WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 22: Carving Soul Stones # 1
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After the Erdari fled.
Clatter.
Sir Saxon picked up the fist-sized stone that had fallen to the floor.
“Gasp! This is a Breakthrough Stone!”
His eyes widened enormously in the lamplight.
“To think I would see something this precious! That Erdari must have been so desperate to run that she forgot to take it with her! Ho ho ho!”
“What’s going on, old man?”
The bounty hunter Double Sword, who had been standing watch, approached us.
Sister Ishtar came with him, reeking of alcohol.
“Ugh, I was sleeping so nicely. Why did you ring the bell so loudly?”
Sir Saxon briefly explained what had just happened.
An Erdari had been in the library, faced off against me, then dropped this Breakthrough Stone before fleeing.
Double Sword let out an impressed whistle.
“You drove off an Erdari without shitting your pants? The rookie’s got guts.”
“Hehe, people without guts drop dead first where I work.”
“But this is going to be a pain. The military will turn the place upside down for a while.”
“Turn it upside down?”
“There could be more night bloodkin hiding within the Wall. They’ll search every corner and drag in any humans who might have been working with them for a beating.”
The mention of working together made me think of Jermain.
“So, rookie, what was that Erdari trying to do here?”
Should I talk about Jermain or not?
After thinking it over for a while, I decided to tell them only what I knew for certain.
“She said she wanted to cut off my head and dig through my brains. Then, when I firmly refused, what was it? Some Lapras? She said she’d take it from me.”
“Ratas!”
Sir Saxon shouted.
He was even foaming at the mouth.
“As far as I know, Ratas is an ancient Nardil word that broadly means ‘soul,’ ‘life,’ or their essence. In other words, that Erdari clearly intended to kill this child!”
As expected, that evil demon bloodkin had been after my soul.
Then Sister Ishtar noticed the stone in Sir Saxon’s hand.
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, it’s a Breakthrough Stone. That woman dropped it when she ran. In this case, it should go to this child. Here, this belongs to you now.”
Clatter.
A fairly heavy stone landed in my hand.
It looked like an ordinary rock.
But blue and red grains were embedded here and there, making it obvious at a glance that it was no ordinary stone.
The Erdari and Sir Saxon had called it a Breakthrough Stone.
And I remembered Breakthrough Stones too.
“Can this raise the level of an engraving?”
I remembered the Engraving Tome I had consumed recently.
「Double-Edged Sword: Imprints the enlightenment devised by the ascetic priests of the Chandara Order onto the soul. Increases damage dealt and damage received by 10% each.」
It was like a passive skill in a game.
And in Night Diver, Breakthrough Stones were items used to strengthen those passive skills.
“That’s right. But it’s useless as it is. It needs some carving first.”
Just as I thought. It needed to be carved.
The Breakthrough Stones I remembered had twenty carving attempts. Every seven successful carvings raised the level of a passive engraving by one.
Like this.
「Breakthrough Stone +7」
「Double-Edged Sword Lv.2: Increases damage dealt and damage received by 15% each.」
“Ooooooh!”
Just imagining it made me happy.
“But child, not just anyone can carve one. You need special tools and someone skilled at carving. Well, since Hammer is in your party, all you need are the tools.”
“Hammer can carve this stone?”
“That fellow is generally good at anything involving hammers. He’s good at repairing equipment too, isn’t he?”
Nice.
This was why people were always going on about connections.
# # #
“You ran into an Erdari on your first night standing watch? And you survived? Yore! I can’t tell whether your luck is good or bad!”
Hammer patted my back.
Hammer laughed heartily, and it made me feel good too.
I showed Hammer the Breakthrough Stone.
“Hammer, is it really true that you can carve this?”
“Oh, you want to carve a Breakthrough Stone? You could get around twenty million Ether just by selling it.”
Twenty million!?
How many colas and chickens could that buy?
