WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Irevi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 84: Undead Dungeon (5)
──────
‘It really did split it.’
Fortunately, the phase two pattern was the same as in the original game.
It extinguished the braziers, blanketing the battlefield in darkness, then split its greatsword into dual swords.
With dual swords in hand, Negaloun began unleashing attacks far faster and more unpredictable than before.
Its Attack Power and speed rose dramatically in the darkness, and it even used a skill similar to stealth.
The strategy was to relight the fires and draw it back into the light.
Negaloun suffered a debuff in the light that lowered all its stats and increased the damage it took.
Thanks to Aren Bright, we had secured half the battlefield as soon as the battle began.
More than anything, splitting its greatsword was a well-known sign of defeat.
‘We just need to keep it in the light.’
As if they had read my thoughts, Alicia and Mine positioned themselves along the edge of the light.
Then Negaloun twisted its joints once more.
Its movements were far faster and more nimble than before.
Kreeeek!
It kicked off the ground and slid toward me like a shadow.
“Ah! Rosia!”
Mine tried to send Rosia over at once, but Negaloun was moving too quickly for Mine to react.
The swords in its hands traced crossing paths as they simultaneously aimed for my neck and waist.
But.
‘I can see it.’
All that training in Halibal Dungeon was finally paying off.
Negaloun's attacks were far stronger, but Malias's Thousand Knives was superior in pure speed and had shorter gaps between attacks.
And the buff from Flowers Fade in Ten Days hadn't ended yet.
Clang!
Holding my sword diagonally, I lowered my upper body and deflected the blade aimed at my neck.
[Just Guard!]
Then, in the very next moment, I twisted my waist and blocked the upward strike as well.
[Just Guard!]
My body was sent slightly backward, but the impact was incomparably lighter than before.
With the debuff from the light, its attacks had lost considerable power.
Mine's turn.
Mine sent another heal toward Negaloun.
Boom!
An explosion of holy power shook its shoulder blade.
Negaloun staggered back, trying to escape the area of light.
But there was someone on our side who wouldn't let that happen.
Alicia's turn.
“Where do you think you're running, you pile of bones?”
Swoooosh!
When Alicia swept her fan, red mana hung like a curtain along the boundary between light and darkness.
Level 18 Art, Crimson Curtain.
It had been a defensive Art in the original game.
‘She can even use it to block movement like that?’
Once again, I was struck by how versatile Alicia was with her Arts.
Negaloun crashed into the invisible curtain and bounced away as it tried to flee into the darkness.
My turn.
I spun through the air with the momentum of being thrown back.
Twisting my sword, I carved a weak point into its ribs.
[Weak!]
Even so, Negaloun desperately ran toward the darkness.
“Where are you going?”
I blocked its escape route, then used Carving Sword to carve another weak point into its ankle.
- Booooo!
Negaloun let out a shriek and drove its dual swords into the ground.
Negaloun's turn.
‘Is it going to use it?’
Blue ghostfire began burning from inside its ribs.
The sign of Wraith Wave.
Normally, dozens of wraiths would have burst from the ground the next instant and rushed toward us.
But.
“......?”
Nothing happened.
It was only pointlessly wasting its strength.
‘As expected.’
My prediction had been right.
All the wraiths in the dungeon were somewhere else right now.
‘Did they go to Aren Bright's side? No, then she wouldn't have been able to relight the torch.’
My thoughts raced.
The fact that Kaizel's group had been unable to enter the dungeon and that there were no wraith-type monsters made it clear that someone had deliberately twisted this dungeon's structure.
It certainly wasn't for our benefit.
‘What's the point of worrying about it now?’
When Negaloun realized Wraith Wave hadn't activated, it looked around in apparent confusion.
What caught its eye was the blazing torch on the left.
The moment it sent a blade wind to extinguish it, the torch flared back to life.
Aren Bright's perfect support.
In the end, Negaloun chose to give up attacking and raise its guard.
“Phew.”
