WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 101: The Problem with Beards
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I wanted to see the evolution process with my own eyes.
It would probably be quite a fascinating sight.
Would it evolve like Pokémon, or like Digimon?
Realistically, it would probably be closer to Pokémon.
──────────────
Oh...!?
Seedling Kibaemi's status is...!
Congratulations!
Seedling Kibaemi
has evolved into
Demon Hunter's Vine!
──────────────
Wouldn't it be something like that?
In the end, I didn't get to see it for myself.
When I opened my eyes, Kibaemi had already evolved.
“Shaak!”
Dunkel, did you see it?
Dunkel looked deeply moved.
“It was incredible...!”
‘You saw the evolution process?’
“Yeah, I think that was the first time I've ever seen one in person. It was truly amazing...”
Was this how parents felt when they missed their child's kindergarten graduation?
-It was amazing, an incredible sight.
Even Pelerian had seen it.
Like the Chimera-and-monster-loving pervert Pelerian was, they clapped with their eyes gently closed, savoring the lingering impression.
Damn it, I was jealous.
Still, Kibaemi clearly liked me best.
‘They didn't change as much as I expected?’
The name Demon Hunter's Vine sounded terrifying, so I'd been a little worried Kibaemi would turn grotesque.
They hadn't.
‘They still just look like a plant!’
Wiggle, wiggle!
Kibaemi, rooted in the ground, had definitely grown.
Still, they retained the form of a plant. Kibaemi looked like ivy, except they weren't clinging to a wall.
Their leaves had changed slightly. Each one now had five lobes, like a maple leaf.
Then something amazing happened.
Kibaemi pulled themself out of the ground!
“I-It stood up!”
Dunkel!
If you were going to say that, you should've included the subject!
Kibaemi stood upright.
Could they walk on two legs now?
Maybe they would soon say, “I am Kibaemi.”
Fortunately, that wasn't the case.
Kibaemi swayed, then fell forward.
They moved on all fours using their four leaves.
They had a tail too, so they looked a little like a squirrel. They were much slower, though, which made me think of a turtle.
Or perhaps a chameleon.
Kibaemi crawled over and climbed onto my tail.
Oh, so that's how they used Tendril.
They clung tightly to my tail like ivy.
When I wagged my tail, they fluttered back and forth on top.
It seemed I no longer needed to carry them around in a flowerpot.
Let's check their status window.
──────────────
【Demon Hunter's Vine Lv. 1】
【Traits】
[Baby], [World Tree], [Hellfire]
...
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Yes, yes, Kibaemi was still a baby.
Their many traits had become simpler.
At least the important World Tree trait was still there.
Hellfire stood out.
When I mentioned it to Pelerian...
-Hellfire... That is a trait that cannot naturally occur.
Wow! A unique trait.
-I thought I had heard that name somewhere before...
‘Demon Hunter's Vine?’
Compared with creature designations like someone's Chimera or Little Trent, it was certainly an unusual one.
-I read about it in an old book. It is a plant-type monster that lives in the Demon Realm. It does not harm other races, but it possesses a deadly toxicity toward demons. No detailed records remain, but...
So it wasn't called a Special Evolution for nothing.
Maybe it was some kind of ancient species.
They might have gained new skills too.
I examined Kibaemi's status window further.
──────────────
【Skills】
[Sixth Sense Lv. 1], [Perception Expansion Lv. 2], [Absorptive Growth Lv. 6], [Leaf Shaking Lv. 4], [Tendril Lv. 1], [Communion Lv. 2], [Cultivation Lv. 10], [Flame Immunity Lv. MAX], [Hellfire Lv. 1]
──────────────
H-Huh... Huh... Huh... Huh?!
I was stunned.
Flame Immunity.
There was a skill like that?
Would Heat Resistance become something like that after its final evolution?
If so, it had to be an incredible skill.
I couldn't believe Kibaemi had gained something so amazing from a single evolution.
And Flame Immunity wasn't the only one.
There was also a skill called Hellfire. That one had the distinct scent of a high-tier skill too.
I couldn't believe they had gained two amazing skills from their first evolution.
‘You're amazing, Kibaema.’
I felt proud myself.
I should check what the Hellfire skill did later.
“You said you'd give them a name, right?”
‘Yeah.’
Kibaemi was no longer a snake, nor were they just a Chimera, so I couldn't keep calling them Kibaemi.
I was planning to give them a new name.
-You are not planning to name them something like Big Eyes or Big Head again, are you?
‘No, I'll give them a cool name.’
That didn't mean names like Big Eyes and Bowbow were bad. Of course not.
But Kibaemi, hmm...
Dunkel thought hard with me.
“How about Green?”
‘Not great.’
“Viney?”
‘Oh, that name's not bad.’
