Arknights: Soul Knights of Terra — Chapter 33

Chapter 33: How Can You Be So Selfish!?You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

[We definitely need to bring the shield along… and we should probably synthesize a few more health potions just in case.]

“What about my weapon? Let’s pack that for Second too, she is going to need the firepower.”

[Do not give her weapons that drain HP on attack. That is a death sentence out there.]

“What about food, then? How about we dive into the Dungeon and hunt something fresh?”

[Those mutated things crawling around the Dungeon… are you absolutely sure they are edible?]

“Aren’t there wild boars on the first floor? Those are definitely edible! Pork is pork!”

Vera stood off to the side, watching the two of them seriously debate the culinary merits of Dungeon monsters. Her expression grew increasingly flat. Finally, she could not hold her tongue any longer.

“Are you two… not even going to try and stop me?”

“Huh?” Vane looked up from his inventory management, his face a picture of pure, unadulterated confusion.

“Didn’t you just say you wanted to go to Kazdel by yourself?”

“I did say that!” Vera felt a familiar vein throbbing in her forehead, her blood pressure spiking. “But I never said I was leaving this exact second, did I?! We do not even know what the current situation in Kazdel looks like!”

Vane rubbed his chin, pondering her words for a solid three seconds before a look of deep realization washed over his face. He smashed his right fist into his left palm.

“Oh! I get it now! You want to finish eating dinner before you…”

A loud smack echoed through the room.

Vane collapsed onto the cold stone floor, temporarily silenced by a swift strike to the head.

Ignoring the groaning Fourth on the ground, Vera turned her crimson eyes toward the only person in the room who actually possessed decision-making skills. She looked at the Eldest, Gregor.

Gregor quickly waved his armored hand, sending a message through their mental link.

[I know you well enough. You would not have proposed this solo scouting mission just to find a random doctor.]

[You have your own underlying considerations for this, right?]

Vera let out a long, stifled breath. The tension in her shoulders dropped a fraction as she nodded.

“Yes. Since Babel is the predecessor to Rhodes Island, then… the protagonist from the game is very likely sitting right there as we speak.”

Vane rubbed the growing lump on his head and scrambled up from the floor, dusting off his robes.

“Ahem… right. If the trajectory of this world line remains largely unchanged from the lore we know, the Doctor should indeed be commanding Babel right now.”

“But Second, if it really is the Doctor from the Babel era… they are definitely not a kind person. That version of them is a ruthless tactician.”

Vera did not let her gaze waver in the slightest. The crimson glow in her eyes remained resolute.

“I know the risks involved. But I must go and try to make contact. I want to ask them… if they know of any method to go home.”

Silence descended upon the room.

Gregor and Vane stopped moving entirely.

Go home.

Those two simple words rippled with a heavy, suffocating complexity in their hearts. There was deep confusion and desperate longing, but overshadowing all of it was a deep sense of fear. They feared the unknown nature of a return journey, and they feared what the answer might actually be.

[…Fourth, if the Doctor really does know something about our situation… will they actually tell us the truth?]

Vane scratched his messy hair, his usual confidence deflating into uncertainty.

“Maybe… asking for simple directions shouldn’t be too difficult of a transaction, right?”

The two men turned their eyes back to Vera. Gregor stood silently in his heavy armor, pondering the tactical variables before proposing a much safer alternative.

[Since the stakes are this high, why don’t you wait until I can properly regroup with you? We can head into the wasteland together.]

[In a chaotic warzone like Kazdel, having an extra layer of heavy defense means an extra layer of absolute security.]

“Yeah, and if that doesn’t work out, you can have Third go with you too,” Vane added. “The coordinates where he descended might be physically closer to your location, making it much easier to meet up out there.”

Vera looked at the genuine worry swimming in their eyes. The cold, vampiric edge to her expression softened slightly.

“Yeah… I understand your concerns. I really do.”

“However, I still need to go out there and confirm the immediate situation. At the very least, I need to verify with my own eyes that the barren wasteland I am currently standing in is truly Kazdel.”

Gregor and Vane exchanged a long, meaningful look. Vane suddenly stood up straight, planting his hands firmly on his hips.

“Since that is the case… there is no time like the present. Before you set off into the unknown, we need to start your special training!”

“Special training?”

Vera raised a delicate eyebrow. Vane’s tone had become uncharacteristically serious, devoid of his usual mocking lilt.

“Although you can form a highly decent combat force by resurrecting corpses on the battlefield, the weakness of your main body being incredibly fragile is far too obvious. Once an enemy closes the distance or specifically targets you, it is very easy for things to go horribly wrong.”

Vera crossed her arms over her chest, genuinely curious to see what kind of tactical insight he had cooked up.

“So this is exactly where my world-class wisdom comes into play!” Vane wagged a finger in the air triumphantly.

[What bizarre new idea have you concocted this time?]

