WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ I Became the Ophidian of the Apocalypse ◈
Chapter 15: Be Exposed to Flames for Dozens of Hours
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015.
"Pelerian, please issue your commands."
Mm-hm, yes, yes. I am Pelerian.
I asked the Magic Spirit Pelerian had supposedly created all sorts of questions.
“Sssshit.” (What are my evolution conditions?)
“Sss, ssshit.”
No matter how hard I tried to speak, the spirit wouldn't even respond.
Was this spirit a racist too?
“Sssaaaaak!”
I tried yelling at it once, but it still ignored me.
What kind of nonsense was this?
Fury rising in me, I smacked the back of its head.
Of course, that just meant I hit the machine in front of me.
Clank.
That startled me.
Something suddenly popped out of the machine.
It was a tiny metal needle.
-Please extract the monster's blood.
Oh, really?
With that suspicious needle?
I hesitated for a moment.
What if I got tetanus?
Still, it didn't look rusty.
Ah, it probably wouldn't kill me.
I cautiously held out my tail.
Stab.
The metal needle was incredibly sharp. It easily pierced through my scales.
Then I felt my blood being drawn out with a long slurp.
-Analysis will begin.
-Please place the relevant monster on the crystal plate. For an accurate scan, killing or sedating it is recommended.
What a heartless spirit.
Since I couldn't die, I climbed onto the crystal plate and sprawled out. Not in a starfish pose, obviously, but straight as a line.
Thoom.
The lights flashed on.
I could feel magic flowing through the crystal plate.
-Scan will begin.
-Analysis indicates a venomous snake-type monster, Horn lineage.
Ah, this was exactly what it felt like.
Like lying beneath an X-ray machine.
Something like that had happened to me before.
Back in middle school, the other kids always made me the goalkeeper.
Naturally, I had no interest in soccer.
I didn't know why, but I always ended up as the goalkeeper.
Wasn't that an important position? Why did they make me do it?
Since I neither cared about soccer nor had any athletic ability, I spent every gym class spacing out.
Then I took a super-powerful shot to the chest from some huge kid in the next class.
The sky went dark, and I couldn't breathe.
When I came to, I was lying on my back, staring at the sky.
My gym teacher, who normally had a rotten personality, was so shocked that they took me to the hospital.
Honestly, I was fine by the time we arrived, but I pretended to be hurt anyway.
There'd been all this fuss about taking a chest X-ray then too.
What a beautiful memory.
-Analysis is complete. Printing the results.
I climbed off the crystal plate.
I couldn't help being impressed by magic technology.
This place was supposedly built three hundred years ago, yet that machinery looked like it had been made with modern technology.
Wasn't it printing out paper like a printer even now?
-Would you like to record and transmit the analysis results?
Huh? Transmit them where?
Come to think of it, Pelerian had said something about conducting experiments on the chimera he created, then transmitting the results.
Absolutely not.
Who did this thing think it was, sending out my information? No way!
-Preparing for automatic transmission.
Aah!
Blue light began glowing from the rod attached to the top of the machine.
This was the problem with not being able to speak.
I quickly leaped up and tore into the rod.
Crunch.
The rod snapped.
-Transmission is impossible.
Phew. Good.
My precious personal information had almost been leaked.
By then, the results had finished printing.
I read the sheet of paper as it fluttered down.
My evolution conditions were really written there.
What was this?
There wasn't just one.
──────────────
【Venomous Snake-Type Monster, Horn Lineage】
-The exact species could not be identified.
-There is a possibility that this individual is not a venomous snake-type monster.
-Other possible species are listed below.
【Avian Monster】, 【Rodent Monster】, 【Turtle-Type Monster】, 【Lizard-Type Monster】, 【Rabbit-Type Monster】, 【Jaguar-Type Monster】, 【Centipede-Type Monster】, 【Spider-Type Monster】, 【Bat-Type Monster】, 【Human】, 【Elf】...
──────────────
What?
What was this supposed to be?
If something with sleek scales and beautiful venomous fangs like me wasn't a snake, then what was it?
And honestly, weren't turtle-type monsters and centipede-type monsters way too far apart?
I had no idea why the result had come out like this.
...Could it be because of Potential?
Potential 20 had given me the trait Relentless Growth. It had also said my potential for development wasn't limited.
Maybe that was why I got these results.
The words written beneath it made my guess seem more likely.
──────────────
-This individual's evolutionary potential has been analyzed as abnormally diverse.
-Under the assumption that it is a venomous snake-type monster, possible Special Evolution conditions have been analyzed.
1. Establish a swamp as the primary habitat.
2. Establish freshwater as the primary habitat.
3. Establish the ocean as the primary habitat.
4. Establish a desert as the primary habitat.
5. Establish a cave as the primary habitat.
...
──────────────
There were an incredible number of possibilities.
There wasn't just one Special Evolution condition.
I didn't know what kind of monster I would evolve into if I fulfilled those conditions, but it looked like changing my habitat was one way to do it.
I roughly got the idea.
If I lived in the sea, I'd become a sea snake. If I lived in the desert, I'd become a desert snake.
Still, that alone would be a little boring.
There were countless more conditions below.
Some of them caught my eye.
──────────────
...
7. Establish a volcano as the primary habitat.
8. Consume a large amount of deadly poison.
9. Fly for dozens of hours.
10. Be exposed to flames for dozens of hours.
11. Hibernate in a frozen state for over ten years.
...
──────────────
Was it telling me to die?
Right, if I lived in a volcano, I'd become a volcano snake. If I ate a lot of deadly poison, I'd become a venomous viper.
There was even one telling me to fly.
Flying Snake had been a legitimate evolution path after all!
But I felt like trying to fulfill those evolution conditions would probably get me killed.
