WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 127: Failure
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Do snakes have ears?
Of course they don't.
A snake's charm lies in its smooth, rounded head.
If ears were attached to a head with such graceful curves, it wouldn't look nearly as cool.
Strictly speaking, though, it isn't quite right to say they have no ears.
Being born a snake made that clear.
I had no earholes, but I could still hear the sounds around me.
There was probably an inner ear attached to my skull beneath my skin.
That was why I could hear.
And my hearing didn't seem any worse than when I was human.
Maybe that wasn't normal. Perhaps it was because I was a monster instead of an ordinary snake.
The reason I was thinking about this was...
Dancer didn't have earholes either.
No eyes, no ears, just a bright red gaping mouth.
Still, it seemed able to hear. It had reacted to our presence.
But it definitely couldn't see. I was sure of that.
Then how could it move so fast?
Just by hearing?
Or did it have something like a snake's pit organs, which detect heat?
I was pretty sharp, if I did say so myself.
Through my keen reasoning, I reached an answer.
It had suddenly rushed at us from far away.
That was when the human and I first met.
It couldn't have sensed our body heat from that far off, so it must have either heard us talking or smelled us.
At the time, the human had been soaked in blood and carrying chunks of Chimera meat.
Maybe Dancer had followed the scent of blood.
When I looked at it with that question in mind, it definitely had nostrils.
And that wasn't all.
The inside of its bright red mouth was grotesque, and it kept flicking out a long tongue like mine.
Snakes flick their tongues to collect scent molecules from the air.
What if it did the same?
Perhaps Dancer had a highly developed sense of smell.
It had been like that in battle too.
Even when I made no noise and stayed perfectly still, it looked in my direction.
When I told Pelerian my hypothesis...
-...I can hardly believe it.
He stared at me with such a serious expression that I wondered whether I'd said something strange.
-It's an extremely plausible hypothesis.
It was the opposite. Pelerian was impressed.
We immediately set a trap using the Chimera meat and blood we'd secured, then lured Dancer in.
Maybe it was hungry, because it appeared right away.
Jannil smashed the ampoule at just the right moment.
Crack.
I used magic.
「You use Elementary Elemental Magic: Wind Lv. 6.」
It was nothing remarkable.
I didn't put blades in the wind to attack it.
A sufficiently strong wind simply swept over Dancer while carrying the ampoule's scent.
"Jurererererek!"
With its distinctive cry, it spewed vomit.
My prediction had been right.
It was a monster with an especially sensitive sense of smell.
The moment a monster was most vulnerable was...
When it was vomiting.
Stab!
For the first time, I landed an effective hit.
Sunset sank deep into its flank.
"Juek!"
Blood burst from its mouth along with vomit.
Did I get it?
-Don't mistake a Chimera's vitality for that of an ordinary monster!
Pelerian was right.
It couldn't stop vomiting, but it still tried to flee with the sword lodged in its body.
I had to stop it.
「With Crown of Overcoming Lv. 2, you surpass the limits of Elementary Elemental Magic: Earth Lv. 7.」
「You use Intermediate Elemental Magic: Earth Lv. 1.」
Earth magic raised to the intermediate level could create stone walls rather than earthen walls.
Stone shot up from the floor, blocking Dancer's escape route.
Crash!
If it had been in normal condition, it could've easily smashed through a thin stone wall.
But the horrible smell had left it unable to think straight, and the wall didn't break.
It floundered on the floor, trying to stand.
Even the most terrible stench became tolerable with time.
I had to kill it somehow before that happened.
With its escape route blocked, this was the perfect situation for Hellfire.
But Jannil hesitated.
"Hyaah!"
They scattered willow-leaf throwing knives.
The reason was understandable.
They were trying to stop Dancer from approaching as it rose to its feet.
If they turned their back and fled, getting struck in the back would mean death.
Pababak!
But the attack was surprisingly effective.
Throwing knives began embedding themselves in Dancer's dazed body.