“Heh heh…” Vane sauntered over to Vera’s side and unceremoniously snatched the Staff of Sorcery right out of her hands.

“Let us review the known conditions. After the Staff of Sorcery lands ten consecutive critical hits, it unlocks a special attack that activates a five-second time-stop field. So…”

He drew out the last word, his eyes shining with manic brilliance.

“If we can manage to land another ten critical hits within those exact five seconds of the time-stop field, wouldn’t we be able to flawlessly chain the effect and continue the time-stop indefinitely?!”

Gregor slowly shook his helmeted head, immediately denying the logistical reality of this idea.

[Wanting to land ten critical hits within a mere five seconds… is theoretically possible on paper, but practically almost impossible in a real combat scenario.]

“Of course it is impossible under normal circumstances!” Vane dragged the heavy Staff of Sorcery over to a nearby wooden training dummy. He slammed the base of the staff directly against the scarred wood.

“Second, look closely!” Vane shouted, his voice echoing off the stone walls. “I suddenly had a stroke of pure inspiration when you were beating me over the head with this exact staff earlier!”

Vera analyzed his posture and the proximity to the dummy. She instantly understood what he was implying, her crimson eyes flickering with realization.

“You mean…”

“Exactly!” Vane nodded vigorously, looking like a mad scientist on the verge of a breakthrough.

“Since the energy blades fired by the staff’s normal attacks naturally spread out in a wide fan shape, why don’t you just initiate the attack at point-blank range?!”

“This way, every single energy blade hits the exact same target simultaneously! Doesn’t that mathematically increase the chance of triggering a critical hit to the absolute maximum?!”

[…Theoretically, the physics of that are indeed feasible.]

Vera, however, raised a much more practical flaw in the design.

“…The method might work in a vacuum, but within those brief five seconds of time-stop, I still have to figure out how to physically close the distance to point-blank range against a hostile target.”

“I am afraid there simply won’t be enough time to run up to them. And if the critical hits fail to chain properly, won’t I be left standing directly in the face of the enemy with zero defenses?”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk…” Vane shook his finger back and forth, a smug grin spreading across his face.

“Who ever said these attacks actually have to hit the enemy?”

Vera stared at him, completely lost.

Vane patted the polished wood of the Staff of Sorcery and spoke with the eloquent flair of a stage performer.

“Doesn’t your first skill allow you to summon a little demon familiar?”

“Just imagine this glorious scene. The time-stop activates, and the five-second countdown begins! You immediately summon a little demon right in front of you, and then…”

He made a violent, repeated stabbing motion with the head of the staff against the empty air.and support the real translator.Read at elysianreads.com This is a stolen translation. You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.

“…you shove it directly onto your own staff! You use your own little demon as the target dummy!”

“Even better!” Vane became more and more animated as he spoke, completely lost in his own tactical genius. “Is the staff too heavy to swing conveniently in a rush? You can just command the summoned little demon to voluntarily crash its own body into the tip of your staff!”

“This way, the speed of accumulating critical hits will definitely be fast enough to chain the time-stop!”

Somewhere in the ethereal void, a little demon felt a sudden chill.

‘Spit! How can you be so utterly selfish!?’

The air in the room suddenly went dead quiet.

Vera vividly imagined the bizarre, horrifying scene of wildly stabbing her own loyal summoned creature to death while time stood completely still. For a long moment, she simply did not know how to evaluate the sheer moral bankruptcy of the strategy.

Gregor made a strange, metallic gurgling sound from behind his visor.

[This idea… is indeed very Fourth.]

“Then… shall I actually try it?”

Vera looked down at the Staff of Sorcery in her hands. She slowly raised her arm, channeling her mana to summon the little demon into the physical realm.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Meanwhile, deep within the Vitality Hall, Gusi was in the middle of feeding. He tilted his head slightly, his sharp Druidic senses catching a rhythmic thumping sound echoing from the direction of the Nursery passage.

‘Is Second hitting him that hard? I really hope Fourth isn’t dead…’

“That’s it! Harder!!!”

Vane’s muffled, ecstatic scream echoed down the stone corridor.

Gusi froze.

His massive hands shook, and the warm broth in the spoon nearly spilled over the edges.

Gusi quickly darted his eyes toward Ifrit. After seeing that the young girl was completely focused on her food and showed no reaction to the questionable shouting, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

‘Forget it… maybe I just misunderstood the context. After all, the Eldest is right there in the room with them. Nothing inappropriate could possibly be happening.’

However, the excited voice that suddenly blasted directly into his mind via the mental link made Gusi fall completely silent once again.

[Third: You guys… never mind. Just keep it down, there is a child present here.]

[???]

[???]

[???]

Three distinct pings of utter confusion echoed back through the mental link.

Deciding it was best to no longer pay any attention to whatever chaotic commotion was unfolding over there, Gusi shook his head to clear his thoughts and scooped up another spoonful of rich broth.

