WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 117: 0918
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My ‘Deadly Venom: Neurotoxin’ wasn't something anyone could shrug off just because they had a little Venom Resistance.
It might hurt less than hemotoxic venom, but pain would still shoot through their shoulder.
There was no way she hadn't noticed she'd been bitten.
I was hanging from her shoulder, after all.
Two of Chugota's heads licked the top of my head and my Crown.
Wyvern heads resembled snake heads, but their tongues were a little different. They might have been closer to cat tongues than snake tongues.
Wyvern Mom used to lick me like this too.
So Chugota was licking me as though she were a mother grooming her baby.
Why was that three-headed wyvern doing this to me?
-Does she think you're her child?
'Why would she suddenly think that? Is she crazy?'
I could understand Wyvern Mom seeing me as her child.
I'd hatched from her egg, after all. Maybe she thought I was one of her babies who just looked a little strange.
But Chugota had no reason to think I was her child.
Did I look the same as her own hatchlings?
-You're both white. Honestly, these things resemble you more than that Oblivion Wyvern does.
Chugota and I did share white bodies.
Still, mistaking me for her child based on that alone was insane.
“Grrrrr...”
...Of course, Chugota really was a crazy wyvern.
So did Chugota's embrace feel warm and comforting like a mother's?
'I need to pee.'
I was scared enough to wet myself.
Chugota's condition was anything but normal.
Whenever she licked my body, more blood smeared across her, turning her redder. Chugota found that strange, but kept licking me anyway.
“Grrr...”
Broken teeth and saliva dripped from Chu's mouth.
“Grrraaargh!”
Go suddenly spewed blood and vomit.
Maybe it was the Neurotoxin I'd injected.
Ta, one of Chugota's heads, had no eyes.
Ta seemed to have a brain somehow, but despite their neck being completely broken, they were still alive. Ta brought their dangling, backward-bent head close to me and sniffed.
“Gwee, shii...”
It seemed like they were smelling me.
A chill ran down my spine.
My body trembled.
Every scrap of fighting spirit I'd solemnly gathered earlier vanished.
My fear reached its peak when Chugota started making strange sounds.
“Shi...”
“Hee, hee...”
“Tee...”
Those voices were clearly different from the growls she'd made until now.
She looked like a ghost and made sounds a ghost would make.
“Shii, hii...”
“Tee...”
It sounded as though the heads were speaking almost at the same time.
Or maybe those three syllables formed a single word.
“Shi... hii... tee.”
Was that a language?
Words?
I'd received language ability as a reincarnation bonus, so I should've been able to understand it.
Yet I couldn't make sense of it at all.
Then Pelerian shouted.
-It sounds like Oboe Language!
'Oboe what?'
-The Oboe Language, that Ancient Language.
Ancient Language?
Now that Pelerian called it an ancient language, I could somehow understand a little.
“Shihi... tee.”
If I listened to the syllables spoken by Chugota's three heads together...
I could probably translate it directly.
“Shi... hite...”
My... baby...
Aaaaaagh!
Understanding the meaning made it even scarier.
Maybe Wyvern Mom noticed my fear.
My real mom, no, she wasn't really my mom.
Anyway, Wyvern Mom came back.
“Ku-gagagagak!”
She pounced on Chugota and wildly slashed with her claws.
“Kuooo!”
“Kaaah!”
Chugota fought back fiercely.
Thanks to Wyvern Mom's surprise jet kick, I managed to escape Chugota.
Tap.
The moment I landed, I turned around.
Only then did I grasp the situation.
Wyvern Mom had flown away carrying the three siblings, then returned to save me.
I'd even used Giantification to hold Chugota off so she could escape with the kids.
Wouldn't that make all the time I'd bought pointless?
-To her, you probably look like the smallest, weakest child. What else could she do?
Right. The world couldn't run on logic alone.
Rationally, saving the three siblings had been the right choice, but I couldn't blame her.