Spatial Slash, the torches, dual swords, and even the failure of Wraith Wave.
I had confirmed every one of Negaloun's patterns from the original game.
I knew all of its moves.
When I gave Alicia a look, she tilted her chin with the tip of her fan as if she understood.
“Let's finish this.”
Mine's turn.
She gathered every bit of holy power she had left.
Rosia's mace and Mine's own mace resonated, creating a pillar of light over the training ground.
“Holy Calling!”
The two spheres of holy power merged into a searing flash and struck Negaloun.
- Kyaaaaaaah!
Its bones began to melt in the holy flames.
Even then, Negaloun thrashed wildly as it tried to throw itself into the darkness.
Alicia's turn.
“It's about time you went to sleep, wraith.”
Alicia swung her fan.
This time, Crimson Curtain wrapped around Negaloun's entire body like ropes.
Its frantic movements beneath the pouring pillar of light were completely restrained.
My turn.
“Chrono Dive.”
I kicked off the ground and leaped into the pillar of light.
I carved one final weak point into its body, then followed up with Gale’s Path.
An ash-gray gale mercilessly tore through the gaps between its exposed bones.
The finishing blow.
I condensed all my energy at the tip of my sword.
“Halibal Break.”
Then I brought it down.
The descending blade traced a path of death.
Kwagwagwagwang!!
With a thunderous crack, my sword shattered Negaloun's core in a single blow.
- ......Krr......
An enormous amount of demonic energy poured from the shattered purple core, and the light faded from its eyes.
The giant skeleton crumbled into dust and scattered away.
All that remained where Negaloun had vanished was a single treasure chest.
Mid-boss Negaloun.
Subjugation complete.
⁎⁎⁎
“Pant, pant...!”
“Damn it...! How much longer do we have to keep doing this...?”
“We won't... get to rest, will we...?”
The dungeon's demonic energy blocked their view below the fortress wall.
Only the occasional sword energy flying up and the vibrations traveling through the wall hinted at the fierce battle taking place below.
“This makes... three times, right?”
“Then... do we go... back to the other side?”
Aren Bright, Mar, and Pasha.
The three of them were battered from their endless battle against the swarming monsters.
The greatest problem was that they had no way of knowing how the battle was going.
That sword energy from earlier had surely come from the boss.
Yet the absence of sword energy didn't guarantee that Halibal's group had won.
They might have been overwhelmed so completely that the boss no longer needed to attack.
On the other hand, constant sword energy didn't necessarily mean they were at a disadvantage.
Still, they couldn't leave their positions.
Their mission was to protect the torches, not judge the outcome of the battle.
Then monsters came rushing in from the end of the passage once again.
“Ugh... They won't even give us a moment to rest.”
“We knew... it would be like this. And look at Aren Bright.”
Aren Bright gripped Savior again and walked toward the monsters as though nothing was wrong.
Watching her walk ahead, the other two gritted their teeth and got to their feet.
“She's the Child of Prophecy, after all, right? Fine. We'll stick with her until the end too.”
“Yeah... We made a promise...!”
The moment the three stood side by side and aimed their weapons at the monsters,
Swoooosh!
With a sharp whistle through the air, a streak of light flew in from the other end of the passage.
- Kyaak!
The flash swept away the entire group of monsters.
A group of soldiers carrying torches came running through the darkness. Kaizel stood at their head.
His presence here meant that Halibal had won.
“...Thank goodness.”
Aren Bright was finally able to lower the sword in her hand.
⁎⁎⁎
Once the demonic energy weighing down the training ground vanished, the desolate ruins of the old fortress came into view.
We had reclaimed the outer fortress area.
In truth, we had only taken control of part of the flat land atop Ronwood Mountain.
Still, we no longer needed to descend all the way to Base Camp to sleep, then climb back up again.
Before us, Kaizel and the soldiers knelt before Alicia.
How much time had passed since we defeated Negaloun?
Aren Bright's group and Kaizel's group had joined us.
