WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

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

Chapter 70: Twilight Bone Palace # 1

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“This is the passage to the Goblin Kingdom?”

Mr. Hammer admired the Dimension Gate in the library.

Felix, however, looked doubtful.

“Hermit, don't go doing anything weird on your own again.”

“What did I do!?”

Crackle.

It felt like sparks were flying between Hermit and Felix's eyes.

Those two were always fighting like that.

“Alright, alright. That's enough.”

Mr. Hammer stepped in to stop them.

I pressed close to his side and spoke.

“Mr. Hammer, they say the Goblin Kingdom might be full of treasure!”

“Goblins!”

Nimble's tail swung from side to side as she prepared herself for battle.

“If we kill monstrosities, we'll get lots of Ether too!”

The decision was Mr. Hammer's, as our party leader.

He crossed his arms and thought for a while before nodding.

“Alright. But there are five of us, so one person has to stay behind.”

It had finally come.

I tensed up.

What if he told me to sit this out?

Mr. Hammer spoke.

“There may be traps and Treasure Chests, so Yore should come with us.”

Oh!

I clenched my fist.

My role in this party was irreplaceable!

That was why everyone hated Thieves, but still had to keep them happy.

“Goblins live in groups, so there'll be a huge number of them! You need my area-of-effect magic!”

Hermit immediately tried to sell her strengths.

Mr. Hammer nodded in agreement.

“Area-of-effect magic is important. But Nimble can use that kind of magic too.”

“Whaaaat!?”

Only then did Hermit look at Nimble warily.

“But she only just joined the party! We don't know when she might turn on us and stab us in the back!”

“Is that something you should be saying when you cause trouble at every turn?”

“Then Felix should stay behind! We don't need you just to kill goblins!”

“Me? What if there are strong ones like Hobgoblins? You'll need me then.”

Shing.

Felix drew his sword and checked its condition.

I tapped Mr. Hammer's side.

“Mr. Hammer, what exactly are Hobgoblins?”

“They're a kind of goblin variant. They're usually bigger and armed with stronger blessings.”

Fucking dangerous goblins?

Felix was incredibly good at killing things like that.

Felix was a slaughter machine.

He never hesitated when swinging his sword.

Having him nearby was reassuring.

“Ugh...”

Hermit looked like she was about to cry.

“I'm the one who opened the Dimension Gate...”

She had brought us a way to make money, but couldn't join us herself.

Was there anything more unfair than that?

Then Mr. Hammer raised a hand.

“You don't have to be so sad. I'll sit this trip out.”

Mr. Hammer?

Everyone was surprised.

“Mr. Hammer, are you serious!?”

“It's about time to adjust my armor.”

“Oh, is it already time for that? Then it can't be helped.”

Felix nodded.

Hermit's worried expression immediately brightened.

“Armor adjustment! Then it can't be helped!”

I didn't know much about it, but I could read the room.

It seemed Mr. Hammer had to maintain that armor at regular intervals, so there were times when he couldn't go out.

He even slept in that armor.

All kinds of filth, blood, and contamination must have gotten on it. He probably needed to set aside a whole day to take care of it.

Still, I was worried.

Mr. Hammer was a truly dependable leader.

As long as we did what Mr. Hammer said, nothing dangerous ever happened.

We could probably walk around without thinking and be fine.

And Mr. Hammer was staying behind?

Would we be alright without a leader?

“Felix, you take command.”

Felix was going to be the leader too.

Hermit clicked her tongue.

“Ah, we're screwed. We're screwed!”

“Then stay behind if you don't like it.”

##＃

Hummm.

Once we passed through the Dimension Gate, we saw walls made from piles of bones.

It was twilight, neither day nor night.

Since the Night had not fallen, breathing was not a problem.

“Why are there so many damn skulls?”

As I thought the place felt eerie, like an ossuary, Hermit showed off what she knew.

“Goblins usually worship Galak, the Bone Lord! That's why they're so skilled at bone crafts and bone architecture.”

“Check your equipment instead of chatting.”

Felix checked his scabbard and gear.

Hermit pouted.

“It's not chatting! It's important to know about idols. Galak is an incredibly old idol connected to Sabranik!”

A god connected to Sabranik?

Now that I thought about it, Sabranik was a Bone Serpent too.

Galak, the Bone Lord.

Sabranik, the Bone Serpent.

I wondered what connection they had.

I was suddenly interested too.

“Galak is a very old ancient idol, and there aren't many records left behind. We might learn all kinds of things here!”

Hermit trembled with joy and anticipation.

Then Nimble's ears perked up.

“But I can't hear anything. It's like this whole place is dead.”

The place was dead?

Maybe it was because Nimble was wild, but her way of putting things was raw too.

But as she said, I couldn't sense a single presence around us.

The eerie bones.

The unusually quiet place.

It felt as though we were the only ones in this entire massive bone palace.

“Then we move.”

Felix made hand signals.

“I'll take the front. Hermit and Nimble, take the sides. Yore, stay at the back.”

We moved quickly through the bone palace.

