WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Irevi

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 9: Instant Kill

──────

“Ah... I-I’m sorry... I... Sir Halibal...”

After that, Mine gave me a brief explanation of how to use the medicine, then fled.

I didn’t even get to thank her.

I should make sure to thank her when I see her again.

But first, [Black Cloud].

I wiped away my tears with my sleeve and opened the Abyss Core.

Click.

╔═════════╗

◈Abyss Core - Renee◈

╠═════════╣

▸ Equipped Shards: 16/16

□ □ □ ■

● ● ● ●

● ● ● ●

◆ ★ ★ ◎

╠═════════╣

□ = 3 Red Shards

■ = 1 Blue Shard

● = 8 Yellow Shards

◎ = 1 Green Shard

★ = 2 Black Shards

◆ = [Black Cloud]

╠═════════╣

▸ Stat Bonuses

Attack Power 3

Health 1

Defense 8

Critical Hits 1

Fluidity 10

╚═════════╝

Fluidity 10. Now that was enough to make my heart swell.

The moment I equipped Black Cloud, energy flowed out from the Abyss Core and seeped through my entire body.

My muscles tightened, and my whole body felt springy, as though it had turned into one giant coil.

‘Is this what Fluidity 10 feels like?’

I could be certain now. At this speed, I wouldn’t lose the first turn in most situations.

‘If I’m lucky, I might even take the first turn against Adeline.’

Shukar it had only been an exception, a boss designed to screw me over. The bosses that appeared afterward weren’t nearly that fast.

As vitality surged through me, I savored the feeling.

[An ability has been unlocked through equipping a Special Shard.]

[Special Shard: Black Cloud]

[Special Ability: Instant Kill]

“......?”

A message I’d never seen before appeared above the Abyss Core.

And by never seen before, I meant I’d never seen it in <Academy of the End>, either.

The Shard system in Academy of the End didn’t unlock abilities when you equipped Special Shards.

Then what the hell was this?

[Instant Kill - If the user’s combat power overwhelms the opponent’s, the enemy is immediately defeated without entering combat.]

After reading the description, I got the general idea.

“Is this a trash-mob skip feature?”

One reason turn-based games had fallen out of favor these days was their painfully slow pacing.

You encountered a monster, entered combat, waited for your turn, pressed the attack button, watched the opponent fall, then got the results screen.

You had to repeat that entire process for every battle, against every opponent. Even against trash mobs that would die in a single basic attack in an action game.

No matter how well-designed the combat sequence was, it only felt fresh and fun at first. Eventually, your stats went up.

After that, a single attack from either side was enough. At some point, you couldn’t help wondering why you had to fight in turns at all.

Throw in a nasty mechanic like random encounters, and you had the perfect game to make turn-based newcomers quit for good.

That was why modern turn-based games had made all kinds of attempts to break out of that rut.

The most representative example was trash-mob skipping.

‘You’re getting one-shot anyway, right? Just die.’

That was the mindset behind it. Most recent turn-based games had some version of trash-mob skipping, even if they called it something different.

Recorded battles, auto-battles, repeated runs, A-X-ron, and so on.

Some people criticized it, saying the charm of turn-based games was dead, but I welcomed it.

This one system alone could dramatically improve a game’s pace.

Then it was safe to say this was a new feature added because my combat had become turn-based.

‘This is incredible.’

Honestly, this had always been one of my complaints while training and farming Shards.

Even when fighting spiders or wild dogs that went down in one hit, I had to enter turn-based combat every time.

“If you had something like this, you should’ve given it to me sooner.”

I didn’t know why it had appeared.

Still, it was a hundred times better than not having it.

‘Would equipping other Special Shards give me different abilities?’

No idea.

Maybe it would. Maybe it wouldn’t.

Either way, the only way to find out was to get another Special Shard.

I immediately went through the discharge procedure.

“Oh! Aren’t you Sir Halibal, founder of the Halibal Style?!”

“Halibal Breeeak!!”

“Breeeak!!”

Please just shut up already.

I had no idea how many times I’d heard that while walking down the infirmary corridor.

Anyway, I headed straight for the Beast Dungeon entrance.

I’d already cleared the path from the entrance to the central area, so the route from the central area to the deepest level should be open now.

The condition for Instant Kill, “if the user’s combat power overwhelms the opponent’s,” was vague, so I intended to test it on the monsters in the central area.

But when I reached the entrance, I ran into an unexpected situation.

“F-Funeral Sword Halibal Velder!”

“Halibal Breeeak!!”

Fuck.

Surely they hadn’t changed the salute chant to that, right?

Adeline was absolutely capable of doing something like that, which gave me chills for no reason.

“I’m sorry, Sir Halibal, but dungeon entry is prohibited for the time being.”

“Pardon? Did something happen?”

“Haha. Thanks to you, the monsters at the Beast Dungeon entrance have stopped appearing, haven’t they? We’re currently building a Base Camp to prepare for the conquest of the deepest level.”

In the game, a Base Camp could be built with a click of a button, but this was reality.

Of course it would take time. There was administrative work to handle, and soldiers newly assigned here had to be brought in.

They probably had a mountain of work to do.

“I’m sorry.”

“No! We’re the ones who are sorry! We’d love nothing more than to open the dungeon for you, Sir Halibal, but...”

“It’s fine. That’s unfortunate.”

“Ah! The Base Camp should be complete in about a month. You can come back then!”

So that was that.

I smacked my lips and turned away.

What now? The Spider Dungeon was all that remained, but it seemed a little dull to test it there.