Pelerian strongly opposed Viney, though.
It was just cute.
-Consider their characteristics more carefully. How about Kabala de Tridsephirotia?
‘Ugh, that's so lame.’
Still, it was true that I needed to consider their characteristics.
They were a plant... They moved around, and they breathed fire.
Oh, that was completely...
“How about Ashwarital?”
-Oh! That sounds cool!
No, that name might cause problems, so let's move on.
“How about shortening Yggdrasil, another name for the World Tree, to Isil?”
‘Oh!’
Nice.
Dunkel, that's pretty good.
When I asked Kibaemi, they liked the name too.
Your name is Isil now, Isil.
Even without using Crown of Domination.
Even without using Taming.
Kibaemi accepted the name I gave them.
*「You have named Demon Hunter's Vine Lv. 1 ‘Isil.’」
No, did Dunkel name them? Anyway.
*「Demon Hunter's Vine Isil Lv. 1 likes their name.」
Then that was a relief.
“Phew, that's good.”
Dunkel wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“You're done with what you needed to do. Now I just need to do well.”
‘Thanks for helping even though you were busy.’
Dunkel had something else to do.
Soon, Rosena would gather every dwarf in the mine.
There, she would announce that she was temporarily taking the role of Mine Lord and introduce Dunkel as her successor.
“I'm sure plenty of people dislike me, though. Haah...”
Despite saying that, Dunkel didn't run away.
He was a man who wanted to change the mine and the dwarves. He had always dreamed of becoming Mine Lord.
“Should I wear a hat?”
Dunkel said it seriously.
He had been shunned for a long time because he had been born without a beard or hair.
‘You can, but even if it covers your head, what are you going to do about your beard?’
“...You're colder than I thought.”
Well, I was a snake.
Dunkel seemed worried about his appearance.
Then something amazing happened.
Isil was very smart.
They seemed to understand that Dunkel had helped them evolve.
Isil approached Dunkel and waved their leaves around.
When Dunkel knelt on one knee and brought his face closer, Isil slowly scooped up dirt with their leaves and smeared it over Dunkel's face.
“Puh, what was that for all of a sudden?”
Dunkel tried to pull away.
But Isil shook their leaves as if telling him they had to continue.
Dunkel sighed and brought his face close again.
Then something incredible happened.
“Shaaaaaak!”
“Gasp!”
Both Dunkel and I were stunned.
“I-Is this really okay?”
“Shak, shaaak.”
“No, even so...”
“Shaak!”
Dunkel gave in to my persuasion.
“Fine, let's go like this for now.”
His voice was full of determination.
* * *
Rosena had a straightforward personality.
“...So I am naming Dunkel as my successor.”
The other dwarves murmured at her declaration.
Dunkel's image in Red Anvil Mine had changed drastically over the past few days.
Still, objections arose.
“He is still young and inexperienced.”
“I can teach him. The Meisters will nurture the qualities he needs as Mine Lord.”
“There must be other talented dwarves who could become Mine Lord.”
“Who are you talking about? Anyone who wants to challenge for the position of Mine Lord, raise your hand.”
No one raised a hand.
It wasn't because they feared Rosena. In truth, very few dwarves wanted to become Mine Lord.
Why take on such an annoying position? The work increased tremendously, and they would occasionally need to travel across the continent to handle diplomacy.
Unlike humans, dwarves didn't have much desire for power.
Dunkel stood there with his hood pulled low.
Some viewed that timid appearance even more negatively.
At last, the concern Dunkel had feared came up.
“Doesn't he look a little strange? He has no beard and no hair.”
It was a reasonable concern.
“The Mine Lord represents our mine. One day, he will attend the Twelve Anvil Council. Won't the others look down on Dunkel and treat him disrespectfully because he has neither beard nor hair?”
That was a painful point.
Then Rosena suddenly began to snicker.
“Don't worry, Dunkel has a beard now.”
“...What?”
“Come out, Dunkel. Show them!”
Dunkel only clutched at his hood.
Rosena smacked him on the back, and I smacked his calf with my tail.
Dunkel finally removed his hood and showed his face, fidgeting all the while.
There was a brief silence from the shock.
Then everyone burst into laughter.
“Wahahaha!”
“He really has a beard now!”
Dunkel had a beard on his face.
It was Isil's doing.
“Everything's fine now, right?”
“Bwahahahaha!”
Mud covered his face.
From that mud grew dense, thin green grass that might have been moss or sprouts.
It was definitely a thick beard.
“Dunkel, don't be embarrassed. Everyone likes it.”
Rosena was right.
All the dwarves looked delighted.
Dunkel, wearing a beard made of plants.
Then someone shouted.
“Greenbeard! He's Greenbeard!”
Greenbeard Dunkel.