The moment the door opened, Kaizel's group had broken through the passage at full speed, met up with Aren Bright, and come here.
“We entered the moment the barrier disappeared. Forgive us for being late, Your Highness.”
“No. You fulfilled your roles well enough. Rather, I should be praising them.”
Alicia's gaze turned toward Aren Bright, Pasha, and Mar.
“We were able to win because of them.”
Then Pasha approached Mine.
“......Thank you.”
We explained the boss battle to Aren Bright's group.
Pasha might not have known the name Negaloun, but she knew the skeletal knight had slaughtered the soldiers, including her father, in the past.
That was why she quickly realized the monster we had defeated was her father's enemy.
“......For avenging... my dad.”
“Pasha.”
Mine took a small locket from her pocket and handed it to Pasha.
“Ah...!”
It was old and rusted.
Inside was a faded photograph of Pasha as a child with her father and mother.
For some reason, the treasure chest that appeared after defeating Negaloun had contained no items.
No Shards or equipment.
Not even the Bone Series equipment, which we should have been guaranteed to receive for defeating Negaloun.
Instead, it had held the belongings of the soldiers who died here long ago, including the locket Mine had just given Pasha.
“......Dad.”
Tears ran down Pasha's cheeks.
Mine watched her silently, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“It was an excellent victory. Everyone, get plenty of rest! Tomorrow, building on today's victory, we will conquer this dungeon in one stroke!”
That night, we set up camp on the summit.
The first day's objective in the three-day assault had been accomplished.
Alicia, Mine, Aren Bright, and I sat around the campfire.
“I sent Pasha and Mar back.”
After receiving the belongings, Pasha repeatedly thanked Mine and us before going down the mountain with Mar.
Their injuries and the belongings were one reason, but more than anything, the two of them didn't have the ability to keep accompanying us through the dungeon from here on.
“You all did well. Aren Bright, especially, your contribution was great.”
“Thank you. But it isn't over yet.”
“Mine, you also overcame the ghosts of your past beautifully.”
Despite Alicia's praise, Mine only stared toward the dungeon with a stiff expression.
“Is something wrong?”
“......Sister Arisha's belongings weren't there.”
Mine was right.
The treasure chest had held the soldiers' belongings, but not those of the nun who had cared for her.
Including that, there was something off about this dungeon raid in many ways.
“Senior. Don't you think it's strange?”
“Of course something is strange.”
And I wasn't the only one who felt that unease. We all did.
“Until now, defeating a dungeon boss always gave us equipment or a Special Shard. But this time, nothing came out.”
RPGs were usually designed around step-by-step farming.
Rewards from one boss became the foundation for clearing the next challenge.
Simply put, the more bosses you defeated, the stronger you became.
But I sometimes had a thought.
Why would a boss bother sending out subordinates first, only to make the player stronger?
The unease I felt now was exactly that kind.
If we had been able to use the rewards from Negaloun, the next raid would have been much easier.
It felt like someone was deliberately preventing that.
“Tomorrow's battle will be harder than today's.”
“I know. That's why you should all get plenty of rest tonight.”
Silence returned after Alicia's words.
Crackle. Crackle.
Only the sound of the campfire burning echoed across the mountaintop.
⁎⁎⁎
The next day.
We captured the inner fortress with absurd ease.
Without taking any damage at all.
For some reason, even after all the soldiers, including Kaizel, entered this time, the dungeon door did not close.
The soldiers led by Kaizel ground up the monsters pouring out like a grinder.
Thanks to that, our advance toward the inner fortress was effortless.
“Maintain the formation! Spearmen, advance!”
We only had to follow behind them.
Other than Mine occasionally treating injured soldiers, we had nothing to do.
There was no separate boss in the inner fortress either, leaving us with even less reason to step in.
As the one-sided extermination continued, Alicia muttered quietly, “Yesterday, the dungeon tried so hard to stop us. Today, it almost feels like it's opening the way for us itself.”
“...It feels as though we received an invitation.”
Footnotes:
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