“I recommend selling it. Carving one isn’t easy. The chance of success gets cut in half every time you strike it with a hammer. It’s common for one to break on the very first strike.”
The success rate was halved with every hammer strike, and sometimes the stone broke.
Just like the game.
That was why even +7 stones were treated as fairly endgame equipment.
‘I only carved mine up to +7 when I played too.’
I had used a Breakthrough Stone that luckily went straight to +7 until just before I died.
I stopped there because it felt like it would break immediately if I pushed it any further.
“But it’s not bad to carve it and use it yourself. Today’s forecast says the sun will be out at Vulcanos Volcano, so you should be able to get plenty of carving tools there!”
“Ooh!”
What good luck.
Sometimes things worked out this well.
We began preparing to head out when Hermit, apparently having overslept, yawned and poked my side.
“Rookie, I heard something amazing happened yesterday?”
“Yeah. An Erdari bastard tried to steal my soul.”
“Your soul? What are you talking about?”
“She asked for my Ratas.”
“Ratas means soul? Who said that? La’tas does mean essence or soul in ancient Nardil, but in the Erdari language...”
Hermit’s face suddenly turned red.
She glared at me.
“...Do you just like every woman, no matter what race she is?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t talk to me for a while, you pervert!”
Why was I suddenly a pervert?
Hermit was more unpredictable than rain from a clear sky.
Felix warned us.
“Don’t make noise at Vulcanos Volcano later. If you lose focus there, even explorers above Level 10 can be torn apart in an instant.”
What a strict guy!
And so, we headed for the volcanic region.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
As we pushed through the black fog, the sight of a steaming mountain came into view.
Bubble, bubble.
Lava boiled everywhere.
It was so hot that sweat ran down my body even when I stood still, but Hammer was pleased.
“Well, look at that. We arrived right in front of the temple. We can go straight in without wasting energy climbing the mountain! Everyone! Let’s go!”
There was an enormous temple halfway up the mountain.
It was cooler inside than the lava-filled mountainside, but it was still hot.
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
Boiling lava flowed through pipes and drainage channels everywhere.
Hissss.
Furnaces spewing steam operated all around the temple.
I found myself gulping from my canteen.
Hermit drank from her canteen too, wiping the sweat flowing down her chin with the back of her hand.
“I barely recovered from burns all over my body, and now we’re somewhere hot again. I want ice.”
Ice?
Once this journey was over, I would buy some ice cream at the campfire.
As I was thinking that.
Clank, clank.
I heard metal scraping.
“Verdoras.”
“Caligro.”
They were people carrying spears, shields, and such.
No, could I even call them people?
Their skin was covered in hard, stone-like growths, and their eyes burned like fire.
“Yore, those are Stonefolk. As you can see, they’re tough. Bladed weapons aren’t very useful against them. Blunt weapons work better.”
Hammer swung a huge hammer.
Crunch!
The Stonefolk shattered.
“Ooh! Hammer, that was awesome!”
「+100 Ether」
「Stonefolk Fragment: A lump of stone hardened black. It smells bitter.」
I picked up the Ether and byproducts, stuffing them into my Black Bundle.
Hammer praised me as I did.
“Wow! That bundle of yours is amazing. But what are you going to do with those Stonefolk fragments?”
“The idols might like them, so I’m keeping them for now.”
I thought of Sabranik.
That bone serpent liked gems, didn’t it?
Gems were stones when you got down to it, and these were stones too.
Maybe Sabranik would like them.
With that in mind, I eagerly picked up every stone I could as an offering of thanks.
Then a thought suddenly came to me.
“Hermit, what happened to the Familiar egg we brought?”
“It looks like it’ll take some time to hatch. I’m going to sleep with it tucked against me every night.”
What, she had to incubate an egg like a hen?
In the game, I just had to right-click it. The egg would hatch on its own, and the pets would pop out.
It wouldn’t be strange if things worked differently here.
“Rookie! Behind you!”
Hermit shouted at me.
I immediately turned and threw a shuriken at the Stonefolk.