It was the moment Dunkel gained a new Epithet.
The dwarves erupted into cheers.
Dunkel awkwardly held out his fist before me.
I lightly tapped it with the tip of my tail.
Isil extended a leaf as well.
“Thanks, you two.”
‘Thank you too, Dunkel.’
Greenbeard.
It was the farewell gift the snake and vine had given Dunkel before leaving.
* * *
Goodbye doesn't mean forever.
The fiery hell we shared would now remain a memory.
We had to find our own paths and leave.
That melody kept playing in my head.
Still, I didn't shed any damp tears as I left the mine.
Dunkel, of course, shed a few tears.
What a softie. It wasn't as though we were parting forever.
How could someone who might become Mine Lord be so weak-hearted?
On the day Dunkel was named successor, I held a huge drinking party with the dwarves.
Terrifyingly, we finished dozens of barrels of beer newly delivered from Kalea City in a single night.
Now that I was heading deep into the Mountain Range, a Demonic Realm, it was a farewell party in a way.
I had eaten so much ham and drunk so much beer that my head still hurt from the hangover.
“Chew this.”
Helmut handed me a strange medicinal herb as he spoke.
Old man Helmut and I headed toward the Mountain Range.
There was a separate reason for this unexpected companionship.
The greatest swordsmith in Red Anvil Mine was Helmut.
If we were making a meteoric iron sword, shouldn't it be made by a sword Meister?
It would have been easy enough to make the sword in Red Anvil Mine before leaving, but that had become difficult too.
Properly working meteoric iron required the right equipment.
That fire lizard had caused havoc, destroying most of it.
The equipment needed to melt and refine meteoric iron had collapsed as well.
“Gray Hammer Village should be coming up soon.”
So we decided to visit a neighboring dwarven village.
Rosena had written a letter, and Helmut was a craftsman respected by dwarves in other villages too.
There was no way they would refuse if he asked to borrow their equipment and tools.
“If you're tired, climb into my bag. I can carry something your size.”
‘I'm fine.’
“My eyes are blurry. I can't see it. I told you to write bigger.”
‘I'm fine!!!’
That was how my awkward journey with Helmut began.
He was a blunt dwarven craftsman, but Helmut was still kinder than Pelerian.
-Haah...
Unlike me, who was eagerly awaiting my meteoric iron sword, Pelerian looked conflicted.
After making the meteoric iron sword in Gray Hammer Village, we would venture deeper inside.
There was one of Pelerian's Dungeons in a place called Delphram within the Mountain Range.
When Pelerian tracked their own location from the Great Forest last time, the signal had led to the Dungeon in Delphram.
Perhaps Pelerian's skeleton was waiting there.
A journey to check on Pelerian's own corpse.
How heartbreaking...
“This is Gray Hammer Village.”
‘Wow! We're finally here!’
I quickly climbed onto Helmut's shoulder.
These were dwarves we were meeting for the first time. They might be wary of me.
I needed to keep up the behavior of a kind snake.
That resolve became pointless immediately.
“Why is no one here...?”
There was no one in Gray Hammer Village.
It was eerily quiet.
‘Did they move away?’
“Seems like it, but it looks like they left in a hurry.”
Items they would have taken if they had officially moved were still there.
The tools in the smithy were especially telling.
If Helmut had been human, he might have been greatly alarmed by the bleak village and tried to find out what had happened here first.
“Well, we can look into what happened later.”
Instead, true to being an excellent craftsman, Helmut entered the empty smithy.
He took out a Celestium bucket and hammers, then began preparing to work.
“Shall we make it right away?”
“Shaak!”
I was happy that the creation of the meteoric iron sword was finally beginning.
But things were about to go a little wrong.
“Oh...”
To heat the forge to the required temperature, we needed very high-quality charcoal.
“The charcoal has gotten damp.”
Helmut scratched his head and looked regretfully at the charcoal.
“We won't get enough heat from this. We need to find a kiln and make charcoal first.”
Just as things were about to become complicated, I tapped Helmut's ankle.
“What? You want me to move aside?”
I approached the forge.
Then I wrote in my notebook and showed it to him.
‘Wouldn't this much fire be enough? Take a look.’
Then I asked Isil for help.
Isil stood before the forge opening.
Helmut and I quickly moved back.
We had to move far back. Very far.
“Making such a fuss...”
Helmut gave a little snort.
The expression on his face froze the moment Isil breathed fire.
Whoooooosh!
Purple flames shot into the forge.
A blast of heat surged out.
Feeling heat hot enough to strip the flesh from his face, Helmut trembled.
“Yes, that's enough... More than enough.”
‘Then let's get started right away!’
Whether the charcoal was damp or not did not matter before Hellfire.
Footnotes:
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