“Pipipipi!”
“Kkee!”
The Pipi-Kke-Chu siblings were crying out as they cheered for their mother too.
The problem was that Chugota remained powerful despite her injuries.
She easily threw off Wyvern Mom, who was desperately clinging to her.
-She must have some kind of self-healing ability. What incredible vitality, surviving even with her neck broken.
If anything, Chugota looked healthier than she had right after getting hit by the golem.
Even then, her gaze remained fixed on me.
“Shi!” “Hii...” “Tee...!”
My baby!
Chugota came charging toward me with heavy thuds.
She used her wings like front legs and crawled toward me. She looked just like an alien.
“Sssaaah!”
I let out a pathetic scream and ran.
Wyvern Mom fired a Beam at Chugota and tried to bite her tail, but it was no use.
She couldn't stop Chugota as the wyvern scuttled along like a spider.
Fine. It was better if Chugota focused on me.
That way, the three siblings clinging to Wyvern Mom's back would be a little safer.
I had no choice but to head back toward Pelerian's Dungeon.
The golem maintaining its Triple Fusion stood there.
It didn't come any closer. It just stared at me from a set distance.
It looked dependable, like a gatekeeper.
Only the golem could stop Chugota.
Come on. Get that terrifying wyvern away from me.
I was approaching with that thought in mind when...
-Wait.
Pelerian warned me.
At that exact moment, Isil, who had been quietly clinging to me, spewed Hellfire in front of me.
And then...
Thump.
My heart felt like it had dropped.
This was definitely my survival instinct kicking in.
All I could do was fling myself away.
Then I used the fastest skill I had.
*「You use Heavenly Thunder Decree Lv. 1.」
Isil, you'll have to endure a little shock.
I thought Grass-type Pokémon were weak to electricity. I was a little worried.
Crack!
The lightning bolt was blinding.
Fortunately, neither Isil nor I took the strike directly.
The golem, which had definitely been far away a moment ago, was suddenly gripping my tail.
The lightning struck the golem and stopped its movements.
-It judged you to be a threat!
That had to be it.
No matter how fast you were, could you be faster than lightning?
Heavenly Thunder Decree hadn't completely disabled the golem, but it had successfully paralyzed it.
'It was going to grab me and swing me around.'
My trapped tail ached.
Part of the golem's face had melted a little.
It had pushed through Isil's Hellfire just to grab me.
Since my tail was still caught, I canceled Giantification.
My body shrank, and I slipped free.
The golem was paralyzed for the moment.
Could I destroy that tough thing while it was vulnerable?
-This is actually perfect.
Pelerian had a plan.
-Left knee, behind its left knee!
I didn't know what was special about its left knee, but I immediately leaped behind it and bit down hard.
-That square thing above it, pry the cover off!
There really was something like a square metal cover behind its knee.
-There's a control panel in there. If you enter the password, you can reset its state.
This powerful golem had been made by Pelerian personally.
Pelerian had created an easily accessible back door in case of emergencies.
I took Dawn out of Subspace and drove it into the control panel's cover.
Then I used leverage to pry it off.
Ting!
The square metal cover fell away without much resistance.
A complicated mechanism lay inside.
There was nothing like a screen, but the device covered in numbers was clearly a password input panel.
They weren't Arabic numerals, of course!
-Administrator mode!
'What's the password?'
-It's connected to the Dungeon itself, so...
Pelerian tore at their hair, trying to remember.
-0918, right, zero-nine-one-eight!
'Ah!'
I was about to press the buttons when I realized something.
'Is this a date? Whose birthday is it?'
-You bastard, hurry up and press it!
I hurriedly entered the password.
* * *
Pelerian's Dungeon.
Tombstone.
All three golems coming outside had been a stroke of incredible luck for those waiting in front of it.
If they had encountered those golem guards in the cramped interior, they wouldn't have been able to avoid death.
They had been considering a detour, but who would've thought the wyverns would lure the golems out?
