WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Even in a Dark Fantasy, You Still Have to Eat ◈
Chapter 3: Genius of Grinding # 3
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Hammer shouted.
“Then run to the Training Ground!”
Training Ground?
It looked like this barrier had everything.
After hurrying there, I arrived at a Training Ground about the size of a volleyball court.
It was packed with scarecrows.
Was this where people practiced sword swings and stuff?
Hammer, who had arrived first, caught their breath.
“You run well for someone who looks so weak.”
“Anyone who couldn't run got caught and thrown in prison. I'm confident in my running.”
“...Well, fine. From what I can see, you'll be a typical agility-type explorer. A weapon suited to your speed would be something like this.”
Shing!
Hammer pulled a blade from a weapon rack in the Training Ground and held it out to me.
When I looked closer, it was a kitchen knife slightly larger than my palm.
“Your predecessor used it. Now it's yours.”
“Ooh!”
It was my first time owning a weapon.
Soju bottles and rocks didn't count as weapons, right?
“Hammer, I want to kill monsters right away!”
Now that I had a weapon, I couldn't just sit around.
Ether and Night Diver.
Maybe this world was the world of the game that had changed my life through grinding!
Nodding when Ms. Ezakiel asked whether I wanted to struggle on had been the right answer.
“This guy suddenly got motivated. That makes me even more nervous. Also, call me Hammer, please!”
# # #
There was a place called the Strategy Room in the barrier.
Inside was a wooden table with an enormous map carved into it.
Hammer placed a palm on the table.
“You put yours on it too.”
Tap.
I did.
Then words appeared before my eyes.
「Would you like to enter the Land of Night?」
“Ooh! Something's appearing!”
“Yeah. This table is also a teleportation magic device made of Ether. I don't know the details myself. Hermit's good with that kind of thing.”
I didn't know who Hermit was.
I vaguely figured Hermit was probably one of the people I had seen when I first woke up here.
“If you're really Blessed, when you first set foot in the Land of Night, you'll usually arrive somewhere protected by the Old Gods. It'll feel like a temple.”
What did a temple feel like?
Was it similar to a church?
“Thanks to that temple, the monsters are weak and pathetic. Of course, you'll still die if you let your guard down.”
“Even weak monsters are dangerous if I let my guard down! Understood!”
“Your first mission is to collect 5,000 Ether there. Once you have 5,000 Ether, the way back will open on its own, so don't worry about finding your way.”
I didn't show it, but I was happy.
If they had made me serve as some noble old ladies' gigolo in exchange for sparing my life, I would've thrown up.
Thankfully, it was grinding.
I couldn't let this chance slip away.
I should work as hard as possible and make a good impression.
Of course, I'd have to experience it for myself to know the details!
“When you're ready, shout ‘Enter’ in your mind.”
“Enter!”
Ah, I was supposed to do it in my mind.
Whoosh.
Soon, it felt like my body was being swallowed by black mist.
When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the middle of ruins dyed by twilight.
Moss covered the stone pillars and broken statues, and something about the sight felt strangely unfamiliar.
“So this is the temple.”
It probably was.
The fact that every statue was missing its head bothered me, but it definitely had the feel of an old temple.
Could this have been a location from the game?
I had no idea.
I was the type who hated looking at game stories or background settings.
I had skipped through tutorials and raised my level all at once through level-jump events.
“If I'd known this would happen, I should've at least watched one of those MTube story-summary videos.”
Ssssss.
Then, something crawled out of the darkness from all around me.
Wet, sticky slime.
Purple jelly that wobbled and sagged.
It was about half my size.
If a rat or dog got drenched in some awful chemical and melted, it would probably look exactly like that.
Kwieek!
Zrrrrr...
It was clearly an alien creature.
But it wasn't unfamiliar. No, I was fucking glad to see it.
“Isn't that a Nightring?”
The monster I had endlessly hunted in the beginner zone of 「Night Diver」.
Yeah, that was definitely it.
It looked exactly the same as in the game.
Nobody told me, but I realized it for certain in that moment.
I had to kill those things to collect Ether.
“Die!”
I quickly drew the knife and stabbed the lump of jelly.
Stab. Boing.
But it was so soft that it didn't feel like I had stabbed it at all.
Kwieeeek!
It even jumped up and slammed into my solar plexus.
Thud!
“Gah!”
It felt like getting hit in the stomach by a soccer ball kicked at full force.
My breath caught, and my vision spun.
“...Fuck.”
I couldn't breathe. I really thought I was going to die.
Drip.
My nose was bleeding even though it hadn't hit my nose.
My clothes sizzled and scorched as though I had been drenched in acid.
“...Ah, so that's what it feels like. I really could die here.”
I needed to rethink Hammer's definition of a weak monster.
Swipe.
Wiping the blood from my nose with the back of my hand, I raised the knife again.
Stab, twist!
I rushed it again and stabbed its body.
This time, though, I gave the blade a light clockwise twist, and it worked extremely well.
Pop!
The liquid monster burst like a water balloon.
Its remains melted away, leaving a few coins and a lump of slime.
「+50 Ether」
「Nightring Fragment: A lump of slime. It has no particular use. Reviews say it is reasonably edible.」
“That really is a Nightring!”