Ifrit quickly waved her small hands in the air, shrinking back slightly. “I… I can’t eat anymore… I’m really full.”

Hearing this, Gusi gently set the wooden soup bowl aside. His massive, imposing body sat silently on the floor, and the surrounding atmosphere fell into a quiet stillness once again.

Feeling the sudden, somewhat awkward silence stretching between them, Ifrit nervously clutched the edges of her warm blanket, her eyes darting around the room.

Sensing the young girl’s lingering discomfort and fear, Gusi remained silent for a long moment before tentatively breaking the ice.

“Um… do you want to hear a story?”

Ifrit paused. She slowly looked up at the towering figure, hesitating for a bit as she weighed his intentions, before finally nodding her head gently.

Seeing the girl agree, Gusi closed his eyes and began to sift through the countless stories buried in his memories.

After a short while, his low, rumbling voice slowly rang out through the quiet hall, carrying the ancient, mysterious cadence of a true legend.

“This is… a story about a monkey…”

Time flowed slowly within the sanctuary, and evening eventually arrived.

After thoroughly mastering the brutal but effective time-stop technique, the group reconvened and began to gently ask Ifrit for any intelligence she might have about the outside world.

Naturally, Ifrit, who had been kept locked away deep inside the sterile walls of Rhine Lab for most of her life, did not know any truly valuable geopolitical information.

However, through her fragmented memories, they managed to roughly confirm the current year in Terra. Combining that single piece of data with the overarching plot they already knew, Vane finally made a definitive, confident confirmation.

“There is no problem at all! At this specific point in the timeline, Babel hasn’t disbanded yet! The Doctor must absolutely still be active on the frontlines in Kazdel!”

“Then…” Vera took a deep, steadying breath. Her crimson gaze finally settled on Vane, her expression hardening into a deadly glare.

“Fourth, you are going to look after Ifrit. If you dare to lose sight of her again this time, or if you speak a single word of your usual nonsense in front of her…”

“I guarantee I won’t!” Vane violently patted his chest in a vow of absolute sincerity. He then turned and pulled up the still somewhat confused Ifrit by her sleeve.

“Come on, I’ll take her up to the second floor to play some arcade games. No child in the universe can resist the sheer charm of video games!”

Watching the two of them disappear up the stone staircase, Vera turned her gaze back to the silent, towering figure of Gusi.

“You already know the overarching plan. I am setting off first to scout the perimeter of Kazdel. Third, do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

Gusi slowly shook his head. “No. Your tactical judgment is always accurate.”

He paused for a second, his brow furrowing slightly as he asked a question in return.

“Is there truly nothing you need me to do? That place is an active, brutal battlefield, right? Appearing out there all alone… will you really be alright?”

“…I am just going out to scout the immediate area for a little while. I will return the moment I confirm the structural situation,” Vera explained, her tone perfectly calm and measured.

“Besides, it is night time out there right now, so my movements won’t be nearly as obvious. And my physical identity as a Sarkaz should naturally provide me with a fair amount of convenience and cover while moving through Kazdel.”

Gusi nodded in understanding and said no more. As he turned his massive frame to leave the room, a sudden thought crossed his mind.

The dark shadows pooling at his feet suddenly began to writhe and twist. A pitch-black blade, the Void Sword, slowly rose from the darkness. He reached down, grasped the hilt, and silently handed the weapon over to Vera.

“It was opened from a random treasure chest,” he explained concisely, his voice flat. “It is of absolutely no use to my build.”

Vera reached out and took the antique-looking longsword. The dark metal felt surprisingly heavy in her pale hands. She gave it a few experimental swings, weighing the balance.

“A heavy melee weapon… I feel like this is much more suitable for the Eldest’s combat style.”

Gregor, who was standing nearby like a silent sentinel, shook his head.

[You know full well that this type of weapon does not mean much to my defensive capabilities.]

Vera thought about it for a brief moment before gripping the hilt of the Void Sword tightly.

“Well… then I will take it and use it for now as a backup.”

She looked back up at the Druid. “As for Third… you go outside first and see if there is any viable food to forage.”

Gusi nodded once more and said no more. His tall, imposing figure melted into the shadows, disappearing from the room entirely.

“Then…” Vera finally turned her attention back to Gregor, the weight of the upcoming trial settling over her shoulders.

“Now is the time to do the test.”

[Yes…] Gregor agreed, his mental voice echoing with solemn readiness.

[Since I was able to successfully bring Ifrit into this space before, perhaps you can also bring me out into reality.]

Vera reached out her pale hand and gently placed her fingers against the cold, heavy steel of Gregor’s armored arm.

“Leave.”

[Rhodes’s Note: The story about a monkey Gusi tells Ifrit is a cultural nod to Sun Wukong from the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West”.]You're reading this on the wrong site. This chapter was translated by Elysian Reads and posted for free at elysianreads.com — if you're seeing it anywhere else, it was copied without permission. Read it at the source so the people who actually did the work get the credit.