WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Alone Against the Tower ◈

Chapter 79: Jade Elixir

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Erwen initially asked why I wanted to know something like that, but soon got straight to what they knew.

“The World Tree is a tree that holds nearly infinite mana. It is the source of life for all elves.”

Erwen's tone was a little different as they began talking about the World Tree. It was like they were telling a fairy tale to a child.

“No one knows its exact origin, but according to an old legend, the first tree of life born from Mother Earth was the World Tree.”

“That is why the World Tree possesses nearly infinite mana and vitality. It was the blessing bestowed upon the first life.”

“The World Tree shared its life with the two elven races it gave birth to. Having received a portion of that nearly infinite life, the elves became an immortal race.”

For some reason, I felt that Erwen had told this story many times before.

“Even now, we live very long lives, but back when the World Tree and our souls were connected by an umbilical cord, elves truly lived forever.”

Erwen's eyes looked faintly into the distance, as though they were reflecting on an ancient past.

“However, even if the soul is immortal, the body eventually grows old. The World Tree solved that limitation in a very simple way.”

“It took back the souls of elves who had died of old age, then created new bodies and returned those souls to them.”

“The consciousness and memories engraved upon the soul continued intact even after being passed into the new body. Elves who met death merely became young again.”

A dead elf's soul receiving a new body and being born again. In short, reincarnation.

“But perhaps because elves could reproduce and increase their numbers on their own, the World Tree began to weaken and wither one day.”

I remembered the World Tree I had seen on the seventh floor. It had been painfully shriveled, yet it still possessed tremendous power and presence.

It was hard to believe that had been its withered state, but if what Erwen said was true, it made sense.

That one tree had been sustaining the lives of so many elves.

“As the cycle that granted immortality broke down, elves could no longer receive new bodies.”

“When our bodies grew old, that was the end. Our souls no longer returned to the World Tree and instead scattered throughout the world.”

“Many elves mourned that truth, but after thousands of years, they have all long since returned to the earth.”

Hadn't Erwen said the World Tree began to wither before the Dark Elves left the Great Forest?

Now, only the Queen was said to remain among the Dark Elves who remembered the World Tree of that era and its cycle of immortality.

Erwen said they weren't quite from that generation either, only somewhere on its edge.

“Well, I believe the current form is right. There is deep meaning in passing on one's will through death, isn't there?”

“Is there?”

“Of course. Isn't that how you humans are? You don't even live a hundred years, yet you constantly prosper and advance.”

Erwen concluded by saying that such development and growth surely came from the power of last words.

There was definitely something to that.

The vow nailed into my heart by my mother's death was what kept this piece-of-trash human moving.

* * *

I did learn various things about the World Tree, but I hadn't gained any particularly useful information.

“That is all I know. Are you satisfied?”

I wasn't satisfied. Honestly, Erwen's final words had only put me in a bad mood for no reason.

But I couldn't show that, so I gave a vague nod. Erwen then added one more thing.

“I have merely lived a little longer, so I do not know much. If you wish to know more, it would be better to seek out the Queen.”

That was true, but the Queen wasn't someone I could meet whenever I wanted, which was why I had come to Erwen first.

“The current Queen's condition is not very good, though... Still, you are Eleanor's betrothed. You should be able to manage somehow.”

“My status as Eleanor’s betrothed is still valid?”

“What of it? You have only stayed out of sight for twenty years. That may be a long time for humans.”

Even after promising marriage and not showing my face once for twenty years, my status hadn't changed.

I already couldn't get a handle on the elves' sense of time, and after skipping over an entire stretch of it, I was even more confused.

And there was another reason I couldn't easily meet the Queen.

“Still, I don't think the Queen will look favorably on me.”

The Queen had remained attached to the World Tree and wanted to make a peace agreement with the High Elves through a political marriage involving Eleanor.

But that agreement had been destroyed by what I did on the seventh floor, and instead of peace, things had reached the brink of war.

Under those circumstances, would the Queen look kindly on me asking about the World Tree? I seriously doubted it.

