsive, turned around at Seol’s call. Koopa’s powerful beak and sharp gaze gave Seol chills.

Gulp…

“I’ll help you! Come over here!”

- You must have lost your mind, human.

- This summoner thinks he’s a druid LOL

- Snowman used Call of the Wild! It was a huge failure! Snowman claims that he never had that skill in the first place!

Chiiirp!

Koopa flew toward Seol.

Grab.

Karen and Jamad stepped forth, worried that Koopa would attack him.

Fwoosh…

Fwoooosh…

However, Koopa’s actions were nothing more than a coincidence.

Koopa landed on Atarak’s corpse and simply watched Seol with a curious gaze.

Chirp?

A disgusting smell and a hideous appearance.

Koopa still had the characteristics of a vulture even now.

Raise….

Seol raised his hand toward Koopa’s beak without thinking.

Koopa, seeing that, let out a cry while on guard against Seol.

Chiiiirp!

“Master! That’s dangerous, what are you doing?”

Karen was surprised by Seol’s unexplainable actions but he didn’t stop there.

Slide…

“Oh my…”

And now, Koopa was moving over his beak to let Seol touch it.

Pet…

- Shocking news! Snowman was actually a druid!

- Th-this is tampering!

- He’s really a druid?!

It seemed like Koopa didn’t consider Seol a danger to him.

‘He’s not afraid of people. Rather…’

A friend.

He is thinking of me as a friend.

As Seol thought to himself, Koopa turned his head and looked at his own back.

Chirp!

It was a gesture telling them to climb on.

Koopa was so big that even though all three of them were riding on Koopa’s back, there was still more than ample space.

“Oh my god… I never thought I would be riding on his back.”

“I can’t believe it. Is he not afraid of us?”

“Hold on tight.”

“H-Huh?”

Fwooooooosh!

Koopa soared up high, taking Seol and his party to where his feelings lingered. And there, there was a cocoon that seemed rather old.

“A cocoon?” asked Karen.

“Yeah.”

“What about it?”

“I think he wants us to take it.”

Chiiirp!

Karen pulled out the cocoon in a dangerous stance.

Pull… Rip…

Since the cocoon was quite old, it wasn’t sticky at all and ripped off quite easily.

“Alright! Got it!” said Karen after firmly fixing the cocoon on Koopa’s back with adventuring equipment.

“Let’s go!”

Tap, tap.

As Karen tapped on Koopa’s back, Koopa dived straight down.

“Wh-what?”

Fwooosh!

Koopa took a big bite of Atarak’s flesh and flew back up.

[Koopa used Unique Skill: Devour Corpse.]

[Koopa will absorb a portion of the corpse’s powers in a few moments.]

Chirp!

Koopa responded to Karen with a cheerful chirp and escaped through the cavern that way.

FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!

“A-Argh, I think I’m going to fall off! I’m falling off!”

“Hold on tight! We’re getting out of here!”

Koopa flew quickly through the tunnels, almost like he could sense the breeze coming from an entrance.

He found the perfect path through the tunnels, despite them twisting in all sorts of strange and different directions.

“Gasp… Gasp…”

“Where is he going?”

And then…

Fwooooosh!

Koopa plunged into the underground lake, and once he spotted an exit, he soared back up into the sky.

“Huh?”

Fwooosh…

[You have earned the achievement 'If I Had Wings Too'.]

[You have earned the title 'Bird'.]

- Nice achievement!

- He’s abusing the system… Koopa just gave him a free achievement.

- The more I see Koopa the cuter he gets… am I wrong?

- Huh???

- I guess I was wrong.

Fwoooosh…

The Shade Canyon’s open sky was right in front of them.

Seol’s party enjoyed the view from Koopa’s back.

“What a killer view.”

“Hah! I guess even birds can tell what a good view looks like!”

- Stop! Stop right there! Let me screenshot it.

- You old man… just clip it…

- Ah…

- Ahh…

It was a magnificent view that only the apex predator of the Shade Canyon could see.

Fwooosh…

But they weren’t allowed to enjoy the view for too long.

Koopa was flying toward somewhere.

The party, without a word to each other, looked down from Koopa’s back. Though it was a short amount of time, the days they spent in the canyon flashed through their memories like a movie.

“Huh? I think we’re at our destination.”

“...So there was a place like this.”

Land.

Seol’s party landed on the ground safely.

Koopa let Seol’s party off in a very special location.

It was a place filled with grass and flowers, something that was rare in the canyon.