Jannil Feje, the ranger from the Empire, didn't let the opportunity slip away.
He led ten surviving Gray Hammer dwarves and a human companion straight into the Dungeon.
The Gray Hammer dwarves had built this Dungeon themselves long ago.
Jannil had learned this, surprisingly enough, when he approached the Dungeon alone.
An inscription on a foundation stone deep inside stated that the Gray Hammer tribe had constructed it.
He couldn't get any farther because of the golems, but Jannil turned back as soon as he confirmed it.
Then he sought out the Gray Hammer tribe and threatened them.
He said he would hold them accountable for cooperating with the mage known as Heaven-Defier.
Naturally, the dwarves hadn't yielded easily to such threats.
But Jannil had truly been carrying out an imperial command.
He was also skilled at both negotiation and intimidation.
When he gently coaxed them while promising compensation for their cooperation, the dwarves followed him.
A fight had broken out when the dwarves lost their tempers.
Still, Jannil's own strength had exceeded all their expectations.
A few of Jannil's subordinates had died too, but every brave dwarf had been killed in that clash.
Only cowards remained.
Jannil led them through the Dungeon quickly.
They knew about the Dungeon's mechanisms, so they made swift progress despite its defenses.
“I would've died a long time ago if I'd entered this place alone.”
Jannil muttered to himself.
The exhausted dwarves glared at him.
“This is as far as we can get through easily.”
Jannil looked too old to be called middle-aged, yet too sturdy to be called an old man.
“Try opening that door.”
“...”
The dwarves looked unhappy, but they had no choice but to work on the gate again.
Calling it a door didn't feel right.
It was more like a wall.
Complex patterns and numbers covered it, and it clearly held both magic and mechanical devices.
“They sure built it with style.”
Jannil admired the structure in the wall as if it had nothing to do with him.
A hooded old man sat beside him.
“The password... Hmm.”
The gate appeared to be the kind of device that opened only after a password was entered.
The dwarves were working to breach it.
Click.
One of the dwarves seemed to have touched something wrong.
Beeeeeeep!
The entire gate glowed red with a warning sound.
The light soon faded, but the dwarves cursed.
“That makes four failures already! We don't even know what kind of trap will come out.”
“Hmm...”
Jannil sighed as if troubled.
“How about you? Don't you know?”
He was speaking to the old man sitting beside him.
The old man didn't answer immediately. After a pause, he spoke.
“I might.”
“If a doctor doesn't know, who would? Aren't you an expert in semiotics and archaeology?”
“Knowing semiotics and archaeology doesn't mean I can break into a Dungeon. It might help a little, that's all.”
The doctor rose from his seat.
Jannil brightened.
Getting up had to mean he'd thought of something.
“I knew I could count on you, Dr. Vanton.”
“Hmph.”
The old man who removed his hood was Robert Vanton.
The unfortunate man who had once been abducted by wyverns.
He had returned here.
He approached the door and began running his fingers over the carvings.
“Hey, be careful.”
“Shh.”
Jannil stopped the dwarves from interfering.
Dr. Robert Vanton ignored them and firmly pressed the numbers carved into the door.
0.
9.
1.
Then...
9.
A warning sound rang out.
Beeeeeeep!
“Ah, was it 8? It could be 7.”
The dwarves panicked.
The password had now been entered incorrectly five times.
* * *
Following Pelerian's advice, I operated the control panel behind the golem's knee.
I carefully pressed the number buttons, making sure not to get them wrong.
0, 9, 1, 8.
A four-digit number that might have been someone's birthday.
But the expected chime never came, and the golem didn't stop.
Beep beep beep beep beep.
Just before I pressed the final 8, the control panel flashed orange.
Then the voice of the Magic Spirit I'd heard in Pelerian's Dungeon before rang out.
-The password has been entered incorrectly at least five consecutive times.
-Please release the lock directly from the control room.
What?
Footnotes:
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