Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat - Chapter 23

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈

Chapter 23: Carving Soul Stones # 2

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I called Sabranik to get a blessing related to traps.

Clatter, clack, clatter.

I stuffed fragments of Stone Men into Sabranik's mouth.

【─Done─.】

Shudderrr.

Sabranik trembled.

Soon, a scale that had been attached to its body rolled across the floor.

【─My scale─.】

It called it a scale, but it was actually a skull.

Sabranik was a bone serpent, after all.

“What am I supposed to do with this?”

【─You will find out soon enough─.】

Without another explanation, Sabranik vanished.

Find out soon enough?

I was bad at waiting for things like that.

“I feel like I've been scammed.”

Had Sabranik tricked me?

As I thought that and tried to return to my party, this strange riverbank did not disappear.

What was this?

【That scale.】

【Give it to us.】

【We shall grant you a blessing.】

Someone spoke to me.

When I turned around, I saw something that looked similar to the Stone Men I had happily been hunting.

The unusual part was that it had three heads on one body.

It also had six hands, holding a hammer and nails, a hook and net, and a pickaxe and shovel.

“...May I ask your name?”

【We are stone.】

【Ascended will.】

【A fallen god.】

That was a very long name.

Were long names popular among idols?

Asibarr was just right for me.

“Do you have any blessings related to traps?”

The three mouths answered at once.

【【【We do.】】】

【【【Give us that scale.】】】

「Detection Lv.1: Detects nearby artificial structures.」

Oh, nice!

So this was why Sabranik had given me that skull!

Just as I was about to hand over the scale.

【Keh heh heh heh─.】

A sound like nails scraping glass rang out.

I realized it was an unpleasant laugh because, far away, a black beast with a long body was sneering so widely that its mouth nearly reached its ears.

【Keh heh heh heh─!】

Was this a new idol?

It sprang toward me in a single bound, then slammed its forepaw down on the three-headed Stone Man.

Crunch!

The three-headed Stone Man was smashed apart in an instant.

【【【Aaaagh!】】】

‘An idol killed another idol!?’

This was bad.

What would happen to my Detection now?

I was confused and angry.

But as I stared at the pitch-black beast, like something straight out of a child's nightmare, my knees weakened and my mouth froze shut.

It looked like a fox or wolf, but it had no eyes. Instead, it had several mouths where its eyes should have been.

【Stupid bastard.】

【Trade with me instead of these worthless things.】

【Keh heh heh─.】

「Shadow Ambusher Lv.1: Greatly increases critical-hit chance when attacking from behind.」

「Cull the Weak Lv.1: Deals an additional 100% damage to enemies with low health.」

「Treacherous Fang Lv.1: Increases the chance for attacks to cause bleeding. Increases bleeding duration.」

What the hell was this?

None of them had anything to do with traps. They were all blessings reeking of iron and blood.

“Excuse me, don't you have anything else?”

【Explaining things to an idiot only tires my mouth.】

【Just die.】

【Taking it from your corpse will be much easier.】

Screeeech!

The wolf monster threw its jaws wide open and lunged at me.

The moment my mind went blank, the monster stopped just before swallowing me.

【Your blood carries an unpleasant scent.】

【Do you have Snake's Blood, perhaps?】

【Lucky bastard.】

Snake's Blood?

That was the grace I had received from Sabranik.

It increased my poison resistance and made my blood poisonous.

【It would not even be fun to eat you.】

【Keh heh heh, I will give you something better than seeing through traps.】

【My nose can distinguish objects even in darkness.】

Chomp!

The wolf opened its massive jaws and swallowed me whole.

“Ugh!”

When I came to my senses, I was sitting in a scorching lava field.

The skull I had been holding was gone.

Tingle.

The tip of my nose suddenly stung.

I could smell the sickeningly intense metallic scent and the rank reek of sulfur more strongly than before.

It seemed to be the blessing the wolf had given me in exchange for the scale.

“What the hell was that thing?”

Compared to that, Asibarr and Sabranik were extremely polite idols.

I should feel a little fonder of the two of them.

# # #

“Stop for a moment. I smell oil from over there. Iron and sulfur too. I think there's a trap somewhere in this wall that sprays oil and sets it on fire.”

Clatter, fwoosh!

“See?”

Thanks to my sensitive nose, I could more or less see through the devices hidden throughout the stone walls.

Most traps were made of oil and iron, so separating their smells was not difficult.

“Ha, our Yore is really pulling his weight! This is why having a Thief in the party is so convenient.”

Until that wolf bit me, I had felt scammed.

But looking at the result?

I had gone around in circles and gained a blessing related to traps.

The downside was that too much information flooded my head at once, so my nose quickly grew tired.

Still, I could deal with that by letting my focus drift, so it was a useful blessing I could actively use.

“You got a blessing from nothing but Stone Man fragments? Yore, you really are talented! From now on, I should carry lots of byproducts around too.”

Hammer patted my shoulder.

Even Hermit, who had needlessly picked on me earlier by calling me a pervert, seemed interested in my story.

“Sabranik really eats stones? That's cute!”

“Cute? Hermit, you wouldn't say that if you saw it yourself.”

Flutter.

As if she'd let my words go in one ear and out the other, Hermit pulled The Compendium of Idols from her pointed hat.