The ground returned to a desolate state not even that far away from here, but here it was lush with plants.

“Why here…”

Seol had an idea why.

It was clear that the cocoon Karen was slowly taking off of Koopa was the reason he brought them here.

Coo…

Chirp…

Koopa carefully lifted the cocoon with his beak and placed it on a flowerbed.

And then…

Rip…

He tore the cocoon open.

“...A person?”

“No, a corpse.”

The corpse inside was completely mummified, sucked of any liquid.

Chiiirp…

Coo…

Koopa rubbed his beak against the corpse.

Seol could tell that Koopa was sad.

Koopa closed his eyes and slowly enjoyed his reunion with the corpse.

“...Was it his master?”

“It makes sense. I did think it was strange for a bird like that to be on his own.”

“That’s… a bit unfortunate.”

“I agree.”

As Karen and Jamad shared a conversation while watching Koopa, Seol approached Koopa instead.

Chirp…

“...Kiri?”

Coo?

“He’s Kiri, right?”

Koopa’s eyes were clear as he watched Seol.

It was like… Koopa understood Seol’s words.

Seol took a knee in front of Kiri.

His knee pressed down one of the flowers.

“I’m sorry, Kiri.”

There was no response.

After all, he couldn’t even if he wanted to.

And that had been the case for a long, long time.

“I pray that you rest well. As you can see, Koopa has grown quite imposingly.”

Chirp…

And then.

[<Kiri>’s Inheritance is starting.]

“Urgh…”

Seol had not seen one of his pieces since ZIliac. Still, like before, Seol began inheriting Kiri’s memories.

The memories this time weren’t from an omniscient viewer’s viewpoint but from Kiri’s viewpoint.

Seol was looking at a very small Koopa.

All of Kiri’s party members were asleep and it was only Koopa and him by the campfire.

Crackle…

- You know, Koopa…

Chirp…

- Are you sleepy?

Chirp! Coo!

- Haha! Be quiet, you’re going to wake the others.

Coo…

Kiri already knew that Koopa was extraordinary. It was the first time he saw a bird listen to a human so well.

- You’re sad because they don’t like you, huh?

Chirp…

- I know you only smell like that because it’s a side-effect of you absorbing the nutrients, but they just don’t understand.

Coo…

The small Koopa nodded.

- Koopa, it’s fine.

Coo?

- I’ll tell you that it’s fine. You’re fine, Koopa.

Chirp…

What would it feel like to have a person say that you are fine as you are?

Koopa rubbed his body against Kiri’s fingers as if he were touched by it.

- You’re going to get bigger than me one day, aren’t you, Koopa?

Chirp!

- Yeah, you’ll let me climb on your back and… over there! We’ll fly together all the way over there!

Koopa puffed up his chest.

Like he was confident in it.

Chiiirp!

- I’ll be looking forward to that day, Koopa.

With that, Kiri’s memory had concluded.

Seol also thought that the inheritance was over.

Frsss…

But, the memories continued.

‘What is this?’

This point of view…

It felt like he had become much smaller.

Chirp! Chiiirp!

Seol was watching a spider erupt out of the ground and drag away a party who was afflicted with sleep and venom. Kiri was also one of the party members.

Cooo!

Bam!

Despite diving at the spider with full force, he only dizzied himself. The spider didn’t pay any mind to the person to whom this memory belonged.

‘This is… Koopa’s memories.’

Seol wasn’t sure why he was inheriting Koopa’s memories, but he was confident that they definitely belonged to Koopa.

Koopa wasn’t able to stop the spider that dragged Kiri into a hole and disappeared.

It was because he was weak and small.

The ground was covered up again, and Kiri was gone.

Seol was swept away by the fierce emotions that Koopa felt at that time.

And then, the days that Koopa spent in the canyon slipped past like a movie.

Koopa hunted, ate, and pursued.

Those were the only things that Koopa did since then.

He did it all to get Kiri back.

But Kiri… returned to him as a corpse.

Even though he had grown so large… even though his beak had become so tough… even though his talons had become so sharp…

Kiri was unable to tell him that it was fine.

Koopa’s sadness was passed directly to Seol.

“AAAAAAAAAARGH!”

Taking a glance at someone’s memories, especially a dead person’s memory, always brought Seol pain.

But with that, the memories were over, and Seol received new messages.

[You have inherited Kiri’s unfulfilled desire.]

[A skill has been inherited from the deceased.]