The further down I went, the more meaningful the evolution conditions became.
For some reason, the things written lower down seemed like stranger mutations.
You know how it is.
Eevee could evolve into many different Pokémon, but some evolution paths were harder to achieve and stronger than the rest.
──────────────
...
27. Consume a Grade 10 or higher Magic Stone.
28. Consume dragon blood.
29. Make a contract with a demon.
30. Consume the blood of a celestial.
31. Receive a god's blessing.
──────────────
Wow.
My heart was racing.
Could I become a Dragon Snake, Demon Snake, or God Snake?
Several conditions involved consuming the blood of things that already sounded incredibly powerful.
Wait.
That chimera Pelerian supposedly created.
Hadn't he said it was made by mixing together the blood of different monsters?
Hmm. If that chimera was still alive, I should at least go take a look.
It had to be somewhere in this basin anyway.
I had no desire to get tangled up with it because it seemed ridiculously strong, though.
It looked like I was finally done with everything I had to do in this dungeon.
Just in case, I munched up and swallowed my analysis sheet.
Personal information was important.
All right, Magical Spirit.
Now self-destruct.
-...
Naturally, the spirit didn't answer.
That thing would probably keep waiting for commands until the power here shut down.
What a pitiful existence.
After looking around the room for a moment, I found an exit.
It didn't seem like an official exit.
There were clumps of dirt and broken rocks scattered everywhere, as if something had dug through the wall like a mole.
It had to be the work of the chimera that had been trapped in the tank.
Hmm, it didn't seem like it had escaped that long ago.
That was just the feeling I got.
When had the earthquake that devastated this dungeon happened in the first place?
As a snake only about three weeks old, I had no way of knowing. I was still a baby snake, after all.
The tunnel was spacious enough for two or three people to walk through in a line.
That meant the chimera had to be at least this big.
Then, halfway through the tunnel, I found traces of it.
Actually, I was so startled that I jumped.
I thought it had been waiting there to eat me.
What I had mistaken for the chimera at first was its shed skin.
Wow, this was cool.
The chimera seemed to be the kind of monster that molted.
In other words, it had a hard exoskeleton.
It was as big as a house, if I exaggerated a little.
It was around three meters tall, and including the legs extending to either side, it was probably six meters wide.
It looked a little like a crab and a little like a spider.
Had Pelerian said it was made by mixing in a Great Forest tarantula?
Still, its legs weren't thin like a spider's. It had thick front legs that looked perfect for digging through the earth.
These legs looked familiar somehow.
...Ah!
My mind flashed awake.
To my surprise, I had met the chimera before.
It was the one that had appeared from underground and swallowed the Horn Jaguar's corpse in a single bite.
All I had seen were the multiple legs that burst from the ground, so it took me a while to realize it.
This chimera really was alive and wandering around.
The Fairy Mage's dream had only been half fulfilled.
To think I had already crossed paths with it.
If I met it again, I would avenge the meat it stole from me.
With that resolve, I left the tunnel.
I had emerged somewhere completely different from where the Cockatrice had kidnapped me and dragged me in.
The undergrowth was so thick that it just looked like a naturally formed burrow.
Farewell, dungeon.
I couldn't leave coolly.
It wasn't because I was sad to leave the dungeon where I had spent a few days.
It was because I had seen something.
Something was rising on the hill above where I had emerged, probably directly above the room that had held the tank.
It was something like an antenna.
A blue light was shooting up into the sky from it.
It was a pitch-black night without even the moon out.
The blue line cutting across the sky was clearly visible.
That line would probably be visible even dozens of kilometers away.
Was it transmitting something? Could it be my analysis results?
No, that wasn't it.
There had been a moment when I'd heard something about releasing the chimera from hibernation.
-Releasing hibernation. Transmitting experiment data.
I had heard something like that.
It was probably meant to send the experiment data somewhere that the still-living Pelerian could receive it.
I thought about it for a moment, then reached a conclusion.
‘...What does that have to do with me?’
What did it have to do with me?
A pillar of light had shot up in the middle of the night, so the monsters must have been startled.
Maybe the territory's residents nearby had been startled too.
Ah, what if they sent out an investigation party?
I'd have to be careful then. My archenemy, the guard captain, might come.
Still, this basin was huge, so it wouldn't matter if I hid.
It might even be an opportunity.
I hadn't forgotten that grudge.
If I met him again, I wouldn't let him off, Guard Captain.
Until then, I should evolve and train the new skills I had acquired.
Grrrrumble.
I was starving.
At this point, I thought I would even be happy to see a Mosquito Rat.
I needed to eat quickly and grow stronger.
Excited, I slithered into the forest.
At the time, I had severely underestimated the impact of that rising light.
Even people I could never have imagined had sensed it.
Deep within the Great Forest.
The Long-Lived Race, who had lived there in seclusion...
* * *
Elves did not age by nature.
They lived in forests, with nature as their companion.
Their skin was smooth as porcelain, and their long ears carried an air of elegance.
Even elders nearing a thousand years old didn't have a single wrinkle on their faces.
Elves leaped about on their long legs like deer.
Because of that, it was extremely difficult to estimate an elf's age just from their appearance.
The elf running deep within the Great Forest was no different.
With her slender, long legs, she effortlessly vaulted over uneven tree roots.
Her silver hair, cut into a bob of a suitable length, fluttered in the wind.
Her features were breathtakingly beautiful, but a striking scar ran across her face.
A long sword scar covered her left eye.
A beautiful one-eyed elf warrior.
She had been summoned by an elder.
The reason was that Pelerian's traces had been detected.
Pelerian.
The name of that cursed mage.
Just thinking of it made the elf grit her teeth.
Footnotes:
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