They were coated in poison, so they would have an effect.
But only for a moment.
Thud!
Dancer rushed Jannil with a movement closer to a body check.
Jannil flew backward as if they'd been rammed by a boar.
Behind me.
And the wind was still blowing from behind to ahead.
The scent molecules evaporating from the ampoule Jannil had smashed were carried along with it.
"Saaak!"
I breathed in.
For the record, snakes have a good sense of smell too.
"Saaueek!"
"Jurererererek!"
Dancer and I began retching together.
It was truly an awful smell.
Was this what socks unwashed for a week, stuffed with stinky tofu and sand lance fish sauce, then aged for three days inside a warm electric blanket, would smell like?
Still, I had one companion beside me without a nose.
Twitch...
Isil.
For some reason, even Isil, a plant, seemed to be suffering from the smell.
But Isil could at least breathe fire.
Hellfire surged forth.
Whoosh!
The passage wasn't wide, and the wall blocked the way out.
There was nowhere to run, so even Dancer, as nimble as it was, had no choice but to be engulfed in Hellfire.
When extreme heat engulfed a body, burns formed in an instant and the body curled up.
Once the muscles were cooked, it was over.
But Dancer had fairly high Heat Resistance.
It also possessed Elastic Rampage.
Perhaps it was merely a desperate struggle.
It kicked off the ground with all its strength and slammed into the blocked wall.
Crash!
The stone wall created by magic shattered.
Still, Hellfire managed to devour two of Dancer's legs.
With two legs burning, Dancer writhed and tried to escape.
「You use Beam Lv. 3.」
I struck its rear with a beam as it tried to rise.
I'd actually aimed for its calf, but it fell flat either way.
"Saaauuk!"
"Leave it to me!"
Jannil ran over.
The approaching smell made me retch again.
Thankfully, Jannil passed me and ran toward Dancer.
For a moment, I worried they might steal my final blow, but thankfully, no such heaven-condemned thing happened.
Instead, they wildly threw throwing knives coated in paralytic poison, then cast a net.
Dancer, which had struggled until the end, was finally subdued.
"Heave-ho!"
Jannil grabbed the net and slowly pulled Dancer closer.
Well, I'd emphasized it enough.
I was the one who would finish it off.
"Tenacious bastard..."
Jannil grinned as they approached.
You smell too bad, so don't come any closer.
I stopped Jannil in front of me.
'Good work.'
"Heh heh. It was nothing."
They patted their back as if their waist hurt.
Meanwhile, I carefully used Transparent Hand to try to pull Sunset from Dancer's body.
"Honestly, every time I come to the Mountain Range, I go through this much trouble... I shouldn't have meddled with the wyverns again."
At Jannil's words, I froze.
'You meddled with the wyverns?'
When I wrote that down in my notebook, Jannil's expression turned odd.
It was the face of someone uncertain whether they should answer.
I'm not a person. I'm a snake, so just tell me.
"Come to think of it, Snake, you were fighting wyverns too."
I fought wyverns?
Well, to the humans secretly watching from far away, it must've looked that way.
They couldn't possibly have imagined that two wyvern queens had mistaken me for their child.
"I was carrying out a mission given by the Empire."
Jannil didn't explain in detail.
But there were two important points.
"I helped adventurers steal Seleta's egg. I wonder whether those bastards escaped properly. Pathetic fools..."
First, Jannil had been involved in stealing Wyvern Mom's egg.
And second...
"It wasn't like this in my day. I once succeeded in stealing the young of a wyvern queen named Chugota."
Jannil looked immensely proud.
"All three of my companions died, but I carried that bastard all the way to the imperial capital."
That was truly astonishing.
Honestly, I didn't feel like shouting, "So it was you!"
But...
'It was because of you?'
I was surprised.
The human who'd had such a tremendous impact on Seleta and Chugota, the two powerful Named Monsters, was right in front of me.
The two wyverns themselves wouldn't know this at all.
But apparently, I wasn't the only one surprised.