It was a deadly thing.
I couldn't believe something like that appeared in an all-ages game.
Still, I was happy to see a monster I knew.
I wanted to dance, but it was better to kill even one more Nightring instead.
Time was everything when it came to grinding.
# # #
“Hammer, what do you think? About the new recruit.”
Hermit, the female mage in a pointed hat, asked Hammer the fighter.
Hammer stood still with arms crossed, lost in thought.
“More polite than I expected. He also seems innocent, like someone from the countryside of Maril Land.”
“Innocent? No innocent person has fourteen prior convictions. And would a con artist walk around with ‘con artist’ written on their face? They all smile sweetly and act friendly.”
Throb, throb.
Mage Hermit tried to ignore the pain that kept returning to her back.
It was her fault for believing that friendly smile.
“I still question whether our party even needs a thief. I don't understand why we need to take on the risks of betrayal, backstabbing, and lies by bringing criminals into the party.”
“Hermit, I understand how you feel. But rooms with worthwhile Ether rewards are usually locked, and they're full of traps. Without a thief, we can't even get near them. Then our unit won't meet its quota.”
“The quota...”
Hermit groaned.
“How skilled is the new recruit?”
“He looks weak, but he's fairly fast. The first dive isn't difficult, so it should take no more than two hours. If he's lazy, it could take more than three.”
“Your predecessor came out after four hours, right?”
The first dive was perfect for judging someone's ability.
Hammer and Hermit waited while evaluating the new recruit.
Then twenty-seven hours passed.
“...I've never seen someone stay in that long. Do you think he died?”
Hermit asked.
Hammer, who had been in charge of training the recruit, stamped a foot in irritation.
“This is driving me crazy. A recruit we finally picked dies on his first dive?”
It wasn't unheard of.
You never knew what would happen in life.
# # #
Killing monsters and earning Ether.
This simple task was so fun that I couldn't stand it.
Growl.
The problem was that, as a person, I got hungry.
I also had to sleep.
In my previous life, I would've ignored both.
When I was hungry, I just got by with drinks or energy bars.
As for sleep, I closed my eyes during loading screens.
Honestly, I wanted to do the same in this life.
This was my chance at success, which I had finally found again.
I didn't want to waste time on anything besides grinding.
But part of me wondered whether that was really okay.
What if I had died from heart disease or something in my previous life because I hadn't eaten and slept properly?
What if I died from heart disease or something again in this life?
The thought gave me chills.
“There was a reason people said you had to take care of your health.”
At that moment, I settled on an important direction for my life.
I would make sure to eat and sleep properly.
I had to stay healthy if I wanted to grind for a long time.
‘Don't I seem really smart right now?’
My head was spinning.
Riding that momentum, I quickly finished thinking it through.
‘I can sleep nearby somehow.’
‘The problem is where to get food.’
The problem was that there was nothing to eat here.
According to the grinding rules I had just set for myself, if I couldn't find food here, I should leave.
Then something caught my eye.
「Nightring Fragment: A lump of slime. It has no particular use. Reviews say it is reasonably edible.」
An edible item.
Just in case, I put one in my mouth and swallowed it.
“...Blegh. It's cold and slimy!”
It felt similar to the konjac I had eaten before.
It didn't taste good.
But it felt like it could fill my stomach.
“This is it!”
Kill Nightrings, earn money, and fill my stomach?
It was the perfect perpetual-motion machine!
I was such a genius!
After that, I took short naps.
As I ate fragments, so much time passed that I lost track of how many hours had gone by.
My stamina was still full.
There was just one problem.
“My pockets are full.”
When Ether coins were gathered together, they turned into banknotes or money bags.
The game had also changed the form of money according to the amount, and it was the same here.
I had accumulated twenty-eight money bags.
A total of 280,000 Ether.
It was too much for me to carry alone.
I stuffed them into my sleeves and crammed them into my pants. I tried every trick I could think of, but I didn't think I could carry any more.
“I should've brought a bag.”
「Personal Objective: Collect 282,000/5,000 Ether, achieved!」
「Reward: Qualification to enter the Night World」
「Leave Hunting Ground」
In the end, I had no choice but to turn away and leave with heavy steps.
How did they say I should leave again?
Would it work if I shouted “Leave” in my mind, like when I entered?
As I considered it, the bushes in the ruins rustled.
If it was a Nightring, I couldn't carry any more Ether even if I killed it.
I was about to casually walk past the bushes when...
【A very strange fellow has come to my temple.】
Someone spoke.
Startled, I raised my knife. A creature resembling a boy, about half my height, was approaching from the bushes.
The strange thing was that everything above its neck had been cleanly severed.
Just like the beheaded statues in the ruins.
It had no head where one should be. Instead, it held its severed head in its hands.
A monster...!?
Nobody told me there would be something like a boss monster.
I had never seen a thing like that in 「Night Diver」 either.
It might give me a huge amount of Ether if I killed it.
I gripped my sweat-soaked knife tightly.
【Kehehe. Offer Ether to me, and in return, I shall bestow my blessing upon you.】
Author's Note
August 1...!!!
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