Whoosh.
Thud! Thud, thud!
Maybe because of the enhancement effect, they stuck well even into their hard bodies.
“Oh, they die easily when you hit them in the eyes!”
For every ten Stonefolk Hammer killed, I killed around three.
That was enough to count as doing my share, right?
But then.
“One, two, three.”
Swish, swish, swish.
Slash, slash, slash!
I watched Felix casually slaughter Stonefolk with every swing of his sword, and suddenly felt a sharp sense of inferiority.
When Hammer killed ten Stonefolk, Felix killed thirty.
“Hammer, you said blunt weapons work better on these rocks than blades do. Then what’s with him?”
“Felix is aiming to join the Imperial Guard, so he needs to be at least that good.”
“The Imperial Guard?”
“Once you reach Level 17, you qualify to leave the Wall and guard His Majesty the Emperor. Of course, qualifying alone doesn’t mean you’ll be chosen.”
How much Ether would you need just for leveling up to Level 17?
I didn’t know, but it would probably be a fucking lot.
As we explored the temple within the volcano, we found a corpse.
It looked like someone who had been killed by a barrage of arrows.
Judging by the pooled blood, they had not been dead long.
Hammer poked the corpse with a foot.
“This one looks like a Thief. Not an explorer from the Wall, but one of the Emperor of the Abyss’s underlings. And the oil on these arrows smells like...”
Hammer unfolded a map.
“From here on, there are traps. Devices that shoot arrows if you step on them. Even my map marks this as a trap zone.”
Traps. They had finally appeared.
My job wasn’t hunting. It was disarming traps, picking locks, and opening Treasure Chests.
Time to show them what I could do.
‘So what do I do?’
The truth was, I had never disarmed a trap before.
I had a lockpicking skill, but I didn’t have a blessing for finding or disarming traps.
‘For now, I should at least pretend to do something.’
I crouched on the floor and poked around the stone tiles with the tip of my shuriken.
Then something clicked, and the floor sank to reveal a staircase.
“Wow! A hidden staircase! That Thief bastard must have died trying to find the secret path here. Yore, you’ve done it again!”
“Hehe, this is nothing!”
“There are usually three types of secret paths not shown on my map! First, a room hiding Treasure Chests with incredible rewards! Second, a room with nothing but traps...”
Hammer closed their mouth.
“Then what’s the third?”
“A room with both incredible Treasure Chests and traps. And from what I can see, this secret path is likely the third kind. The reward is great, but the danger is even greater.”
Hammer placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Yore, can you do it again? You need to take the lead.”
“Ahem. Give me a moment.”
I headed for a corner.
Then I shouted.
“Asibarr! Sabranik! Somebody help me!”
I needed a skill for finding and disarming traps.
The sooner I got one, the better!
Ssssh.
The surroundings soon darkened, and I found myself standing somewhere like a riverbank.
The bone serpent Sabranik slowly approached me from far away.
【My Blessed one. What is the matter?】
【If possible, do not summon me together with that old wraith.】
Maybe because we had met several times already, Sabranik’s voice seemed gentler than before.
Clatter.
I took out the fragments I had collected from killing Stonefolk and showed them to Sabranik.
“Can I buy a blessing related to traps with these?”
【......】
【...Blessed one, I do not blindly like every kind of stone...】
“Really? I gathered two hundred because I thought you would like them.”
【But, Blessed one, your thoughtfulness is commendable.】
【Place just one hundred stones in my mouth.】
Craaaack!
The bone serpent Sabranik opened its mouth.
“Then I’ll pick out the tasty-looking ones!”
【Fine.】
Clatter, clack, rumble.
Full of anticipation, I tossed Stonefolk fragments into the bone serpent’s mouth.
So what would happen now?
Author’s Note
August 19th...!!!
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Footnotes:
Lapras is the English name of a Pokémon. Yore mistakenly recalls La’tas as “Lapras,” making his wording absurd.
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