Unlike what Hermit had said about it being a goblin kingdom, we didn't see a single goblin or even a rat.

What was going on here?

“Crates!”

Then I spotted a storage room filled with heavy crates.

The unease I had felt until then vanished in an instant.

“Everyone, step back. There seem to be traps.”

I looked over the storage room's traps first, my eye for them now quite sharp.

They seemed to be the sort that went off when the wires on the floor were cut.

Click.

I drew my dagger and carefully cut the wires.

Whoosh!

Bone arrows poured down from the ceiling.

“If we had just walked in, we would've become hedgehogs.”

Hehehe.

When I laughed, Nimble wagged her tail and added a comment.

“Hedgehogs are tasty.”

Huh?

That was a completely unexpected way to look at things.

Hermit came close and whispered to me.

“I think we should still be careful around Nimble.”

“Careful?”

“She eats cute hedgehogs. If she gets hungry, she might catch and eat us too.”

Was that true?

Nimble could turn into a vicious wolf.

‘If she gets hungry, she might really try to eat us.’

I glanced at Nimble.

Just in case she was hungry.

Nimble crouched between the crates.

“Is this Bone Flower? It only grows among piles of bones.”

Nimble was also adept at gathering plants in this kingdom.

Felix asked her a question.

“Is it useful?”

“You can tell from the name, right? Bone Flower works well when brewed for broken bones.”

“A flower that's good for fractures. Nice.”

Felix admired Nimble's Bone Flower gathering.

Hermit, of course, looked disgusted.

“...What's so impressive about knowing how to gather flowers!?”

Hermit seemed to dislike Nimble.

At this point, I was getting curious.

“Hermit, didn't you tour the village and gather herbs with Nimble?”

The weekend when I had been locked in prison.

I thought Nimble and Hermit had gotten close.

Hermit snapped at me quietly.

“That was before I knew she was trying to take my place!”

Hermit and Nimble both filled the area-of-effect mage position.

Hermit's firepower was stronger, of course.

But Nimble was better at making money by gathering materials and things like that.

That was probably why Hermit felt threatened in her position.

Creak.

I opened the bone crates.

Inside, I found clumps of Ether, necklaces, and rings made of gold and silver.

“Hehehe, this must be worth about one million Ether!”

We had earned one million Ether just by looting crates without even fighting.

Who knew there was such a sweet grinding spot?

Our party went deeper into the bone palace.

By then, we had looted piles of crates and gained around four million Ether.

“At this point, we've practically earned today's quota.”

Kehehehe.

My shoulders naturally bobbed at the weight of my bulging pouch.

But I also had a bad feeling.

“Where did all the goblins here go?”

The goblins of this bone kingdom had built up such incredible wealth.

But where had they all gone, leaving that much wealth behind?

“Isn't it good if nobody's here?”

Nimble wagged her tail as she busily counted Ether.

Felix relaxed his tense shoulders too.

“It's boring without a fight.”

It was nice that there had been no fighting.

It was almost too boring.

But something was starting to feel ominous.

Things were going too smoothly.

‘My life has never gone this well.’

Hermit agreed with me.

“I've felt it for a while now, but time isn't passing here.”

Only then did I realize it.

This bone palace remained in twilight. The sun never finished setting.

“I've never heard of anything like this. There must be enormous magic or some incredible mystery sleeping here.”

Hermit clenched her fist.

Felix, however, did not seem to like her curiosity.

“Hey, don't cause trouble for no reason.”

“Trouble? This is our chance to make a huge score!”

“Let's go a little farther.”

I agreed with Hermit.

You had to make money when you had the chance.

We went even deeper into the bone palace.

Then, in a place like a plaza, we saw a blackened magic circle and a chest inside it.

“A Treasure Chest!”

It was clearly something special.

A golden bone chest.

I had a feeling incredible treasure was waiting inside.

But Hermit stopped me by the shoulder as I tried to run toward it.

“Wait!”

“Why?”

“This magic circle seems suspicious.”

Hermit picked up a long bone nearby.

Then she threw it into the magic circle.

I waited to see what she would do...

Whoosh.

The bone disappeared.

It touched an invisible wall and vanished as if it had been erased.

“Fuck!”

I breathed heavily.

What would have happened if I had run toward that Treasure Chest?

I might have disappeared too.

“I think I finally know where all the goblins in this bone kingdom went.”

Hermit took off her pointed hat and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

I imagined goblins jumping into the magic circle and disappearing.

Suddenly, a deep sense of injustice rose from my stomach.

“There's treasure right in front of us, but we can't take it!”

“Newbie, we just need to get rid of this magic circle!”

Hermit confidently shouted and raised her staff.

“I can do it! With how I am now!”

《Dispel Magic》!

Boom.

Her raised staff struck the ground.

Crackle.

Space cracked like a transparent pane of glass, and the magic circle on the floor vanished with it.

Hummm.

Only the golden bone chest remained.

“I'll open it!”

I ran toward the chest.

At that moment, Nimble's fur stood on end.

“Something is coming!”

Footnotes:

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