Instant Kill would trigger anyway. What mattered was its activation condition, not whether it activated.

Besides, Shards didn’t even drop there.

‘Should I just train today?’

As I trudged back toward the barracks, someone called out.

“Excuse me... are you Sir Halibal...?”

I turned and saw a woman in ordinary villager’s clothes approaching me, her robe pulled low over her face.

The moment she reached me, she dropped to her knees and spoke through tears.

“Please, help me...!”

“Tell me what happened first. Please stand. I’m not someone worthy of such respect.”

As she rose, red hair spilled from beneath her robe.

‘...What’s this? Is she a klutz?’

There were only two female characters with red hair in <Academy of the End>.

And only one of them could possibly show up before me looking like this.

Alicia Cyrus, princess of the Cyrus Empire.

One of Academy of the End’s heroines, and the student council president when the player later enrolled in the academy.

The third heroine. I’d expected something like this, but I never thought I’d meet Alicia here.

In the story, Alicia was the typical shadowy mastermind-type genius character, always seeming like she was hiding something.

At the end of Chapter 1, the perspective suddenly shifted to the imperial palace. Alicia, hidden behind a black silhouette, would go, “Kuhuhu,” and lay out some grand plan involving the academy.

Naturally, players thought she was the mastermind after seeing that scene, but the truth was the complete opposite.

Her plans kept getting stolen wholesale by the followers of the Evil God, and her prized weapon exploded in a dungeon.

She turned out to be more incompetent than expected, so she became what players called a meme character.

Even so, she still gave off that aura of having some hidden depth whenever she appeared.

Eventually, players came to assume that whenever Alicia showed up, an incident was bound to follow.

“And I’m not a knight.”

“Oh, um... everyone called you that... I’m really sorry if that made you uncomfortable...”

“It’s fine. Why were you looking for me?”

Of course, Halibal, a commoner, had no way of knowing the princess’s hair color.

Besides, she had come at me with this whole pro-wrestling act, so I should play along.

“M-My...!! My friend went to the dungeon northeast of here, but they still haven’t returned...! Please, please save them!”

A dungeon to the northeast. Was that the Golem Dungeon?

Right. That place existed.

The Golem Dungeon was about halfway in difficulty between the Spider Dungeon and the Beast Dungeon.

It had a decent chance of dropping Shards, and its difficulty was perfect for testing Instant Kill.

I didn’t know why I’d forgotten about it.

“Tell me where it is.”

“Ah... thank you! Thank you so much!”

⁎⁎⁎

Shortly after Halibal entered the Golem Dungeon, a black-haired man stepped out from behind a tree.

“...So, what did you think?”

The woman raised her head from the shadows of her leather robe, red hair cascading over her shoulders.

She was Alicia Cyrus, princess of the Cyrus Empire.

Halibal was the Funeral Sword of the Gale Raid Party, who had gained fame throughout the empire a few days ago after clearing the entrance to the Beast Dungeon.

She had come here in person to see the man behind those rumors.

But what would be the point of approaching him as a princess?

He was a commoner. If she used the authority of her station, she would never be able to draw out his true feelings.

So Alicia had made her decision.

She would approach him dressed as a commoner and see for herself whether he was truly the man the rumors claimed.

If the Funeral Sword was not the person the rumors described, she could simply turn around and leave.

But if the rumors were true...

“Kuhut. Just as I’d heard. To think he’d accept a complete stranger’s request so readily.”

“Do you consider him foolish?”

“No.”

The corners of Alicia’s lips curled upward.

“I find him interesting.”

The Golem Dungeon might not have rivaled the Seven Great Dungeons, but it was notorious as the graveyard of raid parties.

Every monster there was tough, and they were especially troublesome opponents for swordsmen.

More importantly, the boss monster was said to be at least twice as strong as an elite monster from the Beast Dungeon.

Halibal had yet to fully recover in body and mind from his recent Beast Dungeon conquest.

Yet in that state, he had rushed into a dungeon without questioning her story, all because of a stranger like her.

“Reckless. But interesting.”

Alicia drew shapes in the air with her finger as she spoke in a singsong voice.

“Therefore, I have decided. Halibal Velder. If he returns alive, from that moment onward, I will have him in my grasp. I will raise him, and I will use him.”

“Kuhut.” Her characteristic smile spread across her lips.

“It is about time you returned to the imperial palace, Your Highness.”

“I know.”

With that short answer, the two left the forest.

The result was all that mattered.

The moment she heard news that Halibal had conquered the dungeon, Alicia would be ready to place him in her jewel box.

“But did Your Highness truly need to come in person?”

At her guard’s question, she looked up at the sky and spun around.

“There are things one cannot obtain while trapped in the palace’s birdcage. The imperial family, the nobility, even the academy, they are only ornaments... What truly matters is who stands upon the stage.”

Her eyes gleamed coldly.

“Great actors are born in low places. What is hidden upon the throne is laid bare below.”

Alicia tucked her red hair into her robe and gave a chilling smile.

‘Someday, I will remove this mask and face you. I look forward to seeing what expression you will make then.’

“Kuhuhu.”

Her low laughter rippled through the forest.

⁎⁎⁎

The deepest level of the Golem Dungeon.

Kwoooooo-!!

With a deafening roar, the enormous golem’s torso shattered into pieces.

I looked back and forth between the fragments of stone scattered across the floor and the sword in my hand.

“...This is unexpected.”

Instant Kill had triggered against the boss.

Footnotes:

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