“That is true.”

It seemed Erwen hadn't considered that. But they soon clapped their hands and opened their mouth, saying they had a good idea.

“Then why not obtain an elixir that will cure the Queen's illness?”

Then a blue notification window appeared before my eyes.

[Epic: Dark Elf's Letter - Jade Elixir]

Description: The reason the great Dark Elf Queen has become bedridden remains unknown.

There is no grand reason for that. The Queen simply did not want others to know that she had taken to her bed.

She may be suffering from a grave illness and standing at the boundary between life and death, or she may only have caught a mild cold.

What is certain is that, if you wish to speak with the Queen, you must show sincerity worthy of the occasion.

Elven pharmaceutical techniques are excellent. You know that bringing an ordinary medicine will not be enough, correct?

Unless you bring something on the level of the legendary Jade Elixir, the Queen will not even look your way.

[Quest Objectives]

1. Obtain the Jade Elixir.

2. Prepare an offering surpassing the Jade Elixir (Optional).

3. Cure the Queen's illness (Optional).

I never expected to enter the faction quest line again like this.

What was more, this was a quest I knew. The details were different, but it was considered the core quest of the eighth-floor faction quest.

The eighth-floor faction quest was originally structured around completing many small subquests.

But I had suddenly skipped most of those subquests and entered the most important and difficult quest.

And as far as I knew, this had a mechanic that absolutely required a party.

Shit. What was I supposed to do?

* * *

The Jade Elixir quest was actually very easy if you read a guide.

Obtaining the elixir was one thing, but gathering information on where it could be found was the difficult part.

If I followed a guide, I could skip the whole process of gathering information, obtain the elixir right away, and clear the quest quickly.

The problem was the part where I obtained the elixir. To get it, I absolutely needed to play in a party.

There was no system-imposed party-size limit, but there was a mechanic that could never be completed alone.

There was no guarantee that the guides posted in the Community would work exactly as written, either. The challenge environment differed in countless ways.

I wanted to bring Rizmel or Eleanor, but with the atmosphere on the verge of war, combat personnel couldn't easily leave their posts.

Even Erwen, a blacksmith, seemed very busy, and bringing noncombatants was out of the question from the start.

“Fine. I'll get it.”

For now, I gave a short answer to show my intention to accept the quest.

Refusing from the beginning had never been an option. I couldn't pass up an Epic Quest.

This was better, actually. When a difficult task was thrown in front of me, unnecessary thoughts disappeared.

I opened the Community and looked up the route to the place where I could obtain the Jade Elixir.

* * *

The place I needed to visit to obtain the Jade Elixir was another dungeon, though this one was a little special.

It was a dungeon within a dungeon, a Hidden Dungeon that could only be entered by following a particular route inside.

[Old Altar - 3]

The place I found looked similar to the Cursed Altar I had visited on the seventh floor to acquire Sensory Enhancement.

There were five such altars on the eighth floor, and only the third altar could lead into the Hidden Dungeon.

Following the Community guide, I manipulated the statue placed atop the altar.

Krrrrrk!

The center of the altar opened amid the sound of turning gears, and a boss sprang out.

[BOSS - Guardian of the Sealed Altar]

The boss was a Golem with gears embedded all over its body. Its specs were merely those of an ordinary field boss.

Come to think of it, I had been running into Golem-type enemies often lately.

“Hah.”

Bang!

When I pulled out a blunt weapon from my inventory and swung it, one of the Golem's arms shattered and fell away.

This Golem endlessly regenerated unless every gear embedded in its limbs was destroyed.

In exchange, its basic defense was very low for a Golem-type boss. Low enough that it could be shattered in one hit like this.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

One hit for each gear embedded in its arms, legs, and chest. I defeated the boss in exactly five blows.

A field boss without any complicated patterns now felt like nothing more than a somewhat stronger trash mob.

How many more floors would I have to climb before enemies suited to my stats appeared?

Unless I deliberately chose a difficult path, it seemed I wouldn't see any for a while.

Footnotes:

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