WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 29: Fortress of Black Sorcery # 4
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“Boss Monster! A Boss Monster!”
I shouted loudly to warn everyone of the danger.
In the distant cave, spider legs that were unnaturally huge slid through the darkness.
There was no sound.
No one had noticed.
“A boss? Where? Where is it?”
Hammer gripped their hammers and looked around.
Hermit and Felix put their backs together and began to stand guard.
“I can’t see it!”
“Damn it, it’s too dark.”
Whoosh!
Hammer lit another Ether Torch from their belt.
The surroundings instantly grew brighter.
“Hammer, that costs one million Ether!”
“Yore, what did I tell you about Boss Monsters?”
Was this suddenly class time?
I quickly searched my memory.
“That they’re hard to hunt without healing-type blessings?”
“Right! But I also told you that they become even more vicious in the night!”
“Ah! I can see it over there!”
Hermit pointed.
Thanks to the two torches, the spider was revealed in the light, and it was horrifying.
Screeeech...!!!
Its legs were striped purple and black. Its fangs were as thick as human forearms, and humans tightly wrapped in webbing hung from its body like lunch boxes.
“K-Kill me...”
“U-Under my skin... Under my skin...!”
Small bubbles or spores clung to their bodies.
That could not be a good sign.
“It looks like a Queen Spider!”
Hermit quickly reached a conclusion.
Screeereereereek!
The Queen Spider let out an oddly sharp cry.
Shwaaa!
It spat sticky threads from its mouth and sealed the entire cave entrance.
“Fuck, it looks like we can’t get out without taking that thing down! Everyone, clench your asses!”
With Hammer’s shout...
Whooom!
The Queen Spider’s massive leg rushed at us.
Was this what it felt like when a sharpened utility pole fell from the sky?
“Aaaaah!”
Hammer roared and charged the Queen Spider with both hammers in hand.
“《Battering Ram》!”
Boom!
Hammer’s hammers struck the spider’s leg.
Crack, crunch!
The spider’s shell shattered.
Splurt.
Purple blood sprayed from the wound.
Screeeech!
“The spider’s in fucking agony!”
I quickly explained the situation.
Hermit, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, answered shortly.
“Nothing surprising. Hammer’s a Destroyer.”
“What’s that?”
“Warriors have Guardians, who hold the front line for a long time, and Destroyers, who crush enemies to remove the danger.”
Guardians usually carried huge shields.
Destroyers carried enormous weapons.
“Hammer’s a pretty skilled Destroyer.”
“Ooh! That’s reassuring! But what are you doing?”
“I’m meditating because I used up all my Mana killing spiders earlier! Protect me!”
Screech!
Screeeech!
Small spiders the size of my palm swarmed nearby.
I crushed them underfoot, but I was still dumbfounded.
“You’re meditating with your eyes closed in the middle of this mess?”
Did she trust her party members that much?
‘This is trust!?’
“Felix! This bastard’s started dodging my attacks!”
“Hammer, I’m going in now.”
Hammer and Felix moved as though they were one body.
It was almost moving.
‘This is what real party hunting is!’
I could not just stand around either.
I smeared blood from my spider bite onto my palm and coated a shuriken with it.
Then I threw it at the giant spider.
“Even if its shell is hard, its eyes won’t be!”
I was confident I could hit its eyes.
They were huge and out in the open. Missing would be stranger.
Crunch!
“Now that’s a good sound!”
Screeeech!
The spider screamed.
It felt as though the cave itself shook.
Stagger.
Maybe my eyeball attack had worked, because the spider’s assault stopped for a moment.
“Good, there’s an opening! Hammer, I’ll use my blessing now!”
Whoosh.
Felix gripped his sword in a reverse hold and stabbed it into his own stomach.
Splaash!
“Hey, you crazy bastard!”
The scream burst out of me on instinct.
At that moment, red blood pouring from Felix’s body wrapped around the blade.
“Blood Sword, Astraze.”
Felix’s sword pulsed like a beating heart as he pulled it from his stomach, growing longer.
Blood-red light colored the cave walls, and the stench of blood was so strong it felt as though it would bend my nose out of shape.
Felix gripped the sword with both hands and charged the Queen Spider.
“First Strike.”
Slash. Shwaa!
As the red sword passed through, the Queen Spider’s leg was severed, spraying purple blood.
Screeeech...!
The Queen writhed in agony.
Slash, slash!
“Second Strike. Third Strike.”
Felix swung his sword mechanically, cutting off two more legs in succession.
It had lost its two front legs and the second leg on its left side.
Boom!
Its massive body could no longer hold itself up and collapsed onto its abdomen.
At the same time, the red bloody aura around Felix’s sword lost its form.
“Damn it. Three strikes are still my limit.”
“Felix, get out of there!”
Then Hermit, whom I had forgotten about, shouted.
At the end of her staff burned a fireball as large as a human head. It looked incredibly hot.
The webbing melted and sagged just from being near it.
Screeeech...!
The Queen Spider had remained aggressive right up until Felix cut off its legs, but it slowly backed away from the orb of fire Hermit showed it.
But...
It had sealed every entrance.
Its own webbing and traps blocked its escape route.
“《Flame Orb》!”
The Queen Spider could not avoid the fireball launched from Hermit’s staff.
Boooom!
A huge explosion.
A wave of scorching heat rushed through the cave.
“Cough!”
My throat suddenly went dry enough to make me cough.
Gurgle.
Maybe the spider’s throat was blocked too.