Dancer, which had been hanging limp as though dead, seemed to have heard the story too.
It suddenly sprang up and flailed its legs.
Who could have expected bright red cartilage to shoot out from around its hip joints?
Stab!
A sharp bone spur pierced through Jannil's chest and emerged from their back.
Was today Talk Like a Pirate Day?
"Ugh..."
Jannil Feje suddenly said, "Arrr...!"
Those were their last words. Their heart had burst, so they could only have been their last words.
"Jurererererek!"
More bright red cartilage legs sprouted between Dancer's broken and burned legs.
That made eight legs in total.
Like a spider.
No wonder its Trait included Spider.
With its newly grown legs, it began running wildly.
-Catch it!
I was already planning to.
I should've seen its Trait and predicted it was my nemesis.
"Jurererek!"
"Saaauk!"
We ran together while holding back our retching.
I'd already cut it open, and several throwing knives coated in paralytic poison were embedded in it. The fact that it could run at all was remarkable.
It kept running despite dripping blood everywhere.
Crash!
It crashed down the stairs and reached a horizontal corridor.
Pelerian gritted his teeth.
-There...!
Someone stood across the corridor.
It looked like a person, but it wasn't.
What stood there was definitely a Chimera.
The No. 9 Chimera that resembled an elf more than any other. Their name had been Undecided, perhaps.
The Chimera stared at us with an expression I couldn't read.
Whether the Chimera knew it or not, Dancer kept running.
'What if the Chimera takes Dancer's side because they're both Chimeras?'
I did imagine that for a moment.
But apparently not.
I didn't know how they did it.
Was their movement too fast for my eyes to catch?
The No. 9 Chimera seized Dancer, which was wounded but still fast and strong, in an instant.
The Chimera gripped Dancer's neck tightly and looked this way.
Then something unexpected happened.
"...Failure."
The No. 9 Chimera spoke.
It was halting, but it was definitely a proper word.
And it was even in Elven.
When Pelerian heard that, he flew into a rage.
-You wretch!
I flew into a rage too.
Because they tightened their grip.
Crack!
Dancer's body went limp.
-That bastard!
'They're trying to steal my final blow!'
Undecided.
I wouldn't forgive you.
「You use Black Scales Lv. 3.」
「You use Acceleration Lv. 7.」
「You use Heart-Eating Leap Lv. 4.」
I shot forward like a streak of black lightning.
It wasn't to take revenge for my stolen Magical Essence.
I wasn't the sort who liked locking the stable after the horse was gone.
「You use Slash Lv. 5.」
What I cut was Dancer's broken neck.
Slice!
I severed it completely, and Dancer's fading body fell to the floor.
In other words, I got the final blow.
「You have defeated ‘Test Subject No. 8 Dancer Lv. 90.’」
Magical Essence flooded into me.
It had certainly been strong.
Compared to the Chimeras before it, Dancer gave noticeably more experience.
「Your level has increased.」
That raised my level too, so I felt especially pleased.
「Evolution is possible.」
I wanted to quickly see my new possibilities.
Of course, to do that...
I would first have to deal with the monster in front of me.
"Fail...ure."
Who was this monster, which looked as though someone had vigorously kneaded a fish and an elf together with modeling clay, calling a failure?
When the Chimera tightened their grip, Dancer's head burst.
Pop!
The flying clumps of blood looked like pomegranate seeds.
I quickly retreated and put distance between us.
First, I had to see through my opponent.
'...Gasp!'
I was startled.
The Chimera was so strong that I could barely make out their level.
And the Chimera had a name other than Undecided.
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【Test Subject No. 9 Failure Lv. ???】
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Failure.
Pelerian must have kept calling the Chimera that.
The Chimera, unfairly born looking like an elf, showed hatred toward me.
"Pele...rian-!"
The Chimera approached me.
Until the Chimera kicked my body.
I couldn't see any part of that process.
Thud!
This was surely the strongest Failure in the world.
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