I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 281: Surviving in the Jungle 1

TL/Editor: raei

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The river was muddy, like something you'd see in an Amazon documentary.

The water was murkier because of creatures resembling water beetles frantically thrashing about.

Luckily, the river had a slow current and wasn't deep.

As expected, walking into the river with armor reached just below my chin.

Mud splashed around my mouth and nose with each step, but a tank who could withstand being stabbed wasn't going to be fazed by a little water.

Ignoring the noisy screams, I steadily moved forward.

My heavy armor helped me ignore the slow current as I pushed through the giant water beetles and slipped under the shaking raft.

What the hell?!

Its floating! The raft is floating!

The voices of the barbarian warriors sounded surprised, likely because they couldn't see what was happening through the splashing water.

I lifted my arms suddenly.

Chunks of wood gnawed from the raft's edge drifted away, but the part where people stood remained intact.

The water beetles were weaker than expected, and despite the chaotic battle, the barbarians managed to protect the center of the raft with their spears.

Barbarians on the raft, hugging each other and shivering, stared blankly at their kin on the riverbank.

And below them, a man with water up his nose frowned.

Watching through the hologram screen almost made me laugh at the ridiculousness.

Roland? Are you okay?! Need help?

Yeah! Im fine! These things are weaker than wolves!

Grace's voice echoed across the now-quiet riverside.

Her voice was clear as the splashing slowly subsided.

The water beetles that bit me all died from reflective damage.

They must have been quite frustrated, biting my armor relentlessly like fresh meat in front of them.

But of course, those that couldn't even break through the rafts logs couldn't possibly damage my armor.

It ended with them floating away as if they were buoyed by a battery electrified the river.

Thanks to that, the water calmed down, and I strode out.

Roland! Bring one corpse with you!

-Se-ah that mouth of yours...

-Our hero Roland is gonna get dried off now by Han Se-ah with her water magic, right?

-So she's not a porter but a moving dry cleaner now? What do you call that thing you put suits in?

-Its a wardrobe, idiot, how do you not know that

[Chat deleted by mod]

-A walking dry cleaner lolol

Watching the water beetles chew on the armor and then drift away listlessly, Han Se-ah shouted urgently.

Well, if such an attack had happened near a rest area, it might have been a quest trigger.

After all the water beetles were dead, I put the raft back into the water.

Holding onto the raft with one hand and a water beetle's pincer with the other, I walked back to the riverbank.

The water beetle dragged out looked like a dung beetle with front legs like a crayfish.

Not as twisted or bizarre as the mid-boss on the 45th floor, but rather like an exotic insect you might find in a jungle.

You are impressive. Very tough.

Hey Silban, were these things originally living in the river?

Th-thank you! Thank you for saving us, kingdom people!

Seeing them die from reflective damage, they were stronger than goblins but weaker than orcs.

They're about the level of wolves that orcs might keep.

To a superhuman who manipulates mana, these lower level monsters are laughable.

But to those who are not, a pack of wolves is like a moving disaster.

Even more terrifying if it's a pack attacking from the water.

Come to think of it, wolves can't break logs, can they?

Considering the hard shell and biting power that not even the barbarians spears could scratch, they might be stronger than wolves.

But to me, they felt so weak it was hard to tell.

It really does look ferocious when you see it like this.

What kind of insect is this?

While Grace and Katie poked at the flipped-over corpse of the insect with its pincers, Irene started checking for any injured.

Unlike Silban, who was born a 3, the barbarian warriors shivering on the raft seemed to be at most 2.

Han Se-ah mentioned to the camera that all barbarian warriors were of high rank, but it appears only the strong ones ventured towards the kingdom's territory.

Given that shady characters were attacking both barbarian warriors and the kingdom indiscriminately, it makes sense that only selected warriors would come out.

Thank you, kingdom adventurer. I am Gaspard.

.

While I was looking at the corpse of the thing that resembled a water crayfish, a barbarian warrior from the raft, soaking wet, approached me quickly.

A young-looking couple that appeared to be in their middle or high school years, a woman with an aura of maturity, and a slim man who appeared slightly older.

It was clear to anyone that they were a family, likely a couple with their two daughters.

According to Han Se-ah, the wife and daughters were both 1, and the husband was 2.

They were tough compared to the kingdom's average farmers but were a little low for a jungle filled with carnivorous insects.

Silban approached quietly and started a conversation after shaking hands.

Gaspard. Why did you come across the river?

"The riverbank, it's strange. We had to check. But the river water, weird too."

They were well acquainted.

Were they discussing out of consideration for the player or due to the kingdom's integration policy in their broken kingdom language?

Last time I was in the South, I had to bring a translator because the barbarian warriors didn't speak the language.

As I was thinking this, Gaspard naturally started his story.

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Raei Translations

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The first clue was the flower beetle in Han Se-ah's inventory.

It feeds on the sap of trees growing deep in the swamp and shouldn't be in the forest.

The second clue was the suspiciously shallow insect burrow where Han Se-ah had floundered.

Near the border of the jungle and the forest, the shallow and long burrows were odd; even Silban had never seen anything like it and muttered it was strange.

The third clue was the corpse in front of us, resembling a mix of a water beetle and a crayfish.

Gaspard, who insisted the riverbank was strange and whose occupation was a fisherman, said he had never seen such a creature before.

So, even the barbarians living in the jungle are seeing these insects popping up from somewhere for the first time now?

They couldnt have come from the deepest parts of the jungle, could they?

"We, know the deepest parts of the jungle. These creatures, weren't there before."

And the fourth reason Gaspard and his family ended up on the raft was because of the destruction of a site where medicinal herbs grew naturally, a place that should have been safe from giant insect attacks.

In a fantasy world like this, if suddenly giant and never-before-seen insects start appearing rampantly, there can only be one culprit.

If it were modern Earth, one might think a new species has been discovered or a quarantine has been breached by an invasive species... but here, it's a game world with Goddesses.

Just like suspecting Britain when something odd is recorded in history, in this world, you suspect black magic when something shady happens.

"Did some witch dabble in black magic? Towards creating chimeras."

That would make sense, wouldnt it?

A mage, a witch, or a black mage.

Or perhaps a combination of all three.

A witch specialized in summoning who, out of curiosity, dabbled in black magic to manipulate giant insects of the swamp.

Like suspecting electrical faults in an empty house fire, witches and black mages are the prime suspects when something strange happens here.

Considering the attacks alternating between the kingdom and barbarian warriors, its possible a black mage tampered with the witchs spells, and seeing how naturally they blend into the swamp and jungle, the witch might have dabbled in black magic.

Anyway, suspicion of black magic remains unchanged.

Though I dont feel any evil magic aura... they were certainly aggressive. Are they always this ferocious?

"No. The river is peaceful. There are no bugs in the river. If there were, you couldn't fish."

-Hey hairdresser, dry Roland and the others off and listen to the story.

-So, what was Irene trying to say, please?

-Looking at the state of the chat, it seems like being crazy is pretty normal?

-So this theme is about a Gigantamax insect invasion? Damn it Should I take a break from the stream for a while?

"Ah, I'll dry you off. This way Just a moment."

Reacting to the viewers' uproar, Han Se-ah finally snaps back to reality and uses water magic to gather the river water, making Gaspard and his family dry and fluffy.

Gaspard, who was fervently explaining about the suddenly destroyed natural safe zone, and the barbarian warrior sisters shivering behind him, all start looking back and forth between me and Han Se-ah with their eyes wide open, which is kind of funny.

It looks like the heros renown (as a walking dry cleaner) is beginning to spread in the South too.

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