It spat out black phlegm, then died.
# # #
Crackle, crackle.
Hermit’s flames burned the Queen Spider to death.
“Fuck! You insect bastard! No matter how big you are, you’re still an insect!”
“Rookie, spiders aren’t insects.”
“Then what are they?”
“Alright! Everyone, check your condition first!”
Hammer’s armor was dented and punctured in several places.
Hermit had burns too.
Felix was injured the worst.
Blood streamed endlessly from the wound where he had stabbed himself in the stomach.
Everyone was badly hurt.
I had the lightest injuries.
It made me feel a little awkward.
‘It feels like I got carried without doing much.’
I rubbed ash from the floor onto my hands and smeared it over my face.
Now it would look like I had worked hard.
“Felix, here. Take this Red Potion and treat yourself first.”
“Hammer, that costs two million Ether. If we use two Ether Torches and the potion, we’ll lose four million Ether.”
“Idiot, you could be dead before we see a healer. Besides, we have Yore.”
“Me?”
Hammer patted my shoulder.
“Yore, do you see the Night Fragments the Queen Spider spat out before it died?”
“Night Fragments? Do you mean those black clumps that look like smoke?”
The stuff the Queen Spider had vomited before dying.
I thought it had just coughed up black phlegm.
“There’s a high chance something valuable is inside.”
“Ooh, really?”
“Yore, your luck matters. If we don’t get good items, it won’t matter even if we kill a hundred of these things!”
So they were leaving the item farming to me.
But what if no good item came out?
My shoulders suddenly felt incredibly heavy.
“Come on, something expensive!”
Squelch.
With everyone watching expectantly, I shoved my hand into a Night Fragment.
It felt damp and sticky, like digging through someone’s intestines. It was disgusting.
Tap.
Then something hard caught in my hand.
Shluck.
When I grabbed it and pulled it out, something strange was in my hand.
A pitch-black stone.
「+1,000 Ether」
「Spider’s Jewel: An item said to be rarely found inside cave spiders. There are rumors that it brings misfortune to whoever carries it.」
“Hammer, what is this? It only gave me a thousand Ether.”
“I don’t know either. Damn it, is it a dud...?”
A dud!
Were boss rewards allowed to be duds?
“Uh... But...”
Beyond the cave where the webbing had burned away.
Huge legs stretched toward us.
There was not a sound.
“Queen Spiders...!?”
They were the same kind of creature as the Queen Spider we had just killed.
The problem was that two were approaching from both sides.
“Fuck, what is this! Boss Monsters! Two of them!”
“What? Yore! Are you sure?”
“Damn it, this isn’t the time to save potions!”
“I-I’m really out of Mana now!”
It was a truly desperate situation.
Then, crackle, a sharp sound of electricity rang out.
When I turned my head, a bald old man holding a torch was looking our way.
“There were many forks in the road, so it would have been easy to get lost. You did well to make it this deep.”
It was Lieutenant General Raiden!
“Is that a Spider’s Jewel? You would have to kill around a hundred Soldier Spiders to see one of those. You’re lucky.”
“It’s rare?”
“If you give it to our shaman, they’ll be very, very pleased. They’d buy it for at least ten million.”
Ooooh...!?
Hermit reacted to something else.
“Those are Soldier Spiders? Not Queen Spiders?”
“The queen? It’s much bigger than those. One suddenly appeared around a year ago and keeps laying eggs. It keeps coming up to the surface and carrying people away, so it’s been a real headache.”
Everyone fell silent at the Lieutenant General’s chuckle.
“Perhaps what I discarded deep underground is what calls this darkness. This place is my trash can, after all.”
Boooom!
Screeeee!
The two giant spiders slowly backed away as soon as they saw the Lieutenant General.
Seeing those cold-blooded bugs become afraid filled me with admiration!
“I’m going to take a look further down. You should leave first. You may follow me if you like.”
“Our party will head out.”
Hammer decided to retreat.
Honestly, I was curious about what lay further below...
But I wanted to sell this Spider’s Jewel and earn Ether more.
As we left the cave, everyone was silent from exhaustion.
While we climbed back up the rope we had used to descend...
Sliiide.
Suddenly, everything around me darkened, and a place like outer space welcomed me.
“I never get to leave that easily.”
But where was this?
A pitch-black space.
Eight stars shining ominously.
Just as I thought their shape looked exactly like spider pupils...
My breath caught as all of those eyes seemed to stare at me.
【I am ■■ ■■■, ■■.】
【You who bear my image.】
【Offer me all your entrails.】
【Then I shall give you...】
【My knowledge.】
“Eek...!”
This was my first time meeting an idol like this.
It did not want Ether. It wanted my entrails?
All of them...!?
And in exchange for knowledge that did not even sound interesting!
‘It feels like I’ve gotten caught by a truly horrible one.’
Flash!
Then I had a good idea.
Idols could kill other idols.
The best way to drive away an idol that nasty was to call the idol I had a deal with.
“Sabranik!”
I called out to Sabranik.
The Skull-Eating Evil Dragon!
If Sabranik, one of the Three Fiends, was here, it would drive that spider away!
【The recipient is currently unavailable.】
【...Bzzzt...】
What was that?
Unavailable?
At a crucial moment like this...!!!
Then a keeheehee laugh echoed through the darkness.
That unpleasant snicker made me think of a wolf with its mouth torn open.
【Call my name.】
【Nihil-Raz.】
Author’s Note
August 26...!!!
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