She opened it and held out a page to me.

“You said a wolf gave you a blessing, right? There are several idols that look similar. Could it be in here?”

Sure enough, there were quite a few idols that looked like dogs.

Calling them doglike somehow made it sound like I was swearing at them.

Anyway, the unpleasant wolf with several mouths and no eyes was not in the book.

“It isn't here.”

“Then it must be a taboo idol!”

“An idol too dangerous to leave records of?”

“It must be your constitution. Your karma draws things like that to you.”

Karma?

Hermit used a difficult word, and I suddenly got sleepy.

As I rubbed my eyes, Felix added something.

“Those blessings the wolf offered. Don't even think about buying them.”

“Why?”

“A blessing that inflicts critical wounds when attacking from behind? You cannot trust people who have things like that.”

Was that true?

Hammer added to that.

“True enough. If a Thief with that kind of blessing was behind me, I would always be on edge. I'd have to watch myself even when I was injured. That would interfere with our tactics.”

I had rejected them because they were not related to traps.

It seemed I had made the right choice.

After disarming the traps, we reached the end of the corridor, where there was a stone door.

It felt like a boss room.

「Would you like to unlock it?」

「Cost: 1,000 Ether」

「Success rate: below 1%」

Beyond the unlocked door was a sealed room.

The air was fairly fresh.

“Yore! A Treasure Chest!”

“Hammer! It's a Treasure Chest!”

Dun dun duuun.

A chest that practically screamed Treasure Chest sat in the center of the room.

It gleamed silver, and it smelled nice too!

Clang, clang.

Hammer tapped the chest with a hammer and admired it.

“Ha, this is a Silver Chest! If we're lucky, we might get everything through next month's quota today!”

Picking the lock.

I hoped it would work quickly again without wasting Ether!

But something was more important than the lock right now.

I breathed in the damp scent deeply.

It was a moldy smell, like something you would find in an underground waterway.

I had thought it was because we were walking through a hidden passage.

But when we entered this Treasure Chest room without a trace of moisture, I knew that was not the case.

“Hammer.”

I made a V sign with my fingers.

It was our party's signal that we had encountered an enemy.

Did they notice?

“Ah, walking around in this heavy armor has worn me out.”

Thud.

Hammer set down the hammer and rolled their shoulders.

Clink, clink.

Hermit and Felix, who had been looking around the room, quietly rested their hands on their weapons.

I threw the shuriken in my hand.

Clang!

Something in the square corner of the Treasure Chest room moved limply and knocked away my shuriken.

“I did not expect you to see through my Shadow Cloak.”

Like peeling off a sticker.

A person appeared out of thin air.

They had countless daggers on their body.

What were they, some kind of dagger merchant?

More importantly, their eyes were nearly shut.

I had no idea what the bastard was even looking at.

“Stay alert. They seem to be an associate of the dead Thief we saw earlier.”

Hammer spoke quietly.

They said Thieves under the Emperor of the Abyss were never easy opponents.

Of course, they were outlaws living in the Land of Night.

But that creepy stalker must have had good ears, because they joined our conversation.

“An associate? Not at all. And I am not such a bad person. I am not foolish enough to attack a group.”

Something was strange.

For someone who lived in the back alleys, their speech was far too polished and affected.

They also wore a soft smile.

A gangster, thug, or robber should be barking, “You bastard, you dog bastard, damn it, fuck me,” every other word.

As my guard rose for no reason, Felix asked, “Are you Velzer?”

“Oh? You know my name. How did you recognize me?”

“Process of elimination. There are not many Thieves in this Land of Night who can travel alone without a party.”

Grind.

Felix finished speaking and clenched his teeth.

Then he wiped the sweat from his chin.

That was the hand signal for retreat.

Run and leave the Treasure Chest behind?

Why?

There was only one enemy, while we had four.

Felix was even a level 15 knight who had reached the limits of humanity.

Hammer was a veteran.

Hermit was a mage with a hidden trump card.

And yet we had to run?

As I wondered about it, Hammer spoke quietly.

“Velzer? You mean Desperado Velzer? Damn. What rotten luck. I think we should just give way.”

“Hammer, are you serious? They're only one Thief.”

Thieves were far from combat classes, weren't they?

Their job was picking locks, disarming traps, lying, and scamming people.

Hammer whispered even more quietly.

“From what I heard, Velzer is a typical Desperado Thief, specialized in killing people.”

“Despe... What's that?”

“Yore, remember the blessings offered by the wolf idol you met earlier? Velzer has piled up that kind of underhanded blessing without end and reached level 15. That was years ago, so their level is probably even higher now.”

That meant Velzer was a born killer.

“If we fight them now, at least two of us will die. And there is a high chance those two will be Hermit and you.”

I suddenly remembered Hermit calling Hammer the representative of safety-minded explorers.

Hammer wanted to avoid danger.

“Retreat.”

The party leader's decision was absolute.

It was disappointing, but we had no choice but to withdraw and give up the Treasure Chest.

“Are you not curious about what is inside the chest?”

Velzer spoke as though they had unfinished business.

At that moment, a light flashed in my mind.

‘That bastard doesn't have a lockpicking skill!’

The blessings the wolf had offered earlier were all for killing people. They had nothing to do